Navigating your late 20s, Part 1: your Saturn Return
I’m officially on maternity leave today, in honor of the up-coming birth, and to make life a little easier, I’m reposting some of my old material here. I originally ran this post back in 2010, but many of you may not have seen it. I think its worth another look!
If you are between the ages of 27 and 30, you may have noticed life getting a little harder lately, or maybe it hasn’t been difficult, but it is getting more complicated. In our culture, the time span between ages 27-30 marks the transition from youth into adulthood. This time period is known as the first ‘Saturn return‘, based on the astrological position of Saturn in your natal chart. I’m not an astrologer, but I have noticed common themes among my patients and friends who belong to this age group.
Commonly people in this age group find themselves needing to face long-held patterns, or finally decide on a life path during these years. Many folks I speak to, view the Saturn return as a difficult process, but it doesn’t have to be. The following is part one of a three-part discussion of what I have learned in my own process, and in helping patients through the transition. In this first part we talk about what this transition can mean, and how you can work with it to make it a positive experience.
I think of the Saturn return as being an opportunity for much needed change. Like any rite of passage, there is both a component of sacrifice and of tremendous gain. Someone once described the process to me as being a time of reckoning, between those things from your past you are going to carry with you into adulthood, and that which you will leave behind. This can take the form of emotional patterns, relationships, habits, even the ways you view yourself. In my own experience, I also found it to be a time where I gained an immense amount of energy. For me, this came in the form of stamina. Suddenly I had energy for long-term projects that had not interested me before, or that had seemed to daunting. It is common for people to return to higher education, form life-partnerships, or decide to become parents during this period. Not that you have to do any of those things, this process can be about whatever you need it to be.
Your Saturn return is not without struggle, however. Often to move forward, we need to let go of the past. This can leave us feeling like we don’t know who we are any more, or that we have nothing left to stand on. While this can be really scary, it often only lasts a short time, and then we begin to build new structures for our lives based on the kind of values we want to embody in the world.
Whatever you do, it is a good idea to pay attention to the issues that are coming up for you during this time. Work you do now, will impact your life for the next 30 years. Why not make sure that you use the momentum for a positive change, rather than staying stuck in patterns you have outgrown? There are lots of resources you can call upon to help you navigate this transition. Astrology, counseling and even acupuncture can help you get clarity about where you are headed and how you want to get there.
Acupuncture? yes that is what I said. There are several modalities of acupuncture, that can help you with emotional or spiritual processes. One such method, called Five Element Acupuncture, is based on the theory that we all have innate talents and innate challenges. Using the template of the 5 Chinese elements (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water) we can use acupuncture to strengthen our innate talents. Then we can get in touch with what we are here to do with our lives, and better deal with our challenges. In this series I will also discuss the various ways this form of acupuncture can help with the process of Saturn return.
In the next part of this series we will discuss the process and importance of letting go of old patterns, negative relationships, and destructive habits.
If you want to learn more about astrology check out Turning Wheel Astrology.