Saturn-Neptune Conjunction: Let's Do Real Magic
There's a scene in the television miniseries Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell that makes me cry every time I watch it. The York Society of Magicians has challenged Mr. Norrell to prove that he is capable of doing practical Magic (aka casting spells). He offers to perform some magic, but in exchange he wants the magicians of the society to swear that they will stop claiming to be magicians if he succeeds.
All of the magicians sign the contract except for Mr. Segundus. He gives a short, pitiful speech like a mouse caught in the rain. "Magic is my life, Sir. What will I do when it is taken from me?"
Lately, when I look at the magical scene, I feel a lot of despair. Magic is everywhere, and magic is nowhere. The marketplace is full of snake oil salesmen selling bottles of greed. I am so disgusted that I spend more time than I should looking up at the sky and trying to figure out which planet is most likely to come in like a storm and sweep it all away.
Like Mr. Segundus, magic is my life, but in my better moments, I am certain that I would give it all up if it meant that the sacred things were no longer profaned like this.
I'm not the only one who smells change in the wind. In quiet corners, astrologers whisper about the upcoming Saturn-Neptune conjunction.
"This is when astrology will stop being popular. Tarot decks will be left to collect dust in attics. The New Atheists will rise again, and materialism will reign supreme."
Predictive astrology isn’t my jam, but there’s something to the theory that Saturn and Neptune coming together will be the death of magic.
Saturn is all about getting back to brass tacks. It’s all about the real. The provable. When Missouri decided to be the Show-Me State, they were channeling Saturn. One of the expressions of Saturn is materialism because material reality will hit you over the head whether you believe in it or not. Gravity doesn’t care if you like it. It’s stronger than you, and it’s going to do its thing.
When Saturn hits Neptune, the planet of magic and spirituality, it’s possible that Saturn will obliterate the magical landscape. The charlatans and frauds will be revealed for what they are. People will become disillusioned, and the zeitgeist will wake up from magic like a bad dream.
If there is nothing to what we do, that is how the story will play out. We will look back at this time the way we look back at the “what’s your sign, baby” 1970s. Magic will return to the fringe corners of the metaphysical section, and many brokenhearted people who bet on the magic bubble will have to find something else to do.
That isn’t the only way the story can go. As I write this, a pair of ravens has started screaming at me through the window. (This is a thing that happens to me when I’m writing something good.) It’s possible that they’re just doing raven things, but there’s a story in which the ravens aren’t just criticizing the temperature of the water in the bird bath. I love the more magical story, and I have seen enough evidence for it that I have bet my career on the belief that magic permeates the material, that rational and mundane explanations aren’t all there is. I believe this so strongly that, like Mr. Segundus, magic is my life, Sir. It gives me hope that magic won’t be completely swept away in the Saturn-Neptune tide, that another story can play out, a magical story that bears some interesting similarities to Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell begins in a magical dark age. As far as anyone knows, no magic has been done in England since the Raven King disappeared 300 years ago. Then Gilbert Norrell inherits a fortune and dedicates his life to making practical magic respectable again. When the magicians of the York Society challenge Mr. Norrell to display his power, he has been studying magical books for decades, trying to understand how magic is done, so he can do it himself
(spoiler alert)
He succeeds. He performs feats of magic that are so extraordinary, the gentleman magicians of the York Society look pitiful in comparison. When the truth comes out, no one is able to mistake Mr. Norrell’s magic for the scams of the charlatans selling false prophecies and fake spells on the street corners in yellow curtained tents.
(This isn’t a classist story. There is a vagabond magician who is legit. In the end, he is given the respect he deserves because he is able to prove that he knows his shit.)
I don’t think it’s an accident that the Saturn-Neptune conjunction happens at the end of Saturn’s time in Pisces. Saturn in Pisces is all about taking the things that we wish were true and making them real. Astrologer Austin Coppock has pointed out that Saturn in Pisces times have traditionally been times when fantasy stories with worlds rich enough to live in have been created.
You can’t open a portal and step into Middle Earth, but I’ve seen stories like The Lord of the Rings work real magic. There was a period in my life when I was deeply depressed, and the only thing keeping me going was my extended edition of The Lord of the Rings DVDs. I was in college, and I would finish my classwork for the day, and I would turn on the movies and knit on the couch until my husband came home from work. When I got to the end of the trilogy, I would take out the last DVD and start the first one all over again.
From the outside, I’m sure my life looked deeply sad. (I was deeply sad.) But I am convinced that The Lord of the Rings is the only reason I was able to plow through that time and get a degree. Without that degree, I couldn’t have gotten into the MFA program that introduced me to Rachel Pollack and her books on tarot. Tarot led me to therapy, and that was when I became aware that I had spent most of the previous decade on a slow walk into a life in which depression isn’t running the show.
Saturn in Pisces is a time for creating stories of enchantment. We need them more than ever to slow-walk ourselves out of Dark Ages.
In short, this is a moment for doing real magic.
If we rise to the challenge, I believe that we don’t have to be afraid of the Saturn-Neptune conjunction cleaning house in the magical world. When Saturn shows us the real thing, the knock-offs always look pitiful in comparison. Then, we will all breathe a sigh of relief as the frauds and scenesters are swept away in the tide, and we’ll live happily ever after. The end.
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