Saturn in Scorpio Comprehensive Analysis

Below you will find a comprehensive analysis of the Saturn in Scorpio natal placement. Read this and re-read it if you have to. Upon a firm understanding of the study, you will have completed the final step of our Four Part Study to Mastering your Saturn Return!

Saturn in Scorpio Dates

The last few cycles of Saturn in Scorpio were October 23, 1953 to January 12, 1956; May 15, 1956 to October 10, 1956; November 30, 1982 to May 6, 1983; and August 25, 1983 to November 17, 1985. The last Saturn Return was October 6, 2012 through 12/24/14 and 6/16/15 and 9/18/15.

Issues facing Saturn in Scorpio

If you were born with Saturn in Scorpio, the issues during your Saturn Return will be about sexuality, assets, death and loss, trust and betrayal, personal magnetism, manipulation, revenge, extortion, seduction, self-mastery and personal power.

Saturn represents our karma from past lives. Those with Saturn in Scorpio have a lot of it! You don’t need an astrologer to tell you that. It is hard to have Saturn in Scorpio because you are so powerful, but you are afraid of your power and that it can work against you. Learn to accept how intense you are, how strong your feelings are, both love and hate. They are there for a reason.

Lingering Past Enemies from Previous Lives

Most people with Saturn in Scorpio have developed enemies from past lives. It is necessary to meet them again now and overcome the fear. Remember that no one can hurt you unless you let them. Learn to recognize these people when you meet them. Be aware. Wish them no harm but protect yourself. Then the karma is complete and you can gather the power that comes with this. Overcoming fear (paranoia) is part of your life journey. It is your feelings — not your mind — that can lead you through safely. In case you missed it, the trick here is that NOT EVERYONE IS YOUR ENEMY. You need to figure out how to tell who is and who isn’t.

There is evil in the world but there is also goodness. Instincts and feelings are your guide. Protection does not come from inside by cutting off our feelings but rather by developing them, differentiating them and letting them teach us what is safe and what is not safe on all levels. You may believe that feelings are weak, that they can overcome “rationality” — but think about this: it is irrational not to trust your feelings. Gradually, honor them, and the universe will organize them and remove the chaos from them. They will get more organized and less chaotic if you honor them.

Saturn in Scorpio is hard because others have manipulated you and betrayed you. Therefore, you are familiar with distrust from experience. Don’t use this as an excuse to avoid people, though.  Keep looking for those one or two really good souls out there, and when you find one, take it for all its worth.

Difficulty Trusting Others Common to Saturn in Scorpio

The truth is that for most people with Saturn in Scorpio it seems impossible to really trust anyone or be vulnerable to anyone, yet that keeps us from the intimacy we all desire. It is human to want intimacy and the emotional support that comes with it. You have to leave the door open with this knowledge: those we let closest in are those that can hurt us the most.

Rebirthing is the best process for healing this, but most people with Saturn in Scorpio will not trust any other person enough to give others a chance to heal them. They deny this opportunity to even a healer. Therefore, you can, must, and will heal yourself.

Hinduism as a religion choice

The world religion that is best guidance for you is Hinduism. It deals with darkness a lot more intelligently than others. There is truth and beauty in all the world’s religions. In a sense they are all saying the same thing but each in a different language. The religions that teach you to turn another cheek may in fact be dangerous for you if they hook into your fascination with evil. You must learn to fear evil intelligently as the scuba diver fears the ocean depths and storms and hidden creatures enough to be safe. Learn to see evil for what it is and that will make you fearless in the right way, vulnerable in the right way.

All About Power with Saturn in Scorpio

Saturn in Scorpio is very much about power. This is personal power not material power, though they often go together. Personal power is self-mastery. With this placement, once you set your mind to something, nothing on earth could deter you, so that is where wisdom must enter the picture. It is possible here to “cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face”. Reserve “The do-or-die attitude” for very few circumstances in life where it is appropriate from a spiritual perspective.

