Dear Friend and Reader:
This week we are beginning a conversation about key life transits. As I’ve mentioned, there will be a section of Cosmic Confidential devoted to transits that happen to everyone by age. I plan to cover five of them, with the fifth devoted to the Chiron return and other major Chiron transits.
The Saturn return is one of the most vivid, memorable transits in astrology and is often the most important growing up point. Before I get into this subject, I would like to remind Pisces that you can comment on your astrology and personal journey in an entry below. The comments from all the signs have been very helpful.
As for the Saturn return. This is a transit that starts to emerge around age 27, is in full gear by 29 and is trailing off by age 32.
There is also the second Saturn return — which is in action between age 56 and 59. If you are commenting on your second Saturn return, please describe the events at the time of your first one, as these are related.
The keyword of this transit is restructuring. Many changes come at this time in life, and I would like to hear your stories. Please say whether you were aware that this was your Saturn return, or found out after the fact.
Many thanks, and let’s see how this conversation develops.
Eric Francis
I am presently in my second Saturn return. Born 1952: Cancer Sun at 29 degrees, Saturn in Libra.
At my first Saturn return, I got married, had 3 children and woke up to the greater possibilities in life. Until then I was very quiet, suppressed and afraid. I started to grow, discovered women’s groups and became very involved in my community. I spearheaded the creation of our local Women’s Centre. I also discovered astrology, numerolgy and the Tarot, all of which really expanded my view of reality and I’ve continued to study them over the years. My third child, an unexpected blessing, was born at the end of this transit and the end of my marriage came soon after. I became aware that I was in my Saturn return about 1/2 way through, and it did give me courage to step out and try new things in a way that I wouldn’t have without this information.
Now, at the age of 57, I’m enjoying my second Saturn return much more than the first. The first time around everything was new and very scary. This time I’m doing it consciously and enjoying the ride. Last year I transformed my long term relationship from a committed exclusive live-in format to a familial friendship, with us both in our own residences. We’re still close, but no longer committed to one another. I retired at the end of last year and am busy putting as much joy into my life as I possibly can. After so many years of working on my inner life on my own, I’ve found a spiritual community that nourishes me and gives me lots of opportunity for service. I’ve become a grandparent for the first time this year and they live close by so I get to see them often. I’ve started taking voice lessons and really enjoy it, which is a total surprise to me as I wasn’t aware how much I wanted this until I did it.
Some of my plans haven’t worked out as I envisioned, but isn’t that always the case? Instead of having a thriving healing practice, I find myself working part-time in an office. However, I’m enjoying using the skills I spent so many years perfecting, but without the responsibility or stress. The healing practice is still in place, but I find that I appreciate the structure of getting out of the house, making my lunch and meeting lots of people, at least a few days per week. I love the contrast between working and not working.
I’m letting go of some of the expectations that I’ve had of and for myself and I find myself being easy with life in general. My watchword every day is JOY!! I’m on a great adventure and I can hardly wait to see what’s beyond the next bend in the road. I know that there will be bumps in that road, and I’m enjoying the present with the awareness of this contrast in mind.
I am a bit confused about Saturn Return. My natal Saturn is 15 degrees, 15 minutes Capricorn and in my fifth house (depending on which house system you use). The Rerturn (transiting Saturn) wasn’t exact until December 29th, 1989 when I was 29, almost 30. When does it supposedly start? How far out can it be to be considered part of the Return? I was born on February 22, 1960 at 6:25 PM in Chicago, IL.
I ask because things began to change when I was 26. I met my current husband when I was 26. I had been in and out of bad relationships and had a failed marriage which was the one to the young Palestinian; I married him in the Occupied West bank town of Kalandia in 1979 and lived in Jaba’a for over five months before he and I came to the US. When he and I broke up in early 1980, I had a period of time where I was having one night stands or concurrent sexual relations with a lot of men. Then I had lived with an alcoholic drug abuser for 2 and a half years. I had extensive therapy in 1984 for co-dependency. On July 4th, 1985, I kicked the boyfriend out. My brothers had had a terrible accident on new Year’s Eve, 1984 and I could no longer deal with the boyfriend with the trauma my family was going through.
