Beginning on March 9, 2023 until February 2026, we’ll all experience a sea change when Saturn moves through the elusive and mysterious sign of Pisces. Saturn has been transiting the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius for the past 5+ years, and because Saturn is at its strongest in these signs, we may’ve become overly structured or goal-oriented in this time, personally and as a society.
So—what do we do when we discover that the Wizard is just a man, that control is illusory and Time is all that we’re inevitably beholden to? Whether Saturn in Capricorn-Aquarius compelled you to put your professional concerns in front of all things personal or vice versa, there’s no doubt that Saturn in Pisces will push you in an entirely new direction.
Pisces needs regular vacations, so if you’ve been dedicated excessively to taking care of business over the past few years, you may realize you need to get out more with Saturn in Pisces.
The easiest way to get a sense of how Saturn in Pisces will affect you over the next 3 years—aside from getting a Personal Birth Chart Reading—is to consider the effect of Saturn in tandem with the principles and themes represented by the sign of Pisces.
Saturn, for instance, is the proverbial Taskmaster of the Zodiac, posing conscious tests and obstacles: to check us—this is the primary function of Saturn. So, Saturn in Pisces pushes us to prove the viability of our dreams and fantasies, as Saturn (Taskmaster) reveals to us what’s realistic and what’s just, well, not.
The last time Saturn was in Pisces was from May 1993 - April 1996, so anyone born during this time period will experience their 1st Saturn Return during the upcoming Saturn in Pisces transit, and may be grappling with their own feelings of inadequacy and subconscious fears, and may feel an intense need to reconcile their dreams with reality.
Desert island fantasies are common with Pisces, so feeling trapped could be a problem now. As a result, we may retreat into ourselves and away from our partners if in a committed relationship or be hesitant to move forward with our careers if either involves an increased level of responsibility.
As a result, for many of us Saturn in Pisces can be a period where we feel an acute desire to escape the demands of worldly commitments and other such practicalities; yet at the same time we feel intense guilt if/when we try to avoid the practicality of what it takes to turn our dreams into reality. Therein lies the paradox of Pisces.
Guilt is a theme with Saturn in Pisces, and will likely dominate our consciousness right now, primarily because there’s a deep seated passivity in those born with Saturn-Neptune combinations.
In relationships, Pisces tends to show their love through acts of service rather than words; so the challenge when Saturn arrives is learning how to be giving and compassionate without becoming the resentful Martyr. Saying what you need in relationships may feel difficult—yet it’s more important than ever to speak up while Saturn’s in Pisces for the next 3 years.
Avoidance is never a good solution when it comes to Saturn transits, so Saturn in Pisces reminds us that picking a direction when faced with a crossroads is the first step in conquering our fear of failure. Pisces is indecisive, yet often has difficulty asking for help. But with Saturn here, it’d be best to learn how to ask for it when we need it.
The best metaphor for the shift from Saturn in Aquarius to Pisces is Dorothy’s quest from the Wizard of Oz, as Saturn in Pisces is meant to test the viability of the wild ideas and reveries that keep us going and, as a result, what (and who) to put our Faith in. The journey of Saturn in Aquarius begins when Dorothy clicks her red shoes, desperate to get out of black-and-white Kansas and explore a more colorful, mystical world. Desperate to meet the Wizard, she skips down the yellow brick road filled with a mix of confusion and idealism.
Saturn is Practicality, Productivity, Bureaucracy and isn’t so much interested in the world of fantasy, imagination and emotional well-being. Pisces, meanwhile, is one of the only Water signs of the Zodiac, and has to do with all things Fantasy, Imagination and, yes—Emotions.
The last time Saturn was in Pisces was from May 1993 - April 1996, so anyone born during this time period will experience their 1st Saturn Return during the upcoming Saturn in Pisces transit, and may be grappling with their own feelings of inadequacy and subconscious fears, and may feel an intense need to reconcile their dreams with reality.
Time is an eternal preoccupation for Pisces, ever-aware as they are of their own mortality. Saturn, meanwhile, is the planetary Alarm Clock/Stopwatch/Timekeeper in Astrology. Thus a complex develops when Saturn and Pisces (Neptune) combine. Why? Both Saturn (Capricorn) and Pisces have a notoriously obsessive relationship with the idea of (wait for it) CONTROL.
