A dear reader and client of mine recently shared how she had come across someone online saying that Saturn is feminine, and asked whether this has some validity to it, as we all know, there is a lot of misinformation out there. It’s actually a great question and an interesting discussion and topic indeed, so let’s explore it deeper.
We know the essence of Saturn is about time and matter, and nature itself; he is the spiritual teacher, and he is that which initiates us into maturity and wisdom; so could he also hold a more profound feminine side? Could he be the wise woman, the crone or grandmother, the one who sits in wisdom and mystical secrets in a house deep into the woods, teaching us the wisdoms of time and the weavings of life’s paths? To me personally, Saturn doesn’t really fall into “just male or female” and he rules over the elders, ancestors and grandparents, but today we’ll explore more on his feminine side.
We’ll begin with an intriguing phrase that was found a while back from one of the earliest Hellenistic astrologers where he stated that “Saturn was feminine”; and we’ll seek deeper into the text because we shouldn’t jump into conclusions especially when it comes to old translated texts. We’ll then move further and deeper into understanding the essence of Saturn’s nature, various other ideas from astrology traditions and esoteric beliefs, and explore if Saturn indeed has a feminine aspect to itself.
Dorotheus’ Carmen Astrologicum
A few years ago, perhaps almost 8-10 years ago, an intriguing statement arose online from an early Hellenistic astrologer and poet Dorotheus; and in his writings Carmen Astrologicum, 1, 10: 18, there is little parenthetical remark that says,
“and the female planets are Saturn, Venus, and the Moon, and the male ones the Sun, Jupiter, and Mars.”
Dorotheus, known as Dorotheus of Sidon (Δωρόθεος Σιδώνιος), was an influential astrologer who lived in the late 1st century BC and wrote a five book instructional poem on astrology in Greek. His work had an enormous impact on the later Hellenistic and Medieval astrological traditions, though the exact philosophical approach he took to astrology remains largely unknown, as there are no explicit passages in which he outlines his views on the subject in the surviving fragments of his work.
His original work no longer survives in its entirety, although we do have an English translation of an Arabic translation of a Persian translation of the original Greek poem, as well as scattered fragments from his work that were preserved by later astrologers in Greek and Latin. So the first thing we need to keep in mind while interpreting older text originally written in other languages, is that there could be errors in translations.
In fact, there are numerous textual issues and problems with Dorotheus’ surviving text, Carmen Astrologicum. While it does preserve the vast majority of the work, it is still “overwhelmingly Greek in character” (From Astral Omens to Astrology, p. 47), and it also contains a number of errors, omissions, alterations and interpolations from later authors. An outline of some of some of the issues you may find here.
A few examples:
What we are first dealing with is an English translation of an Arabic translation of a Persian translation of the Greek text, which was itself originally written in the form of an instructional poem.
One of the obvious errors and interpolations in the text occurs early in 1, 6, 4 when it says “Saturn harms one who is born by day and Mars one who is born at night”. This is the reverse of the usual Hellenistic rule based on sect, and in the rest of the text it clearly treats Saturn as more harmful at night and Mars by day. Thus, it is an error.
And while in the statement 1, 10: 18 above Saturn is referred to as feminine, further in the text at 1, 21: 10 it says that “Saturn and the Sun signify older brothers, Moon older sisters, Venus younger sisters.” This then argues in favour of Saturn as masculine, though of course, perhaps that was the mistake in translation rather than the first one.
What makes the statement that Saturn is feminine intriguing and suggestive enough for us to explore it further is that it creates a symmetrical set of planetary assignments, and the Hellenistic astrologers were often really focused on symmetry.
We see three feminine planets – Venus, Moon and Saturn; and three masculine planets – Mars, Sun and Jupiter; and of course Mercury is neutral. We also see the triple goddess – or the three main phases of womanhood represented now: Venus as the maiden, Moon as the mother and Saturn as the old woman, wise woman or crone. This actually makes sense with Saturn because Saturn rules time and age, the elderly, and shares a connection to the Moon and the feminine through their cycles: the Moon’s cycle is 29.5 days and Saturn’s cycle is 29.5 years.
