A Saturn return is a momentous event that happens to you every 29.4 years that you are alive. This time, when Saturn returns to the same place in the Zodiac where it was when you are born, brings the major structures of your life up for review.
However, not all Saturn returns are identical. Saturn goes through the same 12 Zodiac signs that the Sun does, but Saturn takes 29.4 years to complete the trip, while the Sun only takes one year. You, therefore, have a Saturn sign that is not necessarily the same as your Sun sign.
If you have Saturn in Scorpio, your Saturn returns in Scorpio could emphasize the seeming conflict between passion and safety. However, you may discover that true security comes from facing your fears rather than suppressing them. You might also need to acknowledge the limits of what you can control.
The characteristics of your Saturn return in Scorpio may also vary based on the house where Saturn is located in your natal chart. While the first Saturn return that happens in your late twenties is well known, many people also go on to have second and third Saturn returns that revisit similar themes.
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First Saturn Return in Scorpio
Your first Saturn return takes place when you are in your late twenties. The first Saturn return gets the most attention because so many big life choices seem to come to a head then. You may begin or end a significant relationship.
You might begin or end a commitment to a particular career. You could even become a parent.
If your first Saturn return takes place in the sign of Scorpio, you may find yourself torn between pursuing passion and pursuing safety.
At first glance, this is not unusual. Most Saturn returns, regardless of the sign, involve some amount of accepting the limitations of reality in a way that often looks like letting go of passion.
With a first Saturn return in Scorpio, however, there is a risk that you might be giving in to fear rather than reality.
While Scorpio has a gift for being able to go through dramatic changes and rise from the ashes completely reinvented, this is not an easy fit for the energy of Saturn, which tends to be interested in preserving a stable structure.
Committing to a secure job or marriage at your first Saturn return in Scorpio is not necessarily wrong, but doing it in a way that suppresses your powerful emotional needs instead of honoring them could lead to trouble at your subsequent Saturn returns in Scorpio.
Second Saturn Return in Scorpio
Your second Saturn return takes place when you are in your late fifties. While your first Saturn return may have had you establishing yourself in your career, your second Saturn return could have you thinking seriously about retirement.
While you may have married or become a parent at your first Saturn return, you could be experiencing an empty nest at your second Saturn return.
If you have focused on security in the years leading up to your second Saturn return in Scorpio, you may become aware that your life lacks passion and excitement. As Scorpio tends toward extremes, you might be tempted to do something impulsive on a big scale just to have an emotional experience.
However, if your emotional repression remains more resolute, your second Saturn return in Scorpio might feature someone else in your life confronting you with their emotional needs.
While you may be reluctant to engage, it could become obvious even to you that the alternative is losing the security you get from your current relationship with this person.
Third Saturn Return in Scorpio
While most readers are probably on their first or second Saturn returns, imagining your third Saturn return, when you are in your late eighties, can be a helpful exercise. Where do you want to be toward the end of your life, and what do you have to do now to get there?
Saturn in Scorpio tends to fear relinquishing control. By the time you reach your third Saturn return, though, the ultimate loss of control might be within sight – your own death.
In most cases, you can’t control exactly when and how you will die, and your third Saturn return in Scorpio could trigger your anxiety about that. You may find it helpful to focus your attention on things related to your death that you can control, like your will and how you want to be buried or cremated.
Saturn Return in Scorpio by House
Many people born within a couple of years of you will have Saturn in the same sign that you do, as Saturn stays in each sign for about two and a half years during its 29.4-year cycle. However, not all Saturn returns in Scorpio are identical.
Knowing the house in your astrological chart where your Saturn return takes place can help you understand why your experience of a Saturn return in Scorpio might differ from that of some of your peers.
If your time of birth is known, your astrological chart can be divided into twelve houses, each focusing on a different area of life. The house in your birth chart where Saturn is located is also the house where your Saturn return will take place.
Try looking up your astrological chart below to see the house where Saturn is located.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, First House
The first house is associated with your physical body and your identity. With Saturn in your first house, you may present yourself in a serious and dignified way. There might also be a problem involving your physical body that you struggle with.
