S
Sagittarius. The ninth sign of the zodiac. v. Signs.
Saros. (1) A Chaldean and Babylonian interpretation of a cycle of 60 days as 60 years. (2) 60 sixties, or 3,600.
(3) A lunar cycle of 6,585.32 days - 223 lunations; or 18 years, 11 1/3 days. In this period the centers of Sun
and Moon return so nearly to the same relative places that the eclipses of the next period recur in approximately
the same sequence - but with their zone of visibility shifted 120° to the Westward. (v. Eclipses.)
Because the Node recedes 19.5 a year, the Sun meets the same Node in 346.62 days - the eclipse year. As this
does not coincide with the Lunar periods, the Sun moves past the node a degree a day for as many days as it
takes for the Moon to reach a conjunction or opposition. Thus either a Solar or Lunar Eclipse may occur before
or after the Sun reaches the Node, or both before and after. If the Lunation occurs within 2 or 3 days before or
after the Sun reaches the Node there may be no accompanying Lunar Eclipse, as on Dec. 3, 1918 and May 29,
1919 (Saros Series 11).
If the Lunation or Full Moon occurs from 4 to 9 days before the Sun reaches the Node, there will be a Lunar
Eclipse followed by a Solar Eclipse, or the reverse. If the Lunation occurs from 10 to 12 days before the Sun
reaches the Node there may be a series of three Eclipses: a Solar before the Node, a Lunar at the Node, and
another Solar when the Sun has passed beyond the Node. Associated with this are certain values:
......................................................Days
...242 returns of the Moon to a particular Node.......6585.36
....19 returns of the Sun to the same Node............6585.78
...233 Synodic months.................................6585.32
Saturn chasing the Moon. This is one of the most powerful of Saturnian conditions. Since the progressed
Moon takes twenty-eight and Saturn thirty years to complete the circle, the two may in rare cases,
approximately coincide. An affliction of the Moon by Saturn is of itself one of the most unfortunate of aspects;
for when the aspect is close and the progressing Moon moves at about the same rate as Saturn, a transit of
Saturn to the Moon can persist indefinitely - often for a lifetime: thus resulting in a double affliction. However,
the condition can occur only where the Moon at birth is in conjunction, square or opposition to Saturn.
Saturnine. One of a dour disposition - a meaning borrowed wholly from Astrology, which defines it as one
who has a strong Saturn accent.