Saturn in Aries Comprehensive Analysis

Saturn in Aries Issues

If you were born with Saturn in Aries, the issues during your Saturn Return will be about relationships with men, issues of aggression and dependency, competition, physical activity, the balance of power within heterosexual relationships, curbing impetuosity and temper, and the amount of adventure you allow into your life.

With this placement, it may be that a father or father-figure was much too hard on you. As a result, he lost your respect and admiration, not to mention your affection. You appreciate a good fair fight, with an expectation of fairness in life in general; however, a fight between an authority figure and a child is not fair, and you may feel scarred. Or perhaps you witnessed others treating your mother unfairly. If this is the case, your mother may retain your affection but has lost your respect because she did not stand up for herself. As we mature, we all realize that fairness is not inherent in the ways of the world. You just learned this much too young.

A penchant for working alone

Because of these early experiences with authority figures, you may be challenged to function well within a partnership or hierarchy of men. Whereas the ideal of teamwork among males is to establish quickly who is the Alpha Male and then fall into line behind him – in a discreet “pecking order” – you resist this process, challenging for the alpha position before you’re fully ready for this role.

This is viewed as unnecessary and threatening aggression. It encourages an attack by other, more aggressive males. Thwarted in your desire to lead, you then have difficulty falling into position. Instead, you find yourself seething with resentment or perhaps plotting an overthrow which usually you will not carry through. You don’t seek this fight, but the pattern repeats itself. For this reason, those with Saturn in Aries often work alone, as entrepreneurs, or with women.

And an inclination for impatience

As well as not automatically respecting those in authority, you can be impatient with others. You can find yourself blaming any altercations on the other person. As time passes and there are more examples of not being able to get along with others in a normal work setting, you come to realize that wherever you go, there you are. The issue you’re working with is the proper use of aggression and male “yang” energy. With time and experience, most people with this placement learn how to channel this energy very positively. They learn to fight their way to the front of a line only to use whatever privilege they attain helping the weak, elderly, and young make their way.

During the Saturn Return, these issues of authority, aggression, and male dominance crystallize if they haven’t already been resolved. You must balance your abilities with the need to have the cooperation and assistance of others. Additionally, you use proper protocols to challenge the old order. You live in peace with women. Do these things and the respect you so desperately seek shall find you. This is what happened to two famous figures with Saturn in Aries: Albert Einstein and George Washington.

Famous Figures with Saturn in Aries Placement

During Einstein’s first and second Saturn Returns, he attained important professorships that supported his career. This allowed him to support himself while he continued his groundbreaking theoretical work.

For George Washington, such success had to wait until the second return. When the first Saturn Return occurred, it was shortly after Washington had retired from the French and Indian war. His treatment from the regular British soldiers upset him. He married well, consolidating his personal power through an astute union that elevated his place in society. The second Saturn Return came as the United States elected him as their first president. During these early years of his administration, he united the opposing factions of the new establishment politically. He continued the tradition of leadership he had shown during the War for Independence.

The revolutionary generation could not agree on much, but they could agree that Washington should lead them. He had a reputation throughout the colonies for courage and stamina. This was a man whose physical presence, one historian explained, “organized the space around it.” Such is the charisma of Saturn in Aries. Yet the future first president was still frustrated in his attempts to lead until he settled down with a woman and began cultivating relationships with his peers. These eventually led him to the leadership position he had always longed for and came rightfully to deserve.

An Awareness of the Important Things

As astrologer Stephen Arroyo says, Saturn shows what we regard as “important”, so important that we try to control it – so important that we get all nervous and fearful and frequently blow it. What you have considered to be so important is independence, self-respect, and self-assertion. In past lives, you were so involved with the group and the future of the planet that you sort of forgot who you were. Now you will learn to carve out a piece of territory that is all your own so you can stand alone with self-authority and not rely too much on others in this lifetime. You want to develop your independent streak and use your strong will. “I” statements are very important. So is pioneering and leading the way.

