Saturn - The TRUE Planet Of Marriage
mumin_bey@yahoo.com
11:34 AM 05/29/2006 Mon
One of my close colleagues, Astrologer Sam Reynolds of New York City, recently asked me by way of email, why I spend so much time talking about such issues as Feminism, Gender, and so on. Although the answer to that question is both simple and obvious - it's because I have a deep and vested interest in preserving the values that have held both American and by extension, Western societies together for centuries, from falling apart as a result of ideologies that, when one takes a dispassionate, objective view of them, are in reality diametrically opposed to said values and norms.
But, as I often do, I like to turn the question around - why is that we, as an astrological community, spend so much time discussing Love/Sex/Relationships? Surely, you don't need me to point out the many, many, astrology books, at all levels of interest, from the rank novice to the diehard pro, on Synastry, the Composite Chart, the Astrology of Sex, Timing Marriage and/or Divorce, even Fertility by way of Astrology. The answer, again, is both simple and obvious - because it is part of the Human Condition to seek out each other, through Love and Companionship; it is an undeniable urge to want to procreate; it is perhaps the strongest psychological need known in the lexicon, to want to have love and security in our lives.
Readers of my humble missives know well, of my previous writings on these and related matters, but it occurs to me that I must continue to make the case for the astrological arguments upholding traditional norms of Marriage - what it is, how it works, why it works, and why it is so vital to Society overall.
Understanding The True Purpose Of Marriage
To properly understand what Marriage is really all about, one must be clear on what the original intent of Marriage was, and it's role in Society. Recently, while looking for something totally unrelated on the internet, I stumbled upon a truly profound series of comments bearing on the purpose of Marriage by one Bob Allen, a blogger who writes, interestingly enough, on cultural issues, of which marriage and and so on are key. I won't re-post his entire commentary here, but I do want to share some central points he made (the full text can be found at bobstruth.blogspot.com):
"Marriage has been, for thousands of years, and in virtually every society and culture, the sexual union of a man and woman that creates children and thereby forms a family. The oldest known written laws, the Code of Hamarabi, predates Christianity by a couple of thousand years. It contains a great deal of codified law about marriage and the rights and obligations of the parties involved. In pre-Christian Europe the Celts recognized several kinds of marriage, each one distinct from the others by whom would pay to support the children. In the first kind of marriage both man and woman were rich and equally supported the family. In the second kind only the man was rich and he would support the family. In the 8th or 9th and last kind, the female is a whore and the man has no responsibility for her child at all. Notice that a child of a whore is a "marriage" between her and whatever man happened to father her child. Marriage is the sexual union that produces children and creates family. Even before Celtic or Babylonian cultures marriage existed in prehistoric tribal societies, and still exists in virtually every remaining tribal society today."
"When Europe became Christian and the old pagan laws were replaced by Christian laws, marriage laws were adopted into Christian law. The same is true for virtually all religions. While they each have variations on the theme, they all sanctify and protect the sexual union of male and female and encourage the creation of children families. There have been a few notable exceptions, religions that discouraged marriage and sexual union to create families. The Shakers was one in America, but without children the last Shaker died some years ago. Some religions sanction polygamy and some do not, but in all marriages there is a sexual union between a man and a woman that creates children."
"To understand marriage we need to understand what marriage is and what marriage is not. Marriage is the sexual union of male and female that creates our children and our families. Marriage is NOT a religious rite although all successful religions sanctify and honor marriages with religious ceremonies. Marriage is NOT a collection of legal or tax benefits, although most successful societies encourage the production of the next generation of the society by promoting marriage. Every society that wants to have a future must encourage and promote marriage sufficient to ensure the creation of enough children to continue the society."
"In the middle of the 18th century, feminist lesbians gathering at Seneca Falls, NY, declared that "Marriage oppresses women!" To the feminists lesbians, they need men only to provide sperm, and then, they believe, they can raise the children by themselves. By themselves, of course, means that men must be forced to provide money, food, shelter, and all the necessary things of life, but only as male slaves divorced from families. Single momism, lesbians with laboratory Frankenstein kids, are their vision of a future. For a century and a half feminists have worked hard to obscure the language, lobbied for easy divorce, so-called "child support" laws that enslave men to pay women, and "DV" laws that allow women to turn husbands into criminals whenever her emotions are having a hysterical fit."
