[Week 20: Saturn in Aries] Dissolution ☁️
Neptune starts retrograding
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Howdy, y’all! How are you doing?
I have just watched the second season of America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys, which is why I have a bit of Texan vocabulary.
To my surprise, the last episode of the season is called “Saturn Returns” (!) and Kelli Finglass, the team’s director, mentions some of the characteristics of the first Saturn return.
I was gladly surprised.
In that episode, we see the squad perform at a Kacey Musgraves concert, who famously wrote "Deeper Well," a song about her first Saturn return.
This was the stage of that concert:
I don’t want to spoil too much. So I’ll just leave it here.
Watch the show and then we can discuss it together in the comments!
The astrology of the week
Take the first days of the week to hang out with friends and envision what you want to create. Do so from a place of indulging in your imagination.
Then, pick up the pace on Wednesday, 2nd, when the first quarter Moon propels you into action at 11°09’ of Libra and 15:29 EST.
This energy, alongside the ingress of Venus into Gemini on Friday the 4th at 11:31, is perfect for socializing, sharing ideas, and balancing your relationships.
The 4th also offers another event, besides Independence Day for those who live in the United States of America, and that is Neptune starting its retrogradation phase at 02°10’ of Aries.
Neptune will start retrograding on Friday, July 4th, at 17:33 EST. It will remain retrograde until December 10th at 07:23 EST.
Neptune’s retrograde is the most relevant transit of the week and the topic of this newsletter’s edition.
When Neptune is retrograde, a process of dissolution takes place. And you’ll find more about this process if you continue reading.
Neptune retrograde: Effects and manifestations
Neptune's influence in direct motion is subtle and hypnotic. This planet will enchant you into feeling or thinking in new ways.
But its influence changes while it’s retrograde.
Every time Neptune retrogrades, there’s an underlying intent. This planet wants to gently help you dissolve the boundaries of your known universe.
When Neptune is retrograde, this planet will smoothly dislodge your mind from an attitude or perception you were certain about.
Neptune retrograde will put you in a primordial sea of doubt, confusion, and possibility.
Fantasies of a perfect world are created and gradually undone when Neptune transits a house of your birth chart. Its retrograde cycles perform the untethering ritual.
The annual Sun-Neptune opposition is an ideal day to conduct an untethering ritual. This aspect marks the period in which your ego loses much of its grip, and boundaries blur.
In 2025, this opposition occurs on September 23rd at 08:53 EST. The Sun in Virgo opposes Neptune retrograde in Pisces at 0°45’.
Neptune surrounds the house it transits in your birth chart with an aura of the exotic, romantic, and elusive. This is why this transpersonal planet is frequently associated with deception and illusion.
Neptune's influence is not always sinister and hallucinatory. This planet will also heighten your sense of the divinity present in all.
This occurs because Neptune exemplifies the unity-in-all that is experienced in the womb. Neptune is related to the pre-conscious state of life, when you are one with the source of life and nurture.
Neptune retrograde is an invitation to return to the womb state to incubate and eventually be reborn.
The seductive characteristics of Neptune retrograde can color the most sordid experience with luminous hues.
Even the most rational individuals will find their perception of reality seriously challenged when Neptune retrogrades.
A positive result of Neptune’s retrograde transit is the erosion of false values and fantasy goals.
When the planet turns direct, you’ll be armed with a more realistic and practical attitude towards life.
When Neptune’s retrograde cycle starts, you may experience feelings of suspension and paralysis. If you’re usually decisive, you can become ambivalent. Your judgment may become influenced by others whom you perceive to be clearer.
But this situation is ironic. Your perceptions of others are likely to be just as distorted as your perceptions about yourself.
Ultimately, the long-term intent of Neptune’s retrograde cycle is to expand your perceptions.
The ideal result is to move those perceptions into dimensions of the supernatural, which are real but intangible.
When Neptune moves backwards, the illusory feeling subsides and is slowly replaced with a new way of perceiving reality. Your mind is open to receive, but not process, information.
Once Neptune turns direct again, you’ll understand what happened while it was retrograde.