I traveled overseas in late 1985/early 1986 by myself for the first time in my life (I had traveled with my family as an Army Brat and later as a young adult with my Mom). I turned 26 in February 1986. I met my current husband on July 4th, 1986 several months after coming back home to the US. We started dating and I moved in with him in November, 1986. He proposed to me in February, 1987 a few days before my 27th birthday. From that day, my emotional life took a very steady, stable direction. We married in September 1987 and began fertility treatments because I knew I was infertile. In 1992, I finally got pregnant and had twin girls in October 1992; I was 32.
In other words, my Saturn return saw me throwing off my vagabond life, cleaning up my co-dependency (that never leaves I just have to work on it) and settling down, marrying, and having children. I still feel a huge sense of happiness and joy about my husband, my children (there are now four of them…..children, that is) and my life.
I know…I have read many people on Planet Waves talk about how awful monogamy is and how it is a prison and bad and not being real and all that. I am the person here that will tell you every time that there are people like me and my husband that absolutely LOVE monogamy and we don’t feel chained up, we don’t play games, we don’t denigrate one another, we don’t hold each other back. Instead, we grow in whatever ways we want to, we encourage each other and we prefer just being with each other. Both of us had times where we were having several partners at once (before we met each other) and we just didn’t want to deal with the complications of all that. Instead, we are intellectuals, light-workers, compassionate, open-minded, joy-givers, and liberals that never stop learning. I embraced this life in my Saturn Return and I LOVE it with a passion.
When I had my first babies, I found my passion – children. Not just mine but all children. I listen to them, explain things to them, and feel compelled to help them. This was at the tail-end of my Saturn Return because I had my first babies when I was 32.
I was always someone that would give compassion instead of passing on the pain and anger other people dumped on me but after my Saturn Return, I consciously chose to do something good to at least one person every day.
I knew about Saturn Return because I had taken a class in astrology when I was 24 but I have forgotten a lot of what I learned back then.
to “1greenguizer”
write your book before your second saturn return!
blessings……..
ca
Yeah, Saturn return. The words that come to me are -“what doesn’t kill us changes our lives forever.”
My Saturn return was in Pisces May ’95 to Feb ’96. My natal Saturn in Pisces conjuct Chiron opposing Pluto, Uranus, and Moon in Virgo. A lot was going on.
The signs of this potent Saturn return started out a couple of years before in ’93 when I found out that my husband was trying to have an affair with my mother. They were both hiding it from me. My mother finaly told me 3 months later, after he came on to her by exposing himself to her (Later I found out his last marriage had ended because he had slept with his ex-mother-in-law).
Don’t know If I will ever know the truth about the whole episode. We seperated when my husband refused to go to counseling and I had lost all trust. I then Divorced, and went back to my job on an Ocean research ship and spent the next 2 years in the Middle east, Oman, with scurvy oceanographers and dolphins.
There was also an interesting group of Omani men who would arrive early in the mornings to roll out thier carpets under the drydocked boats across from our ship. They were there just to watch me work. I felt like part zoo animal, part erotic dancer and part super star.
Later in 95′ my grandmother who raised me died. A month later my beloved 19 year old brother commited suicide. This wrecked me and there was major pressure from family to caretake everyone as I had always done. But this time I had to take care of me – a big change.
I had been involved with a man and thought I was in love again but realized that it was an escape. I subsequently moved to England to be with this man who was my perfect mirror in that he was grieving over his own lost marriage and death of his father. Missery loves company. Of course it went all to hell after a few months and I returned to US. Can you say intense…
Through a series of strange synchronicities, I was invited to a gathering on the Yankton reservation in South Dakota, and then to do vision Quest at Bear Butte (long story), while I sat on the mountain there was ball lightening strikes all night long. I had intense visions one after the other for 6 hours straight.
