When I first learnt about Saturn Returns it felt like an ah-hah! moment, I felt like I had some perspective to my internal struggles… Verena Hudson-MacDonald gave me that.

“How open to astrology are you?” I remember her asking me, at this point I was willing to welcome the woo-woo if it might help alleviate some of the pressure and lack of direction I’d been experiencing.

“I woke up one day having what felt like some sort of spiritual awakening,” Verena begins, “I was 27 and I just thought, ‘what is my life?’, ‘what am I doing?’ I already had two children and had pretty much decided at that point, I wasn’t going to have anymore. I found myself thinking, ‘is this it?’

When I first approached Verena for some coaching, I felt personally like I was standing at a cross-roads, referencing this and our first session, Verena explained she experienced similar herself at 27, “I felt I could go one way or another. I could just be mum, or I could be Verena AND mum and go after all the ambitions I had.”

She began questioning everything and through this curiosity a quest for answers she began to unearth the concepts of Saturn Return and Human Design, which encouraged her to look deeper interleaf and led her onto her own work as an alignment and life coach for ambitious women.

Introducing Saturn Returns:

When you’re born, the stars and planets form a snapshot map in the sky, that is unique only to you. Saturn Return is the term coined for the astrological event where the planet Saturn realigns itself with the exact position it was in when you are born. This return, takes between approximately 27 years, depending on it’s position at the time of your birth and remains there for around two and a half to three years.

My mid-late twenties have not been plain sailing, and I was absolutely struggling when I first approached Verena. Despite being in control of my own self and my choices, the discovery of Saturn Return gave me a new perspective to help me navigate and understand why I may be experiencing some of the things I was.

There is a hugely enlightening, and easy to read book recommended to me by Verena which I practically ran and ordered, called Saturn Returns: your cosmic coming of age by Caggie Dunlop. You can pick one up here, I believe there is also an audio-version for those that prefer it.

“Saturn as a planet is known for being quite masculine. It is seen as being responsible for looking at structures, bringing experiences together and events that will realign you if you’re misaligned. When Saturn returns to it’s position at the time of your birth, you’re brought back into alignment, and if you’ve come off your path these areas will be highlighted during this period.”

Verena goes on to explain how this is why, “you might wake up and feel like this job is not for me, you’ll notice more and more subtleties hinting that this friendship or relationship is no longer right for you. It’s a period that brings with it a lot of questioning around our life choices and future.”

You’ll likely have heard the phrases, mid-life crisis or quarter-life crisis being thrown around, well this is the astrological backing behind them.

Verena is keen to highlight that this arrives at a point in our lives where, especially for women, “societally you’ve been condition to ‘be’ at a certain point and you come into question that at both the first and second of your Saturn Returns. It’s very chicken and the egg-esque, are these feelings planetary or societal?”

I am confident that there will be people reading this both from my age-group and Emma’s who are feeling this or have experienced this in your own life. Interestingly both Emma and I are experiencing Saturn Returns at a similar time, but at two different stages of life and it’s impacting us in two very different ways.

For many, your second Saturn Returns (mid-50s) can be affirming, because you’ve made changes in your late twenties and thirties in response to your first and often more hair-raising experience with the astrological event of realignment, which have set you on your true path.

Contrastingly, for those who experience that mid-life crisis, it can be said that they did not heed the signs of their first Saturn Returns, and are still feeling misaligned once shake-things-up Saturn returns once again.

Whilst finding out where Saturn sits for you is simple to find out, Verena highlights how important it is to choose your sources. Here’s where we recommend discovering your own Birth Chart which will identify which house Saturn was in when you were born and your Human Design which we’ll come on to. Uncovering your own unique Birth Chart can provide you with a deep insight into your personality and your motivations, it goes much further than knowing your star sign!

I think it is important to note though, that whilst it has been really enlightening for me, it shouldn’t be seen as permission or an excuse to let things fall apart and fall into a victim mentality, but should be seen as an empowering shake-up. The only thing you can control is you, and your actions.

