Astrology for the 21st Century

What have water shortages & hosepipe bans, oil crises, Iran, & Hugo Chavez got to do with each other? They are all linked with Saturn moving into opposition with Neptune.

This is a major astrological event, and it recurs approximately every 36 years.

Socio-politically, it correlates with the rising up of issues affecting the poor, the downtrodden, the disenfranchised, the weak, the 'have-nots', the oppressed, and the 'victims' of society and of the world. For the powerful, Saturn-Neptune is about evasion of responsibility, using authority cruelly and in order to subdue and tyrannise the weak, exploitating and subordinating the weak in the service of the strong.

On a material level, Saturn symbolises limits, shortages, defences, and coldness, and Neptune represents water, oil and gas, hence the correlation with oil crises, gas price hikes, the need to conserve water, and the need to review flood defences and the melting of the ice caps.

Psychologically, on the negative end of the scale, the Saturn-Neptune cycle is linked to states such as doubt, despair, despondency, gloom, loss of hope, depression, feeling helpless, the drudgery of a moribund existence, and the pernicious dissatisfaction with material accomplishment - or conversely, the crushing disappointment of material deprivation.

More positively, Saturn-Neptune is about practical compassion, providing a voluntary service to the collective that satisfies you, having a sense of transcendence and vision that you can live by in a down-to-earth way, infusing reality with imagination, inspiration, and enchantment, and uplifting it to something more ideal and, fundamentally, more joyful and happy.

The challenge of this planetary formation is to move from disenchantment to re-enchantment, so whatever currently fills you with despair or saps your energy is where you need to start dissolving the blocks that impede your happiness. Beware of collapsing into despair, and be careful of passive-aggression - both your own and other people's.

Question your conditioned and habitual beliefs about yourself, your life, your work, your relationships, your politics. Dissolve the underlying assumptions you've unknowingly made throughout your life about all these things, because they've been limiting (Saturn) your happiness (Neptune). Choose to take a fresh perspective that allows more space (Saturn) for happiness and fulfilment (Neptune).

Find out where you dream too much (biased towards Neptune), or too little (biased towards Saturn), and ask yourself what you can do to balance things out. Do you swing between optimism and pessimism? Do you have ideas that you'd love to turn into reality? Do you have unfulfilled longings that you need to either let go of once and for all, or take action to bring into manifestation? Working proactively with self-examination and reflection like this is a good way to take advantage of the change process that Saturn opposite Neptune represents.

Below are the dates when Saturn is within orb of opposition Neptune. As the orb moves closer all the above issues will probably become clearer and more pressing, as we face up to how we are managing - or mismanaging - our lives and our societies. As you can see from the dates, we've already started this process of change, but we've still got time to use this process for the good of the whole, and in so doing we could perhaps avoid the less pleasant experiences that this aspect symbolises.

Collectively, we need to bridge the ideal (Neptune) and the real (Saturn), but we're too busy making excuses and avoiding the responsibilities we have towards one another, towards ourselves, and towards the planet. We're not going to be able to do that for much longer, and this opposition between Saturn and Neptune is a chance for us to make some course corrections personally and globally. Whether we bury our heads in the sand or rise to the occasion is up to us.

Orbs & Dates
8
15th September 2005 to 18th January 2006
10th July 2006 to 22nd August 2007
20th April 2008 to 29th May 2008

6
3rd October 2005 to 31st December 2005
24th July 2006 to 19th October 2006
7th January 2007 to 9th August 2007

3
12th August 2006 to 21st September 2006
4th February 2007 to 5th April 2007
23rd May 2007 to 19th July 2007

2
19th August 2006 to 14th September 2006
13th February 2007 to 21st March 2007
7th June 2007 to 12th July 2007

1
25th August 2006 to 7th September 2006
21st February 2007 to 10th March 2007
18th June 2006 to 4th July 2007

Exact
31st August 2006 @ 17 Leo/Aquarius 53
28th February 2007 @ 20 Leo/Aquarius 15
25th June 2007 @ 21 Leo/Aquarius 47

For more information on this Saturn opposition Neptune aspect, see:
www.astrology21.co.uk

Last week at Vauxhall, the car manufacturing company, there was a 'wildcat strike' as news emerged that Vauxhall's parent company, General Motors (GM), may be looking to its UK plants to cut 1000 jobs (a third of the workforce). It's thought that these job cuts would be from the company's Ellesmere Port plant.

Over the past couple of years GM has been having financial difficulties, and although it claimed that it had turned the corner, clearly the difficulties are by no means over. Here is a quick astrological view of GM's and Vauxhall's current and future transits:

General Motors, the international company
Last year Saturn transited across GM's Venus, correlating with financial difficulties, the need for cutbacks and reorganising to avoid losses. This year - in April - Saturn stationed (appeared to stop moving in the sky as we look out to space) on GM's Venus, reflecting an extremely intense crisis in this area. Simultaneously, it trined GM's Saturn, symbolising the need to restructure and retrench, cut back, and 'downsize'.

Throughout 2006 and 2007 transiting Neptune will be conjunct GM's Chiron, reflecting the need to dissolve a thorn in the company's side. A major thorn is Delphi, a former GM company that was spun off in 1999.

Throughout 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 GM will experience a very rare transit: Pluto will oppose GM's Pluto. This happens only once every approximately 250 years, which gives a clue as to how dramatically life-changing it is. This transit necessitates a thorough overhaul with no stone left unturned. Under Pluto transits the message is an uncompromising and stark 'change or die'. One of Pluto's main areas is the wealth of a company, and so financial issues are unsurprisingly to the fore, however no part of the company will be 'safe' from this profound process of change.

If we take Jupiter in GM's chart, and Jupiter in Delphi's chart, and find the point mid-way between them, that is where GM's natal Pluto is. If we go around the longer arc of the Zodiac circle and find the other mid-way point, that is where transiting Pluto is from 2005 to 2008. This is why the legal issues (Jupiter is associated with the law) that are outstanding are coming up to the surface again; during Pluto transits, toxins that threaten the long-term survival of a company rise up to be expurgated.

Vauxhall Motors, the UK company owned by GM
Transiting Pluto is conjunct Vauxhall's Mercury. This symbolises the possible death of car production in this company, but Pluto's transits come in two Acts: Act I, Death, and Act II, Rebirth and Resurrection. This transit began in 2005 and will continue until 2008.

Transiting Neptune in square to Vauxhall's Saturn shows (2006 to 2009) management problems, transiting Uranus trine Pluto (2006 to 2008) signifies financial shocks and general turbulence, and transiting Saturn trine the company's Sun (2005 to 2006) shows tough times that challenge the company's vitality.

Vauxhall's Ellesmere Port plant
Transiting Neptune making a square aspect to the plant's Mercury (2006 to 2009) shows confusion, wrong information, and doubts around the car production (Mercury is associated with cars). It could also signify the car going into 'liquidation' (Neptune is associated with liquid and dissolution). Neptune is also making a square to Venus (2004 to 2006), showing financial meltdown and a decrease in material values. From 2007 until 2010 Neptune will conjoin the plant's Saturn, which could correlate with a liquidation of the entire plant. It all depends on how the parent companies handle the transits of their charts - the Ellesmere Port plant chart is subsumed within those larger entities, and so its transits can only manifest within the parameters of the parent companies' actions and decisions.