Saturn and Neptune conjunction

The American Dream and Other Delusions: Deeper Reflections on the Saturn-Neptune Conjunction 2024-2027

Occupy Wall Street, October 6, 2011, by David Shankbone, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In this essay, I analyze the Saturn-Neptune conjunction within the context of critical historical alignments and planetary crossings of the Aries Point as well as notable symbolic features of the cycle in western history. I also consider this alignment within the complexity of US imperialism and the current state of the US domestic crises. I discuss the US involvement in the genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, hypercaptialism, cultural narcissism, and reflect on the symbolic meaning of the 2024 election heading into the exactitude of Saturn-Neptune near the US Sibly Imum Coeli (IC). I interpret this cycle as a critical moment of national disillusionment, awakening, examination, and reimagining of the American mythos prompted by challenging domestic issues and international crises.

I have a downloadable PDF version of this essay here.

Introduction

Saturn and Neptune are getting close to their rare conjunction on a significant degree of the tropical zodiac known as the Aries Point (AP). The AP is technically the spring equinox where the Sun's arrival every year in the northern hemisphere initiates the start of spring. Saturn and Neptune will make their exact alignment in February 2026, but they will come very close in 2025. Their conjunctions occur roughly every 35 years, but the occurrence on the AP is a rare astrological event that symbolically reflects an important collective transition and turning point, especially for the United States (US) due to the Saturn-Neptune alignment's contacts to angles and planetary positions in the U.S. Sibly horoscope.

As I focused on in my previous essay on this topic, astrologer and historian Richard Tarnas described the Saturn-Neptune cycle as similar to that of the Saturn-Pluto cycle (that we have recently emerged from due to its conjunction that peaked in early 2020). According to Tarnas, there is often a similar "darkening of the collective consciousness" and “an unmistakable Saturnian atmosphere” during peaks of this cycle (most notably during the conjunctions, squares, and oppositions).[1] However, it is infused with the symbolism of Neptune rather than Pluto. My previous essay linked above explores the Saturn and Neptune archetypes in more depth. As Tarnas argued, disillusioning, disenchanting, and sometimes tragic historical events cluster around these periods in addition to moments in which issues around spiritual faith and morality are deeply examined.[2]  

In contrast to Tarnas, mundane astrologer André Barbault (1921-2019) argued that the Saturn-Neptune cycle correlated with political insurrections related to communistic and socialist movements in the 19th and 20th centuries (and populist uprisings more broadly). In my research, Tarnas and Barbault tracked differing but relevant themes related to the Saturn-Neptune cycle. Barbault also made a prediction for the 2026 Saturn-Neptune conjunction that I will unpack at the end of this essay.

From my previous analysis of this cycle and Tarnas' research on the Saturn-Neptune cycle, it appears we are heading into a challenging collective period, at least throughout the duration of this cycle's peak into 2027. However, I want to discuss what is known as the "Cyclic Index" as it relates to periods of global stability and instability.

The Cyclic Index

The Cyclic Index was developed and expanded upon by French astrologers in the mid-twentieth century following the failure of European astrologers to foresee and predict the outbreak of World War I. In the mid-1940s, French astrologer Henri-Joseph Gouchon (1898-1978) developed a method for determining periods of international crisis. He did this by taking pairs of the five outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) and measuring the total sum of their angular separations for each year starting from the spring equinox (in the northern hemisphere). He plotted this data on a graph to track decades of time. Low points on the graph seem to correlate with periods of international crisis usually due to the outbreak of war, disease, or economic recession

Astrologer Charles Harvey (1940-2000) argued that what Gouchon discovered was a means of astrologically measuring Plato’s Great Year. Harvey’s articulation of this view is a good description of what the graph appears to reveal. According to Harvey,

“Here was a direct means of assessing how close the planets are at any given time to their primordial conjunction, or minimum of elongation, a time….which Plato related to confusion, chaos, death, and dissolution; or by contrast to what extent the planets are moving away from conjunction, initiating a period of optimism, growth and reconstruction.”[3]

According to Harvey, the clustering of the outer planets at low points in the Cyclic Index reveal challenging and entropic collective periods while the higher points, alongside a dissipation of those alignments, show more positive and constructive periods. This observation does track alongside the Cyclic Index, though I would connect its relation to Plato’s Great Year as more synchronistic rather than literal. Plato did not specifically give details of how The Great Year technically operated and there have been several speculations about what it referred to. However, the general idea that Plato asserts in Timaeus was that “time really is the wanderings of these bodies.”[4] According to Plato, the flow of time and history was deeply linked to the movements of the planetary bodies.

The alignments of the outer planets in the zodiac during these low points in the Cyclic Index and thus their relation to tumultuous historical periods touches on a main feature of the Platonic worldview. It is interesting to note that the periodic conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn and their cyclic alignments through the triplicities of the zodiac were perceived as a nearly thousand-year cycle by Medieval Persian astrologers who likely drew upon this ancient concept and aligned it with Judaic and Islamic ideology and apocalypticism. Jupiter and Saturn were after all the outermost planets with the longest cycles known until the 18th century.

Gouchon’s graph was discovered by Barbault around 1965 and he gave it the name now in use. It is sometimes referred to as the Barbault graph. Barbault used the Cyclic Index alongside his theoretical methodology he referred to as “cyclical cosmology.” It was a key factor in many of his broadly accurate predictions such as his speculations for 2020 in which he alluded to concerns of a pandemic (among other possibilities) as well the transfer of world power from the US to China (if not by the 2020-2023 period, then he argued by the 2032 Saturn-Uranus conjunction). This decline in American imperialist hegemony was also interestingly speculated around a similar timeframe by academic historians studying contemporary geopolitical trends such as Alfred McCoy which I will discuss briefly at the end of this essay. Of the 2020-2023 conjunctions, Barbault warned that it,

“….promises to be like a new constellation of general imbalance in society. Exactly what will happen is uncertain but the risk is generalized chaos.”

Alongside the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic and the accompanying authoritarianism and social division, there were other destabilizing events such as Brexit (the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union) and the Black Lives Matter protests and riots in the US (that broke out in national cities in response to the publicized death of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis). There was also the still largely unexplained and unprecedented rise in excess mortality that occurred globally between 2020-2022, deaths that were not entirely due to acute COVID-19 infections. Excess mortality is the percentage of deaths within a population that occur beyond what is expected each year. This data is collected by health and life insurance companies as well as various world governments. However, research conducted by Swiss Re Institute reveals that excess mortality has persisted ever since the pandemic and is projected to continue for some time, potentially for another decade.

The years 2020-2022 corresponded with an extremely low point in the Cyclic Index, lower even than what correlated with end of World War II in the mid-1940s. According to the Cyclic Index, the world is moving upward out of this low point but will not return to a higher, more stable and constructive period until around 2028, in which there is another drop from 2030-2039 (though it is far more stable than the 2020-2022 period). The cyclic index suggests that the Saturn-Neptune alignment is a transition into a trend of more international stability and suggests this alignment will not be as internationally challenging as the 2020-2023 period of Saturn-Jupiter-Pluto.

Figure 1 The Cyclic Index (Barbault Graph) showing a span of 100 years beginning from 1935. Generated from Alexander Kolesnikov’s interactive graph calculator.

However, the Saturn-Neptune alignment still peaks at a low point relative to previous years, lower than the 2008-2009 Global Financial Crisis. Global destabilizing events are still possible. Also, it is important to note that the Cyclic Index appears to reveal periods of international stability and instability more broadly and thus, difficult periods are possible for more specific regions of the world in relation to the Saturn-Neptune conjunction. Since Saturn and Neptune make challenging aspects to the US Sibly chart, this may be a hard time for the US in many ways, even if its challenges are not as exclusively connected with more international trends and crises like the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was.  

Astrologer Alexander Kolesnikov provides an interactive Gouchon/Barbault graph (as well as Ganeau graphs that he discussed in his article providing more background on the graphs here). These graphs provide more contextual insight when analyzed alongside major world transit alignments.

Pushing Boundaries: The Aries Point

Figure 2 The Fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989; Lear 21 at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The last conjunction of Saturn-Neptune occurred in 1989 in early tropical Capricorn, alongside the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the USSR, most prominently memorialized by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Several planets, including Neptune and Uranus, were crossing the AP in the mid to late-1980s. Though that Saturn-Neptune alignment did not exact in aspect to the AP, both planets stimulated it throughout the late 1980s before their conjunction. However, Uranus was crossing the AP axis and completing an opposition with Jupiter.

Figure 3 The Fall of the Berlin Wall: November 9, 1989 @ 6:57 PM Berlin, Germany; note Venus-Uranus on the AP axis, Saturn-Neptune in opposition to Jupiter in early Capricorn.

What makes the conjunction of Saturn-Neptune in 2026 more significant is that it exacts on the AP at 00 degrees of tropical Aries and occurs at a low point within the Cyclic Index (though, as discussed, the graph suggests this alignment carries us out and into more global stability). As mentioned, the AP is the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere, where the Sun's crossing correlates with the shift to spring (in northern latitudes) and autumn (in southern latitudes). It has acquired significance in modern astrology through the influence of Uranian astrology of the 1930s and 40s.

In natal horoscopes, the AP has been perceived as a point of contact between the individual and the larger social world. In some instances, astrologers such as Robert Hand and Noel Tyl referred to it as a potential indicator of fame in a personal horoscope[5]. Kathy Rose argued that the AP carried the symbolism of bringing about a culmination or blossoming of something into visibility or a broader view. Astrologer and journalist Eric Francis argued that the AP reminds us that "the personal is political," and that AP events have widespread global and political consequences that seep into all of our lives.

In my research about the AP on both a mundane and personal level, I have extrapolated the symbolism of "boundary-pushing." Outer planet alignments and crossings of the AP appear to correlate with the emergence of profound boundary-pushing cultural and political movements and technological and scientific breakthroughs, some "good" and others "bad," but also many with a mix of nuance contingent on who or what they impact. After crossing these boundaries, there seems to be no going back for civilization.

Some examples include the discovery of nuclear fission, the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear energy, the evolution of computing technology, the internet, Artificial Intelligence (AI), rocket technology, and space travel. Boundary-pushing cultural movements like the many late 1960s civil rights battles, the LSD-fueled counter-cultural revolution, and even the Moon landing via Apollo 11 that correlated with major alignments opposing the AP are other notable examples.

The AP is conceived as an axis involving the first (usually two) degrees of cardinal signs and the last degrees of mutable signs [Figure 4]. In the tropical zodiac, this would include the transitional degrees from Pisces-Aries, Gemini-Cancer, Virgo-Libra, and Sagittarius-Capricorn. In my research, I have found that the AP appears relevant, at least in terms of mundane significance, within a ten-degree range, a window between 25 mutable and 5 cardinal.

Figure 4 The AP axis within the tropical zodiac

The political and ideological shift that transitioned the Western world out of the Middle Ages and into the Enlightenment has symbolic connections to the AP as well. A Jupiter-Saturn conjunction crossed the AP in 1643 at the start of the English Civil War [Figure 7]. Astrologer William Lilly depicted this conjunction (in hindsight) in the frontispiece engraving of his most prolific work, Christian Astrology, published in 1687 [Figures 5 & 6].

Figure 5 Frontispiece engraving of William Lilly from Christian Astrology

Figure 6 Close-up of Lilly's frontispiece engraving showing detail of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 1642

 Following the exactitude of the 1643 Jupiter-Saturn conjunction, and over two decades before the publication of Christian Astrology, Lilly published a pamphlet in 1644 titled England's Prophetical Merlin that made several predictions regarding the alignment and its implications for the then-current monarchical line, specifically speculating about its ultimate subversion.[6] Lilly, however, was most interested in the conjunction's exactitude in tropical Pisces due to the belief amongst Medieval astrologers that Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions in Pisces correlated with events like the "Great Flood" or the births of Christ and Mohammad.[7] Lilly also appears to have perceived it as an apocalyptic omen reflective of the 17th century Chrisitan worldview.

Figure 7 The exacting Jupiter-Saturn conjunction in late Pisces, February 24, 1643. Both planets would cross the AP while within close orb at the start of the English Civil War conflicts. Note also the lunar nodes crossing the AP axis. A total solar eclipse occurred on the AP alongside the spring equinox nearly a month after the exactitude of the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction.

The English Civil War was a major turning point in the Western political landscape (that would have consequences for much of the world). England was then a rising imperial power, but the standard mode of "divine right" of kingship (aka absolutism) was being actively challenged. The boundary of absolute monarchical power that persisted throughout Medieval Europe was getting pushback in the form of a series of conflicts and events that led to the beheading of King Charles I and the temporary suspension of the monarchy. The monarchy was later restored with Charles II but modified as a constitutional monarchy. This was the beginning of a turn, both ideologically and politically, toward democracy and the secular state in the West that would culminate in the French and American Revolutionary Wars.

Figure 8 Portrait of Charles I of England; by Daniël Mijtens, 1629.

The American Revolution began under the building conjunction of Saturn and Neptune (and Jupiter-Uranus) on April 19, 1775 with the battles of Lexington and Concord. The revolution would officially end with the next Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that crossed the AP axis (from Sagittarius to Capricorn) in 1782 alongside the lengthy negotiations that resulted in the signing of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, the formal agreement between the English colonies and British monarch that America could consider itself a sovereign country. There is more to these Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions, such as their grand mutations both at the start of the English Civil War and the end of the American Revolution (their shift from one triplicity, or element, to the next and the end of one 260-year cycle in a particular zodiacal element and the start of another).

Figure 9  The first military engagements of the American Revolution began on April 19, 1775, with the battles of Lexington and Concord; note the waning Saturn-Neptune conjunction and waxing Jupiter-Uranus conjunction (joined by Venus); also note Saturn on AP axis in opposition to Mercury.

Figure 10 The exacting Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of November 5, 1782 that occurred before the drafting of the Treaty of Paris on November 30, 1782.

Figure 11 Transits of November 5, 1782 (outer wheel) of the exacted Jupiter-Saturn conjunction overlayed over the US Sibly chart (inner wheel); note Jupiter-Saturn crossing the Sag-Cap AP axis in opposition to the US Sibly Venus-Jupiter. Note also a building Saturn-Neptune square, echoing the conjunction that occurred alongside the onset of the American Revolution.

There has not been a Saturn-Neptune conjunction exactly on the AP, at 00 degrees of Aries, in the past two thousand years. The closest occurred in the 6th and 9th centuries. In 555 CE, exacting at nearly 7 degrees of Aries but moving in orb across the AP between 554 and 555, a Saturn-Neptune conjunction correlated with the end of the Gothic War. 555 CE was the aftermath of the death, devastation, and financial ruin the war wrought on Italy, and it was ultimately a failed attempt by Emperor Justinian I (482-565 CE) to reinstate the Roman Empire's territorial dominance (after its collapse in 476 CE alongside a Saturn-Pluto conjunction). Like a theme that Tarnas noted in relation to Saturn-Neptune cycles, the ultimate result of the Gothic War was a "death of a dream" in restoring the Roman Empire to its former glory.

Figure 12 Mosaic depicting Justinian I in the Basilica Saint Vitale

The next closest Saturn-Neptune AP conjunction occurred in 878 CE in late Pisces. It correlated in Europe with the death of Charles the Bald (823-877 CE) in 877, one of several fraternal, monarchical rulers of the Carolingian Empire. Charles the Bald's death led to the further fragmentation of the Empire, paving the way for the feudal era in Western Europe, and it set the foundation for what would become the modern states of Germany, France, and Italy. The Carolingian Empire gradually dissolved over the ensuing decade. Additionally, the Battle of Edington that year was a significant defeat and setback for the Vikings and their attempts to dominate England, and it was pivotal to England's eventual unification under the ideological dominance of Christianity.

In both examples, we see major shifts and attempted shifts in the dynamic of power, rooted in a grand vision or ideological orientation. In true AP fashion, as reflective of the Aries archetype, there is a conflict between competing visions, battles over which reality will have supremacy. In the Battle of Edington example, the Viking worldview was the antithesis of the Christian-backed monarchs they sought to usurp with their pagan and pantheistic theology.

This may be another feature unique to Saturn-Neptune AP alignments, a critical turning point within a conflict over a vision of reality between factions vying for power. The Danish King, Guthrum (c. 835-890 CE), who led the Viking army, was forced to surrender and was eventually baptized as part of a peace agreement. The Anglo-Saxon victory, led by Alfred the Great (c. 847-899 CE), was also pivotal in the eventual acculturation of the Vikings via Christianization.

The last most recent Saturn-Neptune quadrature axial alignment that hit the AP axis was the square of the mid-1940s. This was the height of World War II, the race to produce the first atomic bombs, the concentration camps in Europe, and the horrific genocide of millions of Jews and other targeted minority groups who conflicted with the Nazi's totalitarian and supremacist vision for the world. The Nazi pursuit of world domination was, like any such puritanical pursuit, a highly ideological one based on conceptions of a supposed superior human race that was perceived more fit to steer the world toward a technological utopia.

That vision ended, at least symbolically, alongside the horrific detonation of the first atomic weapons on a human population in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945 as the US’s retaliation against the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Saturn was moving out of its square with Neptune, but Neptune was joined in opposition to the AP by Chiron and Jupiter [Figure 13]. World War II was a significant turning point in the balance of world power, and it too involved the dramatic death and dissolution of a dream.

Figure 13 The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki August 1945; note the Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter AP alignment; also note the waning Saturn-Neptune square that exacted on the Can-Lib AP Axis.

Reality Shifts and Checks

Figure 14 1876 engraving of a Salem witch trial; the woman on the floor is thought to depict Mary Walcott, via Wikimedia Commons.

In addition to the "death of a dream," other themes that Tarnas noted in relation to the Saturn-Neptune cycle include “collective disillusionment,” "loss of faith," or the collective processing of the harsh truth or tragic reality, reflecting the "darkening of the collective consciousness" that he argued was like that of Saturn-Pluto cycles. We can see many examples of this. Yet, it also depends on which side you're perceiving the situation. The Battle of Edington was defeating for the Vikings but not the Anglo-Saxons. The USSR's collapse was not as disillusioning for those who opposed the interests of the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders, and the failed vision of a new communist utopia were the most tarnished. Gay and lesbian minorities and those blacklisted by the US government during the McCarthy era suffered far more than most other Americans during the second Red Scare paranoia that overtook the country in the 1950s alongside a Saturn-Neptune conjunction (that I discuss in more detail in my 2023 article here).

Many democratic voters in 2016 were grief-stricken and disillusioned by Donald Trump's presidential win, while his supporters were enthusiastic about the perceived realization of the "Make America Great Again" ideal. There was a hyperbolic perception that overtook both Trump supporters and detractors, from the extreme caricature of Trump as a Russian-backed fascist dictator (comparable to Adolf Hitler) to the messianic political hero that would save America from the clutches of the deep state. Following the first attempted assassination of Trump in June 2024, many of his Christian supporters took to social media to depict Trump's survival as a miraculous intervention from God, despite injuries inflicted on other rally attendees and even the death of a man shielding his family from bullets. As I also discussed in my previous article, Tarnas noted extreme cultural divides that flare up alongside Saturn-Neptune cycles, and this was very much a feature of the 2016 campaign and appears to have emerged yet again leading up to the 2024 presidential race.

