Saturn has experienced deep change so far in 2023, moving into Pisces for the first time in 27 years. And with such a major shift, space and time for integration is required. This retrograde is that very space. It is the moment of rest that allowed for such change to occur in the first place. And it is the sacred pause that will allow for all that is to come.
As much as retrogrades can feel like a step backwards, they are a necessary and sacred part of our forward journey. They are the gift of reflection that allows for insight. The introspection that allows for self-awareness. The sacred pause needed before a leap forward. And the spaciousness required for the assimilation of steps already taken.
Retrogrades ask us to stop moving for a moment so that we may look around and look within. They offer a moment for us to ‘catch up’ with who we have become, with the experiences we have moved through, and insights we have gained along the way. As if the changes and growth we have been experiencing now have an opportunity to seep deep into our bodies, integrate into our identities, and become available for us to live.
In March 2023, Saturn entered Pisces, the final sign of the zodiac. As an outer planet, Saturn generally spends 2-3 years in one sign, representing larger chapters in our lives than the quicker movement of Mercury, for example, who spends a few weeks in each sign. Saturn entering a new sign, especially that of the watery depths of Pisces, was a cosmic movement that initiated a new chapter in all of us both individually and collectively.
When is Saturn Retrograde 2023?
17 June to November 4, 2023 is the first retrograde of Saturn since its move into Pisces, and it is our opportunity to be with what this new chapter has been inviting us into.
What does Saturn Retrograde in Pisces mean?
While Saturn connects with each of us in our own unique way, its intention remains the same throughout – to bring us into the mastery of ourselves. A road which requires responsibility, challenges, limitation, focus, determination, time, commitment, and structure. Saturn represents the innate need to realise one’s potential. To become what we are here to be. To journey the path that is ours.
It is both the inherent challenges steeped in the climb, and the gift of who we become through reaching the top
Saturn’s medicine isn’t one that is overtly obvious. It is the medicine of limitation. There is an inherent limitation in the human experience, in physical reality, and in matter. Whether time, possibility, health, movement, resources, perception, understanding, expression, connection, or something else.
From an esoteric viewpoint, Saturn rules over our Earthly human experience. While energy and Spirit is limitless in nature, pure potential, and boundless – the very act of incarnating into this reality is to limit that infinite expression. It is to take timelessness and enter time, frequency and enter matter, unlimited potential into the restriction of oneself, boundlessness into a bounded form, and it is to separate from the source energy of All-That-Is.
Pisces, however, represents that space of Oneness from which we all came existing in the realms of pre-incarnation. It is the dissolution of boundaries, where you are I and I am you, where we are nature, the stars, and life itself. Pisces is limitless, existing beyond time and space, and it is a zodiac that can take us into this boundless space of love and oneness through imagination, intuition, creativity, empathy, and emotion.
While Saturn is in Pisces, we have been learning how to support ourselves spiritually, whether through emotional and energetic boundaries, structure that allows our imagination to land in form, responsibility for our mental, emotional, and energetic health, a mastering of artistic expression, or a certain resilience that allows us to tap into greater heights of Oneness and empathy. Here, Saturn acts as the form, structure, and doorway for our Piscean dreams, compassion, imagination, vision, and creativity to flow through and be realised here, on the Earth, tangible, real, and experienced.Â
Allowing ourselves to slow down and observe the invitations of Saturn in Pisces in our lives since March 2023, how do you relate to both the Saturn and Pisces archetypes? Do you sway more in one direction, or hold a balance of these seemingly opposing directions within you?
This collaboration invites us to explore how boundaries can support your energetic and emotional health. How could structure support your connection to the Divine? How can responsibility empower your dreams, imaginations, and artistic expression? Could self-discipline feel like a language of love, instead of a punishment? And could limitation offer a focus and clarity for your dreams and desires?
Saturn Retrograde Horoscopes
In Astrology, the planets translate what is happening in our skies. They are the invitations. The mirrors of transformation which occur both within and without in our lives. The zodiac sign that the planet is expressing itself through shows us how these invitations are presenting themselves and the themes through which they are offered. The houses found in our natal chart then show us where in our lives this transformation is occurring and showing up.
By looking at your Ascendant, also known as your Rising Sign, we are shown where in your life this retrograde is taking place.
Please take note with any horoscopes they cannot be completely individualised without seeing your entire natal chart. Due to the nature of the placidus chart, Saturn may still be transiting throughout house earlier than stated below. There may also be aspects and other transits shaping your experience of Saturn Retrograde.
If you are a natal Saturn in Pisces, or born between 1993 – 1996 you are also experiencing your Saturn Return! You can dive deeper into your return with a 1:1 Saturn Return Astrology reading.
