Saturn-Neptune

Overview: Saturn-Neptune in tense alignments combines the boundaries of Saturn with the dissolution of Neptune, the burdens and responsibilities of Saturn with the selflessness of Neptune, the realities of Saturn with the dreams and illusions of Neptune, and the discipline of Saturn with the spirituality of Neptune.

the challenges: with this combination we often see episodes of spiritual demoralization. When Neptune manifests purely as escapism into dreams, illusions, and/or intoxication, we see Saturn then follow as the very real consequences of such escapism.

The strengths: spiritual (neptune) marturity (saturn). When Neptune shows up as compassion, empathy, and selflessness, we often see Saturn follow as a tendency to go where the reality of suffering is present to demonstrate that selfless compassion.

Below are examples of well-known individuals born with this combination in their natal charts (an astrological birth chart is a symbolic map of the sky at the moment of birth). Observing how this combination appears in their lives can help us recognize it in our own. The more consciously we engage with these astrological alignments—or “aspects”—the more their underlying tensions can be integrated, allowing their strengths to emerge.

Please note: the expression of this archetypal tension, as seen in the lives and work of the people below, may reflect varying levels of integration.

 

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the chart and life of author Ernest Cline can be seen in his literary works. His novel Ready Player One is an excellent example of this dynamic. The novel takes place in a dystopian future in which the world has fallen into a mire of pollution, corruption, and crime, and all traces of the enchantment (Neptune) of normal reality (Saturn) has been negated (Saturn). In order for people to get back in touch with enchantment (Neptune) a new virtual reality has been structured (Saturn). In a manner fitting Neptune’s association with water, the name of the new virtual reality is “OASIS.” As the novel unfolds the enchanting (Neptune) OASIS turns out to have its own shortcomings (Saturn), forcing the characters to rediscover enchantment (Neptune) in real reality (Saturn). This novel also idealizes (Neptune) the past (Saturn) by celebrating the culture of the United States in the 1980s.

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination can be seen in the chart of celebrated visionary Elon Musk. Elon Musk’s motivation to create technological advancements comes about by him envisioning (Neptune) how bleak (Saturn) the world would be if they don’t come to pass. “If the future does not include being out there among the stars, and being a multi-planet species, I find it incredibly depressing.” “I’m just trying to think about the future and not be sad.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIwLWfaAg-8

  • This combination in the birth chart of author W. Somerset Maugham can be seen embodied in the character of Mother Superior in his novel The Painted Veil. Mother Superior is a nun who emanates great authority (Saturn) while doing the selfless and spiritual (Neptune) work (Saturn) of caring for those dying (Saturn) from waters polluted (Saturn-Neptune) by Cholera in China.

  • This combination in the birth chart of Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist and primary songwriter for the rock and roll band “The Band,” can be seen in the lyrics he composes. Particularly emblematic are the lyrics to the song “The Weight.” In this song the narrator’s refrain suggests that he will selflessly (Neptune) bear the “weight” or burden (Saturn) of another.

I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin' about half past dead

I just need some place where I can lay my head

Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?

He just grinned and shook my hand, "no, " was all he said

Take a load off, Fanny

Take a load for free

Take a load off,

Fanny And (and)

(and) you put the load right on me

(You put the load right on me)

I picked up my bag, I went lookin' for a place to hide

When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin' side by side

I said, hey, Carmen, come on let's go downtown

She said, "I gotta go, but my friend can stick around"

Take a load off, Fanny

Take a load for free

Take a load off, Fanny

And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

(You put the load right on me)

Go down, Miss Moses, there's nothin' you can say

It's just ol' Luke and Luke's waitin' on the Judgment Day

Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee

He said, do me a favor, son, won't you stay and keep Anna Lee company?

Take a load off, Fanny

Take a load for free

Take a load off, Fanny

And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

(You put the load right on me)

Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog

He said, I will fix your rack, if you'll take Jack, my dog

I said, wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man

He said, that's okay, boy, won't you feed him when you can?

