What exactly is the Saturn Return and why is everyone so scared of it? Is it possible to make this period softer? These are just some of the questions that naturally arise to everyone who knows this term and is interested in astrology. This is the first article of a series on Saturn Return; we will try to create a step-by-step blueprint which will be also later published as an ebook.
The Importance of Your Saturn Return in Astrology
Approaching your late 20s, you might come across whispers about the enigmatic phenomenon known as Saturn Return. Though inquisitive minds may dare to inquire, the responses they receive often seem to evoke fear rather than provide any constructive guidance. Let’s dispel the mystique and delve into the true essence of this celestial event, understanding what it signifies and how to navigate it with purpose.
Saturn, the Cosmic Taskmaster in astrology, revolves around the Sun in approximately 29 years. Hence, when you reach around 29 years of age, Saturn returns to the position it held in the sky at the time of your birth, marking the onset of your Saturn Return.
In the realm of astrology, Saturn embodies the demanding mentor who bestows upon you challenges and obstacles, ultimately guiding you to acquire strength and wisdom. By analyzing Saturn’s position in your astrological birth chart, you can discern your pivotal life lessons and identify the fears you must conquer to achieve success.
Moreover, Saturn serves as a representation of what holds importance in your life, revealing the values that underpin your very existence. When your endeavors, particularly in the realm of work and purpose, align harmoniously with your inner Saturn, you experience a profound sense of integrity and contentment. Conversely, deviating from this alignment casts a shadow of restrictions, scarcity, and trepidation.
So, instead of succumbing to trepidation, let us embrace the profound teachings of Saturn’s Return, utilizing its potent energies to propel ourselves towards a future illuminated by wisdom and self-discovery.
Amidst the whispers of Saturn’s Return, it’s essential not to allow age to deter you from pursuing new avenues or embarking on fresh educational journeys. Saturn, the ruler of longevity and old age, urges you to envision yourself at 80, reflecting on your life’s accomplishments. What do you hope to have achieved? What regrets might you harbor from not daring to take risks?
During your Saturn Return, you may feel like the universe has thrown you a curveball without any prior warning. However, there’s a silver lining to this celestial event. After the storm, expect to inherit a new sense of identity based on truth and meaning. Saturn’s ultimate goal is to guide you towards your purpose, even if it challenges everything you once believed. It fearlessly confronts you with uncomfortable truths, stripping away anything that lacks authenticity or alignment. This raw and heavy process serves as a profound moment of self-discovery, enabling you to reach the core of your true desires.
Through the tough life lessons presented by Saturn, you emerge with sturdy foundations and newfound self-awareness. Armed with this knowledge, you can begin building your legacy until Saturn completes another journey around the sun, and you experience a second Saturn Return around age 60. Like an oyster that creates a pearl when irritated by a grain of sand, the hardships endured during this period help you blossom. Your Saturn Return is a precious pearl in the making, and recognizing this empowers you to embrace the process rather than resist it.
To navigate your Saturn Return with greater ease, consider these tips:
- Avoid shortcuts: Saturn is the karmic bank of the universe and doesn’t overlook anything. Seek genuine growth rather than quick fixes.
- Reap what you sow: Your Saturn Return evaluates your achievements and life choices from the past three decades. Living authentically leads to a sense of leveling up, potentially manifesting as a promotion, marriage, or the arrival of a child.
- Trust the process: Recognize that whatever is stripped away during this time was never meant for you. Embrace the alignment with what truly suits your journey.
The Saturn Return is a period of reckoning, calling you to take responsibility for your life. While it may present challenges, it also offers an opportunity for transformative growth. Confronting yourself during this phase allows you to clarify your goals and ensure they align with your core values. Saturn becomes a powerful force to consolidate the two, enabling you to create the life of your dreams. It pushes you towards excellence and refuses to let you settle for playing it safe and small. Embrace this cosmic journey, and you may emerge with a renewed sense of purpose and an empowered vision for your future.
Listen closely to Saturn’s clear signals if you sense a misalignment with your true calling and passions. Feelings of stagnation, depression, frustration, or envy towards others’ careers may serve as signs that change is overdue. Those who resist these signs may find themselves pushed by circumstances into unfamiliar territory. Saturn’s teachings can seem stern, akin to “tough love,” yet the losses experienced during this period ultimately guide you towards embracing your authentic self.
Given that Saturn Return often demands you to “make your own luck,” don’t expect opportunities to fall effortlessly into your lap. Be prepared to be humble and start small. If you aspire to pursue a new path but lack the experience to secure a paying job, consider volunteering your time. Should financial constraints hinder full-time education, begin by enrolling in a class at a community college.
When you take concrete steps towards your goals, showcasing commitment, Saturn will reward your efforts. Hard work, accountability, facing fears, and releasing the past can make your Saturn Return a period of significant achievement.
Saturn’s Return initiates notable endings and beginnings, and relationships are not exempt from its influence—weddings and divorces are both common occurrences during this phase. It becomes a “make it or break it” moment, where decisions to commit or part ways become clearer than ever before.
For those already in a partnership at the onset of their Saturn Return, the relationship will undergo testing. This celestial transit calls for personal growth and transformative life changes, necessitating the growth and evolution of the partnership to withstand the challenges. It’s a prime time to address underlying issues and take responsibility for necessary adjustments in how you relate to one another.
A Saturn Return occurs when the ringed planet returns exactly to the same point in the sky, as it was during the moment of the native’s birth. Planet Saturn makes a full cycle around the zodiac in approximately 29 years, and a native might experience the first return anywhere between his 28th and 30th birthday. These differences happen because of the retrograde movement of Saturn; this movement can even make Saturn pass three times over his natal position during the critical years of its return! This transiting conjunction is an important life milestone: we enter a different age category.
During our lives, the most possible is to experience two Saturn Returns. The first one signifies the passage from youth to adulthood and happens as we already mentioned between the ages 28 and 30. The second happens somewhere between the ages 57 and 60, and is responsible for the passage from a middle-aged human to an elder. In rare occasions, a person can reach a third Saturn return, happening approximately at his 85-88 years. People can live a fourth Saturn return in extreme situations only, as one should live up until his 115th birthday to start feeling the effects of such a transit.
This transit usually is a very stressful period, and the matters of the house were this transit happens can evolve in a rather difficult way. The Saturn return is forcing us to become more serious and grow up, to understand our duties towards ourselves and the others and to restructure ourselves for our next level of age. Even when someone’s natal Saturn is well-aspected, the transit still pushes the native to change; nevertheless, this push is rather gentle and not a direct kick.
A well-aspected Saturn usually shows that the native will cooperate with Saturn and his needs, and actually, this is the reason why Saturn will not be harsh on him. In case you feed him with what it wants, it will only pressure you towards what direction you should follow. On the contrary, try opposing Saturn Return and you will definitely be slapped by this transit in order to obey. When you deal with Saturnian problems, always remember: lower your nose and your attitude, and start working hard according to its orders. Saturn adores structure and organization, and when you restructure yourself and your reality, its tight grip will loosen and you will exit the crisis stronger and wiser!
What you really need to know about your Saturn Return
The Saturn Return is an extraordinary phase of transition and personal growth, wherein the universe evaluates whether you are living up to your potential and embracing an authentic life. Saturn, often referred to as the great task-master among planets, embodies qualities of responsibility, discipline, authority, restriction, and boundaries. As you step into true adulthood, you encounter karmic lessons and tests that ultimately grant you the tools to wield authority over your own life. During this pivotal period, truths you may have been evading for years are brought to the forefront, prompting a reckoning with your deepest self.
The repercussions of a Saturn Return can be profound and far-reaching. Break-ups become common, and they may happen abruptly, like the swift fall of a guillotine. Questions about one’s sexuality may arise, or a desire to distance oneself from friendship circles that no longer align with personal growth. Sudden shifts in career or relocations to different countries often mark this transformative phase. Everything is shaken up, as individuals are impelled to make significant life changes, guided by the firm hand of Saturn. To outsiders, these shifts might seem unforeseen, but in truth, they may have been brewing within for some time.
A quintessential indicator of the Saturn Return is the feeling of no longer being the person you once were, while simultaneously not knowing who you are meant to become. This internal struggle can lead to a sense of being lost or lacking purpose, causing profound emotional distress. If you have been veering away from living your truth, the Saturn Return can feel like an unexpected drop-kick from the universe, leaving you with little warning.
However, amid the challenges and upheavals, the Saturn Return also offers an unparalleled opportunity for growth and self-discovery. Embracing the lessons it presents and confronting the truths it unveils allows you to shed old patterns and beliefs that no longer serve you. As you let go of the past, you create space to shape a more authentic and fulfilling life. The Saturn Return, though demanding, is a powerful catalyst for personal transformation and an invitation to embark on a journey of self-realization. Embrace the process with courage and self-compassion, and you may emerge from this cosmic initiation with newfound wisdom and a stronger sense of purpose.
During the first Saturn Return, we enter real adulthood. This might be a rather unpleasant experience, as we must suddenly leave behind our carefree years and make the quantum leap towards a life with more obligations. At the same moment, we must be very wise in the life directions that we choose, so that we are able to also preserve the child within us. This stressful period requires finding the balance between two worlds; the world of youth that is ending even if we like it, and the –yet- unknown world of an adult that can invoke a lot of fears. Nevertheless, this process is necessary for one’s evolution, and the best way is to not resist it. The quicker we embrace this transcending task, the quicker we will harvest the result which will follow us for the next three decades of our lives.
During the second Saturn Return, the individual enters his old age, and Saturn again forces him to reconsider his attitude towards his values and life in general. The name of Saturn in Greek is Kronos, which is quite similar to the word Chronos, meaning “time”. Indeed the old age brings a heavy lesson on how quickly time flies by, and pressures the native to start preparing for his time running out.
During the periods of Saturn Returns, one of the biggest burdens is the passage of time itself. While the native is stuck with the Saturnian problem (… or a bunch of them), time is perceived as if it stands still. Minutes seem like hours, hours seem like days, and when these problems are of a nature that needs some months (or a couple of years) to be overcome, the individual will frequently have feelings of despair or vanity.
It is obvious that these transformations are not the easiest periods of a person’s life; we must usually re-adjust ourselves, even by letting go of things we like and that are a stable part of our reality. Frequent problems that arise are connected with the cold nature of planet Saturn: There can be depression, hair loss or changes of color to white or silver shades and health issues. This painful transition can be surrounded by a lot of stress and hard work, while also frequently involves paying dues; both to people, institutes and of course to ourselves.
As Saturn is a planet strongly connected to Karma, our previous lives can have a lot of influence on the events during our Saturn return. A person who has collected good Karma will have a well-aspected Saturn, and these transits will usually flow normally and without a lot of turbulence. On the other hand, the opposite will bring an adversely aspected Saturn; the native will have to pay a lot of debts (most of them non-material) and work on Saturnian issues. The Saturn return might be a lot more difficult in such cases but will definitely make the native wiser (and if handled well, make better karmic balances for the next incarnations).
Each planets have a different effect on you, depending on which house and sign they reside in. In order to find out where they are located in your natal chart, you can use our free birth chart generator. Also, examine the aspects that they form with other planets in your chart. You will understand a lot more about the detailed role that they have in your horoscope.