In extreme cases, you may have developed a strong ego to survive childhood or adolescence. This served you well. However, as the years go by and you heal yourself, you can relax more. No one else is threatening your life.  You can learn to use this energy creatively rather than defensively. For example, it is terrific energy for an entrepreneur. When this Saturn placement is used well (consider the description of Washington), the native has indefatigable courage, the ability to start over in life whenever necessary, a youthful zest for living and new challenges, drive, ambition, great goal setting, the ability to compete ferociously, a strong sense of self, and a knack for paying others their due respect.

Saturn in Aries Challenges for Women

Saturn in Aries may be particularly difficult for a woman, for it pits a girl against her father and male relatives almost from the get-go. This usually results in those male figures ostracizing her from the mainstream collective since the price that is paid for her spirit is being barred from the traditional benefits of the male hierarchy. These benefits — like it or not– are myriad.

It seems that when a girl with this Saturn placement begins to assert herself (as at puberty), it is interpreted as anything from “masculine” to “uppity” to aggressive to a flagrant flying in the face of the “way things are done.” Often the girl is downright foolhardy in the risks she is taking, but then that is the nature of youth. These young ladies may get pregnant at 13, 14, or 15 out of wedlock. Or they may run away from home for that reason (or others) at a very early age, only to become grossly dependent on a man as a result. Or they may fight male dominance their entire lives, never really happy with their own feminine nature.

A large part of this lifetime for Saturn in Aries women is to discover what constitutes real strength in a man. This involves recognizing how to respect it without trying to be a man herself or compete with men. It can be a tough pill to swallow.

Strong without compromising femininity

Women with this placement are quite strong but don’t lack for femininity, even as they work out issues of assertiveness, identity, male dominance, and dependence. A look at famous actresses and singers with Saturn in Aries may illuminate this dynamic. Some of these are women who chose not to have children (Jennifer Aniston and Ashley Judd) or who are known for their roles as fierce fighters (Lucy Liu, Gillian Anderson, and Lucy Lawless). Others gain attention for their dependence on/from men, such as Celene Dion and Tina Turner, for their union with a “weaker” partner (Julia Roberts), for not conforming to stereotype (Margaret Cho, Leslie Jones), or for calling for gender equality in pay (Patricia Arquette).  These are all ways the Aries energy reverberates throughout a woman’s lifetime. The younger generation of actresses portrays fiesty characterizations: Maisie Williams in “Game of Thrones,” Abigail Breslin in “Little Miss Sunshine,” and Hailee Stanfield in “True Grit” all share this placement.

Some women with Saturn in Aries have shown incredible determination and bravery. These include Florence Nightengale, Helen Keller, Madeline Albright, and Malala Yousafzai. The latter is a particularly strong use of this energy, an example demonstrating inspiring physical strength and moral courage. Dara Torres is also an outstanding example. Dara competed in the 2008 Olympics at the age of 41 as the mother of a small child.

Saturn in Aries Implications for Men

Famous men with this placement ooze bravado that at its basest borders on chauvinism. Consider Bill Burr, Paul Hogan, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig. Louis C.K., Will Smith, Chuck Norris, Jason Statham, Vin Diesel, Jamie Foxx, Terence Howard, Jimmy Kimmel, Bill Cosby, Phil Spector, and Josh Brolin. From “The Man Show” to action heroes to humor about relationships to abuse of women, the men with Saturn in Aries remind us of all the differences between the stronger and fairer sex.

An example from a movie

A perfect example that stands all on its own is Dustin Hoffman in the 1980s classic film “Tootsie.” In the movie, Hoffman, born with Saturn in Aries, cannily portrays Michael Dorsey, a womanizing Broadway actor who decides to pass as an actress to get a job on a soap opera. As the soap’s new female hospital administrator Dorothy Michaels,  Hoffman portrays a woman who refuses to silently suffer the typical indignities women endure in the American workforce.  As Michaels asserts herself on the show, she inspires the nation’s women to stand up for themselves, too. More interesting, though, is that living as a working woman brings Dorsey in touch with his sensitivity, and he finds himself maturing into a stronger man. Even today, almost two generations after it was made, the story illuminates the challenges and pitfalls of being a woman in a man’s sphere and of being a man relating to an un-empowered woman.

