Align with Saturn-Luminosity and Thrive

Transform your difficulties and fears into abundance through "blissipline."

Welcome to this week’s Quiet Light Reflections. In this article, I’ll be exploring healthy Saturn-energy within you. Usually dreaded by most Vedic astrologers because of its harshness, let’s dive into the bright side of this planetary archetype within you, and how it can ultimately clear the path for you to enjoy a life of clarity and celebration.

Image from kidskonnect.com

Sometimes life can bring you to a place where things are just plain hard. It may feel like most things are getting in your way or that nothing is going right. Or that there’s a big mess to clean up. You may not have the energy to deal with any of it.

The unlikely candidate of Saturn’s archetypal energy—like boring old Clark Kent—is here within you to shift into Superman to save the day!

Saturn Luminosity

In Vedic astrology, Saturn is often feared. I’ve personally felt the cold oppressive power operating from this archetype in my own life, and it’s no fun. Because nobody escapes this aspect of being human, you too have probably experienced the slow-moving transits of this planetary energy “steam-rolling” back and forth over an area of your life, perhaps feeling like it may never let up.

Saturnine vibes can show up as fear, doubt, worry, depression, frigidity, delay and loss, and can show us the cold hard reality of a situation. It can mean starkness, old age, slowness and lameness. Saturn-energy gazes downward and only sees the problems…for good or for ill.

On the positive side, Saturn’s luminosity can bring focus, discipline, endurance, patience and humility. It’s that service-oriented part of you that does the dirty work that no one wants to do and for which no one will thank you.

This Saturnine energetic deals with your daily routine and your day-to-day actions. It may not always be something you enjoy doing, like possibly flossing between your teeth. But once you’re sitting the dentist’s chair, aren’t you glad you flossed every day?

I bring up both polarities of this planetary archetype because, while the negative side may seem repelling, it’s needed just as much as the positive, and they’re necessary together in balance. Saturn is regarded as a neuter planet. This means that it doesn’t swing one way into masculine “doing” and it doesn’t hang out in feminine “receiving.” It’s an energetic that simply shows up in all of its doubt and discipline, and guides you through your karma… one responsibility at a time.

Even the negatives can be a blessing. Is something delayed in your life? Thank goodness it didn’t come earlier. Did you have doubts? You probably grew from the awakening that a situation was otherwise. Were you deeply afraid? See how you became stronger from surviving the experience.

It’s about refinement. Saturn-ness is the cleanser, the detoxer and the purifier. In order to purify, sometimes you have to restrict that which isn’t serving you. Restriction, while often seen as a negative thing, can also have its glowing benefits.

How to Create Space for Blessings

A few years ago, I was a part of a tiny superfood supplement company that runs itself more like a “non-profit” than the for-profit that it is.

Instead of immediately pushing their products on people and spending money on advertising, the first thing this company poses to customers is: Are you removing the aggravating factors from your diet? What harmful, toxic foods and beverages can you remove from your system on a daily basis before you put any highly pranic micro-nutrients in?

It’s about creating space for the good stuff by first removing the things that drum up unnecessary inflammation and prevent the proper absorption of nutrients. It means initiating a cleanse to flush out the obstacles that are preventing you from living vibrantly. That act alone may return energy to your cells to finally relax into their true nature!

It looks like a painful thing to do at first—and it may be—but with the patience and endurance of Saturn-luminostiy, you can create a healthy vacancy so that your body has a chance to breathe.

Please note: swinging too far into a discipline or restriction isn’t healthy. There’s no need to “starve” yourself or deny yourself what’s appropriate. The ego is tricky and will find any way it can to become more self-absorbed. Be mindful of this.

In your daily practices, are you finding the sweet spot to stand on that’s sustainable over a long period of time?

This isn’t just about eating habits; the same goes for any area of your life. Utilize the downward gaze of Saturn-energy to benefit your life. See the issues in front of you, as they are… no sugar-coating. What’s the reality of your situation?

Two Helpful Tools

It can be really hard to stare your troubles in the face. A lot of fear can come up, and this is totally natural. Fortunately, we’re provided with a very basic tool for dealing with fears: face them. As Sri Yukteswar has been quoted as saying,

“My mother once tried to frighten me with an appalling story of a ghost in a dark chamber. I went there immediately, and expressed my disappointment at having missed the ghost. Mother never told me another horror-tale. Moral: Look fear in the face and it will cease to trouble you.”¹

By facing your fears and asking yourself deeper questions about the root of the fear, the obstacles you’re facing begin to dissolve. The big, bad boogieman in your life starts to look less aggressive and more manageable.

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Saturn-luminosity also means hard work. There’s just no way around it. It’s hard work to remove behaviors that no longer serve you, and to refrain from watching, listening to or reading media that produces nonproductive thought-forms. It’s saying “no” to food or drink or otherwise that you know wreaks havoc on your body.

It’s about minimizing future regrets and discomfort.

In the River. 2016. Original painting by the author.

A second tool is Kriya Yoga. Committing to this type of breath-connected meditation is a way to clear the debris within you on a multitude of levels of your being.

Think of your spine as a waterway where your breath is the fluid running up and down it. If there are a lot of twigs, branches, leaves and trash in the waterway, it makes it more difficult for the water to flow smoothly. It may even get completely dammed up in an area.

Simply put, Kriya Yoga is a type of sushumna breathing that clears out the trash and bundles of twigs from your river of your spine. It revitalizes your life force so that you can start feeling physically better, think clearer and be more bioavailable for higher forms of consciousness.

Both of these tools, Kriya Yoga and facing your fears, take discipline. There is bliss that can be engendered from discipline. This “blissipline” is here to redirect your life so that you can awaken to the sweet flow of Life-giving opportunities streaming your way.

