14 - What Really Happened During My Saturn Transit

A Saturn transit can be one of the most productive cosmic seasons of your life if you work with it instead of against it. In this episode, I get vulnerable and share what really happened during my most recent Saturn transit. I also share seven strategies that you can incorporate next time Saturn pays you a visit. 

• 04:14 Listener question about Mercury square Mars
• 07:49 What a Saturn transit feels like
• 10:42 Saturn and the ascendant
• 12:39 What really happened during my Saturn transit
• 18:16 Seven Saturn transit strategies

Blog Post: 4 Ways to Be with Your Saturn Transit: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/blog/4-ways-to-be-with-your-saturn-transit

Enroll in the Astrology Starter Kit: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/the-astrology-starter-kit

Book an appointment with me: https://astrologywithclaire.com/appointments

Have a burning astro question or a story to share? Contribute to the podcast at https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/gossip

Join my email list: https://www.astrologywithclaire.com/email

Transcript

​Hi, I'm Claire Gallagher, and this is Third House Gossip, where we spill the astrological tea. So pour something delicious, and let's chat. This is a community driven show documenting how real astrology affects real lives. To share an astrology story or ask your burning cosmic questions, head to astrology with claire dot com slash gossip. That's astrology with C-L-A-I-R-E dot com slash gossip. 

 Well, hi, astro lover. Welcome to another episode of third house gossip. Claire here. I am freezing. Yes. It's like autumn showed up overnight, no warning. And you know, this will make more sense as we go through today's podcast, but I can't find my winter clothes. I have no idea where they are. I don't know. I don't know what box they're in.

I don't know if they're in the storage unit, if they're in a suitcase. So I'm just sipping on an oat milk latte, trying to stay toasty. Anywho, talking about the weather right off the bat. Go girl. Today, we're going to talk all about Saturn transits, including some Saturn strategies for when Saturn comes around and kisses you because everybody gets kissed by Saturn once in a while. And I was just recently kissed yesterday.

Yes, Saturn squared my ascendant yesterday. This was my second pass out of three. The first one was in March. The last one will be soon in December. Yay, goodbye. Anywho, I'm going to get a little vulnerable today for the sake of learning, and And share what really happened when Saturn squared my ascendant.

And then we're going to talk a little bit more about general Saturn strategies for anytime Saturn transits your birth chart, because it happens pretty frequently and they are major transits, major pivot points in life. So important to know how to care for yourself during those times.

So today's podcast is probably going to be especially helpful for you if you have mutable signs really heavy in your chart. So meaning Pisces, Virgo, Sagittarius, or Gemini are really highlighted. Meaning you have a mutable rising sign. Maybe you have a lot of planets in mutable signs because Saturn today is in the sign of Pisces, and so it's making really dynamic aspects with other planets in Pisces or Virgo, Sagittarius, and Gemini. 

 But no matter what sign Saturn is in, you can always come back to this episode and refresh for a little Saturn pick me up, because we all need a little pick me up when Saturn comes and smooches you. 

Before we get into all the goods with Saturn, I want to remind you about some submissions. You can contribute to the podcast at astrologywithclaire. com slash gossip. You can get your astrology questions answered for free on the podcast. And I've just. included a new write in option in case you're uncomfortable, you know, putting your voice on the podcast. I totally get it. Although I love to hear your voice, your voice is powerful. It makes it more fun, but there is a write in option for you if you want.

Currently, other than questions, which are always open, I'm taking submissions for anyone with a natal Mars in the sign of cancer. You are going to be our teacher for the next six months. We're gearing down for a Mars retrograde in cancer. And this is going to be a really good time to learn what that is all about.

So if you have natal Mars in cancer, I want to know what motivates you, what inspires you to take action. And also what does it feel like when you get activated or upset? And what is your first reaction? And go ahead and let us know how you take care of yourself when that does occur. If you want more information on Mars in cancer and the retrograde in general, head back to episode 10. So again, if you have natal Mars in cancer. We wanna hear from you. Go to astrology with claire.com/gossip and either write in or call in. 

