Here’s Everything You Need To Know About You Aquarius Saturn Return, Based On The 12 Houses
If your Saturn is in Aquarius, the infamous quarter life crisis has arrived! In astrology, Saturn is associated with responsibility, discipline, maturity, and the preservation of time. As it takes about 29.5 years to finish its course around the Sun and spends about 2.46 years in each zodiac sign, the slow and dutiful Saturn makes a presence in your late twenties to sound the early morning alarm. No more sleeping in and taking extra breaks on Saturn’s clock!
Your Saturn return is when Saturn returns to the sign and house that it was in when you were born. This typically happens between ages 27-30 and 56-58, give or take, depending on whether you were born during a Saturn retrograde. Those with a Saturn in Aquarius were born between:
-January 3, 1962 to March 23, 1964
-September 16, 1964 to December 16, 1964
-February 6, 1991 to May 21, 1993
-June 13, 1993 to January 28, 1994
Saturn in Aquarius squaring off with Uranus in Taurus means anyone experiencing their return will have an instrumental role in the rebuilding process that follows 2020. Social values and how you play your part is paramount. The Saturn in Aquarius cohort, however, has a unique place in the Saturn cycle that shapes future generations onward. Aquarius deals with matters of humanity and quality of life— which your Saturn return means coming together with fellow members of your generation to decide the changes that will cement over the next few years.
Saturn returns mark a coming of age where you shed your own unrealistic expectations and accept that all good things in life have limitations and responsibilities. It teaches you how to work within boundaries and why it actually brings more structure than restriction to your life. Sometimes the starting point to your goal is ambiguous to where you take time for granted.
Saturn doesn’t waste energy on pointless matters—it’s picking on you because you are.
Saturn’s no-nonsense attitude makes it more than evident where you fall short versus where you might have a leg up. In a world where breaking rules is the rule, Saturn plays hardball. It gets a bad rep for being a bully and delivering the worst of circumstances. However, this interpretation is more an attempt at fearmongering than actually seeing Saturn for what it is. Most people talk about Saturn with discontempt for a simple reason: They can’t handle being told no or being denied what they want. Period.
I understand Saturn is more nuanced than a simple “no”— or am I trying to sugarcoat the saturnine energy as something it isn’t? Saturn can flat out suck sometimes. Saturn doesn’t believe in participation trophies or false promises. Though Saturn can help you achieve your goals, it definitely makes you figure things out on everyone else’s time but your own. All while you bear the harsh consequences of not knowing then what you do now.
This is what makes a Saturn return so difficult. You’re required to learn and do everything that you don’t want to do. Everything you don’t want to do, however, is also the building blocks of your success. As Saturn is also associated with karmic balance, wisdom, and moral duties. Saturn is the security guard who grants entry to what you want—the breakdown before the breakthrough. You get what you want after you’ve put in the self work. That is Saturn’s game. No exceptions!
Because Saturn is a rite of passage between the personal and generational planets, it’s important to check your birth chart to see which house Saturn is in. In astrology, a house is the twelve divisions of the zodiac wheel that are understood through your ascendant sign. Each of the twelve houses highlight specific themes that are activated once a planetary transit occurs. In this case, we’re talking Saturn.
The chart generator you use will list out each planet and the house it’s in. You will need an exact birth time to do this. You can generate your birth chart here, here, or here.
Saturn – 1st House
Any issues around leadership, appearance, self-image, or self-determination are likely. Though it can manifest a variety of ways aside from what is discussed. With a 1st house Saturn, social conditioning shaped your self-image and how you present yourself since a young age. Your self-control and perhaps indifference to other people can feel like a buzzkill with your individuality. You were always expected to validate your own strengths and attributes. In turn, you’ve developed a slightly harsh tendency to judge others or expect them to deliver on more than they’re prepared for because this was expected of you.
Your Saturn return, therefore, will have to do with putting compassion on the forefront. Or vice versa, you’re a pushover who must grow some backbone against authority. This especially applies to how gentle you are on yourself. You’re exceptionally tolerant but have been conditioned to answer others’ expectations. All until an event during your Saturn return can undermine your leadership, credibility, or even self-esteem where you’re forced to reconsider what it is that you represent as a person. For some, it can have to do with embellishing your appearance due to harsh insults from someone else. Those being groomed for leadership may be conflicted between what your superiors want versus the change you feel responsible for enacting.
You must rise above the shallow expectations of other people and empower your self-autonomy. Reinforcing the beliefs of others to maintain your position will only continue to backfire with Saturn moving forward. The good news, however, is that holding onto your integrity and admitting your faults will draw more claps than criticism. Daring to be wrong can feel so right. Don’t beat yourself up over it. People are being far more forgiving with you than you are with yourself!
Saturn – 2nd House
Any issues around finances, self-worth, personal belongings, or investments are likely. This can be monetary or your personal time and energy. 2nd house Saturn can give you the social and financial savvy necessary to be successful. The catch, however, is it comes with a lingering sense of self-doubt and fear that anything you’ve earned will be taken from you or that you didn’t actually earn it. Maybe you’ve beared a certain responsibility no one else was willing to accept or a trauma that not many people can relate to, all of which has set you back either financially or mental health wise. Depending on how Saturn is aspected in your birth chart, you may stagger between extremes with hoarding versus overspending.
For some, this can manifest as illness or self-esteem issues. Your Saturn return may involve some degree of co-dependency on your behalf that hurts your esteem, as you’re typically someone who can take care of yourself and others both emotionally and financially. Perhaps it has to do with money or health. You might feel as if your extra hard work doesn’t compensate deservingly at first, or maybe you discover that your over-consumption stems from a trauma that you’re trying to avoid at all costs. After all, the 2nd house being opposite of the 8th house of death and transformation can mean you’ve dealt with a lot of death in recent years that has taken a toll on you.
Any health scares with the lungs, immune system, nose, or throat means you haven’t released any buried trauma or self-sabotaging behaviors. Much will change after your Saturn return. For now, however, it’s best that you declutter your personal space and determine what has personal value. Perhaps you can make some extra cash that comes in handy! Changing your consumption habits, giving back to others, and fully processing your emotional trauma will bring tremendous healing into your life.
Saturn – 3rd House
Any issues around friendships, communications, neighbors, education, extended family, or your childhood are likely. You carried a strong sense of responsibility growing up around your education, siblings, or a grandparent. Perhaps you start off your return with traveling for any reasons related to your siblings, grandparents, or any friends in need. For some, any traveling experiences can bring friendships that can start off as a misleading romantic or platonic connection. All of which are reckoned with by the time of your Saturn return.
As the natal 3rd house Saturn grows up in either homeschool, private school, being ‘held back’ a grade, or even being in a town that was too big or too small. In turn, you felt you didn’t get the quality education your curious mind craved or the social opportunities you needed to thrive. Some with this placement relocate before their Saturn returns to experience new localities that just might offer this stimulation. Perhaps even moving back to their hometown once your Saturn return is over.
Navigating this transit can feel difficult at first because of what feels like debilitated communication and mobility, perhaps discovering something or something new that you want in life but feeling conflicted with parts of your old life. Health issues with the lungs, nervous system, or arms might result if you don’t cope accordingly. Of course, this is a time where you must discipline yourself to actively make changes that are hindering your ability to truly express yourself. Going back to an old way of life will not settle your feelings of inadequacy.
Saturn – 4th House
Any issues around family, home life, ancestry, and comfort zones are likely. You felt restricted in your upbringing for whatever reason, whether your parents were strict, emotionally unavailable, or even religiously zealous. For some, it comes with a deliberate attempt to conform you to their expectations just by making your life harder than it needs to be. In better cases, it’s supportive parents who were limited in what resources or emotional guidance they could provide. Even if their intentions were pure.
