The Laughing Saturn

Because life is tragic by nature, you have to laugh a lot. And well and long. - Paavo Haavikko, Finnish writer (Mercury conjunct Saturn)

Our old grim friend, Saturn, can be a surprisingly cheerful bedfellow, sometimes you could even say that the harder the angles the more cheerful Saturn will be. A pair of wide squares may not do the job yet, but a badly placed Saturn with several close afflictions, especially to luminaries, should be enough to create a person who truly knows how to live. And how to laugh, in spite of everything. Saturn may not laugh at the same things most people do, but it can laugh at life, at itself even, although not perhaps at your presence though - you remember, a dignified public image and all that...

Saturn may not be what is generally seen as funny, typically Saturnian humor may not shake up those younger souls who still have very little experience. Saturnian humor is appreciated by those who have, like Saturn, seen it all. It is a rare kind of humor, so rare that sometimes it is rightly appreciated only by another Saturnian. But still Saturn has a wonderful sense of humor, just a kind that you need in real life. It is humor that helps Saturn to laugh at its own problems, at itself, at anything. Through its ability to laugh Saturn can rise above it all.


A RARE LAUGHTER

A real laughter is a thing as rare as real tears. - Sir Walter Scott (Sun conjunct Saturn)

True Saturnian laughter is as rare as true Saturnians are. And with a true Saturnian I mean people who really and truly love being Saturnians, they know their worth, they are not afraid of being dignified and being in a class of their own, they are proud about their seriousness and working ability. They don't care about being called overly exacting and strict, because they know that they have a lot to give, even for those who make jokes about the rigidity or the stern-faced appearances of Saturnians. True Saturnians are never after popularity, they accept their separateness and even turn it into an asset.

True Saturnians are not afraid of being labelled perfectionists. They know that an easy life is not for them - and they also know that an easy life isn't so easy for others either, at least not in the long run, because those having their hands full of life's gifts usually forget all those small invisible things that a Saturnian can turn into a meaningful life, full of depth and true worth.

Many Saturnians gradually develop a wonderful ability to find the best in everything, they treat everything as a learning experience, which makes them self-sufficient and inwardly free even when living outwardly in very limited circumstances. They know that those going after easier lives often fail to develop their own Saturnian talents as they try to avoid all they see - or imagine - belonging to a 'grim' Saturnian fate. Me, being serious? Reserved? No thank you. And off they go trying to be something they are not - trying to fit the crowd? They need entertainment and jokes and fun in order to laugh, a Saturnian only needs reality. And reality is everywhere.

The Saturnian ability to laugh is something you get as time goes on and you learn no to expect that life should fulfill your every wish. But you never give up either. You do your best with what life offers you. Saturn may not laugh spontaneously at slapstick or jokes, but it sees the comic side in everything that happens, in all human foibles and failings. The Saturnian sense of humor comes when you have seen it all, when you can say with Jennifer Jones (Saturn conjunct Ascendant): "I've seen every problem". Then nothing shocks you anymore, all that you have left is your rare ability to laugh. And learning this rare ability does wonders for you, it may even change the course of your life!


AGAINST SUFFERING !

It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive. - W. Somerset Maugham (Sun conjunct Saturn)

The deep joy of a true Saturnian has nothing to do with masochism, a true Saturnian never enjoys pain. Masochism is something for lazier planets. Saturn's working ability is an excellent antidote for masochistic feelings and empty dissatisfaction. As Saturn sees it, only those who are still spiritually children, believe that you have to suffer in order to grow. Grow up, Saturn would like to say to all those world-weary types who has got all life has to offer. Open up your eyes, it is your duty to find life's small joys. Then you may again find some greater joys, if you still need them...

Enjoying pain - or even believing that you can't grow without suffering - is for Saturn just a sign of immaturity, an unwillingness to learn without being forced to... A voluntary learner never enjoys pain or frustration, they are not needed as life itself inspires a true Saturnian. Saturn teaches us to create poetry out of life and work, not out of suffering.

