The Best Saturn Return Calculator
You don’t need to be a professional astrologer to find out the exact day of your Saturn Return. I’ve created a step-by-step guide that anyone can follow.
I’m going to show you how to find your Saturn Return date the way I would do it. This will require learning a bit of the mechanics behind astrology and may take time and effort, but by the end, you’ll be proud of what you’ve accomplished, and all the more masterful for it! Which is perfect, because that’s what happens during a Saturn transit.
You’re likely already familiar with the themes (and memes) of the Saturn Return, so let’s get down to work. Whether it’s in the future or the past (or, happening as we speak!) we’re going to find out when your Saturn Return is.
Step 1: Find Your Natal Saturn Sign and Degree
Let’s head over to Astro-Charts.com, an aesthetically pleasing free birth chart website.
You’ll type in your birth date, time, and place (city, state, country). If you don’t know the exact time, use 12 p.m. — for the purposes of the Saturn Return, it’s close enough.
Scroll down a bit until you see a list of planets. Saturn is the 7th one, and you’re looking for the sign (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, etc.) and degree (0-29).
As you can see, my Saturn is in the sign: Scorpio, and degree: 25 degrees, 18 minutes.
Write yours down.
Step 2: Look Up What Years Saturn Returned to Your Sign
The sign Saturn was in on the day you were born is your “natal Saturn” sign. Saturn spends 2-3 years in each sign. When Saturn returns to the sign it was in when you were born, that’s called a sign-based conjunction.
Many people feel the effects of the Saturn Return across this multi-year period, even if Saturn is at an early or late degree of the sign. The years Saturn was in Scorpio for my Saturn Return exactly correspond with the years I lived in New York City, which, according to astrocartography, is one of my Saturn lines. That can happen, too — during a Saturn transit, you might be drawn to live or visit a place on a Saturn line.
Let’s head over to the comprehensive resource, Cafe Astrology, to look at Saturn through the signs. Scroll down to find the sign your natal Saturn is in.
You’ll see a date range that encompasses your birthday. Below that, look for date ranges that are approximately 30 years later. There could be up to three, as Saturn sometimes moves out of a sign, then retrogrades back in.
Write down, or copy-paste, these date ranges.
If they’ve already happened, reflect on the big life changes. If they’re coming up, put them on your calendar.
Step 3: Find Your Exact Date on an Ephemeris
No false promises: This part is going to be tedious.
Your Saturn Return will, ultimately, last a couple years, so is it important to find the exact date? I think so. When I found the exact date of my Saturn Return and looked back at old emails and calendars, I realized I’d accepted a job on that day. It didn’t pay as well as the one I was leaving (which is very Saturnian — limitations) and in hindsight, I have mixed feelings about the choice, but knowing it was my Saturn Return makes me think it was meant to be. Still, had I known it was my Saturn Return at the time, I may have chosen differently.
Now we’ll go to highly revered professional tool Astro.com’s Ephemeris page. If your Saturn Return date ranges are all the year 2000 or later, click 21st Century. If earlier, click 20th Century.
A list of years will open up. When you click on one, it will open a PDF. We want all the ones represented in your date ranges. Open them in a new tab, or download them.
Once open, you’re going to see a very intimidating grid of numbers. On the top row, you’ll look for the icon for Saturn. It resembles a lowercase ‘h.’ It’s the 7th icon from the left.
Underneath the header row, you’ll see the icon for the sign next to the degree. For example, what you’re seeing in the image above is 20 degrees, the icon for Scorpio, and 21 minutes. Degrees range from 0 to 29, and each degree can be broken down even further from 0 to 60 minutes.
You don’t have to worry about knowing the icon for each sign, though, because you have those handy date ranges already!
Using the date ranges you looked up previously, find the corresponding month grid on the ephemeris, find the Saturn column, and scroll down until you find the exact degree/minutes of your natal Saturn.
Even if your Saturn is a late degree (like mine: 25, on a range that only goes to 30), try not to skip ahead too much.
It’s possible you will have three Saturn Return dates, if Saturn passes your natal Saturn’s position, retrogrades back over, and then crosses forward a third time. The first exact Saturn Return date you find is the one to pay most attention to, but if there are multiple, you may experience that the real-life events on all three dates link together thematically. Put them all on your calendar!
You might also find that the ephemeris shows the minutes skipping over your exact Saturn placement. That just means the exact, exact moment of your Saturn Return was in between those two days (at nighttime!) so you might just consider the earlier date to be the one you mark on your calendar.
Conclusion
I hope this guide helped you find your Saturn Return date! It’s been so valuable to me to reflect on this time in my life — what lessons I was meant to learn then, and where I’m still upleveling.
If you would like further support on your Saturn Return, I’d be delighted to help. A Flash Reading is a perfect way to get your dates and personal takeaways on navigating your Saturn Return!
