Saturn
An Auto-Ethnographic Enquiry into Contemporary Astrological Practice
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.38057Keywords:
Cosmologies, cultural astronomy, astrology, historyAbstract
Using qualitative and re?exive research methodology I explore the cultural role that the planet Saturn plays in contemporary communities of astrologers and the astrological way of life. Through an exploration of Saturn as a mythical ?gure and as symbol, I ?rst discuss astrology’s cultural background and demonstrate that astrologers have a cultural memory that has remained largely loyal to its roots in the Mesopotamian and Hellenistic periods. I then illuminate the way in which for contemporary astrologers sun-sign astrology functions as a contemporary expression of ancient myth. In addition, I examine the importance of the Saturn Return, which has since become an important symbol of transition, a rite of passage, and a modern form of enchantment that not only marks a life transition but also has the potential to effect one.
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Sullivan, Erin. 2000. Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body, and Soul (York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser).
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Turner, Victor. 1964. ‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage’, in June Helm (ed.), Proceedings of the 1964 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society: Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion (Seattle: American Ethnological Society): 4-20.
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Van Gennep, Arnold. 1977 [1909]. The Rites of Passage (trans. M.B. Vizedom and G.L. Caffee; London: Routledge).
Versnel, H.S. 1993. Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion 2: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Religion (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
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Voss, Angela. 2006. ‘Introduction’, in Angela Voss (ed.), Marsilio Ficino (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books): 1-56.
Weber, Max. 1991. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (ed. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills; New York: Oxford University Press).
Weschcke, Carl Llewellyn. 1992. Astrology for the Millions (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications).
Willis, Roy, and Patrick Curry. 2004. Astrology, Science and Culture, Pulling Down the Moon (Oxford & New York: Berg Publishers).
Zafran, Eric. 1979. ‘Saturn and the Jews’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 42: 16-27. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/751082.
Assmann, Jan. 1995. ‘Collective Memory and Cultural Identity’, New German Critique 65: 128-33.
Assmann, Jan. 2008. ‘Communicative and Cultural Memory’, in Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nünning, and Sara B. Young (eds.), A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies (Berlin: W. de Gruyter): 109-18.
Aull-Davies, Charlotte. 2002. Re?exive Ethnography: A Guide to Researching Selves and Others (London: Routledge).
Bills, Rex E. 1971. The Rulership Book (Tempe, AZ: American Federation of Astrologers).
Blundell, Sue. 2014. The Origins of Civilisation in Greek and Roman Thought (London: Routledge).
Brady, Bernadette. 2003. ‘The Newtonian Merry-go-round’, NCGR. Online: https://geocosmic.org/research/the-newtonian-merry-go-round/.
Burnett, Charles, Keijo Yamamoto, and Michio Yano. 2004. Al-Qab??? (Alcabitius): The Introduction to Astrology (London-Turin: The Warburg Institute).
Campion, Nicholas. 2013. ‘Is Astrology a Symbolic Language’, in Nicholas Campion and Liz Greene (eds.), Sky and Symbol, Proceedings of the Ninth Annual Sophia Centre Conference, 2011 (Wales: Sophia Centre Press): 9-46.
Compson, William. 2003. J.K. Rowling (The Library of Author Biographies; New York: Rosen Publishing).
Curry, Patrick. 1989. Prophecy and Power: Astrology in Early Modern England (Oxford: Polity Press).
Dijk, Denise. 1983. ‘The Goddess Movement in the USA: A Religion for Women Only’, Archive for the Psychology of Religion 18.1: 258-66. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/157361288X00144.
Eliade, Mircea. 1987. The Sacred and the Profane (trans. W.R. Trask; New York: Harcourt Books).
Ellis, Carolyn, Tony E. Adams, and Arthur P. Bochner. 2011, ‘Autoethnography: An Overview’, Qualitative Social Research 12.1. Online: http://www.qualitative-research.net/index.php/fqs/article/view/1589/3095.
Fallon, Graham. 2002. ‘Focusing on Focus Groups: Lessons from a Research Project involving a Bangladeshi Community’, Qualitative Research 2.2: 195-208. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410200200204.
Goodman, Linda. 1972. Linda Goodman’s Sun Signs (London & Sydney: Pan Books).
Greene, Liz. 1976. Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil (Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books).
Hand, Robert. 1976. Planets in Transit: Life Cycles for Living (Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing).
Hesiod. 1999. Theogony, Works and Days (trans. M.L. West; London: Oxford University Press).
Klibansky, Raymond, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl. 1979. Saturn and Melancholy, Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion and Art (Netherlands: Kraus Reprint Press).
