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Spiritual Company Newsletter
by Steffan Vanel May 2006
Dear Friends & Clients,
I know it has been a long time since my last newsletter. I have been rather busy traveling these last months, but I also like to let things brew in my head and heart for a while before I speak my mind.
I recently returned from two months in Thailand and Vietnam. I was in Vietnam to research a novel I hope to write which takes place partly in Vietnam during the American War there. Those of you who have read my book: ‘The Astrological Karma of the USA’ or earlier newsletters know that virtually the same Astrological Transits which were hitting the US birthchart during the War in Vietnam are hitting again now, from 2003 until 2007, and I had predicted that if we went to war in Iraq it would be just like Vietnam.
Well, it was surrealistic to be in Vietnam, hearing people’s stories of the War there, seeing the huge craters left by American B52 bombs, the limbless veterans begging in the streets, the babies born with birth defects from Agent Orange, while seeing at the same time the daily postings on the internet of the daily carnage in Iraq, the denials of our government and the increasing disillusionment of our people. It is such a clear replay of our ongoing lessons. Oh, when will we ever learn?
Is there hope? We must keep faith. I often tell my clients that if I didn’t have such a strong personal faith of my own, that there really is a God or Higher Reality within and behind life, that there is a reason why things happen, no matter how seemingly painful or difficult, that they are really there to help us, to grow or learn or to balance past karma which we all have, then I couldn’t do the work that I do, it would be too depressing, all the pain and difficulties we all experience in life. I usually add that it is because my own life has been such a mess that I have that faith. Not just because I read it in a book.
Speaking of tests of faith, our fearless leader, George W. Bush, whose chart reveals he’s not so fearless, is coming into some even more challenging times I fear. In November of 2004 I predicted the humbling of his false pride and arrogance (Leo Ascendant) by Saturn on or around September 12, 2005. September 13th was the date of his press conference in the aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina tragedy, the most humbling moment in his presidency thus far. Saturn went back over his Ascendant into his 12th house of the deeper unconscious, but hits his Ascendant again for its final entry into his First House of self-image on June 1st. It will then conjunct his Mercury’s Leonine tendency towards self-absorption on June 27 and Pluto’s assigned transformation of his self-image on July 4th, two days before his birthday. This feels to me like the on-going heaviness of duty and responsibility with little optimistic sense of success.
This year, peaking in August, the whole world will experience the climax of a 36 year old cycle. This cycle began in 1989 when there was a Saturn/Neptune conjunction. This coincided with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and subsequently the totalitarian Soviet State. Saturn represents structure, authority, rules, and material security. Neptune is unconditional love and spiritual surrender (in Positive aspect). This was the Neptunian God of the Sea dissolving the repressive structures binding and separating human consciousness in a way in which no rational, materially focused, pragmatic (i.e. Saturnian) mind could have predicted. I had been to the Wall and East Berlin in the past and oh how I wished I could have been there on that weekend when they opened the Wall and East and West Berlin partied together.
When two planets form a conjunction that is like a New Moon. It serves as a seed for the beginning of a whole new cycle. On August 31st of this year there will be the first of three oppositions between Saturn and Neptune. This is comparable to the Full Moon (a Sun/Moon opposition) a climax of the cycle. What does this mean? What will happen? God only knows. The chart for that day in August is very intense. Jupiter will also be square to both Saturn and Neptune, which can lead to exaggerated, pumped up, ‘over the top,’ ‘biting off more than you can chew,’ kind of energy. In addition Uranus in Pisces will be opposite to a Sun/Mercury conjunction in Virgo, which to me adds a similar theme of Piscean (ruled by Neptune) dissolving of Virgoan (earthy, rational mentality). With Uranus it is often sudden and from a totally surprising direction.
Additionally, Pluto, Lord of the Underworld, will be square to Mars the God of War.
This chart will be affecting the whole planet. The Saturn/Neptune opposition is the slowest moving, deepest affecting factor. The exact way in which it will play out is, of course, not easy to predict. Some conflict between Saturnian structure, concrete practical mind, and/or authority will be at odds with Neptunian non-rational, fluid, unseen, elusive energies.
When I first started looking at this upcoming opposition I wondered if it could be an outbreak of the Bird Flu, an elusive unseen dissolving of our rational practical lives.
Neptune is related to specific phenomenon, like the ocean, the oil industry, and the film industry (Neptunian fluidity creating illusion). One reflection of this Saturn/Neptune tension I observed recently came as I watched the previews of a new film featuring Al Gore about Global Warming called: An Inconvenient Truth, which will be coming out this summer. It seems like a pretty dramatic, well-made film depicting the possible results of man-made global warming. I also noticed, however, the Neptunian themes of film, oil (creating Global Warming), melting glaciers raising the ocean’s water levels, dissolving Saturnian structures such as a good part of Florida, Manhattan, Shanghai, Calcutta, etc, resulting in a flood of perhaps 100 million refugees, totally overwhelming the authorities of the world’s capability to use their rational, Saturnian sense of responsibility to cope with the situation. Of course one could say that is was the Neptunian denial and illusion undermining a rational Saturnian capability to get real with the fact that Global Warming is a concrete reality that we have created through our own concrete physical actions with little regard for the consequences.
