Or more politely phrased, what do astrologers mean when they speak about the stations of planets, and why should I care?
Our planetary neighbors each have their own peculiar orbits around the sun, and for part of the year appear, from our point of view, to be moving backwards. Astrologers call this retrograde motion. You’re probably familiar with Mercury retrograde, since this little spitfire changes his mind and direction between three and four times a year.
The act of any planet appearing to slow, stop, and then change direction is called a station. Astrologers believe that stations coincide with events that provoke change of one flavor or another, depending upon the energy of the stationing planet.
This current Saturn station involves slowing its retrograde motion, stopping, and changing direction to move forward again. What kind of change is in store? Saturn, being a gate-keeper of sorts, ensures that the theme involves responsibility, work, discipline, and self-control.
Saturn’s station is playing out right now in the Olympics where athletes, who’ve put their all into mastery of various techniques and maneuvers, perform on the world stage for all to see and judge. Saturn’s at play in their serious demeanors, in how they handle pressure, and ultimately in how the experience either triumph or defeat.
In Saturn, A New Look at an Old Devil, Liz Greene says, “There is no fast and easy method of making a friend of Saturn, but if one is persistent…it’s possible to extract gold.”
the galactic gogo 