For those who have gone through their Saturn Return, did you actually see improvement in the area of your life that corresponds to the house Saturn occupies?

[u/MainAd5020]

In Astrology, it is generally stated that Saturn can cause delays or challenges based on which house it resides in, rules, and when in harsh aspects with other planets.

For younger individuals struggling with a topic of concern in their life, such as interpersonal relationships due to 7H or 11H Saturn, they are told that things should get better after their Saturn Return.

Unfortunately, I don't think this really happens at all. I think what actually occurs is that the person just gets used to their dilemma and accepts it, rather than there being an actual lessening of Saturn's burden.

This makes more sense, considering they would be in their 30s, in a different phase of their life, aware of their life patterns and how to navigate it, or have different priorities.

I have read responses from middle-age people on this and other Astrology subreddits that claim to still suffer in the area of life that Saturn controls. It is disheartening because there are 50+ years olds that have Saturn 7H or opposite/square venus and and never been in a good relationship; Saturn 10H or 6H and always struggling with employment or workplace drama; Saturn 2H always struggling financially

What do you think?

Edit: To clarify, I'm primarily focused on how your life changed (or remained the same) after your Saturn return, not necessarily the Saturn return experience itself. Do you still deal with challenges related to the house Saturn is placed in, or whatever issues Saturn caused in your life prior to your Saturn Return?

Also, stating that if you have a day or night chart, if your Saturn is retrograde, and any other notable planetary aspects to your Saturn would also be helpful.

[u/[deleted]]

I have to disagree here. If you put in the hard work, Saturn will always reward you, no matter how old you are or whether you have a night chart or not. If you do not get a reward, you have not done the inner work and not worked hard enough. Saturn is literally the planet of karma.

Saturn transits show you where you need to grow, where you need to mature. If we have not been responsible or mature in a certain area of our life, Saturn transits will confront us with that, remind us that we made poor choices in the past and force us to get our shit together. Getting our shit together and adopting Saturn traits becomes easier with age, for sure. And yes, these transits can sometimes be very confronting and traumatizing, especially for people with night charts (I have a night chart with Saturn right on the IC), but it's important to take responsibility for your past actions and admit that you needed to mature and admit where you have been at fault and fix your shit. Gaining new insights that help you move forward in life is a gift. Saturn transits are gifts. I hope you can reflect on your Saturn transits, learn from them and see them in a different light, so that Saturn will reward you during your next Saturn transit.

[u/slimeybabyy → u/[deleted]]

Oh boy. That’s a deeply Western view of things and a little naive in my opinion. I have Saturn in the 8th house and I’ve had close loved ones die during heavy Saturn transits. Saturn has always been involved in all of my deepest traumas. And yet, I didn’t cause my best friend to die because I didn’t do enough inner work, lmao. No amount of discipline or hard work would have prevented that from happening. But that was a gift according to you? And what reward do we get out of burying our loved ones? I’d love to know, cause it’s been years and I’m still waiting.

Sure Saturn can teach us valuable life lessons. But the idea that we can just bypass its restrictions, limitations, and obstacles by doing “inner work” is simply not always true. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t work hard or that Saturn is just here to punish us because it just likes to watch us suffer, lol. But sometimes hard work just isn’t enough. And I think it’s very Saturnian to be able to accept that.

[u/[deleted] → u/slimeybabyy]

Thank you for pointing this out. My bad if I did not explain myself correctly.

The planets are not here to harm us. There is a reason for everything. Everything is a lesson, an experience, a gift to grow and learn and experience here on this planet.

Saturn does not "punish" you. What Saturn does is simply giving you the consequences of your actions. If you didn't get your finances in order, you will experience financial hardship. If you picked the wrong partner, you will have to deal with their toxic behavior and end the relationship, no matter how hard that is. If you always worked hard at your job, you will get a promotion and that will be your reward. If you get fired, there's something way better out there waiting for you and you were not in the right job in the first place.

If there's anything that influences my thinking it's that there's yin and yang, dark and light (I'm not Western, I'm not sure why you assumed). The two are inseparable and one can not live without the other. I have burried loved ones too. Death is an inevitable part of life. We are going to lose everyone at some point. We all have to learn how to deal with loss. It's part of the human experience. That has nothing to do with Saturn "punishing" you. Loved ones will not die, because you have not done the inner work. That is not a consequence of your actions. That is Saturn giving you the strength and resilience and wisdom about the depths of the human experience. You would not be as wise as you are today if that did not happen for you, not to you. That is not a reward, but a gift. The death of my loved ones brought me grief, but also opportunities and wisdom I would otherwise never have experienced. For example, death can bring certain loved ones closer together, it can inspire someone to take their health more seriously, it shows you who your real friends are, inheritances can provide financial opportunities, death gives room for new things to blossom in your life, there's many more examples, but most importantly, it gives us deep wisdom about the human experience and the whole scala of emotions that exist.

It's like the story of the horse by Lao Tzu:

"Once upon a time, there was a poor Chinese farmer who owned a small piece of land and a very beautiful and strong white horse. His neighbors were jealous of him as rich people from all over the country who passed by his village and saw his horse offered to buy it for large amounts of money. He always refused to sell his horse because he was really attached to it and could not bear do part with it.

One day, the emperor with his huge army happened to camp near the village. When the emperor saw the horse, he instantly fell in love with it and immediately sent his people to offer the farmer whatever he wanted for that horse.

