Planetary returns mark points of transition. They ask us to revisit themes from our past and usher in new cycles that allow us to tie up loose ends and begin new cycles. Lunar returns occur monthly, and solar returns yearly, within a day or two of your birthday. You’ll experience returns of each of inner planets once every 1-2 years as well. Each brings an opportunity to revisit old themes and release old patterns related to each planet’s area of rulership. Moving past Mars, however, planetary returns occur far less often and last for longer (due to significantly slower transit speeds). These less frequent, slower returns often have a more significant impact than yearly returns.
Your first Saturn return, which occurs around age 29, is as a major turning point in your life, particularly relating to your career and how you take responsibility for your actions. Often discussed by astrologers, Saturn returns have made their way into public consciousness, including on social media and TV.
But the Saturn return isn’t the only major astrological event of your twenties. Around five years earlier, you’ll experience your second Jupiter return. Jupiter stays in each sign for a little over a year, so Jupiter returns to its position in your natal chart once every twelve years or so. This means at twenty-four, the lessons of Jupiter you last had to reckon with as a preteen tend to come back and hit you. Hard.
While Saturn’s themes are often portrayed as heavy (and let’s face it, they are), Jupiter is not taken quite so seriously. Some call it the party planet, ruling excitable Sagittarius and idealistic Pisces. In some ways, your Jupiter return is a celebration. Since Jupiter is often associated with religion and higher wisdom, your Jupiter return may fall in with certain life cycle rituals and represent periods of growth.
But often, these moments of change are not purely celebratory. They bring up what’s no longer serving you. Jupiter is the planet of expansion. Everything it touches grows and grows, like King Midas’s finger of gold. Your Jupiter return will magnify all the ways you have been coping, whether effective or not. There’s no space for denial under this transit. While the Saturn return is about growing up in a very worldly way and coming into your own larger role, the Jupiter return is all about the discoveries that growing up entails and how it looks for you individually. The themes of your natal house placement will also be highlighted. Sagittarius and Pisces are inquisitive signs, and during your Jupiter return, you have a chance to be curious around those themes and reevaluate your previously held attitudes.
Your first Jupiter return usually occurs around 12 years old. The first time Jupiter returns to its natal position, most people begin puberty. They enter their teen years and shift in the adolescent mindset. This first return marks the literal and symbolic end of what most people consider childhood. (Stay tuned for more about your first Jupiter return).
But Jupiter won’t come back to this place for twelve more years. This second return at twenty-three or twenty-four is, in many ways, a transition from adolescence to adulthood. By this point, most people have made an attempt to strike out on their own. They’ve made an attempt at asserting independence. Most people have entered the workforce and lived independently. Most of us develop some awareness of our internal patterns and core beliefs as we move through adolescence and young adulthood. But we often get stuck repeating them anyway. These years are a period of rebellion against what we learned during Jupiter’s first trip around us. In classic Sagittarian fashion, many of us move away from our parents emotionally and later (sometimes) physically.
Jupiter’s return is a nudge toward adulthood. It’s a reminder that it’s ok to grow up. Change is ok, and sometimes you have to take responsibility for yourself. But Jupiter is also the party planet. Especially if there are other transits occurring, Jupiter can be a trickster. He can convince you that you’re on just the right path, that nothing has to change.
If Saturn is a taskmaster, Jupiter is Ms. Frizzle. Returns are all about learning lessons, but the way you learn them is going to look different. The lessons of Jupiter are not so different from the ones Saturn will teach you, only he won’t be so gentle. Saturn is tough love, the hard truths that you have no choice but to deal with. Your Saturn return forces you to grow up whether you like it or not.
Jupiter wants you to like it. Jupiter is an invitation to participate in this process. There’s no guarantee that your Saturn return won’t still kick you in the ass, but working with the lessons of your Jupiter return is a good way to soften the blow. Old patterns and maladaptive coping skills come into stark relief. And with willingness and a desire to hold yourself accountable, Jupiter can guide you toward changing and letting go of the things that are holding you back. This return is a chance to take stock of the values that you want to carry into adulthood and those that aren’t serving you anymore. During this period, the world is your teacher. Everything is a learning experience if you let yourself see it that way. That’s what Jupiter is all about.
Growing up is weird and messy and complicated, and it’s easy to want to give up. By your second Jupiter return, you’re not a kid anymore and it’s going to be difficult to pretend you are. This return asks you to make a choice about the next twelve years, and it’s up to you to choose whether you want to continue taking responsibility and growing your awareness or stay in the dark. Jupiter is the planet of expansion, it grows everything it touches. If you make the choice to stay on whatever path you’ve been on, Jupiter is going to turn it up to eleven. Issues with maladaptive coping skills, with substances, with ineffective personal behaviors are all going to be ratcheted up as you move into your mid twenties.
Jupiter is fun. It can be exciting and bold and take you outside your comfort zones. But its lessons are meant to be taken seriously. Your Jupiter return is a seriously powerful transit, especially if it makes any aspects to your natal placements. Use it wisely.