5 Things to Know About Saturn in Aries

• What happens when you put a risk-averse person in a place where risk-taking is the standard way of being?
• What’s the value of hard-earned experience in an environment of experimentation?
• What happens when you take someone who likes to move slowly and build things that will endure over time and put them in an environment where the motto is “move fast and break things?”

Welcome to the Saturn in Aries Era

On Saturday, May 24, 2025 (Saturn’s Day), after three years sailing through the ocean of Pisces, the planet Saturn moves into the fire sign of Aries for the start of a three-year transit, during which time we will live into these questions and many more.

Saturn in Aries Logistics

Saturn’s entrance to Aries on May 24 is the opening chapter in the story of this transit. Saturn will spend a few months in the first sign of the zodiac — getting through almost 2º of Aries — before retrograding back into Pisces. It will return in 2026 for a solid two years.

Here are the dates of Saturn in Aries:

• May 24, 2025 to September 1, 2025
• February 13, 2026 to April 12, 2028

Saturn’s shift into Aries is one of the big changes of 2025 — a year filled with big changes. It follows on the heels of Neptune, which just entered Aries at the end of March (Spoiler alert: these planets are headed to a once-in–30-years meet-up).

Why is this change such a big deal? What does it mean? How can we work with it?

Read on to get the answers to these questions and learn more about this big change.

5 Things to Know About Saturn in Aries

(1) Why is Saturn Entering Aries a Big Deal?

First, any time a planet changes sign, it signals a shift of energy.

The less frequently a planet changes sign, the more we tend to feel the shift.

Saturn moves the slowest of the planets we can see with a naked eye. It takes about 28 to 30 years to complete a cycle around the zodiac, spending about 2.5 to 3 years in each sign. The next slowest of the visible planets is Jupiter, which spends a year in each sign.

All that to say: this is not an every day, or even an every year, occurrence.

Second, Saturn is a “transpersonal planet” — meaning that it’s a planet that influences the collective more than the personal planets like the moon or Venus. So we tend to feel its effects in the collective sphere.

The last time Saturn was in Aries was 1996–1999. Prior to that, Saturn was in Aries from 1967–1969. If you were born during one of those periods, Saturn in Aries marks you Saturn Return — a period of increased maturity and responsibility.

(2) What is Saturn About?

In astrology, every planet represents an archetype that exists within us. Saturn is the archetype of the Taskmaster and the Teacher.

As the last planet visible with the naked eye, Saturn represents limits, boundaries, and restrictions.

Saturn is the planet that teaches us about the importance of time, structure, frameworks, and systems in building things that will endure.

This is also the planet associated with tradition, rules, and regulations — the guardrails of society.

Saturn seeks to build things that will endure for a long time. It is the elder who seeks to impart wisdom earned through experience. It teaches us about patience, discipline, responsibility, and the value of taking things slow.

It represents challenges and obstacles we face in pursuing our goals — and teaches us how to overcome or navigate them.

As a planet far from the Sun and surrounded by rings, Saturn is cold and detached, conservative and risk-averse.

Saturn is the planet of “no,” of reality checks, and of criticism. It also represents our fears.

For these reasons, Saturn is considered a “malefic” — a challenging archetype. But no planet is all bad, and Saturn has wisdom and rewards to offer.

Like the hard teacher who pushed you to be better, Saturn asks us to commit to what we want and to pursue it with discipline. It rewards hard work, integrity, patience, and perseverance. It may delay our rewards, but it won’t deny.

(3) How Does Saturn Fit With Aries Energy?

Planets operate in the style of the sign they are in, so what does this mean for Saturn in Aries?

Saturn is considered to be in it’s “fall” or depression in the sign of Aries. This isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing; it simply means that Saturn struggles in this sign.

Here’s why:

Aries is a place of initiation. This is the first sign of the zodiac and the first sign of spring: the seed sprouting that must push through the earth to become a flower or tree. Aries is a sign of newness, youth, and experimentation.

Aries is a fire sign ruled by Mars. It’s hot, impetuous, impulsive, and impatience. Aries leaps before it looks, it ventures forward on instinct, it relishes an experiment. It does’t care whether something lasts; it’s about the now. It’s motto might be “move fast and break things.”

It is also the sign of the self: Aries is the seed sprouting, the emergence of life, the period where we define ourselves to ourselves, establishing our identity.

Aries energy is the opposite energy of Saturn, which values moving slowly and with caution, seeking to build something that will last. Saturn is the planet of old age, experience, and wisdom.

Saturn’s transit through Aries will invite us to mediate these two archetypes that exist within each of us. How can we honor the part of us that seeks to experiment with the part that seeks to build from a place of wisdom and experience? How can we follow the fire of our instincts without burning ourselves out — or burning things down.

(4) How Will Saturn in Aries Affect You?

On a personal level, Saturn’s transit through Aries will ask you to bring more structure to the realm of your life goverened by Aries. What this looks like depends on where Aries falls in your personal birth chart.

Saturn represents our drive to mastery, and to achieving big things.

If there’s something you’re committed to achieving, Saturn will reward your efforts — even if it sends you on a detour first.

In Aries, that detour might come from within: your own impulsiveness and impatience with the process. You might find yourself facing limits, restrictions, and obstacles when trying to work toward your goals.

These challenges might threaten to derail you from your path, but remember that this is how Saturn teaches its lessons.

Saturn in Aries might help you establish stronger boundaries and structures to protect your energy and time, it might force you to get creative with less.

It also might teach us the value of working hard on something that isn’t meant to last — but that results in learning skills that will help you in your the next project.

(5) What to Look For With Saturn in Aries

Saturn in Aries will ask us to mediate between two opposing parts of our nature:

• our desire to experiment vs our desire to rely on established wisdom
• our desire to take a leap of faith vs our fear of failure if it all goes wrong
• our desire to do something immediate for the now vs our yearning to build something that will stand the test of time
• our desire for freedom vs the necessity of structures and established processes
• our desire for independent glory vs our knowledge that nothing great is achieved alone

In each situation where we find ourselves in this polarity, we must find a resolution. There will be times when we must force ourselves to act faster than we might prefer, and other times when we must hold ourselves back.

At its most challenging, Saturn in Aries can feel like trying to accelerate with the brakes on.

At its most helpful, this is a transit that can help you step into your leadership and authority while maintaining your beginner’s mind and willingness to experiment and fail. Those failures are the stuff that teach the lessons that Saturn is known for.