Saturn/Neptune Hard Aspects, Dark Nights of the Soul, and Past Lives

Again, the greater portion of this material comes from the book Cosmos and Psyche by Richard Tarnas, Ph.D. of the California Institute of Integrated Studies.

His extensive research shows that the presence of the outer planets (Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) in hard aspect in an individual’s chart compel the individual to become involved in certain things which are in turn related to past periods in history when that same aspect was active. 

My own research indicates that the individual with hard aspects of the outer planets likely experienced previous lifetimes during one or more of those same periods of history.

Saturn is concerned with physical reality, with cold hard facts, with what is.  Neptune is concerned with the beliefs that enable one to have hope for the future.  A hard aspect between Saturn and Neptune in the chart may cause a conflict between the two - a ‘dark night of the soul’ that challenges one’s faith in a benevolent Universe.

On a collective level, a hard aspect between Saturn and Neptune lends itself to physical and spiritual exhaustion, disillusionment, and low morale in the collective consciousness. The hidden actions and policies of the past become visible, and haunt the present.

For example, the Civil War over slavery in the United States began with excitement and certainty of a quick victory on both sides. A Saturn/Neptune opposition began in late 1861. As the war dragged on, with thousands of families on both sides affected by the deaths of loved ones, a deep sense of futility and hopelessness prevailed throughout the country.

Saturn/Neptune hard aspects may manifest in a positive or a negative way, depending on how the individual chooses to use them.

Used positively, Saturn/Neptune hard aspects involve:

• An acute sensitivity to the suffering and sorrow of life, whether experienced by oneself or by others
• Compassion for the wounded, the widowed, or the orphaned
• A more than usual concern with death and its spiritual implications
• The unmasking of deception and delusion
• A critical attitude towards conventional religious beliefs combined with a serious spiritual vision of life
• A sensitivity to the oppressive side of religious belief
• The ability to discern truth from illusion 

The Dalai Lama was born July 8, 1935 under a Saturn/Neptune opposition. His sensitivity to the suffering of others and his compassion for others is always evident.

Vladimir Putin was born October 7, 1952 under a Saturn/Neptune conjunction. He has the ability to discern truth from illusion and is not afraid to unmask deception and delusion in the world we live in. He too has the same sensitivity to the suffering and sorrow of life and tries to ease it in his Russian people.

Negatively, the hard aspects of Saturn and Neptune may involve:

• Tension between one’s ideals, hopes, dreams, and beliefs and the harsh realities of life
• A difficult to diagnose personal or social malaise in reaction to tragic events and loss
• A deep sense of melancholy or world-weariness
• Conflict between religion and secularism, with each side believing the other to be in a state of delusion
• A pervading sense of being haunted by guilt or responsibility for tragic events or loss, because one actually was responsible for such in other lifetimes
• Self-deception
• An ease in one’s ability to deceive and manipulate others
• A refusal to see alternatives to one’s rigid belief system, rejecting the other as ‘evil’
• An avoidance of critical self-refection
• Difficult to diagnose psychosomatic symptoms - depression, insomnia
• Toxic chemicals
• Corporate control of drug interactions and data
• The subtle poisoning of people’s minds 

During a Saturn/Neptune hard aspect, difficult psychological symptoms show up in the collective - free-floating anxiety, narcissism, escapism, denial, disassociation, autistic introversion, an over-concern with illness, the abuse of prescription drugs.

Some historical periods when Saturn/Neptune hard aspects were active include:

1861 to 1864               The Civil War in the United States - the sense of being caught in a futile and never-ending war; families’ attempts to communicate with deceased loved ones whose bodies were never recovered from battlefields; an entire nation in deep mourning for its dead

1899 to 1901               The Victorian Age, the age of the robber barons of industry (coincided

                                    with Saturn/Pluto), the use of absinthe and laudanum to suppress feelings of 

                                    despair

1908 to 1910               The burgeoning years of mass production and the exploitation of workers

                                    (Coincided with the Uranus/Neptune opposition from May 1908 to

March 1910.)

