This Year’s Saturn Retrograde and Stations

Is Saturn Retrograde?
Saturn is currently direct (i.e. moving forwards)

If you know anything at all about astrology, you’ve probably heard of Mercury Retrograde and its effect on logistical affairs. However, Mercury isn’t the only planet that goes retrograde–most planets actually do. So what happens when Saturn, lord of time, tests, and growing up, goes retrograde?

How does Saturn Retrograde work?

What is happening astronomically when a planet goes retrograde? “Retrograde” means “moving backwards.” Therefore, when Saturn is retrograde, it is moving backwards in apparent motion from our viewpoint here on Earth. Correspondingly, this means that Saturn is actually moving backwards through the constellations that comprise the zodiac.  Yes, it’s a visual illusion, but a meaningful and measurable one.

Saturn spends more than half of every year moving forwards (astrologers call that “direct” motion). However, when Saturn slows to a stop in the process of reversing direction, we call that a “station.”  Likewise, an astrologer would say, “Saturn is stationing retrograde today.” Conversely, when Saturn is in the process of turning forwards, we say “Saturn is stationing direct.”

I call these stations “pivotal days,” because the planet we’re talking about is literally pivoting. Furthermore, planetary stations tend to lead to pivotal events for those of us Earthlings who are effected.  These pivotal events will trigger changes in us according to the nature of the stationing planet (in this case, Saturn).

The Mood of a Saturn Transit

Saturn transits are inherently uncomfortable. During these times we feel a greater-than-usual sense of fear, limitation, incompetency, obligation, and duty.  To be sure, during a Saturn transit, we are very present to the seriousness of the situation we’re in. In other words, we are aware that things are not up to par.

Some of us might respond to this by avoiding responsibility, in which case Saturn’s constriction is felt as the free-floating anxiety that comes from procrastination. By contrast, others will answer Saturn’s call with determination. In either case, Saturn’s arrival brings the pressure to perform that can force us to build something real using your own sweat.

How will Saturn Retrograde 2024 change us?  Through fear, pressure, hard work, self-discipline and ultimately, mastery.  

In reality, Saturn has a gift for us, and that gift is mastery. The thing about mastery is that it can only come with self-discipline and hard work. However, when we finally achieve it, we have something solid that lasts. What’s more, every incremental step you make towards mastery lasts, too.

When we work to achieve a thing, we value it more than when it’s simply given to us. What’s more, after that, we know how to replace or fix it if needed. Due to the process, we become an independent user of it and the master of Saturn’s power.  In other words, we graduate to excellence.

Saturn Retrograde 2024: Saturn transits to Your Natal Planets

Saturn transits affect the area of life ruled by the planet in your chart that Saturn is transiting.  For example, Saturn transiting your Sun might make you feel inadequate as a person, and press you to model integrity and earn an improved public image.

As another example, a Saturn transit to your Moon can put you through a lonely period. During a Saturn transit to your Moon, circumstances seem to conspire to isolate you, forcing you to rely on your own inner resources and learn to better regulate your emotions.

On the whole, Saturn’s passage through any house in our chart brings an awareness of the ways in which we do not conduct ourselves with integrity and do not meet our goals. In effect, he presses us to build on what we have, and rewards us when we do.  Saturn’s transits through each house lasts an average of two-and-a-half years.

Understanding the Saturn cycle and Saturn Retrograde 2024
can help you in all of your business and career dealings,
as well as guiding you to your own mastery.

To learn how Saturn functions in your chart
and how to use the retrograde cycle to your advantage,
 contact Pandora Astrology for a Mission Orders Reading.

Saturn Retrograde 2024: Saturn in Pisces

Saturn changes signs once every 2-3 years. Interestingly, Saturn’s ingress into Aquarius (March 21, 2020) coincided with the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Saturn entered the Mutable Water sign, Pisces, on March 7 2023. He will not retrograde back into Aquarius.

Ultimately, Saturn in Pisces can materialize our dreams. We may experience a best-of-both worlds scenario. At best, we find the ethereal grounded by the earthly, and the earthly uplifted by magic, mysticism, and compassion. Furthermore, we can find grounding in spiritual realms and practically apply magical frameworks.

For more about Saturn in Pisces and what it will bring, read our post about it: Saturn in Pisces: Manifesting Dreams.

