February 2023 Saturn will opposite my natal Moon. What is your experience with it? I'm struggling with my family and romantic relationships and I'm sure it will take a few kicks from this transit but besides that? Anything I should be avoiding or doing to make this pass easier? If that's even possible 
I would expect family hardship of some kind. It can give you security fears but at the same time, you're galvanized to take on the burden of sorting it out.
It's also about maturing emotionally. An example would be when a person have to care for their aging parent. It's a burden but also "the right thing to do". You can imagine the effects on a person.
However it manifest, this is the kind of change that comes with this transit. I don't know how old you are but baby clock or menopause also fit this transit. Marking your age, see?
@elsa Thank you! I'm 38, so yes, the baby clock is very loud the last few years, but this summer especially. It's not even biological, it's a pure need, an emotional need to have a child of my own, I like to say, to have a family of my own. My parents died, and I already did the right thing and took care of them. But then there is a relationship with my brother and my sister-in-law, which has been very difficult since last year. Saturn is transiting my 3rd house so I guess, family, brother, it's still on. He is shaking my feeling of security, we share the ownership of the house I'm currently living, our family home. he has his own, but at some point, he will want half of the money, so I'll have to pay him out or sell it. He's very unstable about it, so I don't feel secure enough to believe in what he says or wants.
It started yesterday. I've decided, what will happen it will no matter what I do, but after a few months of researching this transit, I've decided I will fight against those dark feelings the best I can. One thing I noted is, since in December, right before Christmas, my progressed Moon moved from Cap to Aqua, I feel much lighter, better and I like to socialize more that before, it's not such a burden anymore to be near other people, I don't feel like an outcast anymore, or maybe not that much.
@dori What degree is your Moon in Leo Dori? Saturn is moving fairly swiftly (for him!) at the moment so the good news is, no lingering around! I feel like I've turned into a Saturn groupie recently because, well we're intimate at the moment (Taurus Sun 24*) and you do kind of take on Saturn qualities during a transit! I feel about 100 years old.
@sophiab it's at 27*! I feel you, Sophia! Saturn is my mate for life, but Pluto owes me a drink or maybe two. I feel like I'm 100 years old, my soul is old, these last few years really took a toll on you and me both, but we can do it!
A few days ago, I already started to feel that Saturnian pressure, like a heavy weight on my back, nothing really happened, but that feeling, I can recognize it for the far and I felt bad, pressured by my own expectations, life, obligations, emotions, responsibilities really pressured. But then I realized this transit is approaching and for sure there will be some things I won't be able to control, change or avoid, but I don't want to feel like this all the time. I can't. I already carry a lot of burdens, like you said, you feel old. I do too. But if I can free myself from it, just for a day, I will be happy, and grateful.
Yes, once when I was a child and once when I was in my early thirties. I don't remember anything about it regarding my child self, but the later experience was when my boyfriend (now husband) moved into the same house. It was an adjustment, as his brother also lived w/us. By the end of the transit we moved into a place by ourselves.
@dori It's exact at 27 degrees Aqua from 11-18th Feb. So it's building now and max pressure is that week.
Yes, what I've found with the Saturn Aqua component is that your mind is heavily affected, especially in the direction of rigidity, self judgement, self criticism, lack of confidence or lack sense of expansiveness. It's a bit like having a war in your head, and I have to tell the negative voices to shut up, quite loudly and forcefully, every so often. It's an illusion or a distortion of thinking caused by a block in being able to feel a more loving relation to your self (Leo). So it's recognising there is negative distortion happening and consciously applying loving approach to self. Another image I had, take your mind/brain and move it down into your heart space and lovingly hold it. Being near nature helps the monkey mind feeling ease up a bit. You have to go super easy on yourself because you might not be able to do things as normal for a little while, and it's best just to say, well I'll just do whatever I can until it passes.
Hope this helps. Last week was my pressure week, just coming out of it today or tomorrow. Need to check where Saturn is at!
I can speak of the square which I went through recently. Heavy. Painful. Saturn in Aqua was square my moon. It was about family and emotions. It was the first time in my life I think I have suffered what people refer to as depression and I was pushed down, somewhat paralyzed and I cried for a very long time.
I just spoke of this the other day, I think. I remember saying if Pluto square my moon is worse, I cannot imagine how. Like Sophiab says it is a war in your head. It was 100% an inside job. I had to work through it. It even put me in bed. Flat. That wasn't the only thing that was going on. I was dealing with Pluto and Uranus too.
I never want to go through it again. I literally questioned my sanity for about 6 months and there was NO support from anyone. Why? Because I kept it to myself mostly.
