What Does Adulting Mean to You According to Astrology?
There was a time when a middle class person could reasonably expect to pay for a college degree with their summer job money, graduate into a stable job with a decent paycheck, buy a modest home, and have enough money to start a family by the time they were 25.
That is not the world we live in today.
And, yet, the popular image of what it means to be an adult is frozen like a mammoth in Siberia in a world that died long ago. The cognitive dissonance caused by the distance between the popular definition of being an adult and the reality of what most individuals are capable of right now is terrible. It’s like experiencing gaslighting everywhere you go.
Until we manage to build a better world, we need new coming of age stories for the world we live in now.
Astrology can help you define adulting in a way that is satisfying and fulfilling for you.
In astrology, there is no bigger expert on what it means to be a grown up than Saturn. Saturn’s area of expertise is doing hard things, in hard places, at hard times. If you are looking for someone to pat you on the back and accept your excuses, Saturn isn’t going to do it, but Saturn is fair, and Saturn is a realist. He knows that “one size fits all” is a bad marketing gimmick. Even in the best of times, no one is capable of doing everything, so his standards are different for everyone.
Saturn’s sign tells you about what kind of hero you’re trying to be. If you have Saturn in Aries, your coming of age story will be a warrior’s coming of age. With Saturn in Sagittarius, you will feel the most grown up when you have a quest like Odysseus. If you have Saturn in Cancer or Capricorn, your coming of age story might look like selfishness to other people, even though you know that it actually represents growth.
Saturn’s house tells you where in your life your Saturn coming of age moment will happen. If you have Saturn in Aries in the 10th house, your battle will be in the area of your career. If you have Saturn in Aries in the 4th, however, your battle will be with your family, or you will need to fight for your home.
To find Saturn’s coming of age story for you, look for your Saturn sign in the section on the signs below. If you were born in the late-70s or later, you can find your Saturn sign by checking the range of dates associated with each sign. To find where your life your coming of age drama will play out, read the section on the house where you find Saturn in your natal chart.
Saturn in the Signs
Saturn in Aries
Apr 7, 1996 - Jun 9, 1998 | Oct 25, 1998 - Feb 28, 1999
You feel like you’ve been training with a wooden sword for years. There are important battles to be fought. Everyone around you is fighting, and you know that you belong on the battlefield, too, but your training never seems to end. If you are lucky, your day will come. Your teachers will pat you on the back and hand you a sword. You will go into battle confident in your ability to handle deadly weapons with precision. Or, the war might come to you before you’re ready, and you will face a choice: Steal a sword from the armory and charge into battle unprepared, risking harm to yourself and others, or wait with the children for the adults to take care of it—or not. Ultimately, only you know when you’re ready to face your destiny—or when you have no choice but to face it.
Saturn in Taurus
Jun 9 - Oct 25, 1998 | Feb 28, 1999 - Aug 9, 2000 | Oct 15, 2000 - Apr 20, 2001
You were born feeling old. Whenever you pass the VFW Hall, memories of distant battles lost and won before you were born reverberate through your skull. You are done with fighting. You have been done with fighting your whole life. You want nothing more than silence, the smell of green trees, and the taste of cold spring water. Someday, you’re going to pack up your few precious belongings, sell everything else you own, and drive away from civilization with your dog. You will spend your life burying your hands in the good, black earth. Then, when you fall exhausted into bed with aching muscles and a guilt-free mind, you will find peace.
Saturn in Gemini
Aug 9 - Oct 15, 2000 | Apr 20, 2001 - Jun 3, 2003
Most people have a memory of the day when they told their first lie. You will never forget the first time you told the truth. The truth is: You are never really going to graduate. There will always be one more class to take, one more book to read, one more subject to interview, one more experiment to run in the lab, one more language to learn. It is only when you realize this that you will have the humility necessary to answer your calling, to step up to the lectern, and share what you know.
Saturn in Cancer
Jun 3, 2003 - Jul 16, 2005
There was a time when you thought you became a Real Adult the moment you became a parent. The truth is: People have always trusted you with their babies. You were holding babies when you were little more than a baby yourself. For you, maturity is not about sacrifice. It is about having the courage to know your limits, to put your mask on first before you help someone else with theirs, to look straight in the eye of someone who desperately needs your help, and tell them, “No.”
Saturn in Leo
Jul 16, 2005 - Sep 2, 2007
What is maturity for a rockstar? Is it the first time you get on stage? The big gig? The international tour? All of these things are accomplishments. You know they are, but, as you check each one off your bucket list, you have a sneaking suspicion that all of these Big Star milestones aren’t really what success is all about. There will come a day when you are at the top of your game, and you look out at the crowd of people basking in your glory and one individual in the crowd will catch your eye. You’ve always known your fans were people, but it will be like you understand what that means for the first time. There are so many people out there longing to be where you are, just as deserving of fame as you are. Suddenly, the stage will feel too small. You will wish it was in your power to pull everyone up on stage with you. You have that power. You will find a way.
Saturn in Virgo
Jul 26, 1978 - Sep 21, 1980 | Sep 2, 2007 - Oct 29, 2009
People keep on telling you that you’re crabby, but you can’t help it. Everywhere you look something is broken. You don’t know how people can stand the cracked up roads, the buggy computer code, the shoddy stitching in new pairs of jeans—never mind all of your mistakes. Your mistakes dance in front of your eyes when you go to bed at night, making you cringe. The world will never be good enough. You will never be good enough. The time will come when you realize this, and it doesn’t make you fall apart with despair. You will stand up, brush off your knees, and look around you with a clear eye. With a sober sense of your own limits and responsibilities, you will draw a line across your life. On one side of the line are the things that are outside of your purview. On the other side of the line is your shit to clean up, and you will pick up your cleaning brush and start scrubbing.
