Music Greetings all this is Rick Levine and I'm here to share with you a little bit of my outlook about 2026 and coming at this from an astrological perspective looking a little bit about what was going on in the 1960s and then again in the 2012 to 2015 period and how that is relating to what seems to be unfolding in front of us recording this here at the beginning at the middle of September of 2025 but looking forward to 2026 and beyond. We astrologers tend to look at patterns that are repeating patterns and these repeating patterns are the things that give us an idea of what's going on as we look backward into the past and then look at the present and project forward into the future. Most astrologers are looking at a few very specific events but when you put all these events together astrologically you realize that we are really living in quite an extraordinary period of time.
For example just starting with the Saturn Neptune conjunction that here in September of 2025 is within a degree of orb but is now because of the retrograde motion is beginning to separate and looking forward we know that this is going to be a conjunction that will be exact around late February, February 20th of 2026 but it's less the fact that Saturn and Neptune will be conjoining because that happens about every 36 years but what doesn't happen every 36 years is the fact that Saturn and Neptune will be conjoining at zero degrees of ares and of course there's many schools of astrology that use the ares point, the zero degrees of ares point as a significant point that is actually mapable in a natal horoscope just like any other planet.
You know a circle or a cycle has no beginning and no end it basically goes around and around and around and yet we astrologers use the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere, the terminal equinox in the southern hemisphere as the starting point for every astrological cycle and we can look back in history at least 2000 years or more and there are no other times when this Saturn Neptune conjunction cycle began or had it's almost like a new moon that that every moon when the moon catches up with the sun that sets the energy for the next complete cycle until the moon catches up with the sun again. Now Saturn takes about 36 years to catch up with Neptune 29 and a half years to go around once and then a little bit of time because Neptune has moved onward in you know 28, 29 years and so it's about 36 years for it to catch up.
The fact that this in a way it's like a new moon but it's really a new Saturn with respect to Neptune that is occurring at the zero degree point which is like the starting point now Saturn being the planet of reality of structure of things the way we see them in the three dimensional world Saturn being the limits of our five senses Saturn being the keeper of that which we consider to be the status quo Saturn being the laws that keep the three dimensional world in mechanical operation including Newton's laws of motion and Kepler's laws of planetary motion these are all Saturnian issues until we began to perceive energies out beyond Saturn.
It was always thought that Saturn was the limit Saturn was the the place that we could not go beyond without going out to the fixed sphere of planets or I'm sorry the fixed sphere of stars that literally did not move at least they appeared not to move. We astrologers have assumed a Saturn to be reality and Neptune to be fantasy I love Rob Hans little throw away phase that we once thought that Saturn was reality and Neptune illusion but now we've begun to understand that Neptune is reality and Saturn is the illusion that there was a reality. And this is like a shift of the way of thinking and it's so important for these times when there's a question about what is real where we have intelligence that appears to be artificial that we have news that appears to be factual yet fake and this is a big big issue of our times.
And it's the first time that Saturn and Neptune are conjoining and I say that as a process because even though it won't be exact until February of 2026 the process is really already unfolding and the question is what is real who gets to define reality who which which reality construct will we accept as that which is which is that which is in fact truth. The fact that this occurs at zero degrees of ares itself is an extraordinary proposition but what's happening at the same time is that not only are Saturn and Neptune moving from Pisces into ares relatively simultaneously so that Saturn moving a little faster than Neptune catches up to Neptune still while they're in that first degree of a certain kind of a process.
So that's a very zero degrees of ares but at the same time we have Pluto in its 248 year cycle that has recently moved from Capricorn into Aquarius and so as this Saturn and Neptune conjunction begins to unfold and move away from zero degrees it will very quickly come into exact perfected sex tiles with Pluto at just one degree of ares. So that's a very zero degree of Aquarius and then we also have Uranus in its 84 year cycle having moved from Taurus where it's been for about seven years into Gemini retrograde retrograde back into Taurus and then move forward into into Gemini again. The extraordinary process where this Saturn Neptune conjunction is occurring at the midpoint of a Uranus Pluto trine.
Now the Uranus Pluto cycle is a separate cycle from the Saturn Neptune cycle and in fact we can take any pair of planets and look at them as an unfolding cycle with the faster planet catching up to the slower moving one like the lunar cycle of the moon catching up to the moon. So the Sun or the cycle of Jupiter catching up to Saturn every 20 years defining what we call the decade because it takes Jupiter 20 years Jupiter is a 12 year cycle but then it takes it another eight years to catch up to Saturn as it's moving around so that Jupiter catches up with Saturn meaning it's like a new Jupiter like a new Jupiter in relationship to Saturn.
