Ariana Grande, SZA and Kacey Musgraves are just a few of the musicians to invoke astral powers in their songs. It’s a reach for relatability – but what does it mean for songwriting?
Seven years ago, I was flicking through a magazine at the hairdresser’s when I came to my horoscope. My eye was caught by a line informing me and my fellow Pisceans that we were in the final stretch of a punishing three-year visit from Saturn, the “taskmaster planet”, but pretty soon everything was going to be fine. It sounds anodyne – but I needed to hear it. I was 25 and mired in my first real heartbreak, two years into an overseas move and uncertain of whether to stick it out. Elle magazine’s 2017 Astro Guide might not have been authoritative, but it did make me feel more optimistic about the future.
It was my first encounter with the theory of the Saturn return: that in the 29-ish years it takes Saturn to orbit the sun from the point of our birth, a confronting initiation into adulthood ensues. It’s a revelation that’s hit pop recently. Ariana Grande included a 42-second spoken-word explainer from astrologer Diana Garland on her new album Eternal Sunshine. On new single Saturn, SZA expresses weariness with her self-destructive behaviours and yearns to channel the consistency and discipline associated with the planet: “Life’s better on Saturn / Got to break this pattern / Of floating away.” Kacey Musgraves begins Deeper Well, the title track of her new album, by declaring “my Saturn has returned”. (The same phrase is also emblazoned on sweatshirts, selling for $60 on her online store.)
