Awesome Election: Gain Mastery and Discipline with Saturn

Saturn is a planet that gets a bad rap in astrology. Sure, he’s the planet that rules things like restrictions, suffering, old age and even death itself – in other words, the stuff none of us really like to face. However, Saturn also stands for positive things, like discipline, mastery, commitment, those things that age well and stand the test of time.

Saturnian energy is what allows us to put our nose to the grindstone and do the hard work and and spend the time necessary to truly master a subject. Discipline and structure may not always make for fun times, but they are most definitely an important part of life, and they are what Saturn provides.

Whenever I think about what Saturn can teach in a positive sense, I always inevitably think about the “wax on, wax off” scene in the Karate Kid. If you’re not a GenXer like me and you’ve never seen this movie, here’s a little summary:

The new kid in town, Daniel, is getting bullied and beat up by some macho karate boys (if I remember right, they also steal his BMX, a mortal sin in the 80s if there ever was one!). To defend himself, he wants to learn karate himself and starts learning with Mr. Miyagi, a Japanese gardener.

Before they start in on the lessons, Mr. Miyagi has Daniel wax all of his old cars in a “wax on, wax off” circular motion, then he has him sand the floors, paint the house and paint the fence. After a few days of doing this, Daniel starts to get pissed off. His shoulder hurts, this is no fun and what does it have to do with karate anyway?

Here’s is Mr. Miyagi’s answer.

To me, this is the beauty of Saturn. It’s not about cutting corners or instant success, it’s about committing to the long-haul, about taking the time to build up something strong and solid, not a rushed, fly by night plan that falls apart in the end. Some of the work is unpleasant, tedious or boring, like practicing scales if you’re a musician, but it pays off in the end.

This weekend, we get a chance to tap into and harness this positive side of Saturn and bring it into our lives in a more direct way. Here’s what you need to know.

Saturn in Aquarius election

On Sunday, February 20, 2022 (or Saturday, February 19 depending on your location), there is a great Saturn election that you can use for a variety of Saturnian purposes, such as:

• Making long-term commitments

• Gaining respect and mastery

• Creating new, lasting structures in your life

• Improving discipline and endurance

• Working on building something in a slow, steady and effective manner

• Anything involving buildings or real estate, which is something Saturn rules

Again, this is not the energy to use for overnight results, but rather those types of pursuits where you need and are willing to put in the hard work (a very Saturnian principle!) to elevate your status and authority in the long run.

The chart

This Saturn in Aquarius electional chart is timed for February 20, 2022 at 11:13 a.m. for my location in Berlin, Germany and can be used anywhere in the European Union.

Strong in the sign it traditionally rules, Saturn is directly on the MC (Mid-heaven), which speaks to slowly and steadily gaining in authority in your career or the public eye. The moon is in the 5th house in Libra and is applying to a harmonious trine to Saturn.

In any electional chart, the moon is extremely important because it acts as the intermediary between the celestial realm and the material plane. Without the support of the moon, the election is ineffective. Since Libra is the sign of Saturn’s exaltation and the aspect is applying (i.e. the moon is heading toward completing a trine with Saturn), this chart has the juice to harness this positive Saturnian energy in the ways I described above.

Although this chart could be used for many things that fit the aspects I described in the bullet points above, I especially like it for committing to a creative or literary pursuit (a mix of the 5th house and Mercury in the 9th), which is how I’ll be using it.

If you need to relocate the chart, here are the times to use (if you’re location is missing from the list, just ask and I’ll look it up for you :) ) As is always the case with electional charts, it might not work everywhere and/or will change the date and time depending on your location:

Europe

• Central European Standard Time: February 20, 2022 at 11:13 a.m.

• Greenwich Mean Time (UK): February 20, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.

USA/Canada

• Eastern Time Zone: Unfortunately, this chart doesn’t work as well in this time zone, because the moon is out of orb. The election may still work, but it won’t be as potent. If you’d still like to give it a try, you need to do it one day earlier on February 19 at 11:18 a.m.

• Central Time Zone: February 19 at 11:10 a.m.

• Mountain Time Zone: February 19 at 11:21 a.m.

• Pacific Time Zone: February 19 at 11:25 a.m.

How to use an electional chart

I wrote this text which gives you more details about electional astrology, so check it out if you don’t know what this is or would like to know more.

In a nutshell, you need to do some sort of concrete action at the time of the election to set the ball in motion. This could be something like:

• Naming and saving a word document you plan to use later.

• Signing up for a class.

• Sending an e-mail or making a phone call.

• Creating a website linked to your intention.

You don’t have to do much more than that at this stage, just make the first move. Whatever you initiate at this moment will hold the energy of the election, allowing you to benefit from it in the long run.

How to use this chart magically

This chart is very potent and can also be used for astrological magic. For this, you create either a petition or a talisman, which allows you to harness this energy for future use. To do so, you need to perform a ritual as described in the Picatrix, a 10th century book on astrological magic.