Collective paranoia and moral panic are also correlates of the Saturn-Neptune cycle that I have observed in my research. The Salem Witch Trials, the puritanical fervor and paranoia that overtook the North American colonies in the early 1690s, peaked under a Saturn-Neptune square. Prior to the McCarthy era, the first American Red Scare occurred under the Saturn-Neptune conjunction alongside the Russian Revolution and the first wave of widespread paranoia within the United States that communists were attempting to infiltrate and overthrow the nation.

Figure 15 Virginia McMartin, the founder of McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California; photo by Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The McMartin preschool trials from January 1987 through July 1990 culminated alongside the previous Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn. Accusations that children attending McMartin preschool in Manhattan Beach, California were involved in satanic ritual abuse spawned a moral panic throughout the US about a ring of satanists, witches, and pedophiles operating through a network of underground tunnels. The trial's final verdict that no evidence existed to support the claims disillusioned many who had come to believe in the grand conspiracy ignited with the initial accusations in 1983.

Figure 16 Alec Perkins from Hoboken, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Saturn-Neptune cycles often do correlate with public revelations related to concealed corruption and abuse of power, shattering an illusory façade and altering the public’s perception and trust. Tarnas discussed this correlation in relation to incidents in which negative pharmaceutical data was hidden and released such as with the Vioxx scandal (I discuss this theme at some length in my previous essay). As Tarnas described it, there can be the surfacing of “new data that disclose a dark reality hidden behind a carefully manipulated image….”[8] The #MeToo movement was started in 2006 under a Saturn-Neptune opposition by activist Tarana Burke who used the social media platform Myspace to raise awareness about sexual abuse of women of color. Throughout 2015-2017 under the Saturn-Neptune square, the #MeToo movement gained enormous traction following sexual abuse accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein. In 2017, the use of the hashtag became widespread to publicly reveal incidents of predatory sexual abuse among high-profile men.

The year 2006 when #MeToo was launched, financier Jeffrey Epstein faced his first public accusations, criminal charges, and arrest associated initially with unlawful sex with a minor. Those charges expanded in 2019 to federal sex trafficking charges. Epstein died in 2019 in a federal jail cell in New York that year in what was concluded to be a suicide. The Epstein case sparked speculations and investigation into a vast sex trafficking conspiracy involving minors and wealthy elites. His suicide has been speculated to have been a murder covered up to protect a ring of powerful elites involved, reflecting the Neptunian archetypes association with obfuscation, deception, and revelation. Interestingly, under the current Saturn-Neptune conjunction, similar revelations have emerged such as accusations of rape, assault, and sex trafficking involving rapper and record producer Sean Combs (P. Diddy). Most recently, sex trafficking and abuse accusations against the former CEO of clothing company Abercrombie & Fitch, Mike Jefferies (and two others), involving numerous young male models, have surfaced. More such incidents are very likely to come forward over the next two years especially, revealing a shadowy underbelly in relation to various cultural institutions and corporations.

Barbault correlated the Saturn-Neptune cycle with "popular insurrections fueled by ideological beliefs."[9] The start of the American Revolution under a Saturn-Neptune conjunction is one already noted example, and it ignited the battle for the budding American Dream. Barbault also noted major turning points in communist movements and ideologies, such as the birth of Marxism in 1847 and the European Revolution of 1848. Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels’ infamous declaration from the introduction of The Communist Manifesto that the specter of communism was haunting Europe, evoked communism as an embodiment of the Neptunian archetype, as something intangible yet permeating itself within society, invoking paranoia amongst the ruling class. Yet, as I have discussed so far, considering Neptune's notoriously obfuscating nature, such insurrections, grand conspiracies, and accompanying paranoia are not always based on a realistic assessment of the threat. With Neptune, there can be a simultaneous and paradoxical emergence of truth and delusion.

As referenced above, the last stage of the current Saturn-Neptune cycle occurred in 2014-2017. The 2016 US election occurred under this time band, and numerous obfuscating and disillusioning elements emerged, like those noted by Tarnas about the 2004 election of George W. Bush. Both the disillusionment of Bush's re-election in the wake of the disastrous and costly 2003 invasion of Iraq and a controversy over the election results were dominant features.

As I have just mentioned and also note in my 2023 article on the Saturn-Neptune cycle, Hillary Clinton's loss and Trump's victory in that election were incredibly shocking and disillusioning for liberal and democratic voters who, reinforced by the hubristic confidence of polls and political experts, believed Clinton was guaranteed to win and become the first female US president. As I had articulated, "the glass ceiling dissolved rather than shattered." Following that election, a similar paranoia over a Russian conspiracy again overtook political factions within the nation, emboldened by the mainstream media and Clinton's rhetoric, which was used to rationally explain Trump's victory, popularity, and rise to power.

Figure 17 Trump speaking at a campaign rally in 2016; photo by Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The FBI's extensive and nearly two-year investigation into the "Russiagate" conspiracy eventually found it had no basis. Neither Trump himself nor members of his family or campaign had any links to Russia. Trump was not, after all, a puppet for the Russian government. Like with past Saturn-Neptune cycles, there was an imagined conspiracy about a hidden and dangerous insurrection, this time involving the President himself and the Russian government.

Yet, Trump's populist movement, like that of Bernie Sanders, who ran as a democratic socialist and challenged the establishment of the Democratic Party, was more illuminating about Trump's popularity, and it pointed to a Democratic Party that is increasingly perceived among American voters as deeply entrenched with corrupt corporate and political interests.  

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) has in fact taken numerous actions to oppose even the rise of leftist populism and leftist third-party coalitions. Former DNC chair Donna Brazile and US senator (and former 2016 presidential candidate) Elizabeth Warner both admitted that the DNC had unfairly taken measures to block Sander's path beyond the 2016 primaries, a harsh reality for Sander's supporters revealing that leftist populism had no way forward within the Democratic party establishment. In both 2016 and again in 2020 (when Sanders ran a second time), the leftist populist movement experienced a shattered dream and disillusionment on multiple levels. Many US voters on both the political left and right had become disenchanted with the US political establishment and the American Dream.

In the 2024 presidential election, the Democratic candidate, current Vice President Kamala Harris, was instantly nominated and given Democratic party donors and delegates despite never receiving a single primary vote (from US voters) due to President Joe Biden's late withdrawal from the race and immediate endorsement of Harris. Before this, the DNC had refused to host debates between other candidates running against Biden for the democratic party ticket, such as Marianne Williamson or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Additionally the DNC has utilized various legal maneuvers to block ballot access for the Green Party's presidential candidate Jill Stein in swing states like Wisconsin. The same was done to Kennedy when he was attempting to run as a third-party candidate in New York. Ironically, the Democratic party that claimed to be defending democracy from fascism has demonstrated, on more than one occasion, an outright rejection of a fair and open democratic process. This is another factor in the rise of not only populist political movements but also the popularity of third-party candidates.

However, the biggest driver of populism in the US has much to do with an economic system that has perpetuated egregious upward wealth transfer, inequality, and corporate socialism. Yet, these factors are frequently obfuscated by political elites and legacy media with grand and unsubstantiated conspiracies of "Russian interference" or other cultural scapegoats. In the context of the Saturn-Neptune alignments, critical turning points in these obfuscating conspiracies appear to emerge and gain traction.

The American Dream Dissolved

Figure 18 Boris D. Leak, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Hypercapitalism, also known as neoliberalism, is an economic, political, and widespread cultural influence leading to the privatization of nature and the privatized control and capture of numerous public and political institutions. It is rooted in a vision of a market-driven society that took hold of world governments in the late 20th century. It is capitalism fully installed within culture and worldview. Hypercapitalism is an evolution of "trickle-down" economics which, according to anthropologist David Harvey, draws from the core "assumption that individual freedoms are guaranteed by freedom of the market."[10] The core delusional ideal of hypercapitalism being that the wealth generated by unrestrained capitalist enterprise will create a plethora of jobs and economic growth that will trickle down and benefit all.

From the hypercapitalist ideal, corporations and non-government organizations (NGOs) are perceived as more efficient for ensuring freedom, driving innovation, and overall satisfying public needs. However, this is not entirely how things have gone, since the state becomes heavily tasked with bolstering and protecting those interests through corporate bailouts, subsidies, or militarized police forces (to protect private capital interests).[11] Ensuring the "freedom of the market" actually results in government and taxpaying citizens helping to keep it afloat and, at times, restricting their own interests. As it turns out, under hypercapitalism, corporations end up more incentivized to hoard their wealth and cut costs as much as possible through offshoring their production for cheaper labor or choosing to prioritize their highest paid executives and shareholders rather than trickle their wealth down to their lowest paid workers.

Hypercapitalism also has pervasive cultural and psychological impacts. According to philosopher Byung-Chul Han, who has expanded upon the cultural transformation due to neoliberalism first articulated by Michel Foucault, the working class has been transmuted into entrepreneurs of themselves who willingly consent to surveillance and control. Think of how surveillance-prone SmartPhones or the latest data-accumulating apps are enthusiastically consumed and utilized. From the conception of Han's psychopolitics thesis, the neoliberal order has come to dominate its citizens not by brute force but by installing itself and its economized worldview on an unconscious level. Domination is desired rather than overtly enforced. As Han argued,

"Today, everyone is an auto-exploiting labourer in his or her own enterprise. People are now master and slave in one. Even class struggle has transformed into an inner struggle against oneself.”[12]

As Han argued, the entrepreneurial drive of the 21st century reflects the neoliberal worldview's inherent coercive nature, where maximum self-exploitation and an unconscious, interiorized conflict result. The pervasive need for constant productivity and consumption reflects the ultimate endpoint of hypercapitalism: the ceaseless flow of capital and its accumulation. This endpoint has become so pervasive (politically, economically, culturally, and as Han argued, psychologically), it has overcome numerous political, cultural, bodily, and psychic boundaries.

As some recent examples, with ever-rising living costs and inflation, working class citizens are often coerced into various "gig economies" to supplement their insufficient jobs or, while attempting to pursue their dreams, feel coerced to exploit their cars via ride share services, delivering food for corporate food chains, or their bodies on OnlyFans. The latter example reveals how a boundless hypercapitalist system will eventually assimilate and monetize everything, exploiting an individual's most private and intimate resources.

Hypercapitalism also has much to do with the rise of populism worldwide and the many obfuscating narratives that seek to divert and divide society not just in the US but in many Western countries. The enormous wealth gap (in 2024, the top 10 percent of income earners in the US now own 67 percent of the nation’s wealth) and the corporate and privatized capture of many public institutions have led to a precarious situation where US taxpayers are endlessly spending billions for wars, weapons sales to foreign governments, and subsidizing corporate stock buybacks and bailouts. This top-heavy wealth accumulation reveals the true lie that was always inherent to the trickle-down fantasy.

Elected politicians continuously claim that no money exists for vital domestic needs like universal income, healthcare, childcare, or higher education, alleviating the housing crisis, homeless crises, and the incredible rise of living costs, improving failing infrastructure, or fixing a broken and inefficient immigration process. Neither the Republican nor Democratic platforms ever seem to address these issues ultimately and yet always have enough political leverage and government cash to invest in more wars or corporate giveaways.

The extensive lobbying of numerous politicians by weapons manufacturers or pharmaceutical corporations partly explains much of this. Politicians' investments in such industries and the revolving doors between government and high-level corporate positions are also problematic, especially as they impact the regulatory sector. The ability of corporate and other wealthy donors to pour millions into election campaigns means that politicians and their eventual policy decisions are easily influenced by the wealthiest donors.

The 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling (that occurred under a Saturn-Pluto square on the AP axis) blocked the ability of the government to ban these practices, like the use of super PACs, from funding election campaigns. As one recent example, billionaires like Elon Musk and Miriam Adelson have donated collectively over $100 million to the 2024 Trump campaign. Adelson, who is an Israeli citizen and supporter of the annexation of the west bank (and further subjugation of the Palestinian people) is a major reason Trump is so supportive of Israeli national interests. Considering the enormous economic barriers to funding any political campaign, candidates are coerced into spending more time talking directly to (and appeasing) billionaires than the working-class citizens they're supposed to represent. Billionaires don’t just give millions from their coffers and expect nothing in return.

Hypercapitalism is thus aptly described as socialism for the rich. The state ends up more occupied with the interests of the wealthiest citizens resulting in privatized everything, from a pandemic response to the dictions of US foreign policy. Very real human crises and catastrophes are inevitably exploited for profit gain and enriching shareholders somewhere. This is always the bottom line within this US hypercapitalistic system, and it creates numerous problems for many parts of the world where US imperialism creates havoc and political instability via its proxy war involvements, political coups, and the pursuit of spreading its market-driven vision for the world.

The pervasive political and cultural rise of hypercapitalism occurred in the 1980s under the US Ronald Reagan administration (and the UK Thatcher administration). This correlated with a Jupiter-Saturn conjunction that opposed the AP in 1981, exacting in early tropical Libra. There was also a Saturn-Pluto conjunction that peaked shortly after in 1982-83 and thus drew parallels with 2020 in terms of a major shift in world power at the height of a crisis. The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic was, of course, different from the 1980s ending of the Cold War and the rise of HIV and the AIDS epidemic. Still, it brought about a similar decisive moment and "darkening of the collective consciousness" described by Tarnas, as well as an "aura of apocalyptic doom" as I phrased it in a 2016 article. This period was also a low point on the Cyclic Index comparable to 2020.

Figure 19 The release of Apple's Macintosh personal computer January 24, 1984, the day before Reagan's State of the Union Address. Venus-Neptune-Jupiter are aligning on the AP axis in Capricorn. Note also the building Saturn-Pluto conjunction that also occurred the year Orwell wrote 1984 in 1948.

In Psychopolitics, Han pointed to both the literal and symbolic birth of neoliberalism and “a new kind of control society” as occurring in 1984. The year was the title of George Orwell’s infamous dystopian novel about a pervasive surveillance state and authoritarian society. As Han discussed, Apple’s infamous commercial for its Macintosh personal computer product, which aired on January 24, 1984, during the Super Bowl, attempted to brand its product as a tool of liberation and antidote to Orwell’s dire future vision. The commercial was set in a dystopian factory. Robotic-like workers are marching in synch into a dark, vapid room to sit in front of a giant video screen displaying a talking head, presumably Big Brother, shouting the following speech:

“Today, we celebrate the first glorious anniversary of the Information Purification Directives. We have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology—where each worker may bloom, secure from the pests purveying contradictory thoughts. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death, and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!”[13]

As Big Brother’s speech echoes through the building, a woman is shown running with a sledgehammer in both hands. She’s shown as strong, athletic, highly bronzed, and wearing a bright white tank top and red shorts. She’s pursued by militarized police adorned with riot gear as she rushes toward the room. When she arrives, she hurls the sledgehammer into the air toward the screen. Just as Big Brother shouts: “We shall prevail!” the sledgehammer shatters the screen as it explodes with a flash of bright, white light. The workers are awakened from their trance while a voice announces: “On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce Macintosh. And you’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984.”

Figure 20 Screen shot from Apple's "1984" Macintosh commercial.

As Han argued, the antithesis occurred, as not only did the internet and personal computing era birth a novel control society, but one that far surpassed Orwell’s imagination. Though, an irony of Apple’s prophetic statement was that it unwittingly predicted just that, an Orwellian vision quite unlike what Orwell himself depicted. The unconscious installment of the control system, according to Han, birthed a society in which external authoritarian oppression was replaced by the internal and voluntary oppression of the masses.[14] As Han argued, “Neoliberal psychopolitics is SmartPolitics: it seeks to please and fulfil, not to repress.”[15]The compulsion of endless consumption operates under the guise of freedom and liberation. Such a tactic fits perfectly within the ultimate delusion of the American Dream, the boundless material acquisition promised through one’s incessant focus on productivity, self-optimization, and consumption.

January 24th 1984 featured an impressive conjunction of the most idealistic planetary archetypes: Venus, Jupiter, and Neptune on the AP axis in Capricorn. Astrologically speaking, you couldn’t get a more powerful symbol of extreme idealism, romanticism, and delusion, especially related to the earthy, industrious, and achievement seeking qualities of Capricorn. The sign’s planetary ruler, Saturn, in its shadow expression is the archetypal Big Brother, the true cultural authoritarian of the astrological pantheon. January 24, 1984 was also the day before Reagan’s State of Union Address in which he directed NASA to begin the construction of the international space station, conceiving space, in true neoliberal idealism, as a new frontier of boundless scientific and economic expansion.

Figure 21 Pluto crossing the AP axis in Capricorn in the winter of 2008, the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

Over two decades later, in the years 2008-2009, during the height of the Global Financial Crisis, the dwarf planet Pluto, the antithesis of idealism and delusion and the archetype of uncomfortable truths and the eruption of the unconscious, crossed that same degree of the Capricorn AP axis, bringing forth the harsh reality and consequences of the hypercapitalistic leviathan set forth in the previous era. Big banks and reckless Wall Street executives, blinded by delusions of massive and boundless capital gain, had set the world economy on a disastrous downward spiral that would result in millions of Americans losing their homes, jobs, and forever tarnishing the American Dream of homeownership (and wounding the American entrepreneurial spirit).

Through the enormous bailouts, American taxpayers ended up rewarding the very banks who precipitated the crisis, and only some low-level executives would be prosecuted for the crimes. Neoliberalism, fully and systemically installed, made sure the system protected and preserved the top-tier wealth hoarders, and the public footed the bill. While movements like Occupy Wall Street mobilized large public outcry, little has changed since. The year 2020 precipitated the largest upward wealth transfer in hypercapitalist history through the passage of the CARES Act, furthering widening the US wealth gap and upward wealth transfer.

Filmmaker Adam Curtis' long but extensively researched documentary, The Century of the Self, is an accessible and engaging cultural background for much of the shift that occurred in the early 1980s and how it impacted US politics and the branding and marketing practice of politicians. Just like any other freedom granted by end-stage capitalism, choosing a president in the hypercapitalist era reflects what Foucault argued was the economization of culture and individuals and is much like choosing the same product between two competing corporate brands (and with all the accompanying capitalist-fueled tribalism). Curtis' most recent film, released in 2016 (alongside the Saturn-Neptune square), Hypernormalization, is also lucid, prophetic, and thought-provoking about the rise of populism both in Europe and the US, and the critical foreign policy decisions made over past decades that have led to an elite political establishment that seeks to control and confuse public perception through the algorithmic power of the internet.

As Curtis argued, decades ago, the political elite shifted toward an attempt to establish a global society hyper focused on averting chaos and unpredictability by generating a technocratic system seeking to predict and control the future. Disenchanted by a now static and unchanging political system, broader society has retreated into cyberspace, a more simplified, fake world that mirrors back a cartoon version of the self. Since these digital echo chambers seek to eliminate anything that conflicts with individual biases and preconceptions, they provide a safe space from the perceived chaos and uncertainty of the world.