Sexuality as a force

The reason sexuality affects Scorpio is because that is one of the most powerful forces on earth. It drives and motivates people just like money does, especially people who are not spiritual or wise, people who have not chosen the path from passion to peace. Saturn in Scorpio will force you to come to terms with this aspect of human nature in others primarily as you explore ways and means of motivating others with communication. When you communicate things in a certain way, it has a powerful affect to move people to act.

Scorpio also has to do with sexuality primarily because sex is one of the arenas where power issues play out. Many medical procedures resemble sex in that they invade private areas of the body. One must disrobe, etc.

In the case of surgery or medical tests, one person is entirely in the power of the other and this is recreating an imbalance you experienced in early childhood or other lifetimes. That is what makes it so terrifying. Power leaves one in surgery (even anesthetized and motionless). The other has all the power, even mythically the power of life and death.

A History of Misusing Power

Consensual sex between adults is the high road. Other varieties involve too much power on the part of one person and inadequate means of saying “no” on the other. Scenarios like this include sex with children, incest between parents and children, rape, sex perpetrated by ministers, doctors, teachers and others in position of authority or who are supposed to be in a fiduciary capacity.

No one would have Saturn in Scorpio if they hadn’t been through many cycles of having power and misusing it. The only “cure” for Saturn in Scorpio is to get some power and use it wisely. This is the only way you will prove to yourself that you’ve learned your lessons about having power over others.

Personalities with Saturn in Scorpio natal placement

Some of the sexiest women in the world have Saturn in Scorpio, including Marilyn Monroe, Scarlett Johansson, Bar Raefeli, and Katy Perry, while it is more often associated with power in men, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg. Occasionally this defies gender stereotype as in Oprah Winfrey, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel, and Queen Elizabeth II. These are all extremely powerful women with this placement.

Additionally, Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Denzel Washington, and Kevin Costner. All of these are some super sexy men with Saturn in Scorpio. The emotional vulnerability it brings can also give one a great deal of charm and likability, as evidenced by Tom Hanks, Prince Harry, John Travolta, and Keira Knightley.

Marilyn Monroe – Just another sexy female with Saturn in Scorpio

Marilyn Monroe is a good example of someone with Saturn in Scorpio who used the energy of her Saturn Return to make big changes.

Monroe’s childhood is typical of the manipulation and emotional sadness associated with this placement. Monroe was never sure who her father was. Her mother seems to have told her it was one man, while giving her the last name of another whom she listed on the birth certificate. Monroe did not have a relationship with either man. Her mentally unstable mother put the girl in the care of foster parents, only to try to reclaim her years later, and then give her up again. Some biographers have speculated that one of her relatives sexually abused her at his home.

An early marriage, somewhat forced, was ended by Monroe when she was offered a contract with a major studio who did not want a pregnant starlet on their hands. She had her husband served with divorce papers while he was serving in the war.

Monroe faces her Saturn Return

In early 1952, as she was preparing to face her Saturn Return, nude photos of Monroe surfaced. The studio debated how to deal with the scandal when Monroe suggested she simply give an interview explaining she had had to do the photos to pay the rent, thereby compounding her physical exposure with potentially painful emotional revelations.

You might see this as her offering herself up for emotional rape on top of physical exploitation, though it proved to be a saavy move that brought more sympathy than criticism. Playboy used the pictures were used in their new issue and Monroe’s sad childhood became a part of her persona.

The Saturn Return brings Career Success

The actress started getting good acting roles during the years of her Saturn Return (1953 to 1956), culminating in her starring role in Bus Stop in 1956, for which she earned a Golden Globe nomination.

And Relationship Milestone

It was also during this time that Joe DiMaggio began courting her. They married in 1954 and divorced just a few months later. This was just as critical reviews pounded her. The reviews criticized her films and appearances. The critics judged her as “too sexy,” “vulgar,” and in generally bad taste. It’s generally thought that DiMaggio was jealous and resented Monroe’s fame, suspecting she was unfaithful. Her prince put an end to her Cinderella story in less than a year.

