ask jeanna: the astrological timeline of a life

beyond the saturn return

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Real talk: while I have become accustomed to sending out multiple questions in this column, it became clear that the current questions-on-deck required time to go deep and really sprawl. Today’s Q&A is a big one, with example charts and explanations of astrological aspects, and so I hope it’s a helpful resource.

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Question: What are some big life transits to look out for? Saturn Return is obviously a huge one but are there other ones you can sort of think about and anticipate that are big and happen at specific points in your life? 

This is such a good question, and the answer is that there are so many!

(Please note that because of the generally adult audience of this newsletter, I’ve chosen to skip major life transits from childhood, teenage, and early 20s/college years, all of which are repeated later in adulthood.)

You asked about the Saturn Return, so let’s start with that period of the late 20s.

A lot of people think that the Saturn Return starts at the age of 27. It doesn’t. But there’s something else* that happens at 27 that can make it a major turning point and that often results in folks conflating the trials of their late 20s with the Saturn Return: the nodal opposition. The nodal opposition (which will also occur ca. ages 45, 63, 81, and 99) is when the nodes of the moon are “flipped” in your chart. So right now, for example, people who have a North Node in Libra and a South Node in Aries are experiencing a nodal opposition, because the North Node is currently in Aries, and the South Node is currently in Libra.