Life with a 12th House Saturn

I'm not completely sure why it is so difficult for me to gather the energy to write on these subjects. As I write and swim through the interchange between my conscious and unconscious self, I am sure the answers will come. Many times the answers come to me when I least expect it...when my mind is most relaxed to "allow" them to come. When I sit and try to call upon them they evade me, taunting me and practically laughing at me. After a moment, even my photographic memory cannot recall the gem that entered into my field of vision for just a moment.

The years of working on this book has been a search for these gems and an attempt to piece them together like a puzzle.... only I am left to my own assumptions and imagination, or perhaps intuition, as to what these evasive gems of consciousness are that seem to hold a key to who I am, who we are, where we came from and where we are going...... the very questions that much of the science of astrology seek to answer.

Dr. Carl G. Jung held that everything emerges into consciousness from the unconscious, thus it is ultimately the greatest SOURCE of our motivations as humans. Humankind, in their conscious state, has created religions based on higher principles of consciousness that truly motivate us. The archetypes of our religions are examples of figures that have sacrificed their egos for the service of mankind, motivated by a higher spiritual "love" that human devotees aspire to, yet hold so very far from their conscious capability. These archetypes represent the closest that our conscious mind is able to conjure that reflects the SOURCE of LIFE, a life that we vaguely understand unites us all as one body. The sacrifice that these archetypal personifications make is merely a symbol the trickles into our consciousness from the collective unconsciousness that reveal humanity as one body...our individual bodies truly in service to a greater body, the body of LIFE that is all of us.
These symbols and archetypal images make themselves known to our consciousness in dreams and psychic experiences that are a glimpse into this collective unconscious. Carl Jung defines the collective unconscious as follows:
It is a part of the psyche which can be negatively distinguished from the personal unconscious by the fact that it does not, like the latter, owe its existence to personal experience and consequently is not a personal acquisition. While the personal unconscious is made up essentially of contents which have at one time been conscious but which have disappeared from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed, the contents of the collective unconscious have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individually acquired, but owe their existence exclusively to heredity. Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content of the collective unconscious is made up essentially of archetypes
I would correct the wording of Jung's definition a bit by claiming that contents of the collective unconscious can in fact enter the consciousness. The creation of these contents can not make its origin in any one human, for they belong to ALL HUMANS. As Jung made clear, these contents make themselves conscious in the form of archetypes (conscious not being synonymous with intellectual awareness. A client may be aware that they are being haunted by a young boy, but they are not intellectually aware that this IS an archetype that is making itself known to them due to their personal relationship with this particular motif of collective humanity.) Insights into this ocean of psychic energy which comprises so much of the source of our motivations and fears, hold much of the key as to who we are, where we came from, and what we are evolving into.

Saturn in the 12th House must face the SOURCE and re-orient himself with his/ her unconscious motivations in order to integrate true wholeness of SELF.
Initially, natives of the 12th house Saturn have a powerful mistrust in the source, and there are different "forms" of the source which become the focal point. This is dependant on Saturn's sign as well as other factors in the birth chart which will be made clearer as we continue.

For myself, with Saturn in the 12th house in the sign of Gemini (ruled by Mercury, the planet of the mind, communication, and ruling the lungs and the breath), generally I have a great distrust of for the source of information. It is not so much that I feel that people are purposefully untruthful, only that I do not trust peoples intelligence enough to give them credit for having channeled or interpreted their information from a pure enough source to carry any adequate authenticity. In other words, I feel that our collective is littered with toxic information and propaganda from a number of motivations going in many different directions. Think of all the commercials on television, billboards, and advertising everywhere that tell us what products we need to define who we are. Think of all the religious zealots telling us why we should show loyalty to their church and the way that they define God. Think of how the expansion of capitalism within the industrial age has created a playground in which each unit of humanity seeks to expand and secure their ego, battling for the resources of our planet in order to do so. The collective result of this not only muddying and toxifying our conscious source of information, but slowly destroying the only tangible thing left on this planet that truly reflects the unconscious source; the forests and oceans of our earth.

I learned that as a young child, my grandmother on my father's side would babysit me. Around the age of one, I became sick off and on, and displayed great sensitivity to toxins in the environment. I was allergic to everything!! Among the things that gave me the greatest problems was second hand cigarette smoke. My grandmother was a smoker and refused my mothers request to not smoke around my when I was young, choosing her nasty vice over the health of her grandchild.
Interestingly enough, my ex-wife's mother was a smoker who had a hard time refraining from smoking around my children. I made sure my wife understood how sensitive I was to this subject, I did not want my children subjected to these toxins, and had their grandmother promise that she would take the smoking outdoors. She struggled to keep her promise, and this irritated me greatly. One day she lit one up while talking with my son who was 7 at the time. My body began to shake as my mind attempted to filter my true thoughts with tact, asking as nicely as I could if she would please live up to her promise and not smoke around my child. She was as fed up and irritated as I was, and cut my words off as she aggressively defended her actions. I completely erupted with anger, slamming my plate of food down as I got up determined to explain it to her in a way that it would NEVER happen again, and F Bombs and threats to "stick that cancer stick up your ass" came pouring out, as did her F Bombs to my face. There was no violence, and I have no regrets from this day because although she never spoke to me again till the day she died (of lung cancer two years later), she never smoked around my children again. The purpose of going into this story is that at the time of this incident, I was unaware of the experiences I had as an infant, and so the intense anger for this particular thing was buried in the personal unconscious. The fact that this kind of thing triggers such anger and emotional response in me gave me deeper awareness into my karma with Saturn in the 12th house in Gemini.

Needless to say, I grew up with a great distrust of the SOURCE, creating an inner complex that the air I breath is toxic and impure, whether it be cigarette smoke, car exhaust, allergens, toxic building materials in the home, etc. The source of information I was to gather from my teachers, parents, priests and even my peers was, to me, just as toxic and impure because they are not only the products of the toxic world I have grown up to know, but all of these people seem to feed the beast with their TRUST and BLIND SERVITUDE of a system that seems to be built to defeat the majority of us. If the statement "What comes in goes out" can be said to be true, then it is difficult for me to garner much respect for the knowledge and information passed along for truth in our conscious reality.

One of the greatest sensitivities of a 12th House Saturn is in the power to heal ourselves. Society in many ways has taken this power out of the hands of the individual, and has institutionalized it in the forms of different healing arts; among the most unfortunate of these being what we normally call "Western Medicine" with its emphasis on removing symptoms by suppressing the body's ability to heal with chemical drugs. There are so many things I can say right here that is fucked about the world health crisis, but in order to stay the course I will just say that the biggest problem is that most of us no longer truly have the information at our disposal as to where to turn and how to heal ourselves. Oftentimes we are forced to play trial and error with our own bodies, and to contribute to this problem, the very people we seek to help us with our healing are either lying to us in order to keep us dependant on their way of doing things, or they have been trained in these methods and essentially brainwashed, passing this misinformation on to the collective with conviction.

In the life, there are periods in which a planetary motif is brought to the surface of our consciousness, and astrology in studying the cycles of these planets, can reveal when these periods will occur. We learn the most about what a certain planet means in its placement in the birth chart by what we learn and draw to ourselves during these "peak experiences". During the most recent transits that have brought my 12th house Saturn's energy to a "peak", I finally became fed up with my mother and her inability to listen and respect how important it is to me to filter out the misinformation within the collective, and raise my children with more natural methods of healing and diet. I distanced myself and my children from her to eliminate my children's exposure to her until she is willing to at least show a degree of respect and willingness to embrace MY truth when it comes to my children. I strongly believe that what we eat is vital to our health and well being. I am aware of what growing up eating a diet high in sugar, dairy injected with hormones, unfiltered water with metals and other impurity's, etc has done to my overall health and am working hard to heal this and regain optimal health. My mother thinks that I am way too overboard and crazy about this, but I see her as completely in blind acceptance of whatever society accepts as an appropriate source of nutrition and healing. In fact, she has been a nurse and working in and out of hospitals for the majority of her adult life!

From the parent to the collective, during this recent transit of Saturn I learned about the criminal institution that is the ADA (American Dental Association). I learned about the effects of mercury poisoning, as well as the connection between many metals that are placed as fillings inside the mouth and contribute to serious destruction to the immune system, as well as neurological and cardiovascular systems. I would encourage anyone reading this that is curious to pick up any of Dr. Hal Huggins books, including "Its all in Your Head" and "Solving the MS Mystery". In the latter book, MS is linked to dental poisoning as well as from root canals that trap anaerobic bacteria inside a dead tooth that often attack weak organs in the body after many years. The frustrating thing for myself is that I am ignorant to exactly what the best steps to take towards proper oral hygiene are. We as a collective are forced to trust the people that supposedly have studied this their whole lives. When we find that we have been lied to, we are forced to find the source of real information and refine and filtrate the collective consciousness for this truth. I was so fascinated by Dr Hal Huggins findings and work. Reading his journey of discovery reminded me of myself during my journey to self discovery in astrology. Astrology is no exception as to the sources of information that I trust. I have had to learn many things the hard way either from having experienced them myself, or counseling a client that can act as a second hand living example. I have NEVER read a passage from even the most widely respected astrologers and embraced it as my own truth. The lack of trust in the source of information leads the native of Saturn in the 12th on a very deep and difficult journey of self discovery.




