Anticipation Period for the Saturn Return

Astrologer Grant Lewi’s important discovery and formulation of the cycle of transiting Saturn has enriched our astrology enormously [Lewi-Astrology for the Millions, Llewellyn Publications; link under “Books”]. As with any maxim, familiarity establishes its worth, it’s assumed, and we then take it for granted!

–We know that by looking through a microscope, for example, we will see the workings of an unseen world; we take for granted the science of the optics involved.

The more we understand about key insights, “inventions of the mind” if you will, the more we appreciate their power and effectiveness. The more we know about the workings of the microscope the greater our finesse with focusing powers.

We know that transiting Saturn, in its quadrature transits (successive square, opposition, square, “Return”, square, etc. approximately every seven years) to it natal position, define a time scheme for the architecture of advance: developmental progress within family, society, and marketplace.

Specifically, we know that the observations of the Saturn-return at age 28-30 correlate, extremely reliably, with a change of direction and/or level in the professional life.

But it doesn’t just happen BANG! on the day the Saturn return is accomplished. –This may sound ludicrously obvious, but too many astrologers are caught up with obsessive exactness in measurement and forget the human being, his or her environment, the cooperative interplay with others, and the natural gradualism of development, especially development with far-reaching consequences.

Nature tells us about gradualism, about these dynamic time dimensions through the retrogradation-direct periods of transiting Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. Their back-and-forth movement brings their significances to bear on a particular key point or planet in the horoscope three times, mainly, over a period of a year and a half, or even two years! That whole picture marks the development, the change.

Upon the Saturn Return, we should know that considerations and events will have accumulated over a period of approximately 6 to 18 months beforehand. To understand that development, we must pay attention to the attendant measurements within the build-up timeframe.

1. We need to see Jupiter (12-year cycle) opposing its natal position at age 30. This suggests that opportunities will present themselves within, during, as part of the Saturn Return. In fact, the Saturn Return may be initiated in its gradual development by considerations tied even to the previous tr Jupiter conjunction with its own position at age 24; or perhaps tr Jupiter conjunct, square, or opposed the Sun a few years afterward; or to the ruler of the 10th, if the horoscope configuration allows this. –The point is that there is expectable Jupiter activity within the developmental Saturn period.

2. It is uncanny how the Secondary Progressed Moon gets into an echo cycle with natal Saturn. The Moon’s orbit is 28 days, and Saturn’s is 28 years, and this begins their dance of significance. They so often develop an antiphonal phase relationship, one answering the other, stimulating the other; both importantly in phase during development.

Short Cut to ‘eyeball computation’: The SP Moon moves one degree a month (a reliable approximation). Measure the Moon’s degree distance in the natal horoscope to its first strong contact with natal Saturn, the first conjunction, square, or opposition … whichever happens first. The degree distance to that happening equates to a number of months after birth, and THAT becomes the starting point for a 6 ½-7-year quadrature relationship between the SP Moon and Saturn, lifelong!

In my horoscope, for example, the Moon is at 27 Leo and my natal Saturn is at 17 Pisces. The distance to the first hard aspect, the opposition, is 20 months, 1 year and 8 months old. We can call that “just short of age 2.”

Now, the life-long cycle of time-marks for SP Moon=Saturn will be just short of the ages 9, 16, 23, 30, 37, 42, 49, 56, 63… Note how the mark at 23-, 30-, 37- , 42 especially fall into the tr Saturn quadrature times of 21, 28-30, 35, 43-45, in my example.

In other words, the SP Moon=Saturn dimension is also very much a part, most often, of the tr Saturn Return period, the extended period of major life development.

So, we know the Saturn Return period is extremely important for everyone in the Western world. It usually is a time of opportunity, effort, decision, change, and reorientation for work and status improvements. We must see within the year or so approaching the Saturn Return the punctuation of strategy through tr. Jupiter and the SP Moon. –This explains the dynamism and alerts us to time-event marks that add up to awareness of the scope and schedule of change.

How are your optics?