The Saturn Return is a crossroads. If we live long enough, we get three of them. Some of us get one. Some of us get none. The first Saturn Return happens around age 28. The second is the late 50s and the third the late 80s!
The Saturn Return is that time of life when you are called to dismantle, dissemble, whatever has become useless, ineffective, dangerous, rotten, immature, pointless, broken in your life. Whatever it is, it’s holding you back.
Alternately, what no longer “works” may just slip away. Instead of quitting, you get fired.
Not all Saturn Returns are career related, although one area of life that Saturn rules is your work and your purpose. Saturn tends to test us, though, anytime, anywhere, on whatever subject we need schooling. If we are diligent with our studies, we grow.
NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The Second Saturn Return: Not Dead Yet
You come home to find your husband or wife in bed with your best friend. You go to work and your job has now been filled by a younger version of you (someone probably experiencing their first Saturn Return!).
You wake up in the morning stressed about your mortgage, the car, how much the new roof on your house will cost, your children’s choices, your thinning and graying hair, your health. Who you used to be. How you used to look.
Was it all worth it? Is this my life? Or maybe you feel sad because you never had the house, the car, the kids, or maybe you had them and you lost them. Regret sets in and maybe even bitterness.
The good news is that the second Saturn Return is good medicine for this existential station. Not dead yet. The above scenarios could happen at any adult age, even the thinning or graying hair, but they tend to be hallmarks of the later years we call middle age or past middle age, which is the moment of the second Saturn Return, the late fifties.
No one would call you elderly; although you’re too old to act like a foolish kid, you’re too young for the grave. As with all the Saturn Returns, you must evaluate what is and what you want for your future. Stop. Think. Slow down. Yes, you do have a future, even if it doesn’t feel that way. For sure, this time period will be at least occasionally marked by feelings of: Why bother? Can I really do anything new or important with my life? Old dogs, new tricks?
It’s never too late for the lessons of Saturn, though, and I am certain this is the most important Saturn Return of all. The first Saturn Return is all about leaving childhood behind, making mistakes, fixing them, and getting the first taste of real grown-up responsibility. The third Saturn Return, which I’ll address in its own section, is primarily spiritual and creative. It’s also a transit of saying goodbye. Let’s not mince words here. When you’ve hit your eighties, you’re on your way out of this earthly form and moving into spirit form as the reality of old age and death is impossible to ignore like a neon billboard sign.
Even if your health is good at eighty-five, you can’t help but look back on your life and reflect, whereas with the first Saturn Return, you look firmly ahead.
That’s all I have to share for now, my friends. You’ll have to get the book to find out how it ends or maybe you survived your second Saturn Return and you know!
What I know for sure: crossroads, transitions, life passages are what astrology was made for. Astrology, my book included, is a map for you, a magical guide that explains who you are, where you are, and,best of all, where you’re going. Happy Saturn Returns 😉
Interested in a reading with Aliza? Look here.
Adapted and reprinted with permission from Weiser Books, an imprint of Red Wheel/Weiser, The Little Book of Saturn by Aliza Einhorn is available wherever books and ebooks are sold or directly from the publisher or 800-423-7087.
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