For the past few Skywatches we’ve been looking at the big astro event of the year: the Saturn-Neptune conjunction. It won’t be exact until early 2026, but the two planets are neck and neck in the sky right now.
Neptune in Aries
The transit started with Neptune’s ingress in late March, dropping us into a marinade of strange new waters. The planet of erosion is now in Aries, doing its undermining thing in brand new terrain.
The last time Neptune was in this sign, the cannon sounded at Ft Sumpter and the Impressionists were firing up the art world.
This time, the USA’s civil war will probably not be fought with muskets. And in the art world, the big news is not about paint on canvas anymore.
Image-making
Neptune is the planet of illusion, which is why it governs art and image-making. When moving through fiery Aries, the sign of ignition, humanity’s image-generating capacities will feel the heat of a new movement.
A.I.-enhanced imagery blossomed under Neptune in Pisces. CGI and other digital enhancements have destabilized our deeply held assumptions about
what art is, and what are acceptable means of creating it. In a world of MidJourney and ChatGPT, what is true authorship, what is artistic provenance?
For the first time in human history, we’re faced with defining what makes the human creative impulse unique, as opposed to what machines can do. The next fourteen years will be about letting the implications of this sink in.
It will be time to face the quagmire of intellectual property. Who owns creative products which are not tangible (Neptune)? Societies will find themselves struggling to redefine the whole notion of originality. Questions of duplicity, duplication, intentional or inadvertent copying (Neptune) will swamp traditional ways of thinking about picture-making, test-taking… even the need to certify one’s human identity (e.g. “Real ID” cards.)
Saturn always asks us to name what’s happening, without self-delusion. It won’t let us kick the can down the road. Humanity will have to look into the mirror of our own creative capacities, and the tools we’ve built to express them.
World-weary
On an individual level, we will be doing our own version of the same thing. We’re being forced to admit that the Neptunian tide is coming in, and consider its consequences.
Neptune’s job here is to get us to question the way we perceive reality (Saturn). We’re being coaxed into taking off our glasses, as it were, to perceive shapes without their sharp contours; to perceive colors and forms differently, as the Impressionists did.
If you’ve been tracking the transit in your own chart, you’ll know where in your life (which natal house) Neptune is teaching you about illusion and deception, including self-delusion.
Disillusion may be rearing its head, especially during these months with Saturn traveling side-by-side. Things may feel disappointing, even meaningless. Neptune often gets blamed for world-weariness, and Saturn gets blamed for negativity. But these planets aren’t there to make you feel bad.
Neptune doesn’t want to take away meaning, only to take away the meaning you thought things had. It’s making you doubt what you thought was real, only so you can glimpse something realer.
Shifting sands
Jupiter moves into Cancer on June 9th, initiating about a year of heightened idealism around the issues of nurture, shelter and protection. Find the first degree of Cancer in your chart, and you’ll know where expansion is likely to hit. Any natal planets at the first degree of cardinal signs will feel the itch now, adding to the restlessness they’re already feeling from Neptune.
Both Jupiter and Neptune are aspirational planets. Jupiter represents the urge to increase; in Cancer, this might show up as a domestic project, or a
social concern for the welfare of families. Neptune’s idealism — more all-encompassing, and easier to misunderstand — represents a yearning for unity, that soars above logical and practical concerns.
If you’re feeling shifting sands beneath your feet right now, do not assume this is a problem. It’s your soul’s way of inviting you deeper into yourself.
