This is a theme that often gives a hard time to any young astrology lover, this Saturnian transit returning to its natal footsteps and renowned for being “complicated” to say the least, but is that picture really properly painted ?
Saturn is considered to be a “social” planet (along with its sister planet Jupiter) and has a rather “slow” step, so it sets the rhythm of our personal clock in a rather “deep” and sensitive (slow) way, its different main Generic Cycles are considered to be important social milestones, and as such the first return constitutes the completion of the first cycle.
The astrologer Dane Rudhyar qualified this generic cycle literally as a “birth into adulthood”, so much did he insist on the need here to break ties with inherited cultural and family patterns, but above all on the importance of taking an assessment of these elements, in order to either decide to stay true to them with full consciousness and embracing them more personally, or taking the final stand against them and developing own rules, following own game and specific path…
And God knows that we can’t all be on the same level when it comes to Saturnian energies, some are scared of them, fear them, others have tamed them or even appreciate them, making them part and parcel of them, but for this, a lot here depends on the weight of Saturn in the birth chart, refer as well to the very good book by Liz Greene “Saturn, a new look at an old devil”, which greatly demystifies the superstitions around this planet.
The Saturnian initiatory step ?
Saturn is often depicted as the “guardian of the threshold”, it’s the planet wich simultaneously confronts us with “matter” but also symbolically opens the way to the rest of the transpersonal and metaphysical energies coming beyond its orbit in the solar system : Uranus, Neptune, Pluto…
Often for the individual this stage of “entering adulthood” was materialized in the different primitive peoples through certain challenges or particular ceremonies, where it was time to impart to the person and to the group, that “the child in them had to die” so that “The Individual” could be born (a kind of “mourning process” marking the forces of Individuation), and that the latter individuals would also be called to perform their social duties and be defined by that !
Nowadays, in our modern societies, ” age of majority ” is legally fixed, and there are hardly any rites of passage anymore… The words “Adultescent” or “Kidult” have even been coined to describe this “transitional” age, when one is no longer really a teenager, without however succeeding in becoming a full-grown adult and emancipating oneself, socially, professionally, personally, from the family home…
And yet the Astrological Cycles have not changed since the dawn of time, they remain immutable and, like the hands of the clock, continue to note our important milestones and to underline their meaning.
A Saturn return makes this burden and this social, emotional, family, societal pressure more directly felt (and this is also why this pressure can trigger parts of Depression), and puts the individual face to face with his achievements, questions, fundamental goals, of course also depending on the Houses and planetary energies that will be involved during this passage, that is why I advise you to better analyze your Saturn within your birth chart, its sign and house…
This has a lot to do with a “reality test”, where we must demonstrate seriousness, maturity, responsibility, face up to our duties and accept to “grow up”… And inevitably, the “saturnian crisis” will be as important as the way in which we will have been able to accompany these forces up to that point ! (or not)
- If you step up, if you’ve understood the meaning of this passage, even instinctively, unconsciously, then it’s very likely that you feel nothing extraordinary, just time, which logically stays its course, simply.
- And if, for various reasons, we still carry parts of “immaturity”, of juvenility, then we can be more directly “constrained by life”, to face ourselves, to face what we really are and must really accomplish, to restructure ourselves, but this can proceed in a more “unpleasant and violent” way, subjected, suffered…
This is precisely what has earned this planet its bad reputation, because it represents the “normative parent”, basically the one who blows the whistle at the end of recess and makes us do our homework when we rather would like to continue dreaming carelessly about our games like an eternal child…
Here too, at the societal level, we can easily question the system’s interest in keeping citizens eternally immature, more easily consumers and focused on games and entertainment, instead of forming serious political counterparts and opponents, with demands and collective ambitions, the choice is quickly made.
This also brings us back to the Animus / Anima duality, do we have more of an “active” chart, capable of conquering the world, or a more “receptive” chart collecting feelings and seeking above all to be reassured ?
In the absolute, neither of the two is better than the other, but they will necessarily call for different types of realizations…
The first Saturn return comes to reshuffle the cards of all these elements, it comes to ask us to find a new balance between these 2 symbolic worlds of “father” and “mother”, it comes to invite us to ” assume our social role”, and whatever it may be ! (it will be conditioned by all the natal global planetary energies).
Women may be more directly confronted to their ” internal biological clock ” which exacerbates a need for pregnancy (even unconscious), men may have to face their social fears and anthropological limits : everything stems from their ” social status “, without it all their other achievements are pointless…
All the anthropological realities that society may tend to ignore or camouflage at times are frankly brought back to the forefront by Saturn, and without any false pretence.
We see that behind these elements emerges the notion of “perpetuation”, in all senses of the word, what we are going to transmit personally, socially, family-wise, to “others”, to society, to the world, we symbolically abandon the status of “son of” to potentially become the “father of”, to bring life, and these viewpoints are obviously very different, as well as their perception of time and responsibilities.
Can we really describe these challenges as “bad” or “harmful”?
Not really, not more than any universal laws of life (do we blame the law of gravity when we fall to the ground ?), the sooner we understand their usefulness, their function, their very “imperative” character, the better we can ride along with them, put them to use, and thus also reap the best fruits from them, this is the pragmatic observation…
We must not lose sight of the fact that this first Saturn return to its natal position logically also opens a new cycle for this planet which will last nearly 30 years, and whose real social harvests will only be achieved at an age of maturity, so it really represents a time of sowing for our collective seeds in some respects!
So we really want to make sure to set the right foundations, get rid of the bad seeds, focus on our main objectives, our passions, our ideals, rely on the bricks that we have been able to lay so far (very important point, astrological cycles always act in an inclusive way by superimposing themselves on the previous cycles) and find a new impetus to develop “concretely”…
And if we follow this exact path, there is no particular reason to fear the return of Saturn! We just need to play along with it…
And do you have any memories of your first Saturn return? 😉
Maybe you’re more or less experiencing it with difficulty at the moment? I hope this article helps you make the most of it…