The Lights and Planets
Saturn marks what prime is, so, if we are past our
Saturn return at 30 years of age, we are already there—
past our prime, and, physically speaking, it is a downhill
slope we are on. Sure, the trajectory of our path will
sustain us for some years. We still look good and
continue to mature culturally, but there is no more
growing toward a perfect physical form, only this
coasting for a while and then the gradual decline.
The point of all this discussion is not to be particularly
morbid, but to set the ground, very clearly, for a
discussion of the outer or transcendental planets. To do
this, we have had to, as the Buddhists say, "turn the
mind" toward the more serious side of things. I hope we
have done that. If we understand that Saturn (and its
cycle) represents the very limit of our physical life, then
we can begin to wonder about what comes after, about
what has been called "the afterlife."