The retreat into illusory digital worlds also reinforces the notion that the American Dream is no longer an attainable goal for most Americans. The real world, one perceived as chaotic, unstable, and filled with economic barriers, becomes far less appealing. As a recent poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal revealed, financial security, a comfortable retirement, and homeownership were considered the most critical aspects of the American Dream. Yet, less than half of respondents believed such things were as accessible as they once were. Since 2016, the belief that the American Dream is still possible with hard work has significantly declined, with half of respondents in 2024 claiming that while it once held true, the dream seems to be rapidly dissipating.

Dissipation of Free Speech and Free Will

Figure 22 RoySmith, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Recent destabilizing events such as the Occupy Wall Street movement, Arab Spring Uprisings, Brexit, Trump's rise to political power, the Canadian trucker protests, and the Free Palestine movement are some ways the internet and social media have destabilized globalist attempts at societal control and are incredibly threatening to political elites. These resistance movements also reflect the growing rise in frustration among the poor and working class and a shift in interest in populist political movements.

Since 2016, there has been the rapid emergence of what journalist Michael Shellenberger has called the "censorship industrial complex" that took root in that same year due to the Obama administration's passage of the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act. This act emerged amidst the climate of disinformation fears that perceived the threat of foreign electoral meddling as a danger to democracy and domestic stability. However, evidence for foreign interference significantly impacting public perception and voting behaviors has been lacking, with a 2023 study revealing that no meaningful connection existed in the 2016 election. Yet, this rhetoric is continuously used by political elites and legacy media pundits, especially to discredit populist political opposition and third-party candidates.

Shellenberger was one of several journalists given limited access to a trove of emails known as the "Twitter Files" after Musk purchased Twitter (now called X) in 2023. The emails revealed serious free speech violations where the government pressured social media companies to censor specific information and deplatform targeted individuals. Testifying before The House Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government in March 2023, Shellenberger argued that the current war on disinformation via the censorship industrial complex has evolved far beyond its stated intentions and utilizes,

"established methods of psychological manipulation, some developed by the U.S. Military during the Global War on Terror, with highly sophisticated tools from computer science, including artificial intelligence. The complex's leaders are driven by the fear that the internet and social media platforms empower populist, alternative, and fringe personalities and views, which they regard as destabilizing. Federal government officials, agencies, and contractors have gone from fighting ISIS recruiters and Russian bots to censoring and deplatforming ordinary Americans and disfavored public figures."[16]

As Shellenberger outlined, the program's evolution to counter foreign propaganda and election interference evolved to censoring any digital content, even domestic, perceived as threatening to government aims and interests. Hence the emerging designation of "malinformation," that the US Government Accountability Office defined as "Largely accurate information that is based on reality, but may be presented out of context to inflict harm on a person, organization, or country." Malinformation is anything actually true, but determined to lack appropriate context or perceived as potentially harmful by the government.

As many independent journalists investigating these issues have argued, this designation justifies the censorship of information that challenges numerous mainstream and government viewpoints and positions. Within the context of the hypercapitalistic capture of public institutions, including those within the government, government interests often extend to those of many corporations and their shareholders, revealing a censorship apparatus that can be utilized to protect corporate monopolies and their private interests.

As Shellenberger argued, the evolution of the censorship industrial complex arose out of the global surveillance program built under the guise of combating global threats of terrorism. The immense extent of this program was revealed via the numerous leaked documents by the former employee of an NSA contractor, Edward Snowden in 2013. The global spying on potential foreign threats and enemies evolved into a massive domestic surveillance program, through the Patriot Act (passed in reaction to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001), that began collecting and storing the private data of numerous American citizens via cell phone data and private emails.

This leviathan government-corporate war on disinformation, as argued by journalist Jacob Seigal, is now seeking to gain total control over the internet. This is an outspoken aim of many political elites such as Hillary Clinton who, in an October 2024 interview with CNN, discussed the need to take drastic measures to moderate online content such as repealing Section 230 which gave social media platforms legal immunity against illegal activities conducted via their platform by its users. Its repeal would force social media companies to more heavily monitor and censor user content. As Clinton argued,

“Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter, or X, or Instagram, or TikTok, whatever they are, if they don’t moderate and monitor the content we lose total control and it’s not just the social and psychological effects it’s real harm, it’s child porn and threats of violence, things that are terribly dangerous.”

Clinton’s key admission was the aspect of losing “total control,” revealing the true intention behind her message. While Clinton utilized the fear of the internet amplifying criminal behaviors to justify more aggressive censorship tactics on the part of social media companies, within the broader context of the politically destabilizing power of social media, her concern with limiting online free speech has more to do with the threat of populism and civil disobedience fueled by unmitigated free speech. As discussed, Clinton’s electoral loss in 2016 was quickly explained via “disinformation” spread by Russia, a claim that has less basis than Clinton attempts to portray it.

The fear of foreign electoral interference justified the very construction of the censorship industrial complex itself. Recent attempts by the US government to ban TikTok in early 2024 alongside the national rise of university protests opposing the genocide in Gaza is another example of what the threat of online free speech is really about. TikTok became a primary platform for activists involved in the Free Palestine movement for spreading their message, organizing, and revealing the militant crackdowns on university campuses.

Figure 23 Student encampment at Brown University in early 2024; photo by Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

The government and social media collaborative censorship problem also extends beyond what was revealed by the Twitter Files. For example, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently admitted to the US House Judiciary Committee to have received and complied with several government requests to his company in 2021 to censor specific COVID-19-related posts. Zuckerberg additionally admitted to blocking the circulation of articles related to the Hunter Biden laptop story just before the 2020 presidential election, which was falsely claimed, without any evidence, to be Russian disinformation. Evidence has also emerged revealing that CIA contractors also sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story, suggesting that multiple entities both within and contracted by the government are involved in this effort.

These are only a few examples of an extensive censorship apparatus now augmented by advancing AI technology aimed at the control and distortion of public perception for political or economic purposes. The implications of these revelations are an ever-evolving situation that could quickly surpass any journalist or whistleblower's attempts to understand and reveal its true complexity. Han argued that the predictive power generated by what he referred to as "Big Data," makes it possible to calculate and control the future. For Han, this meant the ultimate end of free will:

"Digital psychopolitics transforms the negativity of freely made decisions into the positivity of factual states….Indeed, persons are being positivized into things, which can be quantified, measured and steered. Needless to say, no thing can be free. But at the same time, things are more transparent than persons. Big Data has announced the end of the person who possesses free will."[17]

According to Han, the manipulation of individuals by these emerging technologies of power, and thus the eradication of personal and collective free will, is the inevitable result. The algorithmic-powered promptings of targeted advertisements on various social media platforms are only one aspect of this widespread predictive power and social manipulation on the part of businesses and corporations. Han saw the SmartPhone as the ultimate "devotional object" of the digital age, comparable to a rosary, a means of self-monitoring and control.[18] How social media platforms such as Facebook or X have become venues for the generation of rampant groupthink and conformity, especially during crises like the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, demonstrates the disturbing accuracy of Han's warning.

If political elites succeed in gaining further control of the internet, then such conformity will be much easier to establish. The very broad free speech rights protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution were wisely conceived as a means of preventing the authoritarian control of information that is vital to democracy and a free and open society. If alternative views, opinions, and critique of those in power are silenced, then dissent and organized political opposition to rising authoritarianism can be more easily managed and mitigated. Ultimately, collective perception will be more rapidly controlled leading to the very opposite of what political elites and the censorship industrial complex claim to be concerned with: more misinformation and a less informed population. The misinformation threat points to a clear example of Freudian reaction-formation among the elite political class who claim to be fighting against the very thing they’re creating.

The Genocide in the Room

Figure 24 IDF Soldiers in the Gaza strip, October 2024; photo by IDF Spokesperson's Unit

The 2024 US presidential election devolved into a choice between two brands of state-sponsored genocide. Since the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, that resulted in the death of 1,139 people (of which 695 were Israeli civilians), there have been over 42,000 Palestinians killed due to Israel's violent retaliation against Gaza and the occupied West Bank. As of this writing, there are 95,787 injuries, 10,000 missing, and 16,500 dead children. This immense death, destruction, and generational trauma has not stopped since late 2023. The horrific 2023 attack on Israel does not justify the slaughter and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinian people, many of whom are children and babies.

Those in Gaza and the occupied West Bank are trapped, have nowhere to escape, and no means to defend themselves. Critical infrastructure, including vital emergency medical care, has been nearly eradicated. Those who survive the bombings and other attacks are now subject to starvation and untreatable disease. A study recently published by Brown University Watson Institute’s Cost of War project, found that an estimated 62,413 people have died from starvation and 5,000 from chronic disease due to lack of access to medical care. These deaths are in addition to the over 42,000 killed from direct violence. These numbers also do not include casualties in neighboring countries impacted by the crisis such as Lebanon or Yemen.

Additionally, solely focusing on October 7th obfuscates the decades long displacement and authoritarian oppression of the Palestinian people and other ethnic groups in the region due directly from the founding of the Israeli state. The US government and several US corporate media outlets have been involved in generating a false conception of the Israeli government as a victim of radical terrorists, justified in its endless bombing of Gaza and the occupied West Bank to eliminate Hamas. Criticism of the Zionist ideology and the Israeli government’s hawkish response to October 7th have been labeled as antisemitism, despite numerous Jewish organizations opposing the genocide and Israeli citizens protesting their own government. From President Biden lying about a debunked story of 40 beheaded babies, to the false claims of mass rape on October 7th, numerous influential media figures and politicians in the US have been disseminating disinformation to distort the Israeli government’s decades-long genocidal and colonialist pursuits in the region.

The US is a major supplier of weapons and military aid to Israel. According to the Cost of War project, since October 7th, the US has spent $22.76 billion on military aid to Israel (which it claims is a conservative estimate). The flow of money continues unrestricted under the current Biden administration. The genocide is supported on the left by Democratic elites financially entrenched with lobbyists for the Israeli government (and beholden to neoconservatives and the military industrial complex), and on the right by those same factions and Christian Zionists who perceive the conflict as a critical step in the fulfillment of their delusional interpretation of biblical prophecy. Yet, as with any war backed by the US and western imperial powers, it is fueled by capitalistic interests in which the flow of blood and money go hand in hand.

Photo by CODEPINK

Neither the Republican nor Democratic presidential candidates, former President Donald Trump, nor current Vice President Kamala Harris, have vowed to cut off arms supplies to Israel. Harris has claimed to be focused on a "ceasefire deal" but has consistently pledged support for Israel's "right to defend itself," a paradoxical position given that Israel’s “right to defend itself” is entirely antithetical to a ceasefire deal. Billions of dollars in military aid sent to Israel is in full support of genocide. Not surprisingly, Harris has received endorsements from war-hawk neoconservatives such as former US Vice President Dick Cheney, one of the primary architects of the Invasion of Iraq, an endorsement Harris claimed she was honored by. That Harris is yet another rising political elite is not surprising given that she rose through the political ranks through extremely wealthy connections she established in San Francisco.

Harris has received numerous and generous donations to her senate and presidential campaigns from donors to the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a major lobby for the Israeli government. Harris’ Vice President pick, governor of Wisconsin Tim Walz, blatantly (and perhaps mistakenly) admitted during the October 2024 Vice Presidential Debate that “the expansion of Israel and its proxies is an absolute necessity for the United States.” The expansion of Israel means the eradication of the Palestinian people and the further colonization of surrounding regions. Walz’s statement means that genocide under a Harris/Walz administration will be an “absolute necessity.”

Trump has never criticized Israel's stance nor ever called for a ceasefire. Since his presidential term, Trump has been hostile and apathetic to the Palestinian people. His administration’s proposed “peace deal” plan for the region entirely favored the Israeli government’s agenda of controlling the majority of the region’s territory while continuing the subjugation of the Palestinian people. In a speech given to the US congress in July 2024, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, overtly praised Trump for his support of the Israeli government during his administration. Despite the Biden administration’s massive financial and military support given to Israel since October 7th, during the July 2024 presidential debate between Trump and Biden, Trump went as far as to claim that Biden’s support for Israel wasn’t enough and he should let Israel “finish the job.” Adelson’s recent $100 million donation to Trump’s campaign, as mentioned, also further secures his protection of the Israeli government’s interests.

Figure 25 A wounded Palestinian infant being treated at the overcrowded emergency ward of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City following an Israeli airstrike on October 11, 2023; photo by Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In relation to the plight of those in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, the only difference between the top presidential candidates is that Trump is transparent and outspoken about his position while Harris and Walz veil their allegiance to Israel’s genocidal agenda with obfuscating political rhetoric. The death and destruction within Gaza and the occupied West Bank are already a reflection of the Saturn-Neptune symbolism emerging into consciousness. It is a horrific and devastating tragedy that continues unabated. It will result in further tensions and radicalization within the region that will have negative future consequences for Israel and its allies. Yet, its role in the 2024 election is a critical symbolic reflection of the current state of US imperialism and its highly problematic domestic situation.

The genocide points to the blatant and immense moral corruption of the US Empire, a corruption that is nothing new, but has become so glaringly obvious that only pure ignorance, cultish devotion to a political party, or outright narcissism could make one not notice or care. The choice between two brands of state-sponsored genocide demonstrates how truly spiritually, ethically, and morally vacuous the US truly is and has become. The apathy and narcissism of the top presidential candidates and the numerous representatives in both the House and Senate deeply reflects the shadow of US empire and a harsh truth that US citizens must eventually confront.

Truthfully, those who ambitiously seek such political power are often the most vacuous among the human species. Such ambitious and power-hungry individuals compulsively need to fill an inner void. That void is appeased through numerous external achievements, no matter what those achievements are, whose money they take to achieve them, or who they exploit in the process of their getting.

The hypercapitalistic culture, and even the American Dream itself, were created and perpetuated by an inherent narcissism and psychopathy within Western civilization. More broadly, such narcissism draws from the materialist worldview's devaluation of the subjective, intuitive, symbolic, nurturing, communal, and creative dimensions of the human experience. If the surface, material, and rational are all that matters, then fundamentalism comes to dominate. The "holy land" is no longer a metaphor of an inward spiritual condition but something to be externally sought and claimed.

In the 2000 preface of Requiem for a Dream, a novel published by Herbert Selby Jr. in 1978 under a building Saturn-Neptune square (while Neptune aligned with the US Sibly Ascendent), Selby wrote that,

"I believe that to pursue the American Dream is not only futile but self-destructive because ultimately it destroys everything and everyone involved with it. By definition it must, because it nurtures everything except those things that are important: integrity, ethics, truth, our very heart and soul. Why? The reason is simple: because Life/life is about giving, not getting."

Selby’s novel followed the lives of several individuals who tragically succumb to despair, failure, and addiction in pursuit of their own conceptions of the American Dream. In his 2000 preface, alongside the release of the film adaptation, Selby touched on a core component of the shadow of the American vision, one that understandably (within the specific context of Western history) catalyzed a political system to offset the dangers of consolidated power, collective tyranny, and authoritarian oppression. As the roots of neoliberalism arose within the political philosophy of the Enlightenment that sought to supplant absolutism with ideals of economic and civil freedom, it also embraced the ideal that through honest effort and merit (rather than "divine right" or genetic inheritance) anyone could achieve material wealth. Yet, of course, that ideal never initially applied to African slaves, their descendants, Native Americans, or women. It was an ideal constructed and perpetuated by and for white men. The failure to foresee that the inevitable consolidation of wealth in the hands of a small minority would result in the very same tyranny and inequality posed by monarchs, represents a blind spot inherent to placing economic expansion at the core of the American Dream.

As Selby argued, the American Dream, when taken to its extreme rational endpoint, devalues a core component of human evolution, that we are communal beings wired for connection, sharing, and belonging. Yet also, the external pursuit of happiness also fails to acknowledge what modern psychotherapy, ancient shamanism, and millennia old mystery religions have found to be true, that happiness is not exclusively found in external pursuits. It is more a cultural sentiment than a core American value that “heart and soul” are somehow the source of what’s truly important. Yet, the achievement and power obsessed American culture incentivizes turning away from those aspects of human nature, toward getting rather than giving. There is not a single billionaire that got to where they are through a cultivation of heart and soul, and least of all giving. The bottom line within the American Dream was always boundless consumption and exploitation.

As many experts on narcissism argue, such as psychologist Dr. Ramani Durvasula, the word goes beyond a clinical and diagnostic designation and describes a personality and cultural pattern that has become increasingly dominant in the West and especially in the US.[19] In 1979, under the same Saturn-Neptune square that Selby wrote Requiem for a Dream, Christopher Lasch foresaw this concerning cultural pattern emerging that he described in The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. According to Lasch, cultural narcissism is cultivated through an obsession with consumerism, self-enhancement, and “all-or-nothing success,” overshadowing values like community building, family, tradition, and shared morality. The breakdown of these core human values and their displacement with fleeting gratifications has resulted in a society without a meaningful collective purpose and a dissipation of substantive aspirations. People expect less fulfillment and meaning from anything they pursue in life. Numerous experiences are reduced to fleeting moments of vacuous consumption.

While narcissism is often understood as a grandiose, egoistic, superficial, and combative personality style, it is rooted in a vacuous inner condition. As Dr. Durvasula argued, a hallmark of narcissism is pathological insecurity which is the “core of the main paradox of narcissism.”[20] External achievements and successes are needed to appease this insecurity and subdue that inner vacuousness. This also explains why narcissism is often found at the top echelons of society, in those who achieve high positions in politics, business, medicine, entertainment, or academia. We live in a society that generously awards high achievement at the expense of those core human values that shaped human evolution. Humans did not survive the ice age through charisma, competitiveness, and self-interest.

This vacuousness is reflected at the heart of the modern conception of the American Dream, its core values, and in the broader political landscape. When Trump’s granddaughter, Kai Trump, spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention of her grandfather, she solely emphasized her grandfather’s interest in her ambition, high honor roll status, and success at playing golf. She made a joke about Trump attempting to “get inside” her head to beat her at golf whenever they played against one another. As she expressed of her grandfather, “He always encourages me to push myself to be the most successful person I can be.”

Her speech was an attempt to garner sympathy for and humanize Trump after the failed assassination attempt, but it inadvertently revealed the narcissistic values that underlie the achievement obsessed hypercapitalist culture. The obsession with external achievement at the expense of other values is what drives narcissism on an individual and collective level. Only showing interest in a child’s achievements and exclusively pushing them “to be the most successful” people they can be is our collective pathway to the further corrosion of empathy, community, integrity, ethics, and morality.

The state-sponsored genocide of the Palestinian people reveals that in the 2024 election there is no longer a “lesser evil” to choose from. How much lower can a society descend when it is actively supporting and consenting to the slaughter of tens of thousands of innocent people for the sake of profit, power, and a delusional, psychopathic-driven consumption of land. The 2024 election also points to the vacuous core of the American Dream, and it reveals the deep void that the narcissistic elite have gradually pulled the country and the world into. The genocide is being perpetuated by numerous politicians who are seeking “all or nothing success” at the expense of integrity, truth, heart, and soul, values that clearly have no place within the political cult at the helm in Washington, DC.