We also see phases of maturation for both the masculine its supposed feminine counterpart: Venus relates to the maiden phase and the younger woman, while Mars relates to the young man. The Moon relates the mother phase, while the Sun relates the father. Then we have Jupiter who is the wise man, and that leaves us with Saturn being the wise woman energy. And Mercury is the both feminine and masculine, which is why he is neutral.
But the question then becomes: Why didn’t later Hellenistic astrologers continue that view if indeed Dorotheus was influential as we know he was?
One argument would be because perhaps the later astrologers may have just been following Ptolemy due to his stature as a scientist. They may have also been following the associations with the gods, where the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, and Mercury were all male gods, while Venus and the Moon were female gods.
Another question is whether this parenthetical remark that Saturn is feminine was part of the original text, or if it was added later, or whether it is some sort of translation error.
Perhaps one of the biggest question marks relates to the understanding that Hellenistic astrologers didn’t really relate the planets to genders – the genders were mainly associated with signs and the phase relationships to the Sun rather than having inherent genders.
So when the sentence is speaking of Saturn being feminine like Venus and the Moon, do we have the full context of what he was relating it to? Was he relating it to the Sun or a phase in some way?
And so,
While we will now dive deeper into exploration on the possible feminine side to Saturn, what I would caution people is that when they do come across Dorotheus’ statement, or any other old translation texts, to understand and consider that it could indeed be a translation error; and not to jump to conclusions.
Saturn and Binah
An interesting reference to Saturn being feminine can be found in Kabbalah, where Saturn is associated with the Sephira of Binah in the Tree of Life which is sometimes called the Great Mother. Binah is the third sphere, which represents understanding and the feminine aspect of God.
According to Kabbalistic tradition, Binah is the channel through which the divine energy of wisdom and understanding flows into the world. Saturn, the planet associated with Binah, represents this energy’s strict and structured aspect and is often seen as a symbol of limitation and boundaries. The myth of Saturn in Kabbalah also emphasises the importance of self-discipline and humility. This is because Saturn represents the need to accept and work within the limits and boundaries of the physical world rather than trying to transcend or escape them.
Binah is the sphere whose basic symbolism is the root of all that we conceive as feminine. Space, time, form, structure, container – all of these are basic symbolic ideas connected to Binah the Great mother, and all of them correlate in astrology to the planet Saturn. All of those ideas are basically feminine symbolism.
I am not an expert in Kabbalah, so I’ll leave that up to you to research and see how it resonates; but I do find substance to it because as we know Saturn rules time and matter, which is why he rules skin – skin too is a limitation, and of course our greatest limitation as human beings is time itself.
The association to Binah the Great Mother, and the early Hellenistic traditions relating Saturn to a dry and cold temperature like that of our earth and soil, in addition to the limitation that we are in human skin – all may point to Saturn’s feminine nature of putting “flesh on soul” through a birth – or – through the contractions of life, such as limitations and obstacles, we are pushed to shift our eyes inward, go through the Saturn initiation and hopefully, come out with new more mature insight.
The Essence of Saturn’s Nature
To understand anything in life we must first understand the essence of it; and only then we may be able to see with more clarity its possible expressions.
The way I usually describe Saturn to my clients and students is that Saturn is that which rules time, matter, the cycles of the land and the seasons of life; he allows us an opportunity for deepening in wisdom through his initiations, which is why our Saturn transits mark important phases and initiations. Also, he is that which teaches us devotion, patience, humility and spiritual maturity, because he is a spiritual teacher and holder of the keys of wisdom.
Saturn is that which teaches us that we can’t push seeds into the frozen ground in winter, flowers will not grow; we will only frustrate ourselves and we’ll hurt the seeds also.
The association with humility is significant also – because the word itself means “to be of the earth” i.e. to understand our right proportion in this vastness of life, to keep grounded and to keep our hands working in devotion, and to nurture, which means to tend to that which already is.