Aries Rising
These few years of Saturn in Pisces is a deeply inward chapter for you, Aries. This time speaks to completions, surrender, clearing, and the rebuilding of your connection to the Divine through first stripping away what is no longer serving you.
As Saturn Retrograde sweeps through your 12th house, it journeys through the underworld of the subconscious looking towards any patterns, belief systems, and emotions (whether they are yours, your parents, families, or the collectives) that sit within your psyche and influence your experience in ways that no longer support you.
Offer yourself the space and silence that allows for introspection. Explore what energetic and emotional boundaries mean to you, and what they could offer you. While we are in the 12th house we are attuned to the collective consciousness where separation ceases to exist. While there is a beautiful sense of oneness here, the gifts found in this oneness can only be offered when there are boundaries in place to differentiate what is you and yours from others. You do not need to take on everyone else’s emotions, nor do you need to hold the weight of expectations, fears, or anything that is not yours. How has Saturn in Pisces been reminding you of this?
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Taurus Rising
When you think of your future, Taurus, where does your mind take you? When you think of the future of the collective, what is your place in that? What does community mean to you? As Saturn sits in Pisces, this retrograde invites you to reflect on your sense of responsibility to your community, to your future, and to the role you feel you hold in the larger collective. What are your larger than life visions? And how can the Saturnian realms of perseverance, effort, discipline, responsibility, and focus support these visions?
There is a beautiful connection to community with Pisces swimming through your 11th house that holds an intuitive knowing and empathy for what the collective needs to move forward, and how to be that for them. This transit is asking you to balance this empathy and care for your community with caring for yourself so that you may show up with your gifts to give. Reflect on energetic hygiene and emotional boundaries. How can you build yourself up in a way that allows you relate to the needs of your community without being overwhelmed, drained, or confused in your direction? This is what Saturn is offering over the next few years.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Gemini Rising
These few years of Saturn in Pisces are inviting you to master your career, ambitions, sense of authority, and your reputation, Gemini.
During this retrograde, allow yourself to reflect on the last few months. How has your sense of responsibility changed within your career? When you think of ambition, where do your mind, body, and emotions take you?
Saturn represents the need to realise one’s innate potential. This is a time to challenge yourself, take responsibility for your path, goals, ambition, and structure. Not in a way that drains or depletes you, but in a way that serves you, serves your vision, serves your fulfilment, and serves the dreams that are yours to live. You deserve to be supported in the building of your empire, and Saturn desires to be that support for you even if at first it feels heavy.
While this retrograde can slow things down, allow yourself first to reflect upon your career path and what you want for yourself, so that once Saturn turns direct you can step forward clear and inspired.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Cancer Rising
This retrograde invites spaciousness so that you may reflect upon and integrate many years of your experience in the world, Cancer, so that you can then come into a deeper understanding of how you find meaning in all of it.
This is a philosophical chapter for you, and these few years of Saturn in Pisces hold an opportunity to rebuild your greater understanding of the meaning of life, and your place in all of it.Â
Whether this is found through studies, travel, religion, or a new relationship with the Pisces connection to spirituality, there is an invitation to expand and define your beliefs so that they may support you as you move through the world. The doorway to the Divine that Pisces embodies can be deeply supportive at this time in establishing your belief systems, whether this is through meditation, embodiment work, creative expression, or something else that connects you to your spirituality.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Leo Rising
To journey through one’s inner shadow and face what sits within the discarded parts of us isn’t easy, Leo, yet sometimes it is the path that is calling us. Saturn retrograde invites you to be vulnerable while it peels back layers to sit with what lies underneath. To witness parts yourself you may have disowned and cast into the shadow – all so that you may reach into acceptance, piece by piece reclaiming yourself.
There is a transformation taking place around your relationship to power, control, compulsions, attachments, addictions, sex, and finances, and in particular, how, or if, they hold any power over you. Whether this shows up in habitual thinking, patterns of acting and doing, escapism, or themes in your relationships.
This retrograde is an opportunity to witness what has been keeping you in chains, dimmed, powerless, and fearful – all so that you may rebuild your freedom, power, and light.Â
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Virgo Rising
Saturn is the structures that keeps us in place over time. It is the structures that allow something to be built, to remain, and to grow. It is also the dismantling of what is built on unsteady foundations, what cannot remain, grow, or stand the test of time.
Saturn Retrograde is an invitation to feel into the foundations of the relationships around you, whether romantic, business, or friendship. What are these relationships built upon? What are your needs within these relationships, and what are your responsibilities? Do they feel safe, loving, or inspiring? Do you offer a relationship of safety, love, and inspiration to your chosen people?