What about Human Design?

“Human Design is life long, rather than periodical. It doesn’t change and it relates to how you communicate with other people, how you show up in the world and how you move through life. As a coach I use my knowledge of Human Design a lot, identifying my client’s and I will adapt the questions I might ask you based upon your Human Design because you’ll react differently to someone else,” Verena shares,  “as a Generator, [Holly] you respond better to yes or no questions which encourage you to answer and then expand, but as someone like me, a Projector, I thrive off more open ended questions.”

This Verena finds, is particularly useful for women in business in particular she explains,“identifying and understanding your individual Human Design will help you to understand which communication methods may work better, how you best bring ideas into the world and you’ll begin to notice your own themes and nuances.”

There are five Human Design types:

• Generators: the most common of the types, and these people are the doers. They do the doing and like to build, but seek to in a way that feels good, or aligned with them. “Quite often,” Verena explains, “Generators come up against resistance when they’re asked to do something that doesn’t feel right to them, they’re usually quite sacral beings.”
• Manifesting Generators: This is quite a powerful combination, bringing together the energy of the Generators but the action-taking directional energy of Manifestors. This Human Design type is dynamic and versatile, they are often able to do multiple things at once and well. Their energy for things that excite them is created naturally and cannot be forced otherwise it can be draining to the individual.
• Manifestors: these are the action-takers amongst us. Manifestors are typically independent individuals and self-motivated preferring to make decisions based on their intuition rather than outside influence. Manifestors are creative individuals and idea generators, though can struggle with being told what to do and resist authority as they feel like their autonomy is being threatened.
• Projectors: these people are the guides among us, the guide the energy of others. They are here to offer insights, wisdom and guidance to others, they are said to be able to pick up on things that others miss and understand systems and identify patterns innately. Projectors make great leaders.
• Reflectors: making up 1% of the world’s population, and is considered to be a wise observer of life, their surroundings and are thought to have a gift for reading other people. They are long, and considered decision makers, taking time to reflect before acting. Other people may identify traits of themselves in Reflectors as they are absorbing and reflecting the energy of others back out into the world.

I was keen to know how gaining this insight into both Human Design and Saturn Returns has helped Verena to navigate her own life…

“For a while I settled into the mum side of things, and I felt disappointed with my life, instead of excited. Sometimes we can seek clarity and validation from other people as to whether we are doing the right thing, whereas understanding my Human Design gave me another lens to look through based on guidance that never changes. So for me, I could understand different levels of how I am being and who I am doesn’t change.”

How can Verena help you?

“I won’t do short time coaching, my gift is in seeing themes, noticing patterns and behaviours, and reflecting these back to you. I am a sounding board. The person you can talk to on a really vulnerable level. Often, people tell their friends the surface level stuff, but you come to me with everything.”

To this I can relate, when it comes to seeking advice from friends or family, you worry that you’re sounding like a broken record and boring them, family can also be bias. On this Verena says,

“Friends and family are subjective because they love and care about you. They’re only going to provide you with the information that they think will help you. But this is not always what you need hear. It is important to remember everyone has their own map of the world, and they’ll respond through their own experience rather than an objective place. Find people who have similar interests as you or, who are at least as open minded as you because you choose the response you get based on the people you choose to talk to.”

If you’re thinking of working with a coach such as Verena, but maybe don’t feel ready just yet, she has some tips for you in the meantime:

“Get it out your brain,” she says, “journaling is a great way to start the process of self-development, and I know you might roll your eyes but it doesn’t have to be the pen to paper version of journalling, you can voice note yourself or talk to yourself even. My Human Design type (Projector) is a talker, so once I understood that, for me, voice-notes to myself helps.”

If you are interested in reaching out to Verena and finding more about how she may be able to help you, give her a DM on Instagram here.