My whole life was changed and I felt reborn. Mega transformation…
There was a lot more, I had a part in breaking up a new age cult. Maybe I will write a book someday…
I’m a virgo w/sadge rising, saturn in virgo, venus in libra – my first saturn return (unknown to me at the time) happened shortly after I ‘ran away from home’ and moved from the east coast to the west coast and got married. I didn’t know anyone here except my husband and was glad to get away from a mother who didn’t see me for the woman I was and didn’t want to see me. By the end of this first Saturn return, I realized that while it was wonderful to be out in California, the marriage was not so wonderful. A couple of years after the completion of the first saturn return, we were divorced and I was on my own. Fast forwarding ahead to my second saturn return I found myself, once again, contemplating the end of a long-term relationship. I swore I was in this relationship forever – but no talking or cajoling or crying or anything worked to save it and this relationship ended before the end of the second saturn return.
Here I am again – trying to put together the pieces of everything that has happened over the last years that I’ve been out here in California and the one thing that has been loud and clear – it’s time for me to go back to the east coast because I just don’t fit here any more. I never thought I’d say that except that ‘they’ say ‘never say never’. I still don’t know who I am. I still end up sitting and sobbing with frustration because I have had and am still having a difficult time just getting through each day. I knew that my life would slowly lose it’s insane challenges and would slowly start to get back to normal after Saturn left Virgo – but I really wonder if my Sadge ascendant isn’t making me scream ‘are we there yet’ every morning, noon, and night.
The bigger question now – is there such a thing as a ‘third’ Saturn return? I want to be prepared for the next one because I’m not going to get a blister on my butt from sitting around when I’m a very old lady. I hope by that time, I will have figured out who I am and what I really should be doing with my life.
I forgot to add this as it probably is very significant on the inward beliefs area for my saturn return. I was born and raised Catholic with a father who is a deacon. Before my saturn return I was very skeptical of the Church, but by the end of my saturn return I completely left behind all Catholic/Christian beliefs and got rid of a lot of the guilt (which every Catholic has and lots of it). Now I’m completely non-religious and have no fears of being punished and sent to hell, lol!
I’m about 9 years away from my 2nd Saturn return. Guess I just felt like sharing. :-}
Around the time of my first Saturn Return, I joined a “Bible-based cult.” This was around age 27/28, and it directly involved a move to another state. With hindsight, it wasn’t just about religion (though after not very long in it, I did start questioning everything I knew about Christianity).
In a big way, it was also a means for me to cut the apron strings that bound me (too tightly) to my family of origin.
My first Saturn Return was in 1987 when I was 30. It was much smoother than I anticipated, and I had very little angst of any sort. I bought my first new car for my 30th birthday, and lost my resentment about having to pay bills. I flirted with eating a macrobiotic diet and lost 10 pounds, and I broke ties with my first Virgo love.
Saturn is in Sag in the first house, oppose Mars, square MC.
My first Saturn Return was in 1987 when I was 30. It was much smoother than I anticipated, and I had very little angst of any sort. I bought my first new car for my 30th birthday, and lost my resentment about having to pay bills. I flirted with eating a macrobiotic diet and lost 10 pounds, and I broke ties with my first Virgo love.
Saturn is in Sag in the first house, oppose Mars, square MC.
Oh, I see you would like comments about Saturn return #2. So here goes. For the first one in 1977, I was not into astrology and didn’t know about Saturn returns. Once again– Saturn in Virgo in the 7th (conjunct the moon).
Since I divorced in 1993, I have had a few liasons– nothing long term– very
sexual and exciting.
Two years ago I decided it was time for a relationship. I can be quite pragmatic; I wanted sex on a regular basis and all the good stuff that can go with that.
I signed on to an online dating service. A year ago I met a man with promise. After a astro consult with Eric, I was encouraged to try something new- for me. I made it clear to him I didn’t want to name what we had or who we were together. Tried really hard to stay in the moment, which enlivened me. He is a Scorpio; the sex is fabulous, intense. He is available, listens, likes to see me happy and satisfied. For the first time I’m with someone who is conscious and kind, creative and aware of the world.
I’m learning to use my words, to speak honestly, to look at my own monkey mind first instead of blaming. To tell him what I think and want. And he listens.
