I’m going to write this Saturn in the signs series out of order. I just wrote about Saturn in Aries. Now, I will write for Saturn in Pisces people and move backwards until Saturn in Virgo. Then, I will go to Saturn in Taurus.

Saturn in Pisces is a beautiful placement—Saturn likes Jupiter and it flows well when it is ruled by Jupiter as it is in Pisces. Saturn is also a cold and dry planet. Pisces is cold and wet. Do you know why Saturn in Pisces flows with such grace? Because Saturn is the planet of learning maturity and Pisces is the sign of sorrow.

Sorrow ages you. It really does. Sorrow makes you more protective over life. It removes all of the preciousness that younger people tend to have around their actions. Should I do it like this or should I do it like that? We think that we are so important, that our every action or subtle remark is so important, until sorrow comes to remind us that time will always move forward.

Saturn returning in Pisces isn’t just sorrow and Saturn in Pisces people are not always sorrowful people. Saturn is actually a limit. Wherever we have Saturn, we learn to limit. The true essence of Saturn in Pisces is about developing one’s compassion in both breadth and depth.

I think that sorrow is one of the more fearsome emotions because we are so afraid of being consumed by it. We are afraid of being swallowed up like a small stone washed into the ocean. Grief uses up quite a bit of energy. That’s the swallowing up that we feel. We lose brain power. We can’t think as well. We feel swallowed up by our emotions when our habits don’t fuel them.

But guess what? Sorrow is also normal. Life includes loss. We will all experience some kind of major loss in our lives. Grief is communal. It’s not even human. All living things experience loss. That’s Pisces. Pisces is the total, the whole.

Saturn in Pisces? Saturn in Pisces tells us that we will experience losses that we think we can’t live beyond, that we will physically feel parts of ourselves die, and yet time will keep moving on. Saturn in Pisces tells us that all living things have lost ourselves over and over again and that we have been living on. That’s Saturn. Cold, right? Cruel almost. But Saturn is true. Time keeps moving as you grieve.

A Pisces Saturn is a Jupiterian Saturn but it’s not like Saturn in Sagittarius which is about faith and all that. A Pisces Saturn is about loss. You don’t have to believe in loss. Maybe you don’t. That’s okay. You will still go through this humbling and world shattering experience that every single living creature you have ever met can relate to. This is a type of communal experience that you don’t need to believe to live.

Pisces is the most generous sign. Wherever you have Pisces in your chart, you will keep giving and giving. Why is Pisces so generous? Because Pisces understands that nothing can truly be owned. It doesn’t try to claim anything. Pisces is the sign that expresses itself through loss and through sharing. Yes, Pisces is sorrow. It’s also the compassion that sorrow teaches you.

That’s why Saturn in Pisces can be a bit tricky. What limits on your sorrow will make you realize that this experience your body goes through is not made up but real? What limits on your compassion will make you treasure what you are willing to share?

Departing from sorrow, those little things that we do to move on, those actions can feel like betrayal when your sorrow is what remains of your attachment to something that is now gone. Putting boundaries and limits on compassion, those little things that we do when we are being honest about how much energy we have and how tired we are, those things can feel like betrayal of a common cause. But Saturn isn’t just about limitation for the sake of limitation. Saturn is actually about time itself and time moves on. That’s the cold reality of Saturn.

Saturn in Pisces maturity is about learning that there are right times for things. There is a time for sorrow, a time for compassion, and then there is a time for moving on. Life has other experiences. You can always come back. You will come back even if you move on. You will not betray yourself if you depart from your sorrow, that little ball of regret and exhaustion covered by anxiety, for a little bit. Your regret wants to hang on but time will keep moving on.

Saturn in Pisces people can mature very quickly. They don’t have a choice. Compassion forces you to mature.

But I don’t think that Saturn in Pisces people are in a rush the way Saturn domicile people tend to be. It’s like they know that life ages you and that everything will come at its own pace. Maybe that’s the regret factor. I think that Saturn in Pisces people are more aware of what their regrets are telling them than the rest of us. They are like this because they’re so precious about life.

Of course, this makes them very patient and mysterious people. Saturn in Pisces people are willing to hold mystery. They don’t feel like the world is a puzzle that needs to be pulled apart and figured out. This is a Jupiterian Saturn. They don’t have such a strong control streak. Instead, they’re used to the chaos of the human heart. They know that the heart holds many things that can only be answered through time alone.

The thing is, any planet that is in Pisces is a planet that receives a lot of help. Remember—Pisces is that sweet, wet sign where both benefics excel. It’s the still cold but warming dews of the early spring. Pisces is salvation.

Saturn in Pisces people know how to give help. They understand that life gives us experiences that force us to help each other. No one alive has ever lived without receiving help. That’s the compassion piece.

Putting boundaries on compassion, limiting who gets to receive from you, all of that is about structuring compassion. When compassion is scarce, we start to think that it is rare. We start to think that compassion is something that arrives once in a blue moon and must be milked or treasured relentlessly just because it is there.

Saturn in Pisces knows that compassion isn’t rare. Compassion is just a habit. You make it part of your day, part of your work—part of your life. All habits have a starting point and a stopping point. All habits return. You’re never really done with them even when you walk away. You have to walk away or else you’ll never return.

Saturn in Pisces is just about making compassion a habit. Compassion, those acts of empathy that make life possible—those acts are not fantasies and they are not so ephemeral. Compassion is real. Making compassion a habit is the only thing that will make life itself reliable.