The Saturn-Neptune conjunction in Aries: Seeds of a New Earth

Saturn and Neptune: A Look at Contrasting Energies

Saturn and Neptune have been traveling side to side during most of 2025 and the first few weeks of 2026. Between the end of May 2025 and the beginning of September 2025, the two planets have been within 1º from one another, but they haven’t perfected their conjunction yet. Saturn and Neptune both entered Aries in 2025 and retrograded back into Pisces shortly after. They both made their second and final ingress into Aries, respectively, on February 13 and January 26.

In Astrology, Saturn is connected to structure, responsibility, linear time, boundaries, and the 3D reality. Saturn is about tangible form: he is associated with the bones that hold everything together and the skin that separates the inner and the outer. This planet rules social, economic, religious, and political systems, hierarchies, and traditions: Saturn is about social constructs, social programming, and social rules. Ruling discipline, long-term commitment, and accountability, Saturn marks our maturation cycles and asks us to face reality as it is, not as we wish it to be.

Neptune instead is a transpersonal, slow-moving planet associated with the impulse to transcend the human experience and connect with something greater and higher than ourselves. The modern ruler of Pisces is the most spiritual planet of the Zodiac. However, Neptune is connected with both the absolute Truth and self-deception: he governs both true mystical experiences and the tendency to get lost in illusion, delusion, avoidance, and victim consciousness.

When Saturn and Neptune travel together in the heavens, it feels hard to create solid structures in the material reality, as Neptune’s influence blurs boundaries and definitions. Plans feel unclear and hard to carry forward, while what once felt stable can dissolve or lose meaning.

Saturn and Neptune carry very different, almost opposing archetypal functions: their intentions and purposes seem to be at odds with each other. Let’s explore, in more detail, what happens when these planets are conjunct.

The Saturn-Neptune balsamic phase conjunction

Since 2025, Saturn and Neptune have been forming what is technically referred to as a Balsamic phase conjunction. Balsamic phase conjunctions carry a similar energy to the Dark or Balsamic phase of the lunar cycle, the three and a half days before the New Moon.

These alignments mark a time of completion, closure, and dissolution. When two planets are in this phase, it signals they are approaching the end of their synodic cycle, the period from one conjunction to the next, which in the case of Saturn and Neptune lasts approximately 37 years.

The Saturn-Neptune balsamic phase conjunction in Pisces, which was active throughout most of 2025 and the first weeks of 2026, marked a time of dissolution of the structures and systems we have been relying upon, which led to a general feeling of disenchantment and loss of trust in authorities and institutions.

Every Saturn-Neptune conjunction, in its balsamic phase, reflects a process of dissolution of what lost meaning and purpose and catalyzes a reality check that often comes with disillusionment.

The final weeks and months of the Saturn-Neptune cycle reminded us that, before a new reality can be built, what is coming to an end must be allowed to fall away. The old systems that no longer have meaning, that lost their original purpose, need to be let go of before they can be replaced.

The previous Saturn-Neptune Conjunction was in 1989

Saturn-Neptune cycles last approximately 36 years: the cycle that has now ended began in 1989. The last Saturn-Neptune conjunction happened in Capricorn in November 1989. 1989 was a year filled with significant historical events and geopolitical shifts, such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Soviet Union. Around that time, there was a general loss of faith in governments, authorities, and traditional institutions, which is something we are experiencing nowadays as well.

As the Saturn-Neptune cycle that began in 1989 comes to a close, we witness the social, political, and financial systems that defined global power for over three decades clearly breaking down. What was once stable is now dissolving, the shadows of prominent authority figures are being exposed, and there is a general feeling of disillusionment and anger directed toward those in power.

Similar to what happened in 1989, we are going through a time of profound societal transformation, and there is a strong need for reorientation and restructuring on both a personal and a collective level. We are being forced to redefine authority, power, and responsibility in an era where the old rules no longer apply, and new ones are yet to be written. The Saturn-Neptune cycle that begins now will unfold until their next conjunction in Gemini, occurring in 2061.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0º Aries: A New Cycle

A Cardinal Fire sign, Aries is all about action and forward movement, and lives in the immediacy of the present moment. As Aries is the first sign of the Zodiac, every planet leaving Pisces to enter Aries goes through a rebirth process that asks us to completely renovate the way we relate to and express the energy of the planet involved.

From the moment of their exact conjunction, Saturn starts separating from Neptune, which facilitates the process of building new structures, consolidating new foundations for our lives, creating new systems, setting into motion new projects and endeavors, and planting seeds of a New Earth.

The Saturn-Neptune conjunction at 0º Aries asks us to reimagine the structure of reality as we know it and create something completely new. Dreams and visions that felt unclear, uncertain, and undefined can now start to take shape in tangible ways. After both Saturn and Neptune completed their transit through Pisces, this conjunction asks us to initiate from a place of spiritual maturity and reminds us that to take responsibility for our dreams means to take conscious action on them.

The Saturn-Neptune alignment happens on the very first degree of the Zodiac wheel: 0º of Aries represents raw beginnings, the emergence of something radically new, the first spark of life. This means we are stepping into a completely new cycle of personal and collective evolution, and this conjunction is set to revolutionize the structure of reality in ways that, right now, we cannot predict.

We are being asked to act from a place of integrity, inner alignment, and personal responsibility, and trust that intentional action aligned with a clear vision will lead us where we are meant to be.

As the Saturn–Neptune conjunction begins a new 37-year cycle, the choices we make now carry long-term significance. If you would like deeper insight into how these shifts may influence your personal journey, our 2026 Horoscope provides guidance to help you navigate the year with awareness, grounded intention, and alignment with the cosmic rhythms.