This article was submitted by a 3rd year student for an Astro*Synthesis diploma from Brian Clark's The Chiron Center, 407 Johnston Street, Abbotsford, Vic 3067, Australia.

"From ancient times Saturn's day-or the period of Saturn-was recognized as a time of enforced rest and quiet on the outer plane, which would allow the spirit to become active."1

In this paper I will look firstly at the planetary energies of Saturn and Neptune in isolation, and then move on to an exploratory discussion of the interplay of these two archetypal energies. I will draw upon examples looking at the apparent effects seen at the mundane and global levels of a Saturn/Neptune conjunction, a speculatory discussion of a spiritual movement that seeks to allow an earthly link to the divine realm, and the charts of some individuals whose lives and charts reflect these issues.

Neptune

Neptune, as one of the outer planets (along with Pluto and Uranus), is seen as operating at the transcendent level, as distinct from the personal planets (Sun, Moon, Mars, Venus and Mercury) and the social planets - Jupiter and Saturn.

The symbology of the hieroglyphic representation of Neptune relates to the semi-circle of the soul pierced by the cross of matter. The cross of matter is symbolic of the physical plane of manifestation and represents the interplay of the spirit and the soul. The semi-circle is representatives of the duality of existence, in that it takes the essence of life and gives it a form. This reveals Neptune's role in allowing the light of the spirit to penetrate into the experience of the everyday world. In its modern form, the symbol for Neptune has evolved into a depiction of the trident representing the rulership of the oceans.2 This is indicative of the association of Neptune with its ruler Pisces, the transpersonal water sign which is symbolized by the fish. At a more esoteric level, the ocean is representative not only of the vast feeling life of Neptune (and Pisces), but also of the psychological realm of the unconscious, symbolically evoked by the image of the magical secrets and unfathomable mysteries of the depths below the surface.

Accordingly, Neptune has as its natural home the twelfth house of the Collective unconscious. This house is also associated with pitfalls for the unwary or indiscriminate. Negative connotations include its reputation as being the house of self- undoing, and that of individuals who are strongly imbued with this energy, carrying a heavy psychological burden of carrying the shadow of their "collective", that is of their family of origin or group to which they belong, which at some level is linked in its origins to the collective unconscious.

The energy of Neptune is frequently experienced as a yearning for something of greater connectedness and spiritual meaning than the experience of the everyday and the "here and now". There is a deep feeling of being imprisoned by the immediate life circumstances, however, it is often difficult to articulate where the problem lies, rather it is experienced as a constant sense of disillusionment. In particular, it is the urge to go beyond the limits of the material world and material values, to experience the ecstasy of feeling at one with the universe, and of belonging in the divine order of the whole (this entity or feeling state goes by many names including the godhead, nirvana, heaven, divine light, universal energy).

The link to the twelfth house suggests that this energy represents an archetypal expression of collective feeling which resonates deeply in the collective unconscious. It is also believed that this collective archetype is personally mediated by the oceanic experience of the infant in its time within the mother's womb. In this setting, the collective wellspring of feeling is literally manifest in the embryonic fluid of the womb. In his or her rulership of the ocean within the womb, the "Divine Child" experiences a state of sublime ecstasy wherein he/she is suspended floating between the two worlds, between formlessness and incarnation into the external world. This image is reminiscent of the depiction of entry into the idyllic Isle of Avalon, in which the initiated summon up the barge to take them through the shrouded mists from one world into the other, in the highly neptunian novel by Marion Zimmer Bradley "The Mists of Avalon".3 In the blissful state, in utero, the child's bodily needs are met effortlessly through the totally symbiotic union with the mother. In addition, it is believed that the developing child has no awareness of itself as a separate being or entity to the mother in whose womb it is carried, or indeed, of there existing any distinctions in its world, with its total sum of awareness being the experience of existing in this blissful state, and of this as constituting the whole of its universe.

There are several key qualities to this experience which typify the Neptunian realm: a disconnectedness from the demands of the material world, the dissolution of the individual ego boundaries into a vast collective entity, an experience of connectedness with the whole at a profound level, and a deep feeling of well-being or ecstasy. The child is engulfed in an undifferentiated sea of feelings which are archetypal and collective in origin. The adult Neptunian experience is often mediated through a group setting, for example in a group meditation, with a mass sensitivity to these collective feelings which are both undifferentiated and indiscriminate in nature.

Whilst the culture of the individual will influence the detail of the experience of the realm of Neptune, its universal characteristics are its links to the sphere of childlike beauty and bliss: it is the fabric of magic and creativity in the human experience, the dwelling place of both the faery and the mystic.