Becoming more compassionate ~ Saturn sextile Neptune

We have this ongoing outer planet aspect which is exact on Thursday, January 31, 2019, but Saturn sextile Neptune has been within a 1 degree orb since January 19th and it will last through February 14th. With almost a full month of Saturn-Neptune playing the melody in our background music this year we should take a look at what these planets mean.

Saturn represents responsibility, structure, foundation, hard work, stability and minimalism, just for a few key words. Saturn is currently transiting his home sign of Capricorn where he is strong, serious and no-nonsense. Neptune, on the other hand, represents idealism, fantasy, vulnerability, sensitivity and what I think is particularly important right now in our world: compassion.

Neptune can be a difficult planet at times. Often we experience it as hopeless or disillusionment, especially when Saturn is involved. But when we go through disenfranchisement, or disappointment, or even the end of hope, we begin to ask ourselves certain philosophical questions:

What’s the meaning of it all?
What’s the point, anyway?
Why am I even here?
Why me?
Why am I going through this?
Why do I have to feel this way?
Is there even any meaning in this life?

Faced with these questions we are given a choice: give up and live in the pain, OR step and and find a greater meaning to it all. And that greater meaning, without trying to sound too cliche, is love.

When we see that we have the power to live in a state of pain or a state of love, that we actually really do have that choice, we learn a powerful lesson (i.e. Saturn): we are responsible for our own suffering just as we are responsible for our own happiness. We can choose how we approach life, how we think about ourselves, and how we treat others. As we learn that we have this powerful choice another realization dawns on us: not everyone is aware that this is a choice. And so then we discover compassion.

The Dalai Lama recently was quoted saying “In the Buddhist tradition, compassion and love are seen as two aspects of the same thing: Compassion is the wish for another being to be free from suffering; love is wanting them to have happiness.”

If we are to be truly responsible (Saturnian) members of society we learn to develop compassion (Neptune). It is more difficult to wish that others be free of suffering than to blame the victims. If we can make out the suffering that a being is going through to be their own fault, instead of a reflection of the larger society in which we reside, it relieves us of any individual responsibility on the matter. We are free not to care. But as Saturn and Neptune dance together in the sky we see that even when we pretend that we don’t care the suffering continues, and we harm ourselves by allowing the world to continue onward in this cruel fashion.

So what an we do? Being in a state of compassion, a state of love is a start. Can we love ourselves enough to allow ourselves to be happy? Can we love ourselves enough to try? Can we hold our own lives, our own souls, with compassionate understanding? Saturn asks us to take care of ourselves, first, before we try to take care of others. If you wish to gain compassion for others you should start with yourself. Then that compassion you have for yourself can be like a little seed that sprouts and grows into compassion for others, as well.

If you are an empath or a sensitive this Saturn-Neptune aspect is wonderful for working to develop your intuitive abilities. We need both boundaries (Saturn) and vibrational awareness (Neptune) to be healthy intuitives. We need to know when to turn it off and how to tune in and turn up the dial so we can be better attuned to the intuitive messages we are receiving. The development of compassion for yourself for this process is an important step in learning to truly trust yourself.

When we trust ourselves, when we have compassion for ourselves and for others, we come to realize that we are safe in this world. And when we feel safe we no longer need to act from that place of fear that seems so common in our 24 hour news cycle. By making a commitment (Saturn) to learn how to love better, to have more compassion (Neptune), we can each take a small step in making this world a better place. One moment at a time we can build a foundation of compassionate understanding for all beings. And from there perhaps, some day, we will see that we really are all one, and what seems like isolation, like separateness, is merely looking through different windows from the same divine mansion.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash