Here’s what Saturn Retrograde means, since you’re brave enough to ask

We’re really trying our best to come out of Mercury Retrograde unscathed. But as soon as we step out from Mercury’s backwards shadow on April 15th, we enter into Saturn Retrograde on the 17th. What the heck, Universe? Throw us a bone here! And what exactly is Saturn Retrograde, you ask? What does this next phase really mean? Listen, if it’s anything like Mercury Retrograde, we’re moving out of this solar system.

Unfortunately, we might have to start packing our bags. Like Mercury Retrograde, Saturn Retrograde is when the planet appears to be going backwards in its orbit. According to NASA’s StarChild blog, the planets normally move west to east through the night sky. When retrograde kicks in, a planet seems to be traveling east to west.

"The explanation for retrograde motion in a heliocentric model is that retrograde occurs roughly when a faster moving planet catches up to and passes a slower moving planet," StarChild explains.

Right, right, right — the technical stuff is great and all, you say. But how is Saturn Retrograde going to ruin our lives?

Saturn is the ruling planet of karma, discipline, and justice. AstrologyKing.com notes that we’ll all receive a double dose of karma during Saturn Retrograde — we’ll pay for bad things we’ve done in the past and be rewarded for our previous good deeds.

The period of Saturn Retrograde, which lasts from April 17th to September 6th (yeah, we know…that’s a long time), is going to be a learning period. We’ll learn from our past mistakes after karma returns. You might find yourself returning to previous projects, as UniversalLifeTools.com says. You’ll want to take extra time to do things correctly during Saturn Retrograde.

Sure, Saturn Retrograde will have a minor pull on your daily life. But if you try your best not to let it get to you, you can hopefully avoid any retrograde-related woe.

Here’s hoping we’ve been good up until now.