1916 to 1918               The last stages of World War I - the physical and spiritual exhaustion, disillusionment, and world-weariness of the populations of the world; families’ attempts to communicate with deceased loved ones who were buried overseas

     

1925 to 1927               The Scopes trial - God vs. science, the conflict between creationism and

                                    evolution

1935 to 1937               The worldwide Depression (coincided with Uranus/Pluto); the public’s

horror at the German Condor Legion’s bombing of the innocent civilians of Guernica in the war against fascism in Spain, the rise of Hitler in Germany.

1943 to 1945               The final stages of World War II - the weariness of war by of the populations of the world; the worldwide despair, sorrow, and feelings of guilt upon the revealing of the horrors of the German concentration camps at the end of the war

1951 to 1953               The Korean War (deceptively labeled a ‘police action’, not a war, by the powers that be); the use of mind-altering drugs to suppress emotions; the Cold War and the West’s deceptive ‘arms race’ with Russia’, the public paranoia against communism, the overwhelming use of alcohol by World War II veterans dealing with trauma from the war

                                    (Coincided with Uranus/Neptune square from November 1951 to September 1953)

1962 to 1964               The worldwide outpouring of grief and mourning after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy; the defeat of America’s ideals and hopes for a better future; the public’s despair, depression, and disorientation at the news of the assassination; the government cover-up of the perpetrators of the assassination

                                   

1970 to 1973               The last years of the Vietnam War; worldwide disillusionment, weariness and opposition to the war; the U.S government's cover-up of the massacres of innocent civilians throughout SouthVietnam; the U.S. government's deception about its ability to win the war; the dark humor of the TV series M*A*S*H (ostensibly about the Korean War) as a response to the suffering and hopelessness of those involved in the Vietnam War; the ultimate defeat of the Americans by the North Vietnamese.

1978 to 1980               The loss of faith during the last years of the Carter administration in America and the hostage situation in Iran; the deception of candidate Ronald Reagan in arranging a secret deal with the Iranians to delay the release of the hostages until after the election in order to defeat incumbent president Jimmy Carter.

1988 to 1990               The entry of the fundamentalist religious right movement into American politics, with its attempt to combine religious beliefs with political power; the age of materialism and consumerism; the emergence of gangs as a substitute for broken minority families; the rampant use of crack cocaine in destitute minority neighborhoods in cities of America and Europe; the first Gulf War fought over oil reserves.

                                    (Coincided with the Uranus/Neptune opposition from December 1988 to

                                    February 1990.)

1998 to 1999               The loss of diverse cultures, languages, religions, or communities through mass media, globalization, immigration, and international trade agreements; the development of the Internet with its resulting dissolution of boundaries between people; the increased use of hard drugs by people excluded from the culture of consumerism; the continued political influence of the Religious Right and other fundamentalist religions worldwide; the use of mass media as a source of propaganda meant to deceive the public; fear-inducing images in political campaigns; the second Gulf War over oil reserves.

2005                            The drowning of the city of New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina; the public’s sense of hopelessness and despair in the face of the suffering of the poor, the abandoned, the sick, and the frail in the hurricane and floods;  the narcissistic bubble of the U.S. leadership and its policies in the face of such a tragedy; the systemic failure of the infrastructures of government; the meth epidemic of 2005; the crack/cocaine epidemic; drug scandals among athletes; the withdrawal of prescription drugs from the market because of unexpected side effects in the population.

If you were born during one of these time periods and have a hard aspect between Saturn and Neptune in your chart,

and you feel a very deep and inexplicable connection to any one or more of these periods, chances are almost 100% that you had a previous life during that time period.

If you have chosen to manifest the negative aspects of Saturn/Neptune in this and other lifetimes, you would show no interest in reading this and consider it balderdash!

* * The world is now undergoing another hard aspect, the square, between Saturn and Neptune. It began in December 2014, is currently in effect from May to June 2015, and will occur again from September 2015 through October 2016.

Once again, we have worldwide physical and spiritual exhaustion having to do with endless war, and the continued manipulation of the public through deceitful actions and practices of those who want to keep the war going.

Those who have lived through similar events in other lifetimes, and who have previously dealt with the extreme sadness, feelings of despair or depression, and a deep sense of melancholy as a result of those events have reincarnated into this lifetime to address those issues. 

They may have to first overcome an addiction in order to fulfill what they came in to do. But they came into this lifetime to put a stop to endless war, lies, and deception, in whatever way they can.