I have Saturn transiting Pluto in the 2nd house, and I have been wondering how my Pluto in Libra generation is dealing with this particular combination. Many people around my age are going through the same difficult transit. Saturn and Pluto are planets that have a lot do to with our shadow material, and their placements in our natal chart reveal a lot about what we keep repressed, hidden, inhibited and bottled up. Astrologer Liz Greene believes that anything which casts light also casts a Shadow, and if you pick up her book Astrology for Lovers there is a rundown of all the shadow sides of each of the 12 signs. Though, for this topic, I am specifically talking about Saturn and Pluto, and these planets are associated with death, depression, self-destruction and loss.

Obviously dealing with terms like shadow material, ego and self are all very Jungian expressions. Jungian astrology and indeed psychological astrology deal with the horoscope in a completely different way. Human beings have the capacity to throw all sorts of the Self out into the environment, and we use the term ‘projection’ to describe energies we do not always recognize within ourselves. Rather than talk about our shadow selves it is so much easier for many astrologers to talk about Jupiter or Uranus in the horoscope because these planets give us hope for the future. Jupiter rules our inner faith and trust in life, and we believe good things can happen to us. If  we observe the transits of Uranus in our chart we see that this planet helps us come unstuck from any kind of self-limiting hole that we are having great difficulty in freeing ourselves from. Conversely, Saturn is often linked with ‘bad luck’, fear of the future, and it leaves us terribly frightened of taking any sort of ‘risk’ in life which may leave us feeling nothing but humiliated. We astrologers will use some nice platitudes when discussing Saturn and we call him the ‘great teacher’ and taskmaster, and that in years to come he will be the teacher that we most respect, but not the one we necessarily like the most. Saturn will structure our life and holds the key to our real sense of freedom, etc, etc....

From my basic understanding of shadow material it contains everything that the ego refuses to develop. Robert Bly talked a lot about this in A Little Book of the Human Shadow; he saw the shadow as a bag that we carry around with us stuffed with all the parts of our personality that our parent’s/caretakers found undesirable/unacceptable and rejected. Bly believes it’s not until we get to 35-40 years or so before we start taking things out of the bag. Our shadow represents the parts of ourselves that we feel are too unattractive, awkward and unformed to show the world, and so we shut them away in a dark cupboard. It’s a very curious thing our shadow, and its also prone to compensation, so Saturn in astrology represents the part of our life where we might try super hard to show how capable we are, and how self-confident we feel, even if inside we feel completely inadequate.

We can also examine Saturn in relation to projection in the astrology chart. Take for instance Saturn through the elements and houses of the horoscope. Saturn in the Air signs or the air houses may have insecurities around their intellectual abilities, and they may project these fears on to other people and have a strong dislike for those who are smart, or even scatter brains. Some with Saturn in the fire signs or houses may lack self-confidence and suppress their individuality and therefore feel resentful of those people who are ‘loud’ or show off and have no problem with being individual. It doesn’t mean it will necessarily work this way, and the shadow is a difficult thing to recognise, but we have to look at something in our personality which is undeveloped. Our shadow sides may not necessarily fall on other people. Saturn or Pluto in the 9th house may project hatreds of all kinds onto religions, beliefs and creeds.

Saturn can bring about fears of anything which involves change and if the planet is transiting or placed natally in the sign of Taurus or the 2nd house the individual may fear losing what he possesses or material failure. Saturn in Cancer or in the 4th house may fear emotional isolation, or Saturn in Leo or the 5th house may fear never being noticed, not creating anything that others will appreciate and of being unloved. Saturn in Aquarius or the 11th house has a fear of being different and being rejected from the group.

We usually associate Pluto with growth, change and - transformation. Transformation is a BIG word to throw about lightly. And from my personal experience this is something which is very hard to achieve, and not something which happens over-night. As much as Pluto rules change in our horoscope it also represents the part of our personality that is blocked. Pluto’s placement in our chart is where we are frightened to let go, and where we have a terrible fear of death and loss in any part of our lives involving this sphere of life. Of course without some form of death there would be no new life forming. Pluto is known as the house-cleaner of the zodiac and is quite ruthless about what needs to go. As you all know, I have been reading the Astrology of Fate and this planet is said to have 'absolute knowledge' of what we need for individual growth. Though it might not be something we would willingly choose in our life. The essence of Pluto involves everything that is hidden, unseen, invisible, and recognizing our own darkness and apparent destructiveness is a frightening thing to face.