In previous posts we’ve explored the archetypes and history of Saturn in Pisces, as well as its personal effects. Another way to get a feel for how this transit might work is to look at how the archetypes express themselves through mythology and storytelling. So in this post, we’ll explore some representative films that combine the energies of Saturn and Pisces.

For Pisces we can include stories about the sea and water, music, the arts, movies, dreams and imagination, transcendence, faith and mysticism, as well as madness, addiction, deception and illusion.

For Saturn we can include stories about time, old age and death, order, control, tradition and the past, repression, fear and the shadow, as well as responsibility, inner strength and perseverance against the odds.

For Saturn in Pisces we can add stories about the struggle to create art, the challenges of spiritual practice, confusion between reality and dreams, utopias, disillusionment, karma and compassion. There may also be a mood of romanticism, surrealism, and expressionism, as seen during Saturn Neptune alignments (some examples here).

The following examples of Saturn in Pisces on film are some of my favourites – Expect SPOILERS!

We start with a film that perfectly captures the general mood of Saturn in Pisces:

Withnail & I is a cult classic about two friends who are out of work actors living in a dilapidated flat in London, drinking too much and hoping for a break in their careers. The film is set at the end of the 60s when the hippy dream was finally over and the drugs made everything worse. They’re surrounded by poverty and decay, buildings are being demolished, and the car has one headlamp missing.

Withnail and Marwood (the ‘I’ who narrates) escape to a cottage in the Lake District, owned by Withnail’s uncle Monty, a melodramatic queen. The cottage is isolated and the locals are unfriendly, and then Monty turns up to join the fun. It’s fantastically funny and eminently quotable, marinaded in alcohol and the yearning for something more.

Dreams and Reality

You’re spoilt for choice for films that blur the boundary between dreams/illusion and reality because that’s the nature of movies. I’ve covered many good examples in my Film & TV posts here, including Inception, a heist movie about dreams. The film is like a maze with multiple levels and interpretations and an ending that’s deliberately ambiguous.

The story follows Dom Cobb as he implants ideas and extracts information from people’s dreams. But he’s haunted by his dead wife who keeps turning up and sabotaging his efforts. Dom struggles to distinguish between dreams and reality, and may be trapped in his own dream. To escape he must confront his shadow and take a leap of faith. More on Inception here.

Another reality bending film is Donnie Darko, a psychological thriller about fate and the meaning of life. Again, there are multiple interpretations of the story and its circular nature, including tangent universes, dreams, and schizophrenia. The philosophy of time travel is discussed, as well as what Smurfs get up to when we’re not looking, and there’s a great soundtrack.

Donnie is troubled by visions of a giant rabbit called Frank who tells him the world is about to end, and he commits acts of vandalism while sleepwalking. Events spiral out of control, leading to the death of his friend, Gretchen. But then Donnie realises he can change everything, save Gretchen and give his life real meaning with one final act. You can explore the tangent universe here.

A different approach to dreams and reality can be found in The Fisher King, a comedy-drama about forgiveness and redemption. The film explores the mythology of the Grail Quest and the idea of the wounded healer and returning wholeness to the soul on a deep level.

The story follows Jack Lucas, a misanthropic DJ who is cut off from his humanity and unable to love. After his life spirals out of control, he’s rescued by Parry, a homeless man who suffers from delusions and visions. Parry is on a quest for the Holy Grail and can’t do it without the help of Jack. The myth comes alive and, in the process, they’re both transformed and healed. More on The Fisher King here.

Karma and Death

The films in this category could just as easily be included in the previous section as they all blur the boundaries of reality. But they also specifically deal with existential questions about death and grief and the consequences of our actions in life. First, is the BBC TV series The Living and the Dead, a supernatural thriller and love story set during the Victorian era in rural Somerset.

The story follows psychologist Nathan Appleby who is haunted by the ghosts of both the past and the future. He appears to be trapped in a cycle of eternal return caused by the grief and guilt he carries over the death of his son. The time warp draws on ancestral karma which reverberates across time, luring others into its sphere of influence with deadly results. More on The Living and the Dead here.

Next, we have Melancholia, an extraordinary film about depression and how people deal with death and the end of the world. It was inspired by German romanticism and features Wagner’s prelude to Tristan und Isolde, an opera about a doomed romance. Visionary and apocalyptic, it asks existential questions about the meaning of life and contrasts differing approaches to death.

The story follows two sisters, Justine who struggles with severe depression, and Claire who tries to help but has her own challenges. After destroying her marriage on her wedding day, Justine notices that the star Antares has disappeared. Another planet has appeared in the sky and is moving towards the earth. Justine takes the end of the world in her stride and is able to help Claire and her son cope as the cataclysm arrives.

Using a similar trope, Another Earth is a gentle and subtle film about karma and grief that also kind of works for Pluto in Aquarius. It has a contemplative mood and asks interesting questions about the nature of life, what it means to be human, why we’re here and what life is all about.

The story follows Rhoda, a young woman with great potential but her life veers off course when another planet appears in the sky. She causes a car accident that kills a mother and child, leaving John, the husband, devastated. After serving her sentence, Rhoda works as a janitor but feels guilty and wants to make amends. She finds John and offers her services as a cleaner and slowly brings him back to life.

The original Jacob’s Ladder is a psychological horror filled with spiritual symbolism and inspired by the Tibetan Buddhist idea of the Bardo and the Book of the Dead. It also explores the effects of drug experimentation on the troops during the Vietnam War and the abandonment of veterans on their return to civilian life.