Further, if the perpetuation of the American Dream as boundless capital flow and accumulation is contingent on the perpetuation of weapons sales, foreign proxy wars, and ecological destruction, it prompts a serious moral and ethical crisis. The accumulation of enormous wealth and resources while those impacted by US foreign policy struggle to feed themselves or that perpetuates the exploitation of the environment, is an unsustainable and inhumane vision to begin with. US imperialism and its destructive foreign policy decisions over recent decades have literally created and shaped the third world. Thus, over 80 percent of the world population can barely meet basic survival needs. In the context of globalization and the extent of US imperialism, it is time for a critical reimagining of the American Dream and its underlying goals.

Back to the Aries Point

Figure 26 Author unknown

Willpower is an Aries theme. The sign deals archetypally with the assertion of will on many levels. It is the primal truth of eat or be eaten, choose or have someone choose for you. The pushing boundaries AP theme expectedly fits with the Aries archetype. Boundaries must be pushed to enact change in our lives or on a societal level. Those with power will not give it up without a challenge. As Frederick Douglass argued, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will." Historically, unchecked and overreaching power has always been inevitably pushed back against, sometimes aggressively so, as with the English Civil War, French Revolution, or the civil rights battles of the 1950s and 60s.

Aggression and violence are some of the less ideal manifestations of the Aries archetype. When the peaceful assertion of the collective will fail to yield results, and when oppressive conditions persist unerring, anger and frustration will inevitably ensue. This is how Barbault described the insurrectional dimension of the Saturn-Neptune cycle:

"But when hunger brings the wolf out of the forest, human need increases the collective demands of a frustrated population which has no hope."[21]

A hopeless population, especially in the US, is a fitting description for where we currently stand, especially in relation to enacting change through the formal electoral process. It is the manifestation of what Lasche foresaw in 1978, a society that has succumbed to diminished expectations. The political disenchantment of many, evident in the rising popularity of third-party and populist political movements, partly demonstrates this truth. For those Americans who do not yet see and understand this, there is some heavy disillusionment coming that will reflect the painful shadow of Saturn-Neptune.  

Saturn and Neptune will align with the IC and oppose the Midheaven (MC) of the US Sibley chart and will square the US Sibley Venus-Jupiter conjunction in Cancer, a prominent alignment in the US horoscope due to Jupiter's rulership of the Ascendent. Sagittarius and its ruler Jupiter, exalted in Cancer and empowered by its alignment with Venus, points to the archetypal “boundless horizon” that infused itself into the American Dream. The Venus-Jupiter conjunction in the US Sibley chart is a prominent symbol of the US's destined wealth and debt accumulation, especially tied to foreign allies (via the planet's placements in the seventh and eighth houses of the chart). This challenge from Saturn-Neptune to the US wealth/debt symbol suggests a severe economic problem that will come into focus over the following two years.

Pluto's opposition to the Venus-Jupiter conjunction (and square to the US Sibley IC/MC axis) in 2008-2009 correlated with the Global Financial Crisis. A Saturn-Jupiter opposition and t-square with Uranus to the US Sibley Venus-Jupiter correlated with the onset of the Great Depression in 1930. Angular stimulation to the US Sibley chart by world transit alignments has shown illuminating in other ways. Uranus' crossing of the US Sibley IC (and square to Pluto and the US Sibley Venus-Jupiter) correlated with the Occupy Wall Street movement of September-November 2011, which as discussed, was a reaction to the massive government bailouts given to banks complicit in the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009 (which itself occurred when Pluto crossed the AP axis and squared the US Sibly MC/IC and opposed Venus-Jupiter).  

Figure 27  The US Sibly chart (inner wheel) and transits for February 20, 2026 (outer wheel) showing the exacting Saturn-Neptune conjunction on the US Sibly IC and squaring Venus-Jupiter. Note the AP aligns with the US Sibly IC, putting the AP axis directly on the IC/MC axis of the chart.

The crossings of Jupiter, Uranus, and Pluto over the US Sibley MC correlated with the boundary-pushing cultural and political instability of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pluto's crossing the US Sibly Ascendent and opposition to Saturn on the Descendent correlated with the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. The American Civil War of 1861-1865 occurred during a Saturn-Neptune opposition (that made a t-square with transiting Uranus) that aligned with the US Sibley MC/IC. Neptune was, like in 2025-2026, crossing the US Sibly IC axis.

With Saturn-Neptune hitting the IC/MC axis of the US Sibly chart, this suggests that much of the Saturn-Neptune symbolism will involve the domestic front as the IC is connected symbolically to domestic issues. The Occupy Wall Street movement was a prime example of this, sparking encampments and protests in numerous national cities. The IC (and fourth house cusp) in mundane astrology reflects issues around land and land ownership within a country.

With the US Sibly IC aligned with the AP, this speaks symbolically to the US’s potential of pushing the boundaries of land ownership and territorial dominance not just within the North American continent, but with other foreign territories. The US is a country founded on settler colonialism and the massive theft of indigenous land. The inevitable westward expansion of US territory and the displacement of Native Americans via the ideal of “Manifest Destiny” reflects this boundary pushing dimension to the US AP fourth house cusp.

Figure 28 "American Progress" by John Gast, 1872.

One of the core aspects of the American Dream was the feasibility of land and home ownership. Today, the dream of accessible homeownership, especially in and around major US cities, is becoming far less within reach among many US citizens. More than half of the US population struggles to pay rent and cover necessities. Homeownership in the US also never fully recovered from the 2007-2009 Global Financial Crisis that proceeded two AP solar eclipses on the US Sibly MC/IC axis in 2006 and 2007. As also mentioned, this was the period of Pluto crossing the AP axis into Capricorn and its opposition to the US Sibly Venus-Jupiter (and square to the MC/IC axis). Similarly, a solar eclipse will occur on the AP and align with the US Sibly MC in 2025 alongside the building Saturn-Neptune conjunction on the IC.

The fourth house, from a psychological and evolutionary astrological perspective, relates to the “soul” of the chart, the deeper and intimate dimensions of life. It points to issues around the home front, kinship, and what astrologer Steven Forrest referred to as “attunement to the inner self.” According to Forrest, fourth house transits are often obscure periods of life that relate to cycles of “self-administered psychoanalysis” and a “process of recreating a myth of ourselves….”[22]According to Howard Sasportas, with Neptune crossing the IC into the fourth house, it reflects a time “to pause and take stock of our lives.”[23] From this perspective, the Saturn-Neptune cycle on the US Sibly IC represents a critical period for the seeding of a new myth, perhaps a reconceptualization of the American Dream itself. This is a time to awaken and deeply assess the values the country has come to operate under. Perhaps this more inward turning reflected by the Saturn-Neptune alignment in the US Sibly fourth house reflects also a constructive potential as Tarnas had described it:

“In perhaps its most admirable form, the Saturn-Neptune complex appears to be associated with the courage to face a hard and often tragic reality without illusion and still remain true to the ideals and dreams of a better world. Instead of provoking despair or passivity, the painful gap between the ideal and the real inspires one to undertake whatever sustained labor is necessary to transform the resistant structures of the world (political, economic, religious, philosophical) in service of one’s highest spiritual intuitions.”[24]

In contrast, though not specifically referring to the US situation and focusing more broadly on global civilization, Barbault was optimistic about the 2026 conjunction. Here is his prediction:

"It is the most benefic configuration of the century and its interplanetary partnership will work for the best in a splendid relaunch of civilization. It contains a harmonious relationship between primordial polar opposites; the coming together of the external and the internal, rational and spiritual, mind and soul... human beings surpassing themselves while experiencing life on a higher level."[25]

Barbault predicted a "splendid relaunch of civilization." He also alluded to some acquired transcendent state through a melding of polarities. Barbault noted the harmonious aspects of Pluto and Uranus making sextiles to the Saturn-Neptune alignment. It is interesting to note that the AP has major symbolic significance related to pushing the boundaries of civilization and technological progress. Critical events leading to the dramatic shift in world power tend to occur alongside such alignments historically. As occurring within the upward trend in the Cyclic Index, and considering these more harmonious aspects, Barbault foresaw a positive uprising occurring on a global level.

In contrast, the more constructive potential of Tarnas’ Saturn-Neptune interpretation framed it as a dark night of the soul that prompts constructive action and has the potential to change various cultural structures that have become maladaptive or misaligned with spiritual or moral aspirations. Reflecting on the evidence and discussions in this essay, I find it hard to have an optimistic view of this alignment, at least in the short term and on the broader collective level. Yet, astrology points to a symbolic reality that underwrites reality itself. From that perspective, astrology suggests that reality is ultimately symbolic rather than literal. We can look at everything happening in the world as a symbol pointing to a shift in consciousness that is reflected in all these events and crises we face.

A perplexing aspect of this alignment is the censorship issue discussed and the ability to distort or manufacture perception on a massive level. The situation speaks deeply to the archetype of Neptune and its obfuscating and sometimes deceiving attributes. This touches on a critical crisis we face: a crisis of reality and perception, a collective confusion about what is true or false, or who to trust or believe. The boundaries of perception and reality will be pushed, but in what direction ultimately? Is Han's dystopian warning about the death of free will to emerge in a way we have yet to see or imagine? Will emerging threats be misunderstood or hyperbolically depicted as in the correlations with Saturn-Neptune and periods of collective paranoia and mass delusion? When consumed in reflective digital echo chambers, each with its curated version of reality, is the possibility of an organized collective pushback or awakening even possible? The battle over a specific vision or ideology is also possible here, or a significant failure of such, and a defining moment in that process will likely emerge over the next few years. Yet, ultimately, what vision or reality will win out?

In my previous essay on this topic, I predicted a thematic global disillusionment and awakening that would manifest in a variety of ways. I argued that it was ultimately time for a radical alteration in our collective worldview. I think the collective disillusionment and hopelessness, and the failure of the status quo system to deliver new possibilities or inspire excitement and hope among the people has more to do with political and metaphysical worldviews that have reached their expiration. The vacuousness and narcissism of the major US presidential candidates (and their associated political parties) heading into this Saturn-Neptune cycle is a revealing symbol about the corruption of the political duopoly and the capture of the system by unrestrained profit accumulation and material exploitation. It also points to a lack of a compelling creative vision not just nationally but within the broader, hegemonic worldview of modernity.

The materialist-secular worldview and its accompanying atheism and existentialism have resulted in a society disenchanted in multiple ways. It has resulted in a technocratic system that perceives humans as mere machines that can be programmed and directed toward predetermined outcomes. Yet, that view is highly delusional. Humanity and its civilization are byproducts of the natural world, a complex non-linear system far from mechanical, static, and controllable. That vision will ultimately fail because it fails to see, understand, and appreciate the complexity and nuance of reality and the nature of consciousness. Chaos cannot be eliminated by advanced algorithms or the weaponization of social theories.

In contrast to this, we have a rising tide of conservative political and cultural ideology. This often reflects a desire to retreat to conservative traditions and a puritanical past. It is partly a revitalization movement that perceives the progressive cultural changes of the past century as dangerous and maladaptive. If only society could go back to some semblance of cultural and traditional purity, things can be restored to normalcy and stability. This is equally delusional when taken to an extreme and it ignores the diversity, equality, and freedom that many of the progressive cultural changes of the past century have manifested. On the far end of this are the delusional authoritarian aspirations of Christian theocratic fascism that seeks to align the US culturally and structurally with traditional Chrisitan values (or what a subset of evangelical and fundamentalist Christian leaders believes those values are).[26]

However, the tension between these extremes points to a middle ground arising that can also be seen as a reflection of the following two decades of Pluto through Aquarius. Are there ways in which radical liberalism has gone too far in the direction of excessive hyper-novelty? Are there ways in which radical conservatism has gone too far in restricting bodily autonomy and civil liberties? Current debates over adolescent gender transitions, abortion, and broader LGBT+ issues within the culture appear to reflect this tension and nuance. They require careful, open debate and consideration rather than overly simplistic and broad, biased conclusions.

In considering Lasche’s argument about the collapse of tradition, family structure, and shared morality as factors that have led to cultural narcissism, in some ways, the conservative view has a point as far as traditional lifeways are concerned. There are many cultural structures that have been instrumental to human evolution and civilizational expansion that have been radically altered over past centuries. Yet, considering more complex societal factors like hypercapitalism, we see this corrosion of structures as not only a byproduct of progressive cultural changes but also economic ones that make the sustainment of certain traditions less appealing or accessible. If buying a home and raising a family is no longer a viable economic option, then alternative structures and lifestyles will inevitably result as humans adapt to changing economic conditions. Metaphysical and cosmological models of traditional religions have become less convincing and appealing due to numerous scientific discoveries and evidence and thus they fail to make rational arguments.

The conversation over the collapse of shared morality is not exclusive to Lasche and has been observed as instrumental to the rise of modern cult-like movements and what psychologist Matias Desmet called “mass formation,” a trance-like hive mind that overtakes a population alongside a serious threat or crises (as well as a host of predeterminate factors).[27] Lack of a collective sense of meaning and purpose was instrumental to this. This was an argument of Hannah Arendt who saw the rise of Nazism as having a similar basis in the collapse of authority and a shared, collective purpose in the modern world. Sociologist Frank Freudi’s work focused on this very issue as having given rise to modernity’s collective hyper fixation on safety and risk aversion that he called the “culture of fear.” According to Furedi, the collapse of centralized authority and shared morality (and excessive focus on individualism) have given rise to a cultish devotion to scientistic morality that perceives and portrays science as “a moralistic and political project” aimed at establishing a consensus to be obeyed, the very opposite of science as a rigorous tool and methodology whose findings are openly questioned and debated.[28]

Since most of human evolution took place within the context of small groups of nomadic, hunter-gatherers, the ability to maintain a shared collective authority, moral code, and purpose was more feasible and instrumental to human survival. The rapid expansion of the global human population, globalization, technological advancements, and ever emerging scientific discoveries have made matters more complicated. Individualism and cultural plurality in modern American culture are also major factors for the difficulty of getting everyone on the same moralistic and ideological page. There are no easy, “one-size-fits-all” solutions to these problems and they reflect a reality humanity must learn to adapt to.

The shadow of these times ultimately reflects humanity’s inability to deal with chaos, unpredictability, and uncertainty and their desperate attempts to make sense of these conditions through the limitations of their worldviews. I would argue that neither technocratic materialists or religious conservatives offer viable solutions nor refreshing insights. The Neptunian archetype inherently belongs to the realm of the chaos gods such as Uranus, Pluto, and many trans-Plutonian objects. Its merging with Saturn incites a challenge to integrate and concretize the ideal and intangible, but it also represents a confrontation with the limitations of our understanding of reality and our ability to control outcomes. Disillusionment is always a consequence of any delusional pursuit of attempting to stamp out chaos and uncertainty from the world, or any hubristic confidence in one’s view of the world.

If there is a positive side to this moment in time it is the potential awakening that will pave the way to new visions and conceptions of reality better informed by those limitations. That will take time to germinate and blossom within the world, but their seeds are being planted now, and each of us, if we manage to escape the trappings of confining digital echo chambers, divisive political cults, or collective mass delusion, can glimpse pieces of it and assist in actively pushing the boundaries of ethically corrupt cultural and political structures (in addition to reality, perception, and even humanity's deeper spiritual potential).

As for the US, many academic historians have argued that the country is a declining world power, and that path has accelerated in recent decades. As mentioned earlier, historian Alfred McCoy anticipated an accelerated decline of US global power occurring along a similar time frame as Barbault, within the 2020-2030 range. At the time of the publication of his last work in 2017, he suggested there was still time for Americans to organize and work through political channels to oppose the military industrial complex’s endless expansion and the US’s dangerous foreign policy maneuvers. As McCoy argued, “the possibility remains that, even at this late hour, the American people could come together—as they did during World War II or the Cold War—to build a more just society at home and a more equitable world abroad.”[29] Those efforts unfortunately do not seem to have made much headway. Yet, this alignment perhaps points to a last chance for a collective awakening to begin mobilizing such a movement.  

As for the American Dream, within the context of unfettered capitalism, it was destined to be an unsustainable mode of being in the world, neglecting humanity’s place as one piece of a vast interconnected ecosystem. This does not suggest that aspiring for a political and economic system that equitably secures material stability for its citizens is a bad thing, but that a system that allows for the delusional boundless accumulation of capital and resources cannot go on forever, especially one predicated on the perpetuation war, genocide, and environmental destruction. The hypercapitalistic extreme of the American Dream derives from the delusional belief that humanity is separate from and more supreme than anything else evolving on earth. Many traditional religious ideologies perpetuate this delusion of humans as somehow transcendent of and supreme to the natural world. This delusion operates unconsciously within even the materialist and scientistic worldviews that deify human ingenuity and innovation as something salvific rather than paradoxical and flawed. Cultural narcissism emerged out of the vacuous core of the materialist worldview but also the religious foundations it grew out of, and it poses significant risks for the survival of humanity, civilization, and numerous ecosystems and living species. Reimagining not only the American Dream itself, but broader conceptions of reality and our place within it, will be crucial for improving global conditions and preserving numerous cultural and ecological systems in the future.

Citations

[1] Richard Tarnas. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View (New York: PLUME, 2007), p. 469.

[2] Ibid., pp. 469-478.

[3] Michael Baigent, Nicholas Campion, and Charles Harvey. Mundane Astrology: An Introduction to the Astrology of Nations and Groups (London: The Aquarian Press, 1992), p. 169.

[4] Plato. “Timaeus”, in Plato Complete Works, eds. John M Cooper and D.S. Hutchinson (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1997), p. 1243, 39d.

[5] See Robert Hand. Horoscope Symbols (Atglen: Schiffer, 1981), p. 92.

 Noel Tyl. Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 1994), p. 312.

[6] Anne Geneva. Astrology and the Seventeenth Century Mind: William Lilly and the Language of the Stars (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995), p. 211.

[7] Nicholas Campion, Astrology and Cosmology in the World’s Religions (New York and London: New York University Press, 2012), pp. 182-184.

[8] Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 474.

[9] André Barbault. Planetary Cycles Mundane Astrology, trans. by Kate Johnston (London: The Astrological Association, 2016), p. 85.

[10] David Harvey. A Brief History of Neoliberalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 7.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Byung-Chul Han, Psycho-politics: Neoliberalism and New Technologies of Power (London and New York: Verso, 2017), p. 5.

[13] Apple.“1984,” January 24, 1984. https://youtu.be/VtvjbmoDx-I?si=0Bx8Nu5jEI_cfJij

[14] Han, Pscyhopolitics, p. 40.

[15] Han, Psychopolitics, p. 36.

[16] Testimony by Michael Shellenberger FINAL (house.gov), p. 6.

[17] Han, Psychopolitics, p. 12.

[18] Ibid.

[19] Ramani S. Durvasula, PH.D. “Don’t You Know Who I Am?”: How to Stay Sane in an Era of Narcissism, Entitlement, and Incivility (New York & Nashville: Post Hill Press, 2019), p. 22.   

[20] Ibid., p. 10.

[21] Barbault. Planetary Cycles, p. 87.