"Feminists today are joined by the Gay/Lesbian agenda that jealously wants to be valued even above the "breeders" who have decent families they can never create. The gay agenda has invented the false term "gay marriage" as if somehow marriage is merely a collection of legal "rights." The whole idea of "gay marriage" is a contradiction because marriage is the sexual union that creates children and families, a sexual union which gays openly reject. In order to pretend that gay perversion is as valuable as families, gays have sought to destroy the very meaning of marriage, and at a time when most people are already confused about the meaning of marriage by more than a century of organized feminist anti-marriage attacks."
"So what is Bob's view of "marital rape?" There can be no such thing. The crime of "rape" requires a lack of consent. A wife has sworn her consent before her priest or a judge, before her family and witnesses, signed legal documents attesting to her consent, and filed those legal documents with the state. When she says "I do" to enter into marriage and be a wife, she is accepting her obligation to participate in sexual congress with the husband and to bear the children which result therefrom. From then on it's her legal duty and obligation, freely consented to and accepted. If she no longer consents she must get a legal divorce, which ends her legal consent. So-called "marriage rape" laws deny the very meaning of marriage, and absolve the wife of the meaning of her marriage vows. To even discuss "marital rape" is to accept feminist anti-marriage dogma as background, an acceptance that you won't catch Bob ever doing. Bob does not condone forced marriage, but once she swears her "I do" as wife and sexual partner of her husband, and accepts the benefits of his support and protection, then she has a duty to abide by her sworn "I do." She can not be raped by her husband, because she has consented to sex with him for the duration of their marriage. The state, by acknowledging and accepting the marriage documents, affirms her status as sexual breeding partner of the husband. For the state, or anyone, to come along later and accuse the husband of "rape" or "sexual crime" for his congress with his wife is the worst kind of misandrist abomination."
"To understand why "marital rape" or "gay marriage" are patently false contradictions one only needs to understand the age old meaning and purpose of marriage. Marriage is the sexual union of male and female that creates children and makes families. It is a blessed state that is the future of our society, and we all have a strong vested interested in securing and perpetuating strong healthy families for our next generation."
- Bob Allen, bobstruth.blogspot.com
Now, I am fully aware that there are some who will take strong exception to my selected quotations above, particularly as it relates to the issue of Gay Marriage, as well as that of what some has called Marital Rape. And I'm willing to entertain the dissent. But both are in a sense, besides the point, and that is what Bob Allen is saying. Marriage was formulated not as a collection of tax and civic privileges, not as a means of constant companionship, but as a means of creating and securing the next generation in an orderly, structured fashion.
Why Astrologers Are Wrong About Venus Being The Planet Of Marriage
As noted above in Allen's statements, very little is Venus-inspired; the astrological awareness alive in any astrologer has to inform us that his comments are clearly Saturnian in nature. This brings us to why I say astrologers are fundamentally wrong about notions of Venus or for that matter, it's "higher octave" Neptune, being the planet(s) of Marriage. I will certainly grant that both planets do indeed represent Love, Passion, Romance, Sex, and so on. I would go so far as to say that without the presence of these planets in the interplay between a man and woman's charts, it will be difficult to continue a longterm association like Marriage. But neither represents Marriage, which, as Allen points out, has more to do with obligations and responsibilities, and less to do with feelings, emotions and romanticism.
In her book, "Marriage - A History", Stephanie Coontz takes the reader thru the Ages in terms of Marriage; like many writers of her time and era, she makes the usual arguments against Marriage in traditional terms - that it was done for purely economic considerations, to cement business deals between clans and/or Royal Families, and so on. Of course, women were the sole losers in such an arrangement, and things had to change for the better, in order to give them more options, choices as it were, on the whole ball of wax. She argues, as many feminists do, that "evolution" for its own sake is a good thing, that those old, stodgy standards and rules were for a different time and era. She points to the French's proclamation that a "bastard child" has just as much rights as a child coming from a married family; she mentions the gradual change away from Marriage as Bob Allen has laid out to a more romantic affair, and so on. And she sees all of this, and other massive social changes regarding Marriage, as a good thing. There is no doubt that the transits of Neptune, then Uranus and finally Pluto, thru the Sign Libra, in the modern era, made those shifts in Marriage possible. But the question becomes, are thoe changes good - or even necessary?
