The word karma comes from Sanskrit (कर्म) and means “action,” “deed,” or “act.” In its deeper philosophical sense, karma corresponds to the Universal Law of Cause and Effect — the principle that every thought, emotion, word, or action we generate creates a specific energetic imprint that, over time, returns to our life, whether in this one or in a future incarnation.

The Universal Law of Karma is one of the fundamental spiritual laws of the Universe, teaching that nothing goes without consequence — what we sow, we shall also reap. Every action carries its reaction, and every energy we emit into the world (through our choices, behaviours, deeds, and attitudes) returns to us in some form.

“Every cause has its effect; every effect has its cause; everything happens according to Law. Chance is but a name for law not recognized.” — (The Kybalion, Hermetic Teachings)

Saturn and the Money Karma in Vedic Astrology

In Vedic astrology, Saturn (Shani) is the indicator of karmic debts and lessons. Through time, challenges, delays, and burdens, Saturn teaches us responsibility, self-discipline, endurance, and inner maturity. One of the areas where karmic patterns often manifest powerfully is our relationship with money — how we attract it, retain it, lose it, or struggle with earning it.

Saturn’s placement in the natal chart can reveal profound insights into a native’s money karma, especially when it occupies houses directly related to finances, career, assets, and values, for example:

Saturn in the 2nd house — the house of money, material possessions, family, and self-worth — points to karma tied to an insufficient sense of personal value, as well as poverty mindset and scarcity patterns within the family.

Saturn in the 5th house — the house of speculative gains — may indicate karma involving gambling, losses through risky investments, and difficulties with creative self-expression.

Saturn in the 6th house — the house of debt, service, and daily work — signals karma around repaying debts, sometimes even those of others. It may also suggest recurring patterns of overextending oneself and the need to learn to set boundaries in helping others.

Saturn in the 7th house — the house of partnership, marriage, and business collaborations — brings karmic lessons through marriages or business partnerships that carry financial or emotional weight. It can point to the need to create stable, long-term, and reliable relationships after healing karmic ties.

Saturn in the 8th house — the house of inheritance, other people’s money, and deep transformation — often carries transgenerational karmic patterns tied to loss, family secrets, inheritance, or debt. It may also highlight karma related to control, power, and finances.

Saturn in the 10th house — the house of career, social status, and reputation — demands that one build success slowly, step by step, often through obstacles and the sense of having to work harder than others. Once karmic lessons are mastered, this placement brings lasting success and recognition.

Saturn in the 12th house — the house of loss, sacrifice, donations, and spirituality — may point to karma of poverty, confinement, losses due to sacrifice, or vows of poverty and spiritual asceticism from past lives.

Saturn in Scorpio — signals karmic themes linked to inheritance, the spouse’s family, secrets, and financial control. It may point to past experiences of loss, deception, or trauma related to money and intimate relationships.

Saturn in Jyeshtha Nakshatra — indicates karma related to theft, loss of inheritance, or betrayal within the family, often connected to older family members or family leaders.

Saturn in Ashlesha Nakshatra — brings deep patterns of manipulation and control, tied to money karma through family secrets, emotional dependency, and the use of financial power as a means of domination.

Conjunctions of Saturn in the natal chart can also reveal karmic and transgenerational patterns around money. For example, Saturn conjunct the Moon may indicate karmic themes related to money or transgenerational trauma linked to the mother or maternal ancestral line, as well as difficulties in receiving.

The Money Karma — Healing Karmic and Transgenerational (Ancestral) Money Blocks and Wounds

In cases of betrayal and deceit over inheritance in the family lineage, the pain can be multilayered, profound, and often steeped in generational silence. Such patterns can stretch for many generations, shaping feelings of hatred, betrayal, grief, distrust, and leading to the breakdown of family relationships and communication. While we cannot change what our ancestors have done in the past — we can choose how we act today.

We can choose to act with integrity, respecting both the law and our own boundaries. If we have the right to claim the property that belongs to us, we can do so in a way that does not feed the karmic pattern of hatred and power struggle, but through an energy of fairness and justice.