Here’s how to do so (n.b. some of this is my own way of doing things combined with what it says in the Picatrix, which is fairly barebones):

• Shortly before the election, light a candle and some incense or plant material that corresponds to Saturn, such as poppy, pine, storax, fern, cumin, hemp or frankincense.

• Close your eyes and focus on your breath. Imagine your body being surrounded by the color black. Breath. Now imagine lead is coming up through the ground and coating your bones. Once all your bones have been covered, imagine the planet Saturn floating above your head. Now imagine his symbol in your heart. It looks like this.*

• Open your eyes and recite the Orphic hymn to Saturn, which is below:

  ETHERIAL father, mighty Titan, hear,
  Great fire of Gods and men, whom all revere:
  Endu'd with various council, pure and strong,
  To whom perfection and decrease belong.
  Consum'd by thee all forms that hourly die,
  By thee restor'd, their former place supply;
  The world immense in everlasting chains,
  Strong and ineffable thy pow'r contains
  Father of vast eternity, divine,
  O mighty Saturn, various speech is thine:
  Blossom of earth and of the starry skies,
  Husband of Rhea, and Prometheus wife.
  Obstetric Nature, venerable root,
  From which the various forms of being shoot;
  No parts peculiar can thy pow'r enclose,
  Diffus'd thro' all, from which the world arose,
  O, best of beings, of a subtle mind,
  Propitious hear to holy pray'rs inclin'd;
  The sacred rites benevolent attend,
  And grant a blameless life, a blessed end.

Now it’s time to create the talisman or petition. To do so, either imagine the following (for a petition), draw it on a piece of paper imbued with Saturnian herbs (list above) or carve/scratch it on onyx, jet, dark lapis lazuli, blue sapphire, black leather or bone, all of which have a Saturnian nature.

The image you need to use for the drawing/carving:

A man standing on a dragon holding a scythe in his right hand and a spear in his left, dressed in black or tawny clothes. You also need to add the seal of Saturn, which looks like this:

If you’re not much of an artist, don’t worry (I can’t draw at all). It’s totally fine if you just draw stick figures and a wonky looking dragon. It’s the intention behind creating the image that matters, not the aesthetic results.

Once you’ve finished your drawing or carving, pull the talisman or paper through the incense smoke several times and state your intention, e.g. Please help me, John Doe, to have more discipline (in my creative pursuits, studies, etc.), to gain the mastery needed to write my novel, to gain in authority, etc.

You can be as specific or general as you want, but make sure what you’re asking is something Saturn can actually deliver according to his nature. In other words, don’t ask for help with your love life or overnight success as an influencer and so forth, because Saturn has very little to do with love (except perhaps commitment) and his energy is slow and methodical, more the somber master or elder statesman rather than the early shooting star.

Once you’ve finished, you can lay the talisman/paper down next to the candle and leave it there at least until the incense has burned down.

Please note:

The timing for the ritual from start to finish is crucial. Here are the windows you can use for each of the time zones listed above (in a few cases, the times are slightly earlier to leave room for the beginning of the ritual):

Europe

• Central European Standard Time: February 20, 2022 from 11:06 a.m. to 11:20 a.m.

• Greenwich Mean Time (UK): February 20, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. to 11:17

USA/Canada

• Eastern Time Zone: February 19 from 11:00 a.m. to 11:18 a.m. (not as strong and more suitable to a paper talisman).

• Central Time Zone: February 19 from 10:50 a.m. to 11:10 a.m.

• Mountain Time Zone: February 19 from 11:05 to 11:21 a.m.

• Pacific Time Zone: February 19 from 11:10 a.m. to 11:25 a.m.

If you end up going over a little bit, it’s not the end of the world, but you should definitely have the basic carving or drawing finished before this time.

A few final thoughts

I’ve been practicing astrological magic for around three years now and I’ve had some really great results. What I especially like about it is that it is strict and particular in that you have to wait for a great election like this one for it to work, and you have to use materials that correspond to Saturn and an image as specified in the Picatrix, but other than that, the rituals are fairly simple and straightforward.

That said, your ritual in of itself can be an artistic act, and I have noticed that when I put in more effort, I sometimes get stronger results. Some ideas in this case would be to:

• Create a small altar for Saturn using e.g. Saturn’s magic square, seal, and the other symbols you can find here. Again, you could simply print this sheet out, draw it on a black cloth (Saturn’s color) or etch on glass, whatever. It’s totally up to you.

• Dress in black and perhaps add some poppies to the altar or the branch of a pine tree.

• Incorporate the number three into your altar, which is Saturn’s number (e.g. three candles, three bones, three dark stones, etc.)

• Do the ritual in a graveyard.

Again, none of this is necessary, but it can make things fun and help the energy attune even more to the nature of Saturn.

I’ve created Saturn talismans in the past and found them excellent for better focusing and concentrating on something for long periods of time, especially when alone, so that’s another thing your talisman might bring to you or that you could ask for.

If you do end up using the election or making a talisman, feel free to share your story below!

*Thanks to Austin Coppock for suggesting this small meditation to tune into Saturn’s planetary energy!