“How to speak with Saturn. When you want to speak with Saturn and ask him for whatever you wish, you must wait until he enters into good condition, of which the best is when he is in Libra, which is his exaltation, next in Aquarius, which is the house of his rejoicing,

and last in Capricorn, which is his second house. If you cannot have him in any of these three places, put him in one of his terms or triplicities or in an oriental angular or succeedent house (among all of which the angle of the midheaven is to be preferred),

direct in his course, and in a masculine quarter, being oriental as mentioned above. Beware of his detriment and unfortunate aspects, of which the worst of all is a square aspect with Mars, and do not let him be cadent.

The most important point (of which you should take diligent care) is that you should see that the planet is in good condition and quality, and remote from infortunes, because when he is like this, he is like a man of good will and a lively heart and a great and ample mind,

and if another person seeks something from him, he cannot find it in himself to deny the petitioner. When the same planet is retrograde in his course or cadent from the angles, he is like a man full of anger and ill will, who is most ready to deny a petition.”

- Picatrix Book 3, Ch. 7, Warnock & Greer

Lots of good stuff here but most relevant to most folks right now:

1. Of the three signs where Saturn is dignified or exalted, Capricorn is the least good. This makes sense: Saturn’s maleficence comes from their excessive coldness and dryness, and Capricorn is a cold, dry sign as opposed to warm, fluid Aquarius and Libra.

And 2:

Saturn in good, strong condition behaves way more like a benefic than they do the rest of the time

Speaking as a counseling astrologer, the theme that has shown up in basically every chart looking towards a Saturn return in Aquarius has been “Life doesn’t have to be so hard all the time.”

So Saturn in Aquarius folks: You’re gonna have a way, WAY better Saturn return, on average, than us Saturn in Cap folks did. That’s not to say it’ll be easy. After all,

“Better things are possible” isn’t always easy to internalize.