If you have Scorpio in the first house, you may have trouble viewing an illness or injury as just a random occurrence. You might feel compelled to look for deeper meaning in any physical challenges you experience at this time. Whatever purpose you find could shape how you present yourself going forward.
Even if you don’t have a medical problem provoking you, you may go through some other transformation that is as obvious to the world as a snake shedding its skin. Scorpio is known for its capacity to rise from the ashes, and you might do this in a public way.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Second House
The second house focuses on money and possessions. In general, having Saturn, the planet of restriction and limitation, in the second house could show that money does not come to you easily. However, you might have a disciplined attitude toward whatever money you do have.
With Scorpio in your second house, you might tend to view your money and possessions not only as ends in themselves but also as the means to the end of getting what you want emotionally.
At your second house, Saturn returns in Scorpio, someone may call your bluff and show you that they can do without resources you’d been trying to control them with.
The power dynamic could also go the other way. If you find yourself lacking in resources at your second house Saturn return in Scorpio, you might look at whether you sabotage yourself financially because you secretly think people will be more sympathetic to you if you are in need.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Third House
The third house is involved with communication. Having Saturn in your third house, regardless of its sign, can be associated with feeling like it is hard for you to communicate with the people around you and make yourself understood.
If you have Scorpio in your third house, you may either love or hate shallow small talk. You could love staying superficial because it lets you hide the deep stuff from people who don’t seem worthy of it, or you could hate it because you know you deserve better.
Getting stuck at either extreme of that spectrum could lead to you feeling alone at your third house Saturn returning in Scorpio. You may need to work to balance your need for depth with the limitations of the connections that others are able to give you.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Fourth House
The fourth house focuses on home and family matters. In general, having Saturn, the planet of restriction and limitation, in the fourth house can reflect that you felt like you did not get the nurturing you need growing up.
With Scorpio in your fourth house, intense emotions may have been a prominent part of your home life while you were growing up. Saturn there complicating matters could tend to suppress open emotional displays, but the tension might be felt regardless.
Your fourth house Saturn return in Scorpio could be a time when you are pushed to consider whether the strategies you learned in your upbringing for coping with emotions – your own or those of others – are still working for you.
If the tension in your childhood home was fueled by a family secret that couldn’t be discussed openly, you may need to finally deal with it.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Fifth House
The fifth house is associated with children and creativity. Some people become parents at their Saturn returns, and a fifth house Saturn return could be especially likely to go in this direction. You might feel like you have to become a parent in order to be a proper adult.
Scorpios tend to like to control things, but children tend to resist being controlled. If you are already a parent by the time your fifth house Saturn returns in Scorpio, the tension of this sort could come to a head then.
You may need to consider whether you are pushing your child in a particular direction in an attempt to meet your own emotional needs.
If you are dating in search of a partner, or if you are trying to become a parent, at your fifth house Saturn return in Scorpio, you could be totally frustrated that the outcome of your quest does not seem to be entirely within your own control. You may have to accept becoming vulnerable to the unexpected.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Sixth House
The sixth house focuses on your routine responsibilities, like the day-to-day part of your work and what you must do to maintain your health.
Saturn in the sixth house can be associated with health problems, but it might just show that you are very focused on staying healthy even if you don’t have an illness to be concerned about.
With Scorpio in your sixth house, you may be capable of precision and insight in your work, and you could use these qualities to accomplish something significant at your sixth house Saturn return in Scorpio.
However, you might also want your work to be meaningful, and you could reach your limit with a job that seems to be pointless at your sixth house Saturn return in Scorpio.
Your intensity could also be directed toward your health at your sixth house Saturn return in Scorpio. You might discover the limits of what you are able to control, but you could also come to understand at a deep level what really works for your body.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Seventh House
The seventh house is associated with significant one-on-one relationships including but not limited to marriage, and having Saturn here natally can suggest that you take such relationships very seriously.
Saturn returns can be associated with marriages or divorces, and a seventh-house Saturn return might be especially likely to go in this direction of changing your relationship status.
If you have Scorpio in your seventh house, you may crave relationships with people who bring intensity to your life. With Saturn there complicating matters, though, you might realize that an exciting partner is not well suited to bring you the security you also want.
