Star Struck Style

Now that I’ve discussed what Saturn symbolizes in my chart, it’s time to take a look at what the second Saturn return actually means. Robert Hand’s interpretation of the astrological event on astro.com reads as follows:

“This is one of the most important times in your life. A major cycle of experience is closing, and great changes are about to take place. How great these changes are depends largely on what you have been doing with your life over the past several years. Have you been living as you feel you should or as you think others want you to? If you have been doing the latter, this influence will have a greater impact.

This influence occurs about every twenty-nine years. The first such influence occurred when you were about twenty-nine, and the second is now, between your fifty-eighth and sixtieth birthday.

Last year, many aspects of your life have begun to change. Relationships may have changed, and you may have changed your residence or your job; you have been dominated by an urgent feeling that if you don’t do everything you have always wanted to do, you will never have another chance. And now, at about fifty-eight, you will feel that a substantial portion of your life has passed and that you had better get on with making it all work. If your relationship is unsatisfactory but you have been making the best of it, you will examine that relationship even more thoroughly now and may decide to end it. Certainly you will have to change it substantially. The same is true of any other aspect of your life that you have tolerated but not found very rewarding.

Consciously or unconsciously, you are pruning your life of everything that is not relevant to what you really are as a human being. If this process is not happening consciously, you may experience a sense of loss for the elements of your life that are coming to an end now. However, do not dwell upon these losses, for they are necessary in order to clear the decks for the major period of action in your life.

This is a time of endings and new beginnings. If you have built your life up to now around activities that are inappropriate for you, it will be a period of crisis. If you have been doing what you should in previous years, this influence will simply mark a time of solidification and the beginning of new phases of activity.”

The one passage from this prediction that stands out for me is this one: “Have you been living as you feel you should or as you think others want you to? If you have been doing the latter, this influence will have a greater impact.” I don’t believe that I’ve been living my life as others want me to since my first Saturn return. For that reason, I shouldn’t have a lot to worry about this second time around.

However, there is more than just a grain of truth to the following line “Last year, many aspects of your life have begun to change.” Yes, I did get a job that is more-structured with far more responsibility than almost any job I’ve had before. In that position, I’ve discovered things about myself that I really didn’t know before. I acknowledged potential for personal growth that I may not have recognized if I didn’t experience this career change when many other people are considering retirement.

For that reason, I believe that “this influence will simply mark a time of solidification and the beginning of new phases of activity,” as the author notes in his conclusion. I didn’t view Saturn as a malefic influence on my life in the first place, so I wasn’t anticipating “a period of crisis” during its return. Instead, I was expecting to be able to continue on the path of self-exploration that I’ve been traveling since Saturn ganged up with Jupiter and Pluto in my introspective fourth house a few years ago. Since that time, I believe that I have developed a much better understanding of my own strengths and weaknesses, including the vulnerabilities I discussed in my previous posts on this topic.

But what I really would like to experience while this event occurs is the return of my eagerness to share my ideas with the world. Saturn was a wet blanket on my sense of self-expression when it conjoined my sun and then promptly opposed my midheaven. It awakened the biggest vulnerability within me — my fear of rejection — and stopped me from pursuing creative writing projects altogether.

So, what I think I need to do is to relearn how to be “spontaneous” and to force myself into the spotlight like I did a few decades ago when I threw caution to the wind and decided to become a writer. That happened on the tail end of my first Saturn return. It was a big challenge for me, but it was “ultimately productive,” as any major astrological involving the ruler of my natal sun should be. I wasn’t afraid of what Saturn had in store for me then, and I’m not afraid of what it has in store for me now. As I mentioned before, I thrive on the slow and steady pace that makes most people view these events as stifling and restrictive. Nevertheless, it’s where I do my best work. I am a Saturnine creature, so I can honestly say that I’m looking forward to this consequential time in my life.

Bring it on, Saturn!