A planetary meditation for Saturn

a planetary meditation practice addressed to Saturn

What the tradition reads

The Western planetary tradition treats a meditation to Saturn as an appeal for patience, structure and the strength to keep appointments rather than avoid them, worked in Saturn's own hour, the first hour after sunrise on Saturday, or in the evening if the tradition's Vedic branch is followed instead, dressed in black, leaden or another earthy colour, with myrrh burning if it can be had, the colour and incense Agrippa's own chapters on the subject give the planet. The tradition reads Saturn as the planet most feared and most needed, the one that teaches through delay, limitation and the plain fact of time running out, and holds that the fear itself is the obstacle, not the planet: a Saturn practice asks not for the hardship to be removed but for the courage to meet it on schedule. The Vedic remedial tradition reads the same working through Shani, son of the Sun, elder brother of Yama the lord of death, and prescribes it most carefully of all the planetary practices, for whoever stands in a Saturn dasha or whose lagna lord is Saturn: the Navagraha Stotram's verse to Shani recited on Saturdays, charity of black sesame, iron or oil, and, where a jyotishi has examined the whole chart and prescribed it, the blue sapphire, a stone the tradition itself warns must never be worn without a trial period, since it is said to act quickly in either direction.

The story

The thirteenth hymn of the standard Orphic sequence addresses Saturn under his Greek name Cronus, calling him ethereal father, mighty Titan, great sire of gods and men, of various counsel, to whom both increase and decrease belong, a description that reads Saturn's rule over time quite literally, since Cronus in Greek myth is the Titan of the age before the Olympians, the god who devoured his own children to keep the throne and was overthrown regardless by his son Zeus, a story the hymn's own language of increase and decrease seems to carry directly into the planet's temperament. Thomas Taylor's English translation of the whole collection, made at the close of the eighteenth century, remains the version most commonly read and cited. The Vedic tradition's parallel verse, from the Navagraha Stotram attributed to Vyasa, calls Shani dark as blue collyrium, son of the Sun, elder brother of Yama, born of Chhaya and Martanda, a lineage that gives Saturn's severity a family reason in the Indian telling just as Cronus's own family history gives the Greek Saturn his. Two unrelated mythic traditions, again, arrived independently at reading the same planet through a story of harsh paternity and inevitable time, a resemblance worth recording without claiming either tradition caused the other.

The practice

1. Begin with the blessing of the room, cleaning the space, setting out salted water and an unlit lamp, asking the One who made the lights that the place be clean, quiet and kept. 2. Sit in Saturn's own hour, the first hour after sunrise on a Saturday, or in the Saturday evening if that suits better, with black, leaden or another earthy colour set out and myrrh burning if available. 3. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, out for four, hold for four, twelve rounds. 4. Say the address aloud: in the name of the One who made the lights, turn to the light of Saturn, and to its angel or deva, asking for patience and the strength to keep appointments, and that it be given in the light and harm no one. 5. Recite the Navagraha Stotram's verse to Shani, or read the Orphic hymn to Saturn, slowly, three times. 6. For the sitting, picture a mountain and climb it one step for each out breath, stopping wherever the breath runs out, and sit there, honestly noting how far up that is; the tradition holds that the ledge counts as real progress. 7. Sit for five to twenty minutes, give thanks, put out the lamp, and then keep one appointment that has been put off.

Written from

Corpus key practice:Saturn.