Saturn, to say the least, is a tough planet to deal with in the natal chart and in transit (unless very well placed and in good aspect with other planets). Saturn provides opportunities and experiences that are meant to mold you into the individual that your soul needs you to be. No one is supposed to go through what you do because your life is tailored to you and your soul purpose, and your birth chart is tailored to that purpose. But it’s important that we understand we are not the only one going through something. That kind of grace, allotted by Venus, only comes after going through trials and tribulations with Saturn.

Saturn is a sifter; that critical state of being (i.e., growing pains, down seasons) is how Saturn sifts the unwanted or unneeded parts of your being in order to highlight the best parts of you. There are three testing periods Saturn puts us through:

1. Destruction
2. Scarcity
3. Realism

In the destruction period, Saturn quite literally destroys what feels like everything to the point where our foundation and really our entire existence has to be reevaluated. Is what I am doing truly coming from soul or is it all ego? This will be the death of our idealized self or what some may call ego death. In the scarcity period, you begin to really nurture what is left after destruction. You hold on tightly to what/where Saturn showed mercy. You begin to learn true appreciation and patience and gain a clearer understanding of what really matters in life. In the realism period, you see life for what it is: a cycle of losing and gaining, and everyone goes through it. This is where some people fail: they think that their experiences with Saturn is worse than the next person thus lacking empathy, a prerequisite of Venus.

We must know that the sifter that Saturn has put us through is the same one he is putting others through so that we all can, hopefully, operate as our best self for our individual and collective soul purpose. For those who do come out of Saturn’s tests with a newfound outlook on life that is based on reality and view others with greater empathy, the door to Venus is opened. Saturn is the Simon Cowell of the planets; you need to impress him before he grants you access to Venus.

Venus is the planet of love; this is a well-known fact. But our definition of love is different than that of Venus. Her love is pure because of synthesis. Synthesis is understood when it is realized that duality is an illusion, that we are not as different as we think we are. Nothing is as separate as we make it seem, because it is all connected. To recognize these connections, you have to possess two qualities:

1. An abstract mind
2. Intelligence

Having an abstract mind is the ability to think or be receptive to something beyond physical. Intellect or being intellectual is the ability to be objective and reasonable. People either have one of the qualities, or neither. It’s not common for people to possess both but for those who do, they are operating on love not yet pure, but on its way to being so.

Venus’s Love comes from the soul, and Saturn is the one who will align you to the road that leads to the soul, to Love. Venus is an extremely powerful planet, and to understand, identify in others or identify with that power, you need to know and experience Saturn.