Saturn in the 4th house already sensitizes you to your emotional experiences and intimate space. Having this tension in your upbringing carries with you throughout adulthood, sabotaging how you interact in friend groups and romance. You develop trust issues and a certain level of detachment in close relationships. Commitment is more difficult for you no matter how hard you try or how well you connect with someone else.
Your Saturn return means reckoning with these feelings around unlovability and inadequacy. Be wary of any health issues with the breasts, stomach, or back. All while you’re being asked to forgive where any family members fell short of your needs. If possible, allow for reconciliation with family during this time. Estrangement should only be an option if your family members aren’t on a similar path of healing and redemption. If they are, forgiveness and love are antidotes to sudden or unexplained physical illness. Otherwise, a need to build your own family will become a core focus of this transit. Just know you are more than deserving of people who unconditionally love you and that family is what you make it.
Saturn – 5th House
Any issues around casual romance, creativity, children, and leisure are likely. Sideline love takes much of your time and energy with a 5th house Saturn. Perhaps you take casual romance much more seriously than the average person, though not in the sense that you commit but more like your “love crazy” takes over. Avoiding the thought of marriage and having children or getting too caught in casual romance at a younger age where the result is unexpected marriage and children. For others, focusing too much on temporary love and an exciting sex life has either sourced or drained you of your physical creativity.
Your Saturn return may come with painful lessons around how and why you fall in love. If you’ve stayed together with someone “for the kids” or for sheer entertainment, your commitment to a relationship will be strongly tested. Perhaps heartbreak empowers a new way of expressing yourself. For others, you may find a relationship that changes your mind about marriage and children— i.e. desperately wanting children and a marriage after long periods of being the bachelor.
Depending on the birth chart, some people experience infertility or other complications that prevent them from having children. Other mysterious health issues with the heart, back, or digestive system may present themselves. As any unexplainable health issues will likely stem from any imbalances with your heart chakra and self-love. Your Saturn return will discipline you to take this emotional investment in yourself and someone else more seriously. You’ll be forced to want something that feels unattainable until your emotional frequency aligns with this desire.
Saturn – 6th House
Any issues around physical health, lifestyles, routines, self-improvement, and all matters of mundane life are likely. The 6th house Saturn can be physically hypersensitive in areas of body image and health. You have a compulsive urge to purge yourself of toxicity or anything that isn’t good for your body and mind. Integration of the body, mind, and spirit shows up as your toughest life lesson, especially when you enter your Saturn return.
Perhaps you’ve had a health scare with a temporary illness or have been letting your health go due to an emotional fixation or self-neglect. Though it’s easy to attribute the cause to your lifestyle and diet, the discipline seen in this area throughout your life should reveal to you that your routines are likely not the problem. Especially if you’ve put others over yourself, your health might temporarily pay the price. Your mental state is the source of any issues you experience, as the opposite 12th house rules mental health, the past, and healing. Your Saturn return, therefore, means you must address these wounds to move forward with clarity and self-forgiveness, especially if the wound pertains to a relationship or any type of inherited condition.
Any health problems with the digestive system, heart, and nervous system are an indicator that your anxiety is taking its toll on your health. You may find that practicing new routines that cleanse and detox put you on the path to redemption. From intermittent fasting, changing your diet, to embracing the power of emotional therapy on your physical health. Saturn is here to help you balance your self-discipline with your overall well being and how hard you are on yourself, meaning you must be gentle with your body and conscience to get through this tough transit.
Saturn – 7th House
Any issues around serious romance, business partnerships, or general relationships are likely. Relationships are an umbrella term for the 7th house. However, this house deals specifically with the qualities of both people that ultimately contribute to long lasting connections. Those with a 7th house Saturn are notoriously known as the one who is “always single” because you take this quite seriously. You expect others to value your time and emotional energy the same way you do for others. Reciprocity is a love language, and you will feel that someone isn’t receiving the same message when your Saturn return comes. In the least, it has to do with the wall you’ve built around your heart and letting others in.
