Welcome to the third and final issue of our Saturn Return series, ft. Health Gossip readers who have recently finished their Saturn Return. Today, we’re hearing about Rebecca’s elopement, Saara’s creative awakening, Shelbi’s charting of her own path, and Sofia’s search for home. (Plus: some bonus advice at the end.)
Rebecca Catherine Kelly
Rebecca Catherine Kelly is a brand consultant living in North Vancouver, BC. Outside of her work with clients like Raimundo Langlois and Sex Magazine, she interns at a local farm.
What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return?On a scale of 1-10, how invested were you in Western astrology?
I was probably somewhere between 6 and 7, I had started seeing an astrologer in Montreal a couple years before my Saturn Return started and was pretty aware of what a Saturn return was before going into it. I started feeling major shifts internally before it officially began and was sort of excited and anxious about it at the same time. I knew that major life events were likely going to happen and I was excited for that, sort of in an adventurous way. I was already pretty eager for change in my life at that point, so I was mostly just hoping that things would evolve in a way that felt more positive and nourishing; and that the things I wanted to hold on to still wouldn’t be negatively impacted.
What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?
Seventh house, loosely conjunct my Sun (~10 degrees) and square Jupiter and my moon in the fourth.
I got engaged two days before my Saturn return was exact. It retrograded back over about six months later, when we were trying to decide how we wanted to get married. When it went direct again and passed over the last time, we had finally decided to elope in Hawaii rather than have a big event. We got married about three months later.
One of the biggest takeaways is that Saturn isn’t necessarily as bad as he’s made out to be.
Saturn in the seventh also brought me new clients and business relationships. I started a consulting business in the summer of 2023 when Saturn first dipped into Pisces, and decided to pursue it full-time as of January 2024, right before Saturn entered Pisces for good.
Perhaps due to the square to Jupiter and my moon, I also moved back home to BC in August 2023, while Saturn was first in Pisces. A few weeks before my exact Saturn return, we signed a lease for an apartment that we love and feel very at home in.
I was also pretty withdrawn from the majority of my close relationships during my return, partially due to moving across the country, but I had been craving solitude and sort of became a hermit.
What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?
We decided to move to BC very unexpectedly and had a lot of ups and downs at the beginning. We weren’t exactly sure how it would play out but everything worked out really nicely in the end. When I was a teenager, I had vowed to never live here again, so just processing that I wanted to move back home and then loving being here was a very surprising development in my life.
Quitting my old job and becoming self-employed was also an unexpected and scary moment. I had always tried to do things responsibly so it was hard to allow my instincts to guide me into what felt like a huge unknown. It was almost like I couldn’t stop my rational mind from dissuading me from doing it. It’s one of the most rewarding decisions I’ve ever made and has totally transformed my relationship to myself. My intuition and instinct is much clearer to me now and I trust it a lot more.
What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?
Basically my entire life changed — relationship, job, home. I’m grateful that I went into it excited for something new, I think it helped me navigate these huge changes with an open-minded and adventurous attitude. One of the biggest takeaways is that Saturn isn’t necessarily as bad as he’s made out to be — there’s certainly been uncertainty and lows, but everything has shifted in a way that feels more aligned with how I want to live and I feel a lot more at peace now than I did before.
What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?
Embrace uncertainty and allow your instinct to guide you. Even if you can’t clearly visualize exactly what you want or where you’re headed, it will reveal itself with time. Saturn is all about balance and rewards humility and hard work, staying grounded and focused on my core principles was helpful for me throughout the whole experience.
Embracing my home and solitude, being in the woods or water, spending endless time with my dog, interning at a farm, gardening and growing my own food, going to the beach — these all became essential to me.
Saara Lampwalla
Saara Lampwalla is a consultant to conscious founders and brands, helping them scale through strategy, operations, and partnerships. She also coaches creatives and entrepreneurs through the lens of mystical systems and hosts Rich Souls, a podcast where the mystical meets the practical through conversations on embodying one’s essence in work and life.
What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return?On a scale of 1-10, how invested were you in Western astrology or narratives around the Saturn Return?
6 to 7.
What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?
My natal Saturn is retrograde in Pisces in the 5th house of play, creativity, kids, sex, and dating. These themes became the focal point of the last three years. Since that’s a long period, here are some milestones:
I moved to the city of my dreams less than a month after the transit began. Within the first month, I realized I needed to stop a brief nomad-ing stint and focus on leaving a job of nearly a decade that provided security, reputation, and opportunity to play the corporate game — but at the expense of my creativity and life force.
Several dating experiences catalyzed my move to shed the job. I went on a date with my one and only celebrity crush, who almost immediately mirrored how unhappy I was in my job (embarrassing!!). Later that year, I had a brief relationship with a man who believed in me so much that it expanded me into greater self-belief. Within a month or so of our relationship ending, along with other supportive events, I put in my notice.
Soon after quitting, I launched several of my own business ventures, posted to nearly every social media platform after being chronically offline, started an Artist’s Way cohort, took over a local writing club, and more.
I also met and was pursued by a ton of viable suitors within the span of a couple of weeks. They ended up being catalysts for revisiting, and really having a reckoning with, my dating history.
It felt like a cosmic clearing of a karmic deck that’s left me much clearer and with more compassion for the inner child (mine and others’). It also forced me to own the role I’ve played in manifesting many incompatible and hurtful dating and sexual experiences in my 20s. What a gift!
I also underwent a deep sexual and somatic healing journey, which has only opened my channel to receive more inspiration and energy to create. The interplay between play, somatics, sexuality, and creativity has never felt more clear.
What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?
Before this transit, I didn’t think I was creative! Realizing I was, and launching so much in such a short time, has been one of the most unexpected and fulfilling parts of this period. Now I believe that every human is creative. That making something, really anything, no matter how “good”or “bad”; is simply good energetic hygiene. I am so grateful to have been simultaneously stripped down and expanded into my own creator-hood.
Restructuring your life for the better is actually kind of hot.
Being gobsmacked by numerous karmic dating opportunities. Being pursued en masse expanded me to see it was possible despite a core wound of rejection. That said, the process of healing the related wounds has been long and arduous. I overcame several rapidly and festered in a few for far too long.
Having initiatory experiences into the divine feminine, which goes hand in hand with all of the themes of the 5th house.
Meeting several of my creative heroes in person.
What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?
I’m sharing this gently: you are not going to figure out how your Saturn RX will affect you until it plays out — plain and simple.
Astrologers may not really be able to predict anything that actually happens (they didn’t for me anyway), but you can learn more about the themes of Saturn, Aries, and your affected house and placements. That will give you a sense of the life areas that may come into play. That knowledge was enough to raise my awareness amidst destabilizing experiences so I could actually see the lessons. Perhaps that’s all there is to know.
At the end of the day, this transit is said to earthquake whatever does not serve our evolution. That is something that must be lived. Metamorphosis cannot be expedited. Let Saturn work you.
This transit is said to earthquake whatever does not serve our evolution. That is something that must be lived.
In the process, invest in yourself on every level so you’re resourced — so that you can self-source. My go-to practices: daily morning journaling followed by meditation and/or breathwork. Thoughtful diet and fitness choices. Near-daily earthing, prayer, time in nature, good sleep. More time in resonance — with people, environments, routines, studies. Quicker ego-checking and pruning of people and things that do not vibe. Investment in select coaches and programs to support specific goals. Then just trust the process and that you’ll make it through, higher than ever. Restructuring your life for the better is actually kind of hot.
Shelbi Jones
Shelbi Jonesis a Brooklyn-based writer and the creator of Hi! I’m Here, a publication and community exploring what it means to stay true to ourselves and each other.
What were your expectations going into your Saturn Return?On a scale of 1–10, how invested were you in Western astrology or narratives around the Saturn Return?
Probably an 8. A group of my college friends all have Saturn in Aquarius, so they started their Saturn Return during the pandemic. I watched them make major life shifts. People bought houses, got married, moved cities, started jobs, and left jobs. There was a lot of visible change. So I was expecting that my life would probably shift in a big way, too.
What house is your natal Saturn in? How did these themes play out during this period?
My Saturn is in the 6th house, which covers work, routines, and health. That showed up very directly. I was laid off for the first time in my career in March 2023, as my Saturn Return was beginning. I took another job in August 2023, then quit in February 2024 to start my own company. I also started lifting weights and focusing more on how I want to feel as I age. Not just aesthetically, but physically and energetically. It felt like rebuilding my life with purpose rather than expectations and societal pressures.
I’m much less attached to institutions and much more committed to living my purpose.
What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?
Getting laid off was surprising. How much fun I had that summer without a job was also surprising. I thought I would be much more anxious, but honestly, Severance Girl Spring/Summer was exactly what I needed. I was also surprised to find the courage to quit my job at Adobe. It was a very stable tech job during mass layoffs, and I knew how rare that was. But I also knew I wanted something different for my career. I also lost a few long-term friendships during this time. They were no longer aligned, but letting go was still hard. There’s this idea that it’s a success story to keep friends from childhood into adulthood. Sometimes that’s true, and sometimes you outgrow each other. I had to accept that shared history is not the same as shared values.
What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?
I’m much less attached to institutions and much more committed to living my purpose. It’s still nice to be recognized by notable names or organizations, but I don’t need that validation to feel grounded in my work. I feel deeply connected to my mission and values, regardless of who acknowledges them.
