I return back to writing after a most difficult end to 2014, a time when I faced a crisis of huge importance in my life. I in the past year have faced head on my vulnerabilities and inadequacies and yet I have found strength out of them. During that most difficult period I experienced a Neptune and Saturn conjunction, and at times I seemed powerless in the face of these two planets. Now after transiting Saturn has passed and that aspect is left behind I feel much stronger and reassured about the future. For all of us, the year 2015 will be dominated by these two planets hooking up in the skies above us in a very tense and difficult looking 90 degree square aspect. These squares come along every 17 to 18 years and much like the Saturn Neptune transit I faced I believe they weaken before resilience and fortitude is eventually found.
There are many ways that the Saturn Neptune square can be viewed and played out, but ostensibly we have the planet of structure, ambition and worldly progress coming up against an elusive force, something that is intangible, destabilising and weakening. Saturn is normally tough as nails but the corrosive nature of Neptune bends, undermines and then dissolves the status quo and the building blocks that Saturn lays down. Neptune is the quicksand that we inadvertently stumble into and have great trouble in extricating ourselves from. The more we struggle against it, the deeper trouble we find ourselves in. In preparing this article I wrote down a few notes and a list about these two forces in our Solar system and I want to share them with you.
Saturn is reality whereas Neptune is illusion. Saturn is structure but Neptune dissolves. Saturn has ideas and plans but Neptune is the intuition and imagination to put them into reality. Saturn is fear and trepidation but Neptune asks us to sacrifice ourselves to it and to embrace and accept those fears. Saturn represents materialism but Neptune wants us to live freely and spiritually without the trappings of success. Saturn wants to rule and administrate but Neptune represents the collective and society and with Neptune there are no rules; the views and strength of the many always eventually outweigh the dominance of the individual. Saturn is ambition and can put meat on the bones of the dreams inspired by Neptune. Saturn represents time but in Neptune's world time is unimportant. Saturn can organise and allocate but Neptune's world is one of confusion. Saturn is the status quo and is trustworthy but Neptune is insecure, promotes deception and dissatisfaction. In the world of politics, Saturn shows conservatism whereas Neptune is socialist and the values of the many outweigh those of the few. Saturn indicates robust health but Neptune brings sickness and weakness.
In those notes I think you get the gist that these two forces are as far apart as you could get and the square shows to me that in 2015 we will go through periods where what we know, love and are used to will be taken away or denied from us. From those tough experiences and the sacrifices and suffering that we have to face because of the shortages imposed on us we will eventually find the strength to live on and thrive. I used the picture of the cactus because it has to live on a bare minimum of water throughout it's existence, but it does live successfully in the hot and dusty climate of the desert and it can grow and thrive in the most harsh of circumstances. I bet that at sometime through this year an area or areas of you life will be cut off and you will have to make do on what you have around you. You may have to use that intuition that you have, make a few sacrifices or live on a little less. You may have to hold back and conserve what you have despite the temptation to live freely. I suspect you may feel alone or vulnerable at times, but staying true to the course you can eventually realign your dreams and come out the other side in a better position from whence you started.
So when are the main dates for this impending set of squares? Well the squares will be in force most of the year but the exact hits don't arrive until late in 2015 and early 2016. That's not to say you won't start to feel them soon though. The specific dates are 26th Nov 2015, June 17th 2016 and September 10th 2016. In the world I feel with Saturn being in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces, the nature of the debate surrounding these squares will be philosophical, spiritual about restrictions compared to freedom and of social issues compared to what those in authority want to impose. Matters of health and religion, unions and socialism, as well as maybe of oil and energy too could be very important. Looking back in history, this is a waning square or the last one before the conjunction of Neptune and Saturn and the last two occurred in 1979/1980 and before that in 1944 and 1945. In both cases, the world was suffering.
In 1979 the square was across the mutable signs of Virgo and Sagittarius, and in America President Jimmy Carter was embroiled in the Iran crisis, hostages were taken and his presidency was regarded as one of the weakest in American history. In Britain we had the winter of discontent with strikes, rubbish on the streets and even the undertakers stopped work and the dead were unable to be buried. In both cases after the squares dissipated, strong conservative leaders emerged in the form of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, ones who took on the cold war and the Eastern block. Strength emerged borne out of weakness. In 1944 and 1945 the squares were in the signs of Cancer and Libra, ones of security, equality, nation building, justice and diplomacy. The world was in the endgame of World War 2 at that moment, weakened but years of fighting and strife. The emergence of peace as the square subsided saw new structure and rules coming into force as well as collective decisions in how to proceed. The United Nations was formed and a new resilience and determination to rebuild came out of those dark times. Again from vulnerability, strength was found
I truly believe that this set of squares will see the end of the really tough times of the past 7 years and the world will start to get back on it's feet again, but only after a time of real soul searching, spiritual debate and fear of religious fundamentalism. Often the new structures that arrive are not to everyone's liking and after 1945 you will remember that socialism really came to the fore and it only started to be confronted after a half turn of the Astrological wheel between these two powerful outer planets, from 1945 until the 1980's. I wonder which kind of mass social movement will emerge out of this next set of aspects? This is a theme I will touch on again later on in the year.
For you, keep an eye on the houses that Saturn and Neptune are traversing, the parts of your chart covered by the early degrees of Sagittarius and Pisces and there you will have to resolve a conflict of interests. You may have to take a hit in these areas of life and make do with less freedom and stability than you would like to have, but in time you will find new resolve out any troubles you face. Go with the flow in the next year and a half, and you will emerge a more rounded and better person than you were before.
