Your Saturn Return
Saturn is the last visible planet in our solar system, and in astrology, it marks the boundary between personal planets and generational/systematic planets. Personal planets are just that, in the birth chart they explain certain personalities or characteristics of ourselves, as well as how we evolve and change over time.
When we are born, we take a snapshot of the sky at the very minute of our first breath, and that sky becomes what we call our birth chart (also known as a natal chart). This chart not only describes the moment of our birth, but also who we are and what we will evolve to become. While the planets remain fixed in the birth chart, as we progress through life they continue to move, outlining different events and how our life unfolds.
The act of comparing the planets in the current sky to your birth chart is the cornerstone of predictive astrology. Predictive astrology is not just used to make predictions or estimations about what will happen, but it’s also used to understand how we’re currently maturing and becoming. Planetary returns are one of those indicators that represent growth and a completion of a certain cycle, and it explains how we have changed throughout the planet’s journey.
A planetary return is when the planet in the current sky goes back to the same exact degree and sign that it was in your birth chart. For the Sun, this happens once a year (our birthday, otherwise known as our solar return). Mercury & Mars will be around one year depending on their retrograde cycle. Mars averages almost every two years. Jupiter is every 12 years, and Saturn takes around 29.5 years to return to the same spot it was when you were born.
Saturn Returns
Given the infrequency of Saturn returns and the fact that we may only experience three of them in our lifetimes (if we’re lucky!), they are considered very significant turning points in our life story and with how we are evolving. The fact that it has taken 29.5 years for Saturn to return your natal location means there are 29.5 years of lessons, experiences, stories, beliefs, and perspectives that come due all at once, and force you to integrate in just a span of 2-3 years as the Saturn return is active.
In traditional and Hellenistic astrology, a Saturn return is considered active from the moment Saturn enters the zodiac sign of your natal Saturn to the moment it leaves that sign. For example, if Saturn was at 20° Taurus when you were born, then when Saturn enters 0° Taurus nearly 29 years later, that will be considered the start of your Saturn return. Your Saturn return will last all the way until Saturn leaves Taurus for 0° Gemini. When the transiting Saturn (Saturn that is currently placed in the sky) reaches 20° Taurus, this is considered your exact Saturn return and is generally more potent, or the peak energy, of the Saturn return experience.
Saturn is the planet that rules time, correlating with the fact it is the slowest moving visible planet in the sky and therefore takes the longest to make any progress or change. As Saturn is also the boundary of our visible solar system, Saturn rules over restrictions, limitations, and feelings of oppression. It also represents our responsibilities and goals, and the hard work it takes to achieve our dreams. In the midst of a Saturn return, life can feel very slow and limited, like there are no choices to be made or actions to take… Instead you’re asked to exist in the current confides of your reality.
We’ll cover more common themes about Saturn returns below. To read more about the general significations of the planets including Saturn, check out my Astro 101 post. To understand your natal Saturn better, read about Saturn in Each Sign.
Consequences of Time & Effort
The first Saturn return is always an interesting one, because at twenty-nine years old you are officially integrating every aspect of your life up to this point, in the span of two to three years. Generally this is centered more around the responsibilities you’ve held and the work you’ve executed in your life, and during your Saturn return, you’ll start to see the outcome of those actions. The main questions to ask yourself going into a Saturn Return are: What have been my life goal(s) up to this point? How consistently have I applied effort to them? Have they changed or redirected, and how do I feel about them now? Think big picture, your overall motivation and philosophy in terms of what it means to contribute to society. What have you been truly responsible for your whole life?
Wherever you have put your time, you will start to reap the rewards, and it will be all encompassing with both good and bad consequences. It’s not uncommon to experience a sudden pull back to an event you have previously thought has passed when you were younger, but now there are unexpected results to contend with. For example, if you have entered into a lot of debt in an earlier phase of your life, during your Saturn return you may be expected to “pay up” or have to deal with certain challenges due to those decisions before. Sometimes in modern astrology Saturn is described as the karma planet for its ability to balance out the results of each action that you may’ve previously thought was final.
However, if you have put in consistent and steady effort to a certain goal, sometimes Saturn will reward you greatly. There may still be other barriers and work to be done, and Saturn will certainly not allow anything to be rewarded when it’s half-finished, but if you have been working towards something for a long time you can expect Saturn to notice that effort and honor it appropriately. Saturn may provide validation or achievement for your efforts, but be mindful that you don’t suddenly expect it all to be effortless moving forward.
Sometimes Saturn may function as a redirection of our goals, or even a complete ending. During a Saturn return you may realize what you have been working on for so long leading up to this point is not actually what you desire for yourself. The results are not truly a reward, even if they are objectively positive. Saturn may act as the restrictor or eliminator, removing that motivation from you and allowing a project to end, so that you can purposely focus on what’s actually exciting and in alignment with your natal chart. The ending may not be easy or expected, it can be sudden and feel like you have lost everything in that moment, but through time you’ll start to understand the why behind each loss.
