Saturn's Children

The mythical figure Saturn is also known as the Lord of Karma, Dweller on the Threshold, the “Grim Reaper” and Old Father Time.

In astrology, Saturn corresponds to father or authority figures.

According to the Gnostics, the biblical concept of the patriarchal God or Jehovah came from the image of the tyrannical Saturn.

Saturn and Jupiter

In mythology, the god Saturn became the ruler of the Universe after he castrated his father with a sickle (?!).

Saturn received a prophecy that he would be overthrown by one of his sons. So each time his wife Rhea gave birth to a child, he would eat them to avert the threat.

Saturn managed to eat five of his offspring. But Rhea swapped the sixth child, Zeus, for a stone and wrapped the stone in “swaddling clothes”. Saturn ate the stone and Jupiter was spirited to safety.

Saturn was eventually overthrown by his son Jupiter who is known as Zeus in Greek mythology. Zeus started off as a kind of saviour/Jesus type when he overthrew his tyrannical father and ushered in a new order.

Saturn has Lunch

Francisco Goya aptly painted his famous picture of ‘Saturn devouring one of his sons’ directly onto his dining room wall.

In Goya's painting, Saturn has a look of terror in his eyes as he eats his child. He seems to be horrified by what he is doing but compelled to do it anyway.

Saturn Figures in the Bible

The child-eating Saturn myth can be likened to the paranoid babykilling kings that feature in the Bible.

In the Old Testament and the story of baby Moses, the Pharoah was afraid that the Hebrews would one day take over Egypt so ordered that all newborn Hebrew males be drowned in the River Nile.

Similarly in the New Testament, there is the Slaughter of the Innocents when King Herod received the prophecy about the newborn Messiah and ordered that all boys under the age of two be killed.

There is also the idea of fathers sacrificing their sons. Abraham is prepared to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, because God has commanded him to.

In the New Testament, God sacrifices his own son Jesus who cries out during his crucifixion, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

To return to astrology, as Saturn’s children, the physical bodies of the people of the Earth are consumed by Time and then eventually by Death. And on that cheerful note…

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