Saturn concludes its retrograde motion in Pisces today, which began on July 13, 2025. Despite having entered Aries in June, the Lord of Time turned back to revisit his Saturnian bound (from 30° to 28° Pisces) and a portion of the previous Martial bound (28° to 25°), that is, the harshest and most malefic degrees at the end of the zodiac. The entire movement took place under the rulership of Jupiter in Cancer, itself retrograde, creating a trine connection between Cardinal and Mutable Water, a current of liquefaction and reabsorption of boundaries.
The melancholic Saturn in Pisces is peregrine, without essential dignities, and entirely subjected to the Jupiterian temperament. Saturn, cold and dry in humour, accustomed to the fixed or cardinal structures of Earth and Air, has spent the past years adrift in the mutable waters of Pisces, and is now completing his full 29-year cycle around the zodiacal wheel. The retrograde ends at 25° Pisces, the moment when it resumes direct motion to cross the final five degrees before re-entering Aries – the sign of his fall – on February 14, 2026.
That ingress will mark the beginning of two and a half years under the rulership of Mars, the nocturnal malefic, hot and dry by nature, in clear dissonance with the diurnal malefic Saturn. The tension between them heralds a period of global friction, structuring the conflict between form and impulse. This will resonate strongly on Pluto in Aquarius, whose collective and technological expressions will be shaped by a rather unstable Saturn.
The final five degrees of Pisces, now crossed in direct motion, belong to the Martial decan of Pisces (20°–30°), where the force of Mars acts in a dissolving and erratic way upon the watery configuration. This sector already symbolises the preparation of Saturnian substance for the cardinal ignition of Aries. Also, the angelic ruler of this decan is Mumiah, the 72nd and last of the Angels of the Wheel, associated with endings, renewals, and karmic completion.
In the Tarot, it corresponds to the Ten of Cups, the climax of the receptive element of Water within the decimal structure of emanation represented by the Tetractys, the point at which the liquid element, upon reaching fulfilment, threatens to disperse. The end of Saturn in Pisces closes a cycle of trial and spiritual maturation, and opens the threshold where Time, purified by the flood, prepares to burn.
This final phase of Saturn in Pisces will be profoundly turbulent also due to the planetary transits unfolding around it. Positioned in Mutable Water, Saturn forms a square with the Mutable Fire of Sagittarius, also ruled by Jupiter. This tension between two expressions of the same principle (one liquid and dissolving, the other fiery and expansive) produces a field of instability where matter oscillates between evaporation and dissolution.
Throughout December, this tension will intensify as the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars all traverse Sagittarius. From Pisces, Saturn will form successive squares with each: with the Sun, the principle of consciousness and will; with Mercury peregrine, the principle of intellect and thought; with Venus peregrine, the principle of desire and love; and with Mars peregrine, the principle of severance and conflict. Four direct confrontations with the Old Man of Time, culminating in the clash between the two malefics of the zodiac – Mars and Saturn -, both placed in mutable signs that render them unstable, restless, and without essential dignity.
But the turbulence does not end there. After their passage through Sagittarius, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, and Mars will enter Capricorn and later Aquarius, which means that, from mid-December onwards, they will all come under the rulership of this same Saturn, still traversing the final degrees of the zodiac in Pisces. It marks a structural shift: the solar, mercurial, venusian, and martial forces begin to operate under the authority of a weary, tired, 29-year old Saturn.
The result is a cosmic climate of preparation and reckoning, in which the human faculties (will, thought, desire, and action) are tested against their limits. Saturn in Pisces becomes the final filter before the Cardinal Fire of Aries, the judge of the collective unconscious who weighs the density of form and intention before permitting the cardinal rebirth in the first sign of the zodiac. It is Time hardening in Water, the last stillness before it burns.
All of this unfolds under a Saturn ruled by Jupiter exalted in Cancer, yet retrograde at the Nadir. Although the trine of Water unites them harmoniously in element, the tone is far from serene: the diurnal benefic moves introspectively within the cardinal and lunar waters, turning its gaze inward rather than outward. Jupiter, who should elevate and expand Saturn, instead absorbs him into a reflective. It is a trine of depth, a slow alchemical distillation at the bottom of the sea, where the seed of the next cycle is starting to ripe interiorly.
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