While forgiveness does not mean forgetting, it often means freeing ourselves from the role of unconscious carrier of the pattern. Forgiveness does not exclude legal protection, nor does it invite us to endure injustice. On the contrary, it enables us to act from our own center, without the emotional burden of the past.

Conversations with older family members, no matter how challenging, can bring precious insights. We may hear stories of poverty, war, exile, fears of losing home, land, or security. These insights often illuminate patterns of transgenerational poverty and struggle. Fears, traumas, or struggles of our ancestors can manifest in our lives as limiting beliefs, such as:

“Money is always a struggle,”
“Wealth is dangerous,”
“Everyone eventually fights over money.”

When we identify such patterns in our own natal chart — especially if Saturn is placed in houses related to money, inheritance, and family (2nd, 4th, 8th houses), or if it rules houses associated with the father (9th house) or mother (4th house) — we can begin to recognise the core patterns we may have been carrying unconsciously. The first step in the healing process begins with the conscious decision not to continue the same pattern. 

“It stops here. I choose differently.”

Through insights into transgenerational family karmic patterns, we not only gain a better understanding of our money karma, but we also deepen our understanding of the behaviours, survival patterns, traumas, fears, and unseen struggles of our ancestors.

Many stories that were passed down in silence, through hints or family tensions, take on new meaning when we start listening with the heart, with the desire to understand rather than judge. You may even hear inspiring stories that help you see your family members — especially those you may have felt resentment or misunderstanding toward — in a completely different light.

When I began working on my money mindset, I remembered how my mother, whenever she carried a larger sum of money, would tightly hold her purse to her body, always afraid of being robbed. Later, when I found out that my great-grandfather had been ambushed on the street, robbed, and brutally beaten to death while carrying his pension, I suddenly understood the root of that fear.

Likewise, my perception of my late maternal grandmother changed profoundly when I discovered that at just thirteen years old, during wartime, she drove wounded and dead soldiers in an ox cart — so that her family could keep their ‘wealth’ (the oxen), which the army would have otherwise “confiscated” for transporting the dead and wounded. The older and “timid” woman I remembered suddenly became, in my eyes – a heroine.

You, too, may discover in exploring your family stories that your relatives risked their lives, safety, or stability for money — whether they were trying to earn it, save it, or defend it. Such life circumstances, often left unspoken, can leave deep imprints in the family lineage. Money then becomes more than just a medium of exchange — it becomes a symbol of life risk, survival, struggle, and fear.

You might recognise that themes of inheritance, property loss, unjust confiscation of money or property, family disputes, living in extreme poverty, or sudden loss of wealth have been repeating in your family line. You may sense how patterns of control, silence, or distrust are still playing out in your own behavior or financial challenges.

Through these insights, you gain the opportunity to see yourself and your family members from the new perspective. To understand, perhaps even to forgive, and to become aware of the emotions, beliefs, and money patterns that have been passed down through generations.

Of course, everyone has the right to set boundaries, to protect themselves, and to fight for their peace—after all, Saturn is exalted in Libra and in the 7th house – of justice and law. But it’s equally important to bring awareness to, and heal, the energetic, emotional, ancestral, and subconscious patterns that have led to these situations in the first place.

For example, someone with Saturn in Jyeshtha nakshatra in Scorpio (I wrote more in detail about this placement in my previous blog post) may repeatedly face theft or physical or verbal attacks, with similar patterns reflected in their ancestral stories. Naturally, it’s crucial to protect ourselves in such circumstances—through legal action, security measures, self-defense training, or a good insurance policy—but it’s just as vital to bring conscious attention to the karmic and subconscious patterns of fear around personal safety, and ask oneself:

In which area of life do I feel unsafe, and where do I still need to learn to set healthy boundaries and maintain my own sovereignty?

By understanding our natal chart and karmic patterns, we can arrive at a deeper acceptance of the events that have occurred. We can perceive them as part of our spiritual lessons, grasp why they happened to us, and see the people who hurt us as individuals who played a role in fulfilling our karmic “contracts.”

Some events may not have a direct connection to us personally, but are part of transgenerational legacies carried forward from our great-grandparents and beyond. This is why I believe that every planet, every house, and every aspect in our horoscope holds a deeper meaning.

