Everyone has fear. Everyone has that one slinking, insidious thing that stalks the darkest corners of their mind. The beauty of Halloween, and of horror in general, it that is allows us to engage with symbolic representations of that fear, to explore and experiment in a low-stakes environment as we attempt to grapple with what goes bump in the night.
In the natal chart, Saturn rules fear. Taking a look at Saturn will give us a sense of what our deepest fears are, and in turn, what kind of horror gives us the spine-tingling chills. For example, I have Saturn in Sagittarius in the 8th house. I am most terrified by creeping, slow-burn psychological horror that leaves the world looking just a little less controllable long after the last page or scene. I’m also horrified by stories that involve being surrounded by people who are all insane, sharing the same delusion. Hand me a Shirley Jackson novel and I’m toast. This ties in to my real-life fear, which is of the darkness that exists and can be activated in each and every one of us. In my personal horror story, every human is just a few bad circumstances away from madness.
Or take my partner, who has Saturn conjunct the Moon in Cancer. The horror that gets to him the most are traditional haunted house stories. The feeling that your very home, the place where you are supposed to be the safest, turns against you. And there is nothing you can do to defend yourself or your family. This can be tied to his real-life childhood in which familial chaos almost beyond imagination was an everyday occurrence, as well as his deep desire to be a protective figure for his family as an adult.
When we consume our scary tales, what we are really doing is confronting our own psyche. We are examining the fear, holding it up to the light, and trying to come to terms with its power. We find the little cracks, the small absurdities that exist within it, and we come away a little stronger and a little more in control. So this Halloween, as you are enjoying the shivers down your spine, take a moment to look into your fear, and let your fear stare back into you. Isn’t it delicious?
What kind of horror gets to you? Can you tie it to your real-life fear? Where is your Saturn?