Dreams get a roughly two and a half year long reality check, with Saturn, the planet of materiality and the passage of time, in Pisces, the sign of the ideal, the imagined, the ephemeral, the possible. We’ll see what dreams we can make our reality, and more importantly, how to bring them about, as Saturn offers organization, patience, and even some necessary compartmentalization, to the land of the creative and the hoped for. Our generative urges demand concrete forms, or the kind of realization that makes them tangible to others, while our ideals are measured, whether we intend to do any measuring or not, against what we’ve actually created in our lives. I don’t need to lecture you on how this is actually a gift, to be able to see our progress in an objective light–though at first it may make us rail against all the ways we’ve been prevented from moving forward, may depress us as we grasp just where we are, or inspire us in ways we hadn’t anticipated.

Saturn in Pisces may also bring an end to things that have drained us, as we dreamed and maybe held off living in the hope that the dream would rescue or remake, or if we mistook a fantasy for something sustaining, nourishing. This may feel like a loss, but it’s really an ending that’s gifting your own energy back to you. Taking responsibility for our own powerful creative force will be a prime requirement during this period, and we do so with the caveat that we must use Self-discipline, boundaries, limits, rules, logic, and stay connected to reality, in order to succeed.

If Saturn is moving through the bottom half of your flat chart (1st-6th Houses), you are in a period of development; don’t expect to easily go public with your efforts at this time–to the outside world, it may appear as if you are still ‘growing’ in that area. If Saturn is in the upper half of your flat chart (7th-12th), then what you do will be seen, and you’ll be judged on what shows. That means the whole thing has the tone of an audition, or something where you must prove yourself–so make sure you put forward your best.

Saturn was last in Pisces roughly early 1994-early 1996. If you’re old enough to remember that time, review it, because it’s not uncommon for the same challenges, issues, or concerns to come forward again–sometimes dressed up differently (sometime even unrecognizably, at first), but the underlying matter is essentially the same. And if you recall early 1964-early 1967, take a look at what was going on for you then, too. We can learn a great deal from the patterns the planets present us, because we’ll be acting within and reacting to those same energies on a periodic basis–and how better to get perspective on our own responses?

This isn’t just a period of personal development, though. We can expect to become familiar with what I’d like to call the Rules of the Unreal: we’ll learn to gauge how much and what kind of effort it takes to bridge (and so affect) factors in our agreed-upon reality with those of our Collective agreed-upon spirituality, which naturally will include cultural and Nature-based collective events. Look at your 12th House, natally and particularly what may be transiting through it during Saturn in Pisces, for hints as to what your role might be, or what mass experience you might be caught up in. This is manifestation as a species–but as with any big occurrence, these events and trends will impact each individual in their own, unique ways.

The House Saturn is transiting is always a place where we’re meeting matters of Self-discipline, restrictions, and costs head-on; the House in the natal chart that holds Pisces is the House where we are most likely to ‘float’, become unconnected to reality, to dream and match those dreams to our ideals, and to attempt, in the areas described by the House, to express our creative nature. Now that the two are together, it can at times be a recipe for our most inappropriate efforts toward Self-expression, whether that’s in our own particular brand of bucking the rules or in our attempt to create without a full understanding of the reality we’re trying to mold. There may be an element of sacrifice called for, specific to each natal body contacted and the aspect made by Saturn as it transits the sign. Pisces inspires us to a world without limits; Saturn tells us just exactly what the price of the world will be.