Time is Cadent

An exploration of time, cadent houses, Saturn, and grief. For a look at all twelve astrological houses, see my article here.

The definition of time is “the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues,” as well as “a non spatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future.”

The definition of cadent is “being in the process of falling” or “having rhythmic cadence.” Cadent houses fall away from the angles or angular houses. These are pivot points with succedent houses rising up towards that pivot, so each of the four angles has a house leading up to it and a house declining from it. The cadent houses are the 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th.

Time is cadent because it holds sequences, rhythms, and cycles. Time is cadent because it’s measured in a myriad of ways and is a measure. Time is cadent because it slips away.

In the same way that these houses are where time slips away, these houses are also where time is most closely watched.

The 3rd House is where time orients us towards becoming more familiar with our surroundings and environment. We lose track of time doing the regular rituals of life and have to keep a close eye on time to be present within each day.

The 6th House is where time passes as we labor. We lose track of time while busy with or focused on a task and have to keep a close eye on time when working on anything to not forget that we have bodies which require maintaining & tending.

The 9th House is where time links us to the world as we explore. We lose track of time when absorbed in an experience and have to keep a close eye on time when in an unfamiliar place to ensure that we don’t miss a plan, event, or transportation.

The 12th House is where time *seemingly* doesn’t exist — arguably making this Thee Place of Time. We lose track of time when we are transitioning liminal realms and have to keep a close eye on time when traversing the depths and widths of these boundaries.

In these houses, time both both ticks by slowly and zooms by rapidly.

A pair of stories that fueled the inspiration to write this…

Many years ago I was told about a friend who missed a returning flight from an international trip and decided to stay an extra two weeks instead of hopping on the next plane home. The trip started as work with meetings and a conference. After the missed flight, they found themselves enamored with the culture and spending time wandering through museums, churches, temples, monuments, and historic sites. Service is found in the 6th House, and travel is found in the 9th House.

Recently a friend told me about driving through a neighborhood that held a mental health facility, a place where people usually don’t know how long they will be staying. Being tucked between residential homes makes this seem even more of a mysterious place, although it shouldn’t be seen in that way, showing similarities between hospitals and prisons. The hidden in plain sight nature contributes to the taboo and emphasizes the question mark around length of time spent there. Hospitals are found in the 12th House, and neighborhoods are found in the 3rd House.

What do we do with time? Watch, study, examine, scrutinize, experience, differentiate, delegate, anticipate, reflect, divide, cut short, exploit, take for granted, and long to lengthen.

What do we owe time? Respect, pure and simple.

Any astrological assessment of time would be incomplete without showing reverence for Saturn.

Saturn is the planet who rules over time, reality, and aging; Saturn rejoices in the 12th House. Saturn is perfectly content to let time pass in solitude and in peace. This acceptance of limits can be both depressing and liberating. We don’t know how much time our life will have, we can’t make more of it, and Saturn reminds us of time’s cadency.

It requires time passing to build a substantive relationship with Saturn, as they don’t reward quickness. The slow ticking from the clock of life echoes into the empty space where Saturn is met. A room or a coffin, both in solitude. There is a known unknown in the fact that we all know there will be a grand ending, but there’s still an open question mark regarding when that will actually occur.

Any multidimensional assessment of time would be incomplete without touching on grief.

Grief is time bound. Grief is timeless. Grieving is a form of adapting to time-weathered conditions — not having enough time doing something or having a loved ones’ time ended too soon. Time ticks by slowly when grief makes your world stand still. Time zooms by rapidly when grief makes the days blend together. Grief contextualizes the cadency of time by drawing clear transitions of before and after.

It requires time passing to start the healing process that grief necessitates. This healing process can extend past time, space, and any linear conception of reality. Grief is held within familial and generational trauma, passed down if unattended. Grief can potentially carry over into other lifetimes and timelines, leaving unseen scars that continue to ache.

Among all these intertwined and interwoven pieces is the truth that we cannot choose how fast or slow time moves.

We can choose to redefine time or look at time in a way that makes its inevitability more logical, but it will always contain unavoidable endings and moments slipping away that we can only cultivate relationship with and accept as they arrive.

Being inside of cadent houses can cause us to wonder what level of reality we’re in and reckon with our ability to be in multiple realities at once. At any point in time, we are slowly falling away from the now and moving into the next moment, in whichever dimension that next moment is happening within.

We can choose to be present in the present and aware of time as it gently coasts by, never controlling but always participating.

Time is always passing, moving, falling, and cadent.

* MRM

This writing and these thoughts have been shaped by conversations with my dear friend Carol-Anne Steinhoff, a brilliant astrologer and a companion in traversing liminal spaces.

Definitions are from Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com.

Photo credits, in order, all found on Unsplash: Planet Volumes, Markus Spiske, Chromatograph, NASA, Dynamic Wang.