Capricorn's ruling planet is Saturn. Although Saturn is considered limiting and restrictive, it's actually a facilitating energy. Without its presence in a birth chart, nothing would get accomplished. When you set a goal, persevere, and are successful, that's Saturn working in your life.
Saturn's Purpose
When you read some of Saturn's keywords -- discipline, responsibility, obligation -- it may seem as if Saturn is somewhat depressing, and it can be, but Saturn's role in a birth chart is to bring meaning and structure to life. Saturn is the planet that demands that you make commitments and take responsibility for your actions. It highlights the human need for structure, laws, limitations, and self-control.
Saturn in Your Birth Chart
To understand the full significance of Saturn as ruler of Capricorn, you need to understand ruling planets. But generally, if you have a Capricorn Sun, Saturn rules your Sun. If you have Capricorn rising, Saturn rules your Chart. If you have the Moon or planets in Capricorn, Saturn also rules those. But everyone has Capricorn and Saturn in this birth chart. Saturn is the natural ruler of the 10th house, it rules the house with Capricorn on the cusp, and Saturn will be in a specific house. These are all areas of life over which Saturn has authority.
Saturn's Gifts
It could be said that Saturn is the planet that makes your dreams come true. As an example, you can dream of building a house or visualize starting a business. However, neither would come to fruition without Saturn's methodical planning, hard work, and perseverance.
Saturn's Liabilities
Unfortunately, Saturn also brings depression, frustration, delays, rejection, and unfulfilled desires. It can bring bad luck, hard times, and a painful situation. Everyone has, at one time or another, felt that they've run up against a stone wall or that their efforts were being stonewalled, that's the "malefic" nature of Saturn.
Using Saturn in Your Life
Saturn spends about 2.5 years in each sign and takes 28 years to circle the entire zodiac. Its sign placement defines age groups. Which makes Saturn's house placement and the aspects it makes to other placements in your birth chart most important. Saturn is an unconscious energy. It works in the background of your life, so understanding your "hang-ups" can help you access Saturn's gifts and put them to use in your life. Note: The brief interpretations below are certainly not all-encompassing. They are just a simple guide to get you thinking about how your Saturn placement might be limiting you.
Get Your Birth Chart
To use what's written below, you'll need a birth chart based on the date, time, and location of your birth. You can get one quickly at AstroSeek.com.
Saturn's House
Saturn will always hold you back and place obstacles in your way, in whatever house it's located. The house where Saturn resides will be the area of life where you feel least secure and might tend to overcompensate. It best to keep in mind when learning about your Saturn that with every Saturn difficulty, you grow and mature. Saturn wants you to succeed, and the key to success can be in understanding why you keep running up against the same stone wall.
First House
Those with a first house Saturn may have lacked self-confidence as a child. As an adult, they are a bit inhibited, slow to act, and have overly serious outlook and disposition.
Second House
Financial struggles are inherent with a second house Saturn. Perhaps you grew up in poverty, and as an adult, you over emphasis the importance of money and possessions and fear that someone is after everything you own.
Third House
With Saturn in the third house, your early education might have been disrupted, delayed. Or not much fun, and as an adult, you feel you're not smart and are unable adequately express yourself.
Fourth House
With a fourth house Saturn, you may have had heavy responsibilities in childhood and had parents who did not provide adequate nurturing. As an adult, you're likely to delay having a family of your own.
Fifth House
If Saturn is in the fifth house, it's likely your parents did not allow you to be a child, and you missed expressing yourself in play. As an adult, you have stifled your ability to express yourself creatively. Saturn here can also manifest in not allowing yourself to engage in romance.
Sixth House
If Saturn is in the sixth house, you likely had a "nose to the grindstone" father. As an adult, you take your job very seriously but can feel overburdened and overworked. Saturn here can also go to the other extreme where you reject responsibility and fear the restrictions of a steady job.
Seventh House
With a seventh house Saturn as a child, your parents may have been unhappy with each other. As an adult, you could delay tying the knot. However, this can also manifest as looking for security and stability in a relationship and being drawn to older partners.
Eighth House
With Saturn in the eighth, you took it to heart when a parent told you to "dry your tears, or they'd give you something to cry about." As an adult, you fear losing control of your emotions and can become detached and withdrawn.
Ninth House
With Saturn in the ninth house, your parents likely had fixed dogmatic ideas and beliefs that were passed on to you. As an adult, you reject individualism. However, this could also manifest as rejecting all orthodoxy and living by your own rules.
Tenth House
Saturn is at home in the tenth house and, therefore, more pronounced. As a child, your father may have seemed strict and unfeeling, but he had a successful career and instilled you with those values. As an adult, you feel you still have something to prove to him by your achievements and don't place much importance on relaxing and having fun.
Eleventh House
With Saturn in the eleventh house, you may have, as a child, felt marginalized by your group of friends. As an adult, you could have problems feeling like you are part of a group or fear you might have to conform and lose your individuality if you join a group.
Twelfth House
Saturn in the twelfth house is probably the most challenging Saturn placement in a birth chart. When Saturn is in the twelfth, you may have been abandoned, isolated, and fearful as a child. Now, as an adult, you often feel guilty, nervous, insecure, depressed, and lonely, with no clue as to why. You could be confused about who you are or fear to lose your identity.
Saturn Aspects in Your Birth Chart
When Saturn aspects the personal planets and points in a birth chart, it slows them down, makes them more cautious, however, it also bequeaths them with perseverance.
- A soft aspect (Sextile or Trine) from Saturn can suggest a feeling that "Yes, this is difficult, but this is the way things are and have always been."
- A hard aspect (Square, Opposition, or Quincunx) is a more demanding feeling, i.e., "Grow or suffer!"
However, nothing in a birth chart can be isolated from the entire chart. So precisely how Saturn's aspects will manifest in your life depends on your entire birth chart.
Example of When Saturn Aspects a Sun
When Saturn aspects a person's Sun, it dims its light. This is an individual who may have been humbled in some way as a child, which led to being somewhat self-conscious. As adults, they are serious, somber, and feel inadequate. Most are hard workers, readily assume responsibility, and once they get over their feelings of inadequacy have great potential to grow into a highly accomplished person.
Saturn in Relationships
When it comes to relationships, Saturn can be the glue that binds you to a person. Still, it can also make you feel unworthy, apprehensive, and cautious when it comes to love and affection. If Saturn is in your seventh house or in aspect to Venus, you might feel there's a price to be paid for love or something you must do to love and be loved. Love could seem like an obligation. This often leads to a fear of commitment and late marriage. You're serious about love, and this means that, through trial and error, you have the potential to become a steadfast and loyal partner.
Saturn in a Child's Chart
As any good parent knows, children need to understand boundaries and learn how to self regulate their behavior to grow up safely. Saturn represents what a child learned about limitations, self-regulation, and boundaries through experiences in their childhood environment. These Saturn experiences provide a child with constructive patterns of behavior for dealing with the world, or they can impose extreme self-protective patterns; or a combination of both. Saturn in a child's chart often symbolizes the authoritative parent. Parents can gain insight from a child's birth chart about how they are likely to be influencing the Saturn learning process of their child.
Saturn's Lessons
Saturn's life lessons, though not always pleasant, are about learning limitations, self-regulation, and knowing your own boundaries so you can constructively deal with life. Saturn may seem harsh and demanding, but it's Saturn that disciplines you and teaches you how to be successful in the material world.
