AUTHOR’S NOTE: As a life-long student of the Hermetic Qabalah, I confess to being immensely entertained by Lon Milo DuQuette’s Tarot Architect and its iconoclastic treatment of the planetary mythology underlying the Hebrew Tree of Life. Of particular interest is his handling of Saturn. I’ll paraphrase my quote about Pluto in a previous essay by asserting “There is absolutely nothing superficial about Saturn!” (Warning! Multiple compound sentences ahead,)

DuQuette notes that Saturn does “double duty” on the Tree by occupying the third sephira, or emanation, of Binah, which is the “jumping-off place” for the Descent of Spirit as it departs the Supernal Triad and enters the evolving Macrocosm, and also through its correspondence to the 32^nd path (the abode of tarot’s World or Universe) and first path on the “Way of Return” when vertically “rising on the planes” from the tenth sephira, Malkuth, the Microcosm or material world that is a dangling appendage of the six-sphere Macrocosm.

On the downward arc, we must first learn the harsh lessons of Saturn (and of the “Dark Mother” Ama in Binah at the head of the Pillar of Severity) before we can fully reap the rewards of next-in-line Jupiter, topmost astronomical singularity on the Pillar of Mercy or, more directly, the “pure gold” of the Sun at the center of the Middle Pillar of Mildness. In the second case, I find it instructive that the path of the Sword (the Lovers) intercedes between Binah and Tiphareth, suggesting a discriminating excision of any overbearing Saturnian pretensions in the crucible of the Abyss. On the ascending curve, we must leave our worldly preoccupations behind as we aspire to transcend the realm of Earth.

I think it’s notable that, on the way down, the energy of spiritual emanation strikes right to the heart of the Macrocosm in Tiphareth, the sphere of the Sun, via the path of the Lovers (although it also takes a more circuitous route that first visits the spheres of Jupiter and Mars on the inferred “Path of the Lightning Flash” or “Flaming Sword”). On the way back up, the rebounding energy must pass through the reflective sphere of the Moon, Yesod, before reaching the solar fire in the company of Temperance (envoy of Sagittarius and, by extension, Jupiter, on the Path of the Arrow). Together these “buffers” provide a filter against being prematurely inflamed, figuratively mirroring the iconography of the Waite-Smith Lovers card that portrays the conscious mind (the Man) being unable to communicate directly with the superconscious mind (the Angel) and thus having to gain access by appealing to the subconscious mind (the Woman). The sphere of the Moon and the dispassionate Angel of Temperance (kin to the angelic presence in the Lovers) provide the same service.

In astrology, Saturn – as “Father Time,” the Great Teacher and Taskmaster – represents the temporal fabric of the social environment and Jupiter supplies the idealistic content that indwells the enveloping “garment.” In its boundless optimism, Jupiter thinks it can expand indefinitely but Saturn places a roadblock squarely in its path. This give-and-take between rigid structure and elastic substance produces the character that is essential to making one’s way in the world. The twenty-first year of life is considered to be the “Age of Majority” in some cultures, but transiting Saturn knows its 28!

Classical “seven-planet” astrology views Saturn as the “final frontier” on the way to the stars but Qabalah treats it as a preparatory phase in both directions, falling and rising, outgoing and incoming. According to Greek mythology, the head Titan, Kronos or Cronus (Roman Saturn), was the “father” of the godlings that followed, which he first devoured to avoid subsequent challenges to his throne but was later tricked into disgorging by his wife, Rhea. (Lovely creatures, these gods!) This mythical scenario has a parallel in the sequence of the planetary spheres on the Tree since Jupiter (or Zeus) was foremost among Saturn’s progeny, last born and never swallowed due to Rhea’s duplicity.

I apologize for the half-baked Qabalism (I didn’t do justice to the abstract concept of “crossing the Abyss” between the Archetypal and Creative Worlds) and the only slightly more coherent astrology and mythology, but my curious mind loves to pull these arcane threads.