In 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 it was actually early 2001 2020 2040 and so on this Jupiter Saturn cycle this conjunction opposition cycle define what we call on our calendar the decades. But getting back to the cycle between Saturn and Neptune that is unfolding now as it reaches that zero degree point in Aries in February of 2026 separate from that we have Uranus making a trine with Pluto and the Uranus Pluto cycle is a very different cycle. And that cycle was at its new moon or actually new Uranus in relationship to Pluto because Uranus lined up with Pluto there was a Uranus Pluto conjunction actually three of them in the mid 1960s.
Most practicing astrologers know that what we referred to as the 60s was actually an artifact of a Uranus Pluto conjunction Uranus the planet of shock and surprise and revolution Uranus sometimes referred to as Rectornus does as a misnamed prometheus bringing fire from the realm of the divine the gods into the earthly realm of human. So we have to know that the Saturnus batteries the illusion of boundaries of of Saturn because Saturn's boundary the finality of Saturn's boundary is death but we now know that death is really like a doorway from one room to another whereas it was thought for many many of from many centuries that that death was finality and that there was a single boom at death and you either went to heaven or hell in the Judea or in the Christian tradition.
But the fact of the matter is that we now understand that Saturn is a gateway and that at the moment of death there's a transition from physical to metaphysical or physical to non physical dimensions. And of course this is very well understood by the Egyptians and even the Tibetans the concept of the Bardot states the the whole idea of non ordinary states of consciousness where we're not limited by linear time or three dimensional reality a place that we kind of visit when we do our dreaming and going to our dreaming cycles.
But the thing about Uranus is that it is the great Awakener Uranus as that lightning strikes Pam at that moment the lights go on we can see everything and and it's a hot it's that Eureka Awakening cycle a process and the thing about Uranus is that it is instantaneous now Pluto as we know is the planet that's associated with death but we have to be careful because this is the planet that's associated with death. It's not to be confused with death as end yes it can be related to a physical death but Pluto is really the process of death and rebirth that occurs all the time it's the process of a caterpillar becoming a butterfly the caterpillar dies but does it really die no it's merely trans formed it's its form changes from one thing into something else as the caterpillar becomes the birth of the planet.
Butterfly and so too we now understand Pluto as a sense of everything that's not on the surface the work of James Hillman really kind of digs deep the dream and the underworld being his book that I think is one of the best books to understand the nature of Pluto because Hillman really understands that Pluto is not about the hell realms of Christianity it's about everything that's not on the surface. It's about the subconscious the unconscious the Bardot states of the in what the Tibetans call the in between states the states that are neither life nor death they're the process of something becoming something else.
And whenever I talk about Pluto in this way I'm always reminded of William Blake who wanted as his epitaph on his gravestone he didn't get it but he wanted on his gravestone William Blake born 1750. So when Pluto was met by Uranus in 1964 or 1966 and that middle of the 1960s what happened was that Pluto was met by Uranus in 1964 or 1960s and that was the first time that Pluto was met by Uranus in 1964 or 1960s. What happened was that the shock and the awakening largely fueled by social movements and by music and by entheogenic or psychedelic substances that acted as a catalyst to that period there was a sense of expanding one's mind by shock by surprise by awakening that really caused a transformation of culture itself and it's not lost on me.
That it was at the Uranus Pluto conjunction in the mid 1960s that IBM came out with its first mass produced business computer and that set the tone for what is still unfolding even today and I think also as we're looking at historical cycles it's interesting to note that there was a Uranus Pluto conjunction in the mid 15th century and 1450. I think it would take a year which is right around the time that Gutenberg printed the first mass produced book which was the Bible with the Gutenberg press and in a way that was at a Uranus Pluto conjunction that set a larger cycle into being just like the IBM system 36 that came out in the mid 1960s at the Uranus Pluto conjunction set in motion what is now manifesting at the Uranus Pluto conjunction.
Uranus Pluto trine that is very very close within minutes of arc here in the autumn of 2025 but will become perfected for the first of five times in July of 2026 and then there will be five times between 2026, 27 and 28. And so what we need to understand is that what's unfolding right now, I say right now in 2025 is the pre-game dance to what will unfold as the Uranus Pluto trine manifests over the next three years that's fed by the re-adjustment of what is real that is based upon the Saturn conjunct Neptune.
Now I think of the relationship between Saturn and Neptune, I love Caroline Casey's statement that the imagination lays the tracks for the reality train to follow and I rephrase that by saying that Neptune is the scaffolding or framework, the invisible metaphysical framework imagination upon which Saturn creates three dimensional structure. And this is what's happening right now as we're facing ideas like artificial reality, I'm sorry artificial intelligence or augmented reality or confronting the ideas of extraterrestrial intelligence and it's important to understand that regardless of what of where this extraterrestrial intelligence comes from, any intelligence that does not have physical form is the way to determine the future of the Earth.
