The Saturn Neptune Opposition

The Central Theme of 2006

Saturn and Neptune form 180-degree oppositions, with the Earth between them, approximately once every 36 years. Saturn circumnavigates the zodiac every 29 years approximately and Neptune every 165 years.

Saturn is called “The Great Teacher,” who brings lessons to be learned, a time of maturing by taking on responsibilities.  Saturn’s realm is the economy, government and business. Neptune represents transitions and confusions. Its realm includes religion, art, inspiration, compassion, deceptions and delusions.

Saturn in Leo will soon advance into an opposition to Neptune in Aquarius that will shape geopolitical and economic events across our world and it will also create more of a divide between government (Saturn) versus religion (Neptune). The energy began to be set up when Saturn entered Leo last July 2005. Authoritarian Saturn in Leo represents the empowerment of governments into the hands of autocratic leaders. Neptune in Aquarius, on the other hand, is the grass root powers of the populace and democracy.  Not only is this a conflict between corporations and the consumers, but also between religion and government; as being fought out in Iraq but also here in America with the debate over Evolution versus Intelligent Design.

Saturn will have moved within a 4-degree orb of an exact opposition to Neptune before turning retrograde November 23, 2005.  This was also when Mars was retrograde, which was part of the ‘grand cross’ configuration from October 25, 2005 through February 17, 2006. What happens during this period is a hint of things to come during most of 2006, both in personal lives and governments. The first opposition will be exact August 31, 2006.

The last opposition was August 1971 that coincided with the higher price of gasoline, and the growing anger in the oil-producing Middle East toward US government policies and actions.  Scandal forced Nixon to resign to avoid impeachment. Scandal now dogs President Bush. In the 1970s, the nation was mired in the Vietnam War; it is now mired in the Iraq War.

The last time Neptune moved through Aquarius was from 1834 to 1847 when the American ideal became a classless society and free education for the able instead of only the rich. The enslavement of African Americans was causing growing conflict then, sowing the seeds of a future civil war.  Neptune in Aquarius inspires concern for social justice.  Neptune returned to Aquarius 1998 until 2012.

George Bush has a Leo Rising in his horoscope that Saturn keeps crossing back and forth over this year indicating that his position is firmly entrenched in his objectives. However, the public in Bush’s chart is represented in the opposite sector that transitional and deceptive Neptune has been transiting. All the hidden opposing forces to Bush would have been surfacing just prior to the Hurricane Katrina disaster but only escalating as Saturn opposes Neptune exactly for the first hit on 8/31/2006.  Bush’s popularity polls finally began to collapse even among his own party when Saturn entered Leo last July.

The Saturn-Neptune polarity brings a hope of bridging the hopes and ideologies (Neptune) with pragmatic, realistic goals (Saturn).  However, these planets first want to assert their own beliefs before coming to any compromise. They are in fixed signs indicating a stubborn standstill for awhile, that not only will affect our government remaining firmly entrenched in Iraq but also the economies of the world will be suffering, as well as religion not bending towards science or vice versa.

Neptune rules inflation and escapism and Saturn rules restrictions, budgets and reality. The first of three exact oppositions between these planets occurs in August 2006, with the next two taking place in 2007.  Saturn Neptune oppositions have coincided with recessions and economic downturns.  Great revolutions unfold during this planetary combination, including the Bolshevik and Mexican revolutions in 1917 when Neptune was in Leo and Saturn in Aquarius.  These next 2 years will bring the need for major changes in our laws and economies.  But on the horizon is transformational Pluto that enters Capricorn January 2008 for the first time in 248 years. Pluto breaks down and transforms.  Capricorn rules the domains of business, corporations, laws, and economics. As dark as the immediate future could be for those individuals, companies and governments who not prepared, the long future looks promising when Pluto restructures business and governments starting in 2 years.  Remember that after the Great Depression of the 1930’s our government rebounded with the enactment of the New Deal led by FDR. who created Social Security and banking regulations.  In 2008 I believe Americans will go to the polls and take back our government out of the hands of self-serving individuals as we begin to enact new regulations to insure that our government continues to be by the people and for the people.