Second Adulthood – Saturn Return (56-58)
For some time, you have been confronted with your fading youth. You’re not old but you’re no longer young and you are beginning to experience your second adulthood. Probably from the mid-forties which coincides with another significant astrological cycle Uranus opposition Uranus, commonly called the midlife crisis (42- 45 years), you will have been experiencing a growing sense of your own mortality. Often this is a powerful undertone and you may have developed a sense of urgency about making changes where life was not to your liking. This may include, your career, your marriage or other responsibilities you find stifling.
Gail Sheehy in her book Passages writes. “Imagine the day you turn forty-five as the infancy of another life.” [Astrologically this occurs between 42-45yrs] Instead of declining, men and women who embrace a Second Adulthood are progressing through entirely new passages into lives of deeper meaning, renewed playfulness, and creativity. Wonderful book, however, we digress.
Now, think back to your first Saturn Return (28-30yrs of age). What circumstances surrounded you at the time? What decisions did you make? What have been the consequences of those decisions? If you made good choices on the first Saturn Return that reflected your authentic self and stayed on that path, the second one is likely to be relatively easy. However, if you rigidly stayed on the track you had set yourself, refused to make changes which did not enable your authentic self to come to the fore, you may the price this time around by experiencing more distress about any changes that need to be made.
If you made the hard decisions and moved toward who you could become the second Saturn Return will not be such an unsettling time. In fact, it may correspond to a time of greater personal meaning, satisfaction and self-actualisation. If this is the case, you may find you have a new lease on life and can pursue what you have always wanted to do on your own terms. Interestingly this may not be quite so easy for those who still have dependent children. I know many couples who did not have children until their mid to late thirties which means the kids are still, at least, semi-dependent if they are at university and or living at home. This is a bit of a modern-day conundrum and you need to establish new rules that enable you to have your time.
Assuming any children are reasonable independent, you may plan to travel, set up your own business, reduce your working hours so you can pursue other things. If you don’t have dependent children, you may downsize your home and begin the process of setting yourself up for the second adulthood or second half of life.
This can be a time of reassessing your career. There is still time to have the last ditched attempt to make your mark. If you have stayed current in your field you will probably be a sought after seasoned professional, so go for it! If you have played hard in the career space this may be a time to stop and realise that your career needs to fit in with your life and not the other way around. If you have been the homemaker (yes that is a career) you may want to do something for yourself and may study or some other form of paid work.
How’s your relationship? If it broke up during your mid-forties you may feel truly liberated or decide that you would now like a partner or some sort of companionship for the upcoming third phase of your life, whatever that might look like. Relationship in your second adulthood might be quite different than before and you need not necessarily follow convention.
Although you may not be fully conscious of it, you have been moving to set yourself up for the second adulthood for quite some time. However, by the time the return occurs this process is well underway, and you need to consider deeply if you are on the right path and have made good choices throughout your life so far.
The second Saturn Return can bring the same or similar issues back into your life from the first Saturn Return. How you dealt with them way back when will be significant in terms of what manifests for you during this period. If you chose not to deal with them, then, they will come back to haunt you in a more powerful way. If you made the hard decisions, this will not be such an unsettling time.
The time spent experiencing the Saturn Return depends on the planetary movements at the time. For instance, it may make the connection only once or it may crisscross over that point in your horoscope several times. If the contact only occurs once the manifestation is likely to be a sense of completion. If this occurs more than that, it suggests a process of change with realisations that occur during the contact times. The first contact will get you thinking, the second may see you alter your plans and the third should complete the loop and bring closure on the matters
This is one of many cycles that create an interconnected complexity with your development. This a ‘purist’ view of what the Saturn’s symbolism means and how it coincides with significant physical, emotional and psychological change with specific phases in our lives
Believe or don’t believe it, the actions you take at these times is always of your choosing, however, you will be confronted in some way and to varying degrees at these times. Knowledge is power, choose to move in life with enough knowledge to make every decision meaningful and every consequence worthwhile.
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References:
- Liz Greene: Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil. 1978 Samuel Weiser. New York City N.Y. 10012.
- Stephen Arroyo: Astrology Karma & Transformation: The Inner dimensions of the Birth Chart. 1978 CRCS Publications Vancouver Washington
- Nancy Ann Hastings: Secondary Progressions: A Time to Remember. 1987 Samuel Weiser. New York City N.Y
- Bill Tierney: Twelve Faces of Saturn: Your Guardian angel Planet. 1999 Llewellyn Publications St Paul USA.
- Gail Sheehy: Passages: 2006 Random House USA Inc
