We’re almost there—Saturn finally enters Capricorn in a few days after about 2.5 years hanging out in Sagittarius. The sagacious Saturn comes home to roost in the sign of the Letter of the Law, the sign of commandments and structure and strict judgment, the sign of Wisdom, the sign in which Caesar Augustus was born. Saturn, who is the greater malefic, is perfectly comfortable here and has everything he needs, unlike to cause problems unless provoked—say by Mars opposing him from Cancer or squaring him from Aries (which we won’t get for a while).

Saturn in Capricorn, though never fully “benevolent,” desires the best for the matters under his care and sets boundaries for his cattle, fences in his crops, and gives his workers schedules to assist them in fulfilling their responsibilities to the best of their abilities. Saturn in Capricorn—especially for those born around late 1988 to 1991 or so—demands that we assume fully the responsibilities that are ours to assume and set boundaries, learning how to say “no” in a way that encourages growth and not needless suffering.

Saturn in Sagittarius has been creating gaps and divisions between ideas and nations and journeys, making those far-flung reaches of our world even more distant. Yet he asks us as he comes home to Capricorn: “how shall ye bridge these gaps that I have made? Entropy belongs to life indeed, but it must be held in balance by connection, construction, and order, lest the world fall apart.”

It’s always so easy to say “no” to the other in order to say “yes” to ourselves, but in ways that are destructive and diminishing to people whose lives we have the opportunity to impact for the greater. We relinquish our opportunities to be agents of healing for the sake of getting our own desires fulfilled and our attachments assuaged. Remember too that Saturn rules Aquarius, the Social Worker of the zodiac.

Depending on the houses which Saturn rules in your chart, this may mean saying “no” to a promotion that won’t ultimately move you in the direction you want to go, or “no” to a parent who continues to try to parent you. It may mean saying “no” to things that bring you a lot of joy, not because those things are “wrong” in and of themselves but because those matters cause you to be so inwardly-focused that you cannot see your fellow human in need. That human is you, too, Saturn reminds you. The best way to honor this season is to learn how to construct healthy structures and disciplines for yourself—and for many, though the idea of asceticism might make us queasy, the benefits of saying “no” can make us appreciate the blessings in life all the more.

Where do you need to say “no” in order to free up the resources that building bridges within your own heart and world will require? Where are you over-invested and over-exerted in your life? What tethers you to the glimmering delights of the world such that you can no longer see the light of God in the people you meet from day to day? What benefits might come if you allow yourself to be freed by Wisdom that rightly and sweetly orders all things?

Consider the spiritual progress made by those who have said “no” to the things that we find ourselves attached to and instead have built systems of discipline in which they can explore their own Interior Castles—and consider what opportunities await you as you respond to Saturn’s invitation to do this work.

Saturn in Capricorn does not demand that we become monastics, but he does demand that our lives be ordered toward life and abundance for both ourselves and our neighbors—Saturn is, after all, a farmer, and without fences, furrows, schedules, tilling, hauling, composting, and patience, nobody gets to eat.

The prayers for Advent include this Saturnine invocation to the ordering energies of God, and may it be a blessing for you as you make ready for the Sun’s own ingress into Capricorn during this season of light: “O Wisdom, who proceedeth from the mouth of the Most High, stretching from one end of the world to the other, rightly and sweetly ordering all things: come to teach us the way of prudence.”

Peace and all good, friends.