As we approach the first day of 2012, you can forgive yourself if your expectations are high. After all, with Mercury in new territory for the first time since November, the New Year’s tradition of a fresh start will be reinforced. In the interest of balance, however, you should also be prepared to accept it as a blessing if you don’t see the results you had hoped for. That would correspond to Saturn in Libra and Neptune in Aquarius closing in on an air trine they will not achieve. That is called a “near miss” aspect.
Tracy Delaney of serennu.com defines near misses as aspects that “never become exact on this pass but are within one degree.” The applying trine between Saturn and Neptune has been within one degree since the Capricorn solstice and will remain so until Valentine’s Day, 2012. That’s a long time to be almost but not quite. It is a situation worthy of a closer look, beginning with the nature of the aspect.
Each of the 12 signs of the zodiac is identified with either fire, earth, air or water, the elements of ancient natural science. Each of the four elements are associated with three evenly distributed signs which can be seen to form the points of an equilateral triangle, hence the word trine. Libra, current host of Saturn, and Aquarius, location of Neptune, are air signs (Gemini would be the third). The relationship of planets in trine is deemed to be supportive and flowing with no critical content. In air signs that relationship would be on the mental level, existing in thought. The closer to exact the trine aspect gets, the easier the flow. With Saturn and Neptune, it is as if the flow of a trine aspect is between two entirely different realms.
Saturn is associated with the limits that define and build structure in our lives. Neptune, in the words of Robert Hand, “dissolves whatever Saturn builds.” One may reasonably wonder how two so contradictory archetypes can possibly support each other. The necessary answer is that they do so by connecting polarized states of existence, such as spirit and matter, or dreams and reality. With air signs involved, that implied bridge is on the intellectual level. A near miss would indicate that conceptual link somehow falls short of being realized, at least for the time being.
Near miss aspects usually come about because at least one of the planets is about to retrograde. Such is the case with Saturn, which will go into apparent reverse this coming February as Earth moves between it and the Sun. Just days before Saturn stations retrograde, Neptune enters Pisces for the long haul, taking any chance for an air trine with it. Somehow, in some way, you can expect that course of celestial events to mean that the conceived was never quite achieved. Should that happen to you, as it may already have, it is important to remember that all is not lost. Saturn and Neptune will achieve their trine with time, and on a different level.
Shortly after the Cancer solstice of 2012, Saturn will resume direct motion. The Ringed One will enter the water sign Scorpio in October, and within days it will finally complete an exact trine with Neptune in the water sign Pisces. That should tell you something, and the message has a potential to heal and make you whole.
We live in times when the products of mind are far more apparent and ubiquitous than the abundance to be found in our hearts. Everywhere we encounter images, representations and abstractions created through algorithms that may as well be magic, for as little we are aware of them, much less understand them. To be sure, those intellectual constructs have made many wondrous things possible, but they have also, in the minds of many, reduced your very existence to information and nothing more. That’s no way to live. As a matter of fact, that’s the means by which we all can easily forget what it means to be alive. That’s how Saturn narrowly missing an air trine with Neptune can be considered a blessing. It gives the water signs, and the heartfelt emotions they represent, a chance to pull us back from the brink of being rendered from our souls.
We have had more than enough of the intellect manifesting itself in the world. The time has come to for balance. If we are to bridge the spiritual and material worlds without destroying both in the process, it will be an act of feeling rather than thinking. If we are to connect the ideal with the real without losing track of what they both mean, it will be with our hands, directed by our hearts. After all that has come to pass, arriving at the overdue balance will necessarily take time and may be a painful inconvenience for most, but it will ultimately be for the benefit of all.
Offered In Service
Dear Len,
Wisdom abounds!! and it feels very heartfilled as well as mindful … as if in trine aspect. Yes, I feel sure you have hit the head of the nail (?) … thank you so much for providing me this view of life via a unique portal you’ve carefully constructed with language. Beautiful. Insightful. Meaningful.
Happy 2012 to you and all the wonderous folk @ PW.
Mary
Oh, Len! My heart has to wait HOW MUCH LONGER? I see myself now–even yesterday and today typing out this and that to clarify up and down and in and out and how do you clarify devotion and passion and boundaries and dreams until we can be hand in hand, face to face again anyway? Emails, airwaves, the air realm–ach I see it now. I am thankful for the halt to the confusion through your post today — that my writing and thinking and plotting and explaining and attempts to understand and be understood via technology very recently-is just not what this is all about, this Saturn/ Neptune, nuzzling up to one another quasi trine, but never the kiss. Oh yeah.
I cannot believe I am starting off another year of heartfelt agonized patience, but I know more clearly what I am looking at, what to expect and what I want now, thanks to PW and force of character that understands that the goal is healing and the path is the heart.
Deep and sincere thanks for the wake up jolt. That Neptune and me. Always the challenge as I “enjoy” the fog lifting.
((Len))
be, Paul Hill, biren, jinspace and Kelly: Thank you all for your kind words today.
That explains the dichotomy between my mind and body at the moment.
“We have had more than enough of the intellect manifesting itself in the world. The time has come for balance.” A-men, Len!
Len, you’re amazing. Thanks!
