Jupiter teaches us how to say yes and Saturn teaches us how to say no. 

Before the Romans borrowed heavily from the Greeks to add some shine to their stories, Saturn was associated with burying things. Depending on the academic you talk to, these buried things could either be people or seeds. Either way, Saturn put things to rest and cultivated them for later. The story we all know has Saturn overthrowing his father, Caelus, to become King of the Gods but not learning the lessons only to repeat the curse. He chose to eat his offspring, to carry the burden and allow fear of what could happen to change him from the rebel he used to be to the tyrant he himself had fought against previously. Jupiter was the last child born to Saturn and his mother hid him to save him. Once Jupiter comes of age he gladly accepts the risk of returning home to save his siblings and overthrow his father. Some versions have Jupiter rallying Saturn’s own brothers against him for a great battle where he is dismembered and has his “member” thrown in the sea spawning Venus from the seed that spilled there. Others have Saturn leaving after his defeat and  teaching the people of early Rome agriculture and ushering in the Golden Age of Rome. Either way, Jupiter goes on to rule the Gods and the skies. He also manages to eat his children from his sister-wife but retain his throne and later spawns thousands of others with various humans and supernatural creatures.

What does any of that have to do with saying yes and no? When we look at the stories and how the planets show up in astrology we realize that they show us the good and bad side of the two powerful words. Saturn shows us the power of no in understanding boundaries. Good boundaries can help us to stop a tyrant from burying us. It also helps in cultivating delayed gratification so that the seeds we bury can have enough time to properly sprout and bear fruit. Saturn also shows us how saying no from a space of fear (not caution) can cause us to unduly burden ourselves on ways that will destroy us. It is a mirror that shows how saying no to time and to the march of evolution will be our undoing. Jupiter shows us the power of yes in going for it. It reminds us that faith is the weapon most often employed in yes and that audacity can be a powerful. Jupiter shows us how a whole new world unknown to us to can be opened up with those three letters if we are willing to go for it. And it remind us that yes can be just of much of a burden as no because we have to care for or are hurt by all the things we or they let in.

Jupiter returns in astrology often have times when we expand and get a whole of what we think we want but it ain’t always good. Saturn returns constrict us and have us grow up through reminding of what we can’t have right then. Expansion or yes and constriction  or no should be in balance in order for us to thrive. Too much of one and not enough of the other will have us in a sorry state. The two juggernauts of the solar system have signed up to be our constant guides and reminders of this lesson.