Kronos the Initiator (UPG) per Western Astrology

A few days ago, I was inspired to write a post about Kronos being involved in mystical experiences. In the act of swallowing his children he, in essence, gave them an experience of rebirth after a period of mystical incubation. I knew when I made the post that there was something relating to this which I had already been introduced to. Today, it hit me when listening to some music just where I had run across it. It is in Western Astrology and involves the planet Saturn, named after the Roman equivalent to Kronos.

Astronomically, the planet Saturn makes one complete revolution approximately every 29½ years. This is called a “Saturn Return” and most people will have no more than two in their lifetime. It is interesting that the first one occurs when people are just finishing their twenties and are becoming more “settled” in their lives, while the second marks the beginning of what is termed “the Golden Years” of a person’s life. Even in the most healthy of countries in the world at this time most people do not reach their third return at about 88½ years, although more are getting to that age.

In some ways, while the first return marks the transition from Youth to Mature Adult, the second can be considered as the transition from Adult to Sage/Crone. The ASTROLOGICAL influence of Saturn (Kronos/Khronos) is one where we are pushed into making changes in our lives, sometimes despite ourselves. Kronos here is a potentially harsh teacher because he is making us do self-evaluation and will not tolerate people who do not learn the lessons he is teaching. Those who resist learning often have to learn “the hard way”

The reason this relates to him as an initiatory deity is that we often hit a crisis of the spirit around these times in our lives and we no longer have extant Mysteries to fall back on, so Kronos has to work in other ways. The following link can help you Learn about the Saturn Return and its significance. Our Hellenic forbears looked to the heavens for omens and guidance. They also were inspired to encode some of their thoughts into the bits of astrology that were able to be passed down to us.

I feel we may have to create some sort of rite of passage ceremony, in addition to the ones the Classical Hellenes had, to commemorate these two periods in people’s lives as in the classical period most people were lucky to live more than a few years past the first one.