Saturn and the Descent into Manifestation

Saturn represents the lowest point of manifested existence: the bottom, the ordinary, the average, the common, the neglected, the discarded and everything brought down by time. The Sun stands at the centre of the universe while Saturn stands at the periphery. The Sun is the king; Saturn is the servant. The Sun gives distinction and individual identity; Saturn rules workers, the masses and group identity. The Sun signifies vitality and youth; Saturn old age and deterioration. The Sun gives dignity, confidence and authority; Saturn gives humiliation, doubt and subjection.

Saturn in the adversary, the opposition, the obstruction, the one who wrestles with god, with truth. Saturn in the condemned man, the hang man, the contrarian, the one who says no.
From a philosophical perspective the Sun can be described as Sat–Cit–Ānanda, Ultimate Truth, Consciousness & Bliss. Saturn is the inversion of this. Instead of the certainty of being, Saturn confronts us with deterioration and mortality. Instead of the spontaneity and luminosity of consciousness, Saturn gives darkness, tamas, heaviness, dullness and unconscious repetition. Instead of bliss, Saturn gives suffering, sorrow, deprivation, loneliness and dissatisfaction.

Saturn describes what conditioned existence feels like when the underlying reality of Sat–Cit–Ānanda has become completely obscured. Instead of every lasting Truth we are caught in Maya and mortality; a whole universe of Maya lies and manipulation where everything comes to an end. Instead of the light of pure Consciousness we experience darkness, confusion and inertia; instead of Bliss and we see the truth recognized by the Buddha that life is suffering, sickness, old age and death.

Saturn is exploitation, everything we don’t want to do, but we have to do it anyways. He is our mistakes and the consequence, especially the unintended consequences. He is the karmic residue left over from every action, the remainder, the spillage, the mess that still has to be cleaned up, the overlooked and unseen consequences that remain after everyone else has gone home.

The Signs of Saturn: Capricorn and Aquarius

Capricorn — The Battlefield, Sacrifice, the Meat Grinder and the lowest common denominator. Capricorn reduces everything to the lowest common denominator; uniformity; loss of personality or originality; nothing unique survives. It makes everything the same size, shape and colour. It is scarcity, hierarchy, labour and necessity. There are objectives to be achieved and prices that must be paid. The person themselves is expendable cannon fodder. The individual life is subordinated to something larger: king, country, army, border, ideology, future generations. Hierarchy determines who receives the benefit and who bears the cost. Capricorn chops all meat and the vegetables for the stew; its the meat grinder.

Aquarius — The Cauldron, Muck and nothingness. Aquarius is the cauldron into which it’s all thrown; the place where differentiated forms are reduced to a common substance. Individuality is dead and decaying and almost ready to nourish the next generation. Regenerative though it may be, it’s a place of dirt and decay, sewage, wastage, rot, decomposition. It’s the lowest of the low, but it’s also the mud from which the lotus blooms, the fertilizer from which life grows. Saturn dissolves the distinction until individuality becoming collective fertility; Saturn preserves the material continuity.

Saturn as Contracted Consciousness

In many respects, Saivism is the philosophy of Saturn as it idealizes solitude, contemplation, simplicity, patience, discipline, humility, detachment, acceptance of impermanence, and the loss of false ego; all higher functions of Saturn. In many ways Saturn is naked and vulnerable

Saturn is the experience of consciousness (Shiva) in contracted (concealed) form. Contracted consciousness that no longer recognizes its identity with the Divine and experiences itself as incomplete and limited. Saturn is that limited being who thinks “I am only this”: this body, this job, this social position, this wealth, this generation. I am my suffering. I am the sum of my actions, the sum of my karma. All of this limited thinking is Saturn. Saturn doesn’t experience himself as universal agency or absolute freedom; he experiences being trapped in a set of circumstances under which he must act.

Mala, Maya & Karma

Āṇava mala is the primordial contraction whereby the unlimited Self experiences itself as the aṇu, the small or limited individual. Saturn reduces, contracts, narrows, defines with boundaries, limits. The infinite becomes finite. The universal becomes particular. Anavala mala is often compared to original sin; the defilement of duality.

Karma mala: Karma is action performed from the standpoint of the contracted individual, producing consequences that condition further action. Work produces consequence. Consequence requires more action. Action creates circumstances. Circumstances constrain future action. And the wheel keeps turning. Yesterday’s actions create today’s obligations, and today’s obligations determine what we must do tomorrow.

Māyā is followed by the five limiting coverings or kañcukas, through which unlimited divine capacities appear contracted in the individual. Saturn is the lived experience of the limited being, the contracted consciousness.

Kāla is limitation through time. Universal consciousness is not fundamentally imprisoned in chronological time; but the contracted being experiences existence sequentially. There is a past that cannot be changed, a future that has not arrived, aging, waiting, deadlines and death. Saturn doesn’t just represent time, he represents what it feels like to be subjected to time.

