Exactly one year ago my Saturn Return began. The Saturn Return is a coming of age that everyone experiences at around age 29/30 (and does not fully complete until age 36) when the planet Saturn returns to the same sign, place, and degree as it was when you were born. Saturn is the task master in astrology. He brings us lessons pertaining to our specific karmas which teaches us patience, hard work, and responsibility. During our Saturn Return’s, we experience a culmination of Saturn energy specific to the placement of your planet. Typically if you have been putting in the time, effort, dedication, and responsibility over the course of your life, the Saturn Return can be a rewarding time. However, if you have been avoiding responsibility in your life, the ages of 29/30 can bring a course correction to you.
Saturn Returns are not easy for anyone, because the best things never come easily, Saturn is the ruler of time. Saturn Returns can feel like a pressure cooker type of energy where you will either sink or swim or need to work very hard to bring better form and stability to the specific area of life that he rules in your chart. Any important life events that occur around age 29/30 represent a crystallization of the Saturn lessons for the individual. The Saturn Return tends to unearth, dig up, and break down anything that is not serving your higher purpose. Issues with authority, power, and fear may come up which forces you to confront any hardened perceptions of your reality.
In this blog, I will be sharing my experience with my Saturn Return and how a book I read during this event foreshadowed events in my life.
My Saturn Return occurred in Aquarius in 2023 at the beginning of the year, and I wasn’t expecting any major changes as Saturn is very strong in my own natal chart by sign, degree, and house placement. During my Saturn Return I read and reviewed The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller. The Synopsis can be found below:
SYNOPSIS:
“A warm-hearted yet fierce fairy tale.”―H. G. Parry
In the early 1900s, two sisters must navigate the magic and the dangers of the Fae in this enchanting and cozy historical fantasy about sisterhood and self-discovery.
There is no magic on Prospect Hill—or anywhere else, for that matter. But just on the other side of the veil is the world of the Fae. Generations ago, the first farmers on Prospect Hill learned to bargain small trades to make their lives a little easier—a bit of glass to find something lost, a cup of milk for better layers in the chicken coop.
Much of that old wisdom was lost as the riverboats gave way to the rail lines and the farmers took work at mills and factories. Alaine Fairborn’s family, however, was always superstitious, and she still hums the rhymes to find a lost shoe and to ensure dry weather on her sister’s wedding day.
When Delphine confides her new husband is not the man she thought he was, Alaine will stop at nothing to help her sister escape him. Small bargains buy them time, but a major one is needed. Yet, the price for true freedom may be more than they’re willing to pay.
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REVIEW:
The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill by Rowenna Miller is an enchanting historical fantasy about how far one is willing to go for those they love and what, if anything, someone is willing to trade for it.
The story takes place in Prospect Hill a charming idyllic countryside setting where the orchards are in full bloom. The land, unbeknownst to many sits on the cusp of the land of the fae where little bargains or trades with the fae are exchanged for little bit of luck. Two sisters Alaine and Delphine call Prospect Hill home as it was bestowed to the family generations prior with the help of the magical creatures. Alaine and Delphine have grown up with the folk traditions of fairy bargains and things become complicated when the sisters begin to break the bargaining rules, putting themselves and those they love the most in harm’s way.
This was a whimsical story right out of a folk tale book. The author created a complex world of fairy bargaining with rich detail which added a sense of realism to the story. The settings were beguiling and the suspense spellbinding. Despite the fairy magic, this story was about family and the love that can bind and break those we love the most. Even with the best intentions, boundaries (and fairy rings) can be crossed which can disrupt the delicate balance between free will and fate.
With that being said, the pacing was a little off. It started off slow without much conflict which took up most of the book. Only when one of the sisters began directly interacting with the fae did the story pick up. I think the author could have brought a little more danger and suspense to the first and middle half of the book. Also the time period and location of the story was not very clear.
The tension between freedom, love, and desire glistened throughout this story, tempting and taunting each character until something very precious was nearly lost. Legends tell us that fairies can be dangerous because of their trickery and the sisters in this story might have gotten more than what they bargained for.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This story was about boundaries, the price we pay for freedom, and trickery… and little did I realize that this book was foreshadowing my Saturn Return. I believe that we call books into our lives when they have a special message for us, so I paid very close attention to the themes and lessons found in this story since I was reading it during my Saturn Return.
During the year, I was faced with very difficult situations pertaining to my boundaries which required a lot of patience. I had started off the year making a drastic change in lifestyle which I thought was going to provide me with more freedom, but like the characters in the story, I quickly realized that it was the wrong decision. I ended up having less freedom than I thought and it cost me a lot of aggravation. I had also spent the year dealing with many trickster type people who were trying to have me do things for their benefit and not my own, not unlike the fae in the book.
Saturn in Aquarius brings lessons pertaining to personal power, freedom, and liberation and helps to expand the mind to see how everything is connected. By being in a very difficult high pressure situation that was eroding my sense of freedom, I was forced to shift my perspective in a big way which helped me to take back my power. Had I not been in that situation, I would not have expanded my mind in the way that I did. The sisters in The Fairy Bargains of Prospect Hill sacrificed something that was very important to them in exchange for something they thought was better. Sometimes in life we end up trading something valuable for something less valuable even with the best intentions, but that’s the lesson of Saturn… what we want isn’t necessarily what we get but if it’s not serving our karma, purpose, and destiny then it’s just a piece of coal that needs pressure and heat in order to turn into a diamond.
Here’s a couple of great quotes from the book that I think sums up the Saturn Return perfectly
”I thought if I just kept on, I’d eventually get somewhere. But if you choose the wrong path, you’re not going to end up where you wanted to go by charging ahead, are you? You have to stop and turn around sometimes, even if it’s not easy.”
“I asked for something I didn’t really understand, and I got something I didn’t really want.”
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