At the age of around 28 and a half, your soul ´s journey has reached a point in its evolution of awareness where a process begins of taking a step back, slowing down, and then entering a stage of deep reflection on the nature of your life. Because the natural process of refection requires the need to go within, a natural process  of becoming more introverted takes place. I really want to emphasize the point that this is an intrinsic part of how consciousness works in human form.
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What is happening in a broad sense is this… Before we reach our 28th year, we spend our lives experiencing and developing our  ideas about life; our identity. We can call this the ego. When the Saturn Return comes along, we slow down and reflect. Upon reflection, the ego that we had before then starts to break down and we often change our perspective on, and approach to, life. We go through a period of ego transformation and conscious reality shift. We see ourselves in a renewed context. What results  sometimes entails a change in direction, and sometimes a conscious solidifying of the direction we are  already on.
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As I mentioned above the cycle of Saturn in our lives reflects maturation. What happens is that we “trade” beauty and youth for wisdom and maturity. This trade is this the essentially deal with Saturn.
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At the age of 7 we experience our first Saturn cycle point, or aspect. We become awake to our own mortality and our physical limitations. This is our first maturing step.

Around  the age of 14 we have the beginning of our need for independent social interaction. We leave behind the dolls and little kid’s games and we start the business of becoming little adults, and also exploring our bodies. This is an important aspect of our development.

At around 21, our Saturn cycle is about throwing off the last 21 years of household parental rules. We move from home and we begin our journey towards independence.

With a 29 year orbit, the planet Saturn returns to  its original sign in our birth chart between the age of 28 to 30 years, taking  over  2 years to move completely through each sign. This period of time, as Saturn transits its natural sign, is the “Saturn Return”.

At Saturn returns to its natural point  in your birth chart, all the karmic lessons you went through during the ages of 7, 14, and 21 now get stacked on top of each other and you are asked to grow and mature. You become aware of your age, and that you are now getting older. So it’s time to act. Dramatic change is often the result.
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As we learn to walk this earth incarnation we are given specific tools at key points in our evolutionary journey that help us find the remembrance we came to discover. When we are faced with our Saturn cycle, the task might appear daunting and will require self-determination but what comes from this is great reward. The foundation  that is built during the Saturn Return cycle supports us to  start living our new evolutionary purpose. Old forms are removed and we find new ways of being. We take charge of our lives and begin to make conscious decisions for our future.

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(Cosmic fact: Saturn is cycling through its home sign of Capricorn from December 19, 2017 to March 21, 2020.)

During the Saturn return—which lasts 2.5 to 3 years (see the tables below)—you will come face to face with your own blocks and be forced to push through them. All the “mistakes” you made in the nearly three decades leading up to this seem to crystallize. Rather than repeating them on autopilot, you have a chance to turn lemons into lemonade. And if you refuse to heed those lessons, Saturn will bring a drill sergeant style smackdown. Indeed, the Saturn return starts off feeling a bit like boot camp for a lot of people. But drop and give him twenty instead of rebelling against those barking orders.  Three years later, you’ll be General Awesome or Captain Fantastic of your own kick-ass army—at the very least, you’ll be decorated with a star or two.

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