The caveman shrinking in terror from the sound of thunder and lightning in the dead of night knew nothing about the fear he was feeling and the modern-day stockholder recoiling in horror and dread as share prices plunge on Wall Street is just as ignorant.
Yet, back of their fear lies a biological heritage as long as life upon Earth; a heritage as old as that cold yellow orb in the sky now recognized as the planet Saturn. And such knowledge, grounded in a proper linking of biology, psychology and astrology, is the soundest of all foundations upon which to base a better type of human conduct.
Fear is a hindrance but when you know (1) its source within yourself; (2), when it will be stimulated into activity; and (3) how to divert its expression into constructive channels you will possess knowledge that you can apply to make your life more spiritual, more successful and way more happier.
I’m talking about Saturn in your birth chart but before tracing the origin and biological function of the thoughts, actions and events which statistical astrological research now relate conclusively to Saturn, you need to know that the thoughts and desires it rules, and the thoughts and desires related to each of the nine planets, can express either destructively or constructively.
And while you can’t convert Saturn thoughts and desires into Mars thoughts and desires, it is no great task, with correct knowledge, to divert the destructive expression of the thoughts and desires ruled by it, or any other planet, into their constructive expression.
Saturn in your birth chart rules your safety thought-elements and the desires associated with them. As your safety urges, they express painfully as fear, greed, envy, grief, worry and extreme self-centeredness. They express pleasantly as careful planning, system, order, perseverance, elimination of waste, and willingness to do hard work.
Their painful expression is accompanied by (1) thoughts and behavior that attracts loss and disappointment into your life and detracts from efficiency; and (2) glandular reactions which, if repeated regularly, afflict your body. But their pleasant expression is accompanied by none of these destructive effects.
And it is possible, with proper knowledge, to divert the desires ruled by Saturn into channels that are entirely constructive. You can learn how to divert the energies that once tended to express fear and worry into system, perseverance and hard work.
Self-preservation is Nature’s first law and this acknowledges that the behavior associated with the Saturn-ruled desire for survival cannot be prevented from finding some expression. (Neuroscience claims it’s hardwired into the brain.)
Safety is essential for survival
All life-forms are beset with dangers. The ability to escape from enemies, avoid harmful conditions, and provide for security is essential if individuals are to survive. If they don’t make it through the period of immaturity, because the safety urges are not sufficiently insistent, they leave no offspring.
The very first living cell down to the complex surviving species, plants and animals that have lived to propagate their kind have all had within themselves a strong desire for safety.
Life-forms that were unable to respond to Saturn’s vibrations became extinct, and every plant or creature on Earth today has inherited from all its ancestors back to the very beginning of organic life, considerable ability to receive and express the energies picked up from Saturn.
Even in the mineral kingdom it is found that a metal gives a spasmodic flutter when brought in contact with oxalic acid.
Sensitive plants shrink when touched, and the growing leaf moves so that it’s under surface is kept away from the direct rays of the Sun.
Deer flee when pursued by wolves and squirrels and bees store food for winter; and safety thought-elements, mapped by Saturn in your birth chart, were built into your astral body through safety experiences while your soul was associated with lower forms of life.
Laboratory psychologists find that when an amoeba comes in contact with a drop of acid it reluctantly retreats; but the same single-celled primitive animal if repeatedly brought in contact with the acid moves away from it more and more swiftly.
Through experience it learns to fear this injurious substance and to respond in its presence to the vibrations of Saturn.
It is through feeling that lower creatures tune in on Saturn’s planetary energies more readily than they did before, and their continued responsiveness to the planet’s vibration adapts them to pick up more and more of its energies.
Catch or be caught
Animal life lives from other plant or animal life. And as this alimentiveness aka instinct to find food and eat expanded to develop creatures more and more able to respond to the vibrations of Mars, other forms of life in order to survive had to move more quickly.
Predatory creatures acquired speed of pursuit; and creatures preyed upon were called upon to acquire greater and greater ability to mobilize their energies to make very quick get-aways. Slowness, and lack of ability to concentrate powerful energies for immediate action, reduced their chances of survival.
This competition of catch or be caught, of kill or be killed, between the ability to use the energies of Mars and Saturn, developed among mammals two little glands which, because they each sit like a cocked hat astride one of the kidneys, are called adrenal glands.
It is their function when stimulated by a real or imaginary emergency, in which the emotions relating to the destructive thoughts of either Mars or Saturn are present, to mobilize the forces of the body for instant and quick action.