I just finished my second Saturn return (Virgo); I think though this time you want feedback on the first.
I’ve got Saturn conjunct the moon, in Virgo in the 7th house . In 1977 I had my 28th birthday two weeks after I got married. I was married for 16 years and have not married again. Marriage of course is significant in and of itself (especially for a Libra); however, beyond the relationship element, the marriage also was a huge bridge for me between one life and the next. He was an alcoholic; I was unconscious. The marriage was truly an alchemical alembic. I was torn into pieces, melted and reformed, until I could stand on my own two feet. No victim am I; out of that mess I bloomed.
I will be 29 next month & if what I have been going thru in the past 2 yrs is coz of my saturn return..then its a very deadly saturn return. I am still lost as what is happening to me. After a very stressful meeting 2 yrs ago..I developed (almost overnight) a condition due to which I almost lost my ability to make eye contact with anyone. Out of the blue, I started staring at ppl’s private parts !. I have no control over this obsessive disgusting habit of mine. It has ruined my life, I have become isolated ..I avoid my fds, relatives & any & all social functions. Is this my saturn return??? I had assumed that though saturn returns are tough times, they ultimately restructure your life in a positive way. But for me I just cant imagine anything positive coming out of this. Eric, what so you think?..is there a way out for me? can saturn return manifest itself with some sort mental problems ?
Oh and I was not aware of the significance of the period of time.
Well astrology works – my 1st saturn return was 13 ish years ago (is there something called a half saturn return?)
At the age of 27 I got married (91). 1992 developed major gynae symptoms – diagnosed with polycystic ovaries, Late 1992 had moderate clinical depression, off work for six weeks, left job and relocated (with hubby) in summer 1993 – finally moved into our new house when Saturn was 1 deg past exact return. Saturn left with a sting in the tail – major gynae surgeries in 1995 and 1996 (bizarrely, as both were emergency surgeries, almost exactly 12 months apart.) also changed career 1993 -1995. 1995 saw the end to that career.
1996 also saw the beginning of four – five unsuccessful cycles of IVF (and associated treatments.
Natal Saturn in my fifth.
I’m a Virgo and I just finished up my Saturn return in July. My life has changed in so many ways. Actually my curiosity about astrology came about because of the deep force of my Saturn return. I kept trying to get my life moving forward in some type of direction during this time and I was getting no where. Intuitively I had a feeling that there were certain energies at play in the world – how one day I would feel positive and upbeat another cranky etc. and I couldn’t logically decipher my mood changes and arcs of energy. Anyhow the energy I distinctly felt was slow moving. I couldn’t just make random life transitions quickly. I started looking for some patterns and cycles to describe what I was feeling and came across the saturn return and then felt some ease about things. Knowing that this is what was slowing me down and transforming my life at the same time really saved me some grief, anxiety and ultimately from just suffering from depression. I learned how to be patient and accept the lessons I needed to learn. During this transit I became pregnant with my first child, moved into my first home and experienced the birth of my beautiful daughter. Before this transit, I never wanted to fully commit to anything or any place actually. I have certainly taken on a more adult role in life, but I feel I made these choices freely and actually like the new responsibility in my life. One question for anyone, does a Virgo with a Saturn in Virgo experience a more harsh Saturn return??
Yesterday was my 17th wedding anniversary and after seeing Eric’s article on Kennedy’s assassination, samething came to my mind, I created a chart of my Wedding day and I realized that ,that time both me and my husband had a Saturn return in our chart.
I am a Hindu by birth and my husband is a Christian, by marrying him, I broke rules and traditions of my family and was a very bold and brave step. The way it happened was as if a divine force was at play that brought us and bound us together.
Does it sound too good to be true for Saturn return ? Well I am only telling you the happy ending. How I got there is another tale for another time. Let’s just say that there was a lot of pain and agony before I reached that happy place. That transit forced me to break free from something that was not serving any purpose in my life and my decision was a step towards Stability and that is a very Saturn thing.
