otterspaceastrology

Good Morning Dear Readers and Friends…the thought occurred to me during this Mercury retrograde transit that I should go back over the past a bit, sharing all the things that I have seen happen when a person goes through their first Saturn return…

Saturn takes approximately 29 1/2 years to transit all the way around the wheel of the chart. The first Saturn return takes place at that time — it means that Saturn is transiting conjunct to the place it was when you were born.  Depending on your individual chart and the  various aspects to your Saturn, it can be difficult in the extreme, or  even  relatively mild, but it ALWAYS serious and a time of commitment. Often, an older person will show up in your life at that time to function as a mentor or a guide. The law says you are an adult when you are 18 or 21, but older people start giving you more respect at 30 when you’ve completed the first Saturn return. Depending on your chart, you may just have one conjunction, but since Saturn is a slow and heavy planet you need to allow at least  a few degrees of orb.  Let’s say, for example that you have Saturn at 15 degrees of Libra and TRANSITING Saturn conjoins and then during the retrograde phase it comes back to 18 degrees Libra before going back into direct motion. You’re still going to  feel the heaviness of that conjunction, the after ripples, even though it is 3 degrees from exact. More often, the person will experience 3 exact conjunctions — forward, retrograde, then forward again.

OK, you are thinking, but what does it MEAN?  Saturn symbolizes authority. This transit is deeply a review of all the input that authority figures have had in your life thus far — parents, teachers, church, government, etc. The first Saturn return is a time when YOU choose what to keep and what to let go of, in terms of values and deciding whether all that previous input works for you or not. It takes courage and hard work (internally) to become your own authority, but that is just part of the task. Saturn is  also a symbol for career and how you define success in the outer world. When we are kids, our parents tell us (hopefully) that we can be anything we want to be when we grow up. As we mature, enter college, etc. we begin to realize that we can’t do it all, so we begin to choose that which is most meaningful to us.  Saturn is about bringing  goals into physical manifestation and it works through restriction, concentration, focus, and the ability to delay instant gratification for long-term rewards. So the first Saturn return is very often a commitment to a career, or a change in career.  It’s about choosing which door to walk through, and once we choose, other doors close silently.

I’ve seen people get married, or divorced, when they were going through their Saturn return. I know two  ladies with strong Scorpio themes who were widowed on both their 1st AND 2nd Saturn returns. When a child is born on your Saturn return, there’s a strong tie with that child. A karmic tie. Saturn, Pluto, and Neptune can indicate karmic ties — best to look carefully at both parents’ and the childs’ chart to see clues of how to manage the possibilities for positive results.

Mine was a change in career. When I was 28, I got the best job of my life at that time. I have Saturn in Virgo, so it figures :)) Virgo is health work and service to others. I job-shared with a dear friend and we had a great boss who encouraged our creativity. We worked long hours but it built my confidence in myself. When you are born with Saturn in your 1st house it takes getting older to become confident and believe in yourself. We even beat out 38 other social service contractors vying for a grant from the City of Salem because we were the ONLY preventative program.  We managed several acres of community gardens scattered across a tri-county area of the Willamette Valley.  Bringing better health and a better diet to many people — a good description of Saturn in Virgo :))

Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn and symbolizes bones, joints, and teeth. I knew a woman who was a nurse and she was starting her 1st Saturn return and she didn’t like her job. But she wouldn’t do anything about it. Then she broke her leg! So she couldn’t work, and while she was healing she realized that she HAD to make a change in career.  There’s an old saying…”The wheels of the Gods grind slow but exceedingly fine…” Make no mistake — Saturn returns are serious business designed to help us grow and if we refuse the task and the challenges in front of us at that time, there are most assuredly penalties.

SO…now I want to hear from you, if you are  28-30 and experiencing  the pressure of making important long-term decisions. Send me your birth data and whether you are male or female. My goal is to encourage an open discussion of this important time in peoples’ lives. I will post it and write what I see, minus your name, to protect your privacy.

Thanks for reading and watch for my next blog post — Uranus enters Taurus on May 15, 2018… Namaste, Jenae