The fight or flee response
The thought of fear or anger, worry or irritation, greed or lust, generates an electric discharge which follows a nerve from the brain directly to the adrenal glands. Adrenalin pours into the blood stream causing highly complex reactions which put the body immediately on a footing to fight or run away.
What a creature does depends upon whether the images before its attention are of combat or fear. If they are the Saturn type, the emergency is met by using the mobilized forces to seek safety.
To support emergencies – like fleeing and enemy – fuel must be present in abnormal quantities and sugar, which has been stored in the liver for emergency situations, is released into the blood and digestion and other activities of the alimentary canal cease.
To prevent a predator, or feared opponent, getting a good grip a creature’s skin becomes moist and greasy and its hair stands erect. To frighten its attacker away, its pupils dilate; to prevent bleeding, if injured, its blood tends to clot more quickly; and to give the maximum speed and strength in the organs of flight, blood is squeezed from the liver and spleen and diverted to the limbs.
Such instant mobilization of blood, fuel and electrical energy when a danger presented itself was a decided advantage to any creature not having the power to reason and plan.
Its instant and violent reaction to fear enabled it to live in an environment filled with dangers, and its instant and violent reactions to the feeling of greed enabled it to maintain itself in a region of dearth where other creatures starved.
It’s also observed that wild animals, unlike civilized humans, turn their attention promptly to other things as soon as danger has passed.
Follow deer or quail or other game that have sped away in terror after being shot at by hunters – indicating that powerfully organized Saturn safety thought-elements within their unconscious minds have triggered a whole-body adrenalin mobilization on a flight basis – and within half an hour or less you will find them feeding nonchalantly, or attending to other affairs in a manner that indicates the danger is no longer before their attention.
Even cavemen, once the thunder and lightning had ceased, were altogether preoccupied with the chase to find food. They harbored fears only when danger was actually present.
It’s because wild animals experience the emotion of fright at infrequent intervals that their glands and internal organs suffer no great damage from the strain.
Even when a progressed aspect to Saturn builds an aerial across a creature’s astral body, indicating it’s picking up an unusual volume of safety planetary energy that’s stimulating and giving power to mental images of fear or greed, its nervous system is so dull that it tunes in on such feelings incompletely.
Your fears and anxieties present a problem
But as humans became more civilized and learned more and more to use their brains, their nervous systems became more and more refined and more and more responsive to mental images. And the emotions arising from such mental images, in proportion to the increased delicacy and sensitiveness of the nervous system, tuned it to pick up, more and more completely and in large volume, corresponding planetary energies.
Your physical body can handle the strain of mobilization to meet a real or imaginary emergency in response to fear occasionally. But anxiety and worry present an almost endless train of fear images that tune your nervous system to pick up discordant energies from the planet Saturn, adding them to the energies of your unconscious mind and keeping your body in a constant state of emergency.
Blood is taken from the liver and spleen; digestion and assimilation ceases; and the liver releases its sugar into circulation. As a result, the type of foods attracted by the discordant Saturn thought-cells are lacking in mineral salts, vitamins or other essential elements. And as a result of the inactivity of the organs responsible for assimilation your body can suffer from one or more of the chronic deficiency diseases.
As your nervous system is sensitive to every thought you think and your thoughts tune it to pick up corresponding planetary energies in volume you are far more prone to experience an affliction from fear than the uncivilized caveman, but you do have a decided advantage: Knowledge of what’s going on.
You can use your imagination and feelings to tune yourself to pick up the quality of planetary energy you desire rather than what would otherwise be present in usual volume.
And while you can’t change your Saturn thoughts or Saturn planetary energies into those of Jupiter or Venus you can readily, and without too much difficulty, cultivate the constructive type of Saturn thinking and use it to divert your Saturn energies into channels that will attract health and fortunate events.
So, when you begin to feel fear, worry, anxiety, greed, envy, grief or self-pity, substitute them with thoughts of order, system, careful planning, persistence, elimination of waste, and a willingness to progress through hard work. And feel as much pleasure as you can while doing it.
Modern humanity has a heritage from Saturn that is as old as life on Earth; but with this knowledge of the relation of thoughts to planetary energies, you can utilize the forces represented by either a prominent Saturn in your birth chart, or a progressed aspect to Saturn, to attract advantages into your life that support your physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
