With so much Saturn energy around us, coming off of the Saturn-Uranus-Mars T-square earlier this month and a tense Saturn-ruled full moon this Friday, and with Jupiter returning in a few days to Saturn-ruled Aquarius, I thought it would useful to look at the cycles of everyone’s favorite grumpy old man planet.
Most people have heard of the dreaded Saturn Return, that time around age thirty when the scales fall from our eyes and we suddenly become adults. Or, when everything falls apart and we face a crisis. Or, when we step boldly into our new maturity. It’s one of the few astrological concepts that has slipped into the mainstream, like Mercury retrograde or sun signs. And, just like popular knowledge of these concepts is often vague or misinformed, many people seem to not really understand what the Saturn Return is all about.
The truth is that, while the Saturn Return is an important milestone in life, it’s just one stop on Saturn’s lifelong educational program designed to impart tough lessons, tailored to each of us. The Saturn Return, when transiting Saturn conjuncts its placement in a natal chart, happens around age thirty, coinciding with a time of increased maturity, when we leave young adulthood behind. However, before Saturn gets back to its natal placement, it has to pass through several other stations, all of which can be just as challenging as the return, when it essentially crosses the finish line of a difficult journey and surveys its efforts.
All of the planetary bodies have “returns” — the moon breezes past its placement in the natal chart once a month, and right around your birthday, when the sun makes an exact conjunction to your natal sun, is your Solar Return. Mercury stop by its natal placement a little less than once a year, and Venus, about every eighteen months. The Mars Return takes longer, with the planet of destruction taking a little less than two years to return to its natal placement. Jupiter’s return is even more highly-anticipated; it takes about twelve years before you can throw yourself a Jupiter Return party.
With Saturn, the farthest out of the visible planets, taking so much longer to complete its rotation through the zodiac, it’s natural that its return has been given a badge of importance throughout astrological history. Of the modern planets, only Uranus, with a cycle of about 84 years, has a return that is within the span of most human lives, as Neptune and Pluto, at approximately 166 and 248 years respectively, move far too slowly to ever return to their natal placement within anyone’s lifetime (except, perhaps, if those Silicon Valley billionaires succeed in cryogenically freezing themselves…).
Nevertheless, it’s wise (Saturn keyword) to pay attention to Saturn’s cycle throughout life, though how it manifests for anyone depends on many factors in the birth chart. The most important factor is sect, whether a person was born in the day or at night. For people born during the day, Saturn is considered the more constructive of the two malefics. But for those born at night, Saturn is the more challenging malefic.
A basic rule of thumb that seems to play out in practice is that Saturn’s cycles, through squares, an opposition, and the return, seem to be more difficult for those born at night, while those with day charts tend to experience them more constructively. (But don’t despair, night chart folks, Mars’ cycle is much more difficult for your day chart friends and more constructive for you).
Secondary factors are Saturn’s overall condition in the birth chart. If it’s relatively well-placed, in a sign of its domicile (Capricorn or Aquarius) or exaltation (Libra), or if it’s bonified through its rulership or helpful aspects, transiting Saturn’s cycles will generally be easier (though sect still applies).
House position also matters, as not all houses are equally supportive. How Saturn’s cycles manifest in a person’s life is indicated by the house placement, both the house placement of Saturn in the natal chart and the houses transiting Saturn makes its aspects from. For example, someone born with Saturn in Scorpio in the fourth house of home and family of origin might experience hard lessons in that area throughout life. These experiences would be triggered by harsh aspects from transiting Saturn, when it squares natal Saturn from Aquarius and Leo and opposes it from Taurus.
The four whole sign houses containing these signs — first, fourth, seventh, and tenth — would continue to be activated by transiting Saturn, for this person, through squares, opposition, and return (conjunction). The topics of these house (self, family, partner, and reputation, in this case) would become primary areas of growth and challenge for this person throughout their life.
It’s also important to keep in mind that aspects begin to be active as soon as the planets move into signs that form aspects with one another, which is known as a whole sign aspect, not just when they form an exact conjunction. This is an important distinction to what is usually understood in modern astrology, which views aspects as becoming active only when the planets involved, or the aspects made, come within seven or so degrees.
Understanding that the Saturn square, opposition, or return is active as soon as transiting Saturn enters a sign that forms a whole sign hard aspect is crucial to understanding fully that period of Saturn’s work for you. The lessons will ramp up as the aspect becomes exact by degree, but don’t doubt that the teacher has already begun the lesson once transiting Saturn has arrived in a sign in hard aspect to natal Saturn.
