February 2013 Newsletter

by Steven Forrest

Saturn is the planet that helps us grow up. Failing that, it just helps us get old. Neptune is our guide when it comes to the most bedrock issue of all—what we take with us out of this world, and that boils down to consciousness itself. “Wisdom” might be a good word for it, although that has nothing to do with passing any posthumous  “multiple choice tests.” Neptune is that depth you see in some people’s eyes. Saturn is the quality of maturity. Both of them are constantly moving around everyone’s chart, stepping into the spotlight and back out of it. We grow with them in pulses.

For everyone, Neptune is extra-powerful lately. It’s in Pisces, the sign it rules, and it will be there for another dozen years. That’s universal, affecting everybody. But Neptune affects each person in a unique way depending on where it falls in his or her individual chart. That kind of astrological thinking quickly gets complicated, but one of its most critical elements is simply knowing the HOUSE of the chart through which Neptune is currently passing. There’s the key to your best spiritual practice. I use “spiritual practice” here as a huge term embracing many possibilities, from meditating in a Tibetan cave through random acts of charity in the funky streets of the world. What practice is most effective for you? Which one generates wisdom most effectively and quickly? The House through which Neptune is currently traveling casts a bright light on that question.

Since Neptune entered Pisces, I have been doing a lot of teaching on this very subject. This is a monumental transit, and one worth paying close attention to. Tony Howard has extracted an in-depth 1 hour 17 minute talk on Neptune’s transit through each one of the twelve houses from a longer seminar I gave in California. We are proud to offer it now in hopes that it will help you navigate this turning-point moment in human history—a moment in which so much depends upon the influence of conscious humans.

Neptune Transiting the 12 Houses

Neptune entered Pisces in 2011. For several years to come, the transits of Neptune will take on heightened prominence. Follow Steven on a mystical journey with Neptune on its transits through the 12 Houses.

Order Now

When Neptune goes sour, it turns flaky and ungrounded. Simply getting it right is the best medicine against that! But when it comes to countering “flaky and ungrounded,” the classic remedy is Saturn. Good old Saturn—the planet in charge of reminding us that two plus two equals four, no matter how much we want them to equal five. Saturn—the planet that gives us the ability to do what we don’t feel like doing. Only foolish astrologers view Saturn simply in terms of rotten luck, delays, and flat tires in the rain— although the weaker our response to its higher evolutionary call, the more we encounter that kind of existential flak.

Getting the Most from Your Saturn Return

Saturn is always moving somewhere in your chart, but of all the pivotal moments in Saturn’s trajectory, arguably the most important are its returns to its own original position in the birthchart. With Saturn’s cycle of just under thirty years, most of us get two of these Saturn Returns. Together, they divide life into three phases:

• Youth (up to around age 29-31)
• Mid-life (up to around age 60-62)
• The Cycle of the Elder (life after 60)

Each transition involves critical adjustments. In each, the entire basis of joy in life changes—and if we do not get with the program, there goes our joy.

We are proud to offer two in-depth talks that will help you make the most of each of the two important Saturn Returns. Both talks are available either as audio MP3 files or as high-quality videos.

When I turned sixty, I breathed a sigh of relief that what I had been telling people for years about their second Saturn Returns lined up nicely with my own actual experience. Until then, I hadn’t been sure. Most of the rest of what goes on in astrology you can experience at any age—Neptune transits to your Venus, Pluto transits to your Moon, and so forth. But not the second Saturn Return. For that, you’ve got to keep your heart beating for 59 years, no exceptions. That puts younger astrologers in the awkward position of talking about something they haven’t yet experienced. I remember when I was in my twenties and doing readings for people who were “really old” —like I am now. I often struggled with my syntax as I spoke to them, trying to avoid treating their lives as if they were all in the past tense! I wondered if they still actually had any interest in sex. I was afraid that if I used bad language, it might shock them into heart failure.

Your Second Saturn Return Webinar

Order Now

It all makes me laugh now, as does much in life—and that humor about everything, including one’s self, is one of the great gifts of ageing. But to get there with any kind of grace, much depends upon the seeds we planted back at our first Saturn returns, when we were turning thirty and laying the foundation for mid-life, where the rubber meets the road in so many ways. The two Saturn events interlock and interact powerfully, even though they are separated by three decades. For me, writing The Inner Sky marked my first Saturn Return and writing Yesterday’s Sky marked my second one. For those who know my work, comparing those two books—and seeing how they interlock—really says it all.

I am really happy to put these Saturn Return talks out in the world. Tony did a beautiful job shooting the videos. Apart from the first few minutes, they are pay–per-view. Here’s a preview of the Your First Saturn Return video.

Your First Saturn Return

Order Now

I do hope the words help you or your friends as you navigate these two critical passages. If you know someone who is about to turn thirty or sixty, you might think of these as good birthday presents.

What You’ll Get from the Videos

The videos contain the bones of what I say to everyone at such times in my personal readings, but of course not all Saturn Returns are the same. One person’s Saturn in Scorpio might be in the 7th house, while another’s could be in the 10th, conjunct Mars and square Jupiter. Those kinds of  details personalize the archetypal experience and are best explored in a reading. Still, there are many elements we all hold in common, and they are all described here, at least within the limits of my own understanding. In any case, the impact of a Saturn return is as powerful—and as shocking—as the impact of puberty. How do you prepare someone for that biological change? Well, the map is not the territory—but maybe you can at least give them a map and save them from some unnecessary difficulty.

That is what I hope comes from these new talks.

Thank you.
Steve