The 12 steps of
Saturn
Bonnie
Isham Willis
October
2001
Astrologers have long associated Neptune and Pisces
with addiction, as an escape or an altered reality. But, the concepts of Saturn should not be overlooked as a
significant role in addiction, especially alcoholism. Saturn’s restriction and limits can psychologically and
emotionally send us to the escape of Neptune, or attract it into our
lives. We can also see common ties
between depression and alcoholism, and in that sense, Saturn is a major root in
both. If we face the challenge of
Saturn and begin the journey of a successful recovery, the cause and affect can
also be the cure. We will need both Saturn and Neptune to build a new life.
Neptune participates in addiction by letting us get
lost in illusion, and escaping the dreaded realities of Earth. Maybe it is the ideal spiritual encounter
that our Neptunian soul seeks, as can be found through meditation and spiritual
awakenings. It is the same feeling we have when we fall in love, or when we are
passionately inspired to create. This feeling is the greatest “high” we could
ever feel, but drugs or alcohol can mimic the experience enough to lure our
human mind to crave more.
Saturn throws obstacles into our path and tempts us
to find an easy way through uncomfortable or difficult emotions and
restrictions as we grow. Saturn is
responsibility for our earthly needs, for self, and for our choices. We can see
this as either restriction or freedom, depending on our perception.
As one example:
when we first move out of our parents’ house, a job, bills, our own home
are welcomed as part of our freedom.
Yet, as we become comfortable, we begin to perceive those
responsibilities as restricting our freedom.
In these ways, Saturn tests our comfort zones and our perceptions as he
challenges us to grow and change.
Saturn has a significant role in addiction in many
charts, avoiding uncomfortable or difficult emotions, obstacles and
changes. If Saturn is success, it is
also fear of failure. If Saturn is social status, it is also feelings of
inadequacy. Saturn can build,
structure, teach, and mature, as well as show us our fear, self-limitation, and
guilt.
Saturn and Neptune concepts shape addiction,
especially alcoholism as a legal, socially acceptable, and often, traditional
(family) escape, or way to handle uncomfortable emotions and situations.
If Saturn is the hard, cold reality of life on earth,
and Neptune is the escape, they can be the cause and effect. Saturn’s restrictions and expectations often
send us seeking the escape of Neptune. Saturn’s guilt, fear of failure, and
feelings of inadequacy can keep us there.
Always trying to reach that ’high’ or that spiritual place of Neptune,
and the crash back to earth of Saturn.
Saturn can also
attract addictions into our life through others. A strong Saturn influence
would seldom let itself be overcome by addiction. Instead of living out the
escape to Neptune, we subconsciously attract it to us. We project and reflect those parts of
ourselves in others. Perhaps under the surface is the envy to escape, or the
need to ‘fix’ someone else’s life, and avoid truly healing our own internal fears
and emotional turmoil.
The influence of Saturn might be so
responsible, to take on the weight of the world, especially for those we love.
The underlying motivations may vary, but the interdependency that develops can
create an environment in which addiction can thrive and progress. Saturn forces us through challenges and
relationship problems to realize we cannot make another happy – just as, we
cannot depend on another person to provide our happiness. Each must find it from within.
Astrologers
commonly refer to Saturn in depression; its symptoms include feelings of
powerlessness, hopelessness, inadequacy, guilt, shame, and fear.1 The common tie between depression and
addiction are the same emotions, particularly, powerlessness. In the case of depression, most feel these
in excess, and in addiction, avoidance is present. Of course, there are no set rules of gender, but we can use the
generalities and social roles to help us understand. Depression affects a significantly greater number of women, and
alcoholism more often men.1 A
socially conditioned gender difference can be seen. For women, it is easier to identify and express such feelings,
and even exaggerate them; for men it is easier to repress them, or avoid those
feelings all together.
Prescribed medication
for recovering alcoholics or addicts are often antidepressants, similar to the
ones prescribed for those suffering clinical Depression. Not only do we see the
common ties between depression and addiction through treatments, similar
symptoms or emotional roots, we also see many of those suffering depression, in
dual diagnosis with addiction or in a relationship with an addict.
What addicts, enablers, and those suffering
depression often have in common is an external locus of control, 1 letting
the outside world, others and circumstances, determine their state of happiness
or inner peace. Saturn challenges us to
find our internal locus of control, finding that inner peace from within. We can find peace and fulfillment in the acknowledgment
of being truly and totally responsible for our own lives. It is a conscious
choice everyday to be happy, to feel fulfilled within.
When we are truly in touch with our self, and working
with the energy of Saturn, we have recognized the need and begin to take full
responsibility for our life, including our choices, our circumstances, and our
power to change what we can, and accept that which we can not change. Those in recovery with a 12-step program are
working the program by doing just that.
With the success of many recovering Alcoholics and
Addicts, we see that we need both Saturn and Neptune as part of the Recovery
process. Through a 12-step program, which includes a spiritual concept, an
emotional healing can take place. This
relates Saturn, (working the program) to Neptune (spirituality), and has had
much success. Some even say, I don’t
know why it works to include the spirituality, but it does. 1 Again combining Saturn (it works) and
Neptune (I’m not sure why). When we reach for the natural high of Neptune’s
spirituality and begin to take Saturn’s responsibility for our own life,
choices, and actions, we are on our way to Recovery.
Those of us
that have loved and/or enabled an alcoholic or addict need a journey of
recovery as well. Saturn can either
help this growing process, with boundaries and responsibility for self, or
hinder with avoidance and fear.
We can see for ourselves in the 12 steps, the
repeated messages of both, responsibility and spirituality, and then in the
end, giving back, teaching and supporting others. In Recovery, it seems Saturn and Neptune make a great team.
1)
Admit we were powerless over alcohol, that our lives
had become unmanageable.
2)
Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves
could restore us to sanity.
3)
Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over
to the care of God as we understand God
4)
Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of
ourselves.
5)
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human
being the exact nature of our wrongs.
6)
Were entirely ready to have God remove all these
defects of our character.
7)
Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
8)
Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became
willing to make amends to them all.
9)
Made direct amends to such people wherever possible
except when to do so would injure them or others.
10)
Continued to take personal inventory and when we were
wrong, promptly admitted it.
11)
Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
conscious contact with god, as we understood God. Praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to
carry that out.
12)
Having had a
spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message
to others, and practice these principles in all our affairs.
References:
How Al-Anon Works, Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc,
Virginia Beach, Virginia, 1995
1 Notes
Much of the
non-statistical information comes from several texts, classes, personal
experiences and education through Al-anon, and the many alcoholic/addicts I
have known, as well as several Psychology classes and text. A specific class
that was extremely informative:
Introduction to Human Services, Indian River Community College, Florida,
Fall 2000.