It’s been a rough year. It seems like we've been hit every day with headlines announcing some new awful event or unprecedented power grab, like a shock and awe campaign of terror and despair that is crushing the chance for a better future. At this point it's understandable if we feel frightened and disoriented as the last remaining pillars of democracy, having been slowly eroded for decades by the political establishment, are brought down with a sledgehammer.

It wasn’t always this way, and it won’t be this way forever, but at this particular moment we are being tossed around by the tidal forces of past collective choices while revisiting the helplessness that has been so prevalent these past few years. This is the process demanded by Saturn and Neptune moving retrograde in Pisces, driving us to self-reflect and get serious about dissolving our illusions and outgrown fantasies about the world and our place in it. When these rough seas are successfully navigated, we will become very clear about what we need to do to reclaim our collective decency and dignity when Saturn and Neptune enter Aries early next year.

To paraphrase Michael Meade: When the world has lost its soul, that is our opportunity to more deeply connect to our own. The challenge we all face is to do the hard work of changing ourselves rather than polarize to fear, hate, and any call to violence. Come early next year the tidal forces will shift to carry us onto new, solid shores, with new possibilities for determined action. The era of helplessness is nearing its end.

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I had meant to release this article months ago, when the Saturn and Neptune retrograde period started, but other demanding commitments required my attention. However, at the time of this writing, Saturn and Neptune, along with Jupiter and Uranus, are still in retrograde motion. While Saturn and Neptune will turn direct in a couple of weeks, we are still deep in retrograde territory, and both planets will remain in the dark seas of Pisces until February 2026. By early March all planets will be moving direct again (aside from a few days remaining of Mercury retrograde), at which time a lot will be changing.

Between the end of March and the middle of April, the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars will all join Saturn and Neptune in Aries. Given Aries's nature as a sign of action and aggression, as well as courage and valor, the implication of the presence of so many planets there is that the gloves have finally come off. A resistance to, as well as amplification of, large-scale bullying appears to be in full swing.

Normally this might be a brief flash in the pan, since inner planets move quickly and don't tend to indicate major collective shifts. But given the presence of Saturn and Neptune, this collective march through the sign of the warrior carries far greater weight than is typical. Saturn-Neptune conjunctions are heavy affairs, typically corresponding to major geopolitical shifts, with particular emphasis on Russian history. Inner planet activity can act like a trigger that awakens the slower-moving themes of the more distant planets.

I've been pointing out the correspondence between transits of Neptune through Aries and a rise in spiritual, political, and artistic visionaries. Indeed, young political visionaries are already showing up. I've also noted the link of Saturn and Neptune with strong leaders who are either tyrants or freedom fighters. It's quite telling that Vladimir Putin, Nelson Mandela, and Abraham Lincoln were all born during Saturn-Neptune conjunctions, then came to international prominence during subsequent Saturn-Neptune alignments. However, they each embody very different expressions of the essential Saturn-Neptune urge to dissolve established boundaries and assert a new vision for authority. For each of them, the moral (or corrupting) concerns of Neptune met with the consolidating power of Saturn during a difficult restructuring of their country.

It's worth nothing that Putin is coming into a highly charged karmic moment. The Saturn-Neptune conjunction coming this February resonates with the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Libra when he was born, and the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Capricorn when the Soviet Union dissolved and he began his rise to power. This next conjunction inaugurates a new era for Russia, and his place in it Putin's Progressionsis not guaranteed.

Meanwhile, we are still in the tender throes of the Piscean undertow. If we are feeling grief, rage, fear, or despair, then we can at least know that we have not lost our humanity. These feelings should be courageously faced and given time and space to move through us. It is by processing our deeper emotions that we will be molded and strengthened to take effective actions starting next year. If we are not feeling those feelings, but are acting smug like what is occurring is somehow okay or won't affect us personally (it already does), then we have more urgent work to do.

Difficult emotions challenge us to deepen into our life. We relate best when we are in touch with how we feel, and as we relate to others we gain strength from a felt sense of connection and support. Those of us who are wise enough to join at the level of soul, with caring, empathy, and commitment, are the ones who will ride out this collective storm. We are the havens we need; our connections create the sacred spaces that will protect us as we find our purpose in remaking the world.

In the end, we will see that the authoritarian rise of this decade was always destined to crumble, because it is a process by which we get to a healthier future. Authoritarianism is a strange antidote to a degrading society, and it is always encoded with its own downfall. We have astrological reasons to be hopeful for a new wave of inspiration coming in 2026 and into the 2030s. The 2040s feature great progressive reforms, akin to the early 1900s and 1960s, finally putting into place the new foundations that are being wrought during the 2020s. But we can't get there without being here.

Dark times are nothing new, civilizations have been reforged by crises throughout time. There is no question that evolution proceeds, and no reason it won't continue. On the vast timeline of evolution we are but a blip, seemingly insignificant until we realize that meaningful depth comes through soulful engagement with life. This final phase of the Saturn-Neptune transit through Pisces is a powerful symbolic reminder that no matter what time it is, or what place we reside, we are ever and always blessed with the opportunity to awaken to our soul. It is the greatest gift we can receive, and the greatest gift we can give to the world.

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