The issue here is holding others, and especially ourselves, to an INTEGRITY of MOTIVATION. If we are driven as a collective to heal others in the medical community, then it is important to have the integrity to check the motivation of that healing and make sure that our methods truly work. Sometimes the receipt of other needs, such as money or the illusion of love can make someone blind to the truth. Truth tends to be a great equalizer because when the truth is known and people are truly in service to the greater spiritual body, each human is further empowered and become interdependent along with others in the body, no longer DEpendant on the collective institutions. The problem is that the way of life and the source of income for these institutions would break down if the truth would be revealed. There is a great duality within the collective to protect these institutions so that the reality we live within and know does not crumble and force us to face the unknown; the UNCONSCIOUS, and on the flip side there is motivation from the unconscious to empower ourselves and each other and evolve the greater body.

This duality has always come across to me to reveal great hypocrisy in action. My teachers and parents always tried to teach me certain values, but the way they ate and the institutions that they upheld demonstrated that they must not truly know HOW to reach these values. The truth is that these dualities exist in ALL OF US, and it is the responsibility of the 12th House Saturn native to go deeply within and check the unconscious motivation. To touch the unconscious and bring a greater purity of motivation and integrity into conscious reality! It is to detach from the collective consciousness enough to hold oneself in check to ones own standards, and ultimately to find the PURE SOURCE, to FIND THE TRUTH, to KNOW THYSELF!


The mirror of the 12th House in astrology is the 6th House, which deals with purification and refinement of the BODY. The 12th House reflects this need on a collective level, and it is my responsibility as a 12th house native to sift through the sea of paradigm that our world has to offer and filtrate and refine it all to the point where the illusions and fear are removed from the motivation, and the spiritual TRUTH remains from the essence of expression.

My study of astrology has been quite a difficult one, for this outlook has been projected out unto the collective of astrologers, not fully trusting that any one of them is tuned into the PURITY of the source enough to have found the answers to questions that are holistic in nature, answers that are so evasive such as one to the question "What does it mean to have Saturn in the 12th House?"
On the surface, I realise that this question alone is so difficult to answer because everyone with Saturn in the 12th house has a different set of variables alongside it that adds to the greater picture. For example, I have Jupiter in Saturn's ruling sign of Capricorn, as well as Saturn squaring the Midheaven/ Nadir axis and forming a Grand Trine in the air signs with the Moon in Aquarius and the Sun/Uranus conjunction in Libra. Any person with Saturn in the 12th is going to have different variables which bring added significance and details to the "story"....so many that eventually it begins to feel like information overload.....Toxic levels of information which drown the initial gem that once revealed itself in much simpler terms.

This is how I feel, and this is perhaps at the core of the nature of the 12th house.....feeling that it is I that is the Gem buried within the collective consciousness that is so overloaded with superficial information that I cannot be found. The collective consciousness, a major SOURCE of the individual consciousness, with so many toxins that it tends to lose itself, and no longer know where to turn within the collective for reflection and reminder of who they are.....except perhaps INWARD.
The collective itself seeks to refine and purefy itself and its people, not necessarily in a way that supports the individual in question, but at the least....refines what attempts to be a SOURCE for the individuals within the collective, whether this source conspires to control the individuals within it for its own objective , or attempts to heal and lift to greater heights in order to build a stronger evolving society.

The truth is the latter is a duality that exists within our collective society, as well as within the individuals living within it!
One of the greatest examples of this, and the 12th House in general came from a book/movie called the "Green Mile" The story interestingly enough is written as a more modern Crucifixion, as it centers around a wrongly accused healer on death row with the purposeful initials of J.C.
However, at the core of the story is the message that both the healer and the killer
are aspects of consciousness that our society locks away outside of its own refinement
filters because both expressions in pure form not only fall outside the spectrum of
expression that is acceptable in the eyes of the collective consciousness, but tend
to also make the individual feel further isolated from anything other than a mystical
source....isolating itself from the environmental source of the collective that they either
seek to lash out against (the killer), or heal and transform.
The Green Mile in the book is the walk along the green tiled corridors of the prison to
the electric chair. However, it is written as an obvious analogy to the walk of life, and
in the story the walk of the straight and narrow moves in between the extremes of the
killer and the healer, who in the story are locked up on opposite ends of the hallway...
representing aspects of self that are closed off on either side as we walk the walk of
life.

The height of the 12th house Saturn is at the search for the pure, authentic self....finding
it in its bits and pieces reflected in our collective society, and TRUSTING its reflection
within the sea of what we cannot see. It is difficult to trust THIS divine source in the
face of a toxic collective source. For the 12th house native, the aspects of self expression that society tells us to lock away call to us, because they are integral and important parts of our wholeness. While it is true that the nature of Saturn is crystallization, the source of formlessness must be remembered and used to refresh the self, the crystal not scene as a static rock, but as a dynamic BECOMING. If I were to decide to take a road trip to the coast for a week with my daughter, I would pack all of the things I thought I needed for the trip. When I got there, I would not forget that I had a home with other possessions and longevity of life after the week was over. Through the journey of our soul, when we choose to live out a life, most of us forget the "Home" from which we came. We forget that we came for a reason and that motivation is still within us, and it is not necessarily that we should suddenly remember "Oh yea, I am here to rediscover some deep astrological truths to help others make sense out of the cycles in their lives and to be of service to my fellow man", but we should embrace that life is a process of BECOMING. Remember that Saturn has a 29.5 year cycle around the sun, and this is an exact mirror of the 29.5 day cycle of the Sun and Moon. The Sun and Moon are a continuum of dynamic becoming, awareness moving in phases and cycles. We are not ever going to be conscious of all the we are at any given time. However, we can refine and recenter our motivations with integrity. Saturn in the 12th forces us to reorient our trust to a greater source, the unconscious, to ultimately come into self mastery and an ultimate trust in the self. Through this complete trust in the self and in the source, service can be imparted to our fellow humans that swim lost through this sea of paradigm. We can serve them with authentic healing, with pure love with no ulterior motive, or with information that is channeled straight from the source.

In most cases when it comes to Saturn, the learning process of the same motif is usually expressed from one extreme to the other. The native either isolates him/herself as they search for truth or they trust too much and become greatly disappointed when they find that the person, group, or institution that they trusted had self serving motivations.
In the case of trusting too much, here in lies one of the conventional definitions of the 12th house, the "House of Hidden Enemies". It must be understood that the native is drawing to themselves the exprerience of intense let down in order to become dissatisfied enough to find the true answer. I personally have gone through this many times. There is an INTENSE desire to find authenticity whether it be information, love, healing, etc. We are only human and if we cant find it we are going to project it from the unconscious archetypes to something in the collective that seeks to mirror it.
The other extreme is to trust so little that the individual closes themselves off from the collective almost entirely. The experience of isolation is necessary to allow the native to face the unconscious. The experience of this can be voluntary, or in some cases be forced due to imprisonment or hospitalization. Just as the individual must refine the consciousness by first projecting or seeing the toxicity everywhere and realizing that it is the native that must refine the inner self in order to face the truth and move forward with integrity, the collective as a group makes refinements themselves, refining and shaping society in accordance with the laws of consciousness within that society at the time (9th house). Unfortunately often the individual and collective can be at war here as the individual may find themselves on the cutting edge of consciousness, living by a different dimension of law so that they find themselves being refined by the collective and caged along the side as in the example of the Green Mile. The collective itself in this way becomes both the healer and the killer, imprisoning and destorying some and attempting to heal those whose health has deteriorated.
In some ways this forces the individual to fall into a degree of TRUST to the collective consciousness as some form of SOURCE, and in doing so perhaps he is enlightened enough to
work with this source, realizing that healing cannot come purely from the self, nor
can it purely come from the collective....the key not in realizing that the collective
can be trusted, but to trust that it is a process of BECOMING...just like we are as
individuals, and that individual and collective work together to ultimately reinact
that which brings about success. Success in this way is defined as that which makes
ALL of us flourish....the trail and error of success brings so many situations in which
a group thrives or is successful to the detriment of another group, or perhaps even
another species or even the planet itself. Ultimately we will become aware that all of
these forms of expression have their correct placement in the greater body....and that
each body within the body, in trying to fight and find a place within that greater body..
to in a sence put themselves in position at the nipple of the greater body in order
to recieve the nourishment in fear that they will be cast out....we realize that these
individual bodies wear a mask that may create illusion as to their true form, and seem
to toxify the informational environment.

However, we are challenged by this as we must see ourselves AS A SOURCE. I am a source
of information and love, energy, trust to my children...to the people that I love, and
what they recieve from me shapes what they project into the collective....everyones
expression together cocreating the shape of the collective consciousness....shifting
the expression.
During this current major progression of Saturn in my own life and chart, I realize how
these energies began with such a mistrust of the source, and the source especially being
mistrusted from the MOTHER...leading also to an extreme mistrust of WOMEN in general.
I even have come to the realization that mistrust of the FATHER in many of us is transfered to the MOTHER for choosing to except the seed of such a man that lacks trustworthiness. And now here I find myself during this transit, living as a single father to a woman and future
SOURCE OF SUPPORT to a grandchild of mine. It is imperative that I refine myself, and
realize and embrace what may be toxic of my own consciousness!
On another dimension, my daughter is an outer manifestation of the feminine principle within myself, and regardless of the complete mistrust I have for my mother and the women of my family and life, through the process of my relationship with my daughter, I seek to gain authority over the feminine principle within me....to nuture it. I am challenged of course to be the VERY SOURCE of something that I have difficulty finding within myself everyday, as if the gem of this feminine principle evades me, but it stares at me everyday through her eyes, reminding me that it is all in the process of becoming, and that her existance gives me the strength to channel that energy from a source I DO trust.

For many of us with Saturn in the 12th, self destruction and frustration becomes a vicious cycle. We have reached the point now to understand that the battle between the self and the collective, the isolation that seems to separate the two is reflected internally. The conscious self and the unconscious self are not fully in sync. The 12th house is said to be the house of unfinished business, of success and failure and dealing with the fears of what has been tryed and failed in the past. We must embrace ourselves with the realization that we are ready to become more aligned with group consciousness...that motivations that are ego driven will not lead to success because we are not allowed to have success in what is in a sense a lie. It may seem unfair to see organizations like the ADA line thier pockets with gold knowing full well that if we tryed such a scam that we would land ourselves in prison or far, far worse. Karma works much more quickly for us because we are ready to face the authentic self and move forward with integrity. We are ready for the journey into the unconscious and to bring to the conscious self a more solid structure of the mind, a clarity of conciousness.

Saturn in the 12th forces us to give form to some degree to that which evades for much
of the life....for it lies only in aspects of expression throughout the collective, rarely
in forms pure enough for us to fully see it. We must find it within us and even then it
is difficult to trust it. Here, the process of success and becoming is a long one, and
so many roads may seem to lead to dissolvement of the "gem", of the "self" just as in
the collective it may seem that "GOD HIMSELF" has dissolved and has no authentic form within
the collective psyche. It is the responsibility of the native to keep hold of this
inner gem, and in the refinement process not lose touch with the totality of self, but
refine the self to a point of being able to help the collective by projecting upon it
that in which it is in the purest form, and only by doing this can it help create a vision
for what the collective can be

I asked one of my closest friends if, upon acheiving success, could he handle it coming with absolutely no recognition. I believed it would be a huge disappointment for him if he is not viewed by others as a SOURCE, a paternal figure, given his 1st house Saturn placement in strain with the Sun and Neptune. For myself, I acknowledge that I want so badly to be recognized, because I feel that for all of the gifts I know that I have, I have been able to truly reach few, if any, and show them ALL that I am. With this book, I give all that I am, and just as I asked my friend....regardless of the fact that in writing this book, I have clarifyed and made sense of the source and mapped out clearly in a language that I can understand a system that gives me greater clarity. It is my need, with the Libra Sun and Aquarian Moon focalizing towards the rising sign of Cancer, it is my need to be able to impart upon you as well as the rest of the collective some of this information that has been channeled and imparted from the purety of a source that is a part of all of us, filtered through the lenses of my own experiences, tested against case studies of other beings within the collective, and fused together with my mind to bring you a perspective that can help you to understand the complexity of your own life experiences and how they fit in to a bigger picture...how you fit into a greater body of which we are all a part.

I desperately need to know that it has helped you, for that service is what truly motivates me...however much of my imprisonment is the acknowledgement that my service lies in putting the information out there and letting it be a process of BECOMING...that perhaps it will go misproved and rejected by many of whos opinions I dearly value. Perhaps as the energy that now lies within the collective unconscious becomes conscious, someone will pick up this book and find that it leads to the heart of what they were seeking to know. The seed has been planted, and no matter how long it takes, whatever impact it has will be fused with the consciousness of each individual, transformed by their own experiences and made real, perhaps no longer looking like the original...and certianly not meaning to.

The cycle of Saturn and Uranus

In early November of 2008, and just this week on the 5th of February again, Saturn and Uranus were in opposition to one another. This is a cycle that takes nearly 42 years to complete, so this opposition has not occurred since the mid 1960s.
Interestingly, Saturn and Uranus are two planets that according to conventional astrology are complete opposites. Saturn represents limitations, fear, discipline, controls, and densification of reality...consciousness becoming concrete. In truth, Neptune is closer to the opposite of Saturn, as Neptune represents the removal of borderlines of distinction, the sea from which we all came and all return, dissolution and illusion. All of these things are exact opposite of the above definition of Saturn.
The experience of Uranus can seem to come from nowhere. Just like Neptune, it can seem otherworldly. Truly, Uranus represents a reminder of the soul beyond the chosen limitations of this life. It represents freedom, new ideas and innovations. It is the planet of the INDIVIDUAL. Where as Saturn represents the form and confines of the individual entity, Uranus represents the INDIVIDUATION of that individual. It represents each of us "in the raw"...what we are in pure form. In using the word "pure", I don't necessarily mean innocent. Uranus is a planet which reflects higher levels of knowledge and understanding..it is brilliance, it is the light that shines forth within us. You can consider yourself an innovation of the ONE SPIRIT..this means that you are a unique soul with unique gifts. With this purity comes thought that is more in tune with group consciousness rather than personal consciousness. The realm of Uranus is aware that we are all one body, and governs social change and causes which seek to structure reality in support of all souls rather than fear based, elitist group protecting structures. The incarnation on this earth plane, the limitations of body, mind and perspective is SATURN. The unique spark within us that makes you purely you is URANUS.

Let me take a moment to clarify the irony between the two planets. Saturn is the planet of the individual, yet the individual in the Saturn state is more concerned with ego gratification, and thus shares a behavior with most of the people in the collective....appearing on the surface to perhaps be more attuned to group consciousness. However, the need for others in this dimension is very much tied up in fear. Uranus is the planet of Independence, and yet the independent individual can attune themselves more to group consciousness. Think of great leaders such as Jesus, Gandhi or Buddha.....humans that would stand out and certainly don't conform to the group consciousness, but are in fact in greater support of group consciousness than anyone in the group.



Obviously we have friction between these two concepts. However, I want to clarify the difference between this cycle and the previously discussed Saturn/ Neptune cycle. In both cases, we deal with creating a structure or a world model that must make way for change. The cycle of Saturn and Uranus provides a means for fresh, new and innovative energy to break down current structures of thought, eventually becoming the new structures of consciousness. Now if we are to take a birds eye view of this concept, and see that whenever new structures of thought become CONSENSUS, that within the unconscious of the masses...conscious to a minority, the tradition of old structures still lives within the sea of all that is, was and will be. These realities will perhaps be used or innovated in the future once again. The concept that these realities are a part of that greater sea is NEPTUNE. URANUS is like the lightening from above. It is not something that lies hidden under the surface. Uranus seeks to stand out and be heard above the consensus reality. With Saturn and Neptune, there is often a fear of loss of control...a fear of crumbling into an energetic abyss...that sea in which the ego goes to dissolve. Saturn and Neptune deals with the individuals success or failure (karma) of aligning their individualism with the consciousness of the sea without becoming possessed by it. The friction between Saturn and Uranus is right there in your face. If there is fear, it is the fear of change. A good image for this is the battle of the older generation with its traditions trying to hold on to the values that it grew up appreciating, and the younger generation with its new perspective for a way of life.

At the conjunction, natives stand strong in their need to express their creativity and their unique ideas and ideals. It is likely that they were raised to understand that respect for their individual creativity must be earned. Parents likely held a mindset that encouraged freedom, which is important to the individual, but that it takes hard work and commitment to something in order to have freedom. Natives feel driven to do their duty, but they do not want to be so tied up with responsibility that they are not able to creatively express themselves. They perhaps feel a calling to do or be something that requires their unique perspective and talents in order to accomplish. They realize that they go about getting things done differently, and they feel that this difference must be demonstrated to the masses in order to implement change...a change they feel is for the better. Natives must be careful to not be too dogmatic in their idealism. In being too much of a dictator or tyrant, they are becoming the Saturn energy that is not allowing the free flow of ideas from others. A father that was unique in career and perspective is likely. Depending on other planets involved, the relationship with the father in this way becomes very important. Usually natives of this aspect, as stated above, are encouraged to work hard for their freedom. However, we each define freedom in different ways. Perhaps part of the karma here is that the father eventually sees himself in his child if the child does in fact rebel from the foundation of his teachings. The father may spend early years trying to create a foundation to protect the child from his/ her own impulses that may rock the foundation. If the father is in fact Uranian enough, there may be friction at first, however each party learns to further appreciate and RESPECT each other for their individual uniqueness and accomplishments. They are able to see their differences as similarities. Saturn/ Uranus natives are great at leading social causes. They not only have the spark of Uranian electricity and moxie, but they can ground into a charted course to get things done...to see an unconventional project through. This is a common aspect in great inventors and especially innovators who take something old and find new practical uses for it.

At the square aspect, patience becomes an issue. Natives can feel impatient with a world that may not fully embrace their uniqueness. They are forced to learn and deal with the PROCESS OF CHANGE. Notice both of those key words of process and change. Saturn doesn't like the change, and Uranus doesn't like the process. At the square, natives must face that they have to WORK in order to be truly FREE. Mundane day to day obligations may be frustrating to the native and feel like it ties him/her down from the full spectrum of creative expression. However, they must learn that not grounding into this will allow no structure to permit this very expression, and this would feel like an even worse prison for the native.
If Saturn is more dominant in the chart, meaning Uranus by rulership is weak, a person may experience sudden events that force them to implement or use creativity that they were perhaps scared to express. Life may force them to RECREATE themselves, bringing to the surface their true self. Often initially, the fear of asserting one's Uranian nature is a fear that they will not be supported and be forced into an unknown reality. Perhaps they may feel that their family will disown them if they express their hearts true yearning. They have a difficult time breaking childhood conditioning because of this fear.
If in this aspect, Uranus is the stronger planet, natives will ultimately find that overly radical behavior will only cast them further to the side. They may have to learn to conform to a degree in order to be first accepted, and then seen for the unique soul that they are. There may be difficulty if the family did not allow them to express their creativity freely.
Some natives can even be radical about maintaining tradition..choosing to stick with old fashioned values in the face of change. Saturn/ Uranus people, especially in the square aspect, can be UNCOMPROMISING in their view or feel that others are uncompromising for the freedom of their own expression. Fear of not being appreciated as unique and important, or of not being respected as having a valid and practical view, can be the cause. If the native had a father that was tyrannical and controlling, even if he was revolutionary in his fight for his ideals, then oftentimes the child overcompensates at adulthood by becoming tyrannical about their unique views. Obviously this high tension does not do much to build a practical means for longevity for creative expression. Ultimately, Saturn and Uranus must work together in order to build towards anything that expresses the genuine self. Just as well, you owe it to the planet to be your genuine self in order to help produce the necessary changes of your time. Hard Saturn/ Uranus contacts can be revolutionary periods, periods where individuals can be inspired to challenge heavy rulership and authority. Advances in technology, innovations, and political and economic restructuring are common during these periods.

At the opposition, we initially have a competition of paradigm. Once again we can picture youth versus old age in this competition. At the square, in order to move forward in life successfully, a native had to assimilate the nature of Saturn and Uranus. One of the key differences at the opposition is that circumstances in the life, home or world give opportunity for these polarities to work together to come to a solution. Initially, there is an issue of relating to each other.
Natives here have the opportunity to come fully into authority over themselves, however, they must learn to honor and respect those that have given them support, including the traditional ways they grew up in as well as the youth that will look up to. They must realize that ultimately this support gives them the means to have freedom and express themselves creatively. Wisdom must be acquired through a respect for tradition and a realization that it too was established by a Uranian spark and desire to be expressed. When respect is gained, natives must be careful to be so uncompromising in their authority and stance, otherwise they may draw a Uranian uprising from those that seek their respect and consideration. Just the same, revolting against authority is not the way to get the voice heard.
There is a childself that needs to be expressed and heard in this aspect. However, the childself needs to experience feeling needed growing up for the wave of new energy they come to produce...with ideas unfiltered by the fear of how the idea may be perceived by the current establishments. If this can be the case, then the older soul will be able to maintain a hold of that childself...making mature choices and decisions with a flare of creativity and a pure love that seeks to include the group because the group is not feared.
The Saturn/ Uranus opposition provides an opportunity for the new regime to gain a foothold into how things are done, as well as for the old to experience the need to integrate the new by circumstances that may force the issue...perhaps seeing the limitations of their own Saturnine traditions.
In the 1960s, the countercultures that developed in contrast to the military-industrial regime is an example of the manifestation of the Saturn/ Uranus opposition during that time. During this time, we are welcoming our first black president, who comes into office at a time where the old regime obviously screwed up enough to be forced to yield to the new ideas. In truth it is time, that is ruled by Saturn, that had alot to do with this as George Bush's time was done due to the structure our country has created with a maximum of two 4 year terms. However, this "democratic" process on the surface has a bit of Uranian understanding built into it. Our nation is an Aquarian nation believe it our not, and the revolutionary period it was started under coincided with the very discovery of the planet Uranus.

Interesting that Uranus is considered to be the planet most associated with Astrology. This makes sense since astrology is an awareness and understanding of something beyond ourselves that mirrors the innerself. However, Saturn is required to give structure to this understanding. In my own chart, I have Uranus in conjunction with the Sun making a strain free trine to Saturn. I have a healthy respect for the tradition of this science and use the foundation of the past to BACK my research...however in Uranian fashion, I always place first in any assessment I do, my own intuitive impulses. When I look at a chart if I get an impulse or vision, I go with that long before I go with anything I would read or another astrologer would say about it. This is because I have a healthy trust for my conscious connection to the greater body, and I feel that people that would be drawn to have me read would resonate with a vibration that they feel I would be in tune with at that given time....the very coming together of astrologer and client being a synchronicity within itself. The strain free trine aspect for me also allows me to reflect upon any difficult aspects I have with these planets and gather the discipline to deal with them appropriately rather than have too much of the lesson from these outer planets shake the foundation of my world from without.

In my own chart, I have Saturn in the 12th house, and the current opposition of Saturn and Uranus moving across my Midheaven/ Nadir axis, each forming a hard square to my natal Saturn. I realize on a deeper level that insufficient grounding and impatience is a cause for failure of much of the ideas I tried to apply growing up. Buying a new house (Saturn on the Nadir) and grounding into a new city may limit my ability for travel and freedom on the surface, but will give me greater freedom to express my own creativity through my work (Uranus on the 10th house cusp) through making me more visible to my clients via perceived stability. This is one of the many lessons I am learning during this heavy and key transitory time in my life.

As mentioned, the strain free trine aspect gives natives the ability to capitalize on the fullness of their potential by applying self discipline towards building a life that allows their unique and creative expression to be applied. At the sextile, there is an awareness that knowledge is the key to freedom. Natives of these aspects make good teachers, especially for children where they can give a proper amount of discipline and guidance without squashing the Uranian creativity of the child.

At the inconjunction, natives may be preparing for the coming of change outside of the self without realizing that they need to take full control of their lives in order to have a say in how their lives will change. There can also be a fear that the coming changes will force out their way of life and they feel the need to protect it. The native must learn to take responsibility to do their duty, learning when to help implement change and when to allow for change
What does it say that Barack Obama was born under the inconjunction of Saturn and Uranus while being sworn in under the opposition? He has put himself in a position of a great responsibility during a time when structures are forced to change....failing economy and a failing system to take care of all the people. It will be a challenge for him to stay grounded as a vessel for change rather than an individual controlling the change. Control in the hands of one individual, one party, one group of people is dangerous. He has a drive to protect a way of life dear to him, but change will take a little longer than many may think it would given the initial contrast between his party and the previous one. Mistakes he will make need to be seen as an opportunity for all consensus people to take authority of their own leadership rather than always seeking the answer through some Uranian seeming vessel. The answer is and always has been in the people, and regardless of the individual that is placed in a role of leadership, this self authority must be reeled in from projection onto anyone.

Through the cycle of Saturn and Uranus, we are given an opportunity to attune ourselves to structures that today may seem intangible, but in fact are real as we learn more and more that our body does not end with our physical bodies...we ARE ALL ONE BODY. Knowledge from this perspectives breaks down structures built in fear to protect one group, for it embraces and includes all groups. Responsibility begins by being true to oneself. Only through the authentic nature of each soul can the new structures reflect one voice in harmony.

The cycle of Saturn and Neptune

The other day I took my soon to be 5 year old daughter to see the new movie, Inkheart. (Perhaps the only Brendan Frasor movie ever made that didn't completely suck). I bring this up because I feel the movie is a great example of the relationship of Saturn and Neptune.

Brendan Frasor plays a man that has a special gift. When he reads stories, and in this case mostly old fantasy and fairy tales, the creatures and images of the story come to real life. He has the power to manifest instantly from the land of fantasy to the realm of reality. However, given this manifestation, something from this realm always goes to the fantasy realm as well, meaning that there is an unknown sacrifice. In this movie that sacrifice was his wife and mother of his newborn child. The majority of the movie takes place when his daughter is 12 and believes her mother is dead. One day they are confronted with the characters from the fantasy realm, and the truth is revealed to her. Among these truths is the fear that her father has of his gift, for he never learned to use it appropriately. In the end, they eventually come to the realization that the daughter has the gift as well (bringing in this example the concept of karma), and along with the gift of writing, can write her own fantasy tales and reverse the effects (including getting her mother back) through imagining and writing a new reality.

I'm not sure I can come up with a better overall story to illustrate the power of the Saturn/ Neptune cycle. With the planet Neptune, we have the principle of dissolution...the removal of borderlines of distinction. Saturn deals with these borderlines, it is the principle of crystallization. We have the solid form, or in another case the ego (Saturn) versus the very pool or sea from which it came...the collective consciousness (Neptune). With Saturn, we deal with the crystallization of fantasy...the illusions of our dreams becoming real....realizing that this IS the dream world. With Saturn, we usually deal with the father because the father represents the realization of dreams....the masculine drive to achieve through effort which begins with a dream that comes from fantasy. How are the tools given to the individual different than the dream? What do the tools represent within the dream? Or the lack of certain tools? What does this perhaps say about the karma of the soul?

The relationship between these two planets, and any two outer planets for that matter, manifests itself on many different levels and effects individuals and collectives quite differently. We are dealing with somewhat of a generational aspect that, for example in the case of a conjunction, can move back and forth (through retrograde process), and maintain this relationship for an entire year. So, here we are dealing with a karma shared by your peers, if you were born under major aspects between these planets, perhaps even the majority of people you went to school with in your class and that you were close friends with. It is through these aspects that we can really relate to our peers and help each other work out our karma.

Using the example I gave from the movie, ultimately what can come out of the Saturn/ Neptune relationship is the realization that we are masters of our destiny....that we create our own reality. Out of the sea of the undifferentiated come the tools with which we weave the tapestry of our lives.

At the conjunction we find people with great charisma. They are able to draw upon the appropriate archetypes in order to relate to an individual....so they also have the ability to easily exploit. They are also sensitive psychically. They have a need to stay grounded so that they do not suddenly lose control of their reality through what they are able to tap into psychically....but they are sensitive to what is hidden underneath the surface, and because of this can make excellent investigators or private eyes. A scientist, such as a chemist, is another great field for the native.
Given that we are dealing with the crystallization of substance from that which as of yet has no substance (but at one time perhaps did), we are dealing with CAUSE AND EFFECT...and from this we have karma. Karma is a word that encompasses a greater energetic truth, but what we will focus on here is the concept of RESPONSIBILITY. We must be responsible for what we choose to draw into our lives. The solid form that we have crystallized into, our egos in this life, we are responsible for expressing who and what we are in relation to the sea of all that is. When we take this responsibility, we also sacrifice something that we COULD BE. We close off the vastness of potential that lies within the sea to some degree, so that we may focus on the task at hand that is our karma in this life. If we do not do this, we will become "watered down" with confusion and images that will break down our sense of control over our bodies and our minds.

We also realize that we are greater than just ourselves, that we are all connected to the sea of all that is. With Saturn, we deal with the creation of boundaries....the boundaries that define the I AM apart from the SEA FROM WHICH I CAME. In this case, with Neptune being our relationship to that sea, there can be perhaps an element hidden behind the boundary....beyond the solid self, but because the self is connected to this collective pool, it is still effected by it.

This may sound rather obscure, so I will give an example. In periods of heavy Saturn Neptune contact, awareness of ecological issues that may cause a drought in one area of the world, or famine in another, comes to the surface. If a tribe is so focused on the Saturnine reality in which they live, they are concerned with the mundane upkeep and provisions of what is needed to survive for their tribe. How this effects the earth as a whole around them....how they go about getting their means effects the ecosystem and their environment, and perhaps remains hidden to them...the results happening under the surface. The results of this come to awareness with Saturn and Neptune.
Contacts with these planets can involve illness or fall from control of ones reality. Illness can be due to ignoring the effects that the hidden reality can have, eventually wearing on the body until one day it becomes sick. Revelation of poisons in the groundwater or gas leaks in the home, or whatever it is that has remained hidden and representative of the Neptunian realm, can come from Saturn Neptune contacts. Interesting to note here that Homeopathic medicine was discovered under a Saturn Neptune conjunction. The principle of this method is diluting tiny particles of whatever hidden substance has become the irritant within the native. It has found that even after diluting the substance completely, that a "memory" of the substance remains within the body water and eventually becomes assimilated as part of the whole. This is proof that whatever aspects of self are sacrificed to the pool of Neptune still exist and can be drawn upon at appropriate times (the limitation of time itself being governed by Saturn)

You can see from these examples that we are dealing very heavily with karma and responsibility of our actions. The question is are we to take responsibility? Or cower in failure and leave the responsibility to the next generation? Will we try to convince the next generation that we did the best we could and are not responsible for the state of our earth? In doing so, we would be a good example of the illusions that can be woven through the cycle of Saturn and Neptune, ourselves hiding the truth behind the borders of the distinct reality we wish to impart to our children.

So can you immerse an object in water without the water being effected? No
(see our example above on homeopathic medicine) Here the water reflects Neptune, and the immersing of the object which is solid (Saturn) into the water is a way of expressing contact between the planets, and the experience of the native in conjunction with them.

On a positive note, the native can draw upon the pool of life where great things have been done and written upon the walls of Akasha. Great charisma and leadership can be the result, and a shift in structures of law and how things are done politically and socially can be the driving force behind the native. Wars for national boundaries, civil wars, and especially control of the ocean itself has been taken over most often during Saturn/ Neptune contacts.
Now that TRUTH has been exposed, or the native, through sensitivity, washed themselves within the sea of truth, how are they going to recreate structure in order to encompass a greater degree of awareness so that less is hidden? That is the cause of the evolved native. In the example I gave of famine hitting during transits of these planets, I personally believe that the message here is that one body (one person, or Saturn) is not capable of embodying all that is, all that one needs. We need others, and the one person is the same as one segment of land. That segment of land cannot provide over time all that the tribe needs. The tribe needs cooperation from other tribes that are connected with other areas of land which provide other crops, or are perhaps not experiencing drought conditions and thus are able to help the area of the greater body (a part of the world with its tribe members) that are experiencing "drought" (infirmary)

On the negative side, the native can be dissolved and lost within the waters of Neptune. This can represent the great undoing of the self, and can manifest itself in the form of sickness, alcoholism and drug use, and always escape from responsibility.

With the cycle of Saturn and Neptune, we have the exaltation or dissolution of the father imago. We inherit the successes or failures of our father, and what we learn from how our father handled his responsibility, we in turn face the truth of what we have to work with in this life. We either build with the tools that we have, ever weaving that beautiful tapestry of our reality that is life, or we ourselves fall into disillusionment, running from our karma and out of fear of the responsibility we carry. With Saturn and Neptune, we realize we are responsible for more than just ourselves...everything that we are and everything we do becomes a part of all that is. It has been passed down to us from our parents and will be passed on to our children. The father is the figure that ultimately teaches responsibility to this truth. Also, because of this connection to all that is, and the responsibility to live up to something that does reflect something karmic, something greater than ourselves....FAILURE, or the temporal perception that one fails to live up to the archetypes that they are in tune with...archetypes that live up to their charismatic promises and reflect immortality, can lead not only to escape into drugs, alcohol or illness, but centers around the motif of GUILT. In the example I gave of the movie, Brendan Frasor's character feels terribly guilty for what happened to the mother, and instead of taking responsibility for his gift and understanding it, he chooses for several years to hide from it.

There can exist a fear of inadequacy in comparison to a charismatic or successful father....a fear of taking the reigns of karma and failing to measure up. However, it is usually the karma to ultimately see the vulnerability and fears of the father himself, who has perhaps hidden under the surface this fear in order to hopefully give the native more of a chance for success; to not allow the native to feel that the karmic load is so great that buckling underneath the weight of it, and eventually being crushed, is inevitable. Oftentimes, the revelation of the vulnerability of the father itself can create a fear in the native. On a positive note, the native can become inspired and somewhat possessed by religious archetypes that have the strength to cope with anything that comes their way. Negatively, the attempt to embody these archetypes to mask vulnerability can open up those necessary boundaries between the Saturn realm and the Neptune realm a little too much. It can cause the native to become disillusioned as to who they are, and their vulnerabilities may become hidden within. Taking on TOO MUCH responsibility can certainly lead to downfall, failure and illness. Much of the karma of these planets is to learn to restructure our environment so that each individual can work more effectively for the greater whole. No individual can do it all, and the collective cannot move forward if it spends too much time taking care of fallen individuals...who fell as a result of a failed system and who are catered to due to COLLECTIVE GUILT.

At the square, there is a crisis in point of REFERENCE. From the vantage point of Saturn, Neptune appears as continual change...the point of differentiation moving into the undifferentiated. We cannot find what is hidden within a given reality if we have no grounded reference point within Saturn or Neptune...no CONSISTENCY. My adopted son was born under a heavy Saturn Neptune square (also involving the Sun and Mars). His biological father left him when he was 13 months old. His grandfather was unable to really give him any reference point for manhood, and so the father imago was projected upon him, and then any relationship his mother had. I married her when he was 4 years old, and have done my best to maintain a solid reference point as a father for him...but a pattern and karma began long before I arrived. The father figure he had before me, a good family friend who he spent all his time with when his mother was working, died shortly before he turned 4. His mother and I separated 4 years later, and now she is with another man. My son trades off living with me on the West coast and her on the East coast. He is given all the love in the world from both sides but it is clear that given the circumstances I shared, it is hard to crystallize or formulate any consistency of reality given these circumstances. Every move and every new man in a sense reflects a return to the undifferentiated...my son awakening into a new reality at every turn..not able to truly ground. How can one uncover what is hidden when they are constantly in motion? Perhaps the motion itself in the case of this soul helps us to uncover the answer. Truly there is a great need to formulate a solid sense of self. Certainly this much uncertainty however, brings him deep into his imagination and into his fantasies..where he may create realities that are more real (Saturnine) then the realities we tell him to believe are real. It is HERE that he can form the framework of creating his own reality, and through fantasy and fiction, find the man that he wants to become (Neptune) and channel it through his consciousness and into the realm of becoming (the differentiated or Saturn). First, however, the native of the square must overcome an overwhelming fear of inadequacy...a fear that partially comes from the lack of control, or the perceived lack of control, over his/ her reality.

