Podcast—2016, Part Three
Saturn Neptune Cycle in Personal Terms
To conclude the discussion regarding the Saturn/Neptune square for now, I wish to consider the implications of this aspect for individuals, groups and society in general.
The cycle of Saturn and Neptune, lasting about 36 years, concerns the involutionary/evolutionary integration of our structures of Reality (Saturn) with one of the three wondrous powers that account for our spiritual gift of self-unfoldment, that particular experience being the process of Illumination as we exercise our Intuitional nature through our Dreaming/Imagination (Neptune).
The Saturn/Neptune cycle commences with the release of a new impulse at their conjunction and then unfolds over the next 36 years through phases of at times more graceful and then more challenging articulations of integration (or lack thereof) with one another.
For us, from November 2015 into September 2016, we are seeking to understand (again) one of the more challenging moments in their cycle. Whereas the Conjunction (0°) and certainly the Sextile (60°) and Trine (120°) can be experienced more elegantly, the Opposition (180°) and the Waxing or Waning Square (90°) are often more associated with frictions, fractions and schisms. We are encountering the challenge of the Waning Square this year.
Both the Waxing and Waning Squares can be understood as times of Crisis, where this cycle relationship of Dreams and Reality has arrived at a critical moment of decision, and we need, or are forced, to face the dilemmas inwardly and outwardly regarding whatever we encounter at this turning. Given the choices met at the Waning Square, there are really two possible outcomes:
1) We can rise to the challenge (through Love), face the situation openly and wisely, and so lift ourselves up to a higher level of functioning. We can choose to face ourselves and our world and make this present difficulty into an opportunity to grow beyond our former self-limitations, (those very self-limitations being what actually brought us to this very crisis), because we resolve, because we are inspired, to move beyond or through the old dichotomies and assumptions, and this brings us into a higher level of understanding and action….or,
2) We fall back (frozen by fear), and cling to the shells of false-meaning (and discard the kernels of truth). We seek refuge in the rigidity of comfortable certainties as we deny the “living spirit”. We deny our own true self as we fail to hear the Song of Spirit which is seeking to help us break free, to help us move beyond what have become the dogmas and pharisaical practices that have brought us to our self-doubts and despair.
The particular question posed by Saturn and Neptune for each of us this year can be found by their respective position in Astrological Signs. Saturn is moving through Sagittarius, while Neptune is moving through Pisces. Saturn, the Teacher/Tester and holder of Reality and Institutions, is bringing us to examine our relationship to Truth, to the Sciences, Philosophy and Religion. Whereas Neptune, the Universal Solvent, Dissolver of Boundaries, Agent of Universal Love and Compassion is in its very own sign, and calling us to anchor ourselves in the greater Reality in which we truly abide. That underlying or True Reality is this: That we are all sparks of the Divine, we are all related to one another and we all abide in the Love of the One. And, it is this Love of and by the One which holds us all together forever and ever. And so, there is but one path forward (always), and that is to Love one another. If whatever we feel, or think or do does not follow from this fundamental Truth, then it will come to nothing in the end.
With Neptune being the outermost planet, and being part of the Spiritual Triad of our spiritual quickening, we should look to it as taking the lead in the elicitation that will move us along the path of our spiritual evolution. It will help us to dispel any notions which seek to divide or separate us, counter any actions which seek to make some greater and others less, and instead lead us out from within and inspire us to act with even greater compassion, understanding and love for one another.
But if any individual or group face this crisis and see only danger and betrayal, it is because they hold to a fear-based reality of what they believe was lost. They fall into the fractured mirrors of madness that are the inverse of the “Wisdom that is Love”, and into the pain of Neptunian Delusion and Self-Deception. They will make of themselves martyrs and heroes, as they blame some “other” for what they see as broken promises and deception. They become the “enthralled”, driven by their self-cast fears of Saturn, and so become deceived into falsehoods of superior/inferior, whether in terms of beliefs, politics or personal behaviors. They will seek to divide, allocate blame and act against the greater good, and so ultimately bring great pain to themselves (but also many others) by this false faith formed from discord and fear.
The one True path remains the same, year after year, and life after life…and it will bring you, if you remain true to who you really are, out of all such darkness and fear. The song of spiritual self-awakening is what you must listen for, the kindliness, gentleness and love is what your soul lives from, by and for. Your higher-self, your Spark of the Divine, is forever singing these Psalms of Love.
The quiet, steady and loving flame of the One will always remind you to resist those inner and outer voices of fear, doubt, hatred and insecurity. Instead, you will smile as you remember your true nature. You are here to Dream of a Greater Reality, to Love every other as you love yourself…And so it will come to pass, you will move steadily and surely out of these shadows and into the realm of Light.
In the next podcast, I will move on to consider another waning square that is defining this year for us, the square of Jupiter and Saturn.
Here is Part Three of the 2016 Forecast, Saturn and Neptune Personally