Dean’s Update, April 2025

Let me start this month’s update with a personal reflection about our current moment in time. In preparation for Saturn’s entrance into Aries on May 24th, I find myself contemplating what I need to work on in myself, the hard work it may take, to have the courage to lead the FCEA with the initiative and gumption of Aries. You see the sign Aries falls in my natal 1st house, intercepted, with Jupiter at 10°28’, providing me an opportunity for expressing the energy in the sign of the ram. 

But, as Steven always says, the full expression of a planet sitting in an intercepted sign takes a longer time to mature and develop. Jupiter, co-ruler of my Pisces ascendant, and Saturn, dispositor of my Capricorn Sun, always seem to be duking it out for me. My natal Saturn is in Aquarius and in the 12th house. Now Saturn by transit is traveling through my 1st house, the ringed planet will conjunct my Jupiter in about a year’s time. Is the universe asking me to accept the challenge and somehow integrate the energy of these vastly different planets? To step up to the plate and mature, Saturn style, into leadership? 

These are valid questions I imagine for myself. But when I also think of Aries, I ponder: What is worth fighting for and defending? And isn’t the 1st house the house Steven calls “enlightened selfishness”? With Neptune by transit there as well, I wonder, where is the spiritual path leading to deeper consciousness for me? How does one balance a call to action with meditation and the emptiness of ego? Moving Saturn will square my natal 10th house Capricorn Sun soon in 2026, Neptune in orb of a square as well.

Enough about me. How do individuals at the FCEA respond on a high road to both Saturn and Neptune in Aries? In past newsletter articles, I encouraged people to claim the path of the spiritual warrior. And, to me, this is still valid. But I would like to ride a little more with the concept of “enlightened selfishness”. What needs to radically develop in ourselves to be that warrior? I say a realistic and at times selfish approach to our basic rights to make our quest for consciousness front and center in our lives. 

Now don’t get me wrong; I am the Dean of our school and I certainly want to see us studying and applying ourselves through mental effort at every stage of our course work or on calls as FCEA members. How else can we learn the nuts and bolts of our sacred craft? But perhaps the universe is saying make the time, put the work in, and have the courage to dive into, as Steven would say, “cleaning our spiritual windows.” Doing so may involve some risk, some personal gumption in order to put your needs first. How else can we strive to be accomplished evolutionary astrologers if we don’t put our spiritual journey in the forefront of our lives?

I realize I am asking a lot of questions here. I just think reflecting upon transiting Saturn and Neptune for all of us involves giving definition to what works for us individually in growing our spiritual practice. It will follow that the mystical, psychic, and sensitive watery energies of Neptune will bless and make real our intuitive gifts. Then we can really put into place all the technical skills of study at the FCEA. With discipline and dedication, we grow in consciousness and then we become the kind of warriors the world needs. Set intentions for putting your Neptune work into action, giving your spiritual life a “right to take up space.” I have a feeling the rest of your astrological work will fall into place.