@soup 😭 I do debate with myself whether Saturn is a harder experience than Pluto. Glad you got through that time period.
@sophiab Thank you! My birth chart holds my planets on the angles so I get hit hard. 4 in the 4th, moon in opposition. All early degrees. All fixed. I've suffered Pluto. But Saturn square my moon was as bad as anything I've ever gone through. Bad for a year REALLY BAD for 6 months. My husband was very concerned. As as it started to move I could feel the release. Right now I look back and still cannot believe how heavy and painful that energy was. I wasn't prepared for it.
@soup I'm thinking I'm going to have ptsd from this Saturn square Sun transit. Is that even a thing astrologers discuss?! How you have to go into recovery after certain transits.
@sophiab My husband said that! He said not knowing what is wrong with you, I didn't know what to do except Google. He said I think you have PTSD. I'm still trying to recover. Very slow process. Worst transit of my life to date because it's so personal and in your head and painful.... so painful. The residue is still all over me like a bruise that is still there but the color faded. I could write a book about it but not astrologically.... more like the title would be.... that time I almost went crazy! I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy 😭
@sophiab it squared my Venus Sun Neptune Jupiter and MOON.... ONE AT A TIME 😳 The moon was hideous! ...then it came for my Mercury 😳 I wasn't here talking to anyone. I was in the corner eating my own hair 😳 (figure of speech haha) And I live with a man whose Saturn is all over all those planets anyway. It was a Saturn disaster. He has a Capricorn Moon... he's a walking Saturn figure. I'll take Pluto any day. At least I understand Pluto.
@soup Wow, I can see how having a stellium like that leads to critical phases! Yes, I agree, I would take Pluto. The effects of Saturn are so insidious and cruel even. Its always in slow motion so you get broken down over great lengths of time until you're exhausted and barely present. I feel like Pluto is more honest somehow. I think Saturn's effects are very refined, especially on the psyche, and last longterm but the means are really questionable at times!
I hope we're not scaring Dori! @Dori Saturn is moving along with no rx ahead in Aqua. I had the rx on my Sun in the summer so it's been a drawn out affair.
@sophiab I agree. Saturn is cruel. I just got fed up. I thought I kept saying, this is enough, but I was not being heard. This was over a long length of time. I even tried being quiet. I tried to ignore. But there comes a time when you cannot and will not take anymore. What blew it out for me was Mars in Gemini. I have natal Gemini Mars and I blew. I got a bump when Mars went into Gemini, and I needed it.
Enough is enough. I pointed at several people and said... you are an asshole, and I am not going down. I asked you to stop. I tried to ignore you. I am in PAIN. My parents just died. Both in a month. So many things have happened over the last two years, but the parents were the icing on the cake.
People were not allowing my mother to be cremated. Can you imagine this? Oh my God. One swipe. I got up and took one swipe back. It took my mother dying and the cruelty that I was watching. That is when I got back on my feet. I said what I said, and I meant what I said. I still do.
You are broken down over time.
It's always in slow motion so you get broken down over great lengths of time until you're exhausted and barely present.
I agree.
I will tell you this. I have learned to stop sweating the small stuff. I have learned to manage my emotions better. There is no more crying. I mean what I say, and I say what I mean now. One time. I had NO boundaries. None. Especially with people I thought I owed loyalty to. There is not going to be any more of this Saturn pressing me down to nothing. I will stand up to it. I didn't before.
I love my husband so much it's stupid. I would do anything for him. Except take his Aqua rising Cap moon. It is not going to happen. And, I said it. Loud. I mean I stood 10 feet tall and said back off me now. I have had enough. We are great today. Better than we have been in years. He is blowing those Pisces kisses and I am taking care of him as well as I can. We take care of each other. But for that transit, I was being talked to like trash, treated like garbage, being screamed at and being pushed around quite a bit. If I spoke up for myself, he rolled his eyes. And he rolled those eyes one too many times. He was literally talking to me like I never worked a day in my life. I stood up and reminded him of when I out earned, out worked and over gave. I screamed it. (Mars in Gemini mouth) Neither of us have said anything but loving things to each other when I finally said no more and meant it.
Now I know people here see me as intense. But that is just how I write. I have Mercury in Scorpio. If you met me, you would not see it at all ... unless you did something to me.
What I have learned with Saturn in Aquarius and Pluto in Capricorn is to stop over giving. To give an equal amount. I have learned boundaries. I have also learned that I caused it all myself because I allowed it. And I allowed it because of childhood wounds I have never resolved. So, it's on me. I did it. I caused it all. I am sure some of it was karma I needed to feel because of the way I have been in relationships with men in the past. I needed to feel what I may have caused someone else to feel. I don't know this for sure, but I suspect this. So, I deserved to feel that way. You need to know so you can do better.