How single you feel at times can seem completely unfair to you. You’re an incredibly dedicated partner who is often more mature than your peers. You might humbly brag that you’re quite the impressive partner! For this reason, love seems futile until you enter your Saturn return. As Saturn is exalted in the 7th house, your Saturn return is more likely to bolster your love life than hurt it. The 7th house Saturn typically needs an older partner who is unwilling to play games and take things as seriously as you. All of which your Saturn return just might deliver on! Rushing a relationship or marriage before your Saturn return, however, might bear harsh consequences now if you weren’t diligent back then. Those who have taken their time might finally decide to seal the deal under this transit.
Be wary of any unexplained health issues with the kidneys, bladder, or digestive system. Especially if you haven’t released any hard emotions around a former love that you felt strongly drawn to or if you’re currently in an emotionally draining relationship. This placement is mostly positive and “worth the wait” like people claim. The self-sabotage will be the hardest part for you. While love might pour into your life, you must let your guard down to accept it wholeheartedly.
Saturn – 8th House
Any issues with marriage, divorce, shared resources, debts, inheritances, chronic illness, and long term commitments are likely. An 8th house Saturn has a weird effect where you inherit blessings that seemingly come with its own debt or baggage. You luck out on resources and opportunities to become incredibly successful and abundant. The catch, however, is you feel like a magnet for people who need you more than you need them. The worst part for most is how this fact is hidden until after you choose to commit for the long haul.
This is mostly seen with your family, relationships, and divorces. Perhaps you inherited your partner’s debt or other possessions you don’t necessarily want. In some cases, infidelity on the other person’s behalf can set you up for a money boost in divorce court. For others, it can deal with child custody battles or having to take care of someone else’s children. The good news is that you also attract people that you share a deep and meaningful connection with. It’s common for this placement to marry young and experience at least one divorce before finding their forever partner, though this isn’t the rule by any means.
Your Saturn return, therefore, is about how you establish boundaries with your personal time and resources. Be wary of any health issues related to the reproductive system, nose, or hips are a sign that you aren’t honoring your basic needs and emotions. Your generosity and overwhelming sense of responsibility for others—especially those who aren’t your responsibility—will be put to a difficult test. Learning to say no and not allowing yourself to be a pushover is something you must come to terms with.
Saturn – 9th House
Any issues around travel, relocation, higher education, worldview, religious beliefs, nationality, or cross cultural interactions are likely. For some, going back to school for a higher degree may have obstacles at first. Though anything that happens with the 9th house is ideological in nature and ultimately deals with self-preservation. Meaning you can feel as if you can’t get a break from the world giving you a hard time. Whether it’s your cultural beliefs or your radical individuality that you seek to preserve at all costs.
Usually something happens during your Saturn return that puts this part of your identity on the line. As there’s tremendous pressure to represent yourself in the best way possible for your lineage and superiors such as bosses or parents, mostly in respect to religious, political, or cultural beliefs. As today’s globalizing world is so far reaching in its effects, it’s more common for people nowadays to experience some kind of ideological crisis– i.e. experiencing backlash for or being directly affected by racism, sexism, ableism, nationalism, ethnocentrism, etc.
Of course, these experiences aren’t limited to only those with this placement given how prevalent the issue is for many people. This placement means your conscious mind will be more receptive to what happens and will therefore be more affected by it. After all, the 9th house Saturn has some sense of wanderlust, adventure, or general curiosity for the world at large as is. Meaning you’re bound to encounter people who are much different from you along the way. Remind yourself that people are spiteful, vindictive, and reactive as a defense mechanism. Just because they’re too afraid to face themselves and love self loathing doesn’t mean you have to. You didn’t know then what you know now. That’s perfectly okay—what matters is what you do from here.
Saturn – 10th House
Any issues around career, reputation, public image, achievements, and leadership are likely. Perhaps you’ve spent much of your life playing a role that society has constructed for you. Conforming to family and social expectations until coming to a radical awareness of who you are and what you’re capable of achieving. The catch, however, is that you might not demonstrate this awareness in a socially appropriate manner at first. Striving to make a statement over effectively having an impact on others.
