Saturn’s Children: Navigating the Lessons of Your Saturn Return
I feel incredibly honored to have had the opportunity to become a guide for so many people undergoing their Saturn returns. It can be a pretty gnarly transit, and the lessons I learned during my first big tango with the ringed ruler of time, mortality, and responsibility was quite a doozy…
I might have to share on THAT whole experience in a separate post, because… Whew — there were a lot of big lessons that I came up against during that time. Understanding how to work with Saturn’s heavy curriculum means that I’m often called in as a helper when the wheels start to come off the wagon in someone's late 20s, or again around their late 50s, as they approach their second Saturn return.
It’s gotten to the point where I can take one look at someone’s tarot reading and tell by the cards laid out that a Saturn return is occurring, or imminent. I’ll ask them their age and if they’re going through some major shake ups, and all too often they’ll confirm: late 20s or 50s, life getting super intense, wondering what the hell’s going on!
For many of my clients, these transits come as a complete surprise. They’re in the midst of major upheaval — jobs ending, relationships shifting, identities unraveling — and they don’t yet know that there’s a cosmic precedent for all of it. That this pressure, this intensity, this cracking open… it’s not personal. It’s planetary.
“Saturn does not want to hear excuses. All that matters is results. Saturn’s sign is not just about style but also about the nature of the work assigned to us.
The first step in handling Saturn’s sojourn through any sign is not to panic, but to take stock.
Figure out what structures of your life have been neglected and draft a plan for shoring them up. It doesn’t have to happen overnight. Saturn simply asks that we acknowledge responsibility, determine the ways we are able to respond to a situation, and then do what we can to improve.”
Saturn is often called “the great malefic”, and is the planet of boundaries, structure, responsibility, karma, and time. Its return to the same place it occupied in your birth chart happens roughly every 29.5 years, and it heralds a rite of passage into deeper maturity and self-responsibility. These years can be incredibly challenging, but also illuminating and deeply formative.
Saturn is the calcium that builds the strong bones of our character (and rules bones, teeth, and BACKBONE, baby!) Working with this planet is not for the spineless — and if you’ve neglected your dental health? Prepare to visit the dentist, and perhaps get a root canal, or two…
The medicine of Saturn works on our souls on a root level. It restructures us like a cosmic chiropractor or osteopath. Not to break us down, but to help us build strength, resilience, and lasting foundations of wisdom for the long haul.
As someone who happens to heavily Saturn-ruled myself (I have a Capricorn stellium), I feel uniquely equipped to hold space for folks walking through this intense portal. I know the terrain, and I’ve done the homework. I’ve survived the tests — and I’ve helped many others do the same.
Before Uranus was discovered, Saturn was the traditional ruler of both Capricorn and Aquarius. I like to think of them as rival siblings — Capricorn the austere older one, Aquarius the rebellious younger — but they share that same stern taskmaster energy. Saturn doesn’t coddle. Saturn teaches through experience, often the hard way. But those who study well are gifted with endurance, mastery, and hard-won wisdom. Caps and Aquarians both have a special relationship with tough Daddy Saturn, so we tend to feel it extra hard when we go through our Saturn Returns, and other Saturn heavy transits and cycles.
If you're in the midst of your Saturn return — or navigating another major Saturn transit, I want to offer you some solace, and a reminder: you’re not lost (I promise!) You are being INITIATED, baby!
This is the time to get clear on your boundaries. Take responsibility for your patterns. Cut away what clearly is no longer working, and get REAL about what actual maturity looks like. This is the time to build something solid and true, and get serious about what you truly want your life to look like! Saturn is here to help you make it real, and so am I.
If you’re finding yourself in the thick of a first or second Saturn Return, I’d love to support you with a Tarot + Transit reading. These sessions are perfect for navigating Saturn-heavy times. We’ll look at your chart, explore the lessons coming up, and find ways to work with the energy, rather than against it. You don’t have to do this alone.
Questions to reflect on:
🪐 What boundaries are you being asked to strengthen?
🪐 Where are you learning patience and resilience?
🪐 What outdated identities or roles are falling away?
🪐 What would it look like to fully commit to your growth?
Saturn helps us becoming more of who we actually are — and what could be more magical than that?
If you’re in the midst of a Saturn return, or just coming out of one, I’d love to hear what lessons are you noticing coming up in your life? Where are your learning to hold boundaries, and — are you beginning to see the benefits of this great malefic’s teachings? Or if you survived Saturn’s exams, what aspects of that strictness and discipline did you struggle with the most? Leave a comment below and let us know!
