What Saturn governs
Saturn covers structure, obligation, discipline, age, and the areas where competence has to be built slowly rather than assumed. Traditional practice calls it the greater malefic, meaning it is read as restricting whatever it touches.
The restriction is not a punishment and should not be described as one. What Saturn contacts becomes serious, slow and dependent on repetition. That is a hardship early and an advantage later, which is why Saturnian placements tend to be described as improving with age rather than declining.
Two and a half years to a sign
Saturn spends roughly two and a half years in each sign. That is long enough to make the sign a cohort marker rather than a personal one, since everyone born within about thirty months shares it. It is short enough that the cohort is still recognisable as a group with a shared formative context rather than a whole generation.
Read the sign for the terms of the difficulty and the house for where it applies. The house is where the individual reading actually sits.
Rulership and dignity
Saturn rules Capricorn, and in traditional astrology Aquarius as well, which modern practice reassigns to Uranus. It is exalted in Libra, in detriment in Cancer and Leo, and in fall in Aries.
The exaltation in Libra is about fairness and enforceable agreement, which is Saturn's constructive form. The detriment in Cancer and Leo is the same objection twice: both signs need warmth and recognition, and Saturn supplies neither.
The Saturn return
Because the orbit runs about twenty-nine and a half years, Saturn comes back to its natal degree at around twenty-nine, again near fifty-eight, and for some a third time in the late eighties. These returns are the most widely used timing marker in modern astrology and are associated with commitments being tested and structures being either formalised or abandoned.
The return is a fact about the orbit rather than a prediction. It says when the transit occurs, not what will happen during it.
Retrograde, and the house
Saturn is retrograde for about four and a half months each year, so close to two charts in five have it natally. That frequency makes it ordinary. It is usually read as an internalised sense of obligation, one that is set by the person rather than imposed from outside.
The house is the part that requires a birth time and carries most of the meaning. Saturn in the seventh house makes partnership the long apprenticeship; in the tenth it makes the career one; in the fifth it does the same to creative work and to children. The sign alone cannot tell you which.
Questions people ask about this
When is my Saturn return?
Around age twenty-nine for the first, near fifty-eight for the second, following an orbit of about twenty-nine and a half years.
How long does Saturn stay in a sign?
About two and a half years, so it is shared with everyone born in roughly the same thirty months.
What are Saturn's dignities?
It rules Capricorn, and Aquarius traditionally. Exalted in Libra, detriment in Cancer and Leo, fall in Aries.
Is Saturn a bad placement?
It is restrictive rather than harmful. It describes where progress is slow and built by repetition, which tends to pay later than it costs.