In light of the recent events in Orlando and the global response, I’m inspired to share some thoughts on the Saturn-Neptune square which is the astrological element of the sky right now that I see mirrored most in this event.
The aspect of the square is a confrontational one, it reflects crisis and tension. When we have Neptune and Saturn speaking in this way, the results can be much more cataclysmic and triggering than other geometric conversations, such as the trine or sextile. This is the difference between a gentle epiphany in a dream, and waking up with a fresh lens, or experiencing something devastating and grappling with the grief in the aftermath. Both can have the effect of altering consciousness and increasing compassion, but one is more difficult and comes with more severe challenges.
Neptune is stationing retrograde, which makes it more potent right now – this is the planet of unconditional love and Source consciousness, as well as whatever we mistake for that ultimate – which is where we get delusion, addiction, escapism. Why the planet of ultimate love also represents confusion and despair is just an example of how much the archetypes can vary in expression according to the consciousness of people acting them out.
Saturn in Sagittarius is about how we draw boundaries and organize reality according to nature, as well as what is not natural – artificial boundaries. Sagittarius relates to tribes, race, cultures – and a shadow of Sagittarius is racism and discrimination. The Sagittarian consciousness, as it expands and explores new realities, begins to see a commonality between the all (Neptune). With Saturn in Sagittarius, the boundaries and borders between groups of people is emphasized and up for review.
This tragic event in Orlando is a situation that is confronting us with despair and confusion, and was targeted (whether it was intentional by the shooter or not, it is evidently targeted) at the queer community and people of color. It is also another of a series of mass shootings, to which we actually don’t know why they are happening. Every time this happens, a conversation opens up, and we go through a series of possibilities around what motivates senseless violence. We want to have an answer. Beyond the cultural illnesses at play that are manifest in structural ways, there is something else at play. Humanity is experiencing a major shift. We have technologies and levels of consciousness that would allow us to bring in deep healing and abundance for all, but we are still dealing with systems, beliefs, and ways of life we have put into motion that systematically traumatize and limit people’s ability to live happily, peaceful, and with dignity.
Neptune confronts us with mysteries and confusion, the experience of disillusionment. The Saturn-Neptune square we are experiencing is last quarter, which relates to a “crisis in consciousness” – where we are experiencing crisis in the form of something that once was put into motion and created, dissolving.
An opportunity with this transit, and with Neptune always, is to step into compassion and wholeness, and to move away from separation. Last night I went to a vigil for the people whose lives were taken in Orlando, and was able to witness the ways that community comes together in the aftermath of tragedy. While there was definite and expressed anger, there was also a Neptunian energy of global compassion coming through into the space. Tragedies can bring out the humanitarian-self in people, and it often serves as a reminder that we don’t have to wait until tensions reach an explosive boiling point to apply the healing salve of love onto ourselves, our community, our loved ones. We don’t need to have a reason. Love is always the reason itself, love is always needed.
It is said that Neptune is more powerful in this configuration with Saturn because Neptune is farther out. To apply it to this situation, I want to say that love truly does overcome hardship, difficulty, hatred, and fear. Love, however ‘intangible’, is behind its manifestations in the world, either by its presence or lack of itself. Love is truly a muscle, it takes strength and power to keep loving and to keep the heart open when things come up that would make us close up and harden. (Thinking of Harry Potter – and how throughout the whole saga he is constantly challenged with this lesson, and he does amazing things with love… does he not?)
When we examine issues within culture that seem far too oppressive and systemic to deal with, we are in the Saturn in Sagittarius part of this square. We are going to be seeing huge changes in the culture over the next few decades. And our consciousness is expanding on the globe such that many of us know that we do not have to be in the seat of political power, or any kind of social authority consciousness, to affect change of the collective. If we are truly all one, if we are truly interconnected, then all acts of individual love will ripple out into the greater whole.
The Neptune energy of the moment can urge us to see past separation and to choose love and compassion where it is showing up for us to. I often suggest to my clients an active prayer life, though I have not spoken about it much here. The reason that I do this is because having a conversation with the Universe directly is one way that we connect our beings, our intentions, to the greater whole that is Source. Our wishes, intentions, and prayers turn into a dialogue – the Universe will speak back to us. When situations appear where we are confused or don’t know what to do, we can fall into despair or we can reach out in trust and faith to what has not yet manifested, but truly does manifest according to intention and the container it is coming into. When we consistently love and pray for the evolution of human consciousness, peace and prosperity for all, or whatever it is that we long for in our hearts – we make room for it to exist.
So often the situations that would trigger us to close up our hearts are traps, leading us to enter in a vibrational dance with the very thing we are against. In doing that, we become bonded to it in a relationship and therefore part of it. When we change within (via the alchemy of choosing love under duress), the world changes too – and if we calibrate ourselves to a higher vibration through choosing love, we give ourselves the chance to resonate with inspired action, when it comes time to act in such a way as to contribute to the health of the globe.
~Sabrina Monarch
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