Saturn return Archives - Astrology readings and writings by Lynn Hayes

“How do I find meaning and beauty in life?” A Pluto Square story

I came across this advice column in the New York Times a few weeks ago, asking deep and important questions:

I’m nearly 40 and I find myself at a crossroads that feels more like a dead end. I’ve spent much of my life and thought and income in pursuit of beauty in one form or another: design, fashion, the beauty or “wellness” industries. This is very much a professional hazard: My career in glossy magazines and advertising as a photo editor is all about making beautiful images of beautiful things that I’ve selected look even more beautiful. Often, when I think how much of my time I’ve devoted to my own appearance or to matters of aesthetics I cringe, though I’ve often been the person in any given room defending things like style and design from accusations of superficiality and frivolity.

Part of it might have to do with the fact that I feel alone in many ways and unsuccessful by most measures. I don’t own a home and no one needs me; I am nobody’s mother and now I am nobody’s child, as my parents are no longer living. My friends and peers have gone on to have families, to marry and stop working, or have moved to other parts of the country or even foreign countries.

I feel such futility, like I’ve squandered my own youth and beauty in the hall of mirrors that is our consumerist society. Am I simply being solipsistic here? Or is this what getting older is about, acknowledging one’s comedown to the brutal reality of life?

The age of 40 is, of course, when we approach the midlife crisis transits. For the people turning […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2022-10-17T11:04:40-04:00February 15th, 2020|Life|0 Comments

Who is Alexandria Ocasio Cortez? The astrological profile

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This was originally posted in January 2019 but has been updated to reflect the availability of her birth time. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was recently elected to the US House of Representatives from the 14th District of New York – the youngest woman ever to be elected to Congress. Not only that, she is in the middle of her first Saturn Return.

The Saturn Return happens to each of us every 28-30 years when Saturn, traveling through its orbit around the Sun, returns to the degree of the sign that it holds in our natal astrological chart. Because Saturn represents the virtues of hard work and achievement as well as the distress of tests and challenges, the Saturn Return is an important time and one in which we are often tested with experiences that may feel outside of our control. But the Saturn Return can also be a time of great achievement and growth. This is the period during which we realize that we have to grow up and start adulting, and this process is more comfortable for some than for others. Some individuals find this too difficult, flaming out in their careers and shifting to another path, while some begin to achieve success during this time.

Recently I wrote about this crop of Saturn Return people who were born during the early 1990s when Uranus, Saturn and Neptune were all conjunct in Capricorn. Here is an important takeaway from that article:

These periods can be very difficult, but for Saturn/Capricorn people they have the potential to be life changing in highly beneficial ways. Many of the Capricorn stellium people, with the dreamy genius of Uranus/Neptune in their charts, have had difficulty coming to terms with the duality in their personalities between the creative inspiration of […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-04-10T16:17:52-04:00April 8th, 2019|People, Politics|8 Comments

An astrological review of “The Happiness Curve”

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It can be somewhat frustrating to read articles about questions that are easily answered by astrology. Astrologers know that beginning at around age 40, we humans experience a series of planetary cycles that I like to call the “midlife crisis transits.” This series begins at age 37-40 with the Pluto Square (transiting Pluto forming a stressful square aspect to Pluto in the natal chart), and continuing at age 40-43 with the Uranus Opposition (transiting Uranus opposite Uranus in the natal chart) and the usually simultaneous Neptune Square where transiting Neptune forms a stressful square aspect to Neptune in the natal chart. This series begins with breakdowns and power struggles under Pluto, and continues with the restlessness and desire for change under Uranus combined with the confusion and self-delusion of Neptune. Then there is a break for a few years until the Chiron Return at age 50-52 which can be a culmination of life lessons and the emotional reactions to them.

A recent book by Jonathan Rauch called The Happiness Curve asks why life gets better after age 50:

He explains: “I was someone who was fortunate. I had good health and after my 20s, which were difficult because I came out as gay, I met one goal after another with more success than I’d ever expected.

“Yet around the time I turned 40 I noticed this strange feeling of restlessness and discontent. This continued to grow as I got into my 40s to the point where I was 45 and I won the most prestigious award in magazine journalism [a National Magazine award] and that gave me a great feeling of satisfaction with my life for approximately 10 days.

“All these feelings of discontent and […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-11-10T19:09:04-05:00March 9th, 2019|Planetary cycles|3 Comments

Astrology in my world: How to make a decision

Librans, of which I am one, are famous for not being able to make a decision. We easily see all sides of a situation, and in a discussion over a point we can convincingly argue for one perspective as well as another. In my house a conversation like this with my double Pisces husband, who dislikes taking a stand of any kind, is very common:

Me: What do you think about my doing X?
Rich: Well, you have always wanted to do it. Maybe you should do it.
Me: Yes but then all of these other things might happen.
Rich: Probably better not to do it.
Me: You don’t think I should do it? But I really want to.

You can guess how the rest of it goes. Pretty much the same until one of us gives up. ?

In my younger life I was tortured by the idea that there was a right decision and a wrong one for virtually everything, and if I made the wrong decision in the minefield of decisions to be made my life would explode before my very eyes. I know a lot of other people feel the same way which is why psychics and intuitive readers are in such demand. The problem is, nobody can make a decision for us or tell us what to do. We must come to the realization in our own hearts and souls.

In my astrological practice, people often come to me for a reading because they need or want to make a major life decision. Should I quit my job? Should I marry this person? Should I leave my spouse? Should I move to another location? Often we see a planetary cycle underlying these questions. Saturn (tests and challenges) or Pluto (destruction and regeneration) […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-12-07T09:32:01-05:00December 7th, 2018|Astrology in my world|7 Comments

The seeds of the Capricorn stellium are blooming now

Steven Forrest has posted a lovely video discussing the travel of Uranus, Neptune and Saturn through Capricorn in the 1980s and 1990s and you can watch it here. Steven was my first teacher and I respect him greatly – his books The Inner Sky and The Changing Sky are required reading for beginners and really, for anyone who hasn’t read them.

In the video Steven discusses the humans that were born when Uranus and Neptune were in Capricorn during this period as being seeds of humanity that are about to flower now that Saturn and Pluto are both in Capricorn.

About Capricorn

Capricorn is the tenth sign of the zodiac, and associated with the tenth house of achievement in the material world. Under the influence of Capricorn we tend to be more serious, perhaps more introverted. Life can seem like a hard slog as we do The Things Which Must Be Done, and we might sometimes forget why we’re even doing them. But the symbol for Capricorn, as well as its ruling planet Saturn, is the sure-footed mountain goat which climbs ridiculous peaks without stumbling or falling, always achieving its goals.

The conjunction of Uranus and Neptune

The Uranus/Neptune conjunction of the 1990s was an extremely significant period. Outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) are transformational forces and they generally apply a great deal of pressure on the human experience when they are in alignment with each other. Uranus inspires us to revolt and rebel against a stale and outmoded status quo and Neptune inspires us to transcend the material world to find bliss and an experience of the divine. When these two aligned in the early 1990s there was […]

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