For example, while it was true that Royals from differing families did indeed marry for purely political and/financial considerations, and aristocratic families did same, the fact remains that the vast majority of people, anywhere, at any time, will NOT be Royals or aristocrats! So, the notion that Marriage was solely about the economic benefit of men is at best an incomplete, if not an out and out erroneous analysis. Clearly, most people married - we have historical data such as church records and so on to verify this - so Marriage must have played a stronger role than for the political/financial considerations of landed gentry. Moreover, going back to the French example Ms. Coontz cited, simple logic would dictate that if a bastard child was the same in every way to one who came from a couple who was married, then what would be the point of marrying in the first place?
There are reasons why virtually every civilized or otherwise organized society places Marriage in high regard, and it had little if anything to do with the very small number of Royals or aristocrats marital considerations. Nor did it have anything to do with whether people were sufficiently in love or not. It had everything to do with the ensuring of the procreation and rearing of the next generation in an orderly and structured way.
Period.
It is for this reason, when we astrologers gaze upon the Planet/Sign combination of Saturn in Libra, that it represents Marriage in true astrological terms. Marriage is a contractural agreement that places obligations on both parties, the man and woman, and as a result of said parties meeting these obligations, society rewards them with a valued place. Saturn is the planet of duty, sacrifice, honor and character, maturity, wisdom, and the rules by which any society must have in order to be successful and effiecient.
It should be also noted that Venus, and definitely Uranus, are planets that have little if any consideration for those other than oneself - in other words, these are more self-centered planets that represent functions and characteristics that have more to do with the self than with others around the self. Saturn, on the other hand, has always been recognized as a planet that has profound implications for all involved (note the classic and still much in use Jupiter-Saturn and Mars-Saturn conjunctions of Mundane Astrology), and in any event, asks us to consider others as well as ourselves.
Today, in Western society, people marry for purely subjective, even selfish reasons, giving little if any thought to the larger implications of their union's impact on the rest of us. But at least they're marrying - far too many don't think Marriage is necessary at all, siring children all along with way, with little regard as to how those children will turn out. It doesn't take a social scientist to see, for a great example, the ravages of the African American community in this regard - we all know that the vast majority of Black American babies are born out of wedlock, with marriage among Blacks at quite possibly all time lows. We know that one of the major reasons why there is a baby dearth in places like Western Europe and Russia, Australia and so on, is because Marriage isn't as highly valued there as it used to be. These and other occurances will have massive social, political and economic implications for those societies in times to come.
Other Reasons Why Saturn Is The True Planet Of Marriage
In recent times, I've come under a good bit of fire from my colleagues, for suggesting that the Planets reflect the sexes here on Earth; more to the point, the bone of contention against me is my assertion that Saturn and its Signs, Capricorn and Aquarius, are all MALE in orientation and scope, and that while on its surface, women would seem to take it on the chin in Marriage (this is the argument that feminists advance - Libra), the reality, surely a Saturnian word, is that Marriage is a huge obligation on men and by extension, a huge benefit for Society overall.
Who can argue the fact that, as a rule, married men are more productive, than single men? It's almost always a given that married men are more employed than single men, and it's universally recognized that married men tend to get jobs over single men, for a variety of reasons. One of them lies in the fact that it is usually a good investment to hire a man with a wife and kids than a man who has neither, or worse, a number of unattached women and kids. As a rule, criminals tend to be men who are not married - and I'm talking about drug dealers, murderers, rapists, terrorists, and so on. Saturn represents both time and focus, and men being married, after having had their first Saturn Return, tends to be more focused than men who don't. Of course, there are exceptions, there always have been, there always wll be. But for the most part, what I said is true, and anyone reading this who has actually lived in the real world, know what I'm saying is so.