Kozinets, Robert V. 2002. ‘The Field Behind the Screen: Using Netnography for Marketing Research in Online Communities’, Journal of Marketing Research 39: 61-72. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.39.1.61.18935.
Lau, Kimberly J. 2002. ‘This Text Which Is Not One: Dialectics of Self and Culture in Experimental Autoethnography’, Journal of Folklore Research 39.2/3: 243-57. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2979/JFR.2002.39.2-3.243.
Lévi-Strauss, Claude. 1966. The Savage Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
Lewi, Grant. 1992. Astrology for the Millions (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications).
Lilly, William. 1985 [1647]. Christian Astrology (London: Regulus Publishing).
Manilius. 1977. Astronomica (trans. G.P. Goold; London: William Heineman).
McLeod, William T., and Patrick Hanks. 1985. The New Concise Dictionary of the English Language (London & Glasgow: Collins).
Miller, Daniel, and Don Slater. 2000. The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach (Oxford: Berg).
Narayan, Kirin. 1993. ’How Native Is a Native Anthropologist’, American Anthropologist 95.3: 671-86. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1993.95.3.02a00070.
No Author. 2017. ‘Capricorn: Capricorn Sign Dates and Traits’, Astrology.com, 25 September. Online: https://www.astrology.com/astrology-101/zodiac-signs/capricorn.
Ptolemy. 1917. Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos (trans. J.M. Ashmand; London: W. Foulsham & Co.).
Rowling, J.K. 1999. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (London: Bloomsbury Publishing).
Rowling, J.K. 2005. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (London: Bloomsbury Publishing).
Rowling, J.K. N.d. ‘Severus Snape’. Online: https://www.pottermore.com/explore-the-story/severus-snape.
Saler, M. 2006. ‘Modernity and Enchantment: A Historiographic Review’, The American Historical Review 111.3: 692-716. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr.111.3.692.
Sanger, Pamela C. 2003. ‘Living and Writing Feminist Ethnographies: Threads in a Quilt Stitched from the Heart’, in R.P. Clair (ed.), Expressions of Ethnography: Novel Approaches to Qualitative Methods (Albany: SUNY Press): 29-44.
Star, Lisa J. 2010. ‘The Use of Autoethnography in Educational Research: Locating Who We Are in What We Do’, Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education 3.1. Online: https://journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/cjnse/article/viewFile/30477/24876.
Stenudd, Stefan. 2015. ‘True Horoscope Traits of the Goat’. Online: http://www.capricornzodiacsign.net/.
Struck, Peter. 2004. The Birth of the Symbol (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press). Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826094.
Sullivan, Erin. 2000. Saturn in Transit: Boundaries of Mind, Body, and Soul (York Beach, ME: Red Wheel/Weiser).
Thomas Jr. Robert. 1995. ‘Obituary Linda Goodman’, New York Times. Online: http://www.nytimes.com/1995/10/25/us/linda-goodman-writer-turned-astrologer-dies.html.
Tischler, Henry. L. 2014. Introduction to Sociology (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth).
Turner, Victor. 1964. ‘Betwixt and Between: The Liminal Period in Rites de Passage’, in June Helm (ed.), Proceedings of the 1964 Annual Spring Meeting of the American Ethnological Society: Symposium on New Approaches to the Study of Religion (Seattle: American Ethnological Society): 4-20.
Valens, Vettius. 2010. ‘Anthology I-IV’. Trans. M. Riley. Online: http://www.csus.edu/indiv/r/rileymt/vettius%20valens%20entire.pdf.
Van Gennep, Arnold. 1977 [1909]. The Rites of Passage (trans. M.B. Vizedom and G.L. Caffee; London: Routledge).
Versnel, H.S. 1993. Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion 2: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Religion (Leiden: E.J. Brill).
Violet. 2013. ‘On the Right Track’. Online: http://loveyoursaturnreturn.blogspot.nl/2013/12/on-right-track.html.
Voss, Angela. 2006. ‘Introduction’, in Angela Voss (ed.), Marsilio Ficino (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books): 1-56.
Weber, Max. 1991. From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (ed. H.H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills; New York: Oxford University Press).
Weschcke, Carl Llewellyn. 1992. Astrology for the Millions (Woodbury, MN: Llewellyn Publications).
Willis, Roy, and Patrick Curry. 2004. Astrology, Science and Culture, Pulling Down the Moon (Oxford & New York: Berg Publishers).
Zafran, Eric. 1979. ‘Saturn and the Jews’, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 42: 16-27. Doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/751082.
Published
2019-05-08
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Hathway, L. (2019). Saturn: An Auto-Ethnographic Enquiry into Contemporary Astrological Practice. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 13(1), 61-76. https://doi.org/10.1558/jsrnc.38057
