“Saturn is a living symbol of gloom, morbidity, disaster, fatality. Saturn is malefic through force of inertia. Its ring, which is only paperweight in thickness, according to savants, is the wedding ring which signifies death or misfortune devoid of all significance. Saturn whatever it may be to the astronomer, is the sign of the senseless fatality to the man in the street.
“Saturn is life in suspense, not dead so much as deathless, i.e. incapable of dying. Saturn is as eternal as fear and irresolution, growing more milky, more cloudy with each compromise, each capitulation. Saturn gives us only what we ask for, never an ounce extra.
“Saturn is the stellar impostor setting itself up as the grand cosmocrator of fate, Monsier le Paris, the automatic pole-axer of a world smitten with ataraxy. Let the heavens sing its glory – this lymphatic globe of doubt and ennui will never cease to cast its milk white rays of lifeless gloom.”
Henry Miller in The Colossus Of Maroussi
Miller actually had a brilliantly placed Saturn! He must have been having a hell of a horrid Saturn transit at that point. He was a multiple conjunct Capricorn – Sun, Mercury, Midheaven & Venus all in Capricorn…And Saturn (the planetary ruler of Capricorn) is at 29 Virgo trining his Venus in Cap + his North Node in Taurus; Enduring success and celebrity for sure. Both literary, commercial, for his personal life & as in his philosophies portrayed via fridge magnitude…
H.M I’m hearing you, I can’t take on your fridge magnet advice Saturn is hitting my health sector!
I have Saturn going at a glacial pace through my work/health/admin since 07 & it’s been non stop.
Work & admin have been busy yet it’s health that has been hit the hardest.
I haven’t missed a week of exercised since 07 (I swam 6000 laps just last year- I think Saturn has a lot to answer for).
I have weekly appoints re health issues & spent thousands of $$$ getting my body & head cracked,punctured,adjusted & retrained. I have come to accept this quasi ashram lifestyle as mine, not the wild gemini I was once before.
I am just sucking it up & being a good Saturn student. (They really should teach this in school!).
With Cap rising, Saturn in the 5th, reading T of C isn’t gonna help with my quest for lightness of being. There is that funny little “did you know?” that the planet Saturn is buoyant enough to float in a giant swimming pool helps keep it in perspective for this reality challenged Leo!
Damn I have been meaning to read this book for about 9 years now…now I have GOT to find it and read it.
‘fridge magnitude’
Mystic you crack me up!!
xox 🙂 xox
Wasn’t Steiner down on Saturn ? So Miller would have been quite astro aware ?
Very brave to call Saturn all those names.
Are we talking George Steiner?
Rudolph
funny mystic, i was trawlin the bookshops of king st lookin for this very book just a few weeks ago. didn’t find it (could find cancer but not capricorn) but a cappy literary friend is gonna lend it to me…
Have you heard about the play on in Sydney at the mo’? Saturn’s Return.
I’m serious. look it up on the net. If you are in Sydney, go and see it. I want to know what you all think.
It must be a rerun of a performance from last year. Actually Myst gave away a few comp.tickets in a little competition. I actually won a double pass and took wifey…its was quite good, and was on at Pier 4 or 3 or whatever on the harbour.
one of mt gfrnds is the lead – hope to see it nxt wk!!
xox
I have been talking about Miller and Capricorn all week! eeek!!
I am fascinated with Miller’s lover Anais Nin as we share the same birthday.
along with W.H.Auden. The biographies of both are extraordinary.
Is it just me or is there a massive gap between quote one and quote two from Mr Miller?
Saturn (or Satan as I like to mutter from time to time when I’m really jacked off with it) interferes with everyones libertinism Uber!!! Took me YEARS to forgive the a-hole after my Saturn Return. Now I take a more kindly view as I can in retrospect that it’s during my most major Saturnine transits that I’ve been my most together and productive … even if on the inside I’m screaming to escape and ready to neck myself.
I’ve got Saturn conjunct Pluto and in the 5th House all year. So my house of fun will turn into my house of Slogging Ye Guts Out – in other words, I won’t be having any. Fun, that is.
who cares, he speaks the truth 🙂 at least that’s how it feels at the moment on planet Predictable Pisces 🙁
Well, Saturn can be a pretty tough gig. I’m not surprised that he hated Saturn. He was such a reprobate. He probably hated to be tied down by bourgeous notions such as “fidelity” or “earning an honest living”. I reckon the guy was a great writer, but a bit of a skuz-bucket