Examples from literature

In the world of literature, we find two great novelists born with this placement: Gustave Flaubert and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Critics often praise Gustave Flaubert’s masterpiece “Madame Bovary” as the perfect novel. It tells the story of Emma Bovary, a woman readers cannot like yet follow closely, “with the kind of attention reserved for car wrecks,” as critic Kathryn Harrison explains. The realism with which Flaubert portrays Emma’s boredom and isolation as a housewife, and the disdain he shows for the middle class, is an intellectual working out of the Aries dynamic. It is a need to understand and sympathize with, yet also condemn, the weakness of women and our human need to be loved.

Dostoyevsky’s novel “Crime and Punishment” addresses another Aries theme, that of the superman. Dostoevsky’s protagonist commits a murder (in order to steal some money) to test a proto-Ubermensch theory positing that some people have the right to commit extra-legal actions and are well-suited to execute them. I’ll leave you to the book to discover Dostoyevsky’s views on this. Needless to say, the idea of an individual who stands outside of society because of his strength resonates with anyone who has a heavy Aries signature in their chart.

More implications of the Saturn in Aries Placement

What happens when someone has Saturn in Aries is that the natural elements at work do not function as expected. The result is that you do not initiate challenges properly. You misunderstand signals. Real aggression begins to replace assertion. You forget the true goal. This harms results, not just to the individuals, but to the “pack” or to organized life by the loss of what might have been accomplished. In other words, there is a breakdown in the structure of society. The rogue, renegade, or maverick results. Life can be very difficult for this individual. Certainly, the collective is unforgiving, and certainly, it is hard to survive outside the protection of the group (at best).

We might see this most clearly in the field of political matters, where these figures are loners whose integrity is their hallmark. Some are reckless cowboys; others we admire for their independence. George Washington, Pancho Villa, Leon Trotsky, Douglas MacArthur, Oskar Schindler, Lee Harvey Oswald are examples. Lyndon Johnson, Saddam Hussein, Timothy McVeigh, and Marine LePen also share this placement. Varied in their political beliefs and motivations, these figures each showed incredible defiance, willing to take action even if they had to go it alone. The deeds of some — Douglas MacArthur, Lee Harvey Oswald, and Timohy McVeigh are probably the best examples — belie the Aries’ Achilles heel: rash, impetuous action. The lives of others still inspire us today for their boldness.

Your Karmic Destiny as a Saturn in Aries

You, Saturn in Aries person, are here to develop your independent streak and use your strong will. Harness these traits to fight your way out of almost any situation. Additionally, you can even use them to lead others in times of turmoil and sadness. You may not have to battle silence, darkness, and isolation, like Helen Keller. You may not have to defeat the world’s largest empire to found a great nation on a new continent, like George Washington. But whatever contests you face, your courage and sheer will to live cannot be denied. They invigorate everyone you come in contact with.

Your Life Challenge

Here is your life challenge and the limit you must accept: Like all human beings, you are vulnerable and at times dependent on others. Accept your frailty and the beautiful mystery of the yin and the yang. When you do this, the incredible energy inside you finally channels in the right direction. Your considerable life force erupts like the first flower of spring pushing through the snow. You will find yourself defying odds and declaring undeniably that life has once again renewed itself. It’s counter-intuitive, but you must surrender to these things before you can fight (and, of course, win).

Whether it takes you one Saturn Return or two, eventually you will make peace with your place in society (or die). Only when you do this will people respect you for the pioneer you know you already are. Just remember something when you finally achieve your position of leadership: You are responsible for creating a world where the strong protect the weak, a world where might is not necessarily right, and women and men respect each other.

Accept with love your own inner weaknesses and dependence on others, respect and protect the soft heart of women, obey the law of the pack. Do these simple things and the Saturn Return will be a time of great accomplishment for you. The world is yours.