Saturn sextile Neptune

Planetary news this week! Mars ignites the power of Pluto, and Saturn/Neptune

This week marks the final phase of the harmonious interplay between Saturn and Neptune which has worked for much of this year to facilitate the merging of our dreams (Neptune) with the reality check of Saturn.  Where Neptune can inspire us to dream and imagine, Saturn encourages us to put those dreams to work.  And where Saturn’s influence can become somewhat dull as we work steadfastly towards our goals, Neptune adds a coating of magical fairy dust to take our goals and wishes into a new dimension.

This has been a nice counterpoint to the near collision between Saturn and Pluto that took place between April and July, when Saturn’s penchant for structure and accountability combined with Pluto’s willful destruction of anything not serving the highest good.  This is the final alignment between Saturn and Neptune, though, and when Jupiter (abundance and positivity) moves from its own happy sign of Sagittarius into the more serious sign of Capricorn, we will need to knuckle down and face any cold hard realities we may have been avoiding.

The final Saturn/Neptune sextile this week offers a last opportunity to integrate our ideals into our lives through careful planning and attention to detail.  Because Mercury is retrograde, this may not manifest outwardly yet – we may need to stay in the planning phase until the end of November when Mercury turns direct.

Meanwhile, this week Mars continues his attack on Saturn and Pluto.  Last week Mars faced off in a square against Saturn, resisting the pressure to conform to limitations and perhaps causing some internal distress as our energy and motivation (Mars) was blocked by Saturnian restriction.  In the early part of the week Mars will square Pluto and any […]

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By |2019-11-04T07:26:53-05:00November 4th, 2019|Planetary news this week|0 Comments
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Planetary news this week! January 28th-February 4th 2019

Astrological news for the week of January 28-February 4, 2019

The biggest news this week is the first alignment of the harmonious sextile between Saturn (form and structure) and Neptune (transcendence and spiritual expansion). You can read more about that here, but adding practical and grounded Saturn to the creative inspiration of Neptune will be a great boon for virtually every area of our lives. This is an excellent time to give form to our creative and spiritual endeavors – to let our imaginations take us to places we hadn’t yet thought to go.  Saturn’s organizational capacity will help us to ground our ideals and dreams into reality, if we take advantage of these offerings. The first exact alignment of Saturn sextile Neptune takes place on January 30th, but this alignment has been building for the past week or so.

On January 28th, the Sun and Mercury align to merge the solar light of conscious awareness with the power of the mind.  This is a brilliant time for clear thinking and planning, especially in combination with the Saturn/Neptune sextile which has already harnessed our imagination to clarify our practical goals.  This alignment will be in effect only for a couple of days surrounding the exact event.

Mars is the planet of fire and aggression, and when it forms stressful combinations with other planets it doesn’t always bring out the best.  Mars is just coming off of a challenging square to Saturn on the 21st in which the best laid plans were delays and disappointed.  On February 1st Mars will form a challenging square to Pluto – a classic signature for potential violence and power conflicts.  In our personal lives this (beginning around the 28th as the aspect begins to form) […]

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By |2019-01-28T08:10:07-05:00January 28th, 2019|Planetary news this week|2 Comments
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Saturn sextile Neptune 2019: Creating structure for inspiration

Art by Fiona Owen

Two of the most significant planetary cycles for 2019 are the challenging square alignment between Jupiter’s expansive tendencies and Neptune’s penchant to transcend (or avoid) material reality.  The “hard angle” planetary interactions such as the square (90 degrees) and opposition (180 degrees) tends to give us more of the challenging aspects of the planetary cycle.  The Jupiter and Neptune dance dissolving the restrictions of the material world could potentially become more of a distraction into the world of self-deception and illusion, encouraged by Jupiter’s desire to continue to expand and seek larger and ever greater experiences.  Read more about the Jupiter/Neptune alignment here. 

Fortunately, Saturn will bring its stabilizing influence into this dance, harmonizing in a sextile (60 degree) aspect to Neptune which helps to provide support and a solid foundation to Neptune’s creative inspiration and longing for spiritual transcendence. Where Neptune can inspire us to dream and imagine, Saturn encourages us to put those dreams to work.  And where Saturn’s influence can become somewhat dull as we work steadfastly towards our goals, Neptune adds a coating of magical fairy dust to take our goals and wishes into a new dimension.

This cycle will last throughout the year, and the middle phase of the harmonious Saturn/Neptune cycle in June will coincide with a complex system that includes Mars and Mercury in Cancer (emotional and frustrating) opposing Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn (restricting), as well as the second phase of the Jupiter/Neptune square.  That’s a whole lot of complex energies, some of which support each other and some which compete for our conscious attention.

May and June will be a complicated time, so stay tuned!

Here are the important dates for this planetary cycle:

  • January […]
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By |2019-10-31T14:21:51-04:00January 27th, 2019|Featured posts, Planetary news this week|3 Comments
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An astrological forecast for 2019

astrology of 2019A quick look back

There is a famous Chinese curse that goes something along the lines of “May you live in an interesting age” and that is certainly true of the time that we are living in at the moment.  Fortunately we have at our disposal a tool to make some sense of the chaos that we sometimes see around us:  An understanding of planetary cycles.  While it’s difficult to predict specific events that will take place under a particular planetary cycle, we ARE able to get a sense of the general climate and energies that are available to us or affecting us in some way.

We have emerged from the challenging square aspect between Uranus (radical change) and Pluto (destruction and regeneration) that created so much challenge between 2008 and 2017.  Now that much of dismantling of the power structures has occurred, the rebuilding must take place.  Saturn, the planet that assists in that process, is in its own sign of Capricorn which should help.

The Capricorn Stellium

In December of 2019 we will have a lineup of five planets in Capricorn.  The last time there was a large stellium in Capricorn was the period between 1988-1989 (see this recent article about individuals born during that time period).  Capricorn is associated with the material world and the structures we create to support it. The last Capricorn stellium witnessed the beginning of the disintegration and restructuring of the Soviet Union, the reunification of East and West Germany, the creation of new governments in the former Eastern Bloc including Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland.

Part of the Capricorn Stellium is the approaching conjunction of Saturn to Pluto in that sign.  Although these two don’t officially converge exactly until January […]

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By |2019-12-16T11:08:54-05:00December 30th, 2018|Planetary cycles|1 Comment
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