(second) saturn return

[solarpsychedelic]

While I’m not a literal believer in astrology and don’t consult horoscopes, I find astrology contains helpful philosophical concepts, especially when it comes to life transitions.

In my 20s, I read about the first Saturn return (ages 27-30) and that concept helped me out of the slump I was in during my mid-20s and into a more productive and fulfilling life.

Recently I’ve been reading up on the concept of the second Saturn return (ages 57-62) because that’s where I’m at now.

Saturn has a dual nature given its position of looking at the inner planets of family, social, and educational life while simultaneously looking at the outer planets of psychology, spirituality, and transcendence.

As such, Saturn symbolizes maturity, boundaries, decision making, healthy commitments, and discipline to follow through while it can also symbolize heaviness, bitterness, and being stuck in rigid thinking.

Too little Saturn in a personality. and there’s immaturity, inability to make decisions, and no follow through on commitments. Too much Saturn in the personality and there’s humorlessness, rigid thinking, rumination, rejection of new ideas, and cessation of personal growth, the sense of withering away inside while still alive.

After all, it’s a ringed planet. Rings can either signify dedication to a goal or being stuck in a loop of repeated dysfunctional behavior. (LOTR, too, as the ring signified obsession and addiction.)

I lived by the idea of make the most of your youth and make hay while the sun shines. And I did, and accomplished the things I set out to do.

Then when I turned 50, I found myself up against a philosophical wall, or ring. I knew what my young adulthood and early part of midlife would look like and had identifiable goals to pursue. But I didn’t know what my older midlife and elder years were supposed to be about.

And TBH, I still don’t. Elderhood is something I’m trying to figure out.

Some of this situation is cultural. We were until recently the nation of unlimited optimism, the Peter Pans of the world, or as the Jungians would say, puers and puellas. Always young and energetic and flying high… until the gravity of reality kicks in and down goes Icarus.

Some of my situation is personal. I was raised by parents who had definite Saturn energy and I felt the unspoken demand of Grow up.

Well, I did grow up but too fast, old before my time. My friends in college commented on this aspect of me.

At the same time, I made a vow that even if I wasn’t as light-hearted as the others I would cultivate some youthfulness and empathy so I wouldn’t end up being a mean ol’ fuddy duddy. And, being “old” at 21 is kind of sad, at least it was for me.

So I went out there into life and tried new things, socialized with different people, read books across fields and genres, and opened my mind to new ways of thinking.

My efforts to stay young at heart and in mind were good for my career and creativity (and definitely enhanced by the Uranus opposition of the mid 40s).

But now I’m at a loss when it comes to transitioning into the post menopausal state and into elder hood. Old before my time while at the same time not understanding what the elder years could be is an interesting quandary.

Staying young at heart can be fun and it can also prevent bitterness and disconnect with the subsequent generations. Yet there is a time to put aside the “childish things” and find a renewed purpose as an elder. But I don’t know exactly yet what that will look like.

IDK, it seems to join up with the large cultural problem in a nation that prioritizes youth and ignores elders. There’s a chicken/egg problem; being old in this culture appears to bring with it a certain level of rejection of culture yet is that because we reject elders in this culture?

We need a new perspective on what it means to be an elder.