Astro Magickal

    This month began with a major shift in energies with Saturn turning direct, and Neptune turning retrograde at the end of May. Talk about turning things upside-down (or maybe more like inside out)

These two slow moving planets have fairly long retrograde periods, and even longer direct periods. For most of the year practical, analytical Saturn has focused his attention inward while dreamy, intuitive Neptune has focused outward. Now the tides have turned.

Saturn is the great teacher, though his methods are often undesirable. Rewards of wisdom, maturity and strength wait at the end of a long and difficult journey. If we refuse to learn his lessons, we can always appeal to the other side of Saturn for comfort. Then we can sink into comfortable apathy, depression, bitterness…

Retrogrades of Saturn are a time of intense inner focus. Depending on your chart this may or may not be a conscious process. However, odds are over the last few months you have learned a little about yourself in the last few months. Perhaps you revisited some old hurts and disappointments; considered your ability to take on challenging new opportunities; contemplated where you went wrong, or were wronged in the past. Now the question is what did you learn?

A Saturn retrograde can leave you feeling as if you’ve been through an emotional wringer if it touches sensitive point in your chart. Even if it doesn’t you may still feel a bit of this. The challenge is to take all of that new insight and use it wisely. Shore up your weak spots, let go of the old baggage you’ve dredged up and let past follies guide you around future pitfalls – all the while dodging the feeling that it’s too much, too hard, or too depressing. A wisely navigated Saturn retrograde leads to greater strength and maturity.

Meanwhile, Neptune has been direct – focused outward. He is the imaginative, creative, soulful, spiritual, sympathetic, empathetic, and sometimes gullible dreamer of the cosmos. Direct is the natural motion of the planets – onward, upward, forward, and outward is the natural direction of progress and evolution.

Neptune’s influence promotes the awareness of subtlety and possibility. Opposite of Saturn in many ways, Neptune resists boundaries and erodes walls. There are no certainties, facts or impossibilities in Neptune’s world. He is the cosmic ‘checks and balances’ for narrow mindedness. He is also the planet of oneness, blurring the lines between the seen and unseen, this world and the other world, Mother Earth and her children, one person and another – just as he blurs the lines between fact and fiction, reality and imagination.

While Saturn has been testing and challenging our inner selves, Neptune has continued in his normal direct manner softening the outer world. Now they have swapped. Retrograding Neptune encourages us to explore the inner planes in a gentle, flowing often subconscious process vastly different from Saturn’s harsh scrutiny.

A Neptune retrograde turns inner awareness toward the subtle, spiritual, and uncertain. It sparks the imagination and stirs dreams or fantasies sidelined by Saturn’s all-business approach. If you feel like you haven’t cut yourself any slack, let your mind wander, and let yourself dream in a long time – you probably haven’t!

Now that Saturn is direct, and Neptune retrograde there is a bit more of a tendency to get serious with what you are doing. There is a more intense focus on the practicalities and realities of your current situation, surroundings, habits, relationships etc.

A renewed sense of inner strength, and determination in forward momentum can be harnessed into a formidable force for progress in the external world, especially after Jupiter enters fiery Aries on the 5th. At the same time, Neptune is exploring the possibilities of mind, spirit, and soul. This brings an opportunity to overcome circumstance, lack of confidence, lack of resources or whatever ‘practicality’ has been holding you back.

In the best case scenario, we can go with the flow in an energy shift like this and work miracles. Sometimes all we need is the creativity to solve a problem, the belief that it’s not really impossible, or the spiritual grounding to gather power. However, Neptune’s creative force can venture into bizarre, and faith in possible can turn to foolishness. Be careful not to waste a great deal of effort, energy and enthusiasm on a Neptunian delusion.

This shift will likely benefit those with ‘bleeding heart’ tendencies. Neptune retrograding pulls the compassionate, changeable, understanding sympathetic focus inward a bit. We are less likely to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, while taking more time to contemplate how it really feels to be in our own shoes. However, those with more self-centered or hardened tendencies may have to try a bit harder to be understanding and open-minded to other’s needs.

Neptune retrograde decreases the natural connection, not only between people but also between us and other worlds. Neptune is one of the most important planets in spiritual, psychic and esoteric matters. His retrogrades, turning the focus inward, are a perfect time for connecting with one’s own spirit and soul. It is good for developing skills, exploring paths, chakra work, power building… the list goes on and on. It just makes connection and communication with other entities/worlds a bit more challenging.

In magickal practice, it may be a little harder to call desired entities (not impossible at all, just a little more static than usual), but Neptune retrogrades often heighten personal power and spiritual energy plenty to compensate.