Niyati is limitation through order, necessity and circumstance. It’s through niyati that Saturn says, I have to do this, I have to work, I have to care for my parents, take care of the kids, make money, survive. These are the circumstances into which we have been placed that we cannot wish them away.

Kalā is limited agency. Infinite power of action is reduced to the capacity to perform only particular actions. Instead of “I can do anything,” consciousness experiences “this is what I am capable of doing.” These are the tools I have. These are the choices available to me.

Vidyā is limited knowledge. Universal knowing becomes knowing this but not that. The individual becomes specialized, partial and dependent upon others. Nobody knows the whole system; we just know our little piece of it.

Rāga arises from the experience of incompleteness that produces desire. Saturn does not necessarily signify the desire itself, but he corresponds strongly with the experience beneath it: lack, scarcity and the feeling that something is missing. I don’t have enough. I am not enough. Something must be acquired before I can finally be complete.

Svātantrya: Freedom and Constraint

The great paradox of Shaivism is the relationship between svātantrya, absolute freedom, sovereignty or autonomous power of Consciousness versus the ordinary experience of constraint (Saturn). Śiva says, “I am free to act.” Saturn says, “I have to act.” Yet Trika ultimately refuses to place constraint outside Śiva’s freedom. Even limitation occurs within free Consciousness. From the standpoint of the contracted individual, Saturn’s limitations are painfully real. From the standpoint of Śiva, even limitation is an appearance within unlimited Consciousness.

This begins to explain Saturn’s relationship with hell. Hell is the separation from god, from spirit and from our true nature. Saturn is the furthest planet away from the great giver of life and light. Hell begins when consciousness completely identifies itself with its contracted condition and forgets its freedom. The prisoner no longer merely says, “I am in prison.” He says, “I am the prisoner.”

The Śiva Sūtras begin with the declaration: Consciousness is the Self. We can become completely convinced that we are the identities, circumstances and limitations accumulated around us, but none of them exhausts what we actually are.

The Śaivite Response to Saturn

The Śaivite therefore has a peculiar relationship with Saturn. He becomes free not necessarily by escaping Saturn’s conditions, but by willingly entering many of them. He cultivates patience and discipline. He accepts decay and mortality. He willingly suffers the hardships of tapas. He may abandon wealth, family, social position and the ordinary pleasures of life. He steps outside respectable society, dresses simply, accepts obscurity and takes responsibility for himself. He develops the discipline to repeat japa and the names of God thousands upon thousands of times. What looks like Saturnian repetition from the outside becomes sādhana from within. The Śaivite deliberately travels toward the bottom because he wants to discover whether Śiva is there too.

The Shiva of cremation grounds is Bhairava, ash covered, wearing a garland of skulls (connecting him with Kali in subtle ways). He rejects respectable society is associated with ghosts & goblins and beings respectable society rejects. He destroys karma and gives final liberation. He severs attachment to self and individual identity. He inhabits wilderness and cremation grounds places that naturally involve the sacred. The Aghore embraces humiliation, poverty, solitude, exclusion and death; everything that society finds revolting, repulsive. All the traps and snares of Saturn or the devil are taken in stride, without judgement. By Shaivism, Shiva is present in everything; duality, karma, Maya, this magic and illusion of this sensory world; none of this establishes an absence of Consciousness. Shiva is present everywhere, in everything.; even after everything is stripped away, Shiva is there. The experience of bondage, necessity, fear, guilt and shame all take place within shivas domain of svatantrya. It Saturn who strips all of this away to find out what we are really made of, who are we really. If all that is left in the end is Shiva, then Shiva is the truth, the life force that rides the waves of pranic life force.

Satan: The Adversary and Accuser

The word Satan comes from Hebrew śāṭān, essentially “adversary” or “accuser.” The Greek word diabolos is one who divided, accuse or slanders. In the Book of Job, ha-satan, the accuser, the adversary, appears in God’s heavenly court.

Lucifer was God’s greatest angel, became proud, rebelled, was thrown into hell, and now rules hell with his demons. He is also known as the tempter, the evil one, the ancient serpent and the dragon. He is not typically made out to be the king of hell, he is in the lake of fire the same as the other non-believers.

He challenges Job’s righteousness by saying, “Of course Job loves you. You’ve protected him and made him prosperous. Take everything away and see what he’s really made of.” God permits the test, within limits. Job loses his children, possessions and health. Through Job we see that part of Lucifer’ job is to test our faith in and love of God. It’s easy to love God when he gives us everything, but after we loose it all, can we still love God.

But First Peter also describes the Devil as prowling around seeking someone to devour. The temptation narratives have Satan active in the world, tempting Jesus. Revelation depicts his expulsion and eventual final defeat; it also describes him as the deceiver of the whole world. Deception, accusation, division, temptation seem to be the main tasks he performs in the Bible. Modern folk culture does see him much more like a. Zroba the Greek sort of fellow ruling over hell like some kind of king.

