Planet Saturn

The old man

Saturn's role is that of patrolman, grandfather and judge. But although Saturn can be a punisher, it can also spur the serious changes you need to make in order to move forward.

By focusing on your fears and the areas of your life where you feel limited or trapped -- such as obligations to your job or family or internal struggles that revolve around intimacy in relationships -- Saturn enforces rules. It’s often called the "old man planet," because it takes nearly 30 years to complete a full orbit around the Sun. And once it returns to the position it was in at the moment of your birth, it kicks off a two-year period known as your "Saturn Return" -- a time when your identity, hopes and dreams feel shaken up (luckily, this event only happens about once every 28 years). This is because Saturn is all about our responsibility to ourselves.

Also known as the "karma planet," Saturn makes sure we reap what we sow! It rewards us when we've worked hard; it shows us the error in our ways when we haven’t -- and in true, tough-love style, it lets us know how we can make the big fixes.