The 1st Saturn Return
(Photo Credit:” Saturn or Saturn Devouring His Son” by Peter Paul Ruben)
Hello everyone! Thank you for visiting my page, Secondsight Astrology! Today, we continue Pt. 2 of the “Saturn Transits” series relating to the First Saturn Return. I will be sharing with you some of my personal experiences and lessons from my first Saturn Return. I will also be discussing its effect on the Saturn in Capricorn Generation. Later through this series, I will be discussing Pt 3, “The Saturn Return in the Aquarius Generation”.
What is a “Saturn Return”?
The Saturn Return is one of the three major human life transits to occur in the four planes (Physical, Emotional, Mental and Spiritual) of existence.
(Photo Credit/Source: Chiron Rainbow bridge..., Barbara Hand Clow 1993)
At the time we experience our first Saturn Return is when we begin our own initiation into the adult maturation process. The Saturn return is when Saturn aligns itself with its own natal placement at the time of birth in the natal chart. The Saturn Return transit occurs approximately every 30 years. In Astrology, the birth chart is considered a “blue print” of our own current incarnation on Earth and serves as a unifying energy structure. It demonstrates where planetary energies exist within ourselves and how those energies relate to each each other. It also demonstrates how we relate to the influence of current planetary transits.
Below, I have posted my own chart (via www.Astro.com) as a visual reference. As you can see, My natal chart has Saturn (♄ - The Cross of physical reality over the soul), in the 10th house (House of Career, Responsibility, and our Social Reputation and Standing).
Saturn’s Bitch
(Photo Credit: https://www.deviantart.com/qauz/art/Dream-of-Saturn-259783496)
To me, The Saturn Return is a time where we can expect ourselves to be, “Saturn’s Bitch”. Saturn is an outer planet yet it casts a very large shadow over our lives. Its effect is felt as far and wide to every aspect of our relationship with physical reality. This is a time for serious work, preservation, dedication and self analysis. Here we go deep, and do our “Shadow Work”.
When we first encounter our Saturn Return, our time here on Earth slows down, life feels heavier and more burdensome. We are more aware of our limits. The events that occur during this time can challenge us so deeply and intensely that we can naturally experience melancholy or depression. This transit lasts for a little over 2 years, yet the purpose it serves is to prepare us to attain conscious alignment with the physical world. It prepares us for our next major life transit, Uranus Opposite Uranus. By taking the lessons learned during the first Saturn Return with us, having learned mastery of our own physical reality, we are then prepared to learn emotional maturity during our Uranus Opposite Uranus transit.
It is important to mention, that if by the age of 30, those who do not do the work of their Saturn Return and grow on the physical level, they cannot grow emotionally. These people are already beginning the process of death and experience disharmony within their own vibrational acceleration. To put it simply, they have a more difficult time with “adulting”, they lack awareness and understanding of their own limits and boundaries. They missed the lessons needed to be learned during their Saturn Return that would inspire emotional maturity and mental clarity.
Saturn Return in Capricorn Generation
(Photo Credit: Pinterest.com)
When looking back at the transit of Capricorn in Saturn, I think it’s important to describe key attributes to Capricorn Energy. Capricorn embodies the values of: Prudence, Wisdom, Practicality, Resourcefulness, and Ambition. Those with heavy Capricorn influence in the natal chart ooze with an air of status and stability. The reason for Capricorn’s natural inclination towards these values is due to its planetary ruler, which is, you guessed it, Saturn.
For us who have experienced our own Saturn Return in Capricorn, we learned the heavy lessons of our own relationship to Physical Reality. We learned proper measurement of time. What to do with it, how to integrate discipline in a healthy way (which didn’t contradict our ability to focus on what really matters). We learned discipline to become less rigid(although we always assumed rigidity was helpful..it wasn’t), we learned to value integration instead of compartmentalization. To me, I felt the most important lesson was in understanding and appreciating the true value of our resources. If we learned the lessons our Saturn Return taught us, it was to know our worth, our time and effort and we in the Saturn in Capricorn generation refuse to undercut the value of our ability of being flexible in our methods.
