Previously, we’ve talked about the Saturn-Pluto Conjunction for China. In this article we are going to tackle the same issue in regards to Italy. We are also going to compare the two situations, specifically by looking at their Moon. In fact, we are going to find an interesting correlation between the two, as they are both going to be receiving similar transits.
Now, we all know at this point that this is a pandemic. So, does it make any sense to consider the situation just for a single nation? The short answer is yes. Even though this is a world wide issue, we don’t have to forget that the outbreak hit first—and more violently—some nations and not others. Italy has been the first and most involved among the European countries, so it definitely has a leading role in fighting the outbreak.

Focus Points
We’ve already discussed about the focus points concerning health matters in a natal chart. In order to heavily affect a nation, transiting Saturn and Pluto had to hit one or more of the following spots in their chart:
- Saturn, ruler of plagues;
- Planets in the Twelfth House and Sixth House;
- The rulers of the Twelfth and Sixth House (I use ancient rulerships).
In the natal chart of the Italian Republic, the sixth and twelfth houses are ruled by Mars and Venus respectively. In addition we can see the Moon, natural ruler of the people, in the twelfth house in Scorpio. We also want to point out that Venus is in conjunction with Saturn, creating a double-spot trigger.

As you can see, the Saturn-Pluto conjunction (red circle) occurred in opposition to the Saturn-Venus conjunction in the Italian Republic chart. So not only Saturn as the ruler of plagues has been activated but also Venus as the ruler of the twelfth house.
As we have already pointed out in the previous article, the twelfth is the house of solitude, escapism, confinement, imprisonment and quarantine. All significations activated by the transit. Now let’s take a look to the transits chart in order to get a bigger picture.
Transits for the Saturn-Pluto Conjunction
At the end of this article, we are going to focus more on the transits regarding the natal Moon. But first let’s take a look at natal Venus and Saturn as receiving points.

Both natal Venus and Saturn are getting the opposition of Pluto. That’s a very slow transit and it’s going to end only in a couple of years. Of course this doesn’t mean that this pandemic is going to last for so long! Please consider that transits of trans-saturnian planets, such as Pluto, just provides a large time-window that allows faster transits to be more effective.
This is the case with Saturn, that as we can see is opposing Venus during all January, and natal Saturn for all February. The dates roughly corresponded to the beginning of the outbreak. But what does it mean that Saturn was in opposition to its natal position (to itself)? Basically, that Italy is half-way through its Saturn return cycle.
Italy half-way of its Saturn Return
You have probably already heard of “Saturn return”. It is a very challenging transit that occurs every 30-ish years when Saturn comes back to its natal degree. This is a hard moment because you are called to deal with everything you’ve been procrastinating so far. In other words, it expects you to take responsibility and be an adult.
This cycle is very slow. But this doesn’t mean it shows up suddenly every 30 years without giving any warning sign. Usually, we get some every quarter of a cycle, coinciding with its main phases. It’s about the conjunction (beginning), first square, the opposition, and the second square that Saturn makes with its natal position—roughly every seven and a half years.
At the moment, Saturn is half-way through its cycle, and we can say that a big warning has been given. Being Saturn (as well as Venus) in the ninth house, this involves the relationship with foreign countries. My take on this, is that the relationship between Italy and other state members of the European Union is going to deeply change in the near future, because coping with such a serious situation is highlighting the weak spots of the whole system.
Where is the European Union when Italy needs it most? Many Italians are complaining about what Europe is actually doing to help. Just think of Christine Lagarde response, or Germany ban on face masks export (that Italy needed the most). The European Commission leader Ursula von der Leyen had to intervene to fix both situations.
Transiting Saturn on natal Moon
Finally, let’s talk about the upcoming transits on the Moon. In the transits chart we can see that in May transiting Saturn is going to square Italy natal Moon. This occurs as Saturn enters Aquarius and reaches its first station before getting retrograde.
What does it mean? It means that most likely all this will last longer than we expect. Also, that the population—somehow—is going to be actively involved in the process. One possible scenario could be the roll-out of a large-scale vaccination. Whereas the worst-case scenario would be having the outbreak completely out of control, with people left free to decide for themselves.
It is very interesting that both Italy and China are going to have a similar transit of Saturn on their natal Moon. Italy by square, China by conjunction. As a matter of fact, they are partners in misfortune already. But apparently they are going to go through a similar scenario.
In the next article we are going to talk about the United States, so if you don’t want to miss any further update please subscribe to the newsletter from the toolbar at the top of this website. Thanks for reading.

I consider myself a free researcher in western spiritual disciplines, in particular Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophy and the Neoplatonic Hermetic tradition. I have a three-year training in Astrology at the CIDA delegation of Trieste, the Italian Center for Astrological Disciplines. I graduated in Computer Engineering from the University of Trieste.