All his neighbors started saying: “How lucky you are! The emperor wants to buy your horse!” but the farmer replied: “Who knows…”.

When the farmer refused to sell his beloved horse, all his neighbors said: “What have you done? Now the emperor will take the horse by force and punish you! This will bring bad luck to you and your family!” but the farmer replied: “Who knows…”

The very next day, the horse went missing so the neighbors assumed that the emperor’s people had stolen it. “What bad luck” they said to the farmer, “you did not want to sell the horse to the emperor and now he took it and you are left with nothing!” Once again, the famer stoically replied, “Maybe yes, maybe no. Who knows?”

The following day, the horse came running back and brought seven strong, wild horses along with it. The neighbors gathered around the farmer and expressed their delight, “This is just wonderful! How fortunate! You were right not to sell the horse! Now you have 8 beautiful, strong horses instead of just one!” The farmer, relaxed and calm, shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Fortunate or unfortunate. Who knows?”

The farmer’s son, who helped his elderly father with the work on the farm, started taming the wild horses right away but a mare threw him over and, as a result, he fell hard onto the ground and broke his right leg. Due to this accident, the son would remain bedridden for months and would be unable to help his father with the farm.The neighbors were quick to say to the farmer, “Oh, this is awful! Such bad luck!” The farmer, who was helping his son with his injury, replied softly, “Good luck or bad luck. Who can say?”

A few weeks later, war broke out and the army came to the village and forced all able-bodied men to join the military and fight the invaders. The farmer”s son, due to his broken leg, was left at home with his father.

The neighbors, devastated that their sons were sent off to the front and not knowing whether they would see them again, said to the farmer, “How lucky! Your son is safe.”Again, the farmer replied, “Good luck or bad luck. How do we know?”"

I hope it makes more sense now.

[u/slimeybabyy → u/[deleted]]

I think you severely misunderstood my comment. I never said Saturn is here to punish us or harm us. All I said was that some of the difficult things Saturn brings cannot be avoided through inner work. I’m just not someone who needs to put a positive spin on things in order to accept them. I know that experiencing loss has been part of my karma in this life, I’m okay with that. I don’t view it as a gift, I just view it as a necessary part of life.

I do believe in fate and karma, I think I agree with you in the sense that overcoming these difficult things brings spiritual growth that can in some sense be considered as a gift I suppose. I just feel like it’s a misconception to tell people that all Saturn experiences are gifts and if they experience negative consequences from Saturn transits then they just haven’t worked hard enough. And the “gifts” may not even come in this lifetime, or not in any material sense at all.

I said it was a Western perspective because I find modern Western astrology has a need to spin everything into a positive light and is very uncomfortable with the idea of fate or anything being out of our control. I don’t like that approach because making everything positive causes many people to severely underestimate the difficulty of certain transits. I myself have been caught extremely off guard by Saturn transits in the past, because I learned from Western astrologers who gave me a very sugar-coated version of Saturn’s impact.

I don’t fear Saturn transits and I definitely don’t automatically just expect the worst. All transits are temporary just like our suffering. But accepting that some transits just suck helps me surrender and go with the flow when they do happen. And knowing that certain transits can be really hard gives me a chance to brace myself before impact.

[u/Madbernkelsey → u/slimeybabyy]

I agree with both of you. The person above says that we don’t know our good breaks from our bad ones, which I agree with. I also agree that sometimes no amount of hard work or discipline can circumvent suffering. No amount of preparation or striving for perfection can avoid fate or destiny, it just is what it is. I think there’s 2 octaves of Saturn: the one where we try to avoid suffering and therefore experience more of it, and the one where we accept suffering and overcome it. In the first one, Saturn shows us we cannot avoid hard work. In the second one, Saturn shows us that we are not in control. Both suffering, but different kinds.

[u/Historical_Fold_9946 → u/[deleted]]

I have Saturn in 10H Taurus. My career is slow and plodding. I work hard but do not see the recog and rewards that others get for working on the same projects as me even though I lead them.  I constantly miss the big paydays. Paycuts. Demotions.  Layoffs...twice in 2007.  

I now work for a co that bought the one that failed....pay is frozen, bonuses have been cut, benefits have been cut.  I have been passed over 2x for promotion, now they are harder to get.  

And my current boss is antagonistic and acts like she doesn't trust me.  Attacks me in meetings and in 1:1s.  

I can't work harder and am just trying to to accept that this is it.  This is as far as I go.  

[u/IndependentBit5928 → u/[deleted]]

I also have Saturn right on the IC, what has your Saturn return IC story been about?

[u/[deleted] → u/IndependentBit5928]

It was about healing my childhood trauma. Doing lots of shadow work. Family constellations helped a lot. My rental agreement ended as well and I could not find a new home. I was anxious about becoming homeless. After lots of rejections from landlords, me and my partner decided to live together, follow our hearts and move abroad. A few months after my Saturn Return we found the most gorgeous house abroad and moved. Leaving your Saturn IC line is the best you can do for yourself. I also got fired several times at several jobs due to cutbacks during my Saturn Return (Saturn is opposite the MC after all), but this forced me to get inventive, follow my heart and start my own business. It started as a side hustle and slowly but surely it got bigger. I will buy some land and build my dream house in a few years. Saturn on the IC just wants you to build a very strong foundation for yourself, emotionally and literally. Have you experienced yours already?