[22] Steven Forrest. The Inner Sky: How to Make Wiser Choices for a More Fulfilling Life (San Diego: ACS Publications, 1988), p. 79.

[23] Howard Sassportas. The Gods of Change: Pain, Crisis, and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto (Bournemouth: The Wessex Astrologer, 2007), p. 156.

[24] Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 477.

[25] Barbault, Planetary Cycles, p. 103.

[26] See: Chris Hedges. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America (New York: Free Press, 2009).

[27] Matias Desmet. The Psychology of Totalitarianism (White River Junction: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2022).

[28] Frank Furedi. How Fear Works: Culture of Fear in the 21st Century (London: Bloomsbury, 2019), p. 144.

[29] Alfred W. McCoy. In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power (Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2017), p. 256.

From Disillusionment to Global Awakening: The Saturn-Neptune Conjunction (2024-2027)

Jeffrey Pang from Berkeley, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

*This article was originally published on my Substack page in September 2023, portions of which I presented at the AstroBash evolutionary astrology conference in Borrego Springs, CA.

*I have another more recent essay on this topic here

Introduction

Beginning in 2024, the planets Saturn and Neptune get closer to their conjunction in tropical Aries, specifically at a point coined by modern astrologers as the "Aries Point"--the place where the Sun ignites the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere. Additionally, this conjunction occurs alongside two other infrequent conjunctions exacting within roughly the same time frame: centaur object Chiron with dwarf planet Eris and Uranus with dwarf planet Sedna. Similar to 2020 and surrounding years, these alignments represent challenging collective integrations but also hold constructive and meaningful potentials that I'll explore in this article while looking at the archetypal natures of the planets involved, the Aries Point, and past historical correlations. 

While Saturn and Neptune will make only one exact alignment in February 2026, this Saturn-Neptune conjunction period will have significance from March 2024 through April 2027 in using a 15-degree orb. Like the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that peaked in January 2020, its correlations were relevant from January 2018 through December 2021, evident in the way in which much of the heightened collective fear and authoritarian pressures as a result of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic peaked at the exact conjunction period in early 2020 and began to wane entering 2022. We can anticipate a gradual building crescendo of the Saturn-Neptune themes starting in early 2024, amplifying in early 2026, and phasing out in 2027. 

Saturn and Neptune’s exact conjunction February 20, 2026 alongside close conjunctions of Chiron-Eris and Uranus-Sedna.

However, like all significant world transits such as these, their correlations and consequences linger for some time, often coming back into focus or further elaborating with future quadrature axial alignments of the same planets. Considering, for example, the significance of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction (and Saturn-Jupiter conjunction) of 2020, we can anticipate as well, another challenging collective period picking up in May 2027 through May 2030 due to the Saturn-Pluto square, a likely continuation of many themes and issues from the 2020 conjunction.

What I will explore here deals with world transits and speaks to events and issues primarily impacting the collective. More favorable correlations and cycles will overlap within this timeframe, and there are periods when more difficult themes amplify and then lessen. Also, correlations of these cycles will vary considerably on the individual and local levels. There are equally positive and constructive potentials where we can use these periods for immense spiritual and circumstantial growth, as I discussed in my 2019 article on the year 2020. Even when such challenging collective cycles touch upon sensitive areas of an individual's natal chart, the correlations that emerge within the person's life are likely to be much different than the extreme challenges that appear on the world stage. On the individual level, we have more ability to alter circumstances and transmute potential challenges into successful life changes and accomplishments. 

I do not intend to fearmonger here. You are likely to encounter much of this because synthesizing all this material and thinking critically and deeply about it is difficult. Yet, also, I want to be honest, and I believe that astrologers should not merely present idyllic positivity concerning this content because we should be able to help people prepare for potentially difficult collective periods. The correlative potential of 2020 was an excellent example of this. As Tarnas stated in Cosmos and Psyche, 

"The natural human tendency is to want to know that the general outlook for the foreseeable future is uniformly positive and will only get better, with blue skies as far as the eye can see. Yet there are advantages to knowing of a potentially challenging reality in advance, facing it squarely, preparing for it, and recognizing its signs and characteristic motifs, its dangers, and its positive potential when it is consciously assimilated and enacted." [1]

As Tarnas expressed, humans are innately prone to hopeful future anticipations. This is very hardwired, likely due to the immense difficulties ancestral hominins encountered throughout their evolution. Yet also, it may reflect humanity’s innate spiritual awareness and potential which I do believe informs much of how we perceive and respond to reality. This positivity also lies beneath the perpetual "progress" of civilization and culture, as humanity has an inherent optimism for a better tomorrow. This "progress" inherent to increasing social complexity has clear advantages for the endurance of the human species through the project of civilization. However, as Tarnas also stated, preparing for less-than-ideal moments in the future is tremendously beneficial to make the best of it when it inevitably arrives. This was my intention in writing my 2019 piece and earlier writings on the subject of 2020.

Additionally, humans strongly dislike uncertainty, and thus anything that provides certainty is also attractive. Prophecies of either doom or hope tend to be more easily understood than what a deep study of astrology reveals: a reality that is more nuanced, paradoxical, and open-ended. While knowledge of future astrological cycles can provide some certainty (this is why we study astrology, after all) when delineated completely, they also provide an equal amount of uncertainty since, as Tarnas argued, astrology is archetypally but not concretely predictive. There is much we cannot know about what exactly these cycles will bring forth in a tangible and literal way. This latter point is important because while I will discuss many past historical correlations, it is not possible to know which of those themes will emerge and how.

Concerning fearmongering, if we take merely one thing from 2020 away, it is that while the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was a serious threat and did (and will continue to) have consequences, the fear reaction initially brought forth by the media and world governments was pathological, far exceeding the reality of the actual threat at the time. While in the US, the pandemic is currently estimated to have resulted in over a million deaths, severe cases of COVID-19 (the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 viral infection) were limited to a much smaller subset of a high-risk demographic than most of the national and world population. This fact was revealed in very early studies. [2]

As I discussed in my Pluto in Aquarius article, "Pluto in Aquarius: Through the Shadows to a Wiser Tomorrow" and delve more deeply in my upcoming book, this pathological reaction resulted partly from what sociologist Frank Fuerdi called the "culture of fear," where risk aversion and public safety are at the helm of moralistic pursuits within modern, secular societies. However, as I also discuss in other writings, this is inflamed by the context of neoliberal hyper-capitalism. This political and economic policy framework leads to the egregious empowerment of an elite class and corporate entities that have progressively assimilated numerous institutions of power. Thus a small percentage of privatized interests utilize this moralistic pursuit as a tool of social and cultural manipulation for increasing profits and control, and fear is very much at the center of it.

We can anticipate that while there will likely be some serious and sobering events to deal with during this Saturn-Neptune cycle that are very real, there will also very likely be a distorted response and representation on the part of the legacy media (long-standing, corporate owned media corporations) and world governments that will attempt to divert our attention to particular solutions or specific reactions and behaviors conducive to political and economic interests. This is the nature of the beast, the hegemonic structures of political and economic power in the West (and much of the world) and it is something to become conscious of in today's increasingly complex, globalized society. 

Tarnas noted and demonstrated in Cosmos and Psyche, that the Saturn-Neptune cycle has correlations similar to that of Saturn-Pluto, and thus we can anticipate a similar challenging period, perhaps even manifestations consequentially related to those that unfolded in 2020 and the proceeding years (since they occur close together in time). The Saturn-Neptune conjunction, especially as a transition to the Saturn-Pluto square of 2027-30, is a notable cycle and something worth thinking about and attempting to understand so that, as Tarnas expressed, we can manage it by "facing it squarely, preparing for it, and recognizing its signs and characteristic motifs, its dangers, and its positive potential." [3] Ultimately, I will be attempting to situate this cycle within a meaningful and purposeful context so that we can understand the necessity of our collective, archetypal fate rather than framing such events from a place of victimhood or fear. 

Lastly, based on my astrological worldview and understanding of astrology, I do not believe that planetary alignments directly cause events to occur on earth. What I will be discussing here represents a symbolic reflection of celestial events. Ultimately, I believe astrology reveals a synchronistic phenomenon inherent to the universe, or per the hermetic axiom, “as above, so below.” In other words, what happens in the sky somehow reflects what happens on earth.

The Saturn and Neptune Archetypes

NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Saturn and Neptune archetypes are considerably antithetical, though together they do form an underlying theme and focus. Saturn represents concrete, measurable, predictable, and consciously recognizable boundaries and restraints. In contrast, Neptune represents an awareness of those aspects of life and reality that are significantly amorphous, ambiguous, unknowable, and therefore difficult to distinguish and define. Simply put, Saturn deals with pragmatism, certainty, and "reality," while Neptune pertains to the imaginary, mysterious, "hyper-real," or idealistic. However, one interesting similarity between Saturn and Neptune is their relation to our understanding of reality. 

Neptunian perception is not inherently false but one that is not easily subject to rational explanation or that fits within the framework of an accepted worldview. Additionally, Saturnian "reality" is itself not always representative of truth but sometimes what is determined by authorities or agreed upon by consensus (for political, economic, or other complex social reasons). Thus, reality is something that is always shifting and changing culturally or due to our evolving, collective understanding. Ultimately, reality is relative to our place in time and space. Science, for example, is constantly shifting reality based on new evidence and insight. While the positivist materialist ideal is that a clear and objective view of reality will someday emerge from rigorous scientific experimentation, this has remained only an ideal and belief despite science's incredible insights and breakthroughs.

As it relates to the mundane manifestations of these archetypes, Saturn relates to currently recognizable domains of authority, control, and regulation such as governmental bodies, regulatory agencies, institutions of knowledge, and notable public figures affiliated with such things--Presidents, Prime Ministers, various heads of state, even CEOs and corporate executives at the helm of corporate power. Saturn represents so-called experts and other authorities of specialized knowledge, such as lawyers, doctors, scientists, or public health officials. 

Psychologically and circumstantially, Saturn, the Roman syncretic version of the Greek god Cronos, represents the boundaries and limitations of time and matter, the "way things are." Again, since our understanding of reality is something that is shifting, it represents the way things are now, based on the current moment in time. Saturn can represent the endurance of adaptive and maladaptive cultural traditions and institutions that have stayed the test of time or actively resisted change through authoritarian and coercive dominance. In both the Greek and Roman variants of Cronos/Saturn, respectively, the archetype is associated with limits and constraints of time. It thus represents an awareness of mortality, death, and decay. In relation to the societal level, Saturn also represents the necessity of some level of conformity to laws, customs, traditions, and other cultural regulations within all complex social systems (and within nature).

Conversely, Neptune relates to all matters of faith, belief, revelation, mysticism, illusion, and "higher powers"--an awareness of supernatural forces or agencies and very tangible forces of nature beyond the power of individuals or large collective groups. In a modern conception, Neptune could relate to the looming mysterious presence of such supernatural elements like UFOs or spiritual entities to more mundane things like hurricanes or viral outbreaks that defy our ability to control and contain. Again, while many of Neptune's correlations may be illusory, they can also be genuine and merely lie beyond our ability to fully predict, measure, and understand.

Depiction of Neptune using AI generation in Midjourney v5

In a mundane sense, it is helpful to conceive of Neptune's manifestations, as with all transpersonal planets in astrology, with Timothy Morton's conception of "hyperobjects." Hyperobjects can be tangible things in the world or ideas beyond a human being's ability to fully grasp and comprehend since they exist over vast distances of time and space and involve numerous complex interrelationships. Hyperobjects are inherently non-local and, therefore, cannot be traced to a single point in space and time, such as climate change, neoliberalism, or technological networks. The non-local aspect of the Neptunian archetype is an important takeaway, as its correlations often reveal realities in which there is no specific point or source but something that could emerge from numerous vectors. The UFO phenomenon is an excellent non-mundane example of this, as it involves a diversity of mysterious experiences and phenomena but does not seem to point to a single source, origin, or explanation (even though numerous grand narratives are used to make sense of it).

Neptune therefore actively defies boundaries and restraints. Named after the Roman god of the seas (or the earlier Greek Poseidon), the nature of Neptune very much matches symbolically with that of a watery or other malleable, non-graspable substance, able to slip slowly and surreptitiously through the cracks as well as completely overwhelm and devour structural barriers. Therefore, Neptune threatens all Saturnian certainty about the world and universe. It works to seep into places, reveal weaknesses, and dissolve structures, unveiling vulnerabilities and blind spots. 

Neptune can represent the polarities of faith and disbelief, enchantment and delusion, awakening to truth and disillusionment with beliefs. Neptune relates to all types of mystics, gurus, and spiritual catalysts but also grifters, charlatans, addicts, or the delusional or psychologically unstable. Neptune reveals the boundaries between certainty and uncertainty and ultimately reveals the reality that there is always "a bigger fish," so to speak, always a force or power that evades our understanding and ability to control and predict.

In another sense, Tarnas characterized Neptune as the "imaginative-spiritual-religious axis" and Saturn as the "literalist-skeptical-scientific-axis," and this very closely sums up the archetypal essence of these two planets and how they differ. [4] The conjunctions of Saturn and Neptune operate reciprocally. Saturn impacts Neptune and Neptune impacts Saturn. For example, the Saturnian confrontation with reality imposes itself on Neptunian belief and faith, manifesting, for example, as collective disillusionment and loss of faith. The Neptunian dissolution of barriers and boundaries acts on the Saturnian systems and structures, manifesting as a collective feeling of losing control. The manifestations of these two archetypes are varied, and historical periods related to them deeply reflect this, as I will explore next. 

Saturn-Neptune Historical Correlations

Policemen in Seattle wearing masks made by the Red Cross, during the influenza epidemic. December 1918; photo in public domain

The correlations discussed below reflect the more challenging nature of Saturn-Neptune periods as they emerge in relation to world events. Again, it is important to point out that much of what emerges on the world stage more often appears to reflect the shadow dimension of this archetypal combination. However, further study of this cycle could reveal more nuanced collective correlations, where positive manifestations likely emerge equal to those more difficult. I focus more so on the challenging manifestations here since these are likely to get more focus due to a fear driven culture and collective worldview. Again, this discussion is not meant to create fear but rather serve as preparation for the way in which it is likely that media and political discourse will hyperfocus on those more problematic correlations. Yet also, it serves to help others either mentally or circumstantially prepare for more difficult collective periods which may or may not directly impact them.

In Cosmos and Psyche, Tarnas compared the Saturn-Pluto and Saturn-Neptune cycles through a "dominance in both of Saturnian themes and the unmistakable Saturnian atmosphere." [5]. As the world witnessed in 2020, the symbolic correlation of Saturn as empowered by Pluto was reflected in numerous ways, especially as Tarnas described as a "subtle but pervasive darkening of the collective consciousness". [6] The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as most of the world experienced it (especially in the beginning stages), brought forth a definite "darkening of the collective consciousness" as many struggled with rampant fear, panic, and uncertainty, especially as a response to the fear-driven messaging from media, politicians, and public health officials. 

In relation to the political domain, Tarnas noted how Saturn-Neptune periods appear to highlight extreme polarities, such as religion vs. secularism or "faith-based vs. reality-based." In the US, these polarities are particularly poignant as secular and liberal ideals are often pitted against those of Christian conservatism. The antithetical framing of "evolution vs. creationism" is a simplistic example of this, particularly in American culture. Most recently, the Saturn-Neptune square aspect of 2013-16 appeared to correlate with a particularly amplified sense of collective divisiveness, especially in the way that Former US President Donald Trump became such a divisive cultural symbol and the media-driven "culture wars" between "left" and "right" began to heat up significantly. However, Eris and its conjunction with Uranus during this period was also a potent symbolic reflection of this I will discuss in the next section. Considering that this divisiveness appears to be an ongoing feature of US political and cultural discourse, the 2024-27 Saturn-Neptune period will likely be a critical turning point related to it. 

Tarnas also related a sense of "tragic loss, the defeat of ideals and aspirations, the death of a dream" in relation to Saturn-Neptune cycles, and used as one example, the re-election of Geoge W. Bush during 2004 alongside the Saturn-Neptune square as exemplifying a collective loss of faith in the democratic process. This was a very similar framing and reality of the election of Donald Trump in 2016 in which many liberal voters and politicians mourned and lamented his election since it was depicted as an "existential threat to democracy" by the Democratic Party and numerous legacy media organizations. In relation to Bush, Tarnas described "a pervasive experience of discouragement and depression, resignation, pessimism, despair, and dazed disorientation that descended on many in the following weeks and months like an immense dark cloud." [7] Again, this was a nearly identical experience for democratic and liberal voters during the 2016 Saturn-Neptune square and the election that year, where many feared Trump's election and the populist movement he mobilized was the equivalent of a fascist takeover of the country. 

While the invasion of the US Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 was spawned by Trump's inaccurate claims of election fraud (which some argue was an outright insurrection and others that it was merely an unruly protest), Trump's supposed insurrection did not materialize as feared. This is ironic given that, for example, such oppressive government regimes both historically and in fiction take power during a crisis or catastrophe. If such a takeover was planned, it is clear it posed little to no threat, which contrasted significantly with legacy media framing that depicted Trump as the greatest political threat of our time. Such a crisis was the 2020 pandemic, which occurred under both the Trump and Biden administrations. There were many elements of Trump's election that exemplified the illusory or even delusional end of the Neptunian archetype, both from Trump himself and his detractors. For example, the claims of his supposed involvement with the Russian government and rumors that his presidency was not only a fascist takeover, but one backed by Russia. While a twenty-two-month formal investigation conducted by former FBI director, Robert Muller, and the US Department of Justice as outlined in the  2019 Muller Report , did find significant evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, it failed to find any links between Trump and members of his campaign and the Russian government to alter the election outcome. No charges were made against Americans said to be colluding with Russian interests. According to the report, "the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities." [8] As it turned out, the paranoia over Russian infiltration within the US via the Trump family or his campaign was entirely illusory, despite incessant media and political rhetoric claiming otherwise.

Donald Trump at a presidential rally in Huntington Beach, CA; photo in public domain via Wikimedia Commons

In reflecting on the themes of the Saturn-Neptune square that occurred alongside these controversies, the disillusionment that came with Trump's victory over then-presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, fed into the cognitive dissonance that helped perpetuate a grand conspiracy to make rational sense of it. Yet, such a conspiracy ultimately obfuscated what I argued are the genuine economic problems that significantly influenced Trump's rise to power, namely the larger, systemic impact of neoliberalism and the economic oppression it perpetuates on the working class. Trump ran on a compelling message of economic reform and recovery which many populist voters found attractive. Additionally, Trump's outspoken pushback against elite cronyism in Washington DC and within his own party ("draining the swamp") and corporate media (emblematic of his "fake news" rhetoric) also played a role as many economically disadvantaged Americans blame these power disparities for their material conditions. In sum, Trump spoke to the very real growing distrust among American voters of the elite political establishment.

