I was a teenager in the late 60s, and for a while, my nickname was Cat. This was because I was prone to frequent and spontaneous naps, a kind of intentional narcolepsy which kept ordinary life out of my face. One of my fringed, bearded peacenik friends was a guy named Bear, and we hung around with another guy named Tree. When we were having a good time, we said, “Wow,” a lot, and when we weren’t having a good time, we said, “Bummer.”

I got a letter from Bear the other day, very bubbly and excited. He said: “i kept myself in the closet so long, til at the end all the air went out of it and i burst out looking for breath”. He tells me that coming out at the age of 53 is like riding a bicycle while juggling fish. Familiar, joyful and terrifying all at once.

Bear’s chart was one of the first I ever did, when I was just learning my way around the zodiac. I dug it out, and noticed that he was born during the Saturn/Neptune conjunction of 1952 – 1953. And so it figures that he would be erupting from the closet at this tumultuous time, during the Saturn/Neptune opposition of 2006 – 2007.

Bear was born during the Cold War, a frozen time in history. We were afraid of ourselves at that time, afraid of our newfound ability to obliterate life on earth. Our fears were projected quite handily on each other – the robotic and godless Soviet state, the greedy and unscrupulous Western powers. It was the time when the United States demonized Communism – and this meant fighting Korea, executing Ethel Rosenberg, and passing ever-more restrictive immigration laws.

Saturn is the planet of fear, while Neptune is the planet of hope. And so, when Saturn sits on Neptune, is hope chained up in a closet? Why did it take Bear so long to come out? Neptune was tickling him, exciting his imagination – and I can tell you that Bear had a lot of imagination! – but Saturn was pressing him down, reminding him of old failures and regrets, of boundaries and barriers.

Back then, when Bear and I were hanging out with each other, sharing Laura Nyro albums and spaced-out revelations, Saturn and Neptune were moving towards the opposition. Yes, if you’re thinking that this current period feels a lot like the flower child era, there’s a reason for that. The last time Saturn opposed Neptune, we were protesting the Vietnam War, and this time we’re protesting the Iraqi War.

But right at the end of the last Saturn/Neptune opposition, in 1972, there was Watergate. The reigning strongman got pushed out on his ear, and soon afterwards, the Vietnam War ended. The Vietnam War was a belief system that nobody believed any more. It was a web of lies which developed gaping holes. It was a movie with an implausible plot.

Will something similar happen this time? This Saturn/Neptune opposition is just beginning, now in August, and it will be one of the most important influences during the next year. Everything is in place – the lies, the escapism, the pervasive fear of ourselves and each other. Everything is stretching towards resolution.

What is Saturn all about? This planet represents our dharma, our reason for taking on physical form. You could personalize her as the Crone, the Timekeeper. She tells us what we have signed on to do, and she doesn’t accept any excuses.

At the same time, she insures our survival. She protects us, by reminding us of old pain triggers – from our early lives, from past lives, from the experiences of our ancestors. And so she is also the planet of fear. Like the snail’s shell, she keeps us safe within a certain tight coil.

Neptune, on the other hand, represents our link to the eternal. She is like the thin gossamer line that connects us to the ethereal world. This line is also a conduit to universal consciousness; it is the line of intuition.

Too much Saturn is too much reality, and it’s tough. It can mean fear, depression, paralysis. Too much Neptune is overly escapist, and it can mean living in a dream world without boundaries, standards or responsibilities. Poetry, romance, television and heroin are all Neptunian forces. They alter our consciousness, taking us far away. The version of reality touted by the US media is more Neptune than Saturn, more fluff and fantasy than accountability and responsibility.

Saturn can bind Neptune, cutting off our sense of cosmic connection, plunging us in a world of sharp edges. But Saturn can also wake Neptune up, rouse her from her poppyfield slumber, and tell her that this world is worth saving.

We are living with a very activist Saturn these days, since she is going through the fire sign Leo. Leo is passionate, creative, ambitious and dramatic. And so if you visualize Saturn as the Crone, she is a Crone with a crown and brilliant orange robes. She stands tall and she pushes you towards personal power.

All the fixed signs are about will and control, and Leo is the most willful. So Saturn in Leo is not a passive influence, but rather a loud, critical voice in your head, reminding you that you have not yet fulfilled your potential. She’s giving George W. the same message, reminding him of all the countries he has not yet invaded.

But Neptune is standing tall. She has drifted down and become substantial enough to challenge Saturn’s rule. Neptune is in Aquarius, the sign of intellect and ideals, of truth and understanding, of social and scientific experiments. Neptune in Aquarius requires transparency, and this is one way that the mighty fall. Their deeds become known. Watergate, anyone?

Saturn pushes us to get engaged, to take responsibility, and this is not a bad thing. But Neptune keeps reminding us that, when you take the long view, temporal power is just a pile of stones under a desert sun. Power is nothing without principles, without a sense of community, without an intuitive sense of our collective soul.

All truth-tellers – teachers, scientists, prophets, scholars – are speaking with the voice of Neptune in Aquarius. Many of them have become petitioners for the earth, and this requires all of us to work together. At the same time, we do need the fire and will of Saturn in Leo, especially at this time of confrontation. We need to trust our experience. We’ve been careless with things before, and seen them disappear before our eyes. Do we want to throw away our coastlines, our currents, our glaciers, our rainfall?

This is a good time for my friend Bear to come out. It’s a good time for all of us to emerge from our closets. When Neptune and Saturn face each other, there’s a release of huge, archetypal energies. It’s illusion versus reality, foggy ideas versus willful activism. It’s also cosmic consciousness versus materialism, and fertile imagination versus boxed-in thinking.

And neither side can win. That’s always what it comes down to, in this finite earth and in the eternal drift of cosmic stardust. Neither side can ever win. All we can do is to be stand outside in the sun, alive in our skins, expressing our true selves with all the love and joy and courage we possess.

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