My Saturn return is approaching quickly. Good! That means I’ll soon be able to blame the messiest parts of my life on the cosmos—article written by Lucy Morgan.
I’m in my mid-20s and generally thriving, or so you could tell from my Instagram profile. Yet beneath all the filters, you’ll find a workaholic juggling everything from sobriety to loneliness. I know, poor me.
A few months ago, I read Lisa Stardust’s Saturn Return Survival Guide and was comforted by being able to trace the causes of my life crisis back to my birth chart, planetary alignments, and astrological “houses.” Could the answer to my chronic stress lie in the orbit of Saturn? For the sake of my sanity, I decided to investigate.
“It must take approximately 29.5 years for the karmic planet to align with the exact degree it was in when you were born,” Stardust writes. Your Saturn return, then, is the “exact coincidence of natal Saturn and transit Saturn, in the exact degree and sign it was in during the time, date, and year of your birth.”
The Saturn return is the moment when transiting Saturn returns to the same position in the zodiac that it was in on the exact date and time of your birth.
In astrology, Saturn is associated with “maintaining structure, boundaries, discipline, and responsibility,” Caggie Dunlop, author of Saturn Returns: Your Cosmic Coming of Age, previously told GLAMOR. If you’re not living in line with your true values, whether in an unsatisfying relationship, a stagnant career, or a nearly broken friendship, Saturn will soon force you to make a change.
I spoke with Maxine Mei-Chung, author of What Women Want: Conversations on Desire, Power, Love, and Growth, who explained that “psychologically, the first return of “Saturn is considered the moment when full adulthood is reached and we are faced, perhaps for the first time, with all the responsibilities that this new stage entails.”
And inevitably, these responsibilities have to do with gender. In her book, Mei-Chung explores how women’s desires converge and clash with social expectations of femininity. Do we want to get married? Do we want to have children? Is it unfeminist to want these things? Do we feel comfortable with our sexuality? Do we have unresolved traumas? Do we bother to solve it?
“Instead of approaching our thirties with fear, the Saturn return forces us to recognize and harness our power to begin the next chapter of our lives.”
This can be so overwhelming that Mei-Chung tells me, “We often look for other resources and other ways of being in the world, whether it’s with astrology, whether it’s with philosophy, or even religion and meditations .”
So what is it about astrology that especially attracts women? “It’s something that is very in tune and aligned with us as women and with our bodies,” Mei-Chung explains. “There is something very linked to us as women in terms of our body and how it is formed because there is a lot of astrology that talks about the emergence of women and creative energy.”
Astrology, and particularly the concept of a Saturn return, also appeals to women because it offers an alternative to the anti-aging messages we consume. Instead of approaching our thirties with fear, Saturn return forces us to recognize and harness our power to begin the next chapter of our lives.
The Saturn return also encourages us to live firmly in the present: “And it’s very difficult to be in the present, right?” asks Mei-Chung.
This event occurs every 27-29 years and is considered the first Saturn return as the moment that marks the beginning of adulthood.
“You can feel overwhelmed by what is expected of you […] Sometimes there is a certain comfort in the fantasy of what will come next.” This is especially relevant for those with mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
In her work as a psychotherapist, Mei-Chung explains: “The people I work with who are more depressed are more concerned about looking at the past. In contrast, the more anxious people project more into the future.”
“So if we think about where you are potentially most content or happiest, it is in the here and now, where the mind is not, which again is where astrology takes you.”
Change is always going to be uncomfortable, especially if you resist it. This is where the Saturn return calms me down; It reminds me that change is going to happen whether I like it or not, so it’s best to let go. As Mei-Chung points out, “We could consider it a crisis,” but also “a rebirth.”