All about Saturn in Aquarius or in the 11th house

The placement of your Saturn sign can reveal some of life’s toughest lessons.

What your Saturn sign means

Here’s where your dutiful side kicks in and makes you modest and process-driven. Perfectionism and self-criticism can stall progress. Restriction and suppression are Saturn’s signature moves, so you may constantly hold yourself back in this area of life. Understanding your Saturn sign can help you identify your blocks and make your ascent.

Although you may never be totally free from Saturn’s iron grip, learning how to push past inner (and in some cases, outer) judgment can launch you to the highest heights of success! You may not realize how hard you’ve worked to figure this out—and years later, boom, you discover that you’re an expert.

Where have you become excessive? When is enough just…enough? The whistleblowing planet of integrity reveals where you need to set better boundaries. But don’t give up! Taskmaster Saturn applauds perseverance and shines a light on where you need to keep on pushing!

This is the planet that rules structured Capricorn, the zodiac’s Sea Goat (a “WTF?!” creature if ever there was one). With its mermaid tail and two front legs, the Capricorn Goat makes an unwavering ascent to the top of the mountain for the win. Maybe that’s why there’s so much hidden magic to Saturn’s process. One minute, you feel like Sisyphus rolling an interminable boulder up the hill. Then, your hustle yields a breakthrough and you’re living the dream!

It’s worth working with a master teacher to develop a Saturn-ruled craft. Practice definitely makes perfect in this area of life. Don’t worry about knocking it out of the park the first time up to bat. (You won’t.) Wax on, wax off. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Victory!

Natal Saturn or Saturn Sign

Whatever zodiac sign and house Saturn was orbiting through at your time of birth determines your “natal Saturn” or “Saturn sign.” More specifically, this will guide you in the following ways:

Time: Where you’ll take your time and let things develop organically
Karma: What past-life lessons you are facing again this time around
Ambition: Where you’ll hustle and compete to become the best
Authority: Your leadership style and where you take charge
Boundaries: Where you set firm limits—possibly limiting yourself in the process
Challenges: What hurdles you are here to overcome
Perseverance: Where you’ll never, ever give up!
Providing: What you provide for “your people” and where you’re the rock for them
Suppression: How you restrict yourself, holding yourself back from growth

Saturn is one of the outer planets, housed between Jupiter and Pluto. Because of its distance from the Sun, it has a longer orbit to make. Saturn takes 29.5 years to circle the Sun, spending an average of three years in each one of the zodiac signs. Every 29.5 years you will have a Saturn return, a cosmic rite of passage associated with adulting, mastery and triumphing over challenges.

What’s your Saturn sign?

Use our cosmic calculator to discover what zodiac sign and house Saturn was in when you were born. To accurately determine the house, you will need to know your birth time.

What if the zodiac sign and house are different?

This is common! Read both the sign and house description below. Do these interpretations pull you in two different directions? That’s not unusual. We human beings have range. Astrology is an interpretive dance, a tool which provides a fascinating layer of self-discovery. Do some “astro mixology.” Reflect on how you can work with both energies to enhance your life.

Find your Saturn Sign

Calculate Yours!

Special positions of Saturn

Retrograde:

Saturn turns retrograde for five months of every year, so it’s not unusual to be born with this planet in reverse. You may have to work harder to muscle through its lessons, but once you nail this planet’s energy, your additional effort may actually lead to a rock-solid mastery of working with Saturn in your life.

Domicile: Capricorn

The planet’s home base, an easy flow if placed here in the chart

Detriment: Cancer

Opposite sign of home base, may need to work harder to integrate the planet’s energy if placed here in the chart

Exalted: Libra

The planet’s most powerful position; indicates ease and added fortune with using the planet’s energy if placed here in the chart

Fall: Aries

Opposite sign to the exalted position, can indicate struggles with utilizing the planet’s energy if placed here in the chart

Saturn in Aquarius or the 11th House

All for one and one for all? With serious Saturn in Aquarius or the collaborative 11th house, you’re the ultimate team player…with an asterisk. You’ll be a joiner…if you feel a deep sense of synergy.

Traits of Saturn in Aquarius

There’s not much you’ll do in life, “just for the heck of it.” No, you’re far too evolved of a soul for that. Life is a brief and wonderful opportunity to help humanity gain greater consciousness—and you’re here to be part of that. If you weren’t born with the humanitarian gene, it was probably developed early in life. Perhaps it was triggered by a traumatic childhood experience or simply because you witness bullying, body-shaming, poverty, racism or any inequity. With Saturn in this democratic placement, you rail against rigid authority or privilege. You believe that everyone should have a voice—and equal say!

Social impact is the name of Saturn in Aquarius’s game—but not merely in the activist realm. Whatever plan is at stake, you have a knack for organizing people, hyping up team spirit and assigning roles to everyone involved. People feel important around you. Why? Because you not only see their potential, you turn it into kinetic energy. (Or maybe a symphony, like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had Saturn in Aquarius.) This ability can help you rise through the ranks as upper-level management, a team leader or the organizer of a movement.

Challenges for Saturn in Aquarius

What can be a struggle for Saturn in Aquarius, however, is taking credit for your own hard work. Modest Saturn suppresses any peacocking urges to begin with, but in cool, understated Aquarius (or the 11th house), you can be quick to wave away a compliment with a humble, “Awww, it was no big deal.” You might even deflect by listing all the things that others contributed to the win while you downplay your own achievements.

The legendary Whitney Houston, who had this Saturn placement, told the press that what first intrigued her about (Aquarius) Bobby Brown was that he didn’t seem to like her. It’s been widely speculated that she married Brown to squash rumors of bisexuality—a heartbreaking example of what happens when suppressive Saturn rolls up the Aquarius freedom flag. Ironically, Houston sang the theme song for this Saturn sign: “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.”

And, on a more mundane level, so is learning to gracefully stamp your name on your work. Otherwise, you may silently seethe while frenemies (who you invited to play out of sheer generosity in the first place) scoop up all the credit for your original ideas. Being dubbed a narcissist is a terrifying notion for anyone with Saturn in this magnanimous placement. So lean into your generous spirit. Don’t brag, share. For example, “I’d love to share my ideas at the Monday Zoom.” Pro tip: Hit record on that meeting so you can timestamp your debut…just in case.

The compassion of Saturn in Aquarius

Sticking up for the underdog is a Saturn in Aquarius thing; in fact, nothing rouses your compassion more than seeing a sad kid left on the playground sidelines. Big hearted as you may be, don’t underestimate the impact that one “bad apple” can have on the rest of the barrel. While it’s fine for you to develop relationships with the difficult people of the world (you call them “iconoclastic”), their disruptive social behaviors can derail a group mission. Kindergarten rules are not always appropriate in the grownup arena. So don’t feel guilty about making an executive decision to not include everyone in everything every single time.

You can also be quite the rebel, although it’s usually for some sort of cause. Director Quentin Tarantino, who was born with this Saturn sign, knows how to use shock value to create iconic films. Both Aquarius and the 11th house are associated with technology and Saturn here can make you extremely influential online.

Saturn in Aquarius careers

Because you prefer interactivity, you probably feel more comfortable teaching, live-gaming or “edu-taining” than posting a million random selfies. Any digital skill you learn is sure to spell money in the bank. You could invent something life-changing, like an app or gadget.

Though you could do many kinds of work with Saturn in Aquarius, you’ll want to surround yourself with progressive thinkers and inspiring innovators as colleagues. Throughout life, you may have friends who are significantly older than you, because you appreciate the intellectual quality of conversation.

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