And so, with the associations to the time and cycles, Saturn does seem to work well with the wise woman archetype, also referred to as the grandmother or crone energy. This phase of womanhood essentially deals with the end of her monthly cycles when she enters menopause; and this is known as the “wise blood” phase. Any cycles and seasons and phases of time marked by clear boundaries or thresholds are very Saturnian, because they are indeed initiatory pathways. This is true always though, not necessarily because Saturn should be purely feminine, but because with each of his important transits we enter a new initiation and threshold.
Something interesting about Saturn is that he is the higher octave of the Moon, and the two share quite an intimate relationship through their cycles: the Moon’s cycle is 29.5 days, and Saturn’s cycle is 29.5 years. So the feminine connection can be seen here in some ways, and again, it connects us to something of cycles through a longer period of time.
Saturn is that within which lays the infinite. Saturn rules our human skin because skin is a limit around us just like time too is ruled by Saturn. And what this shows on a deeper level, which I already mentioned above, was almost echoed through the symbolism of contractions that women experience; contractions are part of the feminine, and just like before birth, we will experience contractions. Saturn also rules wisdom, and wisdom traditionally connects to Sophia; and through the cycles of life, we have the opportunity to come into deeper wisdom.
Saturn as Kurma, the Tortoise
In Vedic astrology all the planets are seen as incarnations, or avatars, of Vishnu; and Saturn relates to the tortoise incarnation called Kurma. During the great process of the churning of the oceans, which is a metaphor for our consciousness, Kurma silently went underwater to stabilize on his back the great Mandara mountain, and assisted the gods and asuras in the churning process; on his back he essentially carried and supported the weight of the cosmos and whole consciousness.
This is significant as it shows the spiritual nature, strong spiritual core, wisdom and endurance of Saturn’s nature, and essentially, his importance for our world and very earth. While this isn’t about genders, it is about wisdom – because there is no greater symbol than the turtle or tortoise.
Saturn and Ananke
In ancient Greece, Saturn (also known as Chronus, god of time) created time and matter while his partner, the goddess Ananke, weaved the destinies of souls but also brought about free will to those same souls; Ananke ruled necessity and inevitability. In most creation myths, both Ananke and Saturn together as intertwining beings or serpents, would wrap their arms around a matter containing egg and apply some force; and of this became earth, sea and heavens – the two of them essentially created our earth from the cosmos. This is quite fascinating because now we see that while Saturn as Chronus was a male god, his partner was the weaver woman, and together they walked creating form of formlessness.
In our modern times, Saturn has taken on the rules and laws of the cultures of those times. In Vedic astrology many people still call him a malefic and people fear him; but that’s only because people don’t like responsibility and self discipline, and overall as human beings, we don’t like to mature.
As human beings we don’t like limitation – but there is necessity for limits. Without limits we become greedy. Limitless wants, limitness desires, limitless partners, limitless possessions and no boundaries – are all essentially the very things that limit us, because without boundaries we have no growth within. The purpose of the necessity of limits is for us to shift our eyes inward so that we can mature and develop our inner world. This is when expansion happens; it isn’t the external things, it is only through the internal doorways that we can truly expand.
The truth is that we are all limited – we are limited in skin and bones, and we are all limited by our ultimate limit: time. So if we want to expand our experience we need to expand our inner world. This is the ultimate spiritual teaching of Saturn: what do we do and who are we in character when we face limitations in life? Saturn teaches us wisdom set in snow.
The various modern day judgments about Saturn that he is some villain are only mere reflections of our own belief systems, of our self denial, self limitations and unwillingness to mature and be more self disciplined. It is also a reflection of our societies, because he rules the 10th and 11th houses, which means he shows us our own perception of structures, society and the patriarchy. Naturally, if there was matriarchy, would he have been known as feminine? Food for thought.
Saturn is the Spiritual Teacher
At its essence, Saturn is the spiritual teacher. He sits between the personal planets and the outer ones; he is the one who holds the key, if we pass the lessons of the threshold. Saturn is a planet of strategy, navigation and initiation – and has quite a few rings around itself, which are our spiritual lessons that we need to move through to initiate ourselves to a higher wisdom and awareness.
