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

Virgo is Mercury's earthy sign, drawn in BPHS Ch. 4 Sl. 13-14 as a virgin holding grains and fire, a hill-resorter strong by day. Mercury and Saturn are friends; the engine reads Saturn in Virgo as a "Friendly sign" placement. The last passage ran from 2009 into 2012; the next starts in late 2038. See Saturn in Vedic astrology and Virgo, Kanya rashi for background.

This is a page of dates and rules, not of predictions. The Gochar calculator applies the same rules to your own Moon sign.

When Saturn is in Virgo: the ingress dates

The engine finds four stays in 1990-2050: a long stay and a short return on each passage.

The 2009 passage carried Saturn into Libra in November 2011, but it came back to Virgo for almost three months in mid-2012 before leaving on 5 August 2012. The coming passage loops at the other end: about five months in Virgo from October 2038, a retreat into Leo from April to July 2039, and then the main stay of a little over two years.

Retrograde motion (vakri) is the reason for each reversal. The Gochar calculator reports the flag and the degree, so a date near one of these boundaries can be checked directly.

Virgo counted from your Moon: the house and the verdict

Gochara (explained here) counts houses from the natal Moon. The engine's Saturn rule: 1st, 8th and 12th testing and most intense; 4th testing; 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 11th favourable; 5th, 7th, 9th and 10th neutral.

For a Sagittarius Moon, Virgo is the 10th. The engine says neutral. Advanced Predictive Astrology says the 10th from the Moon is "a period of gain" (p. 311), yet on the next page (p. 312) it also quotes a magazine remark that Sade Sati falling in the 6th, 8th, 10th or 12th house is the worst for profession and finances. The book does not reconcile the two, and neither does this page. Your Moon sign: the Moon sign calculator; the reasoning: Moon sign and nakshatra.

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

• Libra Moon: Virgo is the 12th, the rising phase. On the 2009 passage the rising and peak phases interleaved - see the worked example.
• Virgo Moon: the peak phase, and the engine's "intensified" flag for Saturn in the 1st.
• Leo Moon: the setting phase. On the coming passage, Saturn's step back into Leo from 3 April to 14 July 2039 returns this Moon to the peak phase for those months.
• Aquarius Moon: Virgo is the 8th, Ashtama Sani (glossary).
• Gemini Moon: Virgo is the 4th, Ardha Ashtama Sani.

The North Indian list in Advanced Predictive Astrology (p. 312) names the first two and a half years of Sade Sati as the heavier for both Virgo and Leo, and the last two and a half for Libra. The engine does not compute it. The Sade Sati calculator shows the whole-sign phases; the Sade Sati page and glossary entry explain them.

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

Subtracting the engine's timestamps: the 2009-2012 passage spent 878 days in Virgo (796 and 82); the 2038-2041 passage spends 969 (163 and 806). The second runs past the calculator's 913-day duration label because of where the retrograde loop falls. The label is an average for any sign; the table is the measurement.

Virgo takes in padas 2-4 of Uttara Phalguni, all of Hasta and padas 1-2 of Chitra in the engine's table. The calculator's degree readout places Saturn among them. For Gochara this changes nothing, because the rule is whole-sign. It does change Advanced Predictive Astrology's 45-degree version of Sade Sati, which starts when Saturn is 45 degrees behind the Moon's exact degree, so a Libra Moon in late Vishakha and one in early Chitra would get different start dates under it.

Another way to use the readout is to see how far into a passage Saturn has moved. A degree in the low single figures of Virgo, without the retrograde flag, is the beginning of a stay of two years or more; a degree near 30 with the flag set means the return to Leo or the step into Libra is close.

What the classical texts say

The corpus holds no Saturn-in-Virgo transit passage. Advanced Predictive Astrology, which is where the Saturn periods are discussed, makes a point worth carrying to any sign: it says the kind of difficulty attributed to Sade Sati depends on the stage of life at which it falls - studies, the start of a career, later years (p. 311). Read neutrally, that is a reminder that the same transit lands in very different lives. The book's own examples are bleak; this app does not repeat them and does not forecast.

The sign itself: Mercury's earth sign

Virgo is ruled by Mercury, a friend of Saturn; the engine labels Saturn in Virgo "Friendly sign" throughout. The natal reading is on Saturn in Virgo. The transit verdict does not use dignity at all; it follows the house from the Moon.

Worked example: a Libra Moon through the 2009-2012 passage

Take a natal Moon in Libra. Virgo is the 12th from it and Libra the 1st; Leo before is the 11th. The engine dates show how the phases overlapped:

1. 1.To 10 September 2009: Saturn in Leo, the 11th - "favourable" for every planet.
2. 2.10 September 2009 to 15 November 2011: Virgo, the 12th - Sade Sati rising phase.
3. 3.15 November 2011 to 14 May 2012: Libra, the 1st - the peak phase begins.
4. 4.14 May 2012 to 5 August 2012: back in Virgo - rising phase again.
5. 5.5 August 2012 to 2 November 2014: Libra - peak phase, now unbroken.

A calendar that announced "Saturn enters Libra on 15 November 2011" would have been right, and still missed that Saturn was back in Virgo a few months later. The next round for a Libra Moon starts on 23 October 2038, and the engine's retrograde return to Leo makes it open with a pause. As always, the transit is half the reading; Advanced Predictive Astrology calls dasha and transit the two limbs of prediction, and a Saturn Mahadasha gives a different context from a Venus period, Venus being Libra's lord.

Neighbouring signs: Saturn transit in Leo and Saturn transit in Libra. The other slow transits through Virgo: Jupiter transit in Virgo and Rahu transit in Virgo.

When is Saturn next in Virgo?

From 23 October 2038 to 3 April 2039, and from 14 July 2039 to 26 September 2041 (UTC), in this app's computation.

Was Saturn in Virgo in 2012?

Yes, by the engine: from 14 May 2012 to 5 August 2012, a retrograde return after its first entry into Libra on 15 November 2011.

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

Libra (rising, Virgo is the 12th), Virgo (peak) and Leo (setting, the 2nd).

Which Moon signs get a favourable verdict?

Aries, Cancer, Leo and Scorpio. Testing: Gemini, Virgo, Libra, Aquarius. Neutral: Taurus, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Pisces. Check yours in the Gochar calculator.

Why does the app quote dates in UTC?

So that one date is correct everywhere. An ingress late in the UTC day can already be the next day in India. Other software may also differ by hours to a day or two near an ingress.

How many days does Saturn actually spend in Virgo?

Subtracting the engine's timestamps, 878 days on the 2009-2012 passage (796 and 82) and 969 days on the 2038-2041 passage (163 and 806). The 913-day figure in the Gochar calculator is an average label for Saturn in any sign, not a measurement of Virgo. The retrograde loops are why a single passage can spread over nearly three calendar years while the time in the sign is shorter.