In the astral body, and upon the Mutable Cross, this combination will emphasize selfish desire. Leo is always self-centered at first; that is its task—to build the self as a conscious center. Saturn, too, is preoccupied with the materially present condition. Because of uncertainties (Saturn) about the value of the self (Leo)—essentially because of a lack of self-confidence, there may be an unusual insistence upon the fulfillment of desire for the sake of ego-reinforcement (lower ego, of course). The attitude could be expressed as follows: “If I get what I want, I must be someone.” Two indicators of cleavage are therefore at work in the desire body—Saturn the separator, the Leo, the isolationist (under the first and fifth rays).

As selfish as Saturn is upon the Mutable Cross, it is not so, upon the Fixed Cross or Cardinal Cross. Then, Saturn is an Agent of the higher Law, of Plan and Purpose, and in Leo, the lower ego has been “cornered” and relinquished. Saturn in Leo will then work to make sure that selfishness, exactly, is not expressed through desire. The Leonian ego is chastened by Saturn; the selfish materialism of Saturn is overcome by the higher Self which Leo also represents. Desire (now aspiration) serves (Saturn) that higher Self (Leo). The self (now the Self) is confident, and no longer needs the gratification of personal desire to prove its identity and worth.

2. Saturn (in Leo) in Relation to the Personality as a Whole:
There is much of the first ray which pours through this combination; this comes from the triangle Leo, Saturn, Shamballa. The Great Bear is also found in this alignment, and at the lower pole, the head center and base of spine of the individual disciple. One can see how willfully determined the personality could become. Upon the Mutable Cross, this would be self-will and the selfishness which inevitably accompanies it.

Both Leo and Saturn tend to isolate, until more advanced evolutionary stages are reached; we would have, therefore, the isolated and powerful person, self-aware, calculating, and determined to dominate his environment, including all associated persons. “Let other forms exist; I rule because I am.” (EA 311) The motive is often a fundamental uncertainty (Saturn) concerning the nature and value of selfhood (Leo). But these motives are often hidden or not even understood by the person who insists that his little, separative will be done in this world.

Later in the evolutionary cycle, the strength is still there, but the lower ego has been sacrificed to a higher purpose. The individual knows who his is (Leo) and what his duty (Saturn) may be. He also knows that to perform his duty, his personality must become a living sacrifice. He submits his selfhood (Leo) to a higher law (Saturn)—something the Leo individual is, at first, very loathe to do.

3. Saturn (in Leo) and the Presentation of Opportunity on the Path of Discipleship:
On the path of discipleship, difficulty becomes opportunity. At first people with this combination are compensatorily proud; they lack real self-confidence and so make up for this lack with a pride which hides their inherent weakness. But, eventually, the little self is seen for what it is, and the realization comes that this little self must be taken off the center of the stage of consciousness.

The opportunities presented are the opportunities to do just that—to put the lower ego down, and raise the higher Self into its place. The difficulties presented are what are called “humbling experiences”. Through challenge to the artificial ‘status’ of the little self, through humiliation, one has the opportunity to achieve self-effacement (completed in Pisces), which will allow the true Identity or true face to emerge.

4. Saturn (in Leo) and Choices to be Made and Destruction to be Endured in order to Promote a Freer Expression of the Soul:
If Saturn, through pressure, “breaks up existing conditions” (EA 442), it is precisely the lower ego which must be broken up. Lower ego is a familiar structure of thought and perception which establishes itself as a constant point of reference in the center of the field of consciousness. Really, it is an obstruction to perception, and must be eliminated if the distortions (glamors) for which it is responsible (through the process of refraction) are also to be eliminated.

Saturn in Leo (as lower ego) blocks the expression of Saturn in Leo as the Laws (Saturn) of the soul (Leo). Lower ego is destroyed through the disciplines of perspective. The wider life beyond the artificially small ahamkaric ring-pass-not is seen. The little personal ego dwindles in importance. The centralized point (lower ego) becomes the “revealing point” and finally the “relinquished point”. (cf. EA 332) Soul can more freely express because the center which ‘impersonated’ it, has been removed.

5. As “the sacred planets endeavour to fuse the personality and make it the instrument of the soul and the non-sacred planets influence more specifically the form nature”, how does Saturn, a sacred planet, fuse the personality and make it a responsible instrument of the soul in this particular sign? How does it enforce the law(s) of the soul, and assist in the fulfillment of the Purpose, Plan and Dharma conceived by the soul?:
Saturn can work for destruction, but it can work as well for stabilization. According to the Tibetan, “Saturn is ever the stabiliser.” (EP I 421) The effect of Saturn is, at least, to define selfhood, and make it more secure through self-knowledge. In Leo, Saturn creates a tightly-knit personality, which is an integrated center of force. This well-defined lower ego may indeed have to be destroyed, dissolved or restructured, but at a certain relatively advanced point in human evolution, it serves a purpose. Under this influence, the personality becomes powerful and efficient—fused, however selfish the initial result.

As soul influence increases, as inevitably it must, this fused instrument becomes responsive to soul law. Under Leo, the individual is ever in danger of becoming a “law unto himself”; but chastening, humbling experiences reveal the futility of selfishness and the value of the higher law. What is revealed is that the way to freedom is through discipline. The Leo individual loathes discipline from an external authority, but when he discovers that the discipline to which he has been subjected is really coming from a higher aspect of himself, then his relationship to Saturn in entirely changed. No longer is Saturn in exoteric detriment when found in Leo; instead it is empowered as the enforcer of one’s own higher will.

The Saturn in Leo individual then looks at hardships as if he (as a higher Self) had willed them to exist. He is then willing to conform to higher disciplines, because, by conforming to these Saturnian disciplines, he (as the higher Self), is dominating a false self (the lower self) with which he no longer identifies. Thus, the disciple in Leo comes under his own self-discipline. His center has changed; his point of identification has changed. Far from robbing him of his individual sovereignty, Saturn in this sign, helps him express his higher Selfhood.

6. Miscellaneous Meanings of Saturn in Leo: