What Is A Saturn Return In Astrology & How Do I Survive It?

Every 27-29 years, you complete an astrological cycle called the Saturn Return. This is a pivotal rite of passage that presents unique opportunities.

In fact, some astrology experts characterize your Saturn Return as the gateway to maturity and adulthood, when you become your fully evolved self.

First, however, you have to face significant challenges. This survival guide aims to help you understand and move through those challenges, emerging with new self-knowledge and confidence.

We'll begin by explaining exactly what a Saturn Return involves, and why it's so important.

Next, we'll move on to show you how to work out what your Saturn sign is, and how to calculate when your Saturn Return will be.

Finally, we'll help you use this information to identify the potential challenges you'll face during this Saturn return, and we'll finish up with a few tips that will help you overcome the obstacles of a Saturn return.

What Is A Saturn Return And How Does It Affect You?

Saturn Return will make you understand all your past mistakes and difficulties in a new light, drawing previously unseen connections.

By pushing through these challenges and getting to know yourself on a deeper level than ever before, you move into a new phase of adulthood.

At this point, you're able to begin fulfilling your true life's purpose and ready to engage in the most meaningful relationships of your life.

The Saturn Return meaning is also tied to what the planet Saturn actually represents in astrology.

Saturn is characterized as an instructor or a “coach” of sorts. In other words, it pushes you to your limit, all in the name of helping you reach fulfillment.

Like a personal trainer, Saturn asks you to lift increasingly heavy burdens and encourages you to get stronger and tougher.

When you've finished learning your lessons, you'll be in the best shape of your life.

Let's take a look at how you can begin to prepare yourself for facing the challenges of a Saturn Return.

Then, you can use our Saturn Return calculator to work out the date that Saturn will complete its cycle around the sun and return to the sign of your birth.

We'll then offer some advice that's tailored to the struggles faced by your particular sign during a Saturn Return.

How To Overcome The Obstacles Of Your Saturn Return

So, as we've established, your Saturn Return is a time when you'll be under pressure like never before. Here are four lessons that will help you survive your Saturn Return, no matter what your sign and unique struggles might be.

The Saturn Return Lesson 1: Commit To Your Calling

It's wise to set life goals around the time of your Saturn Return. So, ask yourself what your true calling is, and commit to that calling.

There are a few things you can consider when wanting to find your passion.

Look at the work you've been doing so far, and give some serious thought to what feels right.

This is hard to do if you haven't really been on the right track so far, but it's absolutely vital for your long-term fulfillment and happiness.

What inspires your passion and makes you feel most authentic?

And are you pursuing that thing? If you aren't, consider what you need to do to begin to make your passion the focus of your career.

What do you need to learn? What skills do you need to develop? Set a plan in motion today.

The Saturn Return Lesson 2: Grow Up And Take Personal Responsibility

The second major lesson that you need to learn surrounds accountability and personal responsibility.

Do you sometimes play the victim, denying your power, and blaming others for all the difficulties you face?

Now is the time to get realistic about the role you play in your own difficulties.

Think about when you've been standing in your own way, and what you've been avoiding.

Often, we're very good at generating excuses to avoid engaging with the things that scare us.

Where in your life have you been doing this, and why?

What can you do differently?

As with all things related to the Saturn Return, this is a daunting lesson to learn, but it's ultimately an empowering one.

The Saturn Return Lesson 3: Reflect On Your Patterns

By the time you're old enough to go through the Saturn Return, you're old enough to have established some counterproductive patterns in life.

This is the time to develop self-awareness, all in the service of letting go of bad behavioral patterns.

How have you been holding yourself back? What have you been doing that's counterproductive and self-destructive? Journaling can help here.

Learning how to journal is simple and will help you look for patterns that you might be reenacting.

Often, these patterns will also relate to the struggles of the previous generation.

In other words, you may be repeating unhelpful patterns seen in your family of origin.

Once you consciously acknowledge these patterns, you have a conscious choice about whether to move beyond them.

Your Saturn Return challenges you to shake off the shackles of the past.

The Saturn Return Lesson 4: Ask For Help

Up until this point, we've been stressing all the challenges and difficulties associated with your Saturn Return.

However, it's important to note that there's no need for you to go through these challenges alone.

Ask for help and support when you need it. It will be a difficult couple of years, and you will need plenty of resources at your disposal.

Know which friends and family members you can count on for consistent, non-judgemental listening, and consider whether you might also benefit from help from a counselor.

In addition, remember that sometimes the help you need is just about having fun.

Remember to regularly engage with people who make you laugh, and don't hesitate to let them know you just need a distraction every now and again in order to decompress.

How To Survive Your Saturn Return

• Make yourself a priority.
• Make decisions based on love.
• Never give up.
• Be present even when times get tough.
• Take personal responsibility.
• Be proud of who you are and where you are at.
• Let go of grudges and bitterness.

Saturn Return Calculator

Your natal Saturn sign is where Saturn was during the time you were born (which isn’t necessarily your star sign).

Enter your date of birth in the calculator below which will tell you your natal Saturn sign, when your first Saturn Return begins, and when your second Saturn Return begins.

Use the content below to read what challenges you might face during your Saturn Return.

Saturn In Capricorn

It's likely that you often find yourself hyper-focused on goals and ambitions. In fact, this might be to your detriment.

During your Saturn Return, you'll learn that other things have value, and success sometimes comes at an unacceptable cost.

However, some Capricorns experience their Saturn Return during a time when their ambition has been stalling.

If this applies to you, then this could be the moment you finally find the right career for you.

There's also an interesting link between Capricorn's Saturn Return and masculinity.

This typically relates to fathers or father figures – specifically, to work through unresolved issues with these people.

Your relationship with men in authority will become important during your Saturn Return, whether they pose a challenge or represent your most important allies.

Saturn In Aquarius

Your Saturn Return brings community into focus.

You'll be challenged to build connections with those around you and to work through the impact that these relationships have on your sense of self.

If you have never really felt that you fitted in, this could be the time that you finally feel like you're part of a group of like-minded individuals.

This can bring a lot of reassurance, but it can also challenge your assumptions about why and how you're special – and what you're meant to contribute to the world.

Technology is another important theme that arises when Saturn is in Aquarius.

This can spell struggles with particular new technology, or it can mean new opportunities to take part in the development or dissemination of new technology.

Saturn In Pisces

When Saturn is in Pisces, the challenges and opportunities that you'll face all surround the concept of healing.

This may be the time that you are pushed to finally address and move past old wounds.

If unresolved pain from the past has been holding you back, you won't be able to ignore this issue much longer.

On a different note, you may be drawn to professional fields that focus on healing.

As well as the obvious example of medicine, you may be pulled toward practicing psychology, or even to spiritual pursuits that emphasize healing.

Boundaries will be the other central focus for you during your Saturn Return.

You will have cause to think about how much you give to others, and the lines you want to draw in your relationships.

Saturn In Aries

As an Aries, the challenges of your Saturn Return are likely to relate to impulses.

If you've historically made some rash decisions and struggled to commit, you'll now have an opportunity to try living in a more mindful, focused way.

Learning how to stop procrastinating will be vital so you can get focused and moving forward.

If you've kept relationships superficial when it comes to partner choice, you may meet someone who challenges you to make a deeper connection.

Meanwhile, if you've flitted from one project to the next at work, your Saturn Return will prompt you to ask serious questions about where you want your long-term focus to be.

Leadership is the section key theme for you.

Can you develop the skills to be in charge while still listening to others?

Do you struggle to take control, even when it's your responsibility? This period of your life will help you hone your leadership skills.

Saturn In Taurus

When Saturn returns to Taurus, there may be a clash between your desires and your means. In other words, you may be drawn towards expensive purchases and luxurious travel, but might not really be able to afford these things.

Now, then, will be the time for you to learn some hard lessons about budgeting, and for you to challenge the underlying belief that you can buy happiness or self-confidence.

In addition, look out for challenges revolving around laziness and self-motivation.

All good things require a degree of hard work. If life has come easy in the past then you may not have had to work very hard until now.

However, once you begin to get into the swing of putting in more effort, you'll soon reap rewards that emphasize how worthwhile hard work can be.

Saturn In Gemini

Communication takes center stage when Saturn Returns to Gemini.

Firstly, you'll be pushed to become a more effective communicator.

Whether you've been shy to express yourself or have tended towards over-zealous communication, you'll face challenges that encourage you to commit to a middle road of relating to others in a direct, honest, and mature way.

Meanwhile, when it comes to new opportunities, it's clear you're meant to use your words in some way. Whether you're drawn to writing, speaking, teaching, or something else entirely, your life path will increasingly revolve around words.

The related theme of the partnership will also become important. This may be most prominent in relationships or friendships, or it might relate to a working partnership that leads you toward your life's purpose.

Saturn In Cancer

With Saturn in Cancer, your major challenges will be connected to family.

This maybe your family of origin, where you might have to engage with leftover issues from your childhood. Alternatively, your struggles might emerge in the family you've chosen for yourself as an adult. Either way, during your Saturn Returns you'll be looking to family as both a source of comfort and conflict.

Some people finally leave their family home during this time, while others take a leap into a new commitment with a partner who wants to build a family.

Care-taking will also be on the agenda, with an emphasis on you learning how much of yourself to devote to this pursuit both at home and at work.

You may be increasingly drawn to caregiving professions, yet also struggle with compassion fatigue.

Saturn In Leo

If you're a Leo, your Saturn Return experience is destined to be passionate.

In many ways, this can be enjoyable – this is the time of your life when you'll feel energized, alive, and vital.

However, you're likely to face struggle around excess.

In other words, you'll have to monitor your relationship with food, sex, and alcohol in order to make sure your mood is not becoming excessively reliant on any of these things.

In your romantic life, you'll also be challenged to look beyond passion.

You'll be presented with opportunities for deeper but less passionate relationships, and you'll revise your old assumptions about what an ideal relationship should look like.

Further, you'll be looking for ways to exercise your creativity.

A central question for you will be whether to use that creativity at work or exclusively in play.

Saturn In Virgo

People born under Virgo typically like order.

You want things to make sense, you want a schedule you can follow, and you want to know what to expect in life.

Perhaps it's unsurprising, then, that your Saturn Return will bring chaos in order to help you grow. Multiple areas of your life may become increasingly hard to categorize.

For example, you might not quite know if this new person is a friend or a potential partner, you may have multiple jobs at once, or your spiritual belief system could start to shift.

On a related note, perfectionism may prove challenging. You'll be pushed to learn the lesson that you don't need to be perfect to be valuable or loveable and to examine why you think love is conditional. You are enough as you are.

Saturn In Libra

With Saturn in Libra, everything begins to revolve around harmony.

This may mean you develop a particular interest in a career related to balance and harmony, such as law or couple counseling. Alternatively, for you, the emphasis might be more on harmony in your personal life.

For example, perhaps you need to learn how to stand your ground – to express dissatisfaction openly, but respectfully.

Alternatively, maybe your key lesson is to recognize your own role in disharmony, rather than blaming others for any unrest that arises.

Meanwhile, also look out for whether you're too tolerant of people who sap your resources.

This is the time in your life to remove toxic people, who drain you without giving back. You may pride yourself on your ability to cope with this, but it causes long-term damage.

Saturn In Scorpio

For a Scorpio, the Saturn Return years emphasize rebirth and renewal.

Of course, for this to take place, you also have to deal with endings. You might shed an outdated view of yourself, or you may end an unfulfilling career or an unsatisfying relationship.

All endings are challenging and many can be painful, so you will need time for rest and reflection.

However, after this period, rich opportunities await. You might reinvent yourself at this stage, pursuing relationships or careers that you would never have previously considered.

Power is another key concept for you during this time.

Do you have enough of it, or perhaps hold onto too much?

You'll have a chance to empower yourself in healthy, mature ways, and give up your power by showing your vulnerable side to those who deserve to see it. The power of vulnerability shouldn't be underestimated.

Saturn In Sagittarius

Finally, for those who were born under Sagittarius, a Saturn Return emphasizes global connections.

Perhaps you'll travel, and you'll be challenged to learn from those who are different from you.

On the other hand, maybe for you, the global theme will be more about giving back to the world around you – especially to those less fortunate.

Until this point, many Sagittarians have lived relatively limited lives, and so you may struggle to deal with different viewpoints, different religions, and values.
Accepting that you're not always right may be a major challenge – partly because you often are right!

Finally, education also comes into focus for you during a Saturn Return.
Is it time to go back to school, either to learn or to teach?

Or is your role to educate others in a less conventional way?