Revisiting & Evaluating Boundaries
Being the perimeter of the visible planets in our solar system, Saturn also represents the areas of our life where boundaries are an important issue. Either we have very strong demarcations in the domain where Saturn is placed in our natal chart, or we are lacking defined roles and are spilling or giving too much to another. Sometimes our boundaries are so strong that we are actually limiting ourselves from the necessary energetic exchange and flow. Wherever Saturn is placed in the birth chart can show where our perceived limits and restrictions need to be closely evaluated, especially during a Saturn transit.
Saturn returns will greatly test and push against the limits and containers we’ve created for ourselves. It’s a similar experience to filling a bucket up with water. The bucket now becomes pressurized and tested, and you’ll notice immediately where the holes are. Sometimes the holes are bigger than you’ve expected, and with too much strain, the entire container may burst. In a similar way, this is how Saturn works during its return in our lives. Previously, this may’ve not been an issue for you, or something you’ve given any thought to. You may have naturally always been more open around your creative ideas and sharing that information freely. But Saturn will dump the water, and you’ll immediately realize that you’ve been too lax with the creative energy that fuels your self-expression, so you’re giving more away to others, and not utilizing it to fuel or take care of yourself.
The tendency after Saturn returns is to sometimes double-down and get very strict about the particular matter that was shown as weak. You may put up extra reinforcements to ensure the leakage never happens again and you’re protected from any intrusion. Of course, going too far in the Saturnian realm means you will miss some of the magic from creative flow and exchanging energies. There’s a rebalancing process that happens during and sometimes after Saturn returns. You understand clearly where you were lacking structure and containment, so you may go too far into “fixing it,” but to the point where you don’t leave any freedom or room to flow. This restriction can hamper growth. It’s not uncommon during Saturn returns to feel like you’re not improving, growing, or changing because you’re being more restrained or having to understand past issues.
Like all experiences, there’s a range of how it may manifest. On a more positive side, Saturn may offer the necessary framework and construction to hold strong boundaries that allow creative ideas and personal development to flourish. On the other hand, one may become too conservative and restrained, scared of losing control or letting go because of the previous consequences. Part of the rebuilding process is learning to trust again, trust yourself, and trust the bucket that holds your water. To know that it has all the necessary support it needs to be held, but also enough space to flow and explore newness again.
Integrating Avoided Shadows
Since Saturn moves so slowly during its progression through the zodiac, the topics and areas of life that Saturn rules often are underdeveloped or even fully avoided because we aren’t constantly having to answer to them or work with the energy. This experience may be felt more loudly during your first Saturn return, as you’ve truly never integrated and accepted 29 years of living before. But all the sudden you may notice the neglected aspects or the “I’ll worry about it later” issues become something you must answer to now. The gravity of the situation may be much louder than you’ve ever expected, and it can feel like all your shadows and fears are coming out of the woodworks.
Fears, anxiety, and dread are common emotions during Saturn returns. Whenever you avoid something, either consciously or unconsciously, it becomes something you don’t fully understand and grasp. The lack of understanding can create fear and anxiety when you actually have to confront the issue. It’s not uncommon to suddenly have to embrace your biggest worries and uncertainties head on, because the time for avoiding is up, and for your next stage of growth you have to integrate what you are hiding from yourself.
This can mean both physical/tangible events as well as your own psychological thoughts and patterns. Literal circumstances may force you to show up and take action on matters you’ve previously avoided, either because of aversion or ignorance. But by meeting the call to confrontation, you may discover the shadow isn’t as scary as you thought. Or maybe it is, but you discover that your own inner strength and fortitude is stronger. External events or not, this creates a significant period of progress in your psyche which is the main benefit of Saturn returns. You become mentally stronger, because you have become aware of the fears you’ve suppressed, embraced them, and then made it to the other side with more knowledge and sympathy for your overall experience.
These shadows often are what make the Saturn return transit more challenging and difficult, especially if you have a tendency to want to avoid harder emotions and prefer to numb out. It’s helpful going into the Saturn return to embrace your fears, or at least bring them into awareness. If you are also hiding from yourself what your true anxieties are, it will be even more shocking when they come out. Name them, give them space to exist, and know that this is the work you’re called to do, that we are all called to do.
To Love Again
While many of the delineations of the Saturn return seem negative (who willingly wants to answer to their fears, their efforts, and boundaries?), it’s still a necessary component of your progress and maturation. If these pieces of ourselves are never examined or embraced, we also miss out on the benefits those challenges create. We never become stronger, more resilient, or less fearful of the world and its vast range of experiences. To come on the outside of the Saturn return is to be able to love yourself so much more fully, all parts of yourself, and to know that you are much more capable than you’ve ever known yourself to be.
Each Saturn return is incredibly unique and different for each individual, entirely dependent on your birth chart and how Saturn functions within. The consequences, boundaries, and shadows depend on the sign the Saturn is placed in and the signs that Saturn rules. But the general underlying theme of influential transformation of your self is present. If you want to deeply understand the themes of your Saturn return and what areas of your life it may impact, book a You + Your Future birth chart reading with me to go more in depth with this topic.