At the opposition, there is a need to fully become aware of ones responsibilities. Given the example of the movie I gave above, we can think of the character of the daughter in this case, who realized that the responsibility was hers to take what was passed on from the father, add her own perspective and energy to it, and use this to fulfill her own life and help heal her father and others in return. This is the highest hope for the opposition. However, as is the case with most oppositions, the soul faces one of the two archetypes with the other remaining hidden for sometime.

At the opposition, the assimilation of awareness is multifold. Natives, as with most oppositions, usually must assimilate realities from opposite realms, one Saturnine and one Neptunian (this sounds obvious given that it is an opposition between the planets), but this can be experienced in different ways:
Often natives have a Western parent and an Eastern parent. One parents reality may rule the "sea" of the family...it is their reality that immediately dictates what happens. What the native is seeking is the sacrifice of one reality over another...the perception that one reality MUST be sacrificed over the other. At the conjunction, we dealt more with the issue of learning to curtail ones personal focus, creating a boundary in order to build towards a specific cause. The other causes and aspects of self are always there however, beyond the veil of Saturn.
At the opposition, often life begins with the parents reflecting these two motifs...one the sea captain and the other the servant. This does not necessarily mean that the captain is a strong leader. The father as is usually the case, is often passive and feels a lack of control over his own karma and destiny. If he becomes aloof, falls into alcoholism, or becomes very ill, this is a form of control and escape at the same time. Through Saturn and Neptune, we all must learn to pick up our fallen family and friends that co-inhabit the earth. They are falling because a part of them perhaps felt that the burden to live up to their own responsibilities of karma was too great...that there was too much on their shoulders. Now they feel others, such as the native in this case, take up the slack...and now it is on the shoulders on the native of the opposition. The native must assimilate the realities desired by both mother and father, and attempt to rewrite the story of the family line. They perhaps feel that destiny of a family or a tribe is on their shoulders. Oftentimes in trying to become what the father is not, a solid rock of a man, the native becomes disillusioned as to his/ her destiny that needs to be fulfilled. Funny that in this way, the ailing or irresponsible behavior of the father and the rock of the individual seems to be Saturn (the rock) versus Neptune (the haze between a solid life and a return to the undifferentiated...the haze of reality that drug use or alchohol or even illness can bring (Neptune), but this vulnerable reality is in itself Saturn, and the illusion that the individual can embody by trying to seem invincible to perhaps their children or their peers is in itself illusion which is the realm of Neptune. The need is to balance the two here appropriately. Ground into the full nature of the human, both the Neptunain realm and the Saturn realm. Realize that like ocean waves going ashore, differentiation or crystallization (formation of the individual wave (Saturn))outside of the full sea (Neptune)...is temporary (Saturn), having its place within the grander scheme (Neptune) of time (an illusion made possible through Saturn for temporal grounding of reality).

Natives of this aspect often draw relationships that go to extremes of nurturing and kindness to extremely harsh to where they feel completely picked apart. They draw this so that nothing lies hidden as to the spectrum of who they are. If they do not maintain a high degree of self discipline, they will draw relationships that will pick them apart and judge them for it.

The opposition is an opportunity for truth to be brought to the surface regarding the individual, or nation, and how the current structure fits into the greater picture or how it fits the picture of idealism that it holds. It seeks to reign in projection, to create idealism within with an awareness that that which is hidden from the self is hidden due to fear of realizing that the vulnerable individual fails to provide all that is needed (a complex of the father...the need to be the provider) and cannot embody complete idealism nor is the temporary incarnation to be IMMORTALIZED. We will live and we will die, going back into the collective...the body breaking down..and during that time it is important that we reveal and live out our complete truth.

In the worst case, the native will crumble in fear of taking responsibility for anything....a fear of being revealed as a failure. Ultimately they may feel that there is no point in creating form, it will all eventually fall anyway. We must learn to appreciate what form brings, even though it is temporal. Politically, the cycle of these two planets tends to bring conflict that arises as a result of the desire to manifest an ideal (Neptune) against the established order of Saturn. This cycle can also manifest in the exposure of governmental (Saturn) corruptive and deceptive behavior (Neptune).

Natives of the strain free aspects such as the sextile and trine have great charisma and self discipline. They are leaders of the new realities to come and of cause. They know that they must sacrifice much of their ego to create a greater structure for the greater good. Many of these natives become monks, priests, or some form of religious leader.

Natives of the inconjunction are struggling to maintain a solid enough reference point in order to assimilate inevitable change. In this way they can be shapeshifters, constantly having to adjust and have their reality completely shifted. In order to have some control over this, they will solidify a solid reality. However when they feel the hidden coming from underneath the surface, the fear of failing to maintain this reality causes them to make the choice to create a different reality. Issues surrounding the need to have a solid reference point from the family, especially the father, is at hand here.

It is important to note that whatever reality we choose, we must always make awareness that as the wheels of life turn, there is always something hidden around the corner about to make its way into the surface of our reality. When this happens, there is always something in our reality that falls back temporarily into the forgotten, hidden realms. We must make continual adjustments for change without fearing that it will mean the death of us (not necessarily physical death, but death of a reference point of reality)...we must not fear that this means we are losing control. Deception and manipulation is often used to protect that which is feared to be vulnerable. It is important that we all acknowledge our vulnerability....acknowledge that all of our consciousness lies somewhere close to that line where solid rock boundaries meets the oceans expanse..the unknown which from this perspective feels as if our awareness will only get lost forever, completely falling apart.

Through the cycle of Saturn and Neptune, we realize that all is not what it seems, that beneath the surface of all of our structure lies continued potential for creating change...that creative change is a part of the structure of reality. Nothing lies stagnant. It is up to all of us to use our tools and continually write our ever unfolding story, using the structures of today as a foundation for the new structures that we imagine into being tommorrow. These structures that we create cannot survive if they are only built to protect and secure the future of the self, or just the family. Saturn and Neptune teaches us that all energetic structure is connected, and ultimately we are all in this together on a karmic level.

The cycle of Venus and Uranus

I mentioned in a previous blog that I went a bit out of order by coupling Venus with Neptune and Pluto before Uranus. First, I would like to explain this.
We can couple Jupiter and Saturn as collective planets. Jupiter represents our motivation to expand into the collective consciousness and leave our seeds. Saturn represents the extent to which this is possible, or the physical factors that are available to make expansion possible, thus also representing the limitation of growth within a given life. It is what you have to work with basically. The planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are called "transpersonal" planets. However, I would place Uranus in a category by itself because in doing so it will help you to understand the nature of Uranus. You see, it wants to be by itself...it is the very essence of "standing out". With Neptune and Pluto, we are touched by archetypes of humanity, stretching the boundaries of who we are into what is, was and what always has been. We touch planes of consciousness in which we "lose ourselves", and when we reach Pluto, truly begin to lose ourselves by joining energetic forces with another, or a group, for which the ego dies and is reborn into a collective body.

On one dimension of thought, you can view Uranus as the opposite of Pluto. The reasons for this thought which can be demonstrated mathematically is for another blog, but for now, we remember that Pluto is the death and rebirth of the ego through collision with another soul or group of souls. Uranus is breaking away from all that is not the "SELF",and fully feeling the power of INDIVIDUATION. Uranus reflects what makes our soul truly unique. It is who we truly are. As we walk in life, much of our values (Venus) that we carry are circumstantial. We may value a car in this life because we have no other way to get to work. We may value our relationship with our boss even though we think he/she is a real sack of shit because we are afraid of not being able to meet our own needs without the job. As we brought up with Venus and Saturn, sometimes we learn to "love the one we are with", be it material or personal relationship, because given the limitation of Saturn, we may perceive that is all there is for us, and that we would not be able to have the provisions otherwise to carry on with our lives...to at least have someone that gives us a value or something that we can project our value upon.

The cycle of the planets Venus and Uranus give us the opportunity to say I AM..I AM valuable because I am ALIVE...it seeks to break free of all limitation of the purity of the souls expression, shedding all of the illusions and falsehood in the life so that life can be enjoyed to the fullest, and ultimately the self worth be truly reflected. In relationships, there is a need for space and freedom, making "open relationships" more likely for the native of heavy aspects. The concept of compromise can be very difficult because the motif is about fully being in SELFHOOD, and thus a successful partner must be able to fully embrace the all encompassing individual of the native. They themselves must be unique enough and open minded to be able to appreciate and understand the freedom loving Venus/ Uranus person.
Natives have a great detest for people who put out false fronts in order to gain popularity or affection. They view these psychological games that people play as a detriment to the honest expression of pure selfhood, and because of this, they value honesty and truth. It is commonly written of Venus/ Uranus natives that their choice of values, be it partnerships, social causes, or possessions, are much for shock value. What is truly important in this case is that they stand out and are REMEMBERED for who they are....for what makes them unique. Natives are very sensitive to humanitarian issues, and to Saturnine regimes that seek to censor any freedom of expression of individuals, social groups, or society at large. Because of this, they can be drawn to intense social movements that rebel against the norm and make sure that the way of being supported has the freedom to express themselves.
One well known astrologer wrote that Venus/ Uranus natives are extremely sensitive to rejection, acting detached or aloof as a defense mechanism. Of course, much of this will depend on the placement and aspects of other planets in the chart, but they seek to expose the truth of their soul. They seek experiences that will allow the full light of individuation to shine forth. Rejection of this light will of course be a blow to the ego of the native.