An average lethargic type may, of course, experience Saturn as a hard task-master. And for anyone Saturn may feel demanding - and slow with its rewards. But there will be rewards, eventually. They may be slow in coming, because Saturn first wants to test you to be sure that you are in earnest, that you will not revert back to your old lazy tricks or try to play a student just to avoid pain. You have to have deeper motives, a true desire to grow even when there are no carrots dangling in front of you, thus without any rewards in sight. You have to show Saturn that you are doing something for doing's sake, not because you are expecting Saturn to pat you on your back.


FREEDOM TO WORK

Work thou for pleasure - paint or sing or carve
The thing thou lovest, though the body starve -
Who works for glory misses oft the goal;
Who works for money coins his very soul.
Work for the work's sake, then, and it may be
That these things shall be added unto thee.
- Kenyon Cox

Saturn teaches us all to enjoy work. The Saturnian way of life is to find yourself and to be true to yourself through your work, whatever your work is. There is much more true joy and laughter in the Saturnian life style than non-Saturnians think or can see. The Saturnian joy is often an almost ecstatic experience of being yourself, not anymore someone others have created or unduly influenced.

Of course, Saturnians still have their limitations, often even severe ones, but within those limitations they are still free and able to laugh. They feel satisfied in knowing that even during their worst moments - when their smiles become just hardly noticeable grins - they are still able to relieve their pressure through laughter. And that they will overcome their problems as they have always done. It is a deep joy of knowing yourself, of being yourself, of being willing to grow and to learn something from everything and from everyone.

Saturnian joy is also freedom from undue guilt feelings. Most people have unconscious feelings of guilt because they sense, at least unconsciously, that they are not doing their best, they are not ready to bear their lot of life's burdens. Which means they are not willing to face all the Saturnian lessons. When you know deep within that you are truly doing all you can, and in the best Saturnian way, you no longer have guilt feelings. Whether you succeed or not in your undertakings has nothing to do with it. The Saturnian joy doesn't depend on results, it is the joy of freedom the Saturnian experiences in fulfilling her or his true purpose.

The mintage of wisdom is to know that rest is rust, and that real life is in love, laughter, and work. - Elbert Hubbard (Sun conjunct Saturn)


LAUGHING AT YOUR PROBLEMS

Laughter is like changing a baby's diaper -- it doesn't permanently solve any problems, but it makes things more acceptable for a while. - Anonymous

A true Saturnian - as competent and industrious as he or she may be - also knows that there are things we can do nothing about. The only thing we can do, is to change our own attitudes, to take things calmly and philosophically. And in a Saturnian way to laugh at our troubles and our inability to get things working out as we would like them to.

For a true Saturnian, the New Age craze about all of us being masters of our lives, is just a sign of immaturity and lack of experience. It is an illusion that Saturn may let us keep for the time being. But eventually Saturn will teach its children a lesson of humility, not to make them suffer but to show them that in the long run they will be losers with their unwarranted trust in their own powers. They may succeed outwardly but inwardly they will usually stay in a narrow cage. Saturn will teach them how their attitudes will shut them within themselves and prevent them from finding true unity.

It also prevents them from developing true compassion for those they see as weaker - that is compassion without condescension. A developed Saturn knows that everyone has limitations, and that for some those limitations may even be so severe that unless they learn to laugh at their troubles - or at least amidst their troubles - they have nothing to laugh at. It is one of life's great paradoxes that often those with greatest difficulties learn to laugh best.

And another great paradox is that learning to laugh, even if only out of pure misery, has a mysterious transforming effect on you and on your misery - you suddenly begin to see the light - not beyond the misery, but in it... And still not in any masochistic way, you are then not dwelling in your misery, you just see other sides in it. For a Finnish writer, Toivo Pekkanen (dwad Mars-Saturn conjunct radix Sun), humor meant admitting your failure. After losing all your hopes - and your illusions - you can no longer be serious. You learn to laugh out of desperation, and find freedom in accepting your chains...

