Karma is coming in hot when Saturn goes direct in Pisces this week

Sharpen your pencils and gird your loins, folks. Saturn, our dream-crushing planet of structure and limits, is going direct in Pisces this Friday, Nov. 15.

Once considered the last planet in the solar system, Saturn is known as a malefic, associated with endings, limits, the long run, hard knocks, tough love, legacies, things built to last and the wisdom of experience.

Saturn is named for the Roman god of time, agriculture and renewal, oft depicted with an errant party boob popping out of his toga and a sickle in his hand. This aggro instrument is apt when we consider the function of the planet in our lives and the perennial message that we reap what we sow and are only as strong as our ability to sever and sacrifice.

Saturn in Pisces 2024

Saturn has been retrograding in Pisces since June 29, slowly rolling through the muck and the mire.

When Saturn is retrograde, we are compelled to turn inward and better understand the limitations we have placed on ourselves. In Pisces, that introspection is colored by issues of mental health and spirituality, our connection to our highest selves and our perception of reality, as well as our relationship to avoidance, distraction and escapism.

In its slowdown, Saturn in Pisces asks us to reflect on the lies we’ve told ourselves, the bulls–t we’ve bought into, and the shortcuts we’ve taken to our detriment.

A few hours before the Taurus full moon peaks, Saturn will go direct, full tilt and wooden paddle at 12 degrees of Pisces.

When will Saturn be in Pisces?

At its highest expression, Saturn roots and reminds us that without depth, there can be no true growth, and without work, no reward.

If you’ve been digging deep and doing the work, trying to reprogram yourself and better understand when, how and why you self-sabotage, then daddy Saturn is here to give you an atta boy and pave your way with smooth stones.

Alternatively, if you’ve spent the past five months in a state of complacency, leaning on comfortable coping mechanisms and convenient excuses, then the planet’s direct motion might hit you with stumbling blocks and sobering revelations.

Astrologer Lauren Coleman refers to Saturn as the planet of reality, sharing that when Saturn goes direct, we are shown — for better or worse — who we are and what we’re made of.

“Without guile or pretense. Just cold, hard truth. Saturn can appear to shatter our ideals when in the sign of Pisces, but Saturn does not tell us not to dream,” Coleman imparts. “What Saturn wants of us is to believe in the dream and to even more fully commit to the dream in order to make it a closer and more achievable reality.”

Pisces = the dream, and Saturn, the sweat and the structure.

What does Saturn in Pisces mean for your zodiac sign?

And trust, folks, Pisces can benefit from that structure. The high shine side of this water sign is empathetic, tuned into the collective consciousness and deeply invested in the healing of the self and others.

The shadow side of Pisces is nihilistic, addictive and confused. It seeks distraction at every turn, walks around in an opiate daze, tries to pay the rent with amethyst and barters for bread with a typewriter poem.

Prone as this mutable water sign is to ennui, the accountant energy of Saturn going direct is here to force us to reckon with the noonday glare of our shortcomings and coping mechanisms so that we might be grindstone stewards of the future we deserve.

In service of that future, Saturn wants us to have strong, energetic boundaries and to be conscious of how we empty ourselves into others to avoid the responsibility of our own potential.

Dream machine

While Saturn teaches us how to take strategic action, Pices reminds us that the greatest rewards are often immaterial: love, pride, connection, dedication, inspiration and satisfaction. While these may not be billable items, they are bedrock.

Together, the earthen can-do of Capricorn and the watery, boundless possibility of Pisces make the clay we need to build ourselves and our reality into a form that is both workable and wondrous.

A dream machine, if you will.

Because Saturn is marching forward in a mutable sign, the mutables Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces will feel its effects most acutely. To better understand how this transit will affect you, look to the house in your birth chart ruled by Pisces.

Astrology 101: Your guide to the star

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.