Here is something from my website:
Saturn Returning is Graduation Time
By Rev. Alice Miller
Saturn is sometimes pictured as Father Time or linked to the god Chronos. This points out a primary function of the Saturn principle as a timing device. Saturn symbolizes the limiting factors on a cycle or definition. His natal sign describes what we perceive as limits on our ability to make progress, as Taurus-money or Sagittarius-beliefs. Saturn more accurately symbolizes internal rules and the obligations we accept as personal boundaries of behavior. Moving toward the end of an age, it becomes increasingly obvious that rules and boundaries are meant to protect us, rather than limit us. Always they must relate to our development. Some things and places are not safe for children, but upon reaching maturity they may become necessities of life.
Several years ago, as the 1980's became the 1990's, Saturn crossed Capricorn and humanity experienced a general Saturn Return. Crossing Capricorn, Saturn revised our definition of humankind. The essential meaning of Capricorn is, "the accepted limits of humanity, at any given time." That is why natives with prominent Capricorn placements so often experience depression. Until the next transit of Saturn across Capricorn, they are heavily restricted by their learned definition of the human species. These definitions are revised about every thirty years as Saturn recrosses its own sign, offering opportunities to Capricorn natives.
Within the general cycle, each of us experiences a personal Saturn cycle, with the planet returning to its original place at intervals of a little less than thirty years. These are often marked by some change in responsibility. But responsibilities and rights are directly linked to our maturity level. Perhaps we could all benefit from going through an initiation ritual or graduation celebration as we move from one level to the next. This could alleviate the soul searching and confusion which generally accompany Saturn Returns.
Natal Saturn initially describes the authority figures in our childhood. Many of these get internalized as moral or social rules. The maturation process is largely about taking increasing levels of responsibility for our own choices. The often unrealized gift of this is that with each change in responsibility come certain rights. Saturn Returns mark changes in status--first internally, then externally. We graduate from the past and graduation’s gift is the future.
Most of us expect to experience two or three Saturn Returns. Each time we confront a set of rules about how we should be, what we should do, etc. As we mature, real maturation requires us to make our own choices. With the average life expectancy rising rapidly, it seems appropriate to look at the probability of a fourth return as a norm within the next century.
The First Saturn Return
Most of us experience the crossing between our first and second maturation cycles during the year before our thirtieth birthday. Common events of this period are marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child. These clearly and obviously show a change of responsibility, but their meaning is symbolic.
During the first thirty years of our lives, our parents’ responsibility for our lives gradually decreases. Around age twenty-one, we may be officially emancipated, but as we move into our own careers and establish our own families, we are usually still following our parents’ rules, living within their definitions of what or how we should be. Some marry or have children from the subconscious intention to confine themselves to the duties assigned to them by their families, religion, and/or culture.This transition is often painful because we are in a major internal, and sometimes external, power struggle with the authorities of our childhood. Early marriages may fall apart at this time, because we married for reasons not our own. Doing so, we may feel restricted by our mate or our marriage.
Entering the new cycle, we usually exchange our family rules for society’s rules. During this period we struggle to fulfill society’s expectations. We try to do what everyone else is doing. All too often this phase becomes an endurance contest. We endure in an inappropriate relationship and/or hang onto a job that is difficult because the society we live in expects it. Saturn’s greatest hazard is inertia. We resist change, afraid to break the rules, or become our own authority.
Spiritually, the first Saturn return grants us the right to set our own rules, within the context of society. Our only real limits are the contracts that we make. The only non-revocable contract we can make is to our children. When we choose to have children--whether consciously or unconsciously--we are assuming a spiritual obligation to them. However, like any contract, this one has an end. Our financial obligation, and our right to set limits for them, ends with the emancipation of our children. Our obligation or right to advise them ends as they approach age thirty. Then, we must grant them equality in rank, accepting their right to define the parameters of their lives for themselves.
