Don't Forget Saturn's Opposing Neptune

2.14.07


In a couple weeks (Wed Feb 28), Saturn and Neptune will move into their second of three exact oppositions during this round of their cycle.

Considering this Saturn-Neptune opposition is perhaps the most important current transit we are experiencing, I must admit I've been remiss in elucidating its details to y'all. But I promise: More about this is soon on its way to you, dear readers.

I first wrote about Saturn's opposition to Neptune last summer, shortly before its first peak on Aug 31 06, and described the general tone this astro-event casts over our lives. Click here to read it.

To summarize: We're faced with the glaring disconnect between (1) our idealistic visions for a universally compassionate, psychically unified existence and (2) the less inspiring reality, with its crystallized structures of authority that fall far short of serving those visions.

This halfway tension-point in the Saturn-Neptune cycle has shown itself in US politics via the widespread disillusion that heralded an historic party shift in both the Senate and the House. We can also witness it playing out in the Iraq mess and the public's shift away from its previous barely-there-but-still-there majority support, as well as Iran's increased involvement in puffing up America's apparent failure—a situation with its most recent roots in the last Saturn-Neptune conjunction in 1989.

On the pop-culture front, it's interesting to note that the passing of Anna Nicole Smith—who epitomizes the Neptune-in-Aquarius 'glamorization of the everyman (or -woman)'—occurred last Thursday (Feb 8), right as the Sun was exactly conjoining Neptune and bringing the Saturn-Neptune opposition to the forefront. Astrologer Eric Francis offers his as-always thoughtful commentary on the astrology of Anna's death here.

Not only did we witness, in Anna, the life and death of a public figure who held, rightfully or not, a major helping of projections (both 'good' and 'bad') from our collective psyche… but the insane amounts of news coverage granted to a woman whose contributions to the world can hardly be considered 'significant' raises serious issues about the role of journalism in setting certain vapid public agendas, while squelching meatier stories. In this article about an upcoming PBS series News War, Joe Garofoli compares 'current efforts by federal prosecutors to chill investigative journalism by trying to coerce reporters to reveal confidential sources' to a similar trend in the early 1970s—the last time Saturn and Neptune were opposing each other. Hmmm.

Stay tuned for more of my comments on the current Saturn-Neptune opposition. They're really coming, I swear…