I found Diane’s recent post on Saturn and Neptune interesting because I have these two planets conjunct in my chart, straddling my Sun. Diane’s post is entitled “Productive creativity” and she writes, “It takes these two very different planets working together to make the intangible tangible – pragmatic Saturn is the best at harnessing Neptune’s dreams and visions and producing marvelous works of art, music and dance.”  Saturn is the left brain, with its focus on logic and discipline and hard work; Neptune is the right brain – artistic, flowing, spontaneous.

She goes on to say:

Having Saturn in aspect to Neptune natally does help. Some of the hardest working, productive artistic types I know have a Saturn-Neptune conjunction usually in aspect to a personal planet (Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars). These are the folks whose lives revolve around their particular form of artistic expression. They seem to draw inspiration from the very air they breathe and use it to start working on their next creative project/piece . . . amazing.

It’s interesting to hear this description because from the inside, what this feels like (for me at least) is an intense drive (from Saturn) to keep pushing out the creative product (Neptune) into a form that will have some sort of use in the world (Saturn once again).  And when the Sun is involved as it is in my chart, this process is essential to one’s sense of Self and well-being.  It feels rather relentless and oppressive, and makes it difficult to relax into a more enjoyable experience of allowing one’s creativity to flow with ease.

Conjunctions are funny aspects – the experience of them differs widely depending on the nature of the planets involved.  Because Saturn builds form and Neptune dissolves it, these two are not natural allies and I often feel a struggle between the spontaneity of Neptune’s creative flow and the rigid taskmaster of Saturn’s pressure to succeed.  But when I embrace the gifts of these two planets and welcome them both into my psyche, I am grateful for the balance that results.