In early-September I reconnected with Jaime and learned how life has been going for him since we had spoken in early 2018. Jaime is deep into his Saturn return as I’m writing this part two — it is late December 2019, but it may be early February 2020 when I publish this part of his story. He’s recently had his birthday in mid-December. Jaime’s natal Saturn is in his 10th house of career and public life. Saturn is the ruler of his 10th, 11th houses for Capricorn and his 12th house co-ruler for Aquarius. As we will see, Jaime’s Saturn return has definitive expression between his public persona and professional life and his relationship to his family, most importantly his mother, during this important development cycle.
In my conversation with Jaime we discussed his thoughts about what has been transpiring over the past year in his work environment as well as his family relationships, specifically those with his mother and his brother mentioned in his Part One story. One significant event unfolded with his brother, who has had a long period of incarceration and was released in late January or early February of 2019. Jaime recalls a phone call with his brother and his brother’s counselor around that time which started a new contact with his brother. Jaime learned that his brother had denied his involvement and responsibility for the crime that led to his incarceration. Jaime recalls his brother went through the details with him, which was an incredible heavy moment for Jaime, as his brother acknowledged his wrongdoing. However, Jaime later sensed that it was a potential façade and that he felt duped by the exchange and reconnection. Jaime had thought he might be able to reconnect and get to know him. Jaime notes, that although he leans towards his believing his brother, it’s still a possibility that his brother is lying, since Jaime has no idea what the truth really is on the matter. Jaime accepted that his brother was responsible for his mistakes and the lying his brother did to him about his willingness to change his ways was on his brother. Jaime chose to take the higher road and simply accept what his brother has shown himself to be. Jaime listened and still supports when he can, but he is no longer engaging in the relationship with him. Jaime puts this new understanding as a reckoning, of sorts, in his life and a maturing perspective on his connection with his brother and his family. The experience has led him to establish new boundaries with his family.
Looking at Jaime’s Solar Return charts we can see the highlighted archetypes of the zodiac within these years of his Saturn return. Jaime has a significant amount of his chart in cardinal signs (Aries/Libra/Cancer/Capricorn). His energy is that of an originator, pioneer or project starter. Cardinal signs get the action going. Fixed signs stabilize energy and mutable signs draw us toward the changing themes between those two. Mutable signs are fluid ever changing and prefer the moving energy. The angles of Jamie’s chart are cardinal, and with the angles of the chart we have the greatest places in the chart for change, growth and life experiences and how they will be experienced. Cardinal energy is dynamic. Whatever happens in cardinal energy is swift to change, action is assertive and starts a new direction. Cardinal energy is self-directed by the individual, though when we are younger, we experience cardinal modes of energy through our parents, especially on the 4th and 10th house angles.
In this writing I will first share the archetypes that are dominant for the year and then follow with Jaime’s actual experiences. Jaime did not have strong specific dates and times of an exact event for me to consider as I’ve done with others in this project. However, that is often the case when someone comes for an astrology reading. Most people remember events and a general sense of time but usually not the exact time to create an event chart. Using the Solar Return is a good technique in this Part Two for Jaime’s Saturn return continuation story and for considering general themes for the year.
Jaime’s 2017 solar return with his natal chart will be the biwheel of charts to review for the life events he experienced in 2018. We can see a stellium in the solar return in Sagittarius, the sign of his natal Sun, in his solar return of 2017. Saturn was finishing Sagittarius at the 29th critical degree just before the big shift into Capricorn just a few days later. Jaime’s Saturn return began with his 2018 experiences, a year when Saturn entered Capricorn, a sign it rules. He also had a stellium of Scorpio in his 2017 solar return in Scorpio with Jupiter, Moon and Mars. We can expect that Jaime would have themes related to his professional work (10th house), his beliefs (9th house) or personal truth, and the emotional depths he may experience relating with others. It may be family where this focus takes place, given the fact that the moon in the solar return is in Scorpio but in the 7th house. Jaime’s relationships likely have some level of emotional entanglement and he will be managing himself through them. He will be discerning how much focus and intensity he will need to be involved with close relationships. Mars in Scorpio with Jupiter makes Scorpio potentials a lot more significant insomuch that they are bigger and more intense than they may otherwise be for him.
Jaime’s Solar Return of December 2017 highlighted his first house of self-identity as the Solar Return Ascendant is in Aries at the exact moment the sun returned to the degree and minute of his birth. Sagittarius is a mutable sign of fire, action focused, and an individual with a bulk of planets and angles in fire may be seeking personal truth as well. For Jaime, the truth may be connected to his identity and what he wants to do about it. He may be considering some higher education for his professional life. Ninth house is a key house for higher education to manifest in the potential choices. That can be one perspective this energy takes. Traveling somewhere distant could also be a choice that has entered his consideration during this year. Self-identity and truth, with a genuine focus on what he wants for himself, are the core themes. Uranus was in Aries at the time of his solar return in 2017, so it offered a supportive trine (easier flow), which may have come as unexpected impulses or explorations about himself. Uranus is the breakthrough and can be the “a-ha” moment after struggling with something and getting a clear understanding through an event that came to him out of the blue. Jaime may have a moment where he suddenly understands something about himself, and then a puzzle piece of “who am I” drops in with higher clarity.
