If Astrology is a language, the planets are the verbs (or nouns) that indicate actions.

Meanwhile, the signs are the adverbs describing the qualities or characteristics of those actions.

And the houses are the adverbs of place that point to the spaces where the actions occur. 

Following this analogy, Saturn is a planet associated with difficult, time-consuming, and debilitating experiences. 

But it’s also associated with harvests and the rewards obtained after working hard. Another one of Saturn’s themes is the mastery that comes after cultivating persistent practice and unwavering patience. 

In this text, I share different perspectives about the themes associated with the planet Saturn. Besides, you’ll learn how these themes may become activated during your Saturn return. 

This is the table of contents:

1. Saturn’s Themes According to Vettius Valens
2. Saturn’s Themes According to Richard Tarnas
3. 30 Constructive Themes Associated With Saturn
4. 30 Challenging Themes Associated With Saturn
5. Saturn’s Themes During the Saturn Return
6. Saturn Return: Obedient or Rebel?

Let’s go.

Saturn’s Themes According to Vettius Valens

Hellenistic astrology is one of the branches of the discipline commonly known today as “traditional astrology.” It was born in Alexandria (present-day territory of Egypt) in the 2nd century BC.

One of its greatest exponents was Vettius Valens. Valens wrote Anthologies, a book supposedly created as study material for his students. This work survives today and allows us to understand his approach.

Book I of the Anthologies has no prologue and quickly introduces us to the topics Valens will address. In this first part, he mentions the foundations of astrology. Some of the topics included are planets, signs, the ascendant, the midheaven, and the phases of the Moon.

At first glance, it seems he addressed the same topics that interest astrologers today. But the fundamental difference lies in the meanings that Valens assigned to the planets and other components of astrology.

Regarding Saturn, Valens states the following: 

Saturn makes those born under him petty, malignant, care-worn, self-deprecating, solitary, deceitful, secretive in their trickery, strict, downcast, with a hypocritical air, squalid, black-clad, importunate, sad-looking, miserable.

Thank you, Valens, for these very positive words.

I’m practically sure that the expression “people born under Saturn” refers to those with their Ascendant in Capricorn or Aquarius. Saturn is the traditional ruler of both signs. 

In the Hellenistic period, when someone asked about your sign, they referred to the ascendant sign. This is the most personal part of our natal chart. 

Related: What Is the Natal Chart? Astrology 101

The ascendant or rising sign is the most personal part of the chart because it changes the fastest. In one day, we have the 12 ascendants, two hours in each sign.

You could be born on the same day as someone else and share the planets in every sign. 

But if you were born two hours apart, you’d have different rising signs, and the distribution of the houses would change. 

Valens continues by saying this: 

Saturn also causes humblings, sluggishness, unemployment, obstacles in business, interminable lawsuits, subversion of business, secrets, imprisonment, chains, griefs, accusations, tears, bereavement, capture, exposures of children.

Successes follow, right?

It’s not all negative: 

Saturn makes serfs and farmers because of its rule over the land, and it causes men to be renters of property, tax farmers, and violent in action.

Valens was pretty benevolent in this previous fragment except for the “violent in action” part. He also mentions other positive characteristics in the next sentence: 

It puts into one’s hands great ranks and distinguished positions, supervisions, management of others’ property, and the fathership of others’ children.

Then he mentions the materials, body parts, and diseases ruled by the planet Saturn: 

• Materials: Lead, wood, and stone.
• Body parts: The legs, the knees, the tendons, the lymph, the phlegm, the bladder, the kidneys, and the internal, hidden organs.
• Diseases: Injuries arising from cold and moisture, such as dropsy, neuralgia, gout, ough, dysentery, hernia, spasms. 
• Syndromes: Possession (!), homosexuality (!!), and depravity (!!!).

Finally, this is how Valens closes his description of Saturn: 

Saturn makes bachelors and widows, bereavements, and childlessness. It causes violent deaths by water, strangulation, imprisonment, or dysentery. It also causes falling on the face. It is the star of Nemesis; it is of the day sect. It is like castor in color and astringent in taste.

Astrology didn’t stay only with this fatalistic stance, but for many years, this vision prevailed.

In traditional astrology, Saturn and Mars are malefic planets. This means that most of their themes are negative and are linked to the hardest aspects of existence.

