Saturn Return in Libra - Betty White

The first Saturn Return (adulthood) is generally a very challenging time at approximately age 29, the second Saturn Return (maturity) at approximately 58 is a little more relaxed and reflective, and the third Saturn Return at approximately 88, if you live to experience it,  is a time when we transition around the issue of life and death, either on the physical plane or through clarity and embracing of the passage of time. All Saturn Returns bring the promise of great rewards and achievements if we are willing to do the growth work required of us.

Betty White, an entertainer with one of the longest-running careers in history, is experiencing her third Saturn Return (natally retrograde in Libra) right now and it appears she is having a glorious time with life. The rewards are pouring in professionally as she is in fierce demand by people young enough to be her great-grandchildren.

A hardworking Capricorn, her career began immediately after her high school graduation, singing on her own radio show before she was 20. She was also a model and began small acting roles at that time. She hosted a talk show "The Betty White Show" on NBC in 1954. She later played many memorable characters in sitcoms such as "Life with Elizabeth", "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (for which she won six Emmys), "The Betty White Show", "Golden Girls", and "Boston Legal", in addition to many supporting actor roles in television and film. A ground-breaking hardworker, "Life With Elizabeth" was nationally syndicated by the mid-1950s, thus making Betty White one of the only women in television with full creative control in front of and behind the camera 30 years before Oprah Winfrey.

In 2009 she began the transition of Progressed Venus (love, attraction, affection) over her Midheaven (career). Once that happened, her career exploded into a new life -- she recently appeared in three films, and also recently became the oldest living person to host Saturday Night Live in May 2010 after a Facebook group demanding she be host exceeded 500,000 members. She now has her own television program, a calendar (donating the proceeds), and a clothing line. She appeared in a Super Bowl ad as hard-playing football player, not afraid to get dirty tackling in the mud.

In Betty White's Natal Chart, with a Leo Ascendant ruled her Sun in Capricorn and her Sun conjunct Venus in Capricorn, she has a very jovial nature and is well-liked and lucky. But with Jupiter squaring her Sun/Venus she may have been a bit careless with that luck -- or at least might seem to be  casual about her luck. Her Capricorn work ethic and dedication is strong and it would not be surprising if she views things not as luck but as the result of hard work she has done (but you would never know it from her sunny demeanor). She has appeared to moved upwards in her life and career with a joyful laugh and a lot of hard work behind the scenes.

While little is known her childhood, it was likely challenging with a natal Saturn retrograde in a challenging square with Pluto (you could speculate about divorce, loss or problems with her parent's marriage and perhaps an absentee father for some reason). But the Capricorn energy, and Mars in Scorpio trine Pluto (power) gives her mighty strength to tackle life's challenges and be a success.

Her 7th house of marriage, cusped by Aquarius and containing Uranus, is indicative of the story of her marital life -- three husbands. The first two marriages ended in divorce and she stayed unmarried for nearly 20 years until she met and married Allen Ludden ("Candid Camera") when she was 41. They met in a work situation while she was doing regular stints on the game show "Password", which he hosted. They were married nearly 20 years, until he died of cancer.

Working hard on her new entrepreneurial ventures and a new sitcom call "Hot in Cleveland", Betty White is riding high and steady on her third Saturn Return and he rewards of her hard work are all around her and left as a legacy that will remain into the future.

Saturn Transits - Ya Gotta Have Jokes

One of the blessings of astrology is that it helps you mark what potentials are coming to you and where you are in life. It marks our aging.

Saturn transits in particular can be especially noteworthy and challenging because they take no prisoners. Saturn does what it is going to do and if you do not want to accept the lessons, take responsibility and mature, you can find yourself suffering with a deep depression. In reality, there is always some degree of depression, even if you are wise to what the Universe is asking of you and following the path.

That is because Saturn....The Parent, The Teacher, The Taskmaster...makes you realize some parts of you and your behavior must die so you can mature and be an even better you...and that happens with age.

Buying a motorcycle, a red sports car, or the latest skimpy fashions will not help you escape the lessons, as many people in their 40s find out. You need to dress appropriately (but not like a decrepit senior citizen!) and use that motorcycle or car money to pay for twice-annual sessions with a good astrologer and/or life coach and some time away retreating to get on track.

But most of all you need to have a sense of humor. When things are particularly challenging, stop and look at yourself. Are you 43 and wearing a shirt that exposes things better left undercover? Are you wearing a hairstyle that should have been left with the decade it came in with? Are you feeling terrified and dissatisfied riding that morotcycle or sports car but don't know why you are doing it? You thought you were "stylin" when really you are providing more laughs than The Comedy Shop.

Are you hanging out with people who are jsut too young for you at the moment. It cna be as siple as being 27 or 28 and approaching your first Saturn Return, and coming to the realization that 24 and 26 year olds are just in a different place. Last month a 28-year old Virgo man I know with Sun, Mercury, Venus and Saturn in Virgo commented to me as he was leaving a party we were at, that he was going home. He smiled wryly and said "I'm old".

I smiled, too, as I was standing outside enjoying the fresh air and not participating in the mostly early 20s crowd at the indoor party.

He looked tired and I realize that much of his tiredness came from having Saturn in Virgo transiting conjunct his Mercury and near his Sun for nearly the last year and that he is only a few months from an exact conjunction on his Sun and Venus this summer 2008 and his actual Saturn Return in Virgo in autumn 2008. His next 12 months until summer 2009 will be very challenging.

He knows nothing about astrology but he realizes internally it is time to grow up and put off childish behaviors. He is graduating from univeristy, will be needing to make a decision about work and the woman he is living with marriage?). And of course with Saturn knocking on him he is morephysically tired, even...he feels Saturn in his body, in his BONES.

Stop. Look in the mirror. Laugh at yourself. You have been making a fool of yourself. Have a good hearty laugh....and then let it go! Let go of the clothes, the cycle the car, the crazy relationship, the dissatisfying religious community etc. Put on something fashionable but comfortable, get a car you enjoy driving and are not embarassed in, and start doing the things that resonate within you as "right"...not what you think will make you fit in with some group of people to whom you have given too much importance. And again, laugh at yourself.

Oh! Take some pictures or have a friend or family member take some pictures of you in that midriff shirt, hotpants, gold chains, and Duran Duran hair on your motorcycle. You will have something to to make you smile when you need a lift.