My first thought is that the planets rule themselves in their natures, the Sun rules them in their path; Saturn is at the second gravitational node of which the Sun is the first. I think the Black Sun is in between them or something.
Its a heavy duty karmic long term vortex of focus, determining in astrology the way we evolve from love as a defence mechanisms to our dark side to a completion of competence which combines the two. A mature love of self is completed through this axis where Saturn dwells. So they call him, the dweller on the threshold.
In myth, Jupiter comes to rule the world instead of Saturn, but of course that doesnt mean that he rules Saturn.
Saturn. Yes, you might say he rules all the planets. Without his consent, nothing is done.
he is the only one who can say -
I forgot the rest of that thought, trying to specify the above;
Jupiter is the action itself, the power to act. Everyone wants to be Jupiter. Until Saturn stands in his way and gives him an option, which Jupiter has no choice but to follow.
The thing is that Saturn doesn’t like his role, not as much as Jupiter likes his; that is why he is cynical, and enjoys mostly the fruits of the work that is done on his behalf.
Saturn can be an aspect of immense pride, a backbone to the king, but of his own nature he is - that which the Sun is not; dark, silent.
He can not enjoy his participation in the world, because that is not his task. He can enjoy this ascetic power, because it is his own.
The soul as conjured in the stars finds its archetype in that miraculous wonder of splendor that the planet is; Jupiter is wild rage, Saturn is icy perfection. I suppose what he can enjoy is the same; a Russian figure skater, female, is a deeply Saturnian human. There is hardly a more disciplined profession to be found, and it results in stunning beauty. Venus is perhaps the best planet to bring out Saturns virtues; why that is I think I can safer leave up to the imagination than try to explain such a natural thing.
In short, a hard Saturn (with a square or opposition or some other challenge) means a hard life. Not as in terrible, but as in a lot of work and figuring ou ta lot of stuff through trial and error. There is no easy way about it.
With a hard Jupiter you dont have that problem, youll instead be hard on others. In case of both, there is something serious to resolve. Higher planets. Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, must be put to use, to destroy the old situation and create a new chart.
Pluto can do that, provide a new chart by initiation.
Pluto is the only one not ruled by Saturn. His path is completely unrelated to the whole system, it is slanted in an enormous elliptic freefall where sometimes he is close to Neptunes path, even crossing it at some point (they could I suppose collide) and at the other point it is almost twice as far from the Sun as Neptune. This explains, or is physically parallel to, the fact of his enormous influence.
Pluto can override Saturn. But not Jupiter. It can only join Jupiter.