On the other hand, Venus and Jupiter are benefic planets, and most of their meanings are positive.

Today, thanks to psychological, archetypal, and humanistic astrology, we know that nothing is so black or white. 

Saturn’s Themes According to Richard Tarnas

A lot of water flowed under the bridge. And in the 20th century, a more gentle astrology began to take shape. It is called psychological astrology and it was strongly influenced by Carl Gustav Jung’s work.

This astrology shifted the focus from external events that could affect you to your perception of those events.

Related: Astrology Basics: Your Birth Chart States of Consciousness

The various meanings of Saturn according to psychological astrology can be found in many books.

This time, I want to consider the themes that archetypal astrologer Richard Tarnas assigned to Saturn. He did so in his colossal book Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View.

According to Tarnas, Saturn is: 

• The principle of limitation, structure, contraction, coercion, necessity, harsh materiality, and concrete manifestation: Saturn is the last planet visible to the naked eye, which is why it’s associated with limits, structures, and barriers. Additionally, it has rings that contain it. 
• Time, the past, tradition, age, maturity, mortality, the end of things: In this sense, the first Saturn return would mark our undeniable entry into adulthood and into a life more separate from our nuclear family or place of origin.
• Weight and seriousness, what weighs down, binds, challenges, strengthens, deepens, the tendency to confine and constrain, separate, divide and define, cut and abbreviate, deny and oppose, strengthen and forge with tension and resistance, harden, repress: I like this section because Tarnas, being a good psychological astrologer (he would say archetypal astrologer), combines meanings ranging from more optimistic to more pessimistic. I like Tarnas’s vision because it makes us not fear Saturn so much. Ironically, Saturn also rules fear.
• Maintaining a conservative and strict authority; experiencing difficulties, decline, deprivation, defect and deficit, defeat, failure, loss, alienation; the work of existence, suffering, old age, death: Here Tarnas becomes a bit more traditional. We already knew all of this from Valens. 
• The weight of the past, the effects of fate, character, karma, the consequences of past action, error, and guilt, punishment, revenge, imprisonment, the feeling that “there is no way out”: In this fragment, he also combines good qualities with not-so-good ones. The consequences of past actions seem somewhat positive to me if we acted nobly in the past, but perhaps imprisonment or the feeling that there is no way out may not be desirable experiences. 
• Pessimism, inferiority, inhibition, isolation, oppression, and depression, but also the impulse and capacity for discipline and duty, order, solitude, concentration, conciseness, rigor and precision, discrimination and objectivity, control, and patience: As I mentioned before, I like the combination of positive qualities with others that are not as positive.  
• Resistance, responsibility, seriousness, authority, wisdom, the harvest of time: Let’s not forget that, as Valens said, Saturn rules the earth and what we harvest comes from the soils, although this expanded metaphorically to signify achievements. 
• Effort, experience, concern for consensual reality, factual concretion, conventional forms and structures, foundations, boundaries, solidity and stability, security and control, rational organization, efficiency, right and wrong, judgment, and the superego: Here we also see this combination of positive and negative characteristics.
• The dark, cold, heavy, dense, dry, old, slow, distant; the senex, Cronos, the stern father of the gods: Senex is the archetype of the wise old man, and Cronos was the name of the Greek god who, in the Roman tradition, came to be called Saturn.

Considering Valens and Tarnas’ perspectives, my experience, and other readings, I made two lists. They contain themes associated with the planet Saturn and can serve as a guide to understanding this planet.

30 Constructive Themes Associated With Saturn

On the most “positive” side of the spectrum, we can find the following themes associated with Saturn: 

1. Maturity
2. Growing up
3. Authority
4. Mastery 
5. Discipline
6. Responsibility
7. Autonomy 
8. Independence
9. Achievement
10. Wisdom
11. Strength
12. Endurance
13. Stamina
14. Gravitas
15. Patience
16. Competence
17. Survival
18. Boundaries
19. Commitment 
20. Reward
21. Organization
22. Rigor
23. Precision
24. Objectivity
25. Temperance
26. Sobriety
27. Moderation
28. Harvest
29. Experience
30. Safety 

30 Challenging Themes Associated With Saturn

On the most “negative” side of the spectrum, we can find the following themes associated with Saturn:  