Saturn in Libra
Sep 21, 1980 - Nov 29, 1982 | May 6, 1983 - Aug 24, 1983
A day will come when you realize that, ultimately, every decision is arbitrary. You will realize that most other people don’t really bother trying to understand what’s fair like you do. They mostly come up with justifications for doing the things they do after they’ve already decided to do them. That time giving people the benefit of the doubt has not been wasted, however. In trying to understand the decisions of others, you have become an expert in understanding other people’s underlying motivations. You can empathize with the victim and the thief. You know exactly why the bottle of medicine was stolen, and you also know the pain in the pharmacist’s heart, knowing that the medicine will be abused. On that day, you will find yourself alone, the only person in the room capable of delivering justice, and you will choose with a broken heart because you will understand how much justice really costs.
Saturn in Scorpio
Nov 29, 1982 - May 6, 1983 | Aug 24, 1983 - Nov 16, 1985 | Oct 5, 2012 - Dec 23, 2014 | Jun 14 - Sep 17, 2015
Some really fucked up shit has happened to you. If there is any justice in the world, you’ve spent a lot of time in therapy sorting it out, but few people know better than you just how unjust this world really is, so it’s doubtful that you have been able to get all the therapy the world owes you. The first part of growing up is owning that fact. You were born clinging with both hands to a rope that holds you, gently swinging, a hundred feet in the air. It isn’t fair, but you’re the only one who can save you, so you’ve got to take responsibility for your predicament and learn how to climb that rope to safety.
Saturn in Sagittarius
Nov 16, 1985 - Feb 13, 1988 | Jun 10 - Nov 12, 1988 | Dec 23, 2014 - Jun 14, 2015 | Sep 17, 2015 - Dec 19, 2017
The day you came of age was the day you walked away from the job, the home, the relationship, the church, the school that didn’t mean anything to you. Most people breathe oxygen. You breathe purpose. Every waking moment needs to be filled with it, or you will choke on boredom and drown in despair. For a time, you will wander. Even if you pretend that life is one big party, you will hate the wandering years because every purposeless step feels like a waste of time to you. When you are old, you will realize that the wandering years were essential. It is only by stumbling over it accidentally that you will be able to uncover your quest.
Saturn in Capricorn
Feb 13 - Jun 10, 1988 | Nov 12, 1988 - Feb 6, 1991 | Dec 19, 2017 - Mar 21, 2020 | Jul 1 - Dec 17, 2020
Winter is coming, and you know what an impending snow storm smells like better than anyone. If you listen, you will hear the voice of caution in your heart. If you are wise, you will heed your inner voice. You will work hard and save for harder times. You will get pushback. Everyone around you will have evidence for why things are getting better: “The economy is booming. We tore down the wall. The president lost the election. How bad could it possibly be?” You know. You know what it takes to take care of yourself.
Saturn in Aquarius
Feb 6, 1991 - May 21, 1993 | Jun 30, 1993 - Jan 28, 1994 | Mar 21 - Jul 1, 2020 | Dec 17, 2020 - Mar 7, 2023
You have always been an outsider. If you’re honest, you like it that way. You like the perspective distance gives you. There are few things more scary than crowds. You can get lost in a crowd. You can lose the thing that truly makes you special: your ability to see clearly the way the crowd moves like a flock of birds. A day will come when you will have a choice. You can return home. You can communicate what you've seen to the people who need to hear it. You can say things no one has ever heard before. You won’t know how they will react. Will they call you a genius, or will they make you a scapegoat and send you into exile? These are questions you cannot answer. You are the only one who knows how important your truth is. What is the cost of silence? Listen to yourself and choose.
Saturn in Pisces
May 21 - Jun 30, 1993 | Jan 28, 1994 - Apr 7, 1996 | Mar 7, 2023 - May 24, 2025 | Sep 1, 2025 - Feb 13, 2026
A day will come when you put down the bottle, quit doing drugs, stop playing video games, and start meditating. That doesn’t necessarily mean you will go to India and stay in an ashram. It might be that on the outside nothing has changed. You might go to the bar or dispensary like you always do. You might stay up until dawn raiding, but something in your head will be different. For a long time, you ran away from life, but you won’t just engage in escapism anymore, you will actually escape. There is a world on the other side of the rainbow, a state of consciousness that is as clear and open as a prairie sky, and you will spend the rest of your life running toward that sky as fast as you can.
Saturn in the Houses
1st House
Your coming of age story is the central theme in your life story. Everything in your life ties into it in some way.
2nd House
Your coming of age story will play out in your relationship with money and your sense of self-worth.
3rd House
Your coming of age story will involve finding your voice or building life-long relationships with people who feel like siblings to you.
4th House
Your coming of age story will play out in your home, homeland, or family of origin.
5th House
Your coming of age story will require you to express yourself in an authentic way. It may also involve your relationship with children or friends.
6th House
Your coming of age story will involve your day job, your physical health, or your daily rituals.
7th House
Your coming of age story will involve your relationship with a partner, spouse, or rival.
8th House
Your coming of age story will involve facing death, the occult, or extreme vulnerability.
9th House
Your coming of age story will involve religion or encounters with people from very different cultures.
10th House
Your coming of age story will involve your vocation or career.
11th House
Your coming of age story will involve your colleagues or goals for the future.
12th House
Your coming of age story will involve an encounter with something bigger or stronger than you that is inviting you to (directly or indirectly) to experience transcendence.
