Saturn Transiting the Fourth House

Just like I wrote of Jupiter transiting the 4th bringing new insight and knowledge into the deeper/unconscious aspects of one’s emotional nature, I find Saturn transiting the 4th house has a similar effect, but is certainly more sobering. This is a time of undergoing emotional burdens (and hopefully, learning to release them). It’s also a time that teaches what is really necessary for happiness through painful awareness of life’s fragility and unpredictability. The 4th house holds our inner security, happiness, and comfort. Anything that has a connection to home, as the 4th house does, has a connection with things very close to our hearts and fundamental sense of stability.

Difficulties of Saturn Transiting the Fourth House

Getting to the crux of it, Saturn moving through the fourth house has potential to be quite the painful time. I often see this period as emotionally destabilizing. In some way, life is always giving and taking, but Saturn in the 4th can feel like the ground beneath your feet gets taken away. At some point, we go through such a change, experience, or loss, that life never feels the same, and this transit so often brings those kinds of events.

You might assume this all has to do with home or the mother, but the effects can touch anything that has been a longstanding source of security. And because anything that disturbs our sense of security can cause fear, I see fear being a big theme for this transit, particularly because the issues that arise are often prolonged and uncertain. Negative thought-patterns and letting go of past pain are other big challenges that come up.

But going back to one’s mother – yeah this is an interesting time for that relationship. Sometimes one can receive a lot of help from their mother during this time though, or they have to start taking care of their mom. There can be heightened emotions from addressing past issues with the mother – these things definitely come up. It can also be a tough time in mom’s life when she’s working really hard or undergoing some burden.

Positives of Saturn Transiting the Fourth House

Even though the potential for difficulties is undeniable, Saturn’s long transits can never be entirely bad. Saturn is often involved in many life events that people look forward to and work hard to obtain. Some areas of life that will be positively impacted by this transit is work, health, and buying or selling of property.

Work and career can be expected to undergo some changes during this transit, as Saturn is casting its special 3rd aspect to the 6th house and its direct aspect to the 10th. This can manifest as greater responsibility at work, or an entirely new job. If Jupiter’s aspect is hitting the 6th or 10th as well, then these changes at work will be all the better – not simply an increase in work/responsibly, but also esteem, reputation, money, enjoyment, etc. If only Saturn is in aspect, and it rules some unfortunate houses or the 10th is receiving other difficult aspects, then one’s reputation can become hurt or something negative can happen in the workplace. BUT, I always see this lead to something better in the end.

Saturn Transiting the 4th’s effect on Health

There is a transit technique that gives a special consideration to when a planet transits the 11th place from the house it is a karaka for. I learned from Ernst Wilhelm that Saturn’s transit through the 4th is a reward transit for health. As he put it, we would see results during this transit for how we’ve been taking care of our health: for better or worse.

What I can say about that, is that I did experience a great positive shift in health once Saturn started moving into my 4th house. I was not expecting anything positive, as I had been my most unhealthy the 2-3 years preceding this and expected this might be the time a serious issue manifested. However, I have always tried to take care of my health in numerous ways, even during those difficult times. What I experienced were my efforts finally giving results. This is also a good time to lose weight more easily, since Saturn is casting its full special 10th aspect to the ascendant.

Redefining What One Truly Needs for Happiness

Going back to how I began this post – if Saturn disrupts your sense of security during this transit, you’ll be forced to look for something that offers you a deeper sense of security. Perhaps something that exists beyond anything we can extract from this world. This is a time when one realizes what is truly needed for happiness, and chances are it’s not nearly as much as you think you need. Unfortunately, many people only realize this after experiencing (or witnessing) great losses.

A few more words about it: