Saturn: The Planet Most People Love to Hate

Poor old Saturn… its astrological symbolism truly has your best interests at heart, but everyone loves to hate Saturn. Pity. Saturn can be your best friend, but no, he is not the friend who praises and flatters you and buys you another round of drinks.

And everyone really loves to dread the Saturn Return. For the uninitiated, a Saturn Return is when Saturn has traveled all the way around our solar system and returned to where it was when you were born. Most people fret about the first Saturn Return at roughly 28-30 years old, but there is another one at 58-60 and one at 88-90 years old. Hang in there long enough and you can get to the one at 120 years old.

What’s so scary about a Saturn Return? It represents a time to take inventory in your life, examine it in the cold light of day, and get rid of all the dead weight. It’s about sitting down and charting a course, or separating the wheat from the chaff. It’s about taking care of your self. It signifies adult responsibility.

Is anybody still reading this? People often flee at the sound of the word “responsibility.” “Responsibility” has been misunderstood. The word tends to conjure up an image of disapproving parents, teachers, or bosses, glaring at us, slowly shaking their collective heads in disappointment. But Saturn wants you to be your own parent & boss & teacher. Be responsible for your self, and those other symbols of authority will have nothing on you.

“Make a searching and fearless inventory…” is one of the steps in most 12-Step Programs, and Saturn wants you do this. Examine all the stuff you have collected and piled up through the years. As you take stock, I am tempted to use the words “forgive yourself,” but those words imply you should feel guilty. I don’t see it that way.

Whether your life is a mess, or a masterpiece, when Saturn inspires you to take stock, remember the current situation & state of your life is the sum of hundreds & thousands of small choices you have made over the years. When you made every one of those decisions, you meant well. No one makes choices thinking “O boy, how can I make my life worse?” We decide to do something based on what seems like a good idea at the time. Problems only ensue when, once we realize it wasn’t the best choice, we refuse to turn around and correct it.

When Saturn transits ANY planet in your chart, it symbolizes time to take stock in that particular area of your life. The Saturn Return is the big across-the-board transit but throughout the years, Saturn keeps poking us, asking us where we can improve, what can we work on?

And today is a good example. I like to post my blog early on Tuesday… after all, I chose to call it Cosmic Tuesdays but by noon, I was still struggling with picking a topic. I didn’t stop to worry, or feel guilty, or beat myself up. (Not too much, anyway). I took stock, sorted through my thoughts and ideas, tossed out the garbage and kept the good stuff. And now, here it is, posted and being read by you.

Today, Saturn & I worked together.