The planet Saturn in our astrological chart, always presents us with a challenge.

There’s something we want. And we want it dearly. But there’s something in the way of getting this thing that we truly want. That “something in the way” needs to be identified, addressed and then dealt with. And when Saturn is in the room , this “something” is often a gnarly something. It’s a thing that is difficult for us. It doesn’t come easy.

It’s often a struggle and requires things from us like effort and discipline and focused intention. Saturn is also associated with Chronos… the Lord Of Time. And so getting this thing we want doesn’t usually happen quickly. We can’t snap our fingers and … voila… what we want magically appears. It often takes time … and sometimes a LOT of time… to manifest our desire. And taking that time, devoting ourselves to the step by step process of manifesting our desire, even in the face of obstacles and setbacks and frustration ( which are all a SURE sign we are in Saturn’s domain) guarantees that once we reach our goal we will have changed along the way.

And become someone who is actually worthy of what we have worked so hard to achieve.

Because this thing that we have had to wrestle with in order to fulfill our hearts desire is always an internal something. It’s a part of our psyche that needs to grow up. To mature in some way. And it’s through that maturation process where the work lies.

I had a client that I was working with many moons ago who had her Saturn in the sign of Libra. Libra, among other things, is associated with human love, connection and relationship.

And with Saturn there, it’s not just any kind of relationship but long term committed relationship. Saturn in Libra is the desire for relationships that are serious and are capable of enduring through time and travail. In traditional wedding vows it’s the vow “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live.”

With Saturn here we are declaring that we are in our relationships for the LONG HAUL and are not going to bail when things get rough.

So this was the kind of relationship my client wanted. It was her holy grail and something that she desired to the depth of her soul.

But she grew up in a family with an alcoholic father and kept choosing alcoholic men who were incapable of making any kind of serious commitment to her or anyone else. In order to achieve her goal of manifesting this dream of a truly committed partnership she had some hard inner work to do.

First, she had to identify the problem and recognize that her father was an alcoholic and that the men she was continually attracted to were various versions of her charismatically charming, yet volatile, dyed in the wool, misogynistic father. She had to tell the truth and face the reality ( another Saturn task) that men who were in a committed relationship with alcohol, could never be truly committed to her.

She had to give up on her secret little girl dream that her love could rehabilitate her father, through trying to rehabilitate these men. And then do the hard and painful work of grieving the loss of this childhood fantasy. In other words she had to grow up, feel her difficult feelings and allow her adult self to make her relationship choices.

Now, this all sounds good on paper, but this was a LONG and grueling process. It took her many years of doing some very intensive inner work before she was able to break free of this pattern.

She kept bargaining in various ways, choosing men who were somewhat LESS alcoholic and towards the end of her journey getting involved with someone who was ostensibly in recovery. This guy didn’t drink at all. But still hadn’t dealt with his control issues, his misogyny and his incapacity to make a serious commitment in any area of his life.

It was at this point that something broke in her. She realized that she had to let go completely af anything that was associated with alcohol and alcoholic patterns.

Now, she didn’t drink or use any kind of mind altering substances. But it became clear to her, that for her own well being, she couldn’t be involved with anyone who drank any alcohol at all.

Which was a tall order, given how ubiquitous alcohol is in our culture, but these are the kinds of challenges Saturn with gives us. It’s always asking the question, how seriously do you take this burning soul desire? And how seriously do you take yourself? What kinds of unbreakable boundaries are you willing to put in place and vows are you willing to honor?

Once she made this final break she met a man who wasn’t her “type” at all. He was sweet. Respectful. Didn’t have a misogynistic bone in his body. And was a complete teetotaler. Alcohol wasn’t even on his radar.

They fell in love and eventually made those “till death do us part” vows and as far as I know are still together to this day.

Make no mistake… To honor a Saturn challenge takes everything we’ve got. And will reward us with everything in return.

But that’s why the work that Saturn presents us with is considered your Great Work. And is worth every ounce of blood, sweat and tears that is required from us to make that desire that Saturn is calling us into a deeply real, deeply grounded, unshakeable three dimensional reality.

If you are ready to ask yourself, what is YOUR Great Work and to find the answer to that question, come and join us for our upcoming Paint Your Stars online workshop where we we will be going on a deep dive journey in the symbolism of Saturn and how understanding that relationship can change your life.

For more info and to register, click on the image below.