Saturn and Injustice

InjusticeI recently came upon the idea that a person’s rigidity is a mask for the wound of injustice. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. I have been encountering a lot of rigidity in my life, some from other people, but much of it in myself. And as I ponder this idea, I am finding more and more truth in it.

Rigidity, of course, would be Saturn energy. And this makes perfect sense. Saturn is exalted in Libra, which rules justice and fairness. Saturn’s affinity for authority, consequence, and comeuppance works best in a system in which everything is fair and justice is a given. But what happens when this isn’t the case?

When we receive the wound of injustice, it cuts so deeply. More than a personal slight or betrayal, injustice causes us to not only have to confront the fallout of our pain, but the horrible prospect that the very world as we know it is upside down. We have the pain of the initial wound, but also the pain of realizing that our wound just doesn’t matter. That the system was not designed for us. That the structures we believed were holding us together are actually tearing us apart. We have to tend to our pain while also remaking our worldview from the inside out.

That is the kind of wound that gapes and gapes until it threatens to swallow us whole. So it only makes sense that we become rigid. When Saturn can’t express itself as reasonable, logical consequence, it must instead express itself as a fortress that protects our vulnerability from the cruelty of the world. Think about the way Saturn looks, with its layers upon layers of protective rings surrounding a soft, vulnerable core. That is what we all look like when we confront injustice.

Where Saturn is in your chart provides good clues for where you are most prone to having this happen. Having Saturn in the 8th, my rigidity comes in the form of hardline stances about power imbalance and uneven energy exchange. If someone in a position of power is taking advantage of another person, particularly in intimate ways, it is very, very difficult for me to look at it on a case by case basis. I have to put real effort into not simply painting with a broad brush and refusing to consider any shades of gray. This is because of my own experience with unfairness and injustice in this arena.

The only way I’ve been able to get a handle on it is by allowing the wound to get air and daylight. We build these walls and become rigid in order to protect ourselves, but also to keep the wound from coloring our perspective forever. We get tired of living in that pain and want to close the book on it. But by building walls, we are giving it more power. We are giving our pain further opportunities to hurt us by driving a wedge into our hearts and closing us off from other people. We are continuing to exist in a way that is defined by the injustice we’ve experienced.

As much as we feel we need protection, we also need freedom. Walled in our rigid fortress, we make ourselves prisoners to our pain. It is only when we let ourselves be free again that we are truly able to experience the healing we seek. To be wounded and keep on living, to be cut down at the knees and still manage to live a great, beautiful, empowered life? That sounds like justice to me.

Have you been wounded by injustice? Where is your Saturn?

21 thoughts on “Saturn and Injustice”

  1. I have Saturn in the 8th too and this description totally resonates. It never occurs to me to doubt the victim in sexual assault cases, for instance. In my own life, I definitely have seen and been wounded by uneven energy exchange. I’ve built strong boundaries over the years and there are certain ones I’ve just come to accept as a part of me. With my Saturn being conjunct Neptune, it’s been tough to do that…but I also know that I can choose to dissolve a boundary if it feels right. The point is, I am my own authority on these issues.

  2. Woooo! Wonderful tangent!
    I’m Cap rising with Capricorn Saturn in the 12th right behind my ASC (but exactly conjunt Uranus too so it’s a bit augmented.)

    Rigidity in two forms I can think of right now – against myself, closing myself off from my own source because it was denied externally growing up. I wound up also fearing it and presently, a couple years past my first saturn return I’m working my way inward to build an empowering Saturn – healthy structures and connections to my 12th.
    The other rigidity is towards others chaos. It’s strange because on the one hand I can handle other people’s chaos, but I know it’s not mine so when people identify with that chaos as if its all they are and are not working towards integrating it I get triggered and go into advice mode or rigid don’t talk to me about it…

  3. I have Saturn in the fourth. My wound centre’s around being raised in a cold, stern, heartless home. I have made sure my home is the opposite; full of love, music and emotional warmth. I have the belief that children are truly a gift from god and deserve to be brought into the world for the sole purpose to be loved. It offends me when people breed for the wrong reasons eg selfish gain of some sort.

    I also view my home as my sanctuary and do not allow anyone and everyone in it. If I get to know you and you are of sound character, you are welcome. My brother in law once wanted to to bring his newly met girlfriend to my house one Xmas. To his horror, I said no under the premise, that he barely even knew her, and I’m not comfortable having a stranger in my home. She left him after Xmas together with the money she stole from his wallet. My rigidity pays off and protects me.

  4. This post brings comfort and broader understanding of my situation. It’s second Saturn return time for me. That coupled with a difficult Saturn in my solar return and natal Saturn in Capricorn in the 6th have brought immense challenges from the legal system these past months. My daily life and work have been adversely impacted. What is legal is not always moral. Cookie cutter justice serves society poorly. That rigidity is the icky side of Saturn. Individual circumstances do matter. One size does not fit all.

    Thanks for the reminder that Saturn is exalted in Libra. That’s the ideal. Reality ?? That’s another matter.

  5. This is right on for me too. Saturn in Virgo in the 9th :: injustice of teachers.

    There are quite a few of these over the years (spiritual teachers, writing teachers in particular) and quite a few places where I have hardened myself. It is quite something to see the lineup. Great post!

  6. Saturn in 8th house, Libra, conjunct Pluto.

    The next 4 years while Pluto is also finishing up the Cap transit, these areas will be a particular area of interest (read: Action) in my life. From the 12th house with an Aquarius Asc on 2 degrees, the square will probably kill off some dead relationships and transform.

