Astrologers call the period between ages twenty-eight and thirty “Saturn Return”. That’s because it’s the first time the planet Saturn completes its cycle through your birth chart and returns to the spot it occupied when you were born. It is one of the most important times in your life… a time of endings and new beginnings.

For most of us, ending a phase of life that is familiar and embarking on one that is new and untried is unsettling, even painful. Few people describe Saturn Return as a pleasant period. While undergoing your Saturn Return you may find yourself turning inward and reflecting on your individual destiny. You examine your true needs and desires and the role you want to play on the world’s stage. You may feel lonely and alienated from those around you, while family and friends think you are shutting them out. But this is a necessary period of consolidation, when you must retreat from the distractions of the outer world and focus on yourself at your most fundamental level. The Saturn Return is every individual’s search for the Holy Grail.

This transition into adulthood is often accompanied by a sense of urgency, a feeling that you must try to accomplish everything you’ve ever wanted or planned to do now. Goals start to come sharply into focus. If you have not settled into a definite career, or have been pursuing one that is inappropriate for you, you’ll experience a strong push to establish yourself in a more fulfilling occupation. Sometimes this means a complete change.

If you have been building steadily toward a goal that’s right for you, Saturn Return can be a time of achievement and rewards. Your labors bear fruit. However the quality of the entire experience and the extent to which it is felt to be a ‘difficult’ time depends entirely on how one has lived during the previous twenty-nine years. If you have been pursuing an unsuitable vocation or merely fulfilling someone else’s expectations, Saturn can be relentless in prodding you to make adjustments.

Saturn strips away illusions and points out limitations, allowing you to view yourself in a harsh, often unflattering light. At the same time, it endows you with prudence, practicality, and the perseverance to work hard toward achieving your purposes. Saturn Return almost always requires some major adjustments in lifestyle, attitudes, and relationships. Anything you have outgrown, or have tolerated but not found satisfying, must end now or be altered to meet your emerging needs.

Often interpersonal relationships are deeply affected by Saturn Return. Almost everyone who is married will question that commitment. Relationships that start during this period may have a “fated” or “karmic” quality about them.

Saturn is never easy to deal with because his function is that of promoting growth and it is only frustration and pain which at present are sufficient goads to get a human being moving. This frustration and pain have given Saturn a bad reputation. But the planet’s often misunderstood value lies in its very ability to evoke pain. Like the pain of an illness, it warns that something is wrong. Saturn doesn’t create the problems, it merely illuminates them. Growth is often accompanied by trepidation and turmoil. As the old self is pushed aside to make room for the new, you may feel weak and vulnerable. You want to move ahead, yet are frustrated by a fear of doing so, torn between a compelling urge to throw off everything connected with your past and an equally frantic need to cling to the familiar rather than brave the great unknown. Even if your external world seems to be in order, your internal structure may feel as though it’s being assaulted with a battering ram. Nervous conditions, irritability, depression, insomnia, and feelings of insecurity are common. Most people go through some sort of identity crisis.

Even though your Saturn Return may be disturbing, ultimately it reveals what you truly want and sweeps away the clutter that may have been impeding your progress. Your Saturn Return is a personal spring cleaning. No matter how difficult it seems to let go of inappropriate people and things, the first Saturn Return is the time to do it. For if lessons are not learned, the problems will come knocking again during your second Saturn Return at about age fifty-eight, when you are more set in your ways. Once the conflict is confronted, the tension usually subsides. You feel stronger and more capable of moving ahead.

Saturn Return in Leo 12 degrees (Born 13 Feb 1977)
If you were born with Saturn in Leo, the issues during your Saturn Return will be about being “chosen” or “special”, melodrama, the heroic myth, relationship to the Creator, children, creativity and love affairs.

If you want to know when I’ll be at my craziest, my Saturn Return starts from 17 July and should end 24 July 2005… but can end as late as 2007.

Find out where your Saturn Return is.