Lately I have been reading a lot of Dane Rudhyar’s writing on astrology, and particularly about relationships, he has written that Quality and Life of a relationship entirely depends upon the intention. If the intention is about achieving something bigger than ourselves and is not very narrow and selfish, then that intention aligns with the Universe and will be supported by IT.
So when two people come together to evolve, to be a family, have children and contribue to and be a part of society then I believe that gets Saturn’s approval and blessing!!
Something to think about!
At the time of my Saturn return in 1994, I was at the peak of my investigative journalism career. That summer, my PCB coverup story went national in Sierra and The New York Times, and I wrote an award-winning series for Woodstock Times (for which I am still eternally grateful to my editors, Parry Teasdale at WP and Paul Rauber). I won a 1st Amendment lawsuit against New York State, which had tried to get me off the story by banning me from the SUNY New Paltz campus. And on the day of my 30th birthday, half an hour after giving my deposition in that case, I went to Esoterica Books in New Paltz (owned by the same people who create Chronogram magazine, which has published my monthly horoscope for 14 years running), I purchased my first ephemeris.
That summer and into the winter, I used the ephemeris to decode the Patric Walker horoscope in the New York Post, beginning my astrology studies studying mutual aspects and a newspaper column. I started my first horoscope column one year later, in April 1995. [Note, I trace my astrology studies back to beginning A Course in Miracles in 1986 and picking up Tarot cards in 1987, when I met Flo Higgins, my first editor at a professional newspaper — so before studying Patric Walker, I had some background.]
In that same era, about one year before (ca. 1993), I filed for bankruptcy to close down my first business, the Student Leader News Service. Student Leader’s last major story was the PCB disaster at SUNY New Paltz, which is chronicled in the Planet Waves website Dioxin Dorms. http://dioxindorms.com/ and on my Wikipedia page. Though in a much more contained way, this work still continues.
My Godmother, Aunt Josie, died that summer, leaving me 333 shares of Exxon stock, which I sold and started my astrology business. That small practice in Rosendale, New York, became Planet Waves.
I’ve just started my second Saturn return, and it’s totally about restructuring my life. The old ways of needing to be everywhere, doing everything, learning everything, are no longer working. My body has repeatedly told me that it can’t handle being on all the time, with a brain that is constantly working, anymore. I’ve learned this lesson repeatedly during the past ten years – with illnesses to slap me down, and humble me repeatedly. Now I seem to be less unconscious about the process, and on a day-to-day basis am really feeling what I need to do to make a better balance between heart and head, between doing and being, between self and others. I am grateful for all the healers, teachers and friends who have supported me in this process, and recognize that my desire to do it all, while admirable in some ways, is also a form of greed. I am gentling myself through this process, focusing on a way of changing habits that is not about self-abuse or self-discouragement. The old tapes are being composted.
My first Saturn return was more about getting lots of recognition in the world (way too young for my then mostly ungrounded self) and not being able to cope with it. It started at almost 27 and I began to retreat from the attention when I was almost 31. The recognition did offer me a career path and a world-wide community, one that I have gradually reconnected with (after years of semi-isolation) through the internet.
Now in my second Saturn return I can own my place in the world with more grace and humility and collaborate in healthy ways, selectively with those world-wide and local networks. Bravo for the journey!
i am now 31 and had my saturn return three years ago. i didn’t know about it until a few month ago.
for me really everything changed.
it was when life started to make fun once in while. when live started to be more than existing and surviving.
and for me it was really a little bit like being in an elevator.
an elevator however that never stopped again.
in one month i met the three most important people in my life until now.
a new friend and lover. it was like finding the friend i dreamt of all my life without
even knowing that i was dreaming. the first friend that wanted me to be and do what i want. (at least on a concious level ;-))
i had the luck to have some big failures at work which led to the fact that i got a personal coach two hours a week. this was when i learned that my feelings are ok and that i am not responsible of the feelings of others.
and i met my new doctor. i just needed to look into his eyes to know that everything is ok. he told me: look, you have to connect your heart with your mind. it’s easy: the way from your heart to your head is short enough 😉
and it was a big spiritual awakening. when life started to become meaningful and magical for the first time. when i found a kind of inner religion.
and on the other hand when i started to search even more and more.
searching and searching.
what is it that i really want to do? what my heart wants to do?
i had so much to clear up and clean out.
now i’m living on my own for the first time in my life.
i quit my not fullfilling it-job a few month ago and i am trying to create a life now that feels right and worthy to be lived – also professionally.
