Delayed Gratification, Saturn’s Great Lesson

Are you more like the grasshopper or the ant ? Do you prefer to enjoy things immediately ? (full carpe diem mode) Or are you capable of understanding the value of restraining yourself in the present in order to have more, and better, later ?

Behind these simple questions lie particularly important personality traits, ones that can deeply impact destiny and that say a great deal astrologically about how you live your Saturnian energies…

In the 1960s and 1970s, psychologist Walter Mischel designed the “marshmallow test”, a famous experiment in developmental psychology intended precisely to better understand these mechanisms within the human psyche.

His main objective was to explore and understand the capacity for delayed gratification in very young children, and to study its potential effects and influence on their future success in adult life.

The protocol was simple: in an empty room, a table was placed with a marshmallow on it (or another treat, a candy, etc), and a young child was brought in.

The experimenter spoke to the child and gave them a choice:
+Either the child could eat the marshmallow immediately (no problem, it was their right)
+Or, if they were patient and waited for the experimenter to return, they would receive double the treat !

Yes, the experimenter was rather sadistic 🙂
In reality, the waiting period was not very long, it lasted about 15 minutes…

The obvious goal here was to understand how the pleasure and gratification function is structured from childhood: does the child prefer immediate gratification at the expense of greater future rewards ?
Or are they already capable of mentally projecting themselves into the future and understanding that present deprivation can help improve their later situation ?

Of course, the children were closely observed during those 15 minutes in order to analyze their reactions and identify their behaviors.

Two main reactions emerged in the results:
+Some children immediately grabbed the treat as soon as the experimenter left
+Others found strategies to ignore the marshmallow and wait for the experimenter’s return

Walter Mischel did not stop there : he followed these children for several years afterward (through adolescence and young adulthood).

He generally observed that the children who had patiently waited for the second marshmallow had, on average, better academic performance, greater social and personal success, higher stress tolerance, and fewer patterns of addiction…

This test tends to demonstrate that “self-control” (a directly Saturnian function) is strongly correlated with an improvement in one’s life trajectory.

He also specified that this capacity is directly influenced by genetic factors (thus inherited in an innate way through transgenerational karmic patterns), but that it can also be acquired on an educational and environmental level through learning (one can condition one’s psychology to strategically opt more often for delayed gratification if one consciously learns that there is great benefit in doing so !).

Astrologically, we find here the confrontation between the planet Jupiter, often linked to consumerism and immediate expansion, and the planet Saturn, which is associated with frugality and restriction, and which better understands the value of limiting oneself in the present to improve the future.

Of course, this is heavily influenced by social and economic factors, and in a society driven by consumption, one can easily guess which side political leaders prefer to tip the balance toward…

This can have a significant impact from childhood onward.
For example, a child from a poor family may have been conditioned (perhaps unconsciously) to prefer “taking immediately” the pleasure within reach, out of fear of an uncertain future perceived as anxious and stressful (thus deactivating the potential benefits of delayed gratification).

Such a child may first need to unlearn this conditioning in order to “trust” their own strategic capacities (astrologically speaking, they would need to work on their Saturnian function to better understand, integrate, and use it).

In the game of life, we are not all equal when it comes to the Saturnian function. Yet it is essential to recognize its qualities and everything it can bring into our lives: in the realization of our will (its firmness and patience), in our motivation (perseverance in effort, endurance), and in our temporal vision of existence (the strategic capacity to build and structure methodically).

It’s very important not to delegate these functions to “something outside ourselves”, such as believing that “the state”, acting as a kind of “super-mother”, will eventually take care of everything for us (health, retirement, etc) without us having to worry, because that is not true, it never has been, and it is likely to become even less so for future generations…

For example, it may be important to know how to build one’s own retirement savings, which is a major example of delayed gratification par excellence (even a few dozen euros per month saved and invested over 40 working years can make a tremendous difference in the end, when the ant finally retires).

Astrologically, in any case, it remains important to rely on your natal Saturn, to know how to sublimate this planet in the problems and trials it may represent, and to pay close attention to current Saturn transits, as they also indicate where we can invest our present “Earth forces”, and when and how we can do so.

Much like what I discussed in my article on “Saturn and fasting”, where the planet can help us “welcome emptiness” within ourselves.

As a parent, this can be taught to young children as a kind of strategy game, helping them integrate these Saturnian virtues.

Of course, this does not mean swinging to the opposite extreme, living like a hermit, depriving oneself of everything just to end up the richest person in the cemetery (which would then be a Saturnian excess).
Rather, there is a healthy balance to cultivate around all of this…

So what about you: do you feel more like the grasshopper or the ant ?
Do you eat the marshmallow right away ?
Or are you capable of waiting patiently to receive double later ? 🙂