Entering the New Zeitgeist

“When two thieves meet in the night, no introductions are necessary”

Zeitgeist: the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of a particular era, often reflecting the ideas and beliefs of that time.

The Saturn-Neptune Cycle

As clearly as the 20-year Jupiter-Saturn cycle defines a generation within the collective, the 36-year Saturn-Neptune cycle defines the Zeitgeist of an era. Specific, in this case, to a nation’s collective.

The late 80’s, and specifically the span of 1988 and 1990, saw an incredible period of geopolitical and ideological upheaval. Namely, the fall of the communist, Soviet empire, the disintegration of the communist Eastern Bloc, and the emergence of the US as the lone world superpower. All of it symbolically represented by the smashing of the Berlin Wall.

This historic upheaval was coincident with the rare conjunction of Saturn, Uranus and Neptune in Sagittarius. “Rare” in the sense that the last time these 3 planets were in this kind of proximity was in the Middle Ages.

Notice in the US chart below (January, 1989), the Saturn-Uranus-Neptune conjunction ⸺ on the US Ascendant, no less.

Now, by far the easiest thing in the world to do is to create “just so” astrological stories about the past. Much harder to accurately predict the future. Accurately predicting the future, though, is exactly what we aim to do with Functional Astrology. And to do that we have to have our feet firmly planted on the ground and take a rational accounting of the past such that we can project the thematics of the past astrological cycles into the current environment. Knowing that the astrological cycles we are studying will absolutely repeat thematically.

That said, to understand the new phase cycle established by (in this case) the current Saturn-Neptune conjunction, we have to have a firm grasp on understanding what its predecessor cycle entailed. So in this case we need to look back to the last conjunction of the two, and the events of 1989.

Note: astrology is a latticework of ongoing, overlapping planetary cycles. As such, you can drive yourself mad attempting to tease out a “starting point” for it all. Not only is that not of any practical use (it’s akin to the circle-jerk philosophical question of “how many angels can dance on the head of a pin?), it’s impossible to even define “starting point”. I mean, are we talking about the starting point of a particular planetary pair cycle? The Big Bang? An astrological age? A Yuga cycle?

In the case of the events of ‘88 and ‘89, we have to understand that the Saturn-Neptune alignment during that period did not happen in a vacuum, but took place coincident with a Saturn-Uranus conjunction in early 1988. As mentioned above, the last time these three heavy hitters were within this kind of proximity was 1307. Trying to draw an apples-to-apples comparison between today’s socio-political environment and that of the late middle ages doesn’t do anyone any favors.

We do however know that the 45-year in duration Saturn-Uranus cycle carries a different flavor than that of the 36-year in duration Saturn-Neptune cycle. We might say that the former signals a rebellious (Uranus) challenge to authority (Saturn). Or creating useful structure around a rebellious, humanitarian, “for the people” movement. In this case, an actual shift in the mechanics and/or form of the government.

The Saturn-Neptune cycle on the other hand deals more with the ideology of the collective. The myth (Neptune) of the nation. And how that myth holds up to, and answers to, the cold hard (Saturian) facts of reality.

In the case of the late 80’s then, not only did a superpower (the Soviet government) fall as a result of the Saturn-Uranus cycle, but an entire new mythos was created (the supremacy of American neoliberalism) ⸺ a very Saturn-Neptune event.

Note: neoliberalism is defined as the political and economic ideology that promotes free-market capitalism, emphasizing minimal government intervention, deregulation, and privatization to encourage economic growth and efficiency. It became prominent in policy-making from the late 20th century, often associated with leaders like Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan.

That said, let’s now focus here on the Saturn-Neptune cycle, as that’s precisely the cycle that is beginning anew currently, as the last cycle that began in 1989 has faded out.

The 1989 Saturn–Neptune conjunction at 16° Sagittarius occurred solidly in the U.S. 1st house, symbolizing a projection of power, identity, and ideological supremacy. This conjunction (along with 1988’s Saturn-Uranus conjunction on the US Ascendant) ushered in, as stated above, the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the rise of the U.S. as the world’s lone superpower. This was the mythic high point of “neoliberalism”.

This also marked the end of the Cold War. A war that, it could be argued (I do, but I won’t here), started with the 1953 Saturn-Neptune conjunction. Another story for another time.

But back to neoliberalism’s defeat of Soviet communism: As an ideology, it did in fact defeat communism (the proof was in the results), but at what cost? That question would be answered over the next 36 years of that new (as of 1989) Saturn-Neptune phase.

By 1990, though, the era of neoliberalism-on-fire had woven itself into the fabric of the Washington Consensus, bringing with it the wild-wild west of deregulated finance, and unchecked corporate dominance. Through an astrological lens, Saturn creates the structure and Neptune provides the myth. As the cycle phase matures (we’ll cover just how below), Neptune hides the true costs of the myth in a smokescreen of half-truths, outright lies and, in the case of the previous Saturn-Neptune cycle, financial mismanagement on a scale that exceeds the imagination. Until, that is, Saturn demanded a reckoning with reality.