Let’s take a look at how Saturn operates its school of hard knocks. Keep in mind that the malefic planets, Saturn and Mars, do their challenging work through the “hard aspects,” including the square (90 degree), opposition (180 degree), and conjunction (planets within the same sign), which is why I’m focusing only on these aspects and not the “soft aspects.” Trines (120 degrees) and sextiles (60 degrees) are associated with the benefic planets, Venus and Jupiter, which can also cast their goodness through the so-called hard aspects as well. Which is good news, as that means there are more opportunities for the benefics to do good and fewer ones for the malefics to make things difficult. Now, on to our tour of Saturn Academy.
The Inferior Saturn Square
Saturn makes its first harsh aspect, an inferior (meaning it’s made from a sign later in the zodiac) square, to its natal placement at about age seven, around the time we may encounter our first setbacks in the public sphere of life. A playground standoff, a reprimand by a teacher, a blocking of an attempt to exert our will, are common features of life’s first hard lessons. Children this age are often exploring, and pushing, the limits around them. But Saturn’s first lessons have a purpose; bumping up against Saturn’s restrictions at this age is part of developing a healthy sense of what is appropriate or safe to do.
The First Saturn Opposition
Around age fifteen, at the same time as transiting Uranus forms an energizing sextile with natal Uranus, transiting Saturn opposes its natal location. This configuration has “question authority” written all over it, and anyone who was a teenager, or has a teenager, can certainly attest to its potency. This aspect comes right around the height of teenage rebellion (and cluelessness), around the time teens (hopefully) realize that they can’t just refuse to comply with society’s (no doubt lame) expectations and do whatever they feel like. There is often a “coming of age” moment or crisis, in which a difficult lesson is learned through the pressure of the opposition aspect.
The Superior Saturn Square
Saturn’s next lesson, through a superior (meaning it occurs from an earlier sign in the zodiac) square occurs around age 22, after Saturn has chilled out some teenage rebellion through its first opposition. This second square comes on the cusp of young adulthood, as many finish college or embark on their first career. There is often a rude awakening at this age, say, once college loans come due and a job is needed. Saturn can show some particularly tough love at this age, as the planet that favors age and experience over youth and fabulousness (that would be Venus).
Furthermore, Uranus forms its first square with its natal placement at this time, throwing a wrench in the experimentation and freedom of adolescence, or provoking some type of crisis. At the same time, Pluto forms an energizing sextile with its natal placement, the first such aspect possible in a person’s life, given Pluto’s slow movement, highlighting a compulsion to action in the areas of life energized by Pluto.
The First Saturn Return
With all this Saturn drama already under the bridge, you can see why bringing up the Saturn Return as a standalone event can seem like “too little, too late” or even beside the point. It’s easier to pat yourself on the back for getting through the first round of Saturn school if the Saturn Return is conceptualized as the end of a 30 year process, not just an event lasting for the duration of Saturn’s transit through the sign of its natal placement.
Ideally, we’ve been absorbing Saturn’s lessons over the first third of our lives, and can feel a sense of maturity and accomplishment during the first Saturn Return. However, this isn’t always the case, particularly among night chart folks and those with difficult Saturn placements. Some Saturn Returns can be quite difficult, with a sense of surviving a challenging time and the (actual or metaphorical) scars to show for it.
The Cycle Continues…
And on we go, with Saturn’s lessons, until we kick the bucket. Fortunately, these lessons tend to get easier as we get older. After the first Saturn return, the next square comes at around age 37. At this age, many are in the throes of balancing career, family, relationships, and everything else. Life can feel squeezed, calendars full of obligations that can wear down even the most determined workaholic.
This period precedes what I like to call the midlife crisis aspects, a cluster of outer planet aspects that explain the midlife freak outs. It also coincides with the first square of Pluto to its natal placement, further underscoring the pressure cooker signature of this time of life. Issues that are tamped down here — whether career, relationship, health, or anything else — can often explode a few years later, during the second Saturn opposition, around age 45, if not dealt with in the late thirties.
The next Saturn square happens at around age 52, on the other side of the midlife crisis aspects and the second Saturn opposition, when we are hopefully older and wiser and have integrated the lessons of midlife. At the second Saturn Return, around age 60, many people are at the height of their careers and work lives and are beginning to contemplate retirement. Further squares happen around age 66 and 82, on either side of a third Saturn opposition, around age 75, continuing to consolidate what I can only hope is some hard won wisdom.
Bonus: Tokyo Olympics
Speaking of Saturn, the Tokyo Olympics are shaping up to be among the most saturnian in memory. The image of the pageantry of the opening ceremonies against the backdrop of a nearly empty stadium was a sobering reminder that these Olympics are up against some real obstacles. In the midst of what seems to be a fourth Covid wave, albeit with the unvaccinated primarily affected, it’s understandable that the vast majority of Japanese people don’t approve of the games. Indeed, Japanese protesters made their sentiments known even as the opening ceremonies were getting underway.