Marriage, like other social and cultural norms and laws, socialize males into being productive, law-abiding people, and as a result, makes a Society an organized, efficient, successful place in which to live and thrive. Take a look at any place where most of the men are not married, and I can promise you it's a place that is in disorder, chaos and confusion.
On Sex, Marriage & Saturn
As mentioned earlier, Marriage is about producing children and raising them in the proper environments for the benefit of Society. Of course, that which hangs in the backdrop of all of this, is sex - and women, who tend to be more involved in astrology these days moreso than men, need to clearly understand that men are far and away more interested in sex than are women. This simple yet profound fact of life is easily confirmed in the fact that men are much more interested in pornography than are women, that even among the lesbian and gay communities, gay men focus on sex moreso than do lesbian women. Earlier, Bob Allen mentions that the Marriage ceremony implicitly states that the wife will meet her husband's sexual needs. This point is one that is a huge sticking point for feminist-inspired women these days, who think that such a feature of the union should be abolished. They argue that for a married man to expect sex from his wife on a regular basis is not only in bad taste, it is criminal, because he cannot in anyway coerce of cojole her into this. They say that it is men who should be more attuned to their wives feelings and emotions, that sex shouldn't be something that's on schedule, but rather, something that should happen naturally in the course of events. Of course, no man has the right to use abusive language towards his wife, or worse, violence. And of course, it should go without saying that a married man should as much as possible, be kind and loving towards his wife. But I must say, with all due respect to the ladies who advance such views, they neither know Astrology or men, very much, at all.
Astrological study has shown clearly, that the Sexual Planets are Venus, Mars and Pluto, in the main; Uranus is also a Sexual Planet for men, not so for women. Additionally, Sexual Aspects have more of an effect on men than do women, and that while roughly 2/3 of all men have at least one Sexual Aspect in their charts, only about 1/3 of all women have same. This fact goes a long way towards understanding some basic things about the Human Condition - for example, why there are relatively few whores among the female population over the centuries. Or why so many women just simply do not understand what motivates and drives men.
Of the Sexual Planets mentioned, the only one that also has an association with empathy, emotions and so on, is Venus. It is also worth noting that Venus is a Female Planet. ALL the remaining Sexual Planets are Male. Again, it all makes perfect sense, once you think about it.
All men know well their sexual nature, and how much of it they have to reign in on a daily basis. This fact simply never occurs to most women, for the simple reason that most of them don't have Sexual Aspects in their charts. Mars, Pluto and Uranus represent Sex in its most raw forms. Venus, on the other hand, both represents sex, and love. This is why men who have say, a strong Mars-Pluto aspect in their charts, should ideally be paired with a woman who has at least a Venus-Mars aspect in her chart, because such a man has such a driving sexual impulse and capacity that no woman without a sexual aspect will be able to satisfy him. And of course, it will lead to considerable problems later on down the road in that couple's marriage.
Saturn represents the necessary controls in Life we all must contend with in order to be at our best. In Marriage, the man's sexual nature is controlled in such a way that it is not destructive to Society in general overall, and chanelled into a structured, orderly relationship where it has the best results for all. For example, a married man who is faithful to his wife will greatly reduce the chances of more illegitimate children being born; it lowers the incidence of STDs spreading from person to person; it preserves and love, respect and trust that is central to both parties to keep the marriage going (and these things are especially true for most women) and it frees that man up to do other things both for his family's benefit and for the benefit of Society. Again, as mentioned earlier, a society of sexually unrestrained, unmarried men on the loose is not a good thing. This is one of the reasons why the Military, throughout the ages, have saw to it that the soldiers had some outlet for their sexual urges (of course, the many instances of rape and so on, are unacceptable then or now) in the form of whorehouses and the like in close proximity to the base or camp, and so on.
