The Best Saturn Astrology Books

There are thousands of astrology books available, including texts that go back over a millennium. Most of the books offer insights about special techniques, timing, and various uses of astrology in daily life, relationships, and career. And, of course, there are many, many beginner books, which offer the foundational, “all-in-one” knowledge to get started with astrology at a level that is far more sophisticated than the daily horoscope. This article will recommend books about Saturn.

Saturn

Saturn represents your Way of Structure. Its placement in sign and house reveals how we want to structure our lives and where we face restrictions that we must overcome or accept. In my case, my Way of Structure is expressed through fire (Aries) in my quest for service (6th house). Fire’s expression is pioneering, creative, and exploratory.

In Aries, the element acts independently, heroically, and aggressively. So, my key phrase is “Your Way of Structure manifests through your independent and heroic quest for and attraction to maverick and individualistic service for others.” In short, I complete tasks and meet deadlines best when I am left alone to structure my own process and timetable. Micro-managing me is a very bad idea.

Saturn is also a point that returns to its original position in the birth chart at 27 to 29 and 54 to 58. Our first Saturn Return is one of the Six Great Transits of our lifetimes. When it returns the first time, it acts as a pressure test for every aspect of your life. It is also the period of time when you are to begin “defining” yourself in your own terms and not those of your youth and early life, which were dominated by all the rules of those around you, beginning with your parent or parents, and extending to school, peers, and employers.

By the time we reach our second Saturn Return, we should have started our authentic journey at around 30, experienced a chrysalis transformative period between 36 and 39, emerged confused in order to find faith in our path, been shocked out of confusion to fully awaken to the authentic self that should have begun developing at 30, healed our lifelong spiritual wound at 50, all to become a wise man or woman ready to impart our knowledge and wisdom responsibly to the generations behind us. We are to assume more, not less responsibility, and act as guiding lights for improving civilization.

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Erin Sullivan’s Saturn in Transit

Published in 2000, this book is a must-have in your astrology library. If you ended up with only one book on Saturn, this would be the one to put at the top of your list, which is why it is listed first. Sullivan provides some of the best explanations for each transit of Saturn to itself, beginning with the first square between ages 6 and 8, all the way up to the second return between 54 and 58. From the back of the book:

Saturn, the god of the “saturnine” disposition, is popularly associated with doom and gloom. But Saturn in Transit reveals the planet’s useful and developmental influence in our lives. Saturn assists the modern hero and heroine, during its transit around the zodiac, by destroying the old and outmoded within, and throwing us periodically into chaos, which invariably generates a creative transformation of our purpose in life. Acting as a catalyst of awareness and growth, Saturn becomes the planet of change.

Liz Greene’s Saturn: A New Look at an Old Devil

Originally published in 1976, and updated in 2011, this book is probably the best-known book on Saturn in astrology circles. It is a classic, with some of the best material on the subject. Definitely, a book worth having in your astrology library. From the back cover of the book:

Saturn’s darker persona is recognized universally in myth and fairytale. Here, noted astrologer Liz Greene takes a major step in the unveiling of the light of reason, so long obscured by those who have interpreted Saturn as a ‘malefic’ planet, and in so doing, presents a remarkably rich study of the unconscious mind, shedding light on that mysterious, elusive entity that psychology calls the self.

Saturn symbolizes a psychic process as well as a quality or kind of experience. He is not merely a representative of pain, restriction, and discipline, he is also a symbol of the psychic process, natural to all human beings, by which an individual may utilize the experience of pain, restriction, and discipline, as a means for greater consciousness and fulfillment.

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Aliza Einhorn’s The Little Book of Saturn: Astrological Gifts, Challenges, and Returns

Published in 2018, this book is a nice introductory text, written for an interested non-expert audience. From the back cover:

The Little Book of Saturn, a smart, friendly introduction to the astrological Saturn, is a book for curious readers who know there is more to astrology than their sun signs. Saturn has traditionally been considered the planet of challenges, but the life lessons that this stern planet brings are necessary for personal growth.

This book is suitable for beginners and experts alike. It discusses the influence of Saturn on the natal horoscope, focusing on Saturn in its various places in the birth chart and exploring the various transits, especially the return(s), which brings with it a period of transition that is often feared, but Aliza Einhorn shows you how to understand and navigate them with confidence.

Tom Jacobs’ Saturn Returns: Thinking Astrologically

Published in 2010, Jacobs work follows in the footsteps of Greene and Sullivan, offering another useful take on Saturn. From the back cover:

Everyone faces the challenging invitations of the planet Saturn at key times during their lives. The planet of hard work, structure, discipline, and authority asks us to grow up and make of our lives a long-term work that will make a difference in the world. Responding to its invitations with ease and grace requires understanding certain things and being willing to change and grow. This book looks at Saturn in the astrological birth chart and what each of the first two returns (ages 29 1/2 and 59) have in store for us. Included are explanations of the aspects in the natal chart between Saturn and other planets framed in terms of what each Saturn return will ask us to do.