And that was quite the opening ceremony. With an evocation of the disruption and isolation experienced by Olympic athletes (and everyone) in 2020, drone choreography (the most socially distant choreography possible?), pensive Butoh performers, a Kabuki excerpt meant to disperse bad spirits, and sober moments of silence for the millions of dead from Covid, as well as the Israeli Olympians killed in the 1972 Munich Olympics (and not previously honored in an opening ceremony), there was a seriousness and reflectiveness usually absent the opening pageantry, which usually broadcasts a sunny narrative and showcase of the host country.
Lest you doubt the influence of Saturn, which was evident during the opening ceremony as the moon in Capricorn moved towards Aquarius (both Saturn-ruled signs) for its full moon appointment the next day: I point you to the literal construction of structures using traditional Japanese carpentry which turned out to be utilitarian stages for the most serious tap dancing I’ve even seen.
The most lighthearted moment may have been the “kinetic pictogram” segment in which several figures dressed like restroom sign people cheerfully enacted the logos of all of the Olympic sports. How do I know they were cheerful when I couldn’t see their faces under the round blue and white globe heads? There was a bounce to their step and a playfulness that seemed to sneak out, perhaps a reminder of human resilience, buried in there somewhere.
As it turns out, Japan knows a thing or two about Saturn. Looking at its national chart, dating from the passage of the present Constitution, on October 7th, 1946, we find a nation with an aesthetically and relationally-oriented Libra sun and a reserved Aquarius rising with the moon also in Aquarius, conjunct the Ascendant. The moon is actually rising up to the Ascendant, raising the question of whether it would make more sense, astrologically, for Japan to be known as “The Land of the Rising Moon.”
This chart has quite an air sign emphasis, bolstered by several other planets in Libra, indicating a society that values social engagement. But, ruled by Saturn in the sign of its exile in Leo (and conjunct smoldering Pluto nearby), this is also a highly structured society, with rules and formalities. With chart ruler Saturn in the seventh house of partnerships, and forming a difficult overcoming square with Mars in Scorpio in the tenth house of reputation, the need for control in partnerships (like, multi-national sporting events) is in conflict with the highest goals of the country for itself.
Japan is actually undergoing a Saturn opposition currently, relevant to our discussion above, with transiting Saturn nearing the degree of its Aquarius Ascendant, and later on this year, the moon. This suggests some limits on the national personality and body (literally, its physical environment) as it finds itself in the crosshairs of July’s recent T-square between Saturn in Aquarius, Mars in Leo, and Uranus in Taurus, all along Japan’s axis of self, roots, partnerships, and reputation. And all the while Pluto in Capricorn has been rumbling about in Japan’s twelfth house of misfortune, with the Covid dramas playing out in this difficult house last year. Clearly, this is a stressful time for Japan.
Furthermore, if we look at Japan’s fifth house, where the Olympics would fall, as a sporting event traditionally framed as the height of amateur achievement, we find natal Gemini on the fifth house, with Uranus present and loosely conjunct the North Node. As the North Node signifies increases, Japan does seem to have something to gain through this fifth house endeavor.
However, the placement of natal Mercury, the ruler of the fifth house, in Libra in the ninth house, along with the sun, Neptune, and Chiron, indicates that the Olympics brings up issues related to the nation’s core of identity. These issues, somewhat paradoxically, involve foreigners, as the ninth house rules interactions with foreigners.
Mercury’s proximity (and applying conjunctions) to Japan’s best and worst planets as defined by sect, Jupiter and Mars, both in early Scorpio, means that the Olympics could animate both the best and worst tendencies of this natal chart, as well as that spectrum of outer events. With Covid cases already appearing among the visiting athletes, Japan is focused on trying to get through the games without a major outbreak. Having Uranus nearby, indicating sudden events, makes things feel a bit dicey. Japan is in a bit of a saturnian bind, bearing the burdens of hosting the Olympics, exacerbated by the pandemic, without reaping any of the benefits that would normally accrue from tens of thousands of visitors spending money and developing a deeper appreciation of their nation while visiting the games (Venus activities).
Hopefully Jupiter’s ingress back into Aquarius, into Japan’s first house, at the end of July will help buoy Japan’s experience of this whole situation and offer some protection. At their best, the Olympics still have the power to inspire with the idea that the world really is a small place, and that we can all come together to do something positive.
These jupiterian sentiments were echoed in the parade of nations, in which the smaller countries continue to demonstrate their sartorial dominance. It’s a spectacle that never fails to leave me teary. There’s undeniably something magical in bringing all of these accomplished athletes from the far reaches of the earth together. The fact that it’s happening at all, under challenging circumstances, speaks to the idea that, perhaps, this Olympics is something that we need, as humans, after the experiences of the past year.