I won't be taking any shiz again. But I also won't be dishing it out. Straight from the hip. This is what it is, this is who I am. I learned that no is no. I can't do that for you. I also learned I am the age that I am. I have different parameters I am able to work within now. And I can't try to work outside this or apologize for it. It's life. I cannot do what you are expecting me to do. And I am not sorry for that. I can no longer lift that heavy item. I cannot physically do what you are asking me to do, and I can't be sorry for this. I can work out day and night...but that won't make me 30 years old. It won't make anyone 30 years old. It buys you some time and mobility, but this will not stop the aging process. You will get old. And this is a privilege.
Pluto digs and brings things to the surface. Much like I do myself. Pluto will change your whole life. Because you need it to. But Saturn is cold hard and cruel. I am better for it, but I don't want to do it again. I think having three hard hitters at once is a little too much. I say this, but I survived it.
Saturn feels like freaking KARMA. 😳
Dori, don't be afraid of any of the transits. We are all here to learn something from them. You will get through it and be better for it. I am just describing my hellscape haha Yours will be a completely different experience. And Sophiab you describe it perfectly.
I call it prison 😕
@soup Yes, definitely a prison - that might be a strong quality of the square aspect as it plays out as more internal tension or conflict (of course what is happening inside reflects outside!) With the opposition it may be felt more as external factors imposing on the person, but also the diminshment of the Moons qualities temporarily. I do think Saturn in Aqua adds to the cerebral/mental/nervous system nature of the 'prison' experience. There is a rigidity that comes over you, thoughts become more limited, less sense of potentialities, and also prob quite a lot of physical fatigue and anxiety. Difficulty also feeling feelings, desires, the mind dominates. For water signs who use feelings as GPS, this causes considerable difficulties and concern!
I will have Saturn on my Pisces Moon later this year by conjunction, so I'm gearing up for that. However he will trine my water Saturn and Mars (Cancer) and sextile my Sun.
As a watery person, I do think Saturn square my Sun from Aqua has given me the ability to detach more emotionally which in certain areas is very valuable, especially the work field. But also I'm quite clear which of my Taurean ways are essential and I will fight for, not be diminished over, and that is my commitment to love as the guiding source.
I feel you @soup, I had two Saturn-Moon squares when Saturn was in Scorpio. The first one was at the end of 2014, and the second was in the summer of 2015. The first one was something like you described it, I was done with the job I was doing, I was feeling I don't belong there anymore but I was stuck, I couldn't move, I started to have food allergies and the reason why I came on this blog, I started to feel something is not okay with my relationship. I was so in love with him but I could have felt we are going down. And that feeling of being helpless, so lonely, everything seemed hopeless, like it will never stop. After the transit finished, my relationship fall apart, and so did I. I was keeping my head up as much as I could during the square, but when it finished, when the relationship finished two months later, I was shattered in pieces. It took me months to stand up again. But my head, my inner world, just like you described, it was dark. I kept going but I was sad and depressed. I recall it as one of the worse parts of my life, I was completely destroyed. And this morning, when I was reading your and @shopiab's talk, it was so warm and loving and sad, and honest, but on some parts funny tho there is nothing funny about it. And yes, the answer is yes, I do have PTSD from the time when Saturn squared my poor shiny Moon. But, it did make me stronger, I learned just like you, to set boundaries. What you've written is very honest. Yes, life happened to me too, but for some things, it's on me, I let it happen because I had no boundaries. Everyone could do whatever they wanted because I couldn't, didn't know how to say 'No'. I still don't on many occasions, but I'm learning. I never told you, but I'm so very sorry about your parents, I've lost mine too and it hurts like hell. And, that song, from your dad to you by Ray Charles, I listen to it very often and I always think about you. Yes, you are intense, but I love it and I love that about you, you are intense, but you are also very warm, loving, open, and very funny. Pluto destroyed me and made me look at parts of my soul I didn't know I have, parts I didn't want to know, and Saturn is indeed cruel because he will punish you for having that parts and teach you how to be tough and resilient. I don't cry too. No tears left, or very rarely, but no one wants to see that. Oh, who you two made me smile this morning when I saw the talk, it's a hard topic, but I loved it! It's beautiful to know that you have people around the world who are so close to your heart, to know, you have your people 😊
@sophiab no, don't worry. it's good that already I know it's coming and that I know it's going to be challenging. Pluto is changing and transforming, and Saturn is striking where it hurts and makes you learn, like it or not.