Saturn transit in Scorpio: the dates, and what it means for each Moon sign

Scorpio is the second of Mars's signs, a fixed, watery one. BPHS Ch. 4 describes it as slender and many-footed, living in holes, strong by day, resorting to water and land, and "very sharp". The engine reads Saturn in Scorpio as an "Enemy sign" placement, Mars and Saturn being enemies classically. Saturn last crossed Scorpio between 2014 and 2017; it returns at the end of 2043. Background: Saturn in Vedic astrology and Scorpio, Vrishchika rashi.

Dates and rules only; no forecast. The Gochar calculator gives the verdict for your own Moon on any date.

When Saturn is in Scorpio: the ingress dates

Four stays inside 1990-2050, two per passage.

The 2014 passage is the longer single stay of the two: Saturn held Scorpio for more than two years before reaching Sagittarius in January 2017, and then came back between June and October 2017. The 2040s passage opens with six months in Scorpio, drops back to Libra over the summer of 2044, and resumes on 31 August 2044 for a little over two years.

The returns are retrograde motion (vakri). The Gochar calculator shows Saturn's degree and the retrograde flag for any date.

Scorpio counted from your Moon: the house and the verdict

Gochara (glossary) is counted from the natal Moon sign. The engine's Saturn verdicts: testing in the 1st, 8th, 12th (most intense) and 4th; favourable in the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 11th; neutral in the 5th, 7th, 9th, 10th.

The Aquarius row is where the sources part most visibly for this sign. Scorpio is the 10th from Aquarius; the engine says neutral, and Advanced Predictive Astrology (p. 311) says Saturn arriving in the 10th from the Moon is "a period of gain". The worked example below follows that Moon. Your own Moon sign: Moon sign calculator; the reasoning: Moon sign and nakshatra.

Sade Sati, Ashtama Sani and Ardha Ashtama Sani with Saturn in Scorpio

• Sagittarius Moon: Scorpio is the 12th, the rising phase, from 12 December 2043 - paused while Saturn is back in Libra, the 11th, from 20 June to 31 August 2044.
• Scorpio Moon: the peak phase, with the engine's "intensified" flag.
• Libra Moon: the setting phase. Saturn's return to Libra in mid-2044 briefly puts this Moon back in the peak phase.
• Aries Moon: Scorpio is the 8th, Ashtama Sani. Mars rules both the Moon sign and the transit sign here, which the count ignores.
• Leo Moon: Scorpio is the 4th, Ardha Ashtama Sani.

In the North Indian list Advanced Predictive Astrology passes on (p. 312), Scorpio's heavier portion is the last five years of its Sade Sati and Sagittarius's the first five; Libra's is the last two and a half. These are the only two Moon signs given a five-year span besides Pisces. The engine does not use the list. The Sade Sati calculator, Sade Sati page and glossary entry cover the whole-sign rule.

How long Saturn spends in Scorpio, and the nakshatras it crosses

Subtracting the engine's timestamps: 943 days in Scorpio for the 2014-2017 passage (816 and 127), and 1,020 days for the 2043-2046 passage (191 and 829). The second is the longest complete Saturn passage through any sign in the 1990-2050 window. The calculator's 913-day figure is a fixed average label for Saturn in any sign, so a Scorpio passage running past it is not a contradiction.

Scorpio contains the last pada of Vishakha, all of Anuradha and all of Jyeshtha in the engine's table. The Gochar calculator's degree readout shows which. The whole-sign rule does not use the nakshatra; Advanced Predictive Astrology's alternative Sade Sati boundary, 45 degrees either side of the natal Moon's exact degree, would. Under that version a Sagittarius Moon early in Mula and one late in Purva Ashadha would see their Sade Sati begin at noticeably different times.

The retrograde summer of 2044 is the other thing the degree readout helps with. Saturn near the start of Scorpio with the retrograde flag set in mid-2044 means the step back into Libra is due; from 31 August 2044 the flag clears and the long stay begins.

For Moon signs where Scorpio is a neutral house - Taurus (7th), Cancer (5th), Aquarius (10th) and Pisces (9th) - the engine has nothing more to add. Its note for those houses is that the position is "classically unremarkable" for Saturn, which is a statement about the rule set, not a promise of a quiet period.

What the classical texts say

The corpus has no Saturn-in-Scorpio transit reading. Beyond the house-from-the-Moon rule, Advanced Predictive Astrology adds a rule about Saturn's aspects in transit: it says transiting Saturn's 3rd, 7th or 10th aspect on the natal Lagna, Sun or Moon brings distress (p. 313). From Scorpio, Saturn aspects Capricorn, Taurus and Leo. The engine does not compute transit aspects, and this page reports the rule as the book's without applying it to anyone.

The sign itself: Mars's water sign

Scorpio is ruled by Mars; the engine labels Saturn there "Enemy sign" for all thirty degrees. For a natal reading see Saturn in Scorpio. In Gochara the label is not used; the house from the Moon decides the verdict.

Worked example: an Aquarius Moon in the years before its Sade Sati

Take a natal Moon in Aquarius. Scorpio is its 10th, Sagittarius its 11th, Capricorn its 12th. The 2014-2020 run shows the approach to Sade Sati:

1. 1.2 November 2014 to 26 January 2017: Saturn in Scorpio, the 10th - engine "neutral"; Advanced Predictive Astrology "a period of gain".
2. 2.26 January 2017 to 21 June 2017: Sagittarius, the 11th - "favourable".
3. 3.21 June 2017 to 26 October 2017: back in Scorpio, the 10th.
4. 4.26 October 2017 to 23 January 2020: Sagittarius, the 11th - "favourable".
5. 5.From 23 January 2020: Capricorn, the 12th - Sade Sati begins, rising phase.

Both the engine and the book are mild about the 10th and 11th, so for this Moon the Scorpio-Sagittarius years are, on either reading, the quieter stretch before the 12th. The next Scorpio passage gives the same sequence from December 2043. Whatever the transit says, the dasha running at the time is the other limb of prediction in Advanced Predictive Astrology's phrase; a Saturn Mahadasha with Saturn as the Aquarius Moon's sign lord is one context, a Mars period another.

Neighbouring signs: Saturn transit in Libra and Saturn transit in Sagittarius. Other slow transits through Scorpio: Jupiter transit in Scorpio and Rahu transit in Scorpio.

When is Saturn next in Scorpio?

From 12 December 2043 to 20 June 2044, and from 31 August 2044 to 8 December 2046 (UTC), in this app's computation.

When was Saturn last in Scorpio?

From 2 November 2014 to 26 January 2017, and again from 21 June to 26 October 2017 after a retrograde return.

Which Moon signs are in Sade Sati with Saturn in Scorpio?

Sagittarius (rising, Scorpio is the 12th), Scorpio (peak) and Libra (setting, the 2nd).

Is Saturn in the 10th from the Moon good or neutral?

The engine calls it neutral because its source gives Saturn no rule for the 10th. Advanced Predictive Astrology calls it a period of gain. The page reports both.

Which Moon signs does the engine call favourable?

Gemini, Virgo, Libra and Capricorn. Testing: Aries, Leo, Scorpio, Sagittarius. Neutral: the rest. Try the Gochar calculator.

What happens for a Sagittarius Moon during the 2044 retrograde?

By the whole-sign rule, Saturn in Scorpio is the rising phase of Sade Sati for a Sagittarius Moon from 12 December 2043. While Saturn is back in Libra from 20 June to 31 August 2044, Libra is the 11th from Sagittarius, so the rising phase pauses and the Gochara verdict for those weeks is "favourable". It resumes on 31 August 2044 and runs to 8 December 2046.