Pisces is deeply intuitive and tuned into the waters of emotions. Let this part of you reflect. Let your body answer. Let your heart speak.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Libra Rising
What is your relationship to daily structure, Libra? Could self-discipline feel like a language of self-love? Could organisation and commitment be a foundation from which you flourish?
Throughout Saturn in Pisces there is an invitation of greater responsibility for the small steps in your life. The small steps that make up the whole. The daily habits, routines, rituals, and schedules that influence the way you feel in the world, the way you feel about and trust yourself, and the way you support your body. This chapter is a clearing away of habits and routines and both a simplification and infusing of purpose in how you show up in your daily life.
This retrograde is a beautiful opportunity to reflect upon how you desire to take care of yourself. The small habits that can support you. The way that you can empower yourself through them. The way structure somehow allows for greater freedom, and boundaries for more access to your own energy.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Scorpio Rising
Could it be that the sweetest fruits are the ones we worked for, laboured for, nourished with our own two hands, and poured pieces of ourselves into? Could it be that the time it takes for those seeds to sprout, and the effort, patience, and discipline required to bring forth its sweetness, only adds to the joy of that very sweetness?
There is an inherent spark of vitality, life force, creative power, and love that lives within us all Scorpio, and it desires to be expressed freely through us.
As Saturn dances with Pisces in our skies, there is an invitation to rebuild your relationship with this vitality, life force, creative power, and expression of love. Throughout this retrograde, allow the space to reflect upon your relationship with discipline, structure, and habits in your creative and artistic work and expression. Inspiration is bliss when it finds us, and inspiration is not the only source. Consistency, reliability, and discipline allows us not only to trust in ourselves and build self-confidence, but it also builds the muscle of that very self-expression and creativity.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Sagittarius Rising
These few years of Saturn in Pisces is a returning home to yourself, Sagittarius. This time speaks to building security, tending to your sense of belonging, and creating a stable and safe home environment for yourself.
As Saturn Retrograde sweeps through your 4th house, it journeys through the deep inner patterns and belief systems that both run through your lineage, and/or were learned in early childhood that still influence your experience today. This chapter is an opportunity to re-parent yourself. To create the environment and home that you need for you to flourish. While we may have little control over our childhood, this time is an invitation to nurture ourselves in the way we needed, and perhaps still need.
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Capricorn Rising
Pisces swimming through the 3rd house can inspire a poetic, abstract, and artistic mind, Capricorn, and as Saturn ventures through this space in your chart over the next few years, you are invited to bring practical knowledge, structures, organisation, and grounded methods to expressing this artistic mind of yours.
Whether through education, research, study, reading, mentorship, or engaging a new mode of communication, this is a time to solidify and ground the mind, and the desire to do so will naturally find you.
Throughout this retrograde, allow yourself to reflect upon how you feel about your intelligence, your journey with learning, and how freely you feel you can communicate your internal world to others. What comes to the surface? What do you desire to build in this area of yourself over the coming years? Have you noticed any similar invitations over the last few months?
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Aquarius Rising
Saturn rules over our Earthly human experience. It is the tangible, physical, and practical. It is hard work and stability, thought out action, and patience. And it invites us to build structures that will bring security for years to come.
Saturn in Pisces speaks to a chapter of building security through resources for you Aquarius, both material and psychological. Whether this is your relationship with your self worth, money, skills, possessions, or earning potential. This chapter is all about your value beyond the inherent and unquestionable value you hold simply because you are here and breathing. It is how we build ourselves, invest in our skills so that they may grow, create security with practical financial steps, increase our earning capability, and tend to practical affairs.
As Saturn retrogrades this is a beautiful opportunity to reflect upon how you view your worth, how you value yourself, and your relationship to money. As Pisces has a deep empathic connection with the collective, it’s not rare to find ourselves holding onto many beliefs and patterns that aren’t ours, especially around topics as strong as money. Regardless of the world around you, what is security to you? What is value to you?
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
Pisces Rising
Saturn in your sign is a rebuilding of you, Pisces. A rebuilding of you through honest self-reflection, grounded and supportive steps, and a devotion to the person you are becoming over the identity that is being shed. There is an opportunity present to come into an understanding of who you are with greater depth than has been experienced before. To learn about what makes you uniquely you, and to spend these next few years grounding and integrating this emerging you.
As Saturn retrogrades over these next few months, invite yourself to reflect upon the last few years. Prior to moving into your sign, Saturn was transiting your 12th house, journeying through the hidden depths of your consciousness, transforming your sense of identity and individuality. After this metaphoric death of Self, we now arrive in a rebirth and rebuild of you. How have you transformed over these last few years? What identity is being left behind? And who remains?
Dive in deeper with a personalised Astrology Transits Reading.
