#24: Divine Timing
A Saturn in Aquarius Retrospective
Saturn enters Pisces tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This moment marks a major completion of lessons, both personally and collectively, that we won’t directly confront again for several decades. Just think back to March 2020, when Saturn first entered Aquarius. Do you, um, recall anything that shifted that month?
Of course I’m talking about the global pandemic. Maybe read that again. You survived a GLOBAL. PANDEMIC.
It’s easy to disassociate from the collective trauma we’ve been navigating the past several years. We have jobs to do. We’re trying to move on. Moving on is healthy! But when you negate reflecting on and truly processing the past, you’re bound to repeat it.
Astrologers, especially those of us that write horoscopes like I get to (<3) can get caught in similar patterns. Our work involves churning out content about the future, invariably edging out discussion of the reality we once predicted. There’s always another transit around the corner, something good, or something not so good, that we’re anticipating and sharing with our communities.
It’s in our best interest though, as astrologers and as humans, to fully digest what we’ve left behind. Before we talk about Saturn in Pisces and *what that means* let’s reflect on Saturn’s time in Aquarius, shall we?
Saturn, the planet of restriction, entered Aquarius on March 21st, 2020. This is the same week that public schools across the United States shut down and the pandemic fully took hold. Immediately, Saturn began to profoundly impact our collective- the sign represented by Aquarius. This transit doesn’t get much more literal than “social (Aquarius) distancing (Saturn).”
The NYT published a compelling piece about Covid that highlights just how personally the implications of an airborne (of course Aquarius is also an air sign) illness were being felt in real time.
If you don’t have a NYT subscription you won’t be able to read the article- so here’s one of my favorite quotes:
“There’s an idea in sociology that, as social creatures, we are only ourselves because we perform being those selves every day; our individual identities depend on the frameworks in which we’re embedded. But during this first act of the pandemic, the entire theater in which many people gave those performances crumbled.”
This statement feels like the entirety of Saturn in Aquarius. Because its opposite sign is Leo, associated with “performance” in many ways, it proposed the idea that we may have been acting in the wrong play all along.
We witnessed those realizations hit with countless shockwaves permeating the pandemic: Racism and police brutality were confronted across the globe in response to the murder of George Floyd. The gender identity conversation ramped up as the use of pronouns became mainstream, especially among younger generations in the US. Droves of people began working from home- a change that isn’t going anywhere, and so much more.
Without question, Saturn in Aquarius has been a radically life-altering period for all of us.
One year ago, I wrote that “Saturn will give you everything you desire, but only by taking everything else away.” I had no idea, at the time, that the final year of my Saturn Return still had plenty to take away from me…so that other things could bloom. I’ll save you from a list of everything that changed in my personal life since 2020 (I literally became a different person) but I did want to share one specific synchronicity.
Back in 2019 I was feeling pretty lost. This can be a common experience before the first Saturn Return begins. It’s like you know you’re ready to change…but it’s not quite time yet for things to fall into place. I was running around/away without much sense of direction but I vaguely knew I wanted to start something for myself.
I doodled the images below on June 2nd, 2019, thinking I would create something called “Chapter Saturn” and to this day I don’t really know what I was thinking it would become? But of course now I know that almost one year to the day (!!!) later, I made the decision to get sober.
My subconscious mind was clearly the one doodling that day. I had told myself, without the conscious realization, that a sobriety journey was nearing. I probably had a drink that very night and can assure you if I had told myself that day what was ahead…I wouldn’t have believed it.
In spiritual circles, we would call that divine timing.
While I believe alcohol and I were always destined to break-up for good, it just didn’t happen until it was time. For me, Saturn ushered in the culmination of numerous lessons that I had (unconsciously) known were waiting in the wings for their moment on stage.
Whether you have Saturn in Aquarius natally or not, I urge you to do this reflection work both as a member of our greater collective and as an individual. The past few years might be something you want to just write off and forget, but integrating the experiences will serve you well before…
Saturn enters Pisces on March 7th, 2023.
If you have Saturn in Pisces, your Saturn Return begins tomorrow. If you don’t have Saturn in Pisces, Saturn will still enter an entirely new area of your birth chart- indicating a new set of life’s hurdles you’re ready to face.
Overall, Saturn in Pisces will feel very different from the Saturn we’ve experienced the past five years (in Saturn ruled signs). Pisces is empathetic and intuitive. Saturn is logical and grounded. Pisces wants to transcend reality…but Saturn wants to build it. How do we reconcile the two?
I’m imagining a lot of otherworldly architecture taking shape. Things that we could’ve only dreamed of in the past will become concrete reality. It’s a period that has “manifestation” written all over it. And remember, Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac. Everything happening over the next 2.5ish years will have a sort of culmination feeling rippling through it. Unfolding alongside Pluto entering Aquarius…we’re closing chapters and preparing for an entirely new era of human history.
The team at CHANI wrote a great piece about what you need to know about Saturn in Pisces and I wrote some Saturn in Pisces horoscopes. It’s helpful to know which house Saturn is entering in your chart, because that will reflect where you’re ready to get serious. And if you want to do an even deeper dive I can’t recommend Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil by Liz Greene enough!
As for me? I’ll be celebrating the end of an equally grueling + rewarding Saturn Return tomorrow with my Mom, who also has Saturn in Aquarius (and is thus completing her second Saturn Return). We’re going to a very fancy dinner at a place called “Herons” which happens to be an animal associated with self-reflection and stability. Go figure, right?
Through time and space,
Erin River Sunday
PS: This morning, sleep deprived and en route to an iced matcha…I rode behind this truck. I couldn’t help but laugh. If Saturn had a mission statement, this would be it.
Really enjoy the writing and the honest perspective. Very relatable!