Revelations describes a war in heaven in which Michael and his angels fight the dragon. The dragon, identified as Satan, is defeated and thrown down to earth with his angels.
Isaiah mocks the king of Babylon and describes a figure fallen from heaven, traditionally rendered in Latin as Lucifer, “morning star/light-bearer.” Lucifer became a name for Satan through the Christian interpretation of Isaiah’s fallen morning star. From modern perspective, Lucifer didn’t even do any thing that sounds that bad, he just remained proud, he refused to maintain a proper relationship with the creator, he rebelled against established order. And for that he was cast into hell for an eternity.

Hell: Separation from God

Saturn is the hell we can’t escape from, a feeling of isolated confinement, darkness, cold, repetitive, hopeless, soulless, bound to servitude like a draft animal and passing time that moves painfully slow. It’s neglect, forgotten by society, placed at the bottom of a hierarchy, picked last every time and forced to endure circumstances we cannot do anything about. Saturn is the tolerable misery we endure every day for years.

For Catholics, hell is not necessarily a remedial institution designed to improve someone. It’s the final consequence of freely and definitively rejecting communion with God. It’s the chief punishment, eternal separation from God. We get one chance (this life) to accept or realize gods eternal love; and if we don’t get it this life, we will suffer and eternity in hell. Though they are clear that God predestines nobody to hell. We should be clear that in Christianity, heaven is essentially communion with the divine, while hell is the separation form the divine. The Eastern Orthodox explanation is somewhat more nuanced, and perhaps closer to the Shaiva perspective in that God does not cease being present to those in hell. Rather, everyone encounters the same divine presence. For those who love God, that presence is paradise; for those who reject God, the same presence is experienced as hell.
We get a good lesson in this that seems to transcend religions. The transcendental divine is ever present, what changes is the way we experience the divine. We are free, but our experience is limited, just as the expression within duality is limited. And many paths of theology seek to counter the assumption that God can only be encountered in purity, power, comfort and social respectability. Instead they suggest that it might be easier to find God in the most impure and unconventional places.

Christ: God Descends into the Lowest Condition

For a Christian, redemption comes hen one accepts the lord Jesus Christ into their heart, and that Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and through that, he offered us everlasting life. Christian doctrine says that humanity is redeemed specifically through Christ’s incarnation, suffering, death and resurrection; he destroys death from within. The transcendent Father is not hanging on the cross; Jesus, the version of God that took human form, that was born and died on the cross. He wanders, embraces poverty, associates with outcastes and is rejected by respectable authorities. He is humiliated, stripped, beaten, tortured and executed alongside criminals and his body is put into a tomb. Christianity’s redemption occurs because God descends into the lowest human condition. And, when It’s all done, Jesus descends into Hades after his death; after his victory over death. It’s all divinity, from top to bottom; from mount Kailash to cremation ground.

We might note several other Saturn themes highlighted in the the stories of Jesus, even before he is publicly shamed by carrying his own cross to his own execution, he rode into Jerusalem no the back of a donkey. This man meant business, he wandered, lived in poverty, travelled widely, bathed in holy rivers, spent time alone in nature, stood up to authority, lies and corruption.

Saturn and the Hell of Ordinary Life

Saturn is the work and duties that suck the soul out you and makes you into a robot, assigns you a number, depersonalizes and objectifies you. Saturn is all the work performed to build and maintain a kingdom while the Sun, the king, gets the credit. You know that feeling you get when you think that anyone in the world could replace you and it wouldn’t matter, when people just don’t see you, like really see you for you. Saturn doesn’t care about you; who the hell do you think you are anyways? Saturn reduces human life to consequence, necessity, function and repetition.

This is what work becomes for many people. It appears pointless, perhaps even destructive, devoid of meaning and performed largely to pass time. One feels sentenced to drudgery by social pressure, fear of poverty, responsibility toward others, sacrifice for the future or simply necessity: it has to be done. Saturn is the sacrifice. He is the mess that remains after the celebration, the bill that arrives after the pleasure, the maintenance required after construction, the shadow cast by the Sun. Saturn is the karma that tells us there are no other choices today: this is the work in front of you, whether you like it or not.

The Redemptive Face of Saturn

The redemptive qualities of Saturn are vast: suffering, poverty, humility, service, sacrifice, fasting, celibacy, obedience, solitude, bearing ones own cross, renunciation of ego and possessions, contemplating death, enduring persecution. Satan wants suffering to separate the person from God. Saturn represents the conditions of suffering, deprivation and consequence themselves. The Śaivite enters those same conditions looking for what cannot be taken away.

What Remains?

When Saturn strips a person of family, wealth, position, respect and certainty; when someone reaches the darkest moment of life with almost nothing left to lose; when life has been reduced to little more than survival, an ordinary person may succumb to despair, sorrow and meaninglessness. But the Śaivite looks for Śiva at the end of the rope. Take everything away. What remains? Who remains? Some find themselves in hell. Others discover that they have arrived in Śiva’s domain.