Span of Saturn Retrograde 2024:

During Saturn Retrograde 2024, Saturn travels forward to 19° degrees of Pisces where he stations retrograde. From there, he travels backwards to 12° of Pisces, where he stations direct. Subsequently, he travels forward through 19° degrees of Pisces again and beyond. Finally, he moves into the next patch of degrees, where he will do a similar thing next year.

How is Saturn Retrograde 2024 affecting you?

This means that if you have any planet between 12° and 19° of Pisces, you are having a Saturn transit to that planet this year. Saturn in Pisces forms a challenging aspect to the other Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo and Sagittarius). Therefore, if you have a planet in 12° to 19° of any Mutable sign, Saturn is transiting that planet.

Find out more here: Are You Currently In Transition?

Peaks in the intensity of Saturn Retrograde 2024:

You’ll feel a transit the most strongly when it’s exact and also during its stations, or pivotal days. So if you have Mercury at 15° of Virgo, you’ll feel Saturn’s influence on your thinking and communication the most when Saturn is passing through 15° of Pisces, and on the days of Saturn’s stations.

In a reading, you can get a diagram of this that’s personalized for you and shows the exact dates to watch for. A reading with one of Pandora’s three astrologers will show you which of your own planets is being triggered by Saturn Retrograde 2024. We will talk about what Saturn’s transit means for you and where in your life to look for its effects. This gives you a chance to see what’s coming and plan how to respond to it. (Getting this kind of personally timed information is the main reason people consult astrologers.)

Is Saturn Retrograde 2024 Affecting You Right Now?

There’s no doubt you will feel this transit in the area of life corresponding with the house Saturn is retrograding through, as well as the house it rules in your chart. There’s also no doubt that if your Sun is in a degree along Saturn’s 2024 retrograde path, you will feel it too.

Generally speaking, here are the birthdates (in any year at all) that are most affected by Saturn Retrograde 2024:
March 2 to 9
June 1 to 9
September 3 to 11
December 3 to 11

How to handle your Saturn transit and Saturn Retrograde 2024:

Don’t freeze and don’t let the fear stop you.  Roll up your sleeves and get to work.  Once you stop procrastinating, you might even find yourself enjoying the momentum.  Really look at the situation, accept that things are not as they should be, decide how to make it better and set goals that will help you do that. Evading the responsibilities you know darned well are there or indulging in laziness will only make things worse.

Grow bigger than the thing you are facing and pledge to build it better—and follow through on your word.  At the end of each day, when your mind might be preoccupied with what’s wrong or what’s not done yet, deliberately focus your attention on what you’ve achieved and what’s been done right.  In this manner of determination, move slowly and steadily toward your goal, with confident expectation of achieving it.  Mastery will come and by the time the transit is over, you’ll have something to be proud of.

Coming of Age: The Saturn Return

One of the most important Saturn transits we experience is the Saturn Return. That’s when Saturn has travelled all the way around the zodiac, returning for the first time to where it was when we were born.

Interestingly enough, Saturn Returns happens between the ages of 27 and 31. That might explain why the years around 30 tends to be a turning point for us. It can also be a time that is full of pressure, fraught with worry, when our limitations surface and block us in our endeavors.

However, it is a time of separating the wheat from the chaff and of taking responsibility. Now is the time to focus as we set off on our vocational path and discover what it means to be an adult.

If you are a couple years away from turning 30,
or have just rounded that corner,
you are in your Saturn Return.

To learn how Saturn’s Return encapsulates
your life’s work and the crux of your maturation,
Contact Pandora Astrology for a Saturn Return Reading.

Go Deeper:

Manifesting Dreams: 2023-2025, Saturn in Pisces
The Astrology of Pandemic Year 2020, about why 2020 was so horrific. Clue: Saturn and Pluto were behind it.
Double Trouble… April 2019, Saturn and Pluto Retrograde
For All Who Work And Imagine: 2018-2019, Saturn Sextile Neptune
Wisdom Hot Degree: December 2020, Saturn-Jupiter Conjunction
Learn about all the transiting planets in signs this year.
How to know if you’re having a transit this year: Are You Currently In Transition? And, cast your own chart here.
Read our Frequently Asked Questions about astrology.