In my follow-up conversation with Jaime in September (2019) I learned a lot about what he’s been doing and his thoughts on his life events, and we discussed the astrology within the context of the solar returns. Since he shared general timeframes related to these events and some things transpired over the year, the solar returns were the best tool from evolutionary astrology (or modern astrology) perspective to explore these astrological archetypes. First, Jaime noted that he thought 2018 was a serious maturing year for him. He tuned into his career and his relationships, especially family. In 2018, he did contract work with a company for which he used to be a full-time employee back in 2016. He remembers that in 2018 he realized that he never really did feel he was a part of the team. He shared that the company was a tech company that tried to build the team to act or behave like a “family atmosphere,” yet it was becoming a very toxic environment within the unfolding of that idea. Interestingly, his relationship with his own family was going through dynamic change as well in 2018. He noted that being in contact with his mom was emotionally draining him and he stopped talking with her altogether. Jaime noted that he wasn’t, and isn’t, angry with her, but her actions and the way she does not take care of herself affects him negatively. The boundaries he has made are for his own well-being in that context. She is his primary parent (you can learn more about Jaime’s family in his part one story, which you can read here.)
A significant leap in maturity takes place when we rise above our family’s emotional entanglement and decide what we are going to do for ourselves. This was part of Jaime’s 2018 maturing, coming to new definitive boundaries with his mother. Another boundary he was reviewing was related to his brother, but that was more clarified for him in early 2019 as mentioned earlier.
Notice how the moon in Scorpio (Solar Return 2017) was part of the theme for Jaime in deciding to separate from the emotionally entangled experiences his family was pulling him into and how he had to make a choice for himself to be more centered. A sobering act of self-love sometimes is really difficult, because we have family relationships that are important and yet we have to operate from a place where we can be our best self, and that can mean putting distance from certain family members as Jaime had to do.
Acknowledging past experiences has been hard for his mother from Jaime’s perspective. He shares that she doesn’t separate her own feelings about these past experiences, so it turns into being all about her – without an ability on her part to see how it affected others in her family circle too. His decision to significantly increase boundaries and separate from her is that he realized that she cannot accept this separation. He accepted that there is a severe lack of feelings on her part of being exchanged with her kids. Key phrase here would be the feelings exchanged. He realizes that there is a really limited exchange of feelings between his mother her children since her feelings dominate in the connection. I am not certain if the storyline of Jaime’s brother’s incarceration is entangled with his mother’s emotional state, but it seems that these two parts of Jaime’s life are part of his Saturn return story to discern his level of emotional engagement. Perhaps Jaime has heard Brené Brown’s wisdom of genuine vulnerability and those who have it have the strictest of boundaries.[i] Jaime’s career and work life in his Saturn return seem to have had a similar toxic relationship context! For Jaime, he still supports his family when he can, but he is not engaging in the relationship as he had done in the past. Jaime has learned how much energy it takes for certain relationships. Note Jupiter in Jaime’s 2017 solar return is in Scorpio and is the ruler of the Sagittarius. Saturn was just about to leave Sagittarius at his solar return, but still making one last emphasized statement about boundaries and his need to take action (fire).
Jaime’s 2018 solar return offers the archetypal themes with new positions of the planets, which reflects his 2019 archetypal themes. In his solar return of December 2018, Jaime has Jupiter in Sagittarius, the sign it rules, as well as Saturn in Capricorn, the sign it rules. In 2018, Jaime’s year began with conversations over the phone with his brother and his brother’s counselor. These conversations were a key part of the process for his brother’s release from incarceration and his new life. His brother spoke with Jaime about the original incident, which was an intense and heavy realization. Jaime shared that he didn’t really know his brother, since they are usually distant, but thought he could get to know him again at this point. Jaime realizes that there is some sadness and grieving related to his brother, knowing that he is out of incarceration, but he knows his brother has not figured life out yet in the new context of his release.
In considering 2018 and early 2019, there is a continuation of the family themes and significant maturing moments for Jaime in relationship with them. Notice Jaime’s 2018 solar return Saturn is in the sign of Capricorn, exactly conjunct his natal Mercury in Capricorn. Mercury is the planetary ruler of Jaime’s third house of siblings (Gemini) and his sixth house of work and daily habits (Virgo). I asked Jaime if he’d experienced any health issues or accidents in 2019 so far (we spoke in September), and he said he had not. Though he did experience a time when his truck was not working, and it had snowed so much where he lives that he was isolated for nearly a week until he was able to get it fixed.
