The Return Of Old Father Time

We all know about the Saturn Return.

It’s associated with turning 30 or 60 and having to learn lessons, face up to responsibilities, cut down on the partying, narrow our focus and concentrate on the essential themes in order to set the tone for the next phase of our life.

Saturn is the principle of contraction, of limitation. It operates by denying us something that we might assume would be our birthright and what everyone would naturally receive. It does this in order to force us to develop that thing in ourselves through our own efforts.

Saturn is the polar opposite of Jupiter, the planet of expanding opportunities which gives us advantages without the need for us to work for them.

But you will often find a strong Saturn in the charts of high achievers, because over time it is the work that they have had to do in life that eventually brings its own reward.

Saturn is hardest at the beginning of a life, as we get older and more used to its work ethic, it relents and we find some kind of delayed gratification in later years.

One very simple interpretation that would apply every time, is that a square or opposition aspect between the Sun and Saturn would indicate that there is something missing in the father principle in that person’s life.

The closer the aspect, the more powerfully this principle would apply.

In many cases, the father might have left the family when the child was young. At the very least, the child would perceive their dad as being an emotionally reserved and unsupportive figure.

A fair question would be why is one person born with the Sun square to Saturn and another with it trine Jupiter? Why should one child start off with early struggles and the other one have all the goodies?

But this is the thing with astrology, as soon as we start asking why questions, we can only come up with the conclusion that the reason for it came before we were born.

In some cases over 450 years before.

M would have to be described as a high achiever, a University professor and one of the world’s leading authorities in her own field.

She is driven by Mars rising in Aries and two powerful T squares.

One of them, very appropriately for an academic, focuses on an apex Mercury/Venus conjunction in Gemini in the 3rd house.

The other one has an apex Saturn in the 11th house.

M asked for a Past Life Review, saying “I’m most interested in the Tudor period (late 1400s to early 1600), and why I have returned again and again and again to this period, to the times, locations, history, people etc.”

I will reproduce parts of this review here.

“You have two T squares, one with an apex Saturn, the other with Venus.

We therefore need to find a past life that connects with this pattern.

By regression the Sun moves backwards through our chart at approximately one degree per year.

So the obvious thing would be to find a point in your past when the regressed Sun conjoins either Saturn or Venus.

You have asked to look at the Tudor period, your regressed Sun was conjunct your current chart Saturn in May 1503.

The period between 1503 and 1506 would have been particularly important for you as the regressed Sun would have passed through your T square then.

In 1503, the regressed Moon would have also been forming a Grand Cross to your T square opposite your Saturn.

The regressed Mercury would have been opposite your current chart Uranus and square your Moon.

The regressed Venus would have been sextile your Moon.

So this was clearly an important moment in your past life history.

I have a method of identifying someone’s birthdate in a past life which involves the regressed Sun forming an aspect with their 4^th house ruler.

If we apply this to you, the regressed Sun would be trine your Moon (4^th ruler) in April 1491, making you 12 years old at the time of these events.

Using dowsing, I have discovered that you were born in Pontefract in Yorkshire, an important location on the great north road, with its own castle.

How can we use astrology to find out what was happening in your past life in the early 1500s?

By using horary.

In any horary, the chart ruler signifies the person asking the question so in a past life review it will describe you in that life.

Aquarius is rising, so Uranus signifies you.

This is very interesting because Uranus is exactly conjunct your current chart Moon and the main transit that is going on for you at the moment, so perhaps this is an important indication of how this past life review might feed into your current experience.

Uranus in Taurus means you were female in that life as well.

In the 4^th house indicates that family themes were the focus.

The Moon is also in the 4^th house in Gemini so would be referring to your father in that life.

The Moon is square to Saturn and Neptune in the 2^nd house, indicating he was having financial difficulties. There is a suggestion of some kind of fraud or robbery.

Saturn is the ruler of the 12^th house, so I believe your father was imprisoned, perhaps falsely.

Uranus is exactly square an Aquarian Ascendant so it seems that independence of some sort was thrust upon you and you had to make your own way in the world from the age of 12.

Intriguingly, Uranus is sextile Saturn and Neptune, so this experience of losing your father while being initially a shock, did not deter you. In fact it seemed to be the making of you.

There doesn’t seem to be a mother figure around or any support coming from family members.

The Sun/Venus/Mars conjunction in Capricorn in the 11^th house does appear to indicate help coming from older friends, but they don’t have aspects to Uranus, so we shouldn’t overstate their influence.

More information can be found by looking at your regressed solar return for this year.

Saturn in Cancer in the 4^th house indicates the loss of your father, in square to a Pisces Mars, again points to imprisonment for some kind of fraud.

The Sun exactly conjunct the Moon and Mercury in Taurus in the 2^nd suggests that you started up in some kind of finance business yourself and eventually did very well with it.

I googled Pontefract in Tudor times and discovered that it “was a traditional market town and an early centre for the wool and cloth trade, which was the backbone of the English economy at the time.”

This was the world you entered at the age of 12 and despite the expected disadvantage of being a young girl in a man’s world, you soon became quite a successful business woman.

This success happened very quickly too, maybe because you were young, you were able to persuade others to trade with you.