1. Fear
2. Self-sabotage
3. Limitation
4. Difficulty
5. Sadness
6. Stress
7. Loss
8. Grief
9. Heaviness
10. Constrain
11. Rigidity 
12. Hardship
13. Doubt
14. Contraction
15. Need
16. Confinement
17. Division
18. Tension
19. Resistance
20. Repression
21. Suffering
22. Alienation
23. Lack
24. Punishment
25. Pessimism
26. Inhibition
27. Darkness
28. Dryness
29. Severity 
30. Gloom 

Saturn’s Themes During the Saturn Return

The Saturn return marks the final transition into adulthood. Many astrologers argue that you don’t truly reach adulthood until you experience your first Saturn return. I tend to agree with them. 

In the birth chart, Saturn is associated with those aspects of your life that are not easy. When the Saturn return activates that part of the chart, those issues become the focus of attention. And they will be the focus of attention for around three years, the full duration of your Saturn return.

When Saturn returns to the position it was at when you were born, it activates your natal Saturn.

In general, the return intensifies the themes related to the planet Saturn. The good, the bad, and the intermediate themes can become active.

Related: How to Calculate Your Saturn Return

At the beginning of the Saturn return, it’s sometimes difficult to establish which limits will manifest during this transit. When going through the return, you’ll likely want to push those limits and test how far you can go.

There are also concerns about the actual limits of existence. You may ask yourself whether it’s possible to achieve your goals or if limitations cannot be overcome.

Another manifestation is analyzing whether a situation is genuinely limiting or if it stems from unresolved fears.

Related: Essential Tips to Prepare for Your Saturn Return

Regarding the first Saturn return, Tarnas writes that in his work as an astrologer, he observed that between the ages of 28 and 30, a distinctly different stance tended to emerge, generally more serious regarding life, work, long-term goals, security, parents, tradition, and established social structures.

Any similarity to reality is purely coincidental.

He adds that youth’s more erratic searches seem to transform, shifting focus and foundation to more concrete, practical purposes and defined commitments: vocational, relational, intellectual, psychological, and spiritual.

This is why we feel so much discomfort, right? The Saturn return raises questions in different areas of life simultaneously.

Meaningful relationships could end, and others with long-lasting effects could start. Besides, analyzing whether becoming or not parents is a manifestation I have noticed with millennials experiencing their first Saturn return. 

Tarnas states that characteristic ways of being from previous years lose strength and are definitively left behind, either because they had become inadequate or because the new circumstances of life inexorably push them aside.

This happens a lot. You can’t imagine the number of people who feel fear or guilt because they no longer resonate with their family, peer groups, place of residence, or current job.

The consequences of past actions and events tend to emerge during the first Saturn return and require assimilation. At the same time, a growing tendency toward serious self-reflection and biographical retrospection is typical. 

Related: What Is the Saturn Return in Astrology?

The past knocks on your door during the first Saturn return, while the future awaits you to jump to the unknown with faith and confidence.   

Some harmful habits begin to show that our body has its limitations, just as effort bears fruit. The challenging realities of life and death, time and aging, loss and adversity, work and responsibility, can become the dominant concerns.

Other manifestations of the first Saturn return include a clear sense of existential compression or constriction accompanied by obstacles, limitations, and various types of frustrations (such as financial, physical, and relational). These experiences often include a definitive encounter with human mortality, finitude, and fallibility.

Saturn Return: Obedient or Rebel?

Tarnas explains that for some, the years of this transit near the age of thirty mark a psychological transformation that brings an end to the youthful self, which is more creative, adventurous, mentally open, and free-spirited, and establishes a more rigidly conservative personality.

Conversely, many others seem to resolve this archetypal transition through the dedicated production of a synthesis of youth’s ambitious and creative impulses with the structuring, stabilizing, and disciplining impulses typical of maturity.

Argentinian astrologer Beatriz Leveratto also addresses these two possible manifestations.

Related: Saturn’s Transits at 7, 14, 21, and 28 Years Old

Leveratto argues that the more “obedient” Saturn returns are often experienced by people who had previously been rebellious. In contrast, the more “rebellious” returns apply to previously obedient people.

Regardless, you will remember “the 30-year crisis” as a turning point in your life, either because you went through challenging periods, achieved important goals, or experienced both ends of the spectrum.

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