Have you ever heard of... Your Saturn Return?
i.e. your cosmic rite of passage.
Hi love,
I’m back after an unplanned, nearly month long interlude. How are we?
I’ll go first. So much has been happening for me in what I suppose I’d call the shadows, but also hesitate to as it may evoke negative connotations. In this instance, I just mean below the surface, in private conversations, over voice notes, in my journal. In the months leading up to 2025, astrologers hinted that this year would be filled with very big shifts, both planetary and societally. And in anticipation, I feel like I spent the first quarter (half?) of this year waiting for the other shoe to drop. Something big, and potentially cataclysmic. But as the days ticked on, I realized that while there are indeed once in a generation cosmic shifts taking place (Pluto into Aquarius, Neptune into Aries, to name a few), it’s actually the personal and intrapersonal shifts that are making the moves. Sending out the subtle ripples that are traveling, building, growing into a bigger collective shift. Ones that won’t be seen until, at once, everything is different. I personally think, and dearly hope, it will be for the better, since there is no use expending energy thinking of negative alternatives. We are already so overstimulated, overstretched, overexposed, over it.
So, I’ve been doing what I can to make ripples.
Taking my kids to local farms and little adventures. Reinforcing empathy, self-expression and exploration in the moments between.
Supporting friends in various stages of life and personal revolutions.
Investing time tending to the seeds of community I've sown locally over the last few years.
Reaping the rewards of the actual seeds in our garden as they come to fruition.
Attempting to read my way through the stack of books that now sits in a vertical tower next to my nightstand, and sharing nuggets with those I think would benefit.
Decluttering, donating, and resisting the urge to chase a fleeting standard of perfection or vague improvement in our home decor, closet, or life in general.
Manifesting only the best outcomes for all of the amazing things my husband is working on, because frankly he deserves it.
Sharing in fun and different ways.
Singing loudly (to a lot of Jenevieve) and making my baby daughter giggle with interpretive dances in our kitchen.
And writing on post-its, in journals, in margins and apparently everywhere but this Substack.
So, to answer my own question, we're doing okay.
Now let's get into the cosmic topic at hand, shall we?
Just a few weeks ago, May 24th to be exact, my sweet and unsuspecting sister-in-law and a handful of similarly-aged friends got a text from their millennial elder (me) celebrating the very first day of their Saturn Return.
This text was met by fear and requests for instructions.
Oh my sweet, dear Gen Z babies.
Since Chani, Aliza and the other astrology queens have pulled together extensive deep dives on how Saturn's transit into Aires for the first time in 29 years will impact us all, with extra special emphasis on our sweet little Gen Z angels, I thought I'd instead use this moment as an opportunity to demystify what exactly a Saturn Return is for those who don't already know, or have not yet connected the dots between a chaotic little patch of life in your late 20s and/or 50s.
Your Saturn Return is when Saturn completes its 29(ish)-year orbit and returns to the place in the sky that it was when you were born. Your Saturn Return takes place when you’re between 27 and 30 years old, and lasts roughly 2.5 years before it moves on to torture the next sign. Just like all placements (i.e. where a planet sits in the sky), Saturn is impacted by the energy of the specific constellation it is temporarily sharing space with. The impact or influence of these placements can be positive, while also presenting what someone in HR would call "opportunities for growth."
So what's the big deal?
This time-bound boot camp is a time when, and not to scare our Gen Z girlies, everything changes. And while it may seem fast (again, just 2.5ish years), it really is a full speed culmination of all of the lessons you've been learning and integrating in the years leading up. So, honestly, you’re more prepared than you think. Were you taking notes? Just kidding. There will be no pop quiz. You're just going to get tossed around a bit.
Okay, enough with the fear mongering. Here's the deal. Your Saturn Return is really an opportunity for transcendence, for getting really uncomfortable, for alchemizing your shadows. To grow in ways you didn't know you were capable of. To finally cut the cord and stop indulging your own bullshit or unhealthy patterns. It requires guts and discernment, because you actually have to take the wheel and make moves, especially if you've found yourself getting a little too comfortable being a passenger princess.
As Laura Day says, "change demands courage."
For me, my Saturn Return was a blend of surrendering to the unknown and driving faster in the directions I knew would benefit me in the long run. I recently made a little list of the things that took place during that time and was blown away by the amount of life-altering changes, and also the fact that it was bookended by such massive personal and global events.
On Day 1, me and my now husband told each other we were in it for the long haul ("Forever?" "Yes, forever"). In the weeks, months and years that followed we moved to San Francisco, I changed careers, we got engaged, we bought a house, I lived part-time in two cities, we got married, and within days of it ending, the entire world shut down for the pandemic. From a distance I know most of these things sound pretty lovely, but if you've ever planned a wedding, changed jobs/careers, bought a house or commuted long-distances, you know that shit was tough.
No one's Saturn Return Hit List will be the exact same, of course, but I can guarantee a quick little trip down memory lane will have you realizing just how much you really went through in such a short span of time. If you're curious enough to investigate, here's a Saturn Return Calculator you can use to pin point the dates of yours.
If you're on the other side of one or two of these cosmic milestones, I'm confident that if you leaned into the lessons the Universe was sending your way (via a fire hose), you're better for it. And if you haven't yet reached this period of time yet, or are just embarking, I hope you will give yourself the gifts of faith and trust. Faith that it will all work out as it should and trust that your intuition will never steer you wrong, even if a decision isn't necessarily what others want. This is your time to evolve. To stop swimming upstream, to release your grip on controlling an outcome, and to surrender to the current so life can actually take you to where you are meant to go next.
You got this.
Your Friend,
Leslie
One more thing for you…
"Stop chasing. Start aligning." - Laurie Marbas, MD, MBA