Meditations on Saturn

[Dover]

by Dane Rudhyar:

"In the Beginning" is the Seed.

Any cycle of existence must begin in something. Life emerges out of one kind of seed or another. In the cycle of yearly vegetation, the seed lies hidden in the ground during the winter; then, as the sun's rays gain strength and spring begins, the great event of germination occurs. As the seed is torn asunder by some inner power of eager response to the sun, the rootlet stretches itself downward into the soil and the little germ reaches up to the crust of the soil, which it breaks in a magnificent gesture of liberation from the darkness of the past.

Rootlet and upreaching germ are, however, but the twofold "externalization" of the power of life that has been imminent and latent in the seed. They represent the two basic aspects of life: the search for raw materials which can be incorporated into the growing plant and the drive of more or less conscious forms of existence for self-expression in the light and self-multiplication in a progeny. The former produces the complex system of roots which provide water and chemicals to the plant; the latter manifests as stem, branches, leaves, flowers, and the fruit within which a new crop of seeds will mature.

In Greek mythology, the god Saturn was said to be the ruler of the "Golden Age," the age of purity and innocence. Why was Saturn given this position, which seems ill-fit for the mostly dreary reputation which astrologers usually give to the planet which is supposed to be the embodiment of this god? The planet Saturn is, in its most fundamental aspect, the seed; and the power of the seed is supreme during the very first phase of existence, when the downward and upward drives of rootlet and germ are still close to the seed — indeed within the "aura" (or field of energy) of the seed.

Greek mythology speaks of four ages: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. It simply repeats the great and much older Indian tradition which described four yugas (or great cycles): Satya Yuga was the first age, the Golden Age — and we will note at once the relation between "Sat-ya" and "Sat-urn." The word Sat in Sanskrit signifies "essential being." It is the pure, spiritual foundation of existence. It is, thus, the seed state before germination - i.e., before the purity of essential being is affected by the results of complex and often adulterating relationships with the world.

"Satya" is the powerful assertion (Ya) of essential being. In the now quite fashionable language of Zen Buddhism, the word refers to a man's "fundamental nature" — or, it is said, to "the face one had before one was born." This fundamental nature — this pre-existing form of selfhood (i.e., "face") — which becomes clouded over by a constantly increasing agglomeration of non-essential characteristics and superfluous social acquisitions, this is the seed-being deep in every human personality. To live "spiritually" is to live in terms of, and with reference to, this seed-being instead of according to the dictates or ever-changing moods (perhaps vagaries, even perversions) of our surface being. It is, therefore, to live in terms of what the planet Saturn essentially represents — that is, in terms of the "purity" of our true self. In Sanskrit, the word Satya has also the meaning of truth — but truth not as an intellectual fact — i.e., a statement is true or untrue — but instead as a reference to the essential being of every living entity, especially of every human person.

Saturn is, therefore — if I can be permitted this bi-lingual play on words — the "urn of essential being." It is the seed, inasmuch as the seed is the tough-skinned container of the essential characteristics of a particular species of life. It is the foundation of human existence — first, in a "generic" sense (for we all are first of all human beings), then in an "individualized" sense as a particular person with a consciousness which he calls his own....cont'd

http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/astroarticles/meditationsonsaturn.php

[Quakerfriend]

1. Thx for posting this Dover!

Your timing is perfect!

Lately, I have hoped that Saturn would doom this administration and all the evil it represents to me.

I have felt angry about all that will effect my children negatively as the result of THEIR policies. Lack of funds for schools, the arts, reduction in funds for the NIH and science, etc. etc.

Thank you for reminding me that what is happening is for ALL of our spiritual growth.

[loudsue]

2. Good timing! Thanks!

I have a close friend who shares george w. bush's birthday, who is going through more "Saturn" than she thinks she can handle right now.

I just forwarded this Rudhyar article to her. I know she'll find it very comforting, since she's a spiritually oriented person to begin with.

:kick::kick::kick: