Deep Dive into a Saturn Return in Astrology

What is a Saturn Return?

A Saturn Return is an astrological birthday of sorts - but you will only have 2-3 (or maybe 4, if you make it to 116) in your life. Saturn is a planet that takes approx 28.5 years to move through one cycle of the signs of the Zodiac - and so its return happens around every 28.5 years. This is the time at which Saturn returns to the point in the sky where it was at your birth. All those years ago.

It is calculated in two ways - the Saturn Return by sign, and the Saturn return by degree. The Saturn return by sign is easy - you were born with Saturn in Aquarius (in the early 90s). For your life up until 2020, Saturn was moving through the other signs of the zodiac (and therefore, through the other parts of your chart!) Then, from 2020 - 2023, Saturn shifted into Aquarius again - for the first time since the early 90s. Thus, as Saturn was in the same sign as your birth - your Saturn Return by sign began.

Now. Each sign of the zodiac is divided into 30 degrees. You have Saturn at a specific degree (as you would have seen on the first page). You would likely have started feeling the themes of your Saturn Return as soon as the sign shift happened. However, your official Saturn Return didn’t happen until Saturn hit the EXACT degree of your natal Saturn - the date of that is again, on the first page.

Who is Saturn?

The Linear Time Keeper.

While we absolutely understand the multidimensional nature of time means that all of this life (and all other lives) are happening simultaneously and can be plugged into at any given moment; Saturn plays by (and sets) the rules of human time. You are born young, and ideally - you go through many life stages, you hit certain milestones, and at a certain point you die when you are old. There is no escaping it, though humanity has been working away at figuring out how to slow down (or stop) the process of aging. All of this desire to cease a process as natural as the seasons themselves comes from a fear of the terrifying threat of time passing without us having control over it. The hand of Saturn. The stern hand of the god/father figure with a scythe who says: No. You have one limited lifetime, and so it is up to you to make something of the years that you do have. How will you spend this life you have been alloted in human form?

Like the ancient Titan god of Kronos with whom Saturn is most often compared, Saturn reminds us that the years are ticking by and we do, in fact, only have a limited number of them. The coming of death is not supposed to be viewed as a threat, but as a gentle reminder to all of us we have a responsibility (another key Saturn word!) to make something of ourselves.

Saturn = Bad? Scary? Challenges?

So why does Saturn in astrology get the association with bad stuff happening? Well. There are many reasons, but this is one way I like to think about it - especially in this context.

You know those stories that you hear all the time about the person who had a close brush with death through illness, or a life threatening injury, or maybe they lost a close friend unexpectedly - and then they suddenly decided to stop living their life in the conditioned way and instead, go after their dreams?

Or the person living paycheck to paycheck, gathering debt, not taking themselves or their lives seriously until a bunch of unexpected expenses came in and all of a sudden they found the motivation to get their budget and lives back on track? (Or else they’d be thrown out of their apartment, for example?)

That is all Saturn wants, Saturn wants us to be the fully mature, fully wise, fully resillent, fully capable adult human that our Soul decided we would come here to be before we were born. And so, does Saturn always have the kindest ways of forcing you to face your own mortality, and thus your own true limitations and capacities here on Earth this time around? No. But if Saturn was trying to get you to step up and take control of your life and your destiny by gently tapping you on the shoulder yet still giving you an easy breezy comfortable life, would you listen?

Probably. Not.

Saturn: a big life lesson/s.

Wherever you have Saturn in your chart represents a big lesson you are here to learn and master throughout your life. Like I have said, Saturn brings challenges because it wants you to grow up and take responsibility for what you can. And so, there are often 1 or 2 areas of our life that we really, really have trouble with- something that we learn various lessons in, and therefore grow in maturity, as we move through our life. 

The challenge of Saturn is essential to take responsibility for how your life is going, and do what IS in your control to turn it around.

The Saturn Cycle.

This is just an introduction to Saturn Cycles - unpacking your unique one will come in Section 3.

Now. we know that yes, 27-30 is a biggggg transitional time in a lot of people’s life. It usually means a time of getting married (or getting divorced), changing careers (or graduating medical school and starting your career), having a first child, and various other life events, big and small.

However, Saturn is representative of the process of aging, which happens all through our lives. 

The Saturn cycle goes in 7 year increments. As Saturn moves through the other parts of your chart, it makes aspects to your natal Saturn. 

At age 7, you have the first Saturn Square. For Saturn in Aquarius babies, this was when Saturn was in the sign of Taurus.

Age 7 is, in psychology, the time when the conscious mind comes online and we stop being in a constant state of alpha brainwaves. The cognitive patterns of a child are more or less formed by 7 years old. And so, what we absorbed through that first 7 years of our Saturn cycle is going to determine how our lives go.

At age 14 (right around the time a lot of people hit puberty) we have our Saturn Opposition. For Saturn in Aqaurius babies, this was when Saturn was in Leo.

Age 21 (a time of graduating undergraduate degrees, oftentimes leaving the parents house for the first time, starting to really be viewed as an adult in the eyes of the world) we have our second Saturn Sqaure. 

And age 28, you come full circle to the Saturn Return.

At each of these points in the first Saturn Cycle not only do you experience the transition that all your peers do as well, but often, the THEMES of your big Saturnian lesson/s in life will become obvious to you. I will share my personal example, to help you when later we start to explore yours.

EXAMPLE:

My Saturn is in the 11th house of friendship and community. At age 7, I moved schools and lost touch with my one friend who I had. At age 14, my only two girlfriends in highschool decided to stop being my friend. At age 21, I was the one who completely abandoned all of my friends who I’d been partying with nonstop for 4 years because I started to grow out of it before them (and realised we had nothing in common). Though I did meet one new great friend during that 3rd Saturn square who was my only friend for most of my early 20s. During my Saturn Return, I met most of my current friends, who I love.