Saturn and Neptune: The Moment We Become Too Certain is When Delusion Takes Hold
This year's upcoming conjunction in fiery Aries is an astrological koan of the highest order. And another blow to the US's global reputation.
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I felt a cleaving in my mind
As if my brain had split;
I tried to match it, seam by seam,
But couldn't make them fit.
—Emily Dickinson
IF YOU’VE EVER WONDERED why astrology is an art and not a science, pause and consider the upcoming conjunction in July between the planets Saturn and Neptune in Aries. Art combines different, often contrasting dimensions in life into new patterns, experiences, and ways of seeing the world. But frequently, this rearrangement is accomplished unconsciously. The artist does not fully comprehend their creation until after it is placed across from them—in a book, on a canvas, stage, or screen. You could say that this is a process that accompanies all astrological delineations. Still, the upcoming Saturn-Neptune pairing is particularly puzzling—and as this will occur in Aries—comprehending its ‘message’ feels urgent.
Cycles within cycles…
Let’s grasp what the current Saturn/Neptune cycle is completing. Planetary aspects do not occur in a vacuum. Any planetary unfoldment begins when two (or more) planets form a conjunction. This fiat announces the new cycle’s theme and what it might accomplish when the planets move apart to oppose each other.
In November of 1989, Saturn and Neptune met up in Capricorn. Like Aries, Capricorn is a cardinal sign. Transits through the cardinals are given extra oomph. The cardinal sign’s qualities are displayed emphatically and unequivocally. The most cogent event during the 1989 conjunction was the fall of the Berlin Wall. This seems more like a Saturn/Uranus transit in the way communism suddenly evaporated, but evaporation is also a quality you could associate with Neptune.
As Jungian astrologer Liz Greene notes, “When Saturn conjuncts one of the outer planets, things have a way of manifesting in the world in a very literal fashion, which is not so obvious when the outer planet is passing along through a sign.” Neptune, a planet associated with Marxism, moving through Capricorn (the structure of a state or nation) gave the illusion that communism was ‘working.’ But Neptune’s dispersing effect was slowly turning solids into gases. Saturn caught up to the planet, concretized the breakdown, and declared, “Here’s what’s really going on.”
So, with that fifteen-year cycle complete, everything we’ve associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Cold War moves into that conjunction’s final ‘chapter.’ And here we are again, before another conjunction, facing a nascent narrative about the consequences of solidifying that which best remains a vision or trance—especially when considering how the transit impacts global politics.
Considering the cycle of ‘flow’ or evolution around the Zodiac, what starts in Aries comes to a climax or reaches achievement in Capricorn. So, in a sense, we are back to the heart of what any Saturn/Neptune cycle is about. And this gives the upcoming conjunction a primeval keynote. The slate will be wiped clean, and the first markings for the cycle will offer clues as to the new codex’s story.
Aries: yang vibes and the power of the individual
Aries is a self-actualizing sign (not necessarily a self-understanding sign). As the artists mentioned above, Aries often doesn’t understand what it has set in motion until after the fact. Aries is dramaturgy that displays the raw power of the self, the ego, on a mission. Inconveniently, Aries rarely asks if something should be fought for or defended. It’s part of the sign’s charm (or alarm) and its disturbing disconnect from symmetry.
The sign is phallic and traditionally aligned with yang vibes and masculine principles. Pluto’s long transit through Capricorn (from 2008 to the close of 2024)—squaring Aries and Libra—collapsed the entrenched power dynamics between the sexes. Suddenly what was the imminent domain of hetero-male privilege was replaced with incel grievances and rage. Frustrated males transferred their libidos from seeking sexual company or mates into computer war games, with their endless and ever more complicated martial conquests—the head, which Aries rules, replaced the phallus.