Yeah, take a load off, Fanny

Take a load for free

Take a load off, Fanny

And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

(You put the load right on me)

Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line

My bag is sinkin' low and I do believe it's time

To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she's the only one

Who sent me here with her regards for everyone

Take a load off, Fanny Take a load for free

Take a load off, Fanny

And (and) (and) you put the load right on me

(You put the load right on me)

  • Neptune is often associated with the unified watery ecosystem of the ocean. Saturn’s association with burdensome realities at times translates as the burdensome reality of pollution. Together they can reflect a heightened awareness of pollution in water-based ecosystems. Saturn can also reflect the finitude of the other archetypes it combines with. In combination with Neptune there can be an appreciation of the fragile finitude of Earth’s oceans. The Saturn-Neptune combination in the birth chart of Anthony Kiedis, lead singer of The Red Hot Chili Peppers, can be seen the following video clip in which he shares his appreciation for the limited resource known as the Earth’s oceans, as well as his awareness of the pollution of the oceans. In his rap he switches modes between the Saturnian mode which highlights the heaviness of reality, and the Neptunian mode which reflects the unity of life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJNFT8G_VP0. Saturn-Neptune can also at times reflect the heavy realities (Saturn) of addiction to intoxication (Neptune). One of the most defining events in Anthony Kiedis’ life was the death of his friend Hillel Slovak from a heroin overdose.

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the birth chart of musician Richard Ashcroft can be seen in his popular song with the band The Verve entitled Bittersweet Symphony. The lyrics of the song explore the hard Saturnian realities of life, such as isolation, loneliness, deprivation, and toil, such as in the following lyrics:

“'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony, that's life
Tryna make ends meet
You're a slave to money then you die”

  • Yet the song also paints a picture that elicits a feeling of compassion by identifying with the struggles of being a human, via its Neptunian melody and spirit, and through lyrics such as the following:

“Well I've never prayed
But tonight I'm on my knees yeah
I need to hear some sounds that recognize the pain in me, yeah
I let the melody shine,
Let it cleanse my mind,
I feel free now
But the airwaves are clean and there's nobody singing to me now”

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the natal chart of lead vocalist and guitarist of Metallica, James Hetfield, can be seen in Metallica’s song “Enter Sandman,” in which dreams (Neptune) become a place of fear, heavy thoughts, and dark realities (Saturn): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ixKdkMWzFA . One of the most poignant examples of the challenging aspect of Saturn-Neptune can be seen in Metallica’s song “One.” Dr. Stanislav Grof uncovered the association of Saturn-Neptune with the stage of birth trauma in which the fetus is rejected from the womb of the mother by birth contractions, yet the cervix is not yet open, so there is nowhere for the fetus to go. The song, which chronicles the return of a veteran from war, captures this gestalt. A landmine has taken away the veteran’s arms, legs, eyes, ears, and ability to speak. He is locked in a seeming darkness with no way out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OkUjnrfjC4

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the natal chart of actress Lily Collins can be seen in her role as “Emily” in the tv series Emily in Paris. In the show her character works as a marketing expert whose work (Saturn) entails created a fabricated image (Neptune) that will entice consumers to purchase the brand.

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the natal chart of actress Brie Larson can be seen in the character of Natalie “Envy” Adams in Scott Pilgrim vs The World who sings the song “Black Sheep.” The video for the song includes a scene in the movie that takes place during a battle of the bands called “The Clash at Demonhead.” The video can be viewed here with an especially Saturn-Neptune announcement that juxtaposes drowning (Neptune) with sorrow (Saturn): “And then it was time for Toronto to drown in the sweet sorrow of the Clash at Demonhead.” The lyrics of the song explore Saturnian themes of reality, rules, the truth, and the past, alongside Neptunian themes of shapeshifting and warping:

“Hello again, friend of a friend, I knew you when

Our common goal was waiting for the world to end.

Now that the truth is just a rule that you can bend

You crack the whip, shapeshift and trick the past again.”

