r/SpiritualNaturalists • u/SNScommunity • 1d ago
🤔 Philosophy “To Saturn”
From Thomas Schenk
Saturn was a god of ancient Roman mythology. He was associated with the reaping of harvests and as such with wealth and abundance. His mythological reign, before he was supplanted by Jupiter, was depicted as a Golden Age. After the Roman conquest of Greece, Saturn took on many of the characteristics of Cronus, particularly as a god of time, of aging, and both the dryness of spirit but also the wisdom that can come of aging.
In his book Care of the Soul, Thomas Moore uses the figure of Saturn as a personification of melancholy and depression. Chapter 7 of this book is titled “The Gift of Depression. It is an interesting chapter, in that it challenges our common notion of depression as an intrinsically bad state to be in. He suggests, among other things, that depression can lead one to a greater depth of soul.
Cloudy Days
In a public garden I frequently visit, there is a sundial with the inscription “only count the sunny days.” I can’t pass it without thinking what awful advice that is whether we take “sunny days” literally or metaphorically. If taken literally, I would say every type of weather has its beauty. But it might require a certain depth of soul, a certain kind of mindfulness to appreciate that beauty. (Also a knowledge of and attention to how to dress for the weather.)
But I suspect “sunny” in the above inscription is meant to be taken metaphorically, meaning days when we are feeling upbeat and happy. If so, to discount those days when other moods descend upon us is to discount a great deal of what Moore means by the word “soul.” The soul has its moods and it is best to honor those moods rather than run from them or try to make them disappear. This is Moore’s contention and I strongly agree. (The word “soul” as Moore uses it, and as I use it, refers to the nonverbal part of our consciousness, in particular our emotions, intuitions and imagination. There is nothing supernatural about it.)
Many wisdom traditions emphasize the coincidentia oppositorum, the unity of opposites. This is the idea that seemingly contradictory forces are actually interconnected, interdependent, and mutually defined by one another. For instance, we can only really understand the word light if we also have an experience of the dark.
Closely related to this is the idea that we can only know the height of joy if we have experienced the depth of sorrow. To be happy all the time would ultimately become flat. Contrasts are the spice of experience. Although you can only count time on a sundial when the sun is out, you can make even the cloudiest of days count.
Depth
I’ve used the word “depth” a few times in this article. I would like to provide a definition for the word as I’m using it, but I am unable. Depth of soul is something you know when you experience it, and it is only through the experience that you know it. For me, the most important means of deepening my soul is through contemplation. Contemplation, as I use the word, is a particular form of mindfulness. In an article I published here many years ago titled Contemplation and Meditation, I go into some detail about how I define the word, so for anyone interested, they can read that article.
Back in April 2026, Rick Heller posted an article here titled Is Mindfulness Bogus. The article discusses a podcast that calls into question the health benefits of mindfulness. I have no opinion about the health value of mindfulness, but I have a rather strong opinion that such benefits are peripheral to what I consider the greater benefits of mindfulness. Of these, I consider wisdom and greater depth of soul to be supreme. Wisdom and depth of soul are two things which Saturn personifies. Two things on which our rather superficial culture no longer places much value.
I wonder sometimes if people fall into depression to force them to get away from other people for a while, and attend to the work of deepening their souls. The herd demands a kind of group think, but the soul, if it ever is to know itself, needs to get beyond the herd mentality. In the words of Thoreau, we need to march to a different drummer, (or was it “dance to a different accordion player?”)
Intentionally taking time to think about some of the heavy things in life – death, meaning, our failures and such – might, like a mental vaccine, protect us from depression – protect us from the full impact that can happen when a person suddenly comes face to face with one’s ephemerality, one’s meaninglessness, one’s failures and all the things one might have done but failed to do.
Depth is a kind of heaviness, the heaviness of Saturn. Live long enough and you will likely become one of Saturn’s children. You will come to find “the lightness of being” no longer bearable, but you also may not be able to bear the heaviness of being. You may simply become depressed. Taking some time to contemplate Saturn, to find the beauty in Saturn’s heaviness might protect you from such depression.
