This Leo rising is reflecting on a two-year journey of growing up and growing into herself. That’s right, it’s a Saturn Return Reflection Recap. 🪐🫶

My exact Saturn return was on March 8, 2025, when Saturn returned to 21° of Pisces—the spot where it was at the time I drew my first breath. This means that since May 2023, I’ve been on a journey of emotional maturing, reclaiming lost parts of self, practicing real self-love, and realigning on my highest path. 

As we get ready for Saturn to leave Pisces and enter Aries on May 24, 2025, here are some reflections and lessons from my first Saturn Return. 

Self-love can take many different shapes.

During my Saturn return, I learned that self-compassion is often uncomfortable. Sometimes it looks like setting boundaries with people who drain your energy. Sometimes it’s looking at your bank account even though you’d rather not. And sometimes it’s committing to a movement practice because the identity you long to have and the life you want to live requires you to be a woman who moves. 

Real self-love is self-honesty, practicing compassion, and releasing perfectionism (it gets in the way of true connection and lasting progress, anyway). 

There is no moral goodness in suffering.

You don’t get a prize for punishing yourself. And ultimately, it’s not the most effective strategy for personal growth and change. My Saturn return taught me how to navigate shadow work with even a touch more grace and self-compassion, knowing that I can’t shame myself into sustainable change. I deserve help with things that feel hard, and I will love myself through every evolution and revolution. 

I am loved and worthy of support, always. No matter what. 

Boundaries save relationships, revive creativity, and spark spiritual awakenings. 

Boundaries get a bad rap because of the people who use them to avoid facing their own bullshit. When you’re willing to do your part and you’re not using “boundaries” (or other misconstrued therapy-speak) to avoid the hard but necessary work of self-accountability, boundaries allow you to be in healthy relationships—with people, projects, your intuition, and Spirit. 

My therapist once told me that boundaries are the thing that allow me to love you and love myself at the same time.

What are the containers and structures that hold your brilliance? What are the terms of engagement in your communities and relationships? What are the ever-changing conditions that foster vulnerability, connection, and clarity? Saturn teaches me that boundaries are a practice, not a destination. 

I love this reflection from Nik of @embodied.intuitive on Threads: “When I started asking myself to discern the difference between ‘what am I willing to offer freely without reciprocity or exchange?’ and ‘what am I willing to offer with exchange?’ and ‘what am I not willing to offer at all?’ my whole life changed.”

Everyone is on their own journey and humans are designed to disappoint one another. 

Being in relationship with other humans means you’re in a constant state of re-setting and re-aligning expectations. I’ve learned that I am never going to please everyone. There will be moments where my actions don’t align with the expectations of others (or the expectations of myself), or where my integrity is called into question. I get to choose how to respond in moments like this. 

To me, part of emotional maturity is accepting that I am bound to disappoint the people I love, and the people I love are bound to disappoint me. I believe that true love and commitment means that both parties are devoted and willing to make things right, repair lost trust, and move forward in the way that serves the health of the relationship. 

Life is always unfolding and happening for me, not to me. 

Sometimes the tower needs to crumble to make space for something new, more beautiful, and more aligned. The time leading up to my Saturn return, as well as the transit itself, brought plenty of moments that made me feel fully victimized and out of control. 

Holding myself through rock-bottom circumstances that felt all-consuming and devastating to confront, actually fortified me and showed me what I was made of. They taught me that I’m worthy of love and support no matter what. They forced me to surrender to the Universe’s higher plan for my life. I got to lean on mentors, friends, family, and partners in deeper and more vulnerable ways.

These experiences showed me that on the other side of every breakdown is a breakthrough far more beautiful than anything I could orchestrate on my own. Life is always, always, always happening for me, not to me. 

I am so thankful for the still-unfolding journey of my Saturn return. These lessons (among many more) help me to be a better steward of love, a better coach to my clients, a more loving and understanding friend and partner, and a more grounded, well-rounded human. 

Thanks for the Memories, Daddy Saturn. May you be kind to the next cohort of Saturn Return Baddies! 💖

What lessons did your Saturn return teach you? Come share—I’d love to hear what this brought up for you! Find me on Instagram @byaudreywhelan.

Looking to learn more about Saturn Return or what it specifically means for you? Check out CosmicRx’s Saturn in Aries Workshop with Madi Murphy on June 11th.