It’s peaking this month. One of the key transits behind the current chaos, the Saturn/ Neptune conjunction, is exact to the minute of arc on February 20th.
But let’s not get waylaid by what Frederick Woodruff calls “prediction porn.” This isn’t about expecting some big event to happen on that day. A transit exactitude is like a beam of light that’s been building for a while and finally reaches maximum intensity.
Drama on the external level is possible, but on the inner level, it’s probable. This is our best shot at learning what the cosmos is teaching.
This particular teaching introduces a profound paradox: the planet of order and structure (Saturn) is fusing with the planet of meltdown (Neptune).
The conjunction is asking: What does moral clarity look like, in the face of this all-encompassing miasma?
Swimming in slop
This month, the inner planets are exaggerating the Neptune part of the equation. The sky is full of Pisces right now (Mercury on 2/6, Venus on 2/10 and the Sun on 2/18), further disintegrating whatever seems solid and reliable (Saturn).
The past fifteen years of Neptune in Pisces (2011-2026) have undermined our sense of there being such a thing as consensual reality. This has been drowned out by a cacophonous melee of online bullhorns, undermining our ability to discriminate between validity and folly. Social taboos and geopolitical norms are melting down into one big swirling soup, like the AI slop overwhelming the internet.
And now Saturn is in the mix. On 2/13 it re-enters Aries (action), asking what we’re going to do about it.
The real and the unreal
Saturn’s job is to give us a sense of permanence, like the lions that preside over the steps of our great public libraries.
But its partner, Neptune, doesn’t think much of our illusions of permanence. Saturn says: I’ll always be here. Neptune says, Oh yeah?
An autocrat (Aries) who puts his name in big, gold letters on a grand old cultural institution personifies the Saturn part of the conjunction, in defiance of the Neptune part. In declaring the everlasting clout of his ego, he’s tempting fate. Saturn is nowhere near as powerful as Neptune, the planet of All Things Must Pass.
The world as a whole is reeling with existential doubt. A.I. and Orwellian propaganda have eroded our trust in the media, while the rule-based order (Saturn) of the postwar world is crumbling like a stale cookie.
The Astrologer’s Pottery Barn Rule
Colin Powell’s warning about invading Iraq, “You break it, you own it,” is being invoked again in reference to Venezuela and other foreign adventures. As astrologers, we can apply the analogy in an existential sense: We were born into this chapter of history, and we have to own it.
But meeting the challenges of our era doesn’t start on the level of the collective. It starts, as always, with the self-awareness of individuals. This moment depends on our courage, activated by Aries, the sign of bravery.
Because Saturn’s in the mix, our boldness must be considered with exquisite accountability. Ask yourself whether you have impulses, highly charged but poorly considered (Neptune), that are butting up against resistance of some kind (Saturn). Over-inflated visions are likely to be deflated right now, like a balloon meeting a pin.
Our job is to attend diligently to the necessities of the earth plane (Saturn)… while keeping in the back of our minds that all our dramas are just stories, conjured up by us.
Can we play the game with dead seriousness, all the while knowing it’s just a game?
