Fortune Cookies
Saturn takes about twenty-nine and a half years to go around the zodiac. The moment it returns to the exact degree it held when you were born is called the Saturn return – one of the best-known astrological cycles, familiar even to people with no interest in astrology. "Around 29" is rough: the exact date depends on where your Saturn actually stood, and there are usually three passes.
What a Saturn return is
Why around 29
Saturn goes around the zodiac in 29.46 years. So it comes back to your natal degree at roughly 29–30, then 58–60, then 87–89. "Roughly", because the planet's speed is uneven: in places it moves faster, in places it sits at a station.
Why there are three passes
Saturn is retrograde about four and a half months a year. If the station happens near your degree, the planet crosses the point going forward, comes back over it, then crosses forward again. The cycle then stretches over a year or more.
What usually happens with it
Saturn runs commitments, limits and time. Its return is traditionally described as the moment it becomes clear which of the things you took on are actually yours and which belong to someone else. It is not a sentence and not a guarantee: it is the theme that runs louder than the rest in those months.
How accurate this is
The dates are calculated from the ephemerides to the minute: JPL DE440. Birth time barely affects it: Saturn covers about 7 arcminutes a day, so even a completely unknown birth time moves the date by only a few days.
The other cycles calculated here
- Jupiter Return
- Roughly every 11.86 years: at 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72. Traditionally a point of expansion: a new horizon, a new thing to grow into.
- Saturn Opposition
- Around 14–15, then every 29.5 years – the midpoint between returns. The first one lands on the teenage push for separation.
- Uranus Opposition
- Around 40–42. What everyday language calls the midlife crisis: freedom against everything you have already built.
- Chiron Return
- Around 50. A return to the sore subject you have carried all your life – this time with everything you have learned.
- Nodal Return
- Around 18.6, then 37 and 56. The point where the direction set at birth becomes relevant again.
Every date is computed from the JPL DE440 ephemerides to the minute. More on on the How We Calculate page.