Another factor I can’t help noticing, is that August 31st is smack dab in the middle of the Hurricane Season, the connection of intensified storms and Global warming also being portrayed in this film. I hope my friends and brothers and sisters in the South don’t have to go through events like last year’s. I do believe, however, that one should “Praise Allah but tie up your camel!”
Another Saturn/Neptune theme playing out in a widely publicized film event this summer will be the release of ‘The Da Vinci Code.’ The authoritative Saturnian structure of various Christian Churches are feeling threatened by this Neptunian (film), which purports to dissolve the Saturnian doctrine that Jesus was the Son of God and would never have married Mary Magdalene. I myself believe in the story of Jesus’ life presented in the Aquarian Gospel which states that Jesus did not marry, in fact his last test before becoming the Christ was to sacrifice human love so that he could fulfill his mission to manifest Divine Love. There are many other elements of the story revealed in the Aquarian Gospel which are quite clarifying however. For example, in the Aquarian Gospel, Jesus was a man, who didn’t become the Christ until age 30. He also traveled to the East during the so-called ‘Lost’ years of his life, from 12 to 30. I highly recommend this book for clarification on the story of Jesus.
I feel that the underlying psychological/spiritual hunger in the widescale popularity of the Da Vinci Code is for an experience of Jesus as a human we can relate to. In Esoteric studies I have undertaken it is taught that Jesus himself prefers to be referred to now as our ‘Elder Brother.’ Not our Lord.
The popularity of the Da Vinci code is also about bringing in a balance of Feminine energy into the Masculine Patriarchal structure of Western Religion.
Of course, with this intense of a chart on August 31, one could easily imagine something more intense than a film or even a hurricane, especially since Neptunian Oil and Saturnian structure are so much at play in the hot bed of the Middle East. We shall see.
One thing to take note of is the fact that we will all be experiencing this Saturn/Neptune tension somewhere in our own individual Astrological Charts. If you haven’t had an Astrological update in a while you might consider having a look at what elements of your Chart will be affected by this opposition. Anyone with planets around 15-22 degrees of a ‘Fixed Sign’ (Aquarius, Leo, Scorpio, Taurus) are going to be hit by this Saturn/Neptune opposition by hard aspect.
Looking again at George W. Bush, he has his Venus at 21 degrees of Leo. Saturn will go over it on October 2nd, and two more times in 2007. Neptune will move into an exact opposition to it in 2007, peaking on April 10 and July 10. His Venus is also placed in the First House of his Birthchart of which Hilarion says: ‘When Venus is in the first sector of a birth chart, there is a clear implication that the love nature of the individual is strongly tied into the self-image. The self is seen in the context of the affectional interchanges which it has with others. Under affliction, a first-house Venus can point to one whose sense of self-worth is too greatly dependent upon receiving love from others, and this implies the need to learn to be happy with oneself alone, not needing a constant supportive input from others.’
George W.’s Venus is not afflicted in his natal Birthchart. The major tensions in his chart lie elsewhere. When the planets, as they move in the sky, make difficult afflicting aspects to our natal Birthchart planets, however, is when we are likely to be ‘tested’ in relation to the lesson of that planetary placement.
When I look at these Saturn/Neptune transits approaching George W.’s Venus, i.e. Saturnian responsibility, duty, restriction, limitation on top of his Venus, and Neptunian illusion, confusion, delusion, victimhood, and martyrdom opposite to his Venus I get a sense of George W. being greatly tested as far as being able to validate himself by receiving supportive emotional input from others. Especially when the Neptunian tension will be coming out of his Seventh House, the Libran house of relationships with others. I can’t help but imagine that George W. will be experiencing this simultaneous restrictive/dissolving effect on his Venus by being abandoned by the entire Republican Party in 2007. I can conjure an image of rats jumping off of a sinking ship. Clearly this phenomenon is already beginning, but 2007 will be the lead up to the 2008 election, which could be a large reason for everyone jumping off of Bush’s ship in a more dramatic way.
There is another curious omen with this Saturn/Neptune. The Sabian Symbol of the 18th degree of Aquarius, the position of Neptune at the peak of the first Saturn/Neptune opposition is: A MAN’S SECRET MOTIVES ARE BEING PUBLICLY UNMASKED.
Could there be further revelations of the current or new scandals of the Bush presidency? Could there be impeachment proceedings?
Blessings to you all,
Steffan Vanel
Steffan’s Spiritual Company Newsletters and ‘Starwise’ Monthly Forecasts are available by email on an annual, sliding-scale donation basis; from $10 - $50 a year.
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— Steffan Vanel Archive —