Bernie Sanders, while running on the Democratic side in 2016 (and again in the 2019 primaries), also spoke to these issues but from a democratic socialist rather than conservative standpoint and he similarly brought forth a populist movement opposed to elitism and corruption in the American political establishment. The exaggerated framing of Trump's involvement with a grand Russian conspiracy reflected a "collective paranoia" that does seem to be a feature of the Saturn-Neptune cycle as I will discuss in connection to both the early 1900s Red Scare and McCarthy era and the fears that surrounded a perceived communist invasion within the US. Yet, as mentioned, it is also important to point out that many of Trump's promises also reflected the imaginary or idealistic "pie in the sky" dimension of the Neptunian archetype such as his idealistic framing of "Make America Great Again" which didn't materialize as promised (the same neoliberal policies persisted, the rich still got richer, and he failed to enact numerous policies nor win re-election in 2020). Similarly, so too did the leftist populist movement of Sanders which sought but failed to reform the Democratic Party establishment or the Democratic Party and National Committee's own tattered dream of putting into office the first female President of the United States via Clinton (the glass ceiling dissolved rather than shattered). Additionally, the idealistic framing of Trump as messianic and salvific among some segments of his supporters also reflected both Neptunian idealism and delusion. For example, the "Q Anon" conspiratorial community, some of whom were part of the Capitol Invasion on January 6, perceive Trump as a heroic and messianic figure fighting against a perceived evil pulling the strings in Washington, DC. 

Another correlation with the 2005-2007 Saturn-Neptune opposition made by Tarnas was the 2005 flooding of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina that summer. Tarnas noted how the event exemplified forces overpowering humanity, especially an inability to defend itself, as well as the "bitter disappointment with the government's massive failure and negligence." [9] The shoddy infrastructure within the city worsened the tragic flooding of the city and widespread suffering that endured, and the slow and insufficient response on the part of the government to assist during the crises revealed serious governmental incompetence and lack of empathy. The catastrophe in New Orleans appeared to correlate with a Neptunian force (via a hurricane and flooding) revealing weaknesses not only in the city's infrastructure but within the domains of power and governmental authority, the destruction of an illusion perhaps for many, and a harsh confrontation with the reality of political corruption.

Tarnas also noted that significant Saturn-Neptune periods correlated with the endings of both the First and Second World Wars as well as the Cold War, correlating with a "collective sense of physical and spiritual exhaustion, disillusionment and low morale." [10] As another example, the entire American Civil War was fought during the Saturn-Neptune opposition of 1861-65. Of this, Tarnas noted a "sense of being caught in a futile and endless "quagmire." [11] The same was true of the Korean War during the Saturn-Neptune conjunction of the early 1950s and the Vietnam War through the 1950s-70s (in which key moments of its escalation occurred under Saturn-Neptune alignments such as the Gulf of Tonkin incident). Saturn-Neptune periods appear to correlate on occasion with situations that appear futile and exhausting, as there can sometimes be no clear solution or way of the struggle or crisis. A sense of collective hopelessness can be a result. Additionally, they sometimes occur at the end of an enduring battle and correlate with a period of mourning, loss, and coming to terms with the devastation of the situation. 

As alluded to in discussing the election of Trump, the 1950s Saturn-Neptune conjunction correlated with the McCarthy era and the hyper-paranoid atmosphere that surrounded the tensions between the US (through its embrace of capitalism) and communism. This was similar to the "Red Scare" of the early 1900s, which also coincided with a Saturn-Neptune conjunction through 1916-18 (also the cycle of the "Spanish Flu" I will discuss soon). In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy made numerous, unsubstantiated claims of widespread communist invasion within the US and especially within government sectors. This led to the destruction of careers and reputations of many working in government and the blacklisting of numerous Hollywood celebrities who were accused of actively conspiring with communist forces. 

Homosexual minorities were also heavily villainized during this period of American history. The McCarthy era led to accusations that gays and lesbians were working in concert with communist forces to infiltrate government positions and more broadly, American culture. They were accused of corrupting the youth, and the cultural climate of this era heavily influenced the construction of extreme homophobic sentiment within the United States, the result of which had been a significant catalyst for the modern LGBT+ movement and "coming out" as a way of declaring one's sexual identity as a symbol of pride rather than shame. During the McCarthy era and surrounding years, numerous gay, lesbian, and presumably bisexual men and women had to conceal their sexuality since they risked losing their jobs or tarnishing their reputations. The broader "Gay Liberation Movement" of the late 1960s built upon the activism of the earlier "Homophile Movement" ignited in the 1950s, comprised of gay and lesbian activists fighting against the homophobic policies implemented by the US government at this time. [12]

Tony Webster from Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

What is interesting about both the Red Scare and the McCarthy era is the way in which the threat of "communist invasion" carried the symbolism of Saturn-Neptune, especially how communists were perceived as non-local entities intruding and slipping through the Saturnian barriers. In relation to homosexuality, especially since the cultural construction of sexual identity was less common (most had to hide that fact and conform to societal norms), homosexuals were framed as hidden enemies, much like communists, who could be anyone, a neighbor, coworker, friend, or family member. The "enemy" blended in and was difficult to detect, exemplifying the non-localized aspect of Neptune I discussed earlier. Despite the fact that some homosexual groups affiliated themselves with radical political ideologies, these larger conspiratorial fears were entirely fabricated and thus reflected the delusional manifestation of the Neptunian archetype, especially the way in which homosexuals were perceived to be actively organized alongside foreign communist forces and thus framed as enemies of the state who were conspiring to destroy and corrupt American culture and its values. The threat during this period, or at least the extent promulgated by government propaganda, was not real but entirely exaggerated and imagined. 

Another theme Tarnas noted was "Dark nights of the soul and severe challenges to religious faith." [13] Tarnas related this in two examples to the horrific suffering experienced from the Asia tsunami in late 2004 leading into the Saturn-Neptune opposition (in which over 200,000 people died in fourteen countries) and during the height of the mass genocide within the 1943-45 Nazi concentration camps during a Saturn-Neptune square (this square contacted the "Aries Point," which I will discuss in the next section). According to Tarnas, "Often individuals during these periods question the existence of an all-loving God who would permit tragic events and vast human suffering." [14] Events of this magnitude reveal a reality in which a perceived "evil" is permitted and chaotic elements are periodically allowed free reign. Ultimately, they reveal that the existence of a benevolent arbiter does not exist in the world we experience (or at least it doesn't intervene to prevent tragedy from happening), and such realizations can be incredibly uncomfortable to accept, sometimes catalyzing intense cognitive dissonance. 

The so-called "Spanish Flu" (it did not originate in Spain) was the last major pandemic since the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak of 2020. Beginning in early 1918 (alongside the waning Saturn-Neptune conjunction), a novel H1N1 influenza A virus mutation began circulating worldwide at the end of World War I and resulted in immense human suffering and loss of life. It is estimated that between 50 to 100 million people died as a result of the virus and it infected approximately 500 million globally. [15] The pandemic resulted in three waves, the second, which peaked in October 1918, was the deadliest (though reports during the first wave were concealed due to its political implications during the end of World War I). The death toll of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic far exceeded that of the 2020 pandemic, and it disproportionately impacted younger adults than did SARS-CoV-2. The reasons for this are often attributed to a hyperreactive immune response of otherwise healthy and young individuals (resulting in cytokine storms). However, other hypotheses suggest various environmental and lifestyle factors. For example, medical herbalist Paul Bergner has argued that a "perfect storm" resulted from an array of factors such as low vitamin D levels (due to long hours in indoor factory jobs), inhumane working conditions (where sick leave and pay were not mandated at the time), significant air pollution from coal burning, and severe malnutrition from standard western diets (high sugar, white flour, and mostly canned foods) were to blame for the high mortality among younger, working-age men in particular (deaths were highest in those aged 20-40). Bergner also argued that overdoses of aspirin and digitalis were common in hospitals and contributed to overall mortality. Malnutrition is one factor that is accepted among the medical consensus as having contributed to severe secondary bacterial infections of the lungs. However, there is also substantial evidence of aspirin overdoses. A paper published in 2009 by Karen M. Starko in Oxford’s Clinical Infectious Diseases, argued that toxic levels (unknown to physicians at the time) were being administered and contributed to severe cases of hyperventilation and pulmonary edema (fluid retention in the lungs which exacerbated bacterial lung infections). [16] According to Starko, the hyper-immune responses as a result of the viral infections were not likely to cause most deaths and aspirin overdoses were a significant contributing factor. As Tarnas noted, the Saturn-Neptune conjunction of the 1918-19 period correlated with the end of World War I, and thus the correlation of "physical and spiritual exhaustion" was undoubtedly present and also coincided with the futility of influenza outbreak and failure of the medical system to effectively combat it.

The 1918-19 influenza pandemic therefore exhibited a severe loss of faith, perhaps in a higher power for many, but also interestingly in relation to the scientific/medical establishment at the time and science itself. Unlike the 2020 SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the 1918-19 influenza pandemic had more of a Neptune to Saturn quality, as there was little the medical establishment could do to prevent the waves of immense suffering and death (in many instances, modern medicine at the time may have contributed more to it). In contrast, due to the rapid production of the novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations, there was a collective sense of hope that the viral spread could be stopped, and the pandemic overcome, especially in the late 2020 and early 2021 period. The 1918-19 pandemic occurred a decade before the discovery of penicillin (for the treatment of secondary bacterial infections), and vaccine technologies were in their early stages of development, and thus there were no effective treatments or preventatives developed to combat the pandemic. Much like the nature of Saturn-Neptune I have discussed so far, there was a greater sense of a powerful force (the virus) overcoming the Saturnian boundaries (and authorities) with little effective defense. Widespread helplessness was a critical feature of this pandemic, as well as immense disillusionment as the scientific/medical establishment had no solutions, and thus the experts and authorities were themselves helpless to stop it. Again this seems to differ from the Saturn-Pluto cycles, where there is often empowerment of authority (even if exaggerated) rather than deflation of its power. 

Camp Funston, at Fort Riley, Kansas, during the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic; photo in public domain

As some historiographical interpretations present, the 1918-19 influenza pandemic was a harsh reality check about the limitations of medical science at the time. Especially coming out of the First World War in which there were impressive advances in military weaponry, the pandemic was a humbling realization that science had not yet delivered entirely to its ideals, especially in medicine. This theme may be relevant and potentially something that could be anticipated concerning the 2024-27 period, as there may be similar reality checks related to a variety of measures and poorly tested solutions implemented during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic which could have serious collateral consequences. As I will discuss further, numerous measures, from implementing a novel vaccine technology amid an active pandemic to widespread global lockdowns, relied on little or untested hypotheses and were entirely experimental (despite assurances from media, politicians, and public health officials). The full ramifications of these experiments will take time to emerge and become clear. 

This brings me to the last theme of the Saturn-Neptune cycle I'd like to flesh out here and as discussed by Tarnas. In Cosmos and Psyche, Tarnas also noted that the Saturn-Neptune cycle correlated with themes involving drugs and toxicity, as well as revelations of corruption on the part of pharmaceutical corporations. As Tarnas described, Saturn-Neptune periods seem to bring forth,

"Problematic reactions, side effects, and abuses of drugs of all kinds, prescription and otherwise, and increased public awareness of these problems, often as a result of new data that disclose a dark reality hidden behind a carefully manipulated image, as in the corporate abuse of testing protocols and suppression of negative data." [17]

Tarnas pointed to various drug scandals during the Saturn-Neptune opposition of 2004-07 involving, as a few examples, the pharmaceutical drugs Vioxx, Plavixx, Bextra, and Celebrex. Vioxx, for example, was a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that its manufacturer Merck developed as an alternative to other NSAID drugs because it was shown to be better tolerated on the stomach. Vioxx was approved by the FDA in May 1999 after a clinical trial was conducted. However, as was revealed to the public over the 2004-07 Saturn-Neptune opposition period, Merck intentionally omitted some deaths of participants in this early trial, and it was later revealed through litigation that data manipulation was also conducted to intentionally make the drug look safer than it was. [18] While Vioxx was better tolerated than other NSAIDs used for chronic pain conditions such as osteoarthritis, it unfortunately led to an increased risk of heart attack or stroke which could occur within weeks of taking the drug. [19]

Merck finally withdrew the drug from the market in September of 2004, just as Saturn and Neptune came within 15 degrees of orb. [20] However, throughout 2005-07 of Saturn and Neptune's exact oppositional alignments, a barrage of lawsuits was filed against Merck, resulting in a $4.84 billion settlement fund set up by Merck. This was the largest pharmaceutical settlement ever at the time. Tragically, it was estimated that between 40,000 to 60,000 people died from cardiovascular complications due to taking Vioxx before the drug's withdrawal from the market. [21] However, as is common with corporate-level corruption and "white collar" crime in a neoliberal, hyper-capitalistic culture, no one was held accountable for these deaths. Instead, Merck merely paid out billions of dollars to victims, but still managed to make a billion in profit from the drug and continued to conduct business as usual thereafter.

The corruption between pharmaceutical corporations and regulatory authorities has been an ongoing issue of concern, especially as it becomes clear that significant financial interests are at play and a concerning revolving door exists between private, regulatory, and academic sectors. [22] As was naively ignored (or genuinely not known due to scientistic propaganda) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, is the fact that regulatory capture by privatized interests has been systemic and deeply entrenched within numerous medical and pharmaceutical industries, especially where huge profits stand to be made from positive research data. This capture and privatization create convenient narratives around science favorable to certain interests but often destructive of actual science. As Jon Jureidini and Leemon McHenry argued in 2022 in the British Medical Journal,

"Scientific progress is thwarted by the ownership of data and knowledge because industry suppresses negative trial results, fails to report adverse events, and does not share raw data with the academic research community. Patients die because of the adverse impact of commercial interests on the research agenda, universities, and regulators." [23] 

According to Juredidini and McHenry, the privatization of medical and scientific knowledge poses significant risks to the public. Jureidini and McHenry extensively outline what they refer to as a "crisis of credibility" within academic medicine in their 2020 book, "The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine: Exposing the Crisis of Credibility in Clinical Research. Concerningly, numerous drugs promoted as "miracles of science" most often fail to live up to this ideal, revealing how such framing reflects a deceptive marketing strategy of pharmaceutical corporations and their marketing executives. Prescrire, an independent drug bulletin, for example, has estimated that of all new drugs entering the market, only 2 percent are a notable advancement over what already exists.[24] "Miracle drugs" are an extreme exception, certainly not the norm, and as the Vioxx scandal revealed, what is framed as miraculous is sometimes tragic. 

As I argued in my 2019 piece about the Saturn-Pluto and Saturn-Jupiter alignments in 2020, the societal and cultural impact of neoliberalism, an economic policy framework that uses the state apparatus for the prioritization of market interests (prioritizing corporate interests and a wealthy elite class), would take a significant and symbolic turn in 2020. As I argued in my Pluto in Aquarius piece and retrospective analysis of 2020 in my upcoming book, that turn was reflected in the authoritarian and totalitarian expression of numerous pandemic policies and mandates and the unprecedented upward transfer of wealth during the crisis. The serious problems within the pharmaceutical industry and regulatory sectors were not resolved prior to 2020 (they may, in fact, have become far worse), and I argue that it is very likely that within the 2024-07 Saturn-Neptune conjunction, many issues related to interventions implemented during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic (and many not directly related) will inevitably come more to light as they have during past alignments. Yet, as with the Vioxx example, the problems of which the larger public becomes aware are already underway and likely, the negative consequences and outcomes of this corruption will have already occurred. 

The Aries Point 

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during an Apollo 11 Extravehicular Activity (EVA) on the lunar surface; photo in public domain via Wikimedia Commons

As mentioned, Saturn and Neptune will align precisely on the Aries Point in early 2026 and will cross this area of the zodiac throughout this period. A study of alignments occurring here will be useful for gaining insight into the next decade, as a conjunction of Saturn and Uranus will occur in early tropical Cancer in the early 2030s. The Aries Point (AP) is technically 0 degrees of the tropical zodiac sign of Aries. However, modern astrologers typically agree that any planet or point placed at 0 degrees of any cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn) is said to be on the Aries Point, making aspects to the first degree of Aries either by square (0 degrees Cancer or Capricorn) or opposition (0 degrees Libra). Further, the orb for touching the AP extends to about 28 degrees of the preceding sign (28-29 Gemini, 28-29 Virgo, 28-29, Sagittarius, and 28-29 Pisces) to 0-2 degrees of the cardinal sign itself (0-2 Aries, 0-2 Cancer, 0-2 Libra, and 0-2 Capricorn). Therefore, there is a four-degree orb range for contacting the AP. However, I find this orb to be more flexible and general rather than precise, especially in relation to world transits. For example, more complex conjunctions involving several planets loosely straddling the AP vicinity appear to correlate with events with a consistent symbolic and thematic flavor.

The AP depicted on the left as the first degree of Aries. All late mutable and early cardinal sign degrees designate AP zones within the zodiac.

In the context of horoscopic natal astrology, placements on or making hard aspects to the AP (within this four-degree range) are often said to correlate with the individual having the potential for fame, particularly through the symbolism of the planet involved. For example, Mercury on the AP would signify speaking or writing as a vehicle for fame, or in relation to the Ascendant, signifying more so the personality or outward appearance of the individual. For example, in an article demonstrating the significance of the Aries Point in relation to solar arc directions (an astrological predictive technique), astrologer Kathy Rose argued that the "Aries Point offers the clear potential of enhanced visibility." [25] Further, Rose suggested that the AP "indicates the presence of energy insistence that pushes a planet or angle into public view." [26] Rose likened the AP to the symbolism of an opening rosebud, calling it the "bloom zone." [27]. In this context, the AP brings about a culmination of expression that is directed and catalyzed into the world, particularly into larger public and collective awareness.

Astrologer Noel Tyl described the AP as "every being's connection to the larger world," and further stated that "there is the potential of public projection for the person in terms of the planet, point or midpoint configured with it." [28] According to astrologer Robert Hand in Horoscope Symbols, the AP was considered significant as far back as ancient Greece, but was reconceptualized in the 1920s and 30s through the Uranian system of astrology as conceived by Alfred Witte. Tyl's statement regarding "every being's connection to the larger world" paraphrased the works of two notable Uranian astrologers, Hans Niggemann and Gary Christen. Hand's view of the AP agreed with what has been discussed so far, stating that the AP,

"represents the most impersonal but also the widest social contacts: one's relationship to the larger world around one. Hence it is associated with fame and greater social significance. If one ever becomes famous or makes a significant impact on society outside one's circle of friends and associates, it is through symbols that relate to the Aries Point." [29]

Again, Hand connects the AP to fame and broader social outreach. This yang quality of the AP makes sense given the archetype of Aries itself and the symbolism of the spring equinox where the Sun begins to rise higher in the sky and the days become longer, both symbolically and literally, extending the power and influence of astrology's "greater luminary" (the Sun). In a more mundane context, astrologer Eric Francis, writing in Planet Waves, argued that the AP is connected with "events with strong influence on personal and global affairs." Elaborating on this concept, Francis stated that the AP "reminds us that the personal is political and that every individual is connected to a larger public life." [30] Again, the symbolism of the personal meeting the transpersonal is emphasized here, suggesting, as did Kathy Rose, that the AP "is an extremely sensitive and powerful zone in the zodiac..." that connects the individual to social interests and attention. [31]

Since Saturn and Neptune will make an exact alignment on the AP in February 2026, we are dealing with a collective-level event (or series of events) rather than an individual, and the nature of collective events themselves is already societal and transpersonal. How does the AP then operate in relation to world transits? In considering Francis' argument, the AP relates to collective events that somehow involve the individual or directly affect them (or in some way call the individual to involve themselves in a larger societal issue). Yet, also, as Francis stated, the AP has a strong influence on global affairs. I would expand this to suggest that events that correlate with alignments on the AP have more widespread significance for humanity and civilization, or have a larger global impact somehow through extending our collective reach into a wider field of possibility. 

