In ancient Mesopotamia the planets were seen as gods in their own right. The Babylonian name for Saturn was Sagush and the associated god was Ninurta. When the Tablets of Fate, which held the laws of the universe, were stolen by a dragon, it was Ninutra who rescued them and was henceforth placed in charge of fate and law. Sagush was therefore the star of law and order.
This does not conflict with the role of Jupiter: order is not quite the same thing as justice. In the same myth, Ninurta is said to have imposed his rule upon the minerals, who had sided with the dragon, and allotted to them their natures and duties: some 3000 years later Lilly also recorded that Saturn rules mines and those who work with earth or stone. Since the dragon was a beast of the air, the myth may depict the imposition of divine order on the universe, both above and below the earth.
Unfortunately, most of the tablets relating to the omens of Saturn have yet to be found, so we know less about his position in Mesopotamian astrology than that of the other planets. The Greeks equated Ninurta with their own Kronos. He was one of the Titans, the children of Gaia and Ouranos, Earth and Sky. Kronos seized power from his father after castrating him, because Ouranos had prevented Gaia from giving birth to her children.
The explanation of the latter can probably be found in an Egyptian myth, which stated that the sky goddess Nut and the earth god Geb had refused to cease coupling: their forcible separation enabled the creation of our world. This is not just a question of making a space in which mankind could live, but of creating the differentiations which distinguish cosmos from chaos.
The very word cosmos originally meant appropriate arrangement and good order, its use in the sense of the universe apparently having been introduced by Pythagoras. Thus Kronos made the initial separation of heaven and earth, male and female, just as the astrological Saturn creates order and makes distinctions.
In the Jewish theosophy of the Kabbalah, as previously discussed, Saturn is the third sphere of divine activity, called Binah - Understanding or Intelligence. This is the power which organises the creative forces and imposes form on the universe. It is thus the root of matter. It is also the female principle, for it is through conception and birth that we acquire material form.
In the greater arcana of the tarot cards, the magical order of the Golden Dawn assigned Saturn to the World. This was presumably because Saturn, as the most earthy planet, rules life on earth. But the card refers rather to the ideal world, or the world to come, and other suitable images can be found: the Hermit (originally called Time), symbolising wisdom and prudence; Fortune, since Saturn represents fate; the Emperor or the Pope, as secular and spiritual authorities; even Death or the Devil. Among the lesser arcana, Saturn is assigned to the threes on cabbalistic grounds. Since the restrictions of Saturn fall hardest on the element air, the three of swords is unfavourable and called Sorrow. With the other elements, Saturn consolidates their powers and so the three of coins (earth) is Material Works, the three of cups (water) is Abundance, and the three of wands (fire) is Established Strength. (Skyscript)