Speaking of calling in, we do have a listener question to kick off the episode today, and it is from Elizabeth, and she writes, please help me understand how current transits of the same planets, but in different signs affect you. I have Natal Mercury in Sagittarius squaring Mars in Virgo. But we have transits now with Mercury in Libra squaring Mars in Cancer. So how does that work when the aspect is the same but the signs are different? 

Now this question is from, uh, a little while ago when Mercury was still in Libra making these squares to Mars. But I think this is a great question and even though Mercury has zoomed into Scorpio and it's no longer talking to Mars in that way, I want to answer this question regardless. 

What does it mean? How does it affect you when there's something in your natal chart that's repeated in the real time sky? Instead of thinking it as affecting you, I would love us to think about it as an opportunity to learn more about yourself. And learn more about your natal chart by observing the vibe and events of the day. So in this example, on that day, Mercury was making a square to Mars. And so theoretically observing what was happening, the quality of your speech, what kind of actions you were taking, the kind of pace of the day, would also reflect Elizabeth's natal chart, since she also has Mercury square Mars. 

Now, even if the signs are different, like they are in this example, there's a lot of overlap anyway. And so don't worry too much about the signs. Mercury and Mars are still interacting, and there's still going to be more similarities than differences in the presentation, if you will. 

So what might we expect on a day when Mercury and Mars are in a square? Well, there can be a lot of dynamic conversation. Sometimes there can be disagreements or things that upset us just a bit. The thoughts can really, Go fast when Mercury and Mars are in connection, especially in square, there can be a lot of nervous energy. There can be some restlessness. You can feel bored if you're not actively doing something. You can be really mentally agile and a quick thinker and a quick communicator, but there's also this element of sharpness and cutting to the words and communication. There's also this element of walking the talk, doing Mars, what you say, Mercury, you're going to do.

I think Mercury Mars aspects are really powerful and dynamic, and they tend to push us forward in life and really get us to take a step. So, Elizabeth, your homework, I guess, is to look back on the day that Mercury was squaring Mars, and if you keep a journal or even just a Google calendar that shows you what you were doing to kind of, uh, you know, kick up your memory of that day. See if you can glean any insight from the vibe of the day and how it reflects your own communication and your own thought processes in your natal chart. Great question. Thank you so much for asking and you can get your astrology question answered for free on the podcast. If you go to astrologywithclaire. com slash gossip.

Okay, let's dive into Saturn, which is actually maybe my favorite planet. I love working with Saturn because it can be quite productive. It might be a little slow sometimes. It might be a little hard sometimes, but it is really useful for moving us forward in the things that are actually essential and necessary for a strong foundation in our life.

And if you're willing to show up in compassion, and to show up with whatever is present in your life during a Saturn transit, I think you can learn a lot and you can grow a lot and you can build a very strong foundation, which I already said, but it's worth repeating. 

So let's talk about Saturn transits in general. When Saturn touches the birth chart, life can take a little bit more of a serious tone. Things can get a little somber. You can be a little bit more introspective. And life itself can feel like it shrinks a little bit. It gets a little smaller. There's not as much outward focus or outward growth orientation. It is really more about going inward and clarifying and simplifying. Life can feel small in what's going on on your calendar too, meaning that you can feel a little bit like you're on a hamster wheel and instead of doing the things that you think you want to do, you're doing a lot of the things that you think you have to do.

Now, this is a matter of perspective, but that's typically something you'll hear during a Saturn transit is like, Oh, this is a time when I really had to put my head down and work hard at this one particular thing. 

Life can also feel like it's about the necessities instead of the fun things. You know, Jupiter is more about the fun things. Saturn is more about the necessary things that make life go, the mundane things that make life work, uh, beneath the surface, but it's not always fun to focus on. 