Thanks for the information Eric. 🙂
Any good sites or books you can recommend for progressed lunar return to understand about it?
I’m 4 months away from turning 27, so as you pointed out I am entering a time where I will feel the effects of my first Saturn Return. Perfect timing for me that you are writing a section in the annual about the first Saturn Return just as I’m beginning to experience my transit! 🙂
HI
My Saturn is 27 degrees virgo in the seventh house trine the moon and sextile the sun.
it has no adverse aspects by major planets ( that I know of )
my first Saturn return saw me deciding not to marry by live in boyfriend
(who had a drinking problem and still does – but now for fun he goes to
openings in drag- as a straight man might do- but he is english so pretty normal)
I instead left Canada and moved to New York with $500 , and only knowing
one person…so I could make it as a visual artist – probably the bravest action of my life – no way stopping me.
And I have – had a substantial career (I might not be famous ) and shown in
galleries, museums,etc, accomplished for the most part what I wanted .
The first few years of the first Saturn return were both difficult in establishing myself
and rewarding as NYC was very exciting then – the east village – pre AIDS WORLD!
I did receive some grants which helped and at times It was lonely at first …
and I never quite cut off Canada – my network of friends who are like family remain to this day
My second Saturn return was exact this past October – my plans were to move to
Canada by the new year. This has been delayed as my colonscopy results showed a tumor which luckily is not cancerous but needs to be removed over a series of procedures for the next two months. The wait of five days to find out the results is a major turning point in my life. At first I thought it was torture , now I realize that it is a blessing to be able to “appreciate life ” – a huge vista opened up for me that I can not
decribe.
So my new restructuring in beyond moving back to Canada to my house but in getting healthy … I am seeing a naturapath tomorrow, I have a friend in Canada who is a transformational healer giving me visualizations and more important I have a friend who heads a Tibetan Buddhist Nunnery- and I am on their prayer list. This puts me in the unusual position of being prayed for- usually I send friends names who need to be prayed for. The procedure where they found the tumor saw transiting Jupiter opposite my pluto mercury conjunction exact, weeks after I finished a book on my artwork from 1995-2009!
So now my restructuring of my life is more complex with health being the priority. I am lucky to have health insurance and the same doctor for many years. I had delayed taking this test as there is no cancer in my immediate family so I encourage all to take it earlier than me . I have many friends in their 60’s who have not done it.
My sister wonders if living downtown after 9/11 affected my health.
The Health reform issue now resonated even more for me as my heart goes out to the
people in this country who can not get the good treatment that I am getting.
The next hit I think will be in the spring……..
love to all- hope this is not too long!
Genevieve,
Remember that these transits are not like getting in an elevator. They cover a wide span of years and there are often other planets close by something like Saturn, which can expand the effect over a phase of time.
There is a progressed event at age 27 that starts the Saturn return sequence of events. (That is the progressed lunar return. I don’t talk a lot about progressed horoscopes [different than transits] but this is a subject basic to understanding astrology, and the conversation is rare enough to find. The thing with progressions is they require an accurate birth time and they are strictly for an individual (or an entity, like a country, assuming there is an accurate or at least functional chart).
e
I was excited to hear that we got to share our experiences not just based on sign but also on major age transits in life. And then I realized I was too young to comment on any of them!! My Saturn Return is coming up soon (in a year or two) so I am really excited to hear what everyone has to say about their’s. I want to nail mine, make the necessary changes, and not have the Universe beat me to a pulp and hopefully have some really great changes happen.
What’s interesting is my roommate who was born 5 months after me is having her Saturn Return BEFORE me. When I was born Saturn was retrograde at 3 degrees Scorpio, my roommate was born when it went direct again and her’s is 29 degrees Libra. So, she also gets to preview it for me.