Cut Back and Cut Down - the Deception of Saturn Neptune

Saturn made an opposition to Neptune at the end of August. Even though the transit is no longer exact, it hasn't finished with us. It’s affecting our daily lives in ways that aren’t obvious, and there’ll be two more passes.

Astrologers look for outer, worldly, events, as well as inner emotions and reactions to understand a difficult transit. What we often forget is that the outer manifestations may not be obvious, and with Neptune, they may be flawed, as well as obscure.

Transits cause inner effects as well as outer effects, and with Neptune, any inner effect, even though it may be strong, is harder to pin down. It's often a matter of wondering if the event caused the thought or the feeling, or whether the event was caused by the thought or feeling. Anyway, it’s almost impossible to connect the thoughts, feelings, and events in a Neptune transit.

This is especially true with a Saturn, Neptune transit. These planets are so different. Saturn is concrete, realistic, materialistic, and is concerned with usefulness. Saturn deals with the world of form, survival, and business success. It's a tightwad; it'll do anything to save a dollar. It limits, binds, and cuts things down. Neptune represents the world of dreams and visions. Neptune is always seeking to move away from the materialistic world. It doesn't want to have a concrete form, it wants to be diffuse. Neptune wants to merge with things that are amorphous, idealistic, and utopian. It's otherworldly, and unconcerned with material life, in fact it wants to escape. It would rather get high than go to work. It creates illusions; it’s vague, deceptive, mesmerizing, secretive, difficult to see and grasp, and will pull the wool over your eyes to get its way.

Outer Events Related to Saturn and Neptune

False Optimism

The stock market has been doing very well since the end of the Saturn/Neptune transit, in fact it's going up at almost alarming rates. Raymond Merriman, a financial astrologer equates this with the false optimism of Neptune, which may come back to haunt us at the at the next Saturn Neptune oppositions in February and June of 2007. With Saturn and Neptune, facts and figures about material output are deceptive.

What Happened to More for Your Money?

Deception is seen in some of the current marketing tricks. Have you gone to the store recently for your favorite laundry soap and noticed that it seems different? The soap comes in the same box, but may have a pound less detergent. You sensed it was lighter, but you didn't pay attention (Neptune). When you opened it, you probably wondered why they're wasting so much space in the box; you forgot it used to be filled to the top. What they do next is offer you more for your money. They add a little more, maybe half a pound, and raise the price.

Have you bought your favorite mayonnaise and wondered why it didn't last as long? Mayonnaise has been reduced to less than a quart. It still advertises that it comes in a quart jar but has two less ounces.

Do you remember when you could buy one little pack of gum? Now it appears as if you get more for your money in a pack of several, but you don't, and by the time you open up your third pack, it's probably stale and brittle.

Another tactic is to raise a price to the breaking point so that when it’s lowered you breathe a sigh of relief, even though the price is still out of line. (Does gasoline ring a bell?)

Price Cutting is an Illusion

Have you purchased something that looked like a good deal, and when you paid for it, you found it cost much more than advertised? You didn't read the small print. The little asterisk next to the price leads to writing that is difficult to see and grasp (Neptune). You need a magnifying glass to read the "mouse print", no matter how good your eyesight. Airline tickets are a good example. They advertise the one-way fare without all the extra charges. The cost is more than double what they advertise, and the extra costs are explained in all the miniscule print.

We've all become aware of the phrase, "read the fine print", but how many of us read it? We've become so mesmerized we don’t even bother (Neptune). Saturn likes things that are compact and able to fit in small spaces. Tiny type (Saturn) is great solution to hide agendas (Neptune).

What many companies are doing is cutting back (Saturn) on the product rather than raising the price. The first clue is the phrase "new and improved". Improving marketing to fool you is the real meaning. This is such a great example of Saturn oppose Neptune; Saturn cuts things down and Neptune is deception. With the opposition, a choice has to be made. Do one or the other if you can't find a way to blend or balance. The choice is raise the price, or give them less for the same money. From past practices, they learned that the consumer wouldn’t notice or care, as long as it’s cheaper. The company is using the Saturn principle of cutting down, and Neptune deceives the customer so they don't notice that they're getting less for their money.

Inner Feelings

This transit brings feelings of hopelessness when trying to deal with the material world. Neptune wants to escape and Saturn longs for the old days.

Look to see where transit Saturn and Neptune are located in your chart, and notice if they're making aspects to natal or progressed planets.

Next I'll talk more about the Saturn Neptune effect, and then how to get something positive out of the transit.