Karmic patterns related to money, safety, and self-worth often have deep roots in past-life experiences as well. Ketu, as the planet of past lives and spiritual wisdom, can point in the natal chart to talents, but also to unresolved lessons the soul carries from previous incarnations.

As a first step toward healing, an astrological reading can be invaluable, illuminating the position of Saturn and revealing how karmic and transgenerational patterns around money are playing out in your life. This is especially important if you are experiencing stagnation in business, challenges with visibility, sales, clients, or money.

It’s also incredibly valuable to speak with the elders in your family—parents, grandparents—about their lives, financial experiences, inheritance, and their relationship to money, security, and survival. Such conversations often uncover transgenerational patterns we unconsciously carry forward.

The Sun, Moon, and Ascendant Nakshatra Placements – Karma and Dharma

The nakshatras (lunar mansions) of Sun, Moon, and Ascendant placements (in our Vedic natal chart) are important indicators of our life path, cosmic role (‘dharma’), innate talents, and creative expression style. They are like a celestial DNA, shaping our money blueprint and  aligned professional and business niche. For example, your nakshatras may reveal whether you are naturally gifted for somatic coaching and therapy, health coaching, fitness coaching, sexual counseling, energy healing, Yoga, Kabbalah, predictive astrology, mediumship, or writing mythological stories, horror stories, romantic novels, or self-help books.

Yet, each nakshatra also has a shadow aspect—subconscious or karmic patterns that can show up in our relationship to money, business, self-worth, or fear of visibility. Getting to know your dominant nakshatras can help you understand not only your most authentic way of working, marketing, and selling, but also give you clearer insight into your cosmic role and how you are destined to serve others, your community, and the world. (To learn more about your nakshatra placements and discover your money blueprint, aligned business niche, spiritual, occult, and creative innate gifts —order my digital book Astrology of Business, Money, and Success.)

Saturn – The Archetype of the Servant, Elder, and Karmic Judge

In India, where I spent ten years studying and living the ancient wisdom of Vedic astrology, the planets are seen not merely as celestial bodies, but as conscious and divine entities. They are worshiped in temples, and their energy is seen as a spiritual force guiding us along the paths of karma and dharma. On Saturdays, traditionally, people in India visit Saturn temples with symbolic offerings like black sesame seeds, mustard oil, lit lamps, and incense.

For many, it’s also a day of fasting, prayer, self-reflection, and good deeds—such as donating food, clothes, or money to the poor and homeless, or feeding black cows, dogs, or birds (Saturn corresponds to the black color). Respect for elders is deeply rooted in Indian culture as well –  in Vedic astrology, it is considered one of the spiritual “remedies” for generating good karma and softening the impact of difficult Saturn placements or transits (especially the Sade Sati—Saturn’s transit over the natal Moon).

In my astrology practice, I’ve noticed that clients who were going through challenging Saturn periods shared that at the beginning of the transit, a “black dog” in need of care and shelter suddenly appeared in their lives—and they intuitively felt called to take care of it.

In the natal chart, Saturn represents the archetype of the servant, and its placement reveals which professional fields and/or groups of people (industries, clients, organizations, employers) we are karmically destined to serve—which is why Saturn in Vedic astrology is also the significator of career.

In my business coaching programs, I often tell clients that if they are experiencing stagnation in income or business growth, they should ask themselves first and foremost—how can I serve a greater number of people with my knowledge, talents, and work?

Saturn, as ruler of Capricorn (career and professional success) and Aquarius (collective welfare), teaches us that success, money, and influence come through responsibility, commitment, integrity, and contribution. When we understand our cosmic role (through the nakshatras), we also understand our dharma—how we can serve others, the community, and the world.

Astrological reading of natal chart, as well as becoming aware of transgenerational money patterns, can be the first step toward healing and neutralising our money karma. Perhaps now is the right time to give yourself the chance to understand your own, and your ancestors’ money stories, on a deeper level—through an astrology session, conversations with elders, regression session, or emotional and energy healing processes.

If you feel called to take this step, click on this link to book online Vedic astrology reading for business and money (where we also explore your Saturn placement and karmic money patterns), or order my digital book Astrology of Business, Money, and Success.