Initially, at the conjunction of these planets, there is a "fuck it" attitude that seeks to give in to impulse. Why deny yourself an opportunity for an experience that may hold a glimpse of something that truly mirrors your souls calling? For this reason, natives of this conjunction seem to have alot of "guts" in that they draw to themselves relationships and situations that from the perspective of those in the mainstream, will seem unusual or on the cutting edge of thought. They also have a difficult time holding any type of relationship for any extended period of time...and if they do it must be with a very "Uranian" type person as well. They may perhaps become involved in social movements that attempt to tear down the Saturnine standards of our way of life. Natives of this conjunction have a great deal of magnetism because they are different. They can easily become bored of a current situation and shift their tastes and values very quickly. Again, remember that through trial of the many types of people and material trappings that exists...the cause of the change that rebellion and freedom attempts to bring is the revealing of the truest values of the soul....to ultimately find the self through the values...through pleasure and relationship.

When we reach the square of Venus and Uranus, lessons are learned the hard way in regards to loss of possession or relationship that, with the initial spark of Uranus, may reflect something special and show potential. However, often things of value (such as relationships) tend to suddenly come into the life like lightening, and just as quickly leave the life.....due much to the nature of the natives inability to commit to anything. At the square the realities outlined above in general description and with the conjunction become more of a crisis. The feeling of rejection and insecurity due to loss mentioned earlier becomes more real, when in fact it is the native that is creating loss and rejection.
This experience is not limited to relationship. Lets give for example, a native of this square living in relative poverty with no car for transportation. They visit a casino and suddenly hit a jackpot, a surprising and different experience to say the least. There is an initial bolt of excitement for the wide variety of things the native can now do with their new found wealth. They may even buy a car and feel the freedom of being able to get around and experience more things. However, there may be something inside the native that says "I don't want to NEED money in order to be happy...I'm too strong and independent of a soul to be like those other sheeps in society that need such things" Well, it wont take long before the native finds a way to lose the money. Maybe they gamble it all back, maybe it gets stolen. Either way, they do not take responsibility for the reality of having the possession, so they create the reality that frees them from the possession. Initially the return to having nothing may feel just as free and exciting as having hit the jackpot. The native may say "Nice, I really valued the simplicity of walking and tuning more into nature and meditation....being free of possessions.." Of course, it wont be long before this reality becomes restricting to some part of the soul that wants to break free from the poverty that gives them less opportunities to HAVE experiences.
This is the dilemma of the square of Venus/ Uranus. If the square is waning, the dilemma becomes less subjective, effecting perhaps an established family and relationships of more permanence. Perhaps a family has to deal with where they fit in the value system of the native with the experience of the native waxing and waning his affections from them.
Natives of these aspects do not always seek new and exciting experiences as is commonly written. They seek the freedom to experience whatever reflects the soul in the moment. They may look back on past relationships with fond memories about what it was in that experience that reflected a particular part of their soul and wish to touch this again. They may put themselves into a career where they have a degree of freedom, like a truck driver for example, that has time to explore the self away from his/ her family, yet during that time may miss what having their family around reflects. When they are with the family, the day to day obligations may cause them to miss the freedom of the road. It is important for the natives not to burn through a relationship, or burn bridges due to the desire to free themselves from a particular moment. If they do they may find their ability to touch the past that reflects them more difficult, memories of these aspects of self ending in rejection and turmoil. Don't be surprised if a native of this aspect surprises you and walks back into your life after several years as they try to reconnect with a part of themselves through you.

At the opposition, we find that the spirit of competition can help the native bring out the best of themselves..to have the fullest and purest form of their efforts and values expressed and displayed. Through this competition, they must learn to value and appreciate the differences in others as well...in those with whom they compete.
Natives of the opposition have a need to express something that perhaps has had to lie dormant or repressed for a period of time in order to maintain a relationship or something of value in the life. (Something that a native of the conjunction consciously detests). The native can experience this in two different ways. First, they may be the party that feels restricted in a relationship and have a need to experience fulfillment that they perceive they will need freedom, space, or another relationship in order to experience. There may be a fear of loss of the relationship if this need is expressed, or the need itself may lie repressed for sometime, which can have tragic results as often when something is repressed, the subconscious will draw the truth into the life from outside the self. Second, the native can be the "victim" of a partner that seeks to express a part of themselves outside the relationship and doesn't feel that they can fulfill it through the native. More often than not, the latter will be manifested because it will be true both ways, and this will provide the framework for needed communication and compromise. The native must learn to give some space and freedom as well as ask for it. They must learn to COMPROMISE in order to maintain any important relationship or reflection of value.

Experiences in this compromise may go to extremes at first, such as working for a 9 month period and then taking a 3 month vacation where the native blows off steam. The danger we can imagine is when the need to experience the latter for so long causes the native to blow more resources than they can afford...and like the lessons in the square.....losing everything they earned during the 9 month period in order to more fully experience less restriction in the 3 month period. This may put them in a position of having to work harder when they return to the former reality, and this may in turn put them in a more restricted position that will cause them the need to blow off steam even harder the next time they feel freed.

Natives of the strain free sextile and trine aspects are able to compromise well enough to have the unique sense of self fully expressed and appreciated, and are able to draw this out in others by showing appreciation for what makes others unique. The trine natives especially takes joy in being one that supports the sense of uniqueness in others, creating a system of support for their own Uranian expression.
Natives of the inconjunction often feel that they have to sacrifice their own values in order to make way for a partners freedom of expression (such as one partner watching the kids full time while the other goes to school to learn a unique and exciting trade). This goes the other way too when they need to free an aspect of self. Their is an adjustment that is needed in compromise and communication.

In order to achieve fulfillment, ultimately in the self, compromise is necessary. We must learn to walk with a more balanced sense of self, appreciating what is being expressed IN THE MOMENT, realizing that it can never encompass the full spectrum of our expression. We must look forward to the changes of the season within, not with fear that the current reality suppresses them, but allows each to have its season...its time to loudly proclaim its existence. Let us embrace STRUCTURE as merely a framework to fully enjoy the moment that is now before us, for only in its fullest expression is it truly FREE.

Through the cycle of Venus and Uranus, we learn to value and celebrate our diversity. We honor the freedom for each soul to fully express what makes it unique, and in turn become fully individuated within ourselves, in touch with the full spectrum of our own unique sense of self, and thus, what it is that we need in order to express this. We learn to honor the change and need for freedom in others, appreciating that there is more than meets the eye in everyone we meet. If we have a love of trees, but only in the summer time when it is bearing fruit, then we fail to appreciate the value it gives during its other phases. Only in our permanent relationships where freedom is allowed, are we present throughout enough of the cycle to appreciate the full light of their soul. Only in these permanent relationships where our freedom is allowed, do we allow others to see us in all of our phases. Only then are we fully known by those that we love rather than scattered about, only partially known and appreciated by many.

The cycle of Venus and Pluto

You can hang out here naked with me in the wilderness if you wish, but all I have left for food
at this time is the rest of these squirrels I captured and cooked up. I am not in a sharing mood. Find your own fucking animals if your hungry. Why the fuck are you projecting the responsibility onto me?? OK, look, lets just chill out, look at some stars and talk some astrology....anything else and I'm liable to get pissed off.

First, let us revisit the Venetian principle (that which makes our lives easier and more pleasurable, be it material or relationships) in which our wants and our values are projected and reflected.
As it touches Jupiter, it seeks to expand and scatter affections and receive love on grand scales. It loudly proclaims the value system joyously, appreciating and receiving appreciation for its merits. It is in a growth stage
It then touches Saturn, and has had to learn to make a choice as to what is important to value, for if anything is to be truly manifest in this life, one must set boundaries as to what and whom it is to build with. Affection is not so easily expressed or drawn, and the native must learn to truly love the self in order to find what it is that it truly loves, and then work for it...becoming fully grounded into the partnership and endure the journey with all its highs and lows. It is a grounded building stage.
It then touches Uranus, which we have not discussed in this blog in depth, but here we reach not necessarily a growth or a grounding stage, but what we will call an enlightening stage. Where we had to learn to endure and build through relationships with Saturn, now the values of soul yearn to shake free the shackles of restriction and be propelled into motion once again. At Uranus, we learn that the soul eventually moves out of any set of values as we all move in a constant state of evolution...for life itself IS expansion, contraction, and as a new pod of reality is built out of these two (Jupiter/ Saturn), continual motion. With Uranus, we are given insight of the soul.....the relationship needs beyond that of the egos that we experience on the level of Jupiter and Saturn.
We then reach Neptune, where we reach attunement to what we can become...and to the archetypes of what we are becoming with the karma that we create through our actions. Here, we shy away from the confrontations of relationship as we wish not to face the realities of what we are as mere singular beings, instead choosing to associate ourselves with archetypes and heroes of lore. It is at Neptune where we realize that all of these archetypes are reflections of ourselves...some ideal, and some not so....it gives us a vision as to what we have created and written on the walls of Akasha, and reminds us to attune to what we aspire to build as a species.