Your goal in life is to be the exception at whatever you do and create your own legacy. While this plays a positive role in your self-development, you may find that you constantly encounter institutional loopholes, family restrictions, or unfair judgments that don’t offer you the fighting chance that you deserve. Perhaps you’ve been mistreated or didn’t receive equal opportunity because of social norms around race, gender, nationality, ability, or even your family name. As your Saturn return approaches, you come to dramatic realizations that it’s time to let go of the socially constructed version of yourself and empower your most authentic expression.
Any event that destroys the foundations of what conditioned you growing up is the hallmark of your Saturn return. As the 4th house of family, home life, and upbringing are opposite of the 10th house. For some, it means public exposure that can result in either humiliation or a sobering realization that you haven’t presented yourself or your family name in the most honorable way. You’re now ready for others to take you seriously. Claiming your own destiny and representing yourself as everything you want to and should be.
Saturn – 11th House
Any issues around social niches, technology, community service, upgraded wealth, hopes, and wishes are likely. Complacency is the enemy with this Saturn placement. You lacked the push needed in your social groups where you didn’t feel much of a need to get involved in extracurricular activities or any organizations. Perhaps you always feel like the outsider looking in or that you’re always underhanded in the opportunities that you deserve. Saturn, nonetheless, is here to deliver a tough lesson on why this way of thinking is flawed.
Even though Saturn is the least harsh in the 11th house, it still comes with a sense of stagnancy that can be detrimental to your mental health and productivity. You know you’re bright with impressive ideas. Then again, you only see things as blessed and that “it could be worse”. All of which does a serious disservice to the potential you’re capable of achieving or the severity of an issue at hand that deserves the due attention. Any shorthanding from a nonprofit, community organization, internship, job opportunity, online forum, or anything digital is possible. Especially as this is the house of charity and upgraded wealth, this can also be the house of scams or misleading financial promises.
Saturn knows the only way of getting to you is through your values. Meaning it will hit you where it hurts and around issues you care most about until you start challenging yourself to do better. First, however, you must learn the power of collaboration and organization. Your Saturn return will encourage you to get more involved and find like minded groups who also share your social values and interests. This is meant to empower you to pursue an independent route and create your own round table for others to gather at.
Saturn – 12th House
Any issues around the past, dreams, spirituality, faith, past lives, escapism, or mental health are likely. Nothing is ever as it seems for you. You see rules as a means of protection rather than restriction until falling victim to your own naive optimism. While you may get away unscathed or have similar struggles as anyone else, your observations of the world are enough to induce never ending anxiety, perhaps to a point where you’re constantly questioning your faith or making yourself your own worst enemy.
Your hypersensitivity to the world around you, therefore, pushes you to draw inward and find outlets to help you escape, whether it’s art, nature, or spiritual work that helps reground and allows you to be a source of light to others. You’re incredibly disciplined in areas of religious or spiritual practice. A person of relentless faith with a source of divine protection. Of course, this divine protection also comes at a cost—your mental and emotional health. If you’ve blindly followed a certain faith, painful revelations may arise when you desperately seek answers that it can’t necessarily provide about your deepest life questions.
Therefore, your Saturn return will come with an existential crisis that may literally drive you mad. You know and feel too much as a person where it’s almost paralyzing until you reckon with the experiences of your subconscious mind. While 12th house Saturn has better health outcomes physically, any mental or psychiatric issues are possible depending on your birth chart. Remember the challenges of this house are a superpower in their own right. You’re a beacon of hope and healing who can unlock a world of potential in others.
As this house is an indicator of past lives, you may have experienced a trauma in the past or from your past life around imprisonment, suicide, religious persecution, or anything of this sort. As terrifying as it sounds, you just might have to delve into this part of your psyche during your Saturn return to release these subconscious fears of yours.