Playing with the Gunas

Restrictiveness can look negative and unattractive at first. In general, Saturn-ness is tamasic. This guna is related to the material plane, and has a grossness and heaviness to it. There’s a motivation to fix things.

I’d like to venture that, while Saturn-energy is tamasic, it can be influenced by sattvic planetary energies—bringing a lightness and inspiration to Saturnine actions. With a tamasic attitude, you’ll feel like something needs to be fixed and so the restriction you’re implementing is painful. If you bring in some sattvic inspiration to your task, it may feel natural to say “no” to something, and then later feel the benefits of it.

(Saturnine energy does bring delays. The benefits will be felt later, and not necessarily in the moment.)

It’s like stopping eating when you’re full. Too little food and you may become weak or “hangry.” Too much food and you dampen your agni (digestive fire) and lethargy overcomes you. When you’re in that middle ground of discipline and bliss, you become more available to blessings, opportunities and abundance!

As the holidays approach and it’s socially expected to consume a grand feast, if your authentic desire is to moderate your eating, I encourage you to hold to your sovereignty.

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Or perhaps fasting is an option for you. It’s become a gift in my life to practice intermittent fasting on a daily basis. I typically stop consuming food around 3:30 or 4:30 in the afternoon, and wait until around 6:30 in the morning to eat again. Making this a part of my routine has been absolutely rejuvenating for me in mind, body and spirit. If this Saturnine restriction inspires you, give it a try… and make the timing your own.

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Becoming a Vessel for the Divine

Humility. This aspect of Saturn-luminosity is something that is rarely expressed or appreciated in modern culture. It’s painful to admit making a mistake or that you got side-tracked. It’s hard to swallow pride and admit that help could be needed. We’re all full of faults, desires, distractions and impediments. It’s easy to get in your own way. So, hopefully I’m not the first one to say this to you, but… Welcome to the human race!

Saturn-energy represents growing older, and this can be generally frowned upon too. But the older you get, hopefully the more mature you get. Embracing humility and admitting to mistakes is a part of your maturity, and it helps clear out the tamasic heaviness and messiness that came with pretending everything was okay when it wasn’t.

By becoming humble, you lessen the debris build-up within you. As you look at your fears in the face, they begin to dissolve. The more you work with your breath, moving it consciously up and down your spine, the more you align with your purpose in life. The more you’re in union—yoga—with your higher self.

By embracing Saturnine humility, maturity and purification practices—those things which may look hard and unappealing—you can get a “boost” of energy and brightness. Where your service lies becomes more apparent, and other horizons begin to reveal themselves. A sattvic, dharmic light can begin to dawn.

By clearing your inner path from blockages for the sattvic energy to flow through you, inspiration and power can glide with velocity towards your own purpose and freedom. Open up your channels towards joy, fulfillment and prosperity without having to constantly consume or validate yourself with material possessions or other’s kudos.

Hot Tip: Your meditation practice can benefit from this discipline too. What gets in your way of meditating for longer periods of time or more deeply? Are you consuming caffeine or rajasic foods? Or doom-scrolling on social media before sitting down to your sadhana? I’ve been guilty of all three, and I’m learning to leave those out in order to create the right internal setting. Meditating is a co-creation with the Divine, and it’s my Saturnine responsibility to hold up my end of the deal.

Hollow yourself out. Become a vessel for the Divine. Allow grace and ease to authentically become your default mode.

You’ve Created Space… Now What?

Sometimes you have the opportunity to create vacancy within your life intentionally. Sometimes the Universe does it for you, painfully or with relief. Either way, there can be a void, and possibly a feeling of uncertainty that may be uncomfortable. It’s like staring out into nothingness.

I appreciate the story of the Hubble Space Telescope’s photographic lens getting pointed in the direction of total black “emptiness" out in space, and then just waiting even though it was costing money. To the tremendous surprise of scientists, what eventually came through Hubble’s lens was an inexhaustible number of galaxies we’d never seen before or ever imagined could’ve existed. Where there was complete emptiness to our previously limited sight was unlimited abundance.

Image courtesy of NASA.gov

You may be staring at that nothingness right now. It’s okay to gaze into that darkness. I encourage you to wait until your thinking mind starts to find less and less to say, and wait in the silence. Just wait. And let the next step up in your evolution start to trickle into your awareness.

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Note: If for some reason the emptiness is too much for you or your fears are too great to face, I encourage you to seek professional counseling or some kind of therapy. Sometimes the “hollowing out” may not feel inspiring and light, but more depressing and like deep loss. Remember that you are loved, and that help is available to you.

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Wherever You’re At…

Remember that it’s totally normal to fluctuate in different circumstances with different needs. Perhaps there’s a time when it’s right for you to cut back and remove the excess obstacles within you and all around you.

There may be other times when it’s appropriate to peer into the darkness and see the light of another “galaxy” approaching you on the horizon.

Wherever you’re at, be comforted: your Saturnine surrender and patience are not in vain. Another Renaissance of “You” is developing right before your eyes, even if it’s just a small glimmer of light. Focus on that light and follow it into the expanse.

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Thank you for reading!

Feel free to respond with a comment below. Your engagement is appreciated :)

Sending you love, blessings and a further refinement in the light.

If you would like to explore Vedic Astrology as I have, and go deeply into the wonder and science of being incarnated on this planet, please consider signing up for the Asheville Vedic Astrology Apprenticeship Program. It’s online, self-paced and comes with a certification option.

1. Paramhansa Yogananda. Autobiography of a Yogi, page 105, 1946.