Born Before 1946? Tell Me About Your Saturn Return

One of the predictable crises of older adult life is represented by the second Saturn return.  This astrological event occurs when you are around 56 to 60 years old as Saturn returns to the sign it was in when you were born.  For example, if you were born between mid-1946 and mid-1948, you're having your second Saturn return right now. Saturn is in Leo now, the same sign it was in when you were born.  Since Saturn stays in a sign for about two years, the second Saturn return lasts about that long.  It's called the second Saturn return because each person goes through an earlier Saturn return at the age of 28 to 30. 

So what is the second Saturn return supposed to be like and why might it be called a predictable crisis? 

It can be called a predictable crisis because Saturn is a planet that deals with reckoning.  Symbolically, the second Saturn return represents the natural process of reckoning that a person is supposed to undergo as he or she enters the third stage of life.  One reckons with one's past, and one reckons with one's future.  During this crisis, the past is supposed to appear un-fixable.  That is, one is intended to come to terms with the fact that what's happened has happened.  The marriage that didn't work out--didn't work out.  The career you didn't have--didn't happen. 

So much of the time we carry around baggage from the past because we have the vague idea that some day we'll get around to repairing it.  It's sort of like a junk drawer I have in my kitchen, where I stuff all sorts of miscellaneous small household items that I think I'll glue back together one day or buy new screws for or get replacement parts for.  I have junk in that drawer that's been there for years. I haven't repaired those small items because the truth is, I don't need to.  My life works just fine without them; it's only me that doesn't want to let go of something potentially fixable. 

People are like that with their lives.  They carry subconscious lists in their heads of things about their lives they're going to fix one day--but they never do.  They never do because these things don't need to be fixed.  The second Saturn return helps us come to terms with the things in our lives that are never going to get fixed and don't need to.  We may be sorry they broke in the first place, but it is of no use now carrying around the broken bits. 

In that sense, the second Saturn return can be a time of grieving for the life one intended to have but never quite got around to.  That sort of grieving can be termed both a predictable crisis and a catharsis--a path to emotional freedom. 

That's Saturn on the symbolic level, though. What I want to know is how people experience Saturn on a real life level.  I have heard people tell me they experienced their second Saturn return as a time of one difficult outside event after another.  For these people, the second Saturn return seems to bring events that are outside of one's conscious control--like the illness of a family member. 

Other people swear it is a time of manifestation--that they accomplished more during their Saturn return than ever before.  Some people say the second Saturn return is all the about the phrase "My God, how did I get to be so old?" Words like "senior citizen" have to be reckoned with in a personal way. 

One person told me his thoughts turned constantly to the idea that his life was getting shorter and shorter with every day that passed.  Another had a health crisis in which she was mistakenly told she was going to die within the next two years. 

I suppose the second Saturn return allows each individual to reckon with whatever is most relevant to him or her. Since some of the key words associated with Saturn are responsibility, authority, character, obstacles, discipline, aging, realism, ambition, accountability, conservatism, fear, structure, and the passage of time, I guess it's not too surprising that people experience things like fear of death, thoughts of time passing, accomplishments, or obstacles during the second Saturn return. 

Myself, I've been kicking around the idea that the second Saturn return is a portal to a new era in one's life.  During my first Saturn return, I realized for the first time that I wasn't going to die any time soon.  This was a surprise to me as I had lived out my youth with the subconscious idea that everything would be over soon and there was no need to live for tomorrow.  At around the age of thirty, I realized that life was long and actions have consequences.  That's Saturn's specialty--teaching one the consequences of one's actions.  The first Saturn return was a portal to sober adulthood.  Certain fantasies of youth died. 

Now I wonder if the second Saturn return doesn't have the opposite function. Maybe one realizes that life is short again.  Maybe one stops worrying all the time about the consequences of one's actions and starts living with a more youthful attitude.  I am reminded of something a woman who had just completed her Saturn return once told me: "Life is short.  Wear purple!"

What she meant was that she had outgrown the social inhibitions and concern with propriety that marked her adulthood.  She was "old" now and she was gonna wear whatever she damn well pleased.  Since Saturn is concerned with social conformity, I wonder if the second Saturn return doesn't open the door to freedom from the crushing weight of having to conform.    

I wonder if it opens the door to liberation from some of the fears that dog our adult lives, fears that we won't accomplish enough, fears that we're not fit enough, pretty enough, wealthy enough, smart enough or admired enough.  I see so many blog postings and articles and TV shows and magazine pieces and whatnot about how to improve oneself. Maybe the second Saturn return allows one to finally stop improving oneself and find meaning in who one already is.   

I don't know though. Maybe I'm being too optimistic. A friend of mine made me laugh the other day when he said emphatically, "It sucks."  He didn't try to put a happy or philosophical face on the second Saturn return at all! 

So...if you're 58 years old or older, and you are going through your Saturn return or remember what your life was like in the couple years before you turned 60--feel free to tell me what it was like.  Did it suck?  Did you have obstacles, crises, health problems, gloomy thoughts?  Was it a time of manifestation?  Was it a portal to a third stage of your life?  Did those years have an upside?  Did you learn anything? 

I'd love to hear your wisdom.