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A couple of months ago, I wrote about the ongoing square of Neptune and Saturn and how our rational minds and our intuitive ones are currently engaged in a long, creative talk. Collectively we are invited to aim for the integration of our capacity for reason and our capacity for spirituality. We need to allow each of these modalities of thought and perception to have equal time, to encourage them to support each other as good friends do—with hard questions, helpful criticism, and unexpected insights. We observed that under this Saturn-Neptune aspect any cherished, but ungrounded spiritual beliefs we held would be challenged by pressing Saturnian reality. We could deny that challenge—and choose to live in a spiritual fairyland. Or we could accept it and become far wiser.

Equally—and a lot more fun to say—we recognized that our attachment to “grounded reason” would likely be humbled by inexplicable experiences: miracles, acts of grace, and visionary moments.

February is Black History month. So in this edition of the newsletter, we’d like to honor a couple of folks who braced themselves against our racist culture and overcame their obstacles to achieve success. These two may not be as well celebrated as Rosa Parks or Martin Luther King, but their stories take us into some revealing cultural detours.

We’d also like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and commend a few bright stars in our astrological community who will be featured speakers at this year’s NORWAC conference in Seattle: our very own “Forrest Trained” Cheryl Hopkins, Marie O’Neill, and Vernon Robinson. Congratulations! Can’t wait to see what you cook up for us.

And a shout out goes to Samuel Reynolds, returning to NORWAC for his second year. Reynolds is the co-founder of the International Society of Black Astrologers and can be found at UnlockAstrology.com.

by Steven Forrest

The current square between Neptune and Saturn has been a weird elongated one, long-foretold but only now flowering. Technically, the aspect made first “partile” (exact) contact just a few weeks ago—on November 26, 2015. The reality is, we’ve all been living with it since December 23, 2014, when Saturn first crossed into Sagittarius. Neptune was only in about 5 degrees of Pisces then—thus, well within the orbs of a square. The aspect has gone on, stronger or weaker, since then—and it will continue through this year, as two more exact squares form on June 17 and September 10.

Saturn teaches patience. In eternal Saturn fashion, the square seems to be taking longer than it needs to.

All square aspects are about tension, but this is a particularly tense one because of the antithetical natures of these two planets. In other words, there seems to be a “natural square” between Saturn and Neptune, just in terms of their basic energies.

by Steven Forrest

Light soon returns to the world. Hallelujah, hallelujah . . . but you have heard it all before and it’s not exactly shocking news. Of course I am talking about the Winter Solstice.  And you might be yawning already.  You don’t have to be an astrologer to know that the season of ever-lengthening nights is now about to turn.  Yet, buried beneath the veil of numbing familiarity, this yearly turning of the tide of light still holds some riddles for us.

For us in the northern hemisphere, the coldest parts of winter still lie ahead, but at least there’s a reason for hope.  As the eloquent jazz pianist, Bill Evans, put it, “You must believe in Spring.” If you are in the snow-belt, there’s a lyric to tape to your refrigerator!  Even here in the southern California desert where I live, I am looking forward to the days getting longer again. Who can reflect even for ten seconds on the notion of “the return of the light” without a little whisper of optimism arising? Who can think of it without hope?