Shortly after divorcing DiMaggio, Monroe began dating Arthur Miller. She converted to Judaism to be closer to him and his family, and the couple wanted children. This would have been the happy and intimate domestic life Monroe never had but always wanted – emotional stability and true intimacy at last.

She encouraged Miller during his appearance before the House UnAmerican Activities Commission investigating communism in the arts. And it’s thought that her testimony on his behalf influenced and overturned his contempt conviction. At this time she was also taking classes at The Actors Studio, attempting to leave behind the image of an oversexed bimbo for that of a serious actress married to an acclaimed playwright. Unfortunately, the marriage did not last and Miller divorced Monroe in 1961. She died the next year.

A Painful Saturn Return that led to greater artistic achievements

While the Saturn Return was painful and tumultuous it did lead Monroe to greater achievements as an artist. This includes her iconic performance in Some Like It Hot in 1958. We may never know whether Monroe committed suicide or died of an accidental overdose, but it’s clear she had a deep and sensitive emotional nature, and that she made great strides in trying to deal with the issues everyone with Saturn in Scorpio must face: trust and betrayal, sex, power, and vulnerability.

It’s been reported that Miller was having an affair, which prompted the divorce. I suspect that it was this betrayal that pushed Monroe into the final decline. In that sense, her Saturn Return was only an incomplete success, for while she improved artistically she seems to have failed the essential task of discovering who is worth one’s trust and loyalty.

Steve Jobs — Male Powerful Figure with Saturn in Scorpio

Towards the end of his Saturn Return experience, in 1985, Apple fired Steve Jobs . “The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life,” Jobs explained in a commencement speech at Stanford years later. “I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it.”

It was after Apple pushed him out of the company he founded that he also finally apologized to the woman he impregnated 9 years before. He admitted his paternity and irresponsible behavior towards her and their daughter.  While Jobs climbed the ladder to unimaginable success, the mother of his child waited tables and had to sue her former lover and colleague for child support. During this time, he made up stories and excuses, claiming the paternity test was unreliable.

Also during this time Jobs, an adoptee, made contact with some of his birth family.  The mother of his daughter credits Jobs’ birth sister with aiding in his complete turnaround in regards to his relationship with his daughter and baby mama. Jobs fell in love with his baby’s mother all over again and in 1991. The two finally married in a Buddhist ceremony.

In the aftermath of the firing from Apple because of a power struggle and erratic behavior, Jobs became a success as a film producer (through
Pixar) and returned to Apple about a decade later. While at the helm Apple produced the iPod and then the iPhone. When he died in 2011, Jobs was the epitome of the successful American entrepreneur:  wealthy, powerful, and innovative. The Onion’s headline pretty much says it all: “Last American Who Knew What The Fuck He Was Doing Dies.”

Channeling struggle into legacy

During his Saturn Return Jobs faced painful issues around his personal and professional behavior. Intimacy, sex, procreation, betrayal, and power all were responsible in his challenges. By taking responsibility and bringing his behavior under control, Jobs was able to harness the powerful creative energy available to all people with Saturn in Scorpio to develop strong and meaningful emotional ties and to produce some of the most innovative, life-changing products of the last few decades.

Final Direction for Saturn in Scorpio

If you have behaved erratically, irresponsibly, or cruelly towards others, the Saturn Return will demand you repent. Power struggles and betrayal may have plagued your early years, but by bringing yourself under control, mastering your instincts, and exercising power appropriately (to protect and nurture the ones you love), you can achieve the great power you so keenly desire. Forgive those who have wronged you. They did not deserve your trust. Exert power wisely. Control your temper and emotions. Figure out whom you can trust. Invest your emotions in those who love you. These are the stairs that lead to the pinnacle of power.