A time comes when men laugh at misery through long acquaintance with it. - Thomas Hardy (Sum opposite Saturn).


THE GREATEST BLESSING

How much lies in laughter: the cipher key, wherewith we decipher the whole man! - Thomas Carlyle (Saturn rising)

C.E.O. Carter claims that the signs most commonly lacking in humor are Leo, Scorpio, and Capricorn, "as these often produce persons with a strong sense of personal dignity, not to say self-importance". Carter assigns humor to the Moon and to Cancer, the sign opposite to Capricorn. Carter was an excellent astrologer, but I think that in this he was wrong: Capricornians do often have a wonderful sense of humor, or at least Saturn, the ruler of Capricorn, has it. And one of the kind. No other planet can laugh like Saturn, in spite of everything. And the Moon, the ruler of Cancer, can be very gloomy and morose, at least in certain signs.

Many Saturnians use their exceptional gift of laughter and sense of humor for the benefit of others working as gifted comedians and humorists like Mark Twain (Saturn rising). For Twain laughter was the greatest blessing mankind has. Saturn may not laugh at corny jokes, but that certainly is a minor failing in someone who finds humor in life itself. Humor doesn't only help Saturnians - and all of us - to laugh at ourselves or at life, humor also makes us able to be conscious of and to handle difficult things, because humor bypasses many closed doors in man's mind.

Sometimes things may be too painful to be handled in any other way but through humor and laughter. Usually our own unconscious mind protects us by not letting things to the consciousness if we cannot yet handle then. Oftentimes the unconscious knows best, but not always, sometimes the unconscious acts like a broken record, it keeps playing the same tune again and again, whether needed or not. Then you may have to bluff your own unconscious mind with humor: When you laugh, the unconscious mind will think: OK, as there now is laughter, there must be the ability to handle things - and the door will open...

Thus if you have a strong and - as they say 'bad' Saturn - be proud: You are like a strong old tree, you can handle life's storms better than anyone. Often through laughter, because you will have or develop a rare gift of being able to see it all from a higher perspective, to laugh with winds and the Sun. If you don't know your gift yet, study your Saturn. And don't forget mutables, they give you ability to change yourself according to circumstances, just like air helps you to rise above it all. Especially rejoice if you have any Gemini placements giving you the ability to see the both sides of the coin, and rejoice more with Neptune as it can see all the sides - and then some more...

If you are a Saturnian but feel that you do not have such a gift of laughter, study your own chart. Perhaps you are still clinging to your self-created and perhaps childish ambitions instead of working together with Saturn in doing your best just where life through Saturn has put you. For instance a very strong conjunction in your chart may imply this, you may be intensely trying to live through the conjunction forgetting your own Saturnian limitations. And you will experience Saturn's dissatisfaction in some way. Or you may have some great Jupiterian expectations or Martian me-first desires that prevent you from working fully together with your Saturn.

The best Saturnian gifts can be found only by not trying to do things that do not belong to us. Thus we must be humble enough to accept our limitations. In a Saturnian life accepting your limitations and struggling along on your own path will always be rewarded, somehow, somewhere, sometime. At first - and for a very long time - it may even seem that every time you believe that now things can no longer become any worse, you'll find that they can. But a true Saturnian will not just complain her or his fate, a Saturnian keeps on working knowing that eventually it will pay. And usually it does, although you may not get what you want, you will get what you need.

All Saturnian virtues - like all true virtues - are slow to develop. Thus my Saturnian friend, if you still can't laugh at life and at your fate, be persistent and keep on working, some day you will find your gift of laughter. And you will have your reward. Not perhaps in the way you would like to, but in a way that makes you later say that it was just what you would have asked for if you had been able to see a bit farther. Saturn makes you give up a lot in order to get even more. It is your duty to see that. And to laugh even when everything yet seems to be just the opposite.

I have always been helped by the philosophy of my black friends, when they say that life is a hell - then have a big laugh! - Vivica Bandler, Finnish director, Saturn at the tenth house cusp

Neptunia, January 2004

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