CHAPTER 1

The Evolution ofan Archetype

Who reigns? There was the Heaven and Earth at first,And Light and Love; then Saturn, from whose throneTime fell, an envious shadow: such the stateOf the earth's primal spirits beneath his sway ...

SHELLEY

A book on Saturn's transit must necessarily be prefaced by a brief explorationof its origins and evolution and the shifting imagery which time has created.Therefore we shall look at Saturn from his original position as a Titan andarchetype of the castrating, child-eating Kronos, through his reign over thenuminous Golden Age, into his agrarian Roman persona, his subsequentastrological position as the Great Malefic of Ptolemy and Fermicus Maternus, hisrenaissance at the hands of the Neoplatonist philosophers and, finally, as theplanet, with our own twentieth-century view of what was once the boundary of thesolar system. This brief inquiry into Saturn's manifestations is simply aprelude to examination of the astrological Saturn and its function in thehoroscope, and how we view that old malefic as it transits the birthchart.

To suggest that archetypes change is to belie their nature. An archetype is aprimal and immutable image (the Greek archetupos means first or original imprintor stamp, as in the minting of a new coin). The concept of archetypes is ancient- Pythagoras' harmonic spheres are archetypes of frequencies that can bereplicated in seemingly infinite ways but retain their original tone or chord.Plato's ideal forms, which existed in a perfect plane, were the basis upon whichall matter was designed; somewhere in the ether a 'shape' existed whichantedated any material or even conceptual form. For example, beauty cannot bedefined, may be depicted only imperfectly and exists only as a resonance; abeautiful sculpture can be sensed and visually appreciated, but what exactly isit that makes it beautiful? Not comparison with one that is not beautiful forone senses beauty before one sees it.

There are archetypes that establish prototypical psychological actions andreactions as well, much like the ideal forms of Plato were the basis upon whichall matter was modelled. Also like the ideal forms, the psychological archetypesexist in a dimension inaccessible to consciousness. Retained deep in theunconscious, in the psyche, and emerging in dreams or through externalprojection they are never pure but are distortions of, or variations on, thetheme of the archetype itself. The theory of psychological archetypes aspostulated and amplified by Carl Jung states that there are particular imagesharboured in the psyche that are consistent in all human beings and manifestacross all cultural boundaries. In order for one to believe that one'sunconscious holds images that are common to all cultures, one must first believethat such a psychic repository for these collective symbols does in fact exist.Since I am not going to submit a thesis on the validity of archetypes, andthough I will use the term loosely, it is in the context of Jung's idea thatthere is a remarkable transmission of imagery from deep within the unconsciousmind into the conscious mind. This imagery and symbolic representation knows nobounds and appears spontaneously in all myths, art and religious iconography aseach culture interprets the archetype in its own way. The consistency of thearchetypal image is extraordinary and clearly visible even in its culturaldress.

Although by strict definition of the term an archetype does not change, it doesseem to endure transmutation through cultural interpretation. That Saturn hasseized the minds of artists and philosophers since the origins of Westernliteracy (and clearly the archetype of Saturn predates literacy) is proof of thepower of an image. Though the archetype may exist in its pure form in thecollective psyche it is still an image that must be differentiated andtransmitted through culture. It is that transmission that interests me.

To suggest that an archetype evolves might seem somewhat heretical, yet it is inline with the theory of cultural transmission that archetypal expression doesevolve. This evolution can be seen in the incorporation of images into thecollective unconscious which are in turn externalized in the form of culturallaws, mores and religions. These images are further differentiated andpersonalized in the individual's psyche and subsequently emerge as personalitytraits, specific beliefs and ethics that are apparently unique to thatindividual. The emergence of an archetypal image in a social or philosophicalcontext is marked always by changes in its form, but never in its originalstatement. Saturn is still Kronos by another name. The arcane obsession withSaturn, the struggle to come to terms with his powerful image, has never ceased.Of all the Greek gods that populate the horoscope, this is the one mostfrequently grappled with, not only by astrologers. Kronos/Saturn has neverchanged fundamentally, but our personal experience of him is tailored to ourunconscious need first of all to obey a cosmic law and secondly to challengethat law.

In the course of life, we encounter all the manifestations of the archetypesthat underlie the Saturnian experience. Some of them are particularlyprimordial, some more civilized, others distinctly current in their message. Thelevel on which Saturn operates at different times for an individual will beentirely dependent on that person. The consistency of Saturnian archetypes asthey present themselves in the conscious mind or as they appear in theenvironment lies in the timing of the transit and the quality of that time; thatis, certain predictable moods or feelings will prevail and will embody the sameessential message even though the lessons of Saturn are wholly unique to theindividual experiencing the transit and often appear to be completely different.Greater understanding of Saturn (and most importantly, oneself) in all possiblemanifestations, assists us in gaining insight into what it is that is currentlyat issue in our lives, particularly feelings of self-worth, responsibility,accountability, self-empowerment, authoritativeness and independence. Whentransiting Saturn makes a contact in the natal chart we learn about certaincomplexes in our psyches from the images and circumstances that arise during thetime of the contact.

Jung thought that complexes were an essential part of the psyche. Complexes arenot bad or neurotic by definition, but are clusters of images or ideas with asimilar tone that gather together to form what appears to be an autonomoustrait. At the base of the complex is an archetype and the emergence of thecomplex is a result of the human contact or experience of the person who isexpressing the archetype. In the case of Saturn, one of the most powerfularchetypal images is father-authority, an inherent expectation in all humanbeings. If the real father basically conforms to the expectations...