Jan 2016
Tie Up Your Camel
The square between Saturn and Neptune, which will be coming at us in waves through 2017, is one of those transits we get better at the longer it goes on. We handle it better as we begin to understand it. (1) But at first, it’s a real conundrum.
This is where trigger transits come in. Whenever the square gets triggered by some other planet (keep your eyes peeled for early-degree mutable signs), such as happens with Venus Jan 5th – 7th, the hard-core issues arise. So we get to check our progress.
Perhaps something will happen in a relationship (Venus), to show us how well we’ve achieved balance between the 
planet of realism (Saturn) and the planet of faith (Neptune). We’ll find out whether we’re attending to only half the transit: identifying with one planet, and projecting the other. If so, the one we’re ignoring will express its displeasure.
The goal, of course, is to listen to them both, and it happens naturally when we’re centered. We get that knife-edge balance just right, of neither denying Saturn’s warnings to self-protect, nor denying Neptune’s invitation to stay utterly open, feeling the Universe on our side.
It’s not easy to give equal credence to such seemingly antithetical forces. But important squares like this aren’t supposed to be easy. They’re hoops we jump through, to get to the next psycho-spiritual level.
Paradox
At first blush, it seems an impossibility: to be mindful of boundaries (Saturn) while knowing that everything is inextricably interconnected (Neptune).
This is because our crown chakra and our survival chakra aren’t always on the same page. We may claim to believe in Neptune’s spiritual truisms — Goddess knows, the pages of FaceBook are overflowing with variations on the theme of I am at One with All-That-Is — but we’re still socially conditioned to believe that it’s unrealistic (Saturn) to live as if such things were true.
The mind tells us that these two approaches contradict each other. But the transit is trying to get us to listen to a part of us that lives beyond the mind: the part that knows about paradox.
In fact, part of the transit’s teaching is to recognize the existence of paradox; to recognize that paradox is part of Nature, part of life.
Both true
Saturn’s insistence that we put our impulses into solid form, and put our lives in order, is absolutely valid. There is a purpose in washing the dishes and making the bed.
Equally valid is Neptune’s reminder that every effort to structure and organize must inevitably come undone, in human affairs as in Nature. We know we’ll just have to do the dishes and make our bed all over again, tomorrow.(2)
If we fully accept this, we may start glimpsing the deeper reaches of the transit, where the wisdom lies. We start to realize that two halves of a paradox do not cancel each other out. They’re both true.
Even the most carefully erected sand castle will dissolve with the next big wave. But this shouldn’t prevent an inspired sandcastle-builder from creating the very best sandcastle she can.
We know, in our hearts, that Neptune is telling the truth when it says that all separation is, ultimately, an illusion. But Saturn is right, too, when it insists that practical distinctions do exist, and must exist, in this world of ours. “Trust in God,” says the old proverb, “but tie up your camel.”
Check your chart
How might we appease these two prickly gods during the months ahead?
Watch like a hawk the houses where Saturn and Neptune are transiting in your individual chart, and any planets they are aspecting. Each planet is using a particular set of life experiences as a teaching tool. Once we know which ones, we can commit to the highest versions of both planets, in those spheres of activity. We can develop ways to respond to both Saturn and Neptune without making either one the enemy.
To lay incense on the altar of transiting Saturn, we set social boundaries, tighten up our schedules, 
get enough sleep, stay mindful of the body’s limitations. We try to contain the disorder of life, and to stay grounded, as much as is humanly possible, despite the confusion and violence of the outer world, and the psychological dramas of the inner world.
We determine to act like a grown-up in the affairs of whatever house Saturn’s in. We apply ourselves steadily and constructively even in the face of uncertainty… which we know will arise, because Neptune is not permitting certainty right now.
To lay incense on Neptune’s altar, we cultivate detachment in the department of our life indicated by the transit’s resident house. If it’s your 2nd, maybe you find yourself wanting to let go of possessions, questioning your material attachments. (Otherwise, you might do this unconsciously, by losing things.)
If it’s in the 9th, maybe you’re feeling inspired to support some artistic endeavor, or give a fiver and a kind word to the homeless person on the street, or send a check to Doctors Without Borders. If Neptune’s in the first house, your old self-image is dissolving. You’re supposed to be learning how illusory physical appearance is… how illusory the personality itself is.
The sweetest form any Neptune transit can take is the blossoming of emotional empathy, which shows up as kindness. The most sublime form it can take is satori: that glimpse of ultimate truth, whereby we feel, in an instant, our seamless bondedness with all things.
These spiritual deepenings may be aroused by painful circumstances or by joyful ones. Neptune doesn’t care which.
Blockage and loss
Meanwhile, Saturn right now is just as strong. It’s insisting that we cultivate a new level of integrity (Sagittarius); an ethical accountability.
What might it look like when the two planets rear their heads in the same event?
An idealistic project might run into blockage when our original understanding is revealed to have been limited.
We may find ourselves negotiating loss or grief, and in the process be forced to redefine our moral principles. Maybe we’ll be invited to swallow our pride and seek succor in our community. Or we might experience a humbling episode at work, that gets us to question our worldly aspirations.
Whatever form it takes, the square will make us work (Saturn) on our relationship to spirit (Neptune).
Put them together
As always with conflicting planetary pairs, the goal is to put the two together: to get them to work as a team. How do we put Saturn’s grounding, contracting force at the service of Neptune’s yearning for connection to spirit?
Maybe we keep a pen and pencil by our bed to write down (Saturn) our dreams (Neptune). Or we dedicate ourselves (Saturn), more seriously than before, to a ritual of the spirit (Neptune): making a practice out of something that was, up until now, just a hobby.
If our modality-of-choice is meditation, and we usually just meditate every once in a while, that probably won’t cut it under this transit. It won’t feel like enough.
No heroes
But don’t try to be superhuman. Perfectionism – a vision of Neptune – will be painfully cut down to size by the hard, cold realities of Saturn. We honor Neptune by acknowledging that we are not — & cannot be– in control. And we honor Saturn, at the same time, by being clearly in charge.
We commit to playing the game as well as we can, all the while knowing it’s just a game.
Notes
1 I go over the square in detail in my downloadable webinar “Crisis of Faith.”
2 It is Neptune’s negation of Saturn’s attempts at achievement that give the square its association with the deep blues: a sense of meaninglessness and futility. But these feelings aren’t the result of a belief that our gestures are meaningless. It’s actually the opposite. It’s our expectation that such gestures should have meaning – that is, the meaning that we’ve assigned to them: i.e. that they should lead to permanence – that results in disappointment or despair. Those expectations are not Neptune’s fault.