Saturn/Neptune opposition

Planetary news this week

m81deep_hallas720On May 10 the square of Jupiter to Uranus reaches the apex of the second phase of its cycle. Jupiter expands and exaggerates the urge for Uranus to create radical change and break down the status quo, and we’ve seen this since the cycle began back in January. On a global level this planetary configuration stimulates conflicts between religious and ethnic groups, and on an individual level the effect may be more subtle. Suddenly we feel dissatisfied and impatient with those with whom we agreed last year. We want new ways of looking at the world, we want to live our lives in a different way that more authentically fulfills the person we think we are NOW.

Jupiter right now is softening the challenge of the Saturn/Neptune opposition by adding an expansive quality of optimism and faith. Saturn, the force of discipline and restriction, is still trine to Jupiter, lending a stabilizing force to our desire for expansion that Jupiter/Uranus evokes. Saturn says “make sure you’ve packed your lunch before you go on that interdimensional journey.”

In addition Neptune, the force that urges us to dissolve our material reality and reach for an experience of the divine, makes a sextile to Jupiter which adds a note of creativity and pulls together our spirituality (Neptune) and our personal theology (Jupiter). The interplay between the Jupiter/Uranus square and the Saturn/Neptune opposition offers a relatively stable environment where change and growth can take place in a more organic way.

This cycle continues through October but is most pressing now, particularly with the addition of Mars which is approaching a square to Pluto (exact May 13) where it brings up power conflicts and other battles of the ego. The square from Mars to Pluto will […]

Share this article...
By |2018-06-11T11:33:28-04:00May 9th, 2007|Planetary news this week|Comments Off on Planetary news this week
Read More

Saturn/Neptune cycles love a good scandal!!

As I wrote last fall: “The opposition of Saturn to Neptune which began in late August and continues until next summer was predicted to bring the end (Saturn) of illusions (Neptune). It was, after all, the dominating planetary influence during the Watergate scandal. Neptune tends to erode the power structures of Saturn, and Saturn tests and challenges our idealistic fantasies and things that we would prefer to ignore. Americans have been willing to ignore the debacle in Iraq because by and large they haven’t really been personally affected. This is a very Neptunian way of looking at things: ignore them and they wil go away. Saturn comes and jolts us into realizing that our world is actually unraveling. ”

The number of scandals facing the Bush White House is staggering, coinciding with the second phase of the opposition cycle between Saturn and Neptune. When a planetary cycle has three or more phases due to the retrograde phenomenon, the first phase is typically a wake-up call, jolting us into awareness that something is amiss. The second phase really grabs our attention with some kind of crisis, and we usually find we have to make a change in our life to deal with the energy shift that the planetary cycle has thrust upon us. By the third phase we often have made that shift and we begin to integrate the lessons of the cycle, but if we have resisted the change we may find ourselves in an accelerating crisis that will ultimately force the evolutionary growth that the energy of the planets require.

Now that we are in the second phase of the Saturn/Neptune opposition, with Neptune’s confusion eroding Saturn in Leo’s question of Who is In Charge, multiple scandals are erupting in Washington:

  • The connection of 23 administration officials to […]
    Share this article...
By |2020-11-03T13:27:10-05:00March 31st, 2007|Politics|Comments Off on Saturn/Neptune cycles love a good scandal!!
Read More

The Saturn/Neptune Opposition, August 2006-June 2007

The challenging aspects of Saturn and Neptune can make it difficult to integrate the building of form and focus on the material world that Saturn urges with the Neptunian tendency to dissolve form and seek a more transcendent experience. In the opposition (180 degree aspect) there is a tension between these two planets that result in an experience that is disorienting and destabilizing. The effects of the Saturn/Neptune opposition bring our fantasies and illusions (Neptune) into collision with the cold facts of reality (Saturn).

Like the moon cycles, planetary cycles begin with the conjunction or new moon, then the opening square or challenge, the culmination of the opposition or full moon point, followed by the waning square which completes the cycle. In the opposition, Saturn’s urge to create form and establish solid structures confronts head-on the principle of Neptune which is to dissolve and transcend form in the material world. Remember that Saturn strives to build form where Neptune reminds us that there is a world beyond form; Saturn rules incarnation in the body and Neptune draws us into experiences that go beyond the body and the material world. In the opposition, where the two planets are 180 degrees apart, there is a tension between them that requires balance. This is a challenging aspect, but not so difficult as the square in which there is open conflict. The opposition is the apex of the cycle; it is the pinnacle of understanding the process before integration takes place. The combination of Saturn and Neptune requires that the spiritual self (Neptune) connect with the material self (Saturn). The result of the opposition is a disconnect between the grounding of the self into spirit of the Saturn/Neptune and the establishment of the individual identity (Sun).

The current opposition of Saturn in […]

Share this article...
By |2019-11-10T19:54:07-05:00July 25th, 2006|Planetary cycles|0 Comments
Read More