Your mind relaxes and becomes easily permeable to new sensory perceptions. It may even consider previously inconceivable alternatives.
Neptune retrograde is a passive time. This is not negative. It is a necessary transit to pause while the boundaries between the real and the apparent seem to become thinner.
Let’s review some of the most common manifestations of Neptune retrograde.
Neptune retrograde and boundary dissolution
You have boundaries between yourself and the world, as well as between various layers of your nature. The second type of boundaries helps us separate the parts of ourselves that we don't like from those that we embrace.
When Neptune is retrograde, the boundaries within your inner selves disintegrate. This may not be apparent immediately. When Neptune is involved, nothing is.
Every time Neptune retrogrades, illusions are swept away and new ones are installed. The solid world of what appears to be real shifts and morphs.
You’ll become richer with new and more elaborate images of what you perceived the world to be.
The dissolution and resolution cycles are part of the ever-evolving perceptions that we have of life.
However, the erosion of boundaries between yourself and your known world can be frightening and disorienting.
The blurring of boundaries creates a condition in which previously hard-edged definitions of yourself experience a mutation.
Ultimately, when Neptune is retrograde, you’ll become less arrogant. You'll assume a more humble role within the different aspects of your personality.
But this has its dark side.
The insecurity and malleability that this retrograde period can cause may render you highly susceptible to manipulation and coercion.
Your conscious mind won’t be the source of true wisdom during a Neptune retrograde transit.
Neptune serves your deeper Self, the core essence of your nature, which intuitively “knows” what is meant to be born.
Neptune retrograde and relationships
When Neptune is retrograde, it is common to require another person as a mirror of yourself.
The need for another person occurs because Neptune undermines the ability to trust your judgment.
You may feel helpless, childish, and in need of support from a mother figure.
This mother figure takes the form of a lover, friend, adviser or anyone who will shield you from the harshness of the world.
Relationships can be complex to form or maintain during the duration of the Neptune retrograde cycle.
The intent of the Self is towards giving birth to an aspect of itself rather than connecting with another person.
Since birthing your new self is challenging, you may be tempted to distract yourself with a relationship.
Instead of focusing your attention where it needs to go, you may want to fall in love.
The function of idealization and sacrifice plays a strong role when Neptune is retrograde.
During this transit, you might find yourself giving up a significant portion of personal freedom and integrity. You may become lost in the ideal of the relationship rather than using the available energy to find yourself.
Being enmeshed with another person during a Neptune retrograde transit can be a rich source of self-examination. There’s an element of narcissism involved.
The transits of the transpersonal planets with your birth chart need manifestation on the concrete.
This manifestation can occur through direct contact with people or events that are related to the symbolism of the planet.
You attract that which you are experiencing internally.
When Neptune is retrograde, you may gather around Neptunian types.
These are slippery, elusive, mysterious, and intangible people.
The fusion with others expands your experiential realm. You are genuinely in others' shoes and become implicated in all their patterns.
Although your experiences stem from the environment, they are actually mirrors of an internal aspect of your nature. This aspect may be brought to consciousness for the first time.
It is possible to experience your “not-self” when Neptune is retrograde. You can feel completely at the mercy of others, caught up in their realm rather than your own.
When you experience a dissolution process brought to you by Neptune retrograde, you may lose your sense of individuality. Instead, you may believe you are an extension of, or even the same as, another. There’s a seductive folie à deux involved.
The powerful empathy between yourself and those who are helpless is a mirror of your inner helplessness.
What you really hope in the process of helping others is to help yourself.
Prompts for Week 20
Write [Week 20: Saturn in Aries] Dissolution on top of the page and the week we’re in, just like in the last edition.
Journal about a creative or emotional process you want to engage with during the months Neptune will be retrograde. Don’t censor yourself, write freely about it.
Go to FutureMe. Write a letter to yourself about all the things you have high expectations of today. Write about the people, projects, or dreams that make you feel enchanted. Program the letter to arrive in your inbox on September 23, 2025.
That’s it!
Hope you have a fantastic week.
With love,
Valentina
P.S.: Join me and Cat in an astro + yoga retreat in Portugal during Halloween weekend! More info here.