The solar return for the following year is very significant.

There is a powerful Kite formation involving Venus in Aries in the 10^th house.

Venus at the beginning of Aries suggests the start of a promising entrepreneurial career.

Venus in exact trine with Mars in the 2^nd shows you were already earning a good living and the trine with Pluto suggests you were even able to employ someone to assist you.

The inclusion of the Moon in the 4^th tightly opposite Venus shows you were even able to purchase business premises or a house of your own.

This is a phenomenal rise for someone so young, but it is clearly indicated in the charts.

The Sun in the 12^th is still probably referring to your father’s imprisonment, but its aspects are very favourable.

It forms a close sextile with Jupiter and Saturn in the 2^nd house and Uranus in the 10^th, suggesting that people wanted to trade with you because they felt sympathy for your situation.

The feeling that comes over is that many people believed your father was wrongfully imprisoned and wanted to help you take over and successfully run his old business.

Putting all this together, this was your birthchart for that life.

The Sun is in Taurus again of course, but in the 10^th house of career.

You also have Venus in Aries (exactly conjunct your current Ascendant) right on the Midheaven.

Cancer rising, with the chart ruling Moon in the 4^th house showing that family themes are powerful, in opposition to your Venus indicating how family upheaval would be a major contributory factor in pushing you to 10^th house success.

The Sun is opposite Pluto in the 4^th house, again showing a dramatic and emphatic change occurring in your family life.

This opposition forms a T square with an apex Saturn in the 7^th house, with the Sun exactly square to Saturn.

This aspect will invariably show an absence or restriction in the father principle in someone’s life, and clearly with him being imprisoned when you were 12, that applies for you.

Saturn always denies us something for our own good, because this denial of outer support forces us to find the strength to deal with it in ourselves.

With the Sun square to Saturn you had to face the harsh realities of life at a young age because your father isn’t able to protect you from them.

Saturn being in the 7^th house also meant that you never married in that life as the Sun’s tight square with it meant that there was an absence of the male principle generally.

It seems that you channelled all of your energy into business and the need to survive and succeed as a young girl in a man’s world.

It is interesting that you have a very similar T square in your current life, with the Taurus Sun’s opposition to Neptune rather than Pluto but there is the apex Saturn in Aquarius that is common to both.

In both lives you would have a lot of power pushing you in your career.

Your 16^th century life themes all picked up very powerfully with Saturn’s transits.

In 1503 when your father was imprisoned, transit Saturn was square to your 4^th house Moon.

In 1529, when you died, transit Saturn was conjunct your Sun.

No doubt your success in the early 16^th century wool trade in Yorkshire has stimulated your interest in the Tudor period.

I know you said you weren’t particularly concerned if anyone else from your current life was with you back then.

In a way, this horary doesn’t really focus on anyone else anyway, apart from perhaps the Moon as your father.

The Moon is the 6^th house ruler, so that is not giving us clear clues as to who he might be in your current life.

If you are curious, check for anyone with major placements around 20 Gemini.

I can check for you if you send me any possible candidates.”

M’s response to the review was

“This is amazing and profound!! lots of resonances.

Just one thing you might find gratifying: my birth father this life was born June 4 1931 in Sao Paulo Brazil (idk the time), which would make him about a 14 Gemini? He left our family in 1972, and he died in early 1978. So you are spot on about the father figure in the Tudor cycle, and it may well be him.”

I had no knowledge of M’s birth father before doing this review, but it seemed to make sense so I sent an update to include this piece.

It is interesting that your birth father has very powerful synastry with you.

He has Venus at 17 Taurus conjunct your Sun.

Intriguingly your Venus is conjunct his Sun.

His Mars is also square to your Moon.

This strong synastry however places him right in both of your T Squares.

This also means that you would both be triggered by the same transits.

For much of 1972, transit Saturn was conjunct his Sun and your Venus.

For 1978 transit Uranus was opposite your Sun from the 8^th house and opposite his Venus.

Would this synastry extend to him being part of your Pontefract life?

To check we need to regress his chart back to that date.

In 1503, his regressed Sun and Mercury was sextile his current life Sun and exactly conjunct his North Node.

Another important point about this chart is that the regressed Sun becomes part of the T square that exists in his own chart, and it is exactly square to Saturn, reflecting your own aspect in both your current life and your 16^th century life charts.

Although we don’t have a birthtime and we can’t be sure of his exact Moon position, it is likely that it would be conjunct his current life Mercury or Venus.

His regressed Venus was exactly trine his current Mars.

His regressed Mars was exactly square his current Sun.

These are very powerful regressions which not only show that he was there, but also that this experience was a critically important one in his own past life history, and particularly in his relationship with you.

I am sure he was your father back then as well.”

In both her current life and her 1503 one, M has Sun in Taurus in a T square with an apex Saturn in Aquarius.

The odds of that occurring by chance are several thousand to one against.

M’s birthfather also had a T square involving Saturn.

And his regressed chart to 1503 had the Sun also in a T square exactly square to Saturn.

When M was 10 years old in her current life, her birth father left her.

Back in 1503, he did the same thing when she was 12 years old.

No wonder they call Saturn “Old Father Time”.

Posted on 9 January 2026

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