Those who know about the stars, and their importance to our lives, are already familiar with the Saturn Return – when the Great Reckoner comes back into our cosmic classroom, to settle us down to our exams, so we can discover how well we’re doing in our life’s quest and what still needs attention.
The Saturn Return is named as such because it refers to the time when Saturn completes his 29.5 years orbit, to bring him back to where he was at the times of our births.
The words most associated with Saturn’s influence are control, structure, limitations, practicality, discipline, sense of reality and responsibility. In short, in my experience, Saturn is the strict teacher that makes us face parts of ourselves that we would rather not look at because we know that they are our weaknesses. Some psychologists call it facing the dark side of our character, but it is only in the dark until Saturn shines a light on it.
The effects of the Saturn Return, for many of us, can be devastating – or so they appear to our limited viewpoint at the time. Our lives can go into complete disarray. We keep hitting brick walls. And we can suffer major loss or disillusionment.
Saturn doesn’t take any prisoners in his quest to wake us up. He is known as the Alpha and Omega of the zodiac because, in governing the signs of Capricorn and Aquarius, he also governs the process of death and rebirth of the mythological hero (aka, all humans on Earth). So the Saturn Return signals a threshold period for us to confront and process any outstanding issues, and tie up all our loose ends so that we can pass through the portal to our new life stage ahead.
In the past, we’ve always had to gauge Saturn’s return approximately. Usually, for at least a year before his arrival, we can feel, with our spidey senses, his rigorous, no-nonsense presence looming, and if we don’t understand what it is, and why it is so necessary, it can seem daunting and give us a sense of dread and anxiety.
The reverberations of Saturn’s visit continue rumbling for at least a year after his return, before our lives begin to settle down again.
So it would be helpful to know exactly where he is …. so we can track his delivery … a bit like an Amazon parcel!
One of most interesting developments I’ve been discovering with my Star Song Oracles readings is that, with computer technology, we can now chart the stars so accurately that we can exactly pin-point, in advance, the arrival of each Saturn Return and, very importantly, the other planets that he’s bringing to assist him each time – like fairy godmothers and godfathers.
So I thought it would be interesting to share these screenshots of my own cosmic schoolroom, to help clarify my meaning.
I was born in 1951, between Leo and Cancer, with Saturn at the head of Virgo – but with the loving touch of Venus hovering close by. (My Ascendant, as you can see, was between Orion, the underworld river of Eridanus and Cetus the Whale, which explains a lot! But that will have to be another story for another day.) Virgo is characterised by that very detailed, analytical to the point of nit-picking part of our cerebral processes – and I must say, my strict Saturnic schoolmaster has made sure that I have that quality big-time!
Fast forward to 1980, and there is Saturn at Virgo’s head again …at a time that I moved into a women’s ashram in London, and guess who was living in the men’s ashram directly opposite? My future second husband. No wonder the fiery Mars, representing the upthrusting energetic fertility at Spring, along with the ever-expansive, adventurous Jupiter, were in attendance too. We needed that sort of radical energy – the sort even a Virgo-type can’t argue with! – to break through our stoicism and firm ideas about celibacy, and take the lover’s leap!
The next, and last, time Saturn returned was in 2009 – the year of the financial crash. Like many at that time, my whole life was crashing all around me and not just financially; it was the beginning of the end for Mum and Dad’s life passages too. The end of an era. I’ve always described how when I moved to Glastonbury in 2010, I felt like Dorothy suddenly swept up in a whirlwind and dumped down here with all my stuff. And it should be no surprise to find Mercury was right there… the trickster magician and silver-tongued inspirer of my Virgo pen that’s been guiding my life and my work ever since.
As I said, with this star software, we can track Saturn’s future arrivals.
So if I’m still around in 2039, the picture below shows that next, and probably final return on that birthday. Saturn will be accompanied by the adventure-loving Jupiter … and also my friend Mercury and his wing-man, the revolutionary Uranus, not far away, just on the other side of the Sun… so set the controls! I hope they all bring a bottle because it looks like quite the graduation party!
Annie Dieu-Le-Veut 
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