The Second Saturn Return
The second Saturn return usually occurs near the fifty-ninth birthday. Its significance is graduation from social demands. By this time most of us have completed responsibilities to our children and we have reached the pinnacle of our career. Whether or not we have met our own criterion for success, at this time we stop struggling to climb its ladder. This is the astrological retirement age, and some do manage to retire at that age. Those, who do not actually do so, cease the struggle for the top, realizing that it is time to turn down the hill, and let the next generation pass by. Some experience relief and feel free to go play or begin a second career, doing something that they have long wished to do. Others experience profound disappointment or depression at the thought of losing their conditioned role in society. Many of these resign from earth within a few years.
Metaphysically, the second Saturn Return grants us the right to set our own rules within the context of humanity. At this point, we step beyond the boundaries of society, and are generally free of our contractual obligations. Even if some of our contracts are not entirely fulfilled, we are free to make no new contracts. No longer are we required to think about the physical survival of humanity. Instead we turn our faces to issues of spirit and/or individuality. We assume the right and the responsibility to make our own moral and ethical choices. Here we truly experience our own authority, deferring to no other human. At this time the status of Wise One, Crone, Honored Grandparent, is granted. In modern terms, we become a consultant.
The Third Saturn Return
The third Saturn return usually occurs during the year before age 89. At this time we graduate from a world view to a galactic or evolutionary view. We resign our position as consultant and are free to allow our consciousness to roam across the boundary between this world and the next.
It is common for elderly people to begin napping frequently at this time, but many are simply slipping out of body to explore what lies beyond this world of experience. Some, who are unable to endure the strangeness of this, remain present, but slip into a second childhood. Both are ways of deferring the choice to leave earth. While the astral traveler is looking forward to a higher realm, the senile dementia victim is regressing to an earlier state. Those in the latter group lack the courage, or are unaware of their ability, to rise.
Meanwhile, the mentally flexible, allow their vision to expand to even greater awareness. While physical senses often deteriorate, the interior senses continue to expand. Losing sight, hearing, or mobility is simply a method of turning these functions inward. At such times, clairaudience, clairvoyance, and/or clairsentience develops or increases in power. More evolved and aware natives direct these abilities into high-quality writing or art, becoming channels of inspiration to the world.
Metaphysically, the third Saturn Return is a graduation from a world view to a galactic view. Their focus-point moves off-world to a place where they can mediate between the divine state and the human state. These are the real prophets of this world and role models for earlier Saturn generations. They are pushing the limits of usefulness as set by the general consciousness.
The Fourth Saturn Return
While this writer knows of no one who has achieved this graduation, she has several clients who are working toward it. Life expectancy is rising rapidly, so someone we know is certain to pioneer this level of achievement soon.
The fourth Saturn Return is predicted for the year before age 118. At this time, consciousness expands again and we will graduate to a cosmic view. One reason the achievement of this age has been delayed is that our belief systems have not included the possibility of achieving such a state while in a physical body. Only recently have those people leading the advance into the Aquarian Age become accustomed to the idea of channeling information from one time/space to another. The idea of living from a viewpoint beyond time and space is almost impossible to grasp. It is probably not going to happen with any frequency until we move entirely into the next age, because it is a prophecy of the state to be achieved in the age beyond that. While from our point of view it is a Neptunian State, the age we will next be looking toward is Capricorn. Combining those, we see that the role will be that of a Master Being and its function will be managership of the human course of destiny. Most of us are not ready for that yet.
Still, we who are presently crossing the end of the second Saturn cycle into the third, have made such a major transformation in our notions of human limits that we can sense possibilities that extend far into the future. Given the opportunity to talk with a few people who are crossing into the fourth cycle, we can push our thinking out to fuzzy horizons of future possibilities where fifth and sixth Saturn Returns may be experienced.
------------------
You are a blessing and you are blessed.
Rev. Alice
www.lifeprints-for-living.com