At your seventh house, Saturn returns in Scorpio, you may feel like you have to choose once and for all between intensity and safety in a significant relationship.
If you have previously picked a partner who represents one extreme, you might be tempted to dump them for a partner who embodies the other extreme. Realizing that most people, including you, have some potential for both excitement and stability could help you negotiate this tension wisely.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Eighth House
The eighth house is linked with intense experiences like death and sexual intimacy. Boundaries tend to blur in these extreme situations, so the eighth house also handles situations of sharing finances or property.
It can even take in paranormal experiences where the basic structures of the physical world do not perform as expected.
Having Saturn here in your birth chart can cause either an inability to get away from such difficult matters or a fear of approaching them.
The symbolism of the eighth house overlaps substantially with the symbolism of the sign of Scorpio, so an eighth-house Saturn return in Scorpio may have a double dose of the basic Saturn return in Scorpio themes.
In brief, your dilemma is that Scorpio seeks transformation, but structure-focused Saturn wants things to stay the same.
At your eighth house, Saturn Return in Scorpio, you may be tempted to fight against a change that you know on some level is necessary.
The harder you fight, the more dramatically the change is likely to find a way to happen regardless. However, relinquishing control could show you possibilities you would not have thought of on your own.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Ninth House
The ninth house is associated with the systems of beliefs that make up society, like philosophies, legal codes, and religious doctrines. It is also linked to higher education.
A person with Saturn in the ninth house, in general, might be either an especially dogmatic enforcer of such structures or someone who seems to be continually blocked by them.
With brooding Scorpio in your ninth house, your view of the world may tend to emphasize the dark side of life. Your ninth house Saturn return in Scorpio could turn out to validate this view, but you might also become aware that your expectations played a role in shaping the outcome you got.
While it is important to acknowledge the difficult things that some people would prefer to avoid, your challenge at your ninth house Saturn return in Scorpio may be to learn what you need to learn from them without getting destroyed by them.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Tenth House
The tenth house is involved with matters of career and status. Having Saturn in the tenth house natally could suggest that your public role in the world is a source of concern for you. With hard work, you may achieve prominence in your profession, but it may also be hard to feel like you have ever done enough.
If you have Scorpio in the tenth house, you may be drawn to a career where you get to solve difficult problems. Your skills here could be rewarded with the professional stability that Saturn in the tenth house might crave, especially at the culminating moment of your tenth house Saturn’s return in Scorpio.
However, if you feel that your work is not meaningful, the tension could come to a head at your tenth house Saturn return in Scorpio. Though your desire for security may seem to conflict with your desire to feel like you are making a difference, taking a risk might open the door for you to eventually have both.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Eleventh House
The eleventh house is associated with friendships and community groups. In general, having Saturn in the eleventh house could mean that finding a peer group is an important focus of your life. Early on, you may feel shut out of social connections, like they do not come easily to you.
Once you hit your stride, though, you may find that your commitments to groups and organizations become overwhelming for you.
With Scorpio in your eleventh house, you may be deeply loyal to your friends and other associations. If you have chosen your commitments wisely, your eleventh house Saturn return in Scorpio could be a time when your devotion is rewarded in some way.
If you have been trying hard to force a connection that just isn’t a good fit, though, your eleventh house Saturn return in Scorpio may show you the limits of what you can control. You might need to be honest with yourself about whether others are as committed to you as you are to them.
Saturn Return in Scorpio, Twelfth House
The twelfth house is associated with secrets and things that are out of view. Saturn represents structure, so Saturn in the twelfth house is a hidden structure, a hidden agenda running your life that even you may not be aware of.
While Scorpio shares the twelfth house’s inclination toward secrecy, a potential problem with having Scorpio in your twelfth house is that your secrets could be successfully hidden even from you.
A twelfth house Saturn return in Scorpio might therefore be a time when a deeply repressed trauma resurfaces for you and demands to be addressed.
A less dramatic possibility for a twelfth-house Saturn return in Scorpio could be simply realizing that you need to make more space for rest and contemplation in your life. This could be especially likely if you also have on-the-go Sagittarius Rising, as many people who have Scorpio in the twelfth house do.
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