- The only certainty is change (that incessant gnawing feeling, its change, trying to get out!)
- What you think is important, probably isn’t (excess baggage fees are a complete waste of money)
- Hold on tight (to yourself)
Astrology tells me that with Saturn in Pisces, I am a reluctant Hero, but the way in which he connects to my Sun, and to Jupiter, also tells me that I am also blessed with a free and fighting spirit and a brave and creative heart!
Because I could hear the individual call of my own Astrological Saturn, and I understood the call to adventure that was being issued, I allowed myself to be drawn, instructed and coerced by “fate” to respond in a suitably dramatic and flamboyant manner.
I had given up waiting for my partner to commit to me, and to satisfy my desire for children. I had given up waiting for the gnawing sensation in the pit of my stomach to go away. I had given up on pacifying the roaming restlessness that I felt.
I could hear the call, and it was time to go, I accepted the challenge!I “let go” of my life, I turned my back on it, and chose something completely different.
I was emigrating, and although it was not that far, I was still emigrating to a country where they spoke a different language, where the rain was prayed for, and where the muezzin sang from ivory towers five times a day. I was leaving home, for the second time, I was doing something different.
Having sold, bartered and given away nearly everything I possessed, I departed like any novice hero, with well wishing teary friends, a heart full of hope, and unlike most novice hero’s that I had read about, a rather over-sized travelling trunk! (always the romantic)
It wasn’t long before things started to go terribly wrong, and that was just the beginning.
Only an hour after leaving, there I was, the car broken down, standing on the side of the road clutching a kite, and waiting for a taxi to carry me and my impossibly archaic Edwardian trunk to Heathrow airport.
I was actually wondering if I was meant to go at all!
Heathrow was mobbed, my trunk was something that should have gone on an ocean liner, not Airline, and I was stubborn. I was taking it with me, and I did pay the exorbitant surcharge.
Two years later, I left most of its contents behind me. What a waste of money!! The value was the lesson!!
I did finally get there, and the next few years were some of the maddest, saddest, funniest and loneliest that I have ever had. They pushed me out into the world, this reluctant Hero, and they made me who I am today.
This is the beauty of Saturn. He has a shaping quality, that although painful and arduous at times, works to refine and transform you into a person who can withstand the trials of life, to form a strong container to carry you through the rough and tough times that will inevitably come, next at mid-life.
The relationship that you form with the transits of Saturn, informs the very structure of your life.
My travels have not ceased, and although I no longer tarry in the land of the “infidel” I still live several weeks on horseback from the land of my birth.
I have watched Saturn closely ever since those “daredevil days”, and with deepening interest, as he has made his way around my chart.
I was that reluctant hero, naïve and gauche, heading into the unknown, learning about the world, and the different groups, peoples and institutions that I became involved with whilst Saturn navigated my 10th 11th & 12th houses.
I watched Saturn as he dropped below the horizon, moving through Cancer, as my soul finally found the children I would give birth to, helped me build a house, my nest in the mountains, the place where I kept my babies safe.
I witnessed my Hero battling with the dragon in the cave at the bottom of my chart, stealing the monsters treasure, (finally gaining my lifelong dream of an official qualification in astrology whilst juggling toddlers)
More recently I have watched my Hero limp back towards civilization, (for the journey home, can often be the most dangerous) letting go of much of what I thought I had gained, as the load became too heavy to bear.
I am in the process now of bringing the bounty home, back to be shared with others.
Very soon, Saturn will move back up over the horizon as I spend the next seven years disseminating all that I have learned, and then, what then?
For when I am sixty, the call will come again, and I will heed it, with the knowledge that I know three things for certain!!
“That the only certainty will be CHANGE, for regardless of whether I want change or not, it will come and get me anyway, even if I hide under the bed.
That I need to travel LIGHT, because I can’t take it all with me, excess baggage fees are a complete waste of money, and I STILL LOVE FLYING KITES.
That this will be when I leave home again, maybe not in the same way, but certainly on another level. I WILL BREAK THE MOLD IN WHICH I HAVE BEEN SET, and once again, I WILL ANSWER THE CALL TO ADVENTURE.
My name is Joanna Grant, I am an Astrologer, Tarot Reader and Writer, who lives on the beautiful Beara Peninsula in the South West of Ireland. I can often be found at home, deep in arcane research, or practicing some new form of divination whilst burning the dinner! My children wish I was “normal” but will be delighted in the end, that I’m not. My long knowledge of Astrology leads and informs my practice, in offering guidance, empowerment and healing, helping others to lead a more authentic and magical life. You can read more about me here.
Joanna-Kate Grant 