The last significant alignment on the AP occurred in June of 2010 when Jupiter and Uranus made a conjunction precisely at 0 degrees of Aries. In using the four-degree orb rule, this conjunction would have been significant beginning late May to late September of that year. Interestingly, Jupiter and Uranus both stationed retrograde just as Jupiter entered 3 degrees Aries and they crossed the Aries Point together again (though not exact) in August and September 2010. 

Given the correlations relevant to the Jupiter-Uranus cycle that Tarnas coined as "Cycles of Creativity and Expansion" in which an array of artistic, technological, and scientific breakthroughs tend to happen alongside them, there were several such incidents during this time. One interesting example was the successful launch of Space X's Falcon 9 rocket into orbit in June 2010 just as the conjunction exacted. This led to a later launch and the first successful docking of a commercial spacecraft with the International Space Station which occurred in May 2012, and several commercial launches thereafter. Overall, the successful launch of Falcon 9 in June 2010 was symbolic of a new era of commercial space travel. This correlation is interesting given that a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction also occurred exactly opposite the AP at 0 degrees of Libra during the Apollo 11 mission and Moon landing. Just as Jupiter and Uranus exacted during the Falcon 9 mission, so too during the entire Apollo 11 mission which occurred from July 16-24 of 1969. Both missions exemplified technological breakthroughs and new horizons expanded just as Tarnas described, but also considering the symbolism of the AP, they also had broad societal significance, especially in terms of their implications for the project of civilizational expansion. We can also look at these events more symbolically to examine them a bit more deeply beyond the literal level. For example, both events are highly emblematic of the nature of "cardinal" signs generally and especially of Aries and the symbolism of the AP--catalytic, yang, outward reaching, assertive, domineering, and pioneering. They represent humanity's desire to colonize new frontiers and push beyond the limitations of the imposed boundaries of the planet and biology. 

The first launch of Space X’s Falcon 9 on June 4, 2010. Note Jupiter and Uranus exacting on the AP in Aries as well as the T-square involving Saturn in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn.

The Apollo 11 Moon landing on July 20, 1969. Note Jupiter and Uranus exacting their conjunction in opposition to the AP in Libra; the transiting Moon also passing by.

The dropping of “little boy” over Hiroshima, Japan, the first atomic bomb used on a human population, August 6, 1945. Note Chiron opposing the AP in Libra and widely conjunct Neptune and squaring Venus, also squaring the AP from early Cancer.

June 1944 during the height of the Nazi concentration camps just under a year prior to their collapse in 1945 at the end of World War II. Note Saturn in Cancer and Neptune in Libra making hard aspects to the AP axis.

Given the nature of Jupiter-Uranus cycles, the events that correlated with these conjunctions were framed in a more positive light in terms of the successful attempt to push biological, physical, and technological boundaries. The idealistic, optimistic, and expansive nature of these events also symbolically relates to the archetype of Jupiter, the "greater benefic" in classical astrology. However, if we consider the ideas put forth by other astrologers related to the AP and those of these two events, the AP itself seems to be related to "pushing boundaries" or "asserting confidence" or a "pioneering spirit" more generally. While the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction itself contains many of these qualities, they appear to be amplified in relation to the AP, correlating with milestone events that push the limits of our known reality. Scientific and technological advancements inherently contain these attributes since they are contingent on defying the boundaries of biology and physics and allowing humans to do things (or know things) they previously could not. 

In utilizing this logic then, we can speculate that cycles with a more challenging or difficult archetypal nature occurring on the AP would relate in some way to the potential pitfalls of this "pioneering spirit" and the desire to push the limits of our known reality and its limitations. Not every attempt to defy physics or biology has succeeded or has led to ideal outcomes. In fact, it is more often that a scientific hypothesis will be incorrect, will make the wrong prediction, or sometimes have problematic results. Conjunctions of outer planets on the AP are quite rare and many happened centuries ago where their historiographical interpretations are questionable, so accurate data pertaining to these alignments is sparse. 

However, following the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction on the AP, in 2011, Uranus' passage over this point itself correlated with the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami. One interesting event connected to this and related to the above symbolism was the meltdown and eventual decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima, Japan. The meltdown has had widespread impacts on the local and global environments, as hundreds of tons of radioactive nucleotides will be entering the ocean for decades. As one example, the future, long-term consequences of the bioaccumulation of these particles in large fish consumed from the Pacific Ocean are not fully known. The event symbolically represented the negative consequences (human-made radioactive materials entering the environment) of attempts to defy physical and biological restraints imposed by the natural world as well as the powerful and consequential interaction between both human and natural disasters.

The mushroom cloud of the 'Little Boy' bomb over the province of Hiroshima in Japan in 1945. Brought about by the US Armed Forces and the US Air Force; photo in public domain via Wikimedia Commons

As another example, the height of the Nazi genocide in the concentration camps occurred during a Saturn-Neptune square that was exacted on the AP. Saturn in Cancer made a square with Neptune in Libra within the AP four-degree orb range in 1944-45 (Eris was also involved in a wide square and opposition from 6 degrees of Aries). As mentioned in my Pluto in Aquarius article, the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime involved numerous Nazi scientists and physicians who carried out legitimate scientific experiments on prisoners. Behind these horrific crimes against humanity was a hubristic attempt to defy not only political boundaries but also biological ones. The delusional belief in a "superior" human race, or the production of such, was behind many of these experiments and murders, exemplifying the dark side of the AP's associations, as I have discussed them. This is not to suggest that events occurring in the 2024-27 timeframe will be similar, but rather the way in which the Nazi-led genocide exemplified both a sense of humanity's delusional attempts to transcend nature as well as an event that had a major historical imprint and global consequences. In the latter, for example, many doctors and scientists were convicted during the Nuremberg Trials of the 1940s leading to the Nuremberg code which prohibits non-consensual, uninformed participation in medical-scientific experimentation which some critics of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination mandates argue was violated in the 2021-22 period. [32]

To circle back to the themes I have extracted in relation to the AP, I feel confident in making the prediction that the 2024-27 Saturn-Neptune period will involve a similar confrontation with the shadow related to hubristic attempts to overcome biological, political, and physical limitations alongside an accompanying disillusionment, humiliation, and loss of faith. Yet also, considering the symbolism of the AP, such an event or events will somehow have global significance and ramifications, impacting large swaths of the world population. Lastly, such events will very likely leave a major historical imprint and have ramifications for future public policy or moralistic conduct. This symbolism also fits within the broader themes of the cycle of Pluto in Aquarius, in which I discussed the shadow and negative consequences of "hyper-novelty." Ultimately, however, this confrontation with the shadow of hubris and hyper-novelty leads to greater awareness of humanity’s limitations and ideally, more humility and a greater reverence and respect for the natural world, universe, or cultural wisdom.

The Chiron-Eris Conjunction 

Photo in public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Chiron-Eris conjunction occurs alongside the Saturn-Neptune conjunction period with an orb encompassing a similar timeframe. Since Eris is a recent discovery (as of 2005), little has been documented related to its historical correlations, especially those involving Chiron (also discovered as recently as the 1970s). However, I do believe that Eris' symbolic significance made an appearance in the correlations of 2020 as Eris was in a close square to the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that exacted that year. 

Eris is named after a chaos and trickster goddess from Greek/Roman mythology. In myth, Eris is associated with the manifestation of strife, discord, and war as infamously displayed in myths such as one involving an apple Eris throws into a wedding party on Mt. Olympus (to which she wasn't invited) causing a tussle between Goddesses and the start of the Trojan War. Eris is also the sister of Ares or Mars, the Greek and Roman god of war respectively. I have come to associate with Eris the themes of collective divisiveness and feelings of chaos that exhibit her trickster dimension--the upturning or even sometimes reversal of traditions and norms. This latter theme can also be extracted from the synchronistic events that proceeded from its discovery, such as the demotion of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet and the overall changes to the traditional model of the solar system (as well as the ensuing controversy over the use of the term planet). However, as I believe in a meaningful and purposeful universe, I ultimately conceive of this chaotic and divisive nature of Eris as a necessary experience for the expansion of consciousness and awareness. I do not have the space to elaborate much on this here, but I think this is an important component of Eris, especially in relation to its conjunction with Chiron where the underlying intention is collective healing and integration.

As another example, alongside the Saturn-Neptune square of the 2013-17 period, Eris made a conjunction with Uranus, which I believe was a reinforcing symbolic reference to the particularly divisive nature of this period, the remnants of which became significant factors during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. In the US, the election of former President Donald Trump during this conjunction strongly reflected this sense of chaos, as numerous predictions made by political experts and polling data indicating Hillary Clinton's inevitable victory turned out to be wrong, and the fear of democracy's destruction and of American political traditions was rampant, especially among the Democratic party. Of course, this also reflected aspects of the Saturn-Neptune square where authorities and experts faced humiliation and a situation they could not control (in addition to the polarizing potential outlined by Tarnas).

Several aspects of the pandemic became culturally divisive symbols and heavily politicized, such as masking vs. not masking, obeying vs. rebelling against lockdown orders, or receiving vs. refusing the novel SARS-CoV-2 vaccinations. The Trump administration was still in power during the rollout of the initial mRNA Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and it was responsible for their tax-funded subsidization and "Operation Warp Speed" that quickly made them a reality. The administration’s urgency to produce an effective vaccine itself had huge political motivations as Trump faced re-election in the fall of 2020 when the vaccine roll-out began. The rapid production of the vaccines and their eventual emergency use authorization by the FDA resulted from a confluence of unprecedented scientific breakthroughs as well as significant political and economic interests. Critically, despite early studies never testing the vaccine’s ability to prevent transmission (something that Pfizer’s head of international markets openly admitted to the European Parliament in October 2022), this very issue was at the heart of the “left” vs. “right” culture war rhetoric around the vaccine in the US, with more liberal or democratic voters framing vaccination as a moralistic duty and far more likely than conservative or Republican voters to readily accept them. [33] According to Gallup polling data from July 2020, 30 percent of Democratic voters versus just 7 percent of Republican voters expressed they would wait for the release of a vaccine before returning to normal activities, suggesting that far more Democratic than Republican voters were likely to be supportive and compliant with the mass vaccination strategy and social distancing measures implemented during the initial year of the pandemic. [34]

The vaccinations, much like masking and acquiescence to social distancing and lockdown orders, became a culturally divisive and political symbol that created sharp distinctions between individuals and it inevitably devolved into a heavily politicized "left" and "right" issue with "anti-vaxxers" or anyone who opposed vaccine mandates being framed, as one example, as being "far-right", such as the Canadian truckers who protested against vaccine mandates in 2021. [35] As I have discussed elsewhere, this framing of the vaccinations also reflected more broadly the moralizing nature of science and scientific discourse in modern, secular societies (and within the context of the positivist, materialist worldview), as science is often exploited by powerful interests for political and moralistic objectives. Additionally, the issue of scientism, which conceives of science through the lens of religiosity (where science is conceived monolithically and its byproducts are treated with reverence, as salvific, and morally righteous), added to the cultural complexity of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

The sense of an upturning of the natural order via the pandemic was also present (in relation to the Eris archetype), as lockdowns and social distancing put an abrupt stop to the normal functioning of society. Eris, in one correlative manifestation, appears to correlate with the creation of stark and widespread cultural divisions that make their way to prominence on the world stage in some way. Additionally, alignments involving Eris also appear to correlate with collective periods in which there is some sense of chaos having been unleashed upon society or within the world in which the normal, predictable flow of life appears to break down. There are, of course, far more correlations to be made with Eris, and these are only a few possibilities. 

Chiron is known as the "wounded healer" from Greek mythology since he was an immortal centaur (and healer who practiced medicine, herbalism, and astrology among other things) who was struck with a poisoned arrow by a group of drunken centaurs. Due to Chiron's immortality, he was afflicted eternally with a "mortal" wound that would forever cause pain and agony, yet he persisted in helping others through his healing crafts. Many astrologers associate with Chiron themes surrounding wounding and the healing of wounds. From my view, Chiron is symbolic of deep vulnerabilities, trauma, and defects that are often perceived as incurable or sometimes heavily fixated upon. Yet, confronting and integrating such wounds can lead to deep healing and the discovery of hidden talents and gifts contained within them. From a psychological and evolutionary astrological perspective, Chiron confronts us with pain but also ways in which it can be transmuted (he was eventually liberated of his immortality and became the constellation Sagittarius). 

Interestingly, Chiron and Eris also made a conjunction alongside the conjunction of Saturn and Neptune during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. Both conjunctions happened simultaneously as they will in 2025-27. Additionally, both Eris and Chiron made a square to Pluto at this time (who had recently squared the AP during World War I). The influenza outbreak uncannily reflected the global emergence of "mortal wounds" in the guise of sometimes incurable and deadly viral infections. The sense of chaos related to this collective wounding was also present, as there was not much the authorities nor medical science could do to stop or successfully treat the infections (and in the case of potential aspirin overdoses, interventions may have made things considerably worse). It was a humbling confrontation with an overpowering force of the natural world which revealed profound vulnerabilities.

Both Chiron and Eris will be within orb of squaring Pluto yet again during the 2025-27 period, and therefore there are some similarities with the astrological alignments of the 1918-19 influenza pandemic. I am not suggesting that a new pandemic will emerge or that an identical situation will be faced. However, these similarities are notable and should offer some significant insight into this upcoming period. As I mentioned earlier, it is possible that these alignments relate to recent and still developing issues. For example, the viral variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have not ceased to spread and continue to cause infections, hospitalizations, and deaths (though as of this writing, those numbers have tended to trend downward since the outbreak began in 2020 and the infection has evolved to create milder infections). As some experts argue, the emergence of ongoing and more highly infectious variants suggests that widespread herd immunity to the virus has not occurred, and we are not actually in an endemic phase. [36] Alternate hypotheses that have been ignored by legacy media, world governments, and public health authorities may, for example, turn out to be relevant as many virologists and vaccinologists argue that strategies such as mass vaccination during an active pandemic could have negative consequences in the following years, specifically in relation to the evolution of the virus. Warnings from such experts as Belgium virologist and vaccinologist, Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, may turn out to be relevant since the dominant narrative around the virus’ endemicity does not appear to explain the current situation. Bossche argued that the mass vaccination strategy implemented during the initial waves of the pandemic will result in more infectious variants and eventually the emergence of a highly virulent variant in highly vaccinated countries, resulting in another deadly pandemic in the near future. Organizations such as the Front Line Covid Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC), an organization of physicians and health care practitioners utilizing alternate therapies (such as safe, repurposed pharmaceuticals) outside of mainstream approaches to treat SARS-CoV-2 infections, could be helpful resources in the event the pandemic takes an unexpected turn, especially considering the complex levels of corruption previously discussed.

To return to the political arena, the politicization of the pandemic and its policies implies a troubling tarnishing of certain public institutions, political parties, and their leaders if widespread disillusionment occurs due to the potential consequences of failed pandemic solutions and policies. For example, if Dr. Vanden Bossche's hypothesis proves correct (or partly correct), it would result in a period of disillusionment with numerous political and public health authorities, especially those in the US who openly and unquestionably advocated and embraced novel and little-tested solutions during the pandemic. For example, such a situation, which Dr. Vanden Bossche had warned would be a "global health catastrophe" could lead to further empowerment of support for extremist politicians and populist movements, especially in future elections. 

In considering Chiron and Eris, these symbols could also speak to the amplification of the wounds wrought by this rampant cultural divisiveness, especially as featured in US political discourse. As Tarnas had also demonstrated, the Saturn-Neptune periods themselves appear to correlate with moments of hyper-polarization within the culture. Yet, I believe, the deeper purpose of these problems and crises is the potential to heal, mend, and integrate the wounds associated with and at the root of them. For example, while uncomfortable to admit, we are sometimes catalyzed to profound realizations about (or to proactively address) the root causes of suffering through crises or dark nights of the soul, where hitting rock bottom opens the possibility of seeking solutions and new perspectives on a situation. Perhaps, the ultimate purpose of Eris' strife and divisiveness is to make us realize that our separation is ultimately an illusion and that we have more in common than we might think while bound by political barriers and identities. The nature of whatever threat or problems emerge alongside these cycles may be such that they force us to realize our common interests and conditions and find ways to come together rather than further divide ourselves.

Lastly, in considering the symbolism of Chiron in relation to the healing arts and the correlation many astrologers make with its discovery and the rise in popularity of alternative healing modalities in the 1970s onwards (such as energy or bodywork, astrology, herbalism, yoga, or acupuncture), this may point to a potent area of solutions for many issues related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, as well as another issue for the culture wars narrative. There may be a significant theme here related to uncovering ancient wisdom and practices to help find solutions and augment modern treatments for the ongoing problems associated with the virus. Ultimately, tapping deeper into both the body and natural world’s healing wisdom could be a fruitful area for uncovering ways to mitigate further harm and damage from the virus as it continues to evolve and this period could relate to a greater awakening to the need for alternate healing approaches.

The Uranus-Sedna Conjunction

Julio Palomo, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I will briefly speculate on the potential meaning of the synchronic occurrence of the Uranus-Sedna conjunction within the 2025-28 timeframe. Sedna is another recent discovery of the early 2000s as with Eris. As with all trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs), Sedna relates to the emergence of themes and constructs arising deep within the collective unconscious and thus has a significant transpersonal dimension. Additionally, within Inuit culture and mythology, Sedna was partly an underworld deity who resided in the sea, and thus the symbolic connection with the unconscious is significant. Sedna was known by various names within the cultural groups of the Arctic regions, but generally, her name and archetypal essence break down to "sea woman" or "woman of the sea." It is also interesting to point out that the name Sedna may not have been her real name, but one used as a pronoun to not speak her actual name out of respect since she was highly feared. [37] This may be an important aspect of her astrological meaning I will return soon. 

As with all mythologies, there are also numerous variations of stories related to Sedna. The central myth of Sedna operates as a means of transmitting the Inuit cosmology, serving as a creation story as well as setting up the purpose of certain spiritual and shamanic practices. Within most versions of the story, Sedna is a beautiful young woman who lives with her father and has remained unmarried either because Sedna herself rejects marriage offers, or her father does so since he does not want to let his daughter go. In some versions, Sedna marries a dog or a bird either because she cannot choose a human suitor, or because she is deceived by the animal who disguises itself as an attractive man. Sedna becomes disenchanted with her decision when she discovers that her husband isn't human and/or finds herself in sub-par living conditions since her chosen suitor is unable to provide for her adequately. Due to this, her father intervenes, sometimes killing her animal husband or simply taking Sedna away. 

