Saturn-Neptune in Aries: one, indivisible, shared reality

(The sandcastle's identity is actually sand)

The next step in human evolution is not technological or political, but existential - a radical shift in identity, from the sense of being a separate self to the recognition that your being is shared.

Rupert Spira

A simple shift in perspective transforms an interpretation of astrology from "what's gonna happen to us?" into an invitation for self-evolution. There is so much that can be predicted as events coming at us whether we like it or not, as if we are not conscious participators in reality, but bystanders, winners or victims of the cosmic tides. But I want to investigate what the astrology is asking us to do, to be, to develop, and to create.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction at the very beginning of the zodiac in Aries is very prominent over the next year, and we are getting a strong taste of it right now, going into July, when both planets station retrograde on top of each other simultaneously, and almost conjunct exactly. They stay close to each other up to the exact conjunction in February 2026.

The last Saturn-Neptune conjunction occurred in 1989 in Capricorn, during the iconic and poetic fall of the Berlin Wall, seeing the unification of Germany and the collapse of communism in East Europe. Borders and barriers breaking down and the establishment of new ideal, dreamed-of structures of organisation is one of the possibilities of this conjunction. The dissolving of status-quo and evaporation of familiarity can give rise to confusion, but it's a time filled with yearning, a kind of exhaustion with old, restrictive patterns of being, and of poetic historical events in the making. Of course on the dark side we can also see deception and aggressiveness, the use of national mythology, my way rules, my way first, and so on. This combination in Aries also reminds us that the desire for peace must be clearly expressed and asserted.

Aries is typically described as headstrong and individualistic; it sees and gets what it wants, which necessarily entails some head-butting with something or someone standing in its way. The Aries motto is "I am" - simple, present, or "I do". But who is this "I am", and on whose behalf do I act?

So, I think the deepest, most pressing and relevant question that this conjunction asks us to ask is "who (or what) am I?" The answer to this question based on a proper self-inquiry leads naturally to the recognition that my being is shared. "I am this religion or that religion, this race or that race" is seen as the content of experience and becomes a relative truth.

The predominant sense of "self" that has been constructed over time consists of the stuff, the thoughts, memories, relationships, objects - the perceptions arising in awareness. Our essential self is that one who is aware of everything, which has the perfume of freedom, peace, and love. Nothing ever arose "outside" of awareness or conscious being; this is the very ground or nature of reality. Objects which are apparently solid and consistent arise out of and are thus made of this awareness.

Aries, mixed up with the subject-object perception of separation, says "I am this, therefore you are that." Of course, that perception of identity as something fundamentally based on objective difference can lead to a great deal of conflict. However, Aries as primal awareness recognises "I am this, and you are this, we are this!"

God of the Oceans Neptune makes light work of Saturn's Castle of Apparent Separation!

Let's say this sandcastle is you. It's a sophisticated creation, lots of detail, an impressively designed individuality. It has read all the self-development books, goes to the gym, meditates daily and is in the best of health. However, the truth hidden in plain sight is that you are made out of sand, which is the ground and essential material of your existence. That sand is consciousness, that is what you essentially are, your true identity. The incoming tide serves to remind you, the sand, consciousness, that you are sand, consciousness. You look like a castle, but you are sand. And so you realise the destruction of the castle is nothing really, since you remain as you always essentially are.

We say that a human being is conscious, but in reality, consciousness takes the shape of a human being.