With Saturn, the bill always comes due.

The British geneticist and evolutionary biologist, J.B.S. Haldane once said that “the universe is not only queerer than we suppose, but queerer than we can suppose.” The same could be said of the “Neptunized” financial shenanigans that underpinned the brand of neoliberalism that came of age with the crumbling of the Soviet empire in the late 80s.

Even in victory, the Saturn–Neptune union always sows within it the seed of disillusionment. That’s what Neptune does, because it’s (in part) the pain of disillusionment that spurs collective learning and growth. In this case, the disillusionment was baked in from the start: if 1989 birthed a neoliberal utopia, it also buried the dream of “we the people” beneath the ugly truth of “we the wealthy few”.

So very few saw through that smokescreen, though. And the voices of those who did — as is, unfortunately, usually the case — was drowned out by the fanatical (Neptune) believers of the myth.

This is not a political stance. Or, I don’t know, maybe it is. I mean, if I had to choose living under communism or neoliberalism during the last 36 years I’d take a double helping of neoliberalism and then some. My thoughts on this are along the lines of Winston Churchill’s statement that “Democracy is the worst form of government—except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” And my point here is that the Neptune-Saturn cycle represents the crucible in which new collective myths (or ideologies, if you prefer) emerge and, over the course of the 36 year phase, answer to Saturn’s list of reality-check demands.

Cycle after cycle after cycle it goes. Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss… Thing is, if we understand these cycles, we can, if we choose, short-circuit the downsides. In the same way that Ariel and I teach our clients and students how to effectively navigate the challenging aspects of a birth chart. In this case, Neptune holds the power of delusion and obfuscation. And also the power to see behind the veil.

The Faustian bargain, of course, being that the raw, unfiltered truth is oftentimes paralyzingly hard-to-handle. So much so that willful delusion seems like the preferable option. There’s a lot of truth behind the “ignorance is bliss” sentiment. Neptune symbolizes that choice point. Both in a personal chart, and in the collective.

And this ultimately is what the Saturn-Neptune cycle is all about. It continually, in 36-year-long phases, challenges our collective ability to bravely pierce the veil of bullshit and face the cold, hard facts underlying our collective myths.

What might have happened if we’d collectively seen through the veil, challenged authority (Saturn) and neutered neoliberalism’s ability to run the table from 1989 to today?

Again, this isn’t a political stance, per se. It is, though, the realization that something new is being conceived at this conjunction that is going to bite us in our collective asses 18 years from now in its full maturation. And as this conjunction is happening on the cusp of the US 4th house, we also:

(1) are within orb of the US Neptune opposition

(2) are in the US Pluto return

(3) are in the US Chiron return

(4) have Uranus in Taurus, approaching a Uranus return

…I could go on, but you get the point. This is a highly volatile period. I’d argue even more volatile than 1989. And whatever is conceived here is going to carry that volatile energy forward for the next 36 years.

So with the current Saturn–Neptune conjunction falling at 8° Pisces (on the cusp of the U.S. 4th house), we’re dealing with the nation’s homeland, its people (the collective), and the collective’s psychological foundation. As such, we are not experiencing the myth projected outward (1st house) as was the case in the last conjunction; we are experiencing the creation and collapse cycle of the myth from within our home borders. The 4th house is the emotional gut punch. What happens in the 4th is felt in the nation’s soul. There is no escaping it.

What we experienced from the housing market crisis of 2008 until now was neoliberalism’s structural rot as demonstrated in the eroded faith in institutions (government, banking, legacy media for example), a decimated manufacturing base and middle class, and financially exploitive healthcare, education, and housing systems. Saturn revealed in the this phase of the cycle what Neptune obscured in the beginning: that the massive transfer of wealth from the middle class to the wealthy was a design feature of neoliberalism, not a bug. The defeat of Soviet communism, it seems, was a mere proxy for the true endgame of neoliberalism: wealth transfer from the middle class to the elite.

So maybe we can chalk all that up to lessons learned. From the neoliberal perspective, if you want a commie-free omelette, you gotta crack some middle class financial eggs. Fair enough. But where to from here? Because the Saturn-Neptune combo is back up to bat for another 36-year run.

And so if neoliberalism has run its course, what’s next? And can we as a collective call out the bullshit before it becomes painfully obvious by the time we hit the “1st quarter” phase, 9 years in?

If we make it that far. Because there’s a convergence of alignments (we’ve written about them all) that make a legitimate case for strongly questioning that assumption.

But let’s say that we do. What is the new myth that’s now being created?