Skip to content

Thirty and thriving?

Thoughts on turning 30, Saturn, and the chaotic nature of the universe

It was my birthday on Monday.

This was a big one for me. I turned 30. Writing that sentence was not fun, I feel like the last few years of my twenties were wasted dealing with the pandemic, inflation, housing issues and more. Going in to these few weird years I was a fresh-faced 27-year-old, and am now changing decades while looking at my third pandemic birthday. What fun.

That being said, I do have a good-ish feeling about the coming year and/or decade. I won’t fully say it’s a good feeling, because that would be too easy. It’s more like I don’t have quite the same amount of dread looking forward to the next chapter of my life.

A lot of that has to do with something called a Saturn Return. It’s from astrology, and regardless of whether the positions of the planets can influence our lives, I’ve taken some comfort in it. The Saturn Return in particular is when the planet Saturn comes back to the astrological sign that it was in when you were born. This happens about every 30 years or so, and lasts for about three years (astrology-buffs note that it also happens right around the mid-life crisis time). Saturn deals with work, discipline, money and that sort of thing, and when it’s back it can be really tumultuous. On March 7, I came out of my Saturn Return. So that means that I can have something to blame for all of the craziness over the past three years.

The Saturn Return started on Dec. 17 2020, which was right around the time I got notice from my first set of landlords that they would be selling our house. It was also the last time I felt safe in my living situation, and the last time I was generally OK with the way things were going. Strangely enough, it was also the time the first COVID-19 variant was om Canada, so… sorry about that one I guess.

A lot has happened since then.

I actually had a second set of landlords sell our house, which necessitated another move within those three years. I also really nailed down my professional and personal objectives, started setting aside some money and started putting down some roots in the community I live in. Now I don’t want to tempt fate (I knocked on wood as I wrote this), but with a cosmic sign of the craziness about to come to an end I can finally start feeling a bit better about things. I can (hopefully) let my guard down.

Now I know that a lot of this is confirmation bias and that scientifically it’s hard to see a link to the planets. Things happen either at random or through choices we make. But having a distant planet to blame it all on helps with my mental health, so I’m going to do it.

The universe is a chaotic place, and everything ends up being arbitrary upon close inspection. However, if spinning around our sun 30 times has taught me anything it’s that the only thing that matters is being kind to others, enjoying the time we have, and trying to make the world a better place.

So I’m going to try to do that.