    4 planets in Scorpio, 3 in the 8th house.
    They say it’s about “Death, sex and transformation” in the 8th 😉
    I tend to agree – but from the 12th it’s like having your tail feathers on fire, and to some degree feel the burn – but not being able to see ’em and douse them, before they manifest in outer life as… you guessed it, unfairness (Libra) from authority figures (Saturn/Cap). And to a deathly degree, because Pluto is involved.

    I expect to be reborn with a BOOM! 😉

  7. Yes, sounds true. I’ve been dealing with injustice at work. It took me about a year of counseling to get beyond rigid or stage 2, complaining. Now I’m working for freedom. Fellow Saturn in the 8th!

    1. Me too, Venusfly… Progressed Saturn/Pluto has moved to the progressed 6th house, so I am dealing with a lot of injustice in my work place. And as the progressions is not the quickest to leave, it will probably follow me some years.

      I know the only way to be is to set up boundaries to what I will accept – otherwise it will continue to haunt me and look me into the face. I need firmer boundaries, but it’s hard to set these with the Saturn-Pluto constallation to be honest, because when it’s your boss – how can you fight injustice and at the same time not let yourself get kicked out from the work place?

      Pluto wants to tear down, Saturn wants to build up. They are always in a squabble! *tired*

  8. Saturn in the 10th of the workplace and reputation. While my conservative persona and tact have brought me much, I never received the rewards or recognition that I felt were due. Only by working for myself did I achieve lasting and deep self esteem as I received positive client feedback and entrepreneurial awards. I shared my experiences with an audience at business conferences. (I used to hate doing corporate presentations!) While in corporate, I had someone else’s costly mistakes pinned on me and had to work hard to clear my name. I DO have my Sun opposing Saturn from the 4th.

  9. I have natal Scorpio Pluto on tail end of first house and Scorpio Saturn/Moon in 2nd house. I live and breathe in injustices for the first 30 years of life. I’ve suffered almost every poison and loss given to me by other human beings. The worst one with being devalued and discarded like trash. I had nothing to show for the jobs and relationships that I worked so hard for. We’re talkin decades of work that resulted in absolutely nothing! No promotion. No pay raise. No commitment. No reward. Sometimes you gotta study all the poisons in order to find the antidotes! So my Scorpio Saturn built a strong foundation and money-making empire off of feeling like trash. My current occupation of transformational coaching has been helping people get out of trash mindsets,miserable lives with miserable partners/jobs…and into a more happier and healthier life. At the time when I was kicking starting my business financially, I was working at a retail job part-time to fund operational costs. My arrogant mysoginist supervisor had natal Scorpio Pluto conjunct my natal Scorpio Saturn. It was psychological warfare 24/7 because I wasn’t behaving like all the other typical gals that he easily manipulates on a daily basis. Majority of the time it’s to manipulate girls to have sex with him. I was an expert at toxic manipulative ppl and I ignored all tactics and just didn’t care. It infuriated him. since he couldn’t control me, he tried to control how everyone viewed me. There was a multitude of injustices thrown at me. He was trying to tear down everything about me and it was equivalent to watching a toddler throw a tantrum. I still didn’t care. My Scorpio Saturn was too solid. An enraged toddler cannot knock down a seasoned and experienced toxicologist ?? I have my own venom
    and it’s for defending everything that I built!

  10. I suppose my ideals can be rigid. I had never thought of Saturn as ridged before but that makes sense! My Saturn is in the 1st in Sag. I used to sound like I was an authority on everything I held up as an ideal, and got internally frustrated when some disbelieved in whatever it was I was trying to pontificate about. But now, I learned that ideals are a human construct and change as society changes too. So I don’t try to push any more.

  11. A chinese astrologer told me that Id never have a mentor (which is tough as a chiropractor and chinese medicine practitioner, to not be guided in a lineage). Ive never let myself get close to teachers or gurus, something in me violently rejects and recoils from them…could all this be my saturn in cap in 9th?

  12. I have Saturn in the 5th (Libra), conjunct my sun and Neptune in a grand cross chart. I learned early that I get away with nothing, even when others do, and that the world is often unfair. Built the fortress over the first 21 years of life, then segued into a spiritual foundation that I nurtured over the next 40 years, and which in turn nurtured me. I have been able to mostly dismantle the fortress over that time but it’s an ongoing job. Astrology has been a godsend in understanding the lay of this land and working positively with it.

  13. Saturn(aquarius) in 1st house square mercury, venus, mc, pluto. Yes, mostly by authorities in various institutions. In these categories there are some exceptions who haven’t been unfair. I had a conversation with someone from one of these places, who told me today that my situation was very unfair and that I was treated badly by those who could have helped me years ago, instead they made it all worse. When someone belongs to it, so they have an interest to not shit on whatever happens in there- and they tell you- an outsider than you’ve been treated badly, it makes you think. ‘As much as we feel we need protection, we also need freedom. Walled in our rigid fortress, we make ourselves prisoners to our pain. It is only when we let ourselves be free again that we are truly able to experience the healing we seek. To be wounded and keep on living, to be cut down at the knees and still manage to live a great, beautiful, empowered life? That sounds like justice to me.’ This was the most compelling paragraph I’ve read in months, thank you for writing this!

  14. I have Mars/Saturn conjunction Leo 8th house … the length of time served/punishment endured is what makes it feel so unjust. I’m an upstanding law abiding citizen, hard worker, everything society dictates us to be, that’s why I find it hard.

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