Sometimes Saturn transits can correlate with a time of challenge where we are enduring a longer period of difficulty. It doesn't mean that it's unworkable and that you're not going to get through it, but it does have this feeling of like, wow, this is going on for a really long time. You can feel a little bit stuck or like you're suspended between the past and the future. And I'll probably flesh that more out when I talk about my own personal examples. 

So today I'm going to talk about what really happened when Saturn squared my ascendant. And so let's talk about what happens when Saturn touches the ascendant specifically. And this, you know, this isn't personal to me. This is anyone that has Saturn touching the Ascendant in any way. So specifically one of the harder aspects. So a conjunction, a square or an opposition. If the Ascendant is me, my body, my aspirations in terms of where I want to take my life, my steering wheel, and Saturn is that serious, necessity, cold, dry vibe,

it's going to solidify and sometimes limit the direction I'm taking. So I can feel like I'm limited in my expression. I may feel like I'm limited in what I would like to do, I may feel overcome with responsibilities and duties, and I can be clarifying or preparing or planning for my next responsible move.

There is a long term view that comes into play when Saturn is connecting with the Ascendant. So it's weird, it like shrinks life down to the bare bones, but also asks you to figure out what you're going to do for, uh, the years ahead. Saturn is a long term planner.

If the Ascendant is where we want to take our life, where we want to go, and Saturn is getting to the bones or the foundations of something, we can really be figuring out what the next most meaningful step is. And sometimes that means, Culling out other things and reducing other things, which is a big part of a Saturn transit is pruning.

Okay, so here's what really happened when Saturn squared my ascendant. And again, this is going to happen for me three times. It usually happens for you three times as well. The first pass was in March. The second pass was yesterday, October 16th, 2024. It's going to happen again for me on December 16th.

Now, I rarely, if ever, experience transits as exact moments in time, even though there is a moment of exactness, the transit happens, it's not like yesterday at 1251 p. m. when my transit was exact, something occurred, that rarely happens. Rather, transits last a series of months and there's themes that percolate throughout those months, but the days that the transit is exact, those themes can usually be easier to find. And so the way I keep a transit journal is I will literally take one piece of paper, divide it into three, one, Section for each day that I have an exact Saturn transit and then I'll write down in bullet points What happened so I can compare and contrast the three passes and see what themes coincide. 

So the first pass on March 31st, I was working a job that I hated to make ends meet and that happens for a lot of people with Saturn transits, where they feel like they have to do something they don't necessarily love doing or really want to do in order to pay the bills and put food on the table.

Now, I do want to be really clear that this may have felt limiting and difficult for me at the time, but it also, living within this limitation, felt like I could breathe because I wasn't worrying about where money was going to come from next month or the next month. And so sometimes with Saturn transits, allowing yourself to just live within those limitations can actually be a relief. I know that sounds a little backwards, but give it a try and see. 

So fast forward to yesterday and you know, my Saturn transit has been a lot about housing and that's because Saturn is moving through my fourth house. I'm also in a fourth house profection year. So it's all about family. It's all about where I live. And I am literally living with my family right now. And I'm not just living with my parents. I'm also living with my grandparents. And I find that really fascinating as a fourth house perfection year to literally be living with multi generations. You know, this is just a temporary thing as we find a place to live in a city that we're moving to.

So it's a temporary stop. And how grateful I am to have this place to stop temporarily. But, you know, that was just fascinating. And yesterday we signed a 15 month lease for an apartment in the place that we're moving to. So I found that really fascinating as well in terms of Saturn asking you to make commitments and looking at the future in a really long term way. You couldn't get any more, like, verbatim or literal with that transit, Saturn in the fourth house, squaring the ascendant, and I sign a 15 month lease, which is a long lease. 

Other things that happened was I voted. Very responsible, important thing to do, just an aside there. Everyone go vote. And I also made the decision to face some fears, which can be associated with Saturn, and I decided to download and log into Instagram for the first time in several years. So, that was a big deal, but I know that for my business to grow and to succeed, I need to be on Instagram, like it's just a reality. And reality is a key Saturn word, getting real with yourself. So I was real with myself and I took the first step forward in doing that.