Therefore, it is necessary for the majority of women without Sexual Aspects present in their astrology to understand that their man desiring them in a sexual manner is actually a good thing, and she should, within reason of course, accomodate him. And the man must approach his wife with reverance, love and respect in getting his sexual needs met. Of course, this may be at times when the woman may not feel like it, etc., but unless physical/medical reasons are evident this should not prevent sexual needs being met. As long as love and respect are kept in mind on both parties' ends, a married man does indeed have a reasonable expectation to sex on a regular basis, and it would be wise for women to learn of her man's sexual inclinations, likes and dislikes in this regard.
A final note on Sex, Marriage and Saturn while I'm here - as said before, Saturn represents maturity, and perhaps the most important area of Life where maturity is called for, is in the area of Human Sexuality. Far too many men are sexually involved but are sexually immature, not being open and honest with the women in their lives. Such a thing can only lead to disasterous results, and often does. A man that is unwilling or unable to openly and honestly, in a respectful, loving way, communicate his sexual needs and urges to the woman in his life, is not a man at all, but in fact an animal - selfish, brutish, and truly meanspirited.
A Note On Saturn, Synastry & Astrologers
Very often, when one is reading an astrology book devoted to love and romance, even sex, and/or participate in the many astrology forums online, one will see much devoted to synastric analyses concerning Venus and Mars, or the Sun and Moon, accross the charts, and so on. Very little, if anything, is mentioned about the importance of Saturn in synastric applications, and I suspect part of this is because so many astrologers in the modern era, despite assertions to the contrary, are still conditioned to think of Saturn in the most negative terms when it comes to synastry; and another reason is because many astrologers simply follow along with the conventional wisdom that Marriage is old hat. Yet, one when studys the charts of long-term married couples, they will invariably find that they either have important cross aspects involving Saturn, and/or, both the husband and wife have strong Saturnian aspects in their individual charts. It is very hard to find examples of longtime married people who don't have Saturn's stamp.
Furthermore: I've always told lady clients over the years, that if they are looking for a husband, they should only consider men who've at least had their 1st Saturn Return, the time when Saturn by transit returns to its natal place in the chart. This is because a man truly becomes a man at this time, having made the transition from boyhood, and is more clear about himself and where he wants to be and have in his life. Responsibility is seen as a good thing, not a burden fraught with troubles and unpleasantries. For Marriage is a huge responsibility, especially for men, despite declarations from feminist cultural elites to the contrary.
Final Notes On Saturn & Marriage
Going back to the very beginning of this essay, my friend and colleague Astrologer Sam Reynolds asked me why I was so focused on feminism, the culture, gender and so on. It's because I have seen, in my own lifetime - and keep in mind, I'm only 37 years old - the drastic changes that have happened and continue to happen to the American social and cultural landscape. For every "victory" that is touted in the breaking down of barriers that obstensibily harmed in the main, women, I can point to a huge price that had to be paid for said "victory" - and often, in my view, the price was too high. What so many of my astro-feminist colleagues need to understand, is that with every action, idea or philosophy, comes consequnces - often ones that were completely unintended. Of all the Outer Planets, Uranus most represents this principle. Uranus also represents the ideas of independence, which works against the notions of Marriage and Saturn, of a "do my own thing" vibe no matter what the cost. Although the shifts in Marriage might have been inititated and/or intensified by Women's groups, today it's not only women who might be putting off marriage - in fact, my own direct experience with female clients suggests that they want to marry very much - it is more and more the MEN who are resisting Marriage! And this is the feedback-result of the aforementioned movements, who put accross the subtle yet powerful message that there is no benefit for men in Marriage. We astrologers must keep in mind that while Venus and Neptune represents how Life shoud be (Idealism) and Uranus represents ideas and concepts of Life could be, Saturn represents Life as it actually is (Reality). People by and large don't do things without at least some consideration of what they stand to gain from it, and the constant erosion of Marriage over the past few decades in particular is no exception. In the past, Saturn asked men to give up a great deal of things, but they also gained much as well. Today, it is harder to make that case. Women have gained, so have children (or so we think) but men definitely have lost. Saturn represents sacrifice, and Marriage represents the giving up of things for both men and women for a higer purpose. If Marriage is ever to regain the respect it once held, it will have to show that it has important benefits for men in general, as well.
Our Society, depends on it.
Salaam,
Mu
