Observations regarding Saturn in Pisces and Catholicism

Check out Cosmographia's review of Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces!

Thanks to Bethany Tabor of Cosmographia for reviewing Impossible Dreams: Hopes, Fears, and Expectations for Saturn in Pisces! Here’s an excerpt from the review:

After the explanation of the significance and meaning of Saturn and Pisces, the essays start to explore the crux of the question the transit is going to pose to us over the next three years: where are we—or where are we going—spiritually as a culture? Since Pisces is the final sign in the zodiac, and thus the sign of higher spiritual transcendence, and Saturn is the planet of foundation and structure, we will hopefully come out the other side of this transit with a deeper sense of collective spiritual awareness. No doubt this will also have a supreme effect on the arts, especially because the ways a society develops culturally and aesthetically are wrapped up in pursuits toward the things larger than we are. Even without the astrological knowledge, we’re all very much aware of this pervasive question of where we’re going to put our spirit now that we’re seeing organized religion recede.

Sylwester offers up her own thoughts on this question, but she also provides us with some historical perspective from when Saturn was transiting through Pisces in the 1960’s when the Second Vatican Council was convened. In the chapter “We Throw Open the Windows and Let in the Holy Spirit: Memories of the Second Vatican Council” Sylwester interviews two women, both astrologers, who were young girls at the time the Church decided to make radical changes in its public-facing practices. To hear the personal reflections of both women on what they thought during the change and how their lives took shape after Vatican II was enlightening. This interview provides an insight into how this astrological transit affects things on an individual level. And, the opportunity to hear reflections on this transit with decades of hindsight is helpful, especially if we are feeling unmoored in today’s epic culture wars.

This part of the review nudged me to remember one topic I wished after the fact that I’d brought up in that interview with Jeanne Bishop and Samantha Corey: the presidency of John F. Kennedy. Kennedy was assassinated while Saturn was in Aquarius, so he did not live to experience the 1960s Saturn in Pisces transit. However, it was a big deal at the time that he was the first Roman Catholic president of the United States, so anyone who grew up Catholic during Vatican II might have some memories of that as well.

The Second Vatican Council began under the direction of Pope John XXIII in October 1962. At that time, Saturn was at 4° Aquarius. Pope John XXIII then died in June 1963, but the work continued until December 1965, when Saturn was at 11° Pisces. As Samantha and Jeanne describe in the interview, the reforms manifested in their home congregations a bit later, after Saturn moved into Aries in the late 1960s.

One Saturn in Aries cycle later, I was in fifth grade during the 1996-1997 school year. Each student had to write a report about a US president of their choosing. There were several reports on John F. Kennedy, disproportionately coming from the Catholic kids in my class. I wasn’t Catholic myself, but my best friend at the time was, so I picked Kennedy because she did.

At this writing, the United States has had a total of two Roman Catholic presidents: John F. Kennedy and Joe Biden. Interestingly, both were elected with Saturn in Capricorn and had Saturn in Aquarius for at least part of their presidency.

Joe Biden has his critics, but the complaints don’t seem to be focused on his Catholicism — as it should be, he’s being judged on how well he does his job. Meanwhile, one of his competitors for the 2024 election is also Catholic, but that’s probably the least controversial thing about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at this point!

Perhaps the United States has grown up a bit regarding Catholicism over the past two Saturn cycles. I also wonder if Catholicism has become more Protestant during that time.

This quote from Jeanne Bishop in the interview about Vatican II’s transition from the Latin Mass to Mass conducted in the local language stood out to me:

I know there was grumbling in the church when we were going to leave the Latin behind but not a lot. I mean, the Pope was as close to God as you were going to get.

I mean, the priest was idolized. I remember, in catechism when the priest would come in, the nun would say, “Father’s coming! Father’s coming!” We would all stand up, and it was like, “Almost God has come into the room!”

I was surprised to hear that the Catholic parishioners just accepted a change on the scale of going from Latin to English without serious complaint. In the Protestant world that I grew up in, every little thing was endlessly picked apart. While Protestant children may look up to their pastors in the same way they’d look up to any other adult, Protestant adults are more likely to terrorize their pastors than idolize them.

From the outside looking in, however, I don’t get the impression that the present pope, Pope Francis, is universally revered within the Roman Catholic Church in the way that past popes were even in my lifetime. Some love him, and some hate him, and they fight about him amongst themselves just like a bunch of Protestants!

Vatican II sought to build unity between the Roman Catholic Church and other religions. Two Saturn cycles later, I’d say that’s happened — but with some costs.