What was interesting about downloading Instagram and logging in for the first time and cleaning up my posts and all of that stuff was that I really, uh, froze in a bit of terror for the rest of the day and I wasn't able to focus on any other work and I had to spend the day taking care of myself very tenderly because I had reached capacity just by downloading the app and logging in.

I don't know if anyone can. Relate. Most of us listening to this podcast tend to identify as highly sensitive. Uh, that's my community. Love ya. Um, so that was the reality of what happened yesterday, but I'm proud of myself for taking a step and, and that's what Saturn asked us to do, is to take one step at a time. And that's something that's been giving me comfort during my Saturn transit is that I don't have to worry about getting to the top fast, I just need to worry about today's step, today's next step.

So that's what happened when Saturn squared my Ascendant. I survived, nothing terrible occurred, and you will survive as well. And if you have Saturn Ascendant stories, would love to hear them. astrologywithclaire. com slash gossip to share. 

So let's talk about what we can do with Saturn transit. What are some constructive, beneficial ways to live with Saturn? Because, you know, it's going to be going around this particular planet or point in your birth chart for roughly nine months and it's going to wax and wane in intensity. It's not going to be like an exact transit for the entire nine months, but you'll be learning Saturn lessons for that entire length of time.

And so there's a few things that we can focus on and do to really get the most out of a Saturn transit because again, it can be one of the most productive cosmic seasons of your life if you work with it instead of push against it.

I have a blog post on this as well. I will link that in the show notes. So the first strategy on my list is to accept your limits. And I alluded to this a little bit before when I shared my own story and what's going on in my own life. But when Saturn comes around, life can feel like we have to do things to make ends meet.

And being okay with that, is important. We're often taught that that's not okay, that we need to dream bigger, we need to reach higher, we need to, uh, you know, throw it all away and like, go for gold and all of that stuff. And, and that's fine, and that's fine. And sometimes the reality of life is that we just have to live within what we've been given and to allow that for a season.

And Saturn transits are just a season. They don't last forever. And so accepting the boundaries of your life and living within them can be an important lesson during this time. And sometimes it can be a relief where you're like, okay. So this is the reality and I'm going to accept this right now and I'm not going to worry about all those other things. And that was a relief for me to a certain point. And then I was ready to move on and come back to astrology and come back to entrepreneurship. But accepting the reality of my life and allowing it to be how it was for a little while was actually really nourishing for my nervous system. 

Another Saturn strategy is to simplify and to prune. So instead of fighting against Saturn kind of shrinking things down, you can use it to your advantage to really clean things up and clear things out. So one example of this during my most recent pass of the Saturn transit was that I pruned thousands of people off of my email list because they weren't opening my emails and I don't need to pay for them. It's expensive to have email marketing. Anywho. So I was like, you know what, this seems kind of backwards to prune and remove so many people from my email list, but it'll actually make my list healthier and it'll grow it back faster because the people remaining really want to hear from me. And so apply that idea of pruning to your own life, where sometimes you need to cut things back in order to grow. Better, uh, faster, stronger in the future.

When you prune and when you reduce, you also reclaim a lot of energy that is going into all these nooks and crannies that maybe is making you inefficient. So by maybe reducing the to do list or cutting off a project or saying no to a commitment, you're allowing your energy to refocus and recenter. And and go to the things that are actually really important. And that's what Saturn is all about too. It's clarifying what's really important and asking you to put all your focus and discipline and energy into that direction.

Another Saturn strategy is to commit, but there's some fine print to this. So yes, Saturn loves discipline. It loves for you to work hard, and if you're not careful, you will work yourself to the bone under a Saturn transit. But I think the bigger lesson for a Saturn transit is sustainability and achievability.

So instead of opting for, uh, I'm going to do this 30 day challenge that's going to exhaust me. Opt for slower intentional, more measured types of approaches in anything that you're doing so that you can actually achieve the outcome you want. So the way I do this is by taking a goal and making it ridiculously bite sized, snack sized, okay?

