Only taking place around every 30 years, a Saturn Return is something we’ll only experience a maximum of three times if we’re lucky – or perhaps not so lucky if you believe in horoscopes.
Astrology aside, a Saturn Return is a real event, marking the point at which the said planet returns to the point in the sky – the exact degree of the same sign – at which it resided the moment you were born. Therefore, a Saturn Return will be different for everyone, and, occurring slightly less than every three decades, the phenomenon is said to herald significant life changes.
“Saturn is considered the great task-master of the planets,” writes Caggie Dunlop, author of Saturn Returns: Your Cosmic Coming of Age and host of astrological podcast, Saturn Returns With Caggi, for Harper’s Bazaar. “It’s associated with discipline, authority, restriction and boundaries, meaning that your initiation into true adulthood will be filled with karmic lessons and tests.”
The first cycle may be a time for reassessing your career, your relationships, your travel plans, or life goals. Maybe it’s time to start a family? Astrologer and author of The Star Within, Linda Joyce, describes it as “the closing of one cycle and the beginning of another”, a time when fun and games “give way to a greater vision of yourself and life”. Others describe it as a cosmic alarm clock – and it’s one that’s said to ring for around two-and-a-half years.
Though it may lead to some painful choices and decisions at the time, in the long term, a Saturn Return is considered a positive event and a catalyst for personal growth. Astrologers recommend we use the time to fix any relationships – particularly with family – that may be the cause of ongoing trauma. We should also plan for the future, learn to take responsibility, and self-reflect. Essentially, we should take stock.
Our second Saturn Return occurs around our mid- to late-50s, marking the end of our adult cycle and the dawn of our senior years. Jessica Lanyadoo, humanistic astrologer and author of Astrology for Real Relationships: Understanding You, Me, and How We All Get Along, says that this is a time when our priorities change, for having now built so much of what we want, we must “build our internal life in a whole new way”. Our third return she describes, somewhat ominously, as an “existential journey” and a “true confrontation with the human condition”.
Any fellow open-minded sceptics out there can find out their Saturn Return schedules at the Astroseek website (horoscopes.astro-seek.com). Simply type in your time and date of birth, the city where you were born, and the city where you expect to be living, and the site will almost immediately tell you the dates of your three Saturn Returns.
Strangely enough, my first occurred in November 2008, which was around the time I ended a long-term relationship and left my home in the UK to go travelling, permanently.