Saturn/Capricorn wants it 24/7, no holds barred. Pisces, on the other hand? Ehhh, not so much. In other words, there’s an ambivalence to Control when it comes to Pisces, aware as they are of the burden of Responsibility and Commitment that comes with it. The result? One minute Pisces wants to control everything and everyone (anyone noticed how many Pisces Lawyers there are out there?); the next, they couldn’t give two figs, staring out the window counting down the number of days until their Retirement, irritable at everyone, grumbling that “they have to do everything around here.”
To be fair: Pisces work hard, especially when it comes to those they love. That said, Pisces tends to get a little “freaky” when it comes to control, often cycling between “Power Player” and “Escapist” in equal measure. This is the eternal irony of Pisces: they want complete control yet often resent the responsibility that comes with it. It’s all very “tie me up, tie me down.”
The lesson, then, when Saturn is in Pisces is to recognize and accept that control is ultimately an illusion. So the test presented to us by Saturn in Pisces is essentially one of Faith. Saturn in Pisces pushes us to face the fact that we cannot control anything completely and, as a result, the only solution is to have faith—particularly in the notion of Time, as we’re sure to slip up if we push to make things happen when the timing isn’t right. Remember: good things come to those who wait. Not that it’s easy, of course.
Like Dorothy, Aquarius is prone to put their own ambitions and dreams on hold, unconsciously driven toward helping friends or like-minded others recognize and fulfill their needs instead—not just to feel needed, but to, perhaps unconsciously, avoid considering the possibility that their own dream may not be as promising (read: realistic) as it once seemed—that the Wizard might not exist.
Yet, armed with her crew of imaginary friends, she eventually eases into the uncertainty of her quest to meet the Wizard. In many respects, the trip down the Yellow Brick Road is symbolic of the lesson of Saturn’s most recent 2.5 year journey through Aquarius that began back in late December of 2020.
In contrast, Saturn in Pisces pushes us to give form to fantasy—to move past the revelation that the Wizard may actually just be a man—so that we can discern between what’s real and what’s imagination. Saturn in Pisces will show us where we’ve been (potentially) living in a fantasy, disabusing us of any notions that live “somewhere over the rainbow” and challenging us to find a practical way to make our ideas work and, if we can’t? It may be time to abandon them entirely.
Saturn is all about Karma—it challenges you, but rewards hard work. So before you start feeling all sad thinking about how the Wizard (Saturn in Pisces) turned out to be a big fat disappointment, don’t forget that it was ultimately the power of her MIND that got her back home to Kansas. Which is exactly what she wanted.
Yes the idea of the Wizard may’ve been all an illusion; but wasn’t she all the better off from that journey down the yellow brick road? Yes. Why? Because at the end of it all it makes her appreciate the reality of what she had at home (hello Auntie Em). Though Saturn in Aquarius is equivalent to the tornado that scoops her up and sends her down the Yellow Brick Road, the moment that Dorothy finally faces the Wizard is the lesson of Saturn in Pisces.
That is—when she realizes that the Wizard's really just a man behind a curtain (and, consequently, that Oz doesn’t really exist), she’s forced to tune into her own power (or, to believe in herself, if you want to get cheesy), click her red shoes together and rely on the power her own mind to get back to reality: This is the feeling of Saturn in Pisces.
Sickness is a theme whenever Saturn combines with the Pisces/Neptune principle, though whatever illness arises during this transit is more than likely psychosomatic in nature, stemming directly from negative beliefs about the self and/or pessimistic thinking in general. With Saturn in Pisces, we can easily slip into a pattern of negative thinking that can lead to bouts of depression or helplessness. There’s a sense of wanting to give up at the first obstacle rather than persevere, and we can often exaggerate our perceived failures when things don’t seem to be working out exactly as we’d imagined them to, whether this applies to Work, Relationships or Life in general.
Collectively, Saturn’s move into Pisces shifts our consciousness by breaking through whatever social patterns that’ve become overly structured or crystallized during the recent “post-pandemic” years of 2021 - early 2023, helping us break out of whatever all-remote-everything routines we may’ve gotten far too used to. For one, Saturn in Pisces will likely force the issue of dealing with the post-pandemic mental health crisis—an issue many have been avoiding for a while now by burying ourselves in commitments to Work (Saturn in Capricorn) and/or Relationships (Saturn in Aquarius).
The beauty of this transit is that, if we’re careful not to retreat from the more mundane, tedious and/or materialistic demands of daily life, we can finally recognize whatever long-held beliefs and emotional patterns that don’t serve us anymore. By letting such beliefs go, we’ll not only become freer and better able to express what we need, but to realize whatever ideals we have for our lives that we may’ve written off as “too impractical” in recent years.