So one of the things I'm committing to during my Saturn transit is a writing practice, and writing is really important to me. I'm just going to claim it here on the podcast. I want to write multiple books, like, many books. And If I want to do that, I need to have a writing discipline. And so I'm committing to putting writing into my schedule multiple times a week for a certain amount of time.

But instead of saying, I'm going to write every day for several hours, which is unachievable and unsustainable for me at this point in my life, I'm going to say, Hey, I'm going to go to a cafe. I'm going to get a good. Great latte. I'm going to feel so in the groove because I love cafes and I'm going to write for one hour, two times a week.

I always have the option to write more if I'm feeling groovy at the end of that time, but one hour, two times a week is really achievable for me at this time. During a Saturn transit, we can often feel like we're not measuring up or like we're failing. And so to prevent that, we need to make what we want to achieve achievable. And that means breaking it down into tiny bite sized chunks.

Another thing I like to do during a Saturn transit is to play the whole tape through, or take a really long term perspective. So some of my planning questions under a Saturn transit, and planning is a great strategy for a Saturn transit, something wonderful to do, is instead of thinking about what I'm doing today, thinking about, What this is going to look like six months from now, a year from now, five years from now. So really zooming out and taking the 10, 000 foot view on what you're doing. And that'll often help you narrow down your list to what's actually a priority instead of, you know, spreading yourself really thin on 10 different things. If you take the 10, 000 foot view, you'll really see. Oh, in five years, the most important thing I'm doing today is probably this.

Another thing you can do with a Saturn transit is to create some structure, to create a schedule. If I don't structure my time as an entrepreneur, as self employed, then it's just a little overwhelming, like time just feels so big and then I freeze and don't do anything. So I use the planetary days where one day of the week is associated with each planet and each planet is associated with certain things we might do, tasks we might have, and that's how I organize my time.

So during this most recent Saturn transit, I made a ideal weekly schedule where I divvied my tasks up by their ruling planet and scheduled them on that day of the week. And I've been working the plan and Saturn has been rewarding me with the most Helping me feel like I'm achieving something and I'm feeling successful and I am putting in the work and I'm showing up for myself.

Another thing you can do during a Saturn transit is to master something. Saturn is all about becoming the authority on a subject. Instead of studying 10, 000 different things, Saturn asks you to pick one thing and to take it as deep as you can. It's not a wide planet. It's a deep planet. So if there's something that you're interested in, a Saturn transit can help you take it as far as possible. A lot of people find themselves going back to school or picking up an actual course of study during a Saturn transit. So don't be surprised if you get that inkling or that desire.

The last Saturn strategy I have is to say no or to say goodbye to things. Saturn can correlate with endings of certain things. Ending of seasons, endings of certain career paths, endings of certain relationships, or just ways of being that feel outdated for you. In my astrological belief system, when Saturn says no to something or Saturn brings an end to something, it's for your benefit, not for your harm. It can hurt at the time. It can be confusing at the time. You can go through a grief process. All of that is true. And I believe it's also true that Saturn is cutting back the things that won't support you long term.

And in Saturn's highest, most compassionate expression, I believe it's the planet that wants your support to sustain. So it wants to sustain you and to nourish you over a long period of time. And so if something in your life isn't really supportive, really grounded, has deep roots, it's going to likely be uprooted during a Saturn transit.

So if you have an Inkling of what those things are you can get ahead of Saturn and go ahead and start Reducing those things or limiting those things and also just saying no more than you say. Yes, not because You don't necessarily Value the opportunity, but because you know that you only have so much energy or so much capacity to give. And so being a little bit more protective of your energy Protective of your time and your schedule is a really great thing to do during a Saturn transit.

Okay, I hope this was helpful in some way that you learned a little bit about how to navigate Saturn transits constructively through my little life experience. If you have a Saturn transit story that you want to share, head to astrologywithclaire. com slash gossip and let us know. All right. Until next time, lots of love.