  • The Saturn-Neptune combination in the natal chart of pop star Taylor Swift can be seen in her video for her song “Fortnite.” This song is off of her album entitled “The Tortured Poets Department.” The dreamy quality of Neptune often plays a role in the inspiration of poetry and poets. The word “department” carries a stuffy quality we can associate with the practical focus and limitations of the Saturn archetype. Additionally the word “torture” connotes the suffering also associated with Saturn. The aesthetic of the video is patently Saturn-Neptune in that the imaginative terrain (Neptune) is drained of all color, leaving us with a starkly black and white tone we can equat with Saturn. Swift and her collaborator Post Malone are pictured as poets (Neptune) stuck at typewriters in a drab office setting (Saturn). Additionally, in the opening scene the angles of the walls of the room, which should demonstrate Saturnian consistent linearity, warp and bend in the reality-defying style of Neptune.

  • Speaking of the warping and bending of linear angles, author H.P. Lovecraft, born with the Saturn-Neptune combination in his birth chart, often revisits this theme in his stories. In “The Call of Cthulhu,” one of the characters encounters an odd towering structure out in the middle of the ocean (Neptune) and that structure boasts angles and slopes that belong to a whole other transcendent order of dimensionality all together (Neptune). This same theme pops up in “Dreams in the Witch House,” in which the structures of buildings (Saturn) warp and lean in ways that defy the known laws of physics (Saturn). In these examples we see the dissolving and transcending qualities of Neptune are enacted upon the linearity associated with Saturn.

  • Author Edgar Allan Poe, also born with the Saturn-Neptune combination in his natal chart, demonstrates a similar dynamic in his story “The Fall of the House of Usher.” In in this particular example, the physical structure (Saturn) of the home of the Usher family literally falls into a body of water (Neptune) called the Tarn lake, due to a sort of dissolving (Neptune) of structures (Saturn).

  • We can also see the opposite action of Saturnian structure and limitation acting upon the imaginative faculties of Neptune, creating a sort of delusional idealization of concrete religious structures and dogma. Jorge Luis Borges, the Argentine writer, was born with Saturn-Neptune in tense alignment in his birth chart. He demonstrates this in his masterful short story “The Gospel According to Mark,” in which a remote and isolated community’s delusional interpretation of the bible is so flatly dogmatic they think that in order to be free of sins they need to crucify someone.

  • Musician James Hetfield, frontman of the band Metallica, born with the Saturn-Neptune combination in his natal chart, has an uncanny ability to capture the essence of SA-NE in his birth chart through his poetic lyrics and musical compositions. In his song “Enter Sandman,” we see the Neptunian realm of dreams taking on the fearful anticipation associated with Saturn. Hetfield sings:

    Say your prayers, little one

    Don't forget, my son

    To include everyone

    I tuck you in, warm within

    Keep you free from sin

    'Til the sandman, he comes

    Sleep with one eye open

    Gripping your pillow tight

    Exit light

    Enter night

    Take my hand

    We're off to never-never land

    Something's wrong, shut the light

    Heavy thoughts tonight

    And they aren't of Snow White

    Dreams of war, dreams of liars

    Dreams of dragon's fire

    And of things that will bite, yeah

    Sleep with one eye open

    Gripping your pillow tight

    Exit light

    Enter night

    Take my hand

    We're off to never-never land,

    In this example we see the never-never land of Neptune suddenly a place that inspires Saturn’s emotion of fear.

    This example gives us a positive lesson about the SA-NE combination: namely that the imaginative capacity of Neptune imbued with a heavy and scary Saturnian spin can actually be revealed to not be based in actual reality, meaning we may be prone to project things as worse than they actually are.

    The deepest substratum of this combination in the human psyche was discovered by Dr. Stanislav Grof and Richard Tarnas. Through studies that involved systematic consciousness exploration utilizing psychedelic medicines, they observed study participants reliving the memories of their own births. They found the Saturn-Neptune combination specifically relevant to the transition between the first and second stage of birth, known as Basic Perinatal Birth Matrices 1 and 2.

     The first Basic Perinatal Birth Matrix is markedly Neptunian. The baby is in the womb of the mother and all physical processes are being taken care of the by the body of the mother such that there is no distinction between the baby and mother, but rather a sort of cosmic oceanic oneness joining the two.