In many versions, Sedna goes across the sea with her animal husband, and she and her father must travel back by boat when she escapes. In response, the animal husband (or his friends if he was killed) causes a severe windstorm while Sedna and her father are in the boat creating dangerous and tumultuous conditions. Out of desperation, her father throws his daughter overboard. Sedna clings to the boat with her fingers, but her father begins to chop each of them off. As the fingers fall into the sea, they become various sea animals, especially those commonly used as food sources by Arctic peoples (such as whales and seals). After losing her fingers, Sedna descends to the ocean floor and becomes the "woman of the sea." Revenge is often sought by Sedna against her father such as sending her dogs (a symbol of death) to chew off his limbs, or her father takes his own life out of guilt and is consumed by the sea himself. Either way, it is perceived that both Sedna and her father reside deep in the sea (the underworld), with Sedna herself living in a house on the sea floor. 

It is also important to point out that the various names for Sedna also related to other female deities who were associated with animals of the land or air. However, there is interchangeability between these beings. For example, there was a female deity who controlled caribou and thus influenced the success or failure of hunting. Yet, Sedna also at times had the ability to influence caribou hunts. [38] Within this context, the Sedna archetype can be conceived as having broad associations with animals, survival resources, food supply, and natural world more broadly. While Sedna is often conceived in connection to the availability of sea animals (a main source of food for Arctic people), she can be conceived as a kind of "earth goddess" even if this may not have been how she was traditionally understood. 

There is also a connection between Sedna's hair and sea animals. Since she no longer had fingers, she couldn't brush her hair, and so it became unruly and consequentially entangled the life-giving sea animals, and therefore the people of the land would occasionally find their food supply diminished. Shamanic practices often involved the shaman descending into the sea to meet with Sedna, sometimes brushing her hair for her and untangling the animals so the food supply would be stabilized. [39] There were numerous beliefs and practices that involved contacting or paying respect to Sedna to ensure a stable supply of food animals, yet also practices that related to sex and childbearing. Since Sedna was conceived as the ancestor of animals and other groups of humans, she related to all symbols of nourishment and life-giving. The central Sedna myth is also connected to the seasonal cycle, such as Sedna herself as symbolic of summer and her father of winter. Sedna's departure with her husband across the sea symbolized the disappearance of the Sun in the winter months, and her father's rescue of Sedna then symbolized the Sun's return in the summer. Again, there is a connection with the waning and waxing of life-giving properties and conditions. [40]

It is not a far stretch to extract from these many myths an underlying theme connected with the astrological Sedna and more broadly the natural world, ecological systems, and the life-giving resources which derive from them. There may be associations here with food and the food supply, as well as the complex interconnections between various elements of the natural world, and the need to respect and have reverence for them. As the Inuit people relied heavily on these animals for their survival, and Sedna and related deities influenced their increase or decrease, the Sedna myths (and related myths) dictate the many ways in which the natural world and natural order of things must be treated with respect and maintained. Additionally, there are themes here involving betrayal and deceit, as with variants of Sedna's deceitful husbands or Sedna's father throwing her into the sea and revenge being enacted consequently. It is possible, for example, that Sedna may also relate to the consequences of violating the natural order of things, turning against it, or failing to adequately respect it. Sedna's name used as a pronoun to avoid uttering her real name may be relevant here, as an earth deity that must be approached with respect and caution. 

It may also be relevant that the myth holds some prescriptive elements, such as the shamanic practices in which the shaman must go down to Sedna and comb her hair to ensure the stability of the food supply. This perhaps suggests the need to connect deeper with the natural world in order to change any imbalances that might appear. There is a rational conclusion here that betraying or turning one's back on nature and failing to understand or have reverence for its complexity can have negative consequences and lead to diminished life-giving elements. In order to correct that imbalance, humanity must "descend" like the shaman and connect deeper with the natural world, perhaps to better understand it or acquire a deeper appreciation of it. 

Sedna glyph; Denis Moskowitz, released for free use., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

It is interesting that Uranus (god of the sky), in Greek mythology, was also deeply connected with the Greek creation myth in which he was both born from Gaia and became her husband and the two went on to birth the entire Greek pantheon. Uranus and Gaia had children (the Titans), and Uranus sought to oppress them by keeping them hidden in the cavernous regions of the earth so they wouldn't usurp his authority. Later on, one of Uranus' sons, Cronos (the Roman Saturn), is called upon by his mother Gaia to castrate Uranus to put an end to the oppression of her children. Cronos succeeds and tosses Uranus’ testicles into the sea. Later, Cronos himself eats his own children to prevent his dethronement and then his wife, Hera, conspires to put an end to it by disguising a stone as if it was Cronos’ son Zeus, which he swallows up instead. Thus, there is a kind of perpetual theme of betrayal, rebellion, and revolution contained in these myths. 

One other interesting aspect of the Uranus myth I find interesting is its connection to the duality and tension between the sky and earth, between Uranus and Gaia. Synchro-symbolically, Uranus has become associated with the tropical zodiac sign Aquarius, which is an air sign that connects in the elemental scheme to the mental plane (the realm of ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and ideologies). Thus, we can extract from this a symbolic tension between human thought and the natural world or between mind and matter. Of course, this tension also drew heavily from Platonism which greatly influenced the Greek world and then entered more broadly into Western culture through Judaism and Christianity. Modern astrology has also adopted an association with the astrological Uranus and the Promethean archetype, notably argued by Tarnas. [41] Prometheus also betrayed or defied the gods (specifically Zeus) by stealing fire and gifting it to humanity which allowed for the development of civilization. I outline more of these connections in my Pluto in Aquarius article and upcoming book. The synchronicity of Uranus' discovery around major historical revolutions also ties the Uranian archetype with themes of technological progress and innovation as well as social "revolution." 

The merging of these Sedna and Uranus themes via their literal conjunction and symbolically through their mythological associations seems to describe a predominant theme of modernity, industrialization, and hyper-capitalism more broadly. For example, "hyper-novelty" or "hyper-change," which I have discussed is how technological progress outpaces natural or biological systems' ability to keep up and adapt, are argued to be the root of many imbalances within ecological or biological systems, symbolizing the tension between the rapidly made innovations of the mind and the ingrained evolutionarily derived systems of the nature. Such imbalances are conceived to lead to ecological destruction, climate dysregulation, or even many disease processes. Since Uranus' correlations are often "sudden" and "unanticipated," there may be a significant theme related to the ways in which novelty and "progress" have inadvertently impacted the natural world, perhaps through the emergence of a specific crisis or problem that comes to light at this time. Yet, also, it can also represent a period in which our innovations and technological advancements can be better informed and designed from a deeper appreciation and understanding of natural systems. Ideally, the integration of these archetypes via the conjunction symbolizes the ways in which these antagonistic forces clash but also come together and can begin to co-exist more harmoniously. 

Mundane correlations of this conjunction may relate to disruptions, alterations, as well as innovations, and novel changes to the food supply, some of which could have positive and negative consequences. It is likely to be a feature of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction and its placement on the AP that we are collectively focused on many hubristic attempts to push beyond the boundaries of the natural world, and therefore many of these changes may be perceived as more threatening or problematic. Overall, the deeper lesson of this period may be a way to integrate both innovation and human ingenuity with the wisdom of the natural world--learning to respect and fully understand natural systems before attempting to impose interventions. As I have discussed so far, the issues related to neoliberal hyper-capitalism which has led to a concerning destruction of scientific integrity and ethics will need to be faced and dealt with to avoid further crises and potential catastrophes related to tampering with systems we do not fully understand. While these reflections represent perhaps a portion of the reflective significance of this conjunction, far more could be said, and a deeper study and analysis of these cycles would likely yield a more nuanced and complex symbolic interpretation.

Hope in Hard Times 

Mohsin Ali, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

While I have mostly presented the more negative manifestations of these alignments especially in the exploration of the historical correlations, there are positive potentials. For example, while there was a barrage of problems, crises, and challenging outcomes alongside the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of 2020, there were also constructive manifestations and results. In my early 2019 piece on the Saturn-Pluto cycle of 2020, I stated that "we can look at challenges and even suffering as forces which sculpt formidable strength within individuals. Such experiences catalyze growth, action, and change.” Additionally, I argued that it was possible through a "courageous acceptance of difficulty to add dimension to our experiences, or to provide the incentive for action and thus change." From the perspective of modern astrology, difficult transits and aspects afflicting sensitive areas of the sky or individual horoscope represent a moment conducive to enacting meaningful changes, shifts, and breakthroughs as they often represent the confrontation with uncomfortable or challenging circumstances that force us to move beyond the normal structures and patterns of our lives. Yet also, while these cycles may be presented as challenging in a collective sense, our individual experiences of them are vastly different.

For many, the pandemic, which led to prolonged periods away from normal routines, tasks, and responsibilities catalyzed deeper reflection, prompting shifts of life direction. The disruption of normal life catalyzed critical life evaluations and subsequent changes. In a more transpersonal sense, I argued that the events and challenges of 2020 would "reveal the deeper, unconscious underpinnings of our cultural, economic, and political structures." I think more so in hindsight, historiographical representations of the pandemic will discuss how it revealed previous blind spots and less conscious realities about economic structures, institutions, and world power helping to pave the way to more just and accountable social systems and structures in the future. 

Similarly, Tarnas argued that the Saturn-Neptune cycle might serve as the inspiration to "undertake whatever sustained labor is necessary to transform the resistant structures of the world (political, economic, religious, philosophical) in service of one's highest spiritual intuitions." [42] Tarnas argued that the disillusionment often brought about alongside Saturn-Neptune periods could serve as catalysts for a proactive transformation of society and culture and for strengthening authentic and enduring visions. According to Tarnas, Saturn-Neptune cycles bring forth the "courage to face a hard and often tragic reality without illusion and still remain true to the ideals and dreams of a better world....". [43] In this sense, the illusory facades and deceptions collapse and dissolve revealing more solid, meaningful, and relevant dreams of what's possible. 

In another sense, I often conceive of the combination of Saturn-Neptune, especially within the context of a rare conjunction (and a more direct fusion of these archetypes), as unique opportunities in which we are more directly challenged to make tangible, pragmatic, and real that which we've long kept in the realm of possibility, imagination, and unrealized potential. In other words, to make a dream a reality. Amid a revealed illusion or a painful tarnishing of a previous ideal, we are called to infuse back into the world (or into our own lives) much-needed inspiration and spiritual meaning and wisdom. These periods, while difficult and holding the potential to wipe away those fantasies and "pie in the sky" delusions that no longer (or never did) serve an adaptive function in our lives or world, also serve to reinforce and re-enliven our faith in that which is true and unshakable, therefore deepening faith and trust in a higher purpose, mission, or ideal. 

From the perspective of evolutionary astrology, there is a meaningful and purposeful fate that views these cycles as arriving at an appropriate moment in time both collectively and personally. The reciprocal exchange between the archetypes suggests on the one hand, the time has come in which we've outgrown some ideal, dream, or fantasy and on the other hand, we've become deeply entrapped and restrained by a myopic and shallow understanding of and view of the world or universe. The Saturnian end indicates a need to bring our guiding ideals more in alignment with the reality of the world the way it is now, and the Neptunian aspect suggests the world needs to dissolve its faith in expired cosmologies, worldviews, and systems of authority/power and reimagine new possibilities or embrace a more expansive and holistic understanding of reality or the universe. For example, hubristic positions on the part of authorities reveal that absolute certainty can never be attained, reminding us of our true place in the greater scheme of the universe and planet on which we inhabit. Such realizations can lead to deeper respect and reverence for "higher" forces of the cosmos or the natural world. Yet, they can also be humbling reminders of where we are, individually and collectively, in the web of life, and a greater sense of humility can be a result considering this broader perspective or realization. These periods can also serve as powerful moments of "awakening" to a more meaningful, purposeful, or sometimes more enchanted conception of the cosmos and natural world. Paradoxically, disenchantment in one view of reality consequentially enchants another and our conception of reality is broadened.

Summary/Conclusion

Image in public domain via Wikimedia Commons

From the data analyzed throughout this article, the primary conjunction of Saturn-Neptune throughout 2024-27, appears to reflect a difficult collective moment in that it correlates with a variety of events and cultural developments catalyzing immense difficulties for large populations and specifically for world leaders and authorities. These can be periods of immense collective disillusionment or disenchantment related to both mundane and spiritual authorities in which critical truths are revealed, which tarnish some previous trust or faith. These can also relate to periods in which some threat or enemy, which may be real to some extent, is greatly exaggerated, overblown, or entirely imagined, leading to periods of "collective paranoia" and confusion as to the true nature of the problem. In relation to accurately described threats, there can be significant aspects that are not well-understood or obfuscated, and therefore the response or solution may fail or even worsen the problem. 

As a kind of overall "essence" of Saturn-Neptune periods, there is a collective humbling occurring in which previous hubristic attempts are shown as such, revealing the true vastness of "greater powers" (politically, ecologically, or spiritually) and the limitations of society's worldviews and progress. Additionally, as Tarnas argued, these can be periods of immense divisiveness and cultural conflict in which extreme views and positions are pitted against each other. Many of the emerging crises, problems, or conflicts that arise alongside these alignments can be difficult to solve and may be experienced as a kind of futile situation. However, Saturn-Neptune periods can also represent periods of collective reimagining of cultural and societal structures to replace those that have dissolved, collapsed, or proven themselves maladaptive or false. Collective and personal faith is tested in which a more strengthened spiritual or creative vision emerges as more enduring. 

The occurrence of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction on the AP alongside the conjunctions of Chiron-Eris and Uranus-Sedna appear to relate to an underlying theme of this upcoming period related to the consequences of pushing too far past boundaries within natural or cultural systems. Subsequently, there may be a period of re-awakening related to the need for respect, reverence, or deeper reflection of our place within the larger web of life both on earth and within the greater universe. Events or crises that emerge could have the potential to have broadly global impacts and effects and relate to a profound shift in global awareness and understanding related to the human condition. Therefore, this period reflects a global awakening, humbling, and reimagining of hierarchical systems and structures, both cultural and ecological, and the limitations we have in altering them and the larger consequences of doing so. 

Notes and References

1. Richard Tarnas. Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New Worldview (New York: PLUME, 2007), p. 469.

2. Lyudmyla Kompaniyets, PhD et al. "Underlying Medical Conditions and Severe Illness Among 540,667 Adults Hospitalized With COVID-19, March 2020–March 2021," Preventing Chronic Disease, Vol. 18, July 1, 2021, https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2021/21_0123.htm#:~:text=Among%204%2C899%2C447%20hospitalized%20adults%20in,%25)%20were%20the%20most%20common.

3. Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 469.

4. Ibid, p. 476.

5. Ibid., p. 469.

6. Ibid., p. 470.

7. Ibid., p. 471.

8. Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller, III, Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election, Vol. I, March 2019, p. 9, https://www.justice.gov/archives/sco/file/1373816/download.

9. Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 471.

10. Ibid, p. 471.

11. Ibid.

12. See: George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World 1890-1940 and John D'Emlio, Sexual Politics, Sexual Communities: The Making of a Homosexual Minority in the United States, 1940-1970.

13. Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 472.

14. Ibid., p. 473.

15. Patrick Berche, "The Spanish Flu," La Presse Médicale, 51.3, 2022, 104127–104127.

16. Karen M. Starko, "Salicylates and Pandemic Influenza Mortality, 1918–1919 Pharmacology, Pathology, and Historic Evidence," Clinical Infectious Diseases 49:9, November 15, 2009, 1405–1410, https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441

17. Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche, p. 474.

18. J.S Ross, K.P. Hill, C.P. Gross, H.M. Krumholz, “Promoting Transparency in Pharmaceutical Industry-Sponsored Research,” (2012), American Journal of Public Health, 102:1, 72-80.

19.  See discussions of rofecoxib (Vioxx) in Jon Jureidini and Leemon B. McHenry, The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine: Exposing the Crisis of Credibility in Clinical Research (Mile End, Wakefield Press, 2020).

20. Food and Drug Administration, “Vioxx (rofecoxib) Questions and Answers, September 30, 2004,” https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/vioxx-rofecoxib-questions-and-answers#:~:text=Vioxx%20is%20a%20prescription%20medicine,adults%2C%20and%20painful%20menstrual%20cycles.

21. D.J Graham, D. Campen, R. Hui, M. Spence, C. Cheetham, G. Levy, S. Shoor, W.A. Ray, “Risk of Acute Myocardial Infarction and Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients Treated with Cyclo-oxygenase 2 Selective and Non-selective Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs: Nested Control Study,” (2005), Lancet, 365, pgs. 475-481.

22. Maryanne Demasi, “From FDA to MHRA: Are Drug Regulators for Hire?,” British Medical Journal, v. 377, June 29, 2022, https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1538.

23. Jon Jureidini and Leemon B. McHenry, “The Illusion of Evidence Based Medicine,” British Medical Journal, v. 376, March 16, 2022, https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj.o702.

24. https://english.prescrire.org/en/Summary.aspx

25. Kathy Rose, "The Aries Point Bloom," The Mountain Astrologer, Aug./Sept. 2013, https://www.roseastrology.com/article/AriesPointBloom/roseastrology_AriesPointBloom.pdf, p. 45.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid., p. 44

28. Noel Tyl, Synthesis and Counseling in Astrology: The Professional Manual (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2004), p. 312.

29. Robert Hand, Horoscope Symbols (Atglen: Schiffer Publishing, 1981), p. 92

30. Eric Francis, “The Greatest Aries Point Show on Earth,” Planet Waves, June 18, 2010, https://planetwaves.net/astrologynews/209971547.html.

31. Rose, “Aries Point Bloom,” p. 45.

32. See for example, Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, The New Abnormal: The Rise of the Biomedical Security State.

33. “Pfizer did not know whether Covid vaccine stopped transmission before rollout,” news.com.au, (October 11, 2022),

34. Justin McCarthy, “News Roundup of Gallup COVID-19 Coverage,” Gallup, https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/308126/roundup-gallup-covid-coverage.aspx

35. See for example this Politico article from 2022: https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/06/ottawa-truckers-convoy-galvanizes-far-right-worldwide-00006080

36. Helen Branswell, “Covid-19, a disease with tricks up its sleeve, hasn’t fallen into a seasonal pattern — yet,” STAT, August 23, 2023, https://www.statnews.com/2023/08/23/covid-19-has-not-yet-fallen-into-a-seasonal-pattern/.

37. Frédéric Laugrand and Jarich Osten. “Representing the ‘Sea Woman,’” Religion and the Arts 13:4, 2009, pgs. 477–495.

38. Ibid., p. 486.

39. Ibid.

40. Newell H. Wardle. “The Sedna Cycle: A Study in Myth Evolution.” American Anthropologist 2:3, 1900, pgs. 568–580.

41. See Richard Tarnas, Prometheus the Awakener.

42. Tarnas, Cosmos and Pysche, p. 477.

43. Ibid.