Eshelman Saturn in Leo AA article

[Jim Eshelman]

THE NEW (?) MORALITY
Saturn in the Sidereal Constellation of Leo
by James A. Eshelman
(American Astrology, April 1979)

In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson offered the world 14 Points toward the establishment and maintenance of peace. Nations hailed his humanity, but his own country's congress shouted "No," crushing his proposal with a legislative death sentence.

Three decades later, the President's name was Truman. Recently elected, he offered the nation a "Fair Deal." In one of its longest peacetime sessions in history, the U.S. Congress refused to endorse his program. The "Fair Deal" bit the dust.

This year, as on both of those previous occasions, the planet Saturn is establishing itself in the sidereal constellation of Leo. If an alliance of history books and astrological symbolism can be trusted - and they have proven a mighty team in the past - the next two years should bring a repeat, in essence if not in detail, of the same type of blockade against assertive executive progressiveness which these United States experienced thirty and sixty years ago.

In sidereal astrology, Leo's keywords include pride, authority, superiority, individual significance, centricity and purposeful meaning. It is the constellation of manifest destiny. Despite their claims, we can't guarantee that Leo types you meet on the street will be gods walking Earth; however, there is a sure connection between this twelfth of the heavens and the godlike core of each human soul.

During the first seven years of the '60s, Uranus and Pluto jointly transited this constellation, giving us clues about how Leo responds to heavy planet tenancy on a world-spanning scale. In a decade pocked by the corpses of hallowed leaders, a nation's youth united to assault the previously unimpeachable sanctity of America's "monarchy." Their pleas and cries were calls for human dignity and recognition of individual value. In mundane astrology especially, we may give Leo the keyword morality. Under the rebellious, reforming, freeing, even anarchic impetus of Uranus and Pluto, we experienced an overhaul of morality, a New Morality, bursting forth from people angered by the tired symbols of an outmoded status quo.

Stubborn Autocracy
Saturn in Leo can be expected to retrieve these same issues. This time, however, they will be overshadowed by the restrictive, disciplining, inhibitive cast of the Celestial Scavenger. Saturn's transits always bring scarcity, sometimes in ridiculously literal ways, from the constellation in question. For instance, its recent transits of sidereal Taurus and Gemini brought the beef and gasoline shortages, boosting prices to record heights. Still, in these times of waste, no impetus to conservation can be considered anything but positive. The 55 m.p.h. national speed limit (Saturn in Gemini) has saved lives as well as energy; while the need for find less expensive protein sources (during Saturn in Taurus) has directed attention to much more reasonable and healthy ways of eating.

From history, we can expect stubborn opposition by Congress to any major programs Mr. Carter may propose. In fact, the last half of his term may see him in serious political trouble. Authority issues dominate the times. Contenders from all corners are trying to be political "Top Dog," with the excuse that their ways of running things are for everybody's good. The Leonine need for centricity, spurred to manifestation by Saturn's drill sergeant pedantry, points toward a haughty autocracy which insists, "We'll do things my way - then we'll all get along fine." Experience teaches us to be wary of this intellect, motivated as it is by fear of personal insignificance or mediocrity in the eyes of this era's historians.

One is reminded of Wilson's retaliation when Congress rejected his 14 Points. He vetoed a joint resolution of both houses declaring an end to the war with Germany. Though the armistice was signed in 1918, it was 1921, under President Harding's signature, before the war was legally finished. Such childish retaliatory actions may put in an appearance in the months immediately before us.

Saturn's style of morality, based on a hellfire and brimstone concept, is a stern reaction against the heritage of Uranus-Pluto we've been living with for ten years or more. It seems that the pendulum will, for the nonce, be swinging away from the lifestyle and belief systems founded by the Beat Generation and their gurus, toward a more conservative standard reminiscent of the old values of our Puritan ancestors.

This is already visible in the present generation of youngsters, the offspring of more permissive parents, who are reaching for something secure and solid to anchor their beliefs. Every two or three generations, it seems, the trade-off of libertine and prohibitionist goes full cycle to one degree or another. For now, more traditional attitudes will prevail.

Hopefully, we can direct this energy more constructively than the last time or two Saturn entered Leo. Skipping lightly over the big nuisance to all involved created by the 1919 National Prohibition Act (passed, incidentally, over President Wilson's veto), we note the 1921 law limiting the number of immigrants to the United States from any country to a percentage of the number f their countrymen already here. While practical in intent, it offered subtle forewarning of the witch hunt that was to drive a nation to its closets and pit neighbor against neighbor in prejudiced panic on Saturn's subsequent visit to Leo in the late '40s.

Specifically, the period was August 2, 1948 to September 27, 1950, a triad of years during which the increasing fear of Communism clutched the American soul. Though accelerated as Saturn conjoined Neptune in Virgo, the groundwork was already solid by September 23, 1950 - four days before Saturn left Leo - when the Internal Security Bill (again adopted over the President's veto) called for the registration of all Communists and Communist "front" groups in the United States. The three years prior had witnessed Senator McCarthy's charges of large-scale Communist infiltration of the state department, and trials of Alger Hiss and others. Perhaps there was value in some of these legal happenings; but our point here is that a highly destructive kind of "moralism" was behind these actions which is exceedingly characteristic of the symbolism of Saturn in Leo.

History can be our loving guide if we allow it. As Saturn moves toward its three quadratures with Neptune, at the very end of Leo-Scorpio, experience suggests a re-run of the same anxious paranoia of the early '50s - especially since Saturn will then conjoin Neptune in the United States' birth chart.

This need not be so! A decent respect of human dignity and tolerance of different beliefs can go a long way toward the maintenance of all the freedoms we each want for ourselves.

Resolving Divisions
We are entering a time when humility, benevolence, and, yes, largesse will be our most reliable tools for survival, whether emotionally, ideologically or materially. The cultivation of tolerance opens the way to actual sharing of attitudes which may enrich life, whereas a fierce, condescending moralism will only serve to alienate us from each other, and from a more hopeful future.

Admittedly, the starfield of the Lion is not our favorite place in which to find Saturn. Tradition asserts a debilitation here, while history books and ephemerides isolate times we personally consider horrible and irrational, as periods of history go. Still, other blendings of keywords suggest strength of will as an alternative to autocratic obstinacy, and a sense of honor as the result of re-evaluating personal biases. If Leo's qualities are truly integrated with those of Saturn, we envision a secure dignity and assertive assuredness blended with the need to produce something tangible, usable, and enduring. The results can be fantastic.

Only if Saturn and Leo are allowed to war against each other (as they seem inclined to do, if left to their own devices) do pride and courage become shallow mockeries, shriveled by fear and doubt. Those who have weathered the hurtful side of Saturn in Leo in the past have done so not by fighting it, but by actually using its forms, the most preserving of which is unwavering faith well-grounded in a sureness of individual integrity which the rest of us could well emulate.