Saturn is the Dweller at the Threshold, the keeper of the keys to the gate, and it is through him alone that we may achieve eventual freedom through self understanding.
In Shamanic Astrology, we measure the Saturn initiations akin to the gestation of a human baby, between 9-10 months. The growth and focused intent of the birthing process – from the first fertilization to cell division to the baby through the birth canal – shows, in a symbolic way, what is happening to a point in the soul’s journey as we mature through specific phases on the timeline of life.
For example, our first Saturn return marks the initiation into adulthood, maturity, responsibility of the soul to make discernment and aware decisions aligned to its purpose, which is why we experience quite a shift in priorities during that time, and through our experience, we step into some greater responsibility, whether towards self and/or others.
Saturn is said to mature after the age of 35-36, and this is why I view Saturn as a space we enter or appreciate more fully when we are a bit more mature, a bit more wise, a bit more grounded, a bit more able to appreciate the real things that matter in life. It’s kind of like good wine – it’s a tedious process to actually make wine, to go through the harsh weather, through the waiting process and caring process, and just one bad day or few hours can basically wipe our the grapes. But it’s about the process, the hands that you devoted without even knowing whether it’d pay off. Saturn teaches us the walk itself and the qualities we develop through the walk; and eventually we’ll get the wine, and it’d be better as it ages.
Saturn as the Wise Woman
So now let’s bring it all together through the phases of womahood. In many Indigenous traditions around the world, a woman was considered wise when she no longer shed the lunar blood but instead kept it inside of her. In other words, after menopause, the woman is said to enter the so-called crone phase, mystic phase, also known as red moon or the she who holds the wise blood. This phase of womanhood shows great wisdom and knowledge that the woman now holds and will give to others as she guides them, supports them and shares with them.
With so much experience and knowledge through her life, she knows who she is and is strong in her spiritual core. She can now fully rely on her own innate wisdom rather than depending someone external to her.
Claiming the crone energy is often a difficult task for most women because it requires us to acknowledge our power, strength, intuition, individuality and wisdom; and to claim our true freedom of mind, heart, body and soul. It means to speak our voice, even if we haven’t done that before; it means to find ourselves amidst all the others that we once took care of and identified with; it means to accept the power that we hold as women; and to guide the maidens and mothers who now look up to us and need our support.
The strength, vitality, aliveness and spirit of our soul don’t leave us when our blood leaves us; it is wise blood – it knows and is still within us. Our modern society doesn’t support post-menopausal women as much as needed, and the changing bodies aren’t celebrated, and there isn’t even much information on how we change with age. There is a deep internal beauty and wisdom as we age, and it is one to be honoured and celebrated.
And yet it is this precise beauty and spiritual truth that perhaps connects Saturn to a feminine voice longing to be heard – because no matter how much the skin changes through time and the years, there is something remaining unchangeable which is that within us, our spiritual core. Nature too changes with all the seasons and through the years, and yet it is pure in itself no matter how externally it may change.
Another very important thing that happens as a woman ages is that as she now settles into herself and her confidence and self worth, she has higher standards because she knows her worth. She no longer accepts bread crumps, she no longer wants a man stuck in boy psychology – she wants a real man, and if he isn’t what she wants, she isn’t afraid to be on her own. When a woman knows her worth, she becomes powerful; when a woman learns to say no and only accepts what aligns to her standards and worth, she becomes powerful – she reclaims herself. And guess who rules high standards in astrology? Saturn. Whenever I see a woman with her natal Saturn in her 7th house I always tell her that she needs to have high standards in relationships and not suffice for less than what she actually needs and wants, because she may tend to stay for way too long with someone not good enough for her out of some false sense of loyalty or duty.
Saturn’s relation to changes, cycles and old age reminds me of changing woman. Changing woman is you, she is me, she is all of us. She is the seasons and cycles and sometimes the needed alone times because that’s just the nature of a woman – she needs her alone time to be with the earth and her spiritual self and her God. Changing woman is she who’s walked the twists and turns of life; she’s the one who remembers and awakens; she’s the one who deeply feels and hears the whisper of primordial wisdom at the edge of hearing.