     The second Basic Perinatal Matrix is remarkably Saturnian in that the birth contractions have set in, but the cervix has not opened. The baby, previously unaware that it was at all separate or distinct from the mother, is now, quite unexpectedly, experiencing a rejection from the very womb it was conjoined with. Because the baby is not yet aware of a universe limited by dimensionality, the rejection can be experienced as cosmic rejection, on the same breadth of level as the cosmic unity previously experienced. Suddenly the Neptunian dream of infinite boundlessness is occluded by the harsh reality of separation, but yet a reality that is itself not bound by the limitations of reality. The transcendent quality of Neptune seems to paint a picture in which Saturn’s reality of suffering is infinite, both without end and without purpose. Experiences that reengage this layer of memory in the psyche demonstrate some of the most difficult qualities of the Saturn-Neptune combination.

    One of most evocative works of art to capture this level of the the Saturn-Neptune dynamic is Hetfield’s song “One.” The song is from the point of view of a soldier who has returned from war after a landmine not only takes his arms and legs, but also his sight, hearing, and speech. Interestingly, the song is inspired by the 1939 novel “Johnny Got His Gun,” by Dalton Trumbo (and the subsequent film, directed by Trumbo), who was also born with the Saturn-Neptune combination in his birth chart. The lyrics are as follows:

     

    I can't remember anything
    Can't tell if this is true or dream
    Deep down inside I feel to scream
    This terrible silence stops me

    Hold my breath as I wish for death
    Oh please God, wake me

    Back in the womb it's much too real
    In pumps life that I must feel
    But can't look forward to reveal
    Look to the time when I'll live

    Fed through the tube that sticks in me
    Just like a wartime novelty
    Tied to machines that make me be
    Cut this life off from me

    Hold my breath as I wish for death
    Oh please God, wake me

    Notice the juxtaposition of the womb (Neptune and Basic Perinatal Matrix 1) with “much too real” (Saturn).

  • As evocative as the Hetfield’s song “One” is, perhaps the most challenging manifestation of the Saturn-Neptune combination is the prospect of living in a cosmos in which the Neptunian vision of heaven, of the transcendent, of a divine unitive principle behind all life, is occluded by a Saturn that is imbued with Neptunian infinitude, leaving us living life in a cosmos that has no meaning, a cosmos that is an endless expanse of arbitrary meaninglessness. When asked “What are humans for?” Yuval Noah Harari, prominent historian, also born with the Saturn-Neptune combination in his birth chart, has this to say:

    “As far as we know, for nothing…”

    And he says,

    “There is no great cosmic drama, that we have a role to play in it.”

  • Some of the strengths of Saturn-Neptune involve actually moving exactly beyond the words of Yuval Noah Harari. When life seems to be a pointless wash of suffering, we find within ourselves our own inner authority of Saturn to make our own meaning to life, and step up to take responsibility for others by engaging in Neptune’s dissolving of boundaries and selfless service to help those who are suffering. Abraham Lincoln was born with this combination in his natal chart. One of the most redeeming Saturn-Neptune speeches is the Gettysburg Address in which Lincoln was asked to consecrate the ground of the thousands who died in the battle. And he said:

    “…we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract…From these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

     Lincoln can account himself as one of those very honored dead who gave his life in the service of others.

     The Saturn-Neptune combination can be seized as an opportunity to experience a different spiritualized take on reality, in which the perspective of the individual is reconsidered. The mind is in its element when it can perceive the world around it through diversities and distinctions. We all seem so different. All of our lives seem so varied. But if you want to know the heart that exists within each and every one of us, go within your own heart. Do this especially when you are suffering, and you will see that you are the archetypal person. We all look out from the same eyes. They may not be the same physical eyes, and the worlds we see may appear very vastly different, but underlying program of humanity is the same. It is through the encountering the suffering of Saturn inside of ourselves that we experience the transcendent Neptune that allows us to comprehend that each one of us is all of humanity, and when you look out through your eyes at the world around you, you are looking at yourself, in all your nobility and ignobility. With this hard reality of the transcendent truth within us, comes a very Saturnian obligation that we are to be responsible for each other.