1st Saturn Return

[Rick]

Hey all,
When we look at the Saturn return in EA, what is the main focus?  Will it be geared toward the main karmic dynamic, and getting that right?  Or, is it about changing our consciousness in regards to what Saturn is representing in the chart?  I couldnt find anything in the posts regarding this specifically. 
Thx
Rick

[Steve]

A major part of Saturn returns to me is a maturation factor.  They naturally divide a lifetime into segments.   Saturn also represents Time itself, and maturation is a timing process.

The first is childhood and the transition into adulthood.  

The second is the transition from adulthood into what we might call elderhood, if the person has been paying attention.  The focus becomes more reflective (Saturn) and inward, tying all the pieces of a lifetime together.  The start of a winding down process.  A desire to give something back for all one has received is common.  

Some make it to the third Saturn return.  There from my understanding the focus increasingly moves to planning the next lifetime.

As always, the great majority of us have a lot of resistance to these natural transitions.  My experience is most don't really start growing up until 32 or 33, when life no longer tolerates their acting like children.  Thus the period from 28/29 to 32/33 is a transition time.

Similarly for the mid-life crisis which is Uranus opposition to itself followed by Saturn's opposition to itself in the mid point of the 1st Saturn return period.  Another adjustment that is frequently resisted for a period of years.

On the other hand, for those who have been paying attention the Saturn return can be another Saturn archetype, fruition, the natural timing of release.  Jeffrey used to talk of how he got his first astrology job on the very day of his 1st Saturn return.  

One way I visualize it is, an act in the play is ending.  A natural time to move on.

[Rad]

Hi Rick,

 JWG used to teach that the majority of Souls come into any given life by acting out their past in a variety of ways where that past in not only the past of the current life leading the to first Saturn return, but the past history of the Soul itself which of course in symbolized by the EA paradigm in any chart. Because of this most Souls do not make the the choices early in their life that reflect the core EA intentions for the life being lived. This is why the first Saturn return for most can be such a difficult time because many Souls begin to realize that their life to date, the choices made, have not been in accordance with the underlying intentions for the current life. Thus, the first Saturn return gives the Soul the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments that will reflect the underlying intentions for the current life. The key word here is 'opportunity'. Even though such an opportunity exists at that time many Souls do not make those choices to adjust their life anyway because of the nature of their existing 'reality', Saturn, at that time: the structural nature of the reality that has been created to date.

 For those that do make the necessary adjustments to their reality that do honor the underlying intentions for the current life then this can lead an acceleration of those Soul's ongoing evolution through time. For those that don't the evolutionary intentions will be actualized is a very slow, minimal way in a variety of ways. This can occur through the internalization of the Soul's consciousness via that common frustration that Soul's feel at the time of the Saturn return: "if I had only done this or that, or gee I would really like to be doing that', and so on. These internalization of the consciousness at that time that leads to these sorts of inner realizations do serve as 'seed thoughts', desires, that will become active at some time in the future for such Soul's.

 For the Souls who have made the choices earlier in their life, prior to the first Saturn return, that reflects the EA intentions for the life, then the first Saturn return can serve as the timing for actualizing what the Soul has been preparing itself for. JWG was informed at 24, his second Jupiter return, as to the nature of the life he was to lead. And that included becoming as astrologer. From 24 right up to the time of his first Saturn return he did learn astrology in his own way, and did charts for free so as to learn as much as he could though observation and correlation. To the very day his Saturn return occurred he was offered a job as being an astrologer for a brand new astrology bookstore in Seattle, Wa.

 God Bless, Rad

[Rick]

Red,
Bam! That is exactly what I was trying to get at.................nice!  Thanks to you and Steve for your sage feedback.  I am trying to get back into this and actually do some readings in trade for a few folks.  It is fun, but I look at all of the information that there is and putting it all together into a story is daunting.  I think I am doing well on this first one, thanks for all the help!

Rick