What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?
Let go. For me, it felt like being pushed into reality and alignment at the same time. I think it would have been much harder if I had tried to resist the changes. Feel your feelings about what is changing, but stay open to who you’re becoming. I feel much more aligned with my life now than I did before. Also, find a friend who is going through it. One of my best friends, who is going through his Saturn return at the same time as me, quit his tech job and started a company months before I did. It was lovely to commiserate together as our lives shifted so much.
Any other reflections or insights?
I grew up going to church twice a week. Most of what I knew about astrology came from horoscopes in Seventeen magazine. I don’t treat astrology as the only truth, but I do see it as another modality that gives me information about myself. I also have strong pattern recognition, so I like seeing how themes show up across signs, transits, and life stages. I don’t see Saturn Return as negative. It will remove anything that isn’t structurally sound. That can be uncomfortable, but it’s also honest.
Sofia D.
Sofia is a Health Gossip reader living in London.
What house is your natal Saturn in?How did these themes play out during this period?
My natal Saturn is in 4 house (family, home, roots). My family is fragmented because of the [Russo-Ukrainian] war; my parents are divided by borders. There were attempts to reunite in another country, but they didn’t work out (perhaps for the best). I personally have no stable sense of home: not where I was born, not where I grew up, not where I’m registered, not where I rent now. Since Saturn is about pressure, I feel it physically in the flat where I live with five people and no living room. The search for comfort had to be postponed, because all my focus went into survival in a foreign country where you can rely only on yourself. There were painful situations within our immediate family, and within our extended family too, where ideological and worldview ruptures were happening. My parents and I managed to remain a family, not to turn away from one another despite all these trials.
What were some of the most unexpected or surprising moments?
It was unexpected to realize that I had an incredible level of naive illusions about life. The way I imagined life at 27 (and by then I already knew quite a lot of hardship) now feels almost like a joke compared to how I see it at 31. The surprise lies in the paradox: in some sense, after such heavy years, you begin to feel lighter. And wiser!
What were some of your biggest takeaways? How has your life changed?
Learning discipline. Setting priorities.
I once heard that Saturn gives you an extremely difficult task so that you build a lasting foundation you can grow from. If you complete this task, Saturn rewards you with an even more difficult one (hehe). At the beginning of my Saturn Return, I was working for minimum wage, standing on my feet 8–10 hours a day, while dedicating my weekends to academic work. I stopped looking for another job because I devoted that time to academia instead. For a period, I survived on £20 a week. But my article went through peer review, and I was also invited to write a book review. So by the end of my Saturn Return, I will have two academic publications. That feels like a foundation.
I think it’s important to cultivate the courage to have your own experience.
Through this came the realization that the situations I went through took enormous strength and energy from me but they also trained me to take myself seriously. That understanding had to be suffered into being. Life throws difficulties harshly, and fighting yourself does not make it easier. Escapism won’t help.
What advice would you give to someone newly entering their Saturn Return?
I think it’s important to cultivate the courage to have your own experience. Whatever happens during this return, even if life doesn’t come together the way you hoped, not like other people’s lives that may seem better, this is still your life, and it is only like this for a short period of time. It will change.
A lot of the useful and practical advice I learned came from this astrological video. I’m especially drawn to one idea: that under Saturn’s influence, we sometimes feel we can choose between depression and tiredness, and if a person doesn’t want to feel miserable and useless, it’s better to choose tiredness more often.
Other advice…
Amanda says togive yourself permission to depart from distractions if you see one aspect of your life desperately knocking at your door. Reed got really into film, which will pull you out of yourself for a while, take the ground out from under you. (You need that.) Hate your friends? Make some new ones, says Veronika, who also recommends a chi machine, acupressure mat, and one of this lady’s videos.1
Katie adopted the following schools of thought:
One is whenever I’m witnessing a situation where I feel rejected and powerless, I say to myself, “this is the absolute perfect version of what could be happening.” And it calms me because I believe that sometimes my own negative feelings can be in service to the greater good. It is a chance to learn and expand. God works in mysterious ways…
The other is for when I’m feeling stuck. It’s the idea that any desire has an answer that already exists somewhere in the ether (or maybe even closer than that). I think of the answer like I think of gathering the ingredients for a recipe. I believe that once I have the desire, my subconscious goes to work on collecting the ingredients for me. After that my only job is to put in the work of following any whim that pops into my head, and being vigilant about staying healthy and mentally and physically strong.
Note: some of these responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
“When you can't keep going, find strength from your ancestors,” she adds. “That could be your parents, your grandparents, your childhood dog, or some random names you found on 23andMe. Failing those, try for a tree.”
What an epic series! Restructuring your life for the better IS hot. Love hearing about all the wisdom gained <3
I love this series 💙