Jaime’s career was more in focus throughout 2019, as it was becoming clearer to him that his passion for being an illustrator was changing. He noted that he has been considering the switch to graphic design for his career and began looking into what it would entail making the change. He reflected on the fact that he has learned a lot about himself over the time he’s been an illustrator. For most of his life, this activity has been a crutch to survive his childhood, to fill the void which he thinks was mislabeled as passion. He’s figured out that it is part of his life but not his only focus in life, and he feels confident in that realization. He is more attracted to stability now, which is to be expected during his Saturn return. The illustrator creative is more for himself now and he wants to reach for something that is more aligned with the work of a graphic artist. He has been investigating online studies as well as potential studies at the Art Center in California, but that would require moving to California.
In our conversation, I asked Jaime what he recalled of his thoughts on starting his Saturn return and what he thought might have happened, compared to what he has experienced so far. He said he was excited, about change and ready for it. He thinks it is smaller, more boring, and less intense than he thought it would be. Jaime turned 30 in December 2019. His career, while in motion, is going through a transition as he considers a new focus but knows it will require some additional education and risk-taking to make it happen. In 2020, Jaime will have transiting Saturn leave Capricorn and enter Aquarius where his natal Venus is at two degrees. I told Jaime that I anticipate changes in his interests in new relationships when transiting Saturn approaches his Venus. It may reveal new potentials in the spring of 2020, but perhaps it takes until the end of 2020 when Saturn finally returns to Aquarius and Jupiter then catches up, which starts a huge new cycle for Jupiter and Saturn conjunctions in the sign of air. I think these new relationships will be both personal and professional.
Looking ahead, his solar return this year continues to show an intense dynamic with cardinal energy. January will be an intensive time for Jaime as the significant transit of 2020, with Saturn conjunct Pluto in Capricorn at 22 degrees on January 12, 2020, will be in his 10th house of career. The major transit of 2020 when Saturn conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn is opposite his 4th house of family. The Midheaven of his Solar Return is at 22 degrees Aries, which brings his career and professional life to his first house of self-identity, and that will be square the very potent transformational energy of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn. This year has the potential to set the stage for the next 30 years of his professional life, his public life, and how he expresses himself to the world.
What decisions will he need to make this year to navigate the (planetary aspects) tensions and shape his choices from the square that shows in his solar return this year? Consider the potent position of the Solar Return Mars exactly on Jaime’s natal Pluto in Mars in the 8th house. Is there a struggle with his brother again that challenges Jaime with his desired direction? Is there something that demands Jaime’s attention that he cannot ignore? Mars rules his first house, his Ascendant. This is an incredible amount of energy together in the eighth house. Sometimes planets that are in the eighth house suggest things we may understand only through the projection we receive from someone else. What transformation of Jaime’s self-identity takes shape this year from a Scorpio perspective or an underworld type of experience? Jaime’s thoughts on higher education are likely to take some shape this year with his solar return Midheaven (Aries) in a trine with his Sun (Sagittarius). There is a potential for struggle with shared resources (8th house), but that may be a decision of taking on debt for college.
Finally, Neptune is at 16 degrees Pisces in a 120-degree trine with Solar Return Mars and his natal Pluto. How does Neptune help diffuse and soften the intensity of the powerful Mars conjunction of his natal Pluto? The potential for creativity can flood Jaime, but this potential also can symbolize that his boundaries are easily breached. The Solar Return moon reiterates the emotional ties to family that he will need to manage, but he may find new ways of connecting with his family members. There is a grand water in trine in his Solar Return with the moon, Mars, and Neptune. Neptune is the potential for dreams and his unconscious mind bringing more to the surface for him to integrate. Since this solar return is also very angular, the dynamics of events happen quickly and can change what he thought he knew or what direction he had planned. Venus, the planet connected to our sense of love and being loved, is at 22 Capricorn in his Solar Return. The very degree that Saturn and Pluto conjunct occurs on January 12, 2020. The Solar Return Venus is on the hot degree. Solar Return Jupiter is on his natal Uranus, is applying to a trine to the Solar Return Uranus in Taurus. Venus rules Jaime’s 2nd house of income, possessions and his 8th house of relationships. There can be a period when he may earn less if he decides to go to college again to further his career. From a review of his astrology there seems an alignment to this idea for himself. One event or one decision in life alters one’s direction and identity. How significant is that for Jaime this year? On a scale of one to ten, it is a ten!
[i] Brown, B. (2020). The power of vulnerability. Retrieved 6 February 2020, from https://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_the_power_of_vulnerability/up-next?language=en
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