So it's an extra terrestrial that it's outside of the realms of Saturn which is terrestrial which is on Earth. So really what's going on now was was seeded at the Uranus Pluto conjunction in the mid 1960s when Saturn was opposed to that conjunction and that really grounded that energy but also brought something into the civilizations all around the world. So it was on the streets of Chicago or in New York or in Mexico City or at the Sorbonne in Paris or in Indonesia or the Maoist revolution in China, the entire planet just kind of reformed itself during that mid 60s period of time and there was an abrupt change in consciousness.
And really enough the things that came into being there especially in the West as Uranus reached its opening square to Pluto that was exact on and off I think seven times from 2012 to 2015 as Uranus moving through Aries was squaring Uranus in Capricorn that is that right hold on a second. As Uranus in Aries was squaring Pluto in Capricorn that's what I meant to say and during that time in that 2012 to 2015 the 20 teens we saw a lot of the things that came into being in the during the 1960s during the psychedelic years that we saw those things sex drugs rock and roll.
So sex drugs rock and roll civil rights ecological issues redistribution of power rights of the wave of feminism that in the that the square in the 2012 to 2015 became legalization of gay marriage the use of marijuana first medically and then even recreationally that these things were all harbingers. Back to issues from the mid 1960s that never really went away they just went latent so we saw a lot of those same struggles that were on the streets in the 60s in 2012 to 2015 by Arab Spring and the Occupy Wall Street and again all over the world there was social unrest that was hard angled that was square energy and although it feels very disruptive now and it is we are at a very very dangerous tipping point.
Because what we're seeing really is the preparation for what is around the corner and what is around the corner is unknown any astrologer that says they know what's going to be from the Uranus trying Pluto doesn't know we don't know because it depends upon what we're doing now and what we're doing over these weeks and months ahead as we get to the point of 2026 once that Uranus Pluto trying to get the point of the next year.
It begins to set the energy it's almost like a mixture of molten copper and tin both of which in their native states are pliable but when you melt tin and copper together and you form it into something as it cools it becomes bronze bronze holds its shape it's no longer malleable like copper was or like tin was.
And when one understands the nature of these energies when begins to realize that by 2026 27 28 whatever it is we get we're going to be stuck with for a while but what we get is being determined now and it's not a done deal and I think that what we're seeing all around the planet is this clash of two ways of looking at things one based upon the three dimensional world the limits the way things were the history.
The idea of making things as great as they were once in the past when in fact they weren't great at all and versus the year and that would be the Saturnian view of things on some level and then on the other side we're looking at the perhaps the Uranian the Uranus Neptune Pluto the outside of Saturn that is pushing us into an unknown future that is quite frightening because it involves something that doesn't feel human.
It's artificial it's technological it's digital it's ET we don't know what this is and it can be very unfrightening very unsettling and very frightening and of course one of the things that we sometimes forget about Neptune is that Neptune is the planet that has to do with the fear of the unknown it's not just about beautiful ecstatic you know images of ecstasy and fantasies that are beautiful it's all right.
Also the fear of loss of structure loss of safety and loss of what is real and the same is true with Uranus and with with Pluto and so what's happening is that we're getting this this cultural yikes I don't know what's around the corner let's hold on to what we know and make it the way it should have been when we look back that there's a concept that Freud introduced into depth psychology called infantile regression and it basically is a very interesting thing.
It basically says that when things get difficult when things get complicated the psyche goes back to some place in the past where things were okay even if they weren't okay we remember the safety of childhood we remember being taken care of by by teachers by parents by the church even if none of those were really taking care of us and so the same phenomenon is unfolding all around us.
We have to be careful here because Saturn has its relevance and its importance as does Uranus Neptune and Pluto and it's not like we're going to go one or the other what's really going on now the question is can we find ways to create dialogue so that we can move into the future with these two different energies that are actually communicating with one another rather than being artificially divided.
By higher level structures in government and politics and churches and in institutions that know that as long as people are divided then they won't be able to come together and I think the challenge of these times is to find ways and to figure out ways to create dialogue so that in fact we can get to a place where we have a better chance of being human and being happy because ultimately I don't care what your politics are I don't care I don't care who you voted for I don't care what you believe or don't believe I think ultimately people want to be happy.
And if we can figure out some ways to get beyond our individual imposed differences and instead focus on what's similar we'll have a way of getting through this very complicated and difficult time and I think astrology becomes a fantastic metaphor for understanding the dance between Uranus and Pluto.
Pluto in their moment of trying over the next several years that we're already beginning to feel now but we're so tied to the past that we're not able to open up yet and go there and at the same time the Saturn Neptune and Neptune in particular at that middle point to that trying is really feeding this energy.
And I think that ultimately imagination does lay the tracks for the reality train to follow that Neptune does it is the way that we're going to do it. The scaffolding and the framework upon which we have to do the very very real work sometimes involving very difficult and complicated shadow work but we have to do this work in order to move into the spaces that are ahead of us.
And with that I'm going to end by saying think cosmically because that's what we as astrologers do but it does no good at all to think cosmically unless we apply it day by day into our individual lives.