STARFIRE

June 2007

June 2007 - Neptune and Saturn: opposing forces.
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Neptune and Saturn:

Fantasy and Form

Opposing forces or energy fields create awareness because they have to balance each other. Whenever we look at opposing planets, we are looking at one of the many metaphors for marriage and partnerships.

Any pair of planets moving through the skies in opposition to each other reveals aspects of that eternal and comprehensive partnering dance. (And don’t think being single gets you off that dance floor. Alone, we dance with our personal shadows or learn through a host of encounters with consultants, clients, readers and the public.)

Astrologically, Saturn is often seen as the more structured and disciplining parent, usually the father, and the Moon is the nurturing parent, usually the mother. The roles are complex, as any single parent can tell you, and in some families the parents reverse the Saturn-Moon imagery.

It is all imagery, of course, and the meanings of Saturn are as rich and constantly changing as any other image. Saturn may be the bottom line–but the bottom line is just a concept that shifts with each new figure added to the corporate spreadsheet.  

It’s more interesting to look at Saturn as form and solidity, much as the Kabbalists look at Saturn as the planet associated with Binah at the top of the feminine or form or severity pillar of the Tree of Life. Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi calls that pillar Justice in his diagram of the creation of the world. http://www.kabbalahsociety.org/diagram3.html

On Halevi’s diagram, the center at the top of the Justice pillar is termed Elohim, a plural word representing both masculine and feminine energies. In other diagrams, Halevi refers to this center as tradition, another word for teachings brought into form so we can understand them.

No wonder Saturn gets blamed for karma. It represents the lessons or understandings we receive in form in the world around us or within our own bodies. It is parental discipline in the form of guidance (with Mars handling the physical aspects of discipline).

Neptune is pure imagery. On the tree of life we find Neptune at the top of tree, heading the pillar of Grace, and often referred to as the first swirlings. It represents our first hint of the Divine coming into manifestation and, on a daily level, all those things like photographic images that move in and out of form. Neptune is classical music and the constantly changing forms of dance and film.  

As Saturn makes its third and final opposition to Neptune (until 2042), I’ve set the chart for this month in Taos, New Mexico. For those of you who know Taos, the looming mountain and the harsh realities of winter in ski country represent Saturn as clearly as the community’s artistic vision represents Neptune. (If you like to travel from your armchair, check out the movie of John Nichols’s Milagro Beanfield War for a look at some of the enduring struggles over water in Northern New Mexico). Karma and artistic vision straight from Taos.

Although the opposition doesn’t become exact until June 25th, we’ll be feeling it all month. Some of us will just feel tired. Others will feel as if they’d just “had the steam knocked out of them”, as my father used to say. Reality may be especially difficult for heroine users and alcohol abusers this month. (Or it may be easier than usual for people to cut down on alcohol and sugar; the opposition’s effect on individuals depends on the planets near 20 degrees of fire and air signs in their natal charts.)

Internationally, gas prices at the wellhead should continue to drop. Will the consumer benefit from those decreasing prices? Like Saturn, it’s a complicated karmic dance. Government (another Saturn image here) comes into play with trade embargoes, gasoline taxes and the need to get prices down before elections all playing a part in the mix.  

At the moment, I’m expecting gas prices to drop at the pump by the end of June, but to level off and not drop significantly from July until at least November. After Pluto moves into Capricorn next winter, we’ll begin to see genuine alternatives to some fuels. For the moment, we’re seeing Saturnian restrictions on ethanol production. The ethanol questions coming up now represent some of the most important ingredients of the Saturn-Neptune pairing: justice for affected people vs. easy expansion of fuel; costs in human food (Saturn) vs. the illusion of swift and easy answers (Neptune); limitations of supply vs. the illusion of freedom from constraint that fast cars and quick flights have given us.

As I work with other writers, I’m hearing issues of creative resistance and the need to break through old barriers in order to free energy for creative production. That’s another Saturn (resistance) vs. Neptune (creative vision) for us.

The truth is that Neptune alone is daydreams. Saturn alone is drudgery. We may not like the issues Saturn and Neptune bring up, but long-term satisfaction often rests on the balance between them.

Or, as the tree of life reminds us, the creative vision has to be expanded from the first almost formless vision (Neptune) into ideas we can express in words and images (Uranus) and be restricted into form (Saturn) before we humans can enjoy the fruits of creation.

Mary O’Gara, Ph.D.