We learned to use our personal power appropriately.
That being said, those of us who have gone through our Saturn Return in Capricorn, should now be able to understand and relate to our friends who are experiencing their own Saturn Return in Aquarius. We can have a major influence on them by demonstrating integrity while expressing our personal power and if we choose to collaborate with our Saturn in Aquarius friends, in the physical world, there isn’t much we couldn’t accomplish in the realm of humanitarian efforts. This new generation are Visionaries. Period. If we folks who have done the work of our Saturn Return in Capricorn and have paid attention to what is beyond personal self interest, there can be major accomplishments carried out when we unify our two generations.
My Saturn Return
To describe my Saturn return, I feel the best place to start is when Saturn was transiting my 9th house and Midheaven in Sagittarius. I was offered a unique spiritual experience that changed my belief system (I'm a recovering agnostic). This was the time where I was being challenged to form a stronger relationship with my Trust in God in the physical world and to own my unique Psychic abilities. I sought after autotelechy and used that knowledge to heal outdated belief patterns that were distract me from my true life’s purpose. I practiced self discipline of my will power through Yoga. It was a time where I also began to travel more often. During Saturn in Sagittarius, I become engaged and then married to my husband. We bought our family home and I started my own business and went back to college.
On December 20th, 2017, the day before winter solstice, my Saturn Return in Capricorn began its transit in my 10th house. Saturn was transiting in conjunction with an orb of 3 degrees natal Uranus and 8 degrees Saturn. As I mentioned earlier, in reference to my own chart, The midheaven/10th house cusp symbolize our most public self. It is our career or “life path” - and it was where Saturn showed up to challenge maturity within my own social standing and reputation.
It felt like everything that was possible and easy during the time Saturn was in Sagittarius became a true drudgery. I was challenged to limit relationships motivated by feelings of guilt, and in many ways I had to learn my limits with how much I was willing to allow others to influence my decision making. I was forced to get real about who I was and face the consequences of how I was giving people the wrong impression of me. I began to learn my limits when it came to just how much of my personal power I was willing to give away. Lastly, if I had to say what was the hallmark moment regarding Saturn’s lesson, was the experience of the death of my Father.
These are just some examples of what I experienced and to be honest, every single lesson learned during my Saturn Return began with feelings of deep sorrow, disappointment and frustration. That is, until I realized that I had the power to make my own choices. My Saturn Return in Capricorn was an opportunity to find out what my time was worth. To find out where my limits were, and ultimately, know the value of all my resources. It was a time in my life where I felt called upon to act fearlessly. To find my way through the dark and persevere through everything that was coming my way.
It is my opinion that the Saturn Return is not a frivolous life experience. It is a very harrowing time in our lives where we can legitimately feel victimized by its lessons. However, if we diligently practice discernment and self compassion, we find ourselves very blessed indeed. To me, the Saturn Return happens to assist us in seeing a balanced perspective of our own lives. We become more self directed and we take responsibility for ourselves and our choices. We are able to see the “big picture”, and we are no longer held back by emotional pain. We understand that emotional pain is just one aspect of self perspective and we learn to trust ourselves to feel own pain. We now know, it doesn’t last forever.
Saturn teaches us that we no longer feel burdened by responsibility, we know we are capable of anything we put our minds to. We are understanding of the times where we felt powerless, confused and riddled with despair, was the fertile soil of creating a life of purpose. It is the Phoenix rising out of the ashes energy. We are no longer who we used to be and we feel a deep satisfaction where we no longer feel conflicted and ashamed for our immaturity. We have grown.
I hope you all have enjoyed this post. If you are going through your own Saturn return and have questions or would like to request a birth chart reading, you can contact me at - [email protected]
With Love,
B
“No one said it wasn’t going to be exciting...We eat tension baby! We eat it! Tribulation, shit lightning! That’s what we do.” - AlexisonFire, Live at House of Strombo