Hugging Scorpio: That’s the ticket! Here are two additional examples to help you visualize the near-miss aspect. (1) If you threw a rock at a window and it came back at you just before making contact with the window, would you consider that to be a significant event? (2) Have you ever witnessed a couple go through a pre-marital divorce? Also, glad to hear you had additional insight on the relationship between Saturn and Neptune as described by Robert Hand. Sussing out planetary influence is like looking for mushrooms – each archetype is fastidious and only expresses itself in a certain environment, under certain conditions. You can save a lot of time by looking only where the mycelium will thrive.
mystes: are we cool? If not, please ask for further clarification.
Thank you so much Amanda and Len! I understand, now that you refer to “never separate on the other side”, that make total sense! Y’know, while I was thinking a little deeper on how “Neptune dissolves what Saturn builds”, as a personal example of how I understand this: a lot of my current work has to do with creating a healthy boundary in which to operate entirely from. The link between these two planets right now has a great deal to do with my mom (god love her), the space I’m cleaning and the boundary I’m maintaining. Out of our history (which I won’t go into), there have been deep challenges and emotional trigger points surrounding this work. So, having Neptune wash the structure I maintain is something I am familiar with to say the least. But I’m starting to see and feel the results.
Thanks Len, as always.
HS
Amanda: Thank you for answering Hugging Scorpio and mystes while i was in the shower. Excellent answer.
Hugging and mystes: Please refer again to my quote from Tracy Delaney. Yes, Saturn and Neptune are trine to within one degree from Aquarius to Libra since the solstice and will stay that way for seven weeks, but they will never reach exactitude until they are both in water signs. Within one degree without exactitude is, by definition, a near miss. It makes a difference because near miss aspects never separate on the other side, only on the side from whence they came. Please feel free to ask more if you need additional clarification.
Hugging: Sometime between now and Valentine’s day, events will demonstrate Robert Hand’s observation for you.
hugging scorpio and mystes:
Saturn and Neptune are in the same degree, but they do not achieve the same *arc minute*. (arc minutes are to degrees what seconds are to minutes in conventional time.)
so while they are certainly in aspect, and we feel them, and they are having their conversation and effect, *technically* the aspect is never exact between them on this pass.
it’s hard to see without astrology software. but when i open mine up and punch in “saturn trine neptune,” what pops up is, indeed, October 10, 2012, which is when they are trine exactly to the arc minute between scorpio and pisces.
Um, it’s an oopsey-day:
“with Neptune sitting fierce and pretty in Aq.”
I meant ‘Pisces.’
Hugging S… I just looked at the day’s chart and see the 28º aspect too. Len, were you referring to Venus in Aquarius?
Thank you for the clarity of this post, Len. Very helpful, as I am feeling a little frustrated by the lack of time to work on the Ten Senses project. If I have unconsciously been tuning in to a Neptune/Saturn near-trine for momentum on this, I’ll try to bring that up to awareness and let it go.
There are other things in my chart that can underwrite that progress differently, I hope – Saturn trining Merc in Gemini on one side; trining Luna and Chiron in Aq on the other – has been very interesting over the last year. The trines have been wide and wandering, but still very palpable.
But the watersigns have been *very* quiet over the last 18 months (except down here on Earth, what with water mains blowing up and leaking ceilings – during a record drought!). I ‘spect next October is going to see some serious action, esp. with Neptune sitting fierce and pretty in Aq.
Guess I’d better buy some more buckets.
Ha.
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Hi Len,
Thanks for an informative article. However, I’m confused, so please be patient with my question.
I see 2 websites saying Saturn at 28 Libra and Neptune 28 Aquarius. Is that not a trine? I have felt at times the aspect that Robert Hand describes, but somehow not this time. I’ve watched the degrees come together concurrent with the Pluto conjunct Sun aspects, and personally I have felt supported by the trine given the challenge/opportunity of Pluto’s energy currently. As I described yesterday, I liken the trine to being a student giving a dissertation or presentation as the teacher steps back to hear and listen and moderate only if needed. Supporting the student’s ability to freely communicate/express his/her ideas taking the lesson to an internal level upon which to grow on and continue the lesson with greater insight and empowerment.
I also feel it necessary to contextualize what each planet is working on in a particular natal chart as indicators of how this trine is manifesting. For example, Neptune in my 4th is re-examining issues of family and my roots of individuation. Saturn is clearing away old patterns and psychic garbage in my 12th. Both working in tandem to create palpable opportunities in my personal healing. The Pluto conjunction was my scheduled dissertation – which I seized; the trine was my teacher and classroom shutting the hell up to hear me and allow my work to be recognized – for a change.
Do I need some help in understanding the aspects differently Len? I really welcome your insight, as I work with the energy around me.
Very sincerely,
Hugging Scorpio
a gem, len… :
“If we are to connect the ideal with the real without losing track of what they both mean, it will be with our hands, directed by our hearts. ”
thnx for the beauty…
And there’s me…thinking that a soul rendition was the voice of William “Smoky” Robinson!
I remember the very first time… nearly 40 years ago … that I recorded with Jamaican Rastafari….
“Feel it up one ti..i….i…..mmmmme” …….came the instructions…………from the desk!!
My brain was expecting ….C minor…D7th …G diminished….(and I was) I was double de-clutching, swerving across lanes…and sticking out ma belly…real quick!!
You are so on the money….today … Len
Big Love
Paul Hill
Well, this is just wonderful Len. My goodness what a close call! How often in hind sight we realize that what has happened to us ~ in the way it has happened, even though not at all what we had anticipated, was best for us in the long run. Here now, you have given us a preview – before any disappointment can set in – of a better way for it to happen. Makes the wait almost fun and certainly makes us wiser.
be