She’s the one who speaks the language of time and matter, with patience of rhythm through the cycles and seasons of the lands. She is the one who trusts in her deep knowing and spiritual wisdom. She is the one who enters the gateway through wisdom, and now stands between the worlds, unveiling the beauty beyond the veils and within ourselves.
Perhaps this is the connection with Saturn. Because he too is the one who stands at the threshold. The spiritual teacher who shows us the real spiritual path, and invites us to expand our within, which we can only do if we look inward because the external feels more limiting. Perhaps Saturn as a woman is the woman who sits in the forest, in a wooden house, and when we begin our spiritual path we may enter this house; and by the warmth of hearth she will tell us the weavings of life, and teach us how to weave also.
Final notes:
To me personally Saturn is time and matter, nature and the cycles of the land; the spiritual teacher and the one whose initiations we may pass towards our spiritual responsibility and maturity; the one who shows us not to push seeds into the frozen grounds in winter, and to focus on what already is, for an opportunity for a deepening. I can’t jump on the wagon calling him feminine, but I do see some of the feminine aspects that may weave through his nature and expression.
I actually see a lot of other important societal, cultural or sociological topics and questions through these explorations – particularly relating to the way the elderly are treated in societies. Saturn rules the elderly, regardless of genders, and there’s been unfairness towards them; I believe we should treat them with greater care, respect, appreciation and truly take care of them. Many of them feel alone, neglected, unseen, invisible and no longer needed in society and even with their families, and that’s really heartbreaking. I don’t mean to digress, but Saturn rules the elderly population, so beyond the discussion of masculine and feminine, are the ways in which we treat one another as we get older and the importance of supporting, respecting and seeing those who came before us.
I find that the ancient Greek myth with him and Ananke shows the feminine side and nature to him; and it resonates with the wise woman energy also. More than anything, to me Saturn is mainly about spiritual initiations and nature and cycles. And please remember that planets aren’t external things, they are internal – and show our inner relationships and aspects to ourselves in various areas of our life. So it is about our relationship to them.
When working with clients as a spiritual astrologer and guide, I believe it is important to consider a person’s unique relationship to their inner Saturn, especially if it affects their early childhood and upbringing. Through my many years of experience, I’ve actually noticed a few clients who still had unhealed aspects of themselves with hard natal Saturn, such as Moon-Saturn, Sun-Saturn or Saturn related to their 4th house, and they were very resistant to Saturn’s energy. So in such situations, perhaps you can help them reach their inner Saturn aspects through the feminine expression, especially if they’ve had good experiences with their grandparents.
It could actually be even healing to guide them through the “grandmother/grandfather” pathway, so that they can reach their inner Saturn and eventually, begin to soften and heal in these areas; especially if they connect their grandmother or grandfather to someone who taught them wisdoms etc. When as human beings we have negative associations to a planet, we essentially have this towards ourselves, because all these planets and aspects aren’t external things in the sky – they represent our inner aspects that long to be seen, understood and married into peace, acceptance and compassion.
For women going through menopause, Saturn is usually active in their transit charts anyway, and you can support them and share with them Saturn’s wisdom about this phase of womanhood; as we do see the three phases of womanhood through the Venus, Moon and Saturn. Just as a woman doesn’t stop being a woman after menopause, perhaps Saturn too isn’t like Venus and the Moon, but still is a feminine planet holding the wise blood within its body.
As for whether Saturn is feminine or not, and what Dorotheus meant in his statement, no one knows. That’s the mystery of life: we’ll never know it all. With our limited minds and conditioned understanding, we’ll never fully know all the secrets of the universe; the humility of this deserves to be treasured. That too is a wisdom Saturn reminds us.
Overall, I think this topic is an interesting one, so you can do your own research exploring Saturn’s feminine sides and expressions. I would however caution you, as I did in the beginning, to take translated ancient scrips with a grain of salt and not jump to conclusions. After all, that’s actually what Saturn teaches us also – discernment, patience, and dedication to truth and learning. Chop wood, carry water. This is the path of the spiritual master.
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Cover art by Louis Welden Hawkins, Summer By the Lake, 1900.