Jacob has returned from Vietnam and suffers visions of a terrible attack that took place in the jungle where he was gravely injured. Back in New York, he’s menaced by strange beings that appear demonic, and haunted by memories of his dead son. After a vicious attack, Jacob is taken to a hellish hospital and rescued by his chiropractor who gives him some advice, quoting the mystic Meister Eckhart:

“…the only thing that burns in hell is the part of you that won’t let go of your life. Your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they’re not punishing you… They’re freeing your soul. So … if you’re frightened of dying and you’re holding on, you’ll see devils tearing your life away. But if you’ve made your peace, then the devils are really angels freeing you from the earth.”

Jacob is finally able to follow his son up a flight of stairs into the light…

Spirituality and Faith

The films in this section could include explicitly religious films, as well as those that are more symbolic. The first is the documentary Kumaré about a fake guru who ends up having a real effect on his followers. Filmmaker Vikram Gandhi questions the nature of belief and decides to test it for himself to find out if there’s something real behind it.

Presenting himself as Kumaré, a charismatic guru from India, Vikram quickly recruits a group of followers and shares his made-up practices with them. It’s fascinating to watch how much people need to believe in something and someone, and how much they’re willing to overlook in the process. Kumaré often tells them the truth directly but they take it as a profound teaching – which it actually is, for example, the real guru is inside you.

Vikram is surprised to find his teachings and practices have a genuinely transformative effect on his followers, as well as himself. Finally, he decides to come clean and reveal the real person behind the guru, with mixed results.

The next film is a survival drama with only one character: a man alone in a boat at sea in All is Lost. The story works well as a general metaphor for life but also for the process of spiritual awakening and the need for surrender and faith. The man struggles to survive after an accident rips a hole in the boat and damages the navigation equipment while a storm is closing in. He manages to patch the hole, but can’t radio for help.

The problems keep coming and everything he does makes his situation worse, until he ends up in an inflatable life raft with dwindling supplies. After failing to attract the attention of two container ships, he sets the raft on fire in a desperate bid to be found, and finally sinks into the water. Only then, does a search light appear above him.

Next, we have one of my absolute favourites: The Fountain, a visionary love story about the quest for immortality that has a non-linear structure, stunning visuals, and a glorious soundtrack. The film explores death, grief and loss, and the mystical process of unifying the opposites and learning faith. It has multiple interpretations and three parallel storylines that are intercut in a way that blurs reality.

The main story follows Tom Creo, a scientist who is trying to save his wife Izzi from a brain tumour. While he searches for a cure for death, she writes a story about a conquistador on a quest for the Tree of Life. There’s also an astronaut in a bubble on his way to the Orion nebula, carrying a tree to be restored to life. More about The Fountain here.

Creativity

Again, we’re spoilt for choice for films about creativity and the creative process, but the one I had to include is Amadeus. It may not be historically accurate but it’s great fun, with fantastic performances, and the music is glorious. The film explores the nature of genius and the struggle to create art. The story centres around the fictional rivalry between Mozart and Salieri, driven by Salieri’s jealousy of Mozart’s incredible talent.

Mozart is depicted as immature and alcoholic, but this doesn’t stop his genius for music. After the death of his father, Mozart writes Don Giovanni as an outpouring of grief. Salieri convinces him that his father has risen from the dead to commission a Requiem. But Mozart dies of exhaustion before he can finish it and is buried in a mass grave.

A different kind of struggle to create is found in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a drama based on the memoir by fashion editor Jean-Dominique Bauby. The film shows how he wrote his book while suffering from locked-in syndrome following a stroke that left him almost completely paralysed. They devised a system of communication that allowed him to dictate the words, spelled out letter by letter.

Although he was unable to move, his mind was unaffected, and the story is revealed through flashbacks and memories as he reviews his life, lying in a hospital bed. He often escapes into fantasy while trapped in his condition, and describes the experience as like being in an old-fashioned deep-sea diving suit, submerged underwater, while his spirit flies free like a butterfly.

Next, we have Shine, a biographical drama about Australian pianist David Helfgott, played brilliantly by Geoffrey Rush, in an inspiring and compassionate portrayal of mental illness. The film explores David’s life, starting with his difficult relationship with his father, who pressured him to succeed and often abused him. David escapes to the Royal College of Music in London where he continues to push himself too hard, ending in a collapse and mental breakdown.

After spending time in an institution with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, he returns to Australia where he struggles to fit back into society. But he continues to play the piano in a restaurant where he meets Gillian who helps him to overcome his trauma and return to his music career. When David asks Gillian to marry him, she responds by drawing up his horoscope to see if they’re compatible!

Finally, we see what happens when creativity is suppressed in The Lives of Others, a film that also works well for Pluto in Aquarius. The story is set in East Germany and follows a Stasi captain who is tasked with spying on a playwright, with unexpected consequences for both of them. More on The Lives of Others here.

There are many more films we could include for Saturn in Pisces, such as A Star is Born, Black Swan, Don’t Look Now, Finding Neverland, Frank, Groundhog Day, Kundun, Mulholland Drive, Pan’s Labyrinth, Rev (TV series), The Shining, Stranger Than Fiction, and Whiplash… Add your favourites in the comments below…

Next time, a deeper look at the oppressive world of The Lives of Others…

More on Pisces Myths here, and Saturn Myths here.

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