Now we come to Pluto, the topic of this blog! Pluto can in one way be said to combine the principle of expansion and contraction (Jupiter/ Saturn), however, it truly combines all of these planets by adding MOTION....expanding through Uranus and grounding into the realms of Neptune to REDEFINE and TRANSFORM values and thus relationship and karma.
The Karma of Venus/ Pluto itself represents a crisis point within this overall journey. The native has perhaps lived many lifetimes and has experienced the karma of Venus in cycle with Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The native very much understands that the physical world is in some ways a great war of paradigm. It understands the manipulations and how the nature of pure Venus can be used to further and foster the values and needs of any ego. It also understands how much some of these values are on the Ego-level, and having touched Uranus and Neptune, feels a connection to the higher realm of freedom for the ego (Uranus) and attunement to idealism (Neptune). However, this is a crisis because we are dealing with the earth plane, and so initially the way to combat the above is through being the manipulator yourself, under the pretense that control dramas for resources and value sets are a given in any human exchange, so the native of the Venus/ Pluto aspects feels THEY might as well be the one with the upper hand. There is a great compassion for humanity, but also a under the surface feeling of superiority..initially.

Remember what a great teacher the Venus/ Jupiter person can be....couple that with the grounded sense of value and integrity that the Saturn person learns to have, and you have a great leader capable of creating social reform within the value set he/she chooses.

As we begin the cycle at the conjunction, the term OBSESSION comes to mind. We see natives possessed by the desire to experience the deepest of experiences in relationships. The native is driven by the desire for power through expression of sexuality, money, and control dramas in relationships. Because of the intensity of the needs of this native, they seek committed relationships that are prepared to go "All the way"...not only meaning "till death do us part", but also to break down all of the barriers and walls within the relationship and ultimately become ONE. However, the native has control issues of its own, and obsession and compulsion outside of this relationship likely will exist. Their is a double standard here of having another become "One' with the native, but the native becoming"one" with many others as well. Because of this, the native has the charm and ability to make others feel like they are the most important person in the world...yet they at the same time make their other relationships feel that way as well.
The best example I can give of the "double standard" would be using the mob as an example. The mob is a case study in the Venus/ Pluto motif. The members of the mob have an ethics and a code that they do not sway from within the relationships of the group itself. They expect the relationships they have within the core to be honest with each other, yet the very nature of organized crime is to take from others that are on the outside. So, you can see this justification of the double standard come out clearly in the structuring of this. Venus/ Pluto natives create this double standard in their own love lives, often justifying that moving outside the relationship is the only way that they can grow more deeply and intensely within their capacity to experience the ultimate fulfillment in love. However, to communicate that would risk losing and having to let go of the original relationship....of having to relinquish control, quite an issue for the Venus/ Pluto native.

As we move to the square of these planets, we come to a great relationship crisis. Love has guided the native to choose relationships that will be permanent, but in each one the issues that may keep the relationship from reaching the ultimate heights as seen by the native become a breaking point. Here we see a situation similar to a cross between the Venus/ Saturn and Venus/ Neptune square. The native perhaps has drawn a relationship in permanence that they can fully control, yet in being fully in control, they do not have the appropriate mirror perhaps...they are not being challenged on their level. The challenge comes when and if their is a break of having to LET GO of the relationship, watching the partner walk away. Ultimately, there is a TRANSFORMATION of VALUES. Having to let go forces the native to develop within aspects of their consciousness outside of the obsession. Values may be forced to move from the material to the physical, from the physical to the spiritual, and even from the spiritual to the material if the crisis leads to the perception that "God" has wronged the native. The aspiration of the natives of this square is that relationship can be just as intense and powerful without one side having full control over the other. The power is through the exchange of love itself. It is also common for the native to die for the relationship and be the one that has given full control (that in and of itself can be control.....saying "look what I have done and given up for you, now I need you to do this...."). Ultimately, the native has to learn that taking and giving up full control....that dying for another or having them die for you (when I say die, I mean surrendering the ego for the good of the relationship) is not the path necessary to fulfilling relationships. The truth is that BOTH parties need to make the necessary adjustments and sacrifices for each other.

At the opposition, the natives usually transfer that intensive desire for the fullest of relationship into another obsession, or project that love onto someone that they cannot have for some reason, such as a long distance relationship or a person that is unattainable due to sexual orientation (becoming a fantasy). These are excuses of the inability to ultimately have a singular fulfilling relationship. The native has not fully taken the responsibility to do so, maintaining the obsession or the desire without fully reigning it into reality. These natives have intense desires and high standards in their tastes in both relationships and possessions. Even those they have been forced to let go of, they want to hold onto the possibility that they can have that if they ultimately wanted to take responsibility for it, clinging to these people or making sure that there is a link maintained between them and past partners....a link based on needing each other. For those that they decide to let go they do not take these steps, because their ego has justified that those particular relationships are not what their soul needs to have any fulfillment and ultimately any transformation. The value system of those you wish to be committed to must be examined carefully in order to insure that it can endure. Your nature to be intensely attracted to someone can bite you when that person doesn't live up to the idealism ultimately, or cannot practically match your intensity in other areas that are important to you (as experienced in the crisis of the square). If in the above case, fulfilling relationships are not actualized, it is not because they are not intensely desired. The native has put them at arms length to learn about control and desire, and to control the desire. The experiences of the past have caused great sensitivity and FEAR. Ultimately, the objective of the Venus/ Pluto opposition is to absorb or be absorbed by that in which it values, starting at the level of personal relationships and ultimately reaching the "group or collective" level. It is to feel and perceive the deepest value by truly belonging....of ultimately becoming ONE..of transforming the reluctant ego within the individual and becoming greater than what you are by combining energy. This can begin on the level of sex and power, and ends on the highest of spiritual planes.
At the opposition, the crisis of the square has led to a middle ground of fear of the commitment necessary to truly make this happen. The native still wants and seeks out the most real and intense of experiences possible, but is not fully ready to complete the process of AT-ONENESS.

At the highest form of expression with the opposition, the native is a great leader of cause, dying for their paradigm and having fully immersed themselves into the collective consciousness of their particular group, is ready to intensely bear witness and gather those that fit the energetic mold, carrying them forward to the greatest heights that their collective expression will allow.

Natives of the strain-free aspects of Venus and Pluto, such as the sextile and trine,have an inborn understanding of the adjustments that must be made in order to make a successful loving relationship work. With Pluto, the title of the Pat Benetar song"Love is a Battlefield" comes to mind. The strenuous aspects must do the battling before they come to terms with the death and eventual rebirth of the ego through relationships. The strain free aspects have the ability to make the compromises which open themselves to the most fulfilling of relationships.

The inconjunction of these planets, as with all inconjunctions, means a need to make an adjustment in order to facilitate the flow of energies. The native tends to be TOO giving or "killing themselves" and their own ego for the sake of relationship, allowing themselves to be taken advantage of, or they are not yielding enough and expect the other party to do the work first before they do out of fear.

I remember a movie that depicts a good example of the principles of Venus and Pluto at work called "Bridges of Madison County". Initially I found this incredibly ironic because once again, I site a Clint Eastwood movie as an example. So, you can only guess what my next step was......yes, you guessed it...I had to find the astrological chart for Mr. Eastwood, and lo' and behold, he was born with the planet Venus under absolute siege....Venus conjunct Pluto, opposition to Saturn, and square to Uranus (forming what is called a T-square). I cannot remember the details of the storyline since it has been awhile since I have seen the movie, but following a life that gives you the freedom of loving deeply and intensely...ultimately not finding complete fulfillment beforehand is the key here. Meryl Strept called him out on his lifestyle ultimately, and what made the relationship Plutonic in nature was the level of intensity and its potential to bring the two to an At-Oneness. Their was a line a seem to remember along the lines of moving from love to love or reality to reality, as if it was all a journey to the heart of Meryl Strept's character. This gives us the image of the snake shedding its skin through experiences over and over again as it moves and transforms itself through relationships (THIS IS THE PERFECT SYMBOL FOR VENUS/ PLUTO)....ultimately, as we brought out in the square aspect above, the two were transformed but also had to "let go" due to circumstances. (This hard reality really demonstrates the Saturn dimension of Pluto's experience as well).


Through the cycle of Venus and Pluto, we are placed on the battle ground of egos, having lived many lives and experienced many relationships. We realize that the battle is really the expression of our ego consciousness and its desire for true love...its desire to be truly valued and to be a part of something greater than what we are as singular beings. It is here where we experience the most complete spectrum of relationship experiences. Letting go of powerful relationships that we merge with is a part of this experience, because ultimately one of the key lessons is that once we are one, we are always connected....the concept of "ownership" or having power over another is merely an illusion and comes about out of fear.

Through the complete dance of relationship...love, war, acceptance, rejection, trial and error, we merge with our fellow brothers and sisters. We become one life, one body, one mind.