On August 9, 2024, the FDA announced that it would decline to approve MDMA-Assisted Therapy for the treatment of PTSD, requesting further research before the drug-therapy combination would be considered again. Lykos Therapeutics CEO described the ruling as '“deeply disappointing” for the millions of Americans with PTSD and their loved ones. It wouldn’t be an overstatement to say that the decision was deeply disappointing the psychedelic industry at large, even while many consider the setback to be a temporary delay rather than an absolute roadblock to the future of the field. The social media graphic above applies the Gartner Hype Cycle of emerging technologies to the field of psychedelic medicine, depicting the “trough of disillusionment” that follows a peak of inflated expectations, and stating “we are here.”

As a psychedelic practitioner and educator and novice astrologer, I’ve been observing the planetary transits that have corresponded with the burgeoning field of psychedelics over the past several years. Specifically, transiting Saturn and its aspects to Uranus and Neptune.

Saturn Archetypal Qualities

The multivalent archetypal principles associated with Saturn include: limitation, structure, stability, contraction, constraint, materiality, authority, maturity, discipline, duty, melancholy, patience, endurance, tension and resistance. The Saturnian principle embodies the conventional and time-honored ways of doing things, and the structures within which we exist. For things to exist in the physical realm, there must be form and therefore limitation and boundary. Every archetype has both its negative and positive signification, and in its negative pole Saturn can be overly rigid and authoritarian, while in its positive pole delineates boundaries and containment. My observation (and problematizing) of the psychedelic resurgence has focused on the ways in which, unlike the counterculture movement of the 60s where psychedelic exploration occurred at the margins of society, the attempt within the current era is to situate these unruly and consciousness-expanding substances inside (deeply problematic) existing structures, namely the Medical Industrial Complex and legal, political, and economic systems. To further unpack the trajectory of these efforts, allow me to describe some key planetary aspects of Saturn in recent years and how the archetypal energies of these have played out on the stage of the psychedelic field.

Saturn square Uranus

In his book Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, Richard Tarnas delineates the archetypal qualities of the outer planets and transpersonal significations of their transiting aspects. He describes hard aspects between Saturn and Uranus (conjunction, square, opposition) as the clash between the old and the new, between tradition and innovation, between structures of convention and radical rebellion.

Many parallels have been drawn between the cultural zeitgeist of the 2020s and the 1960s, which in part echo the recurrence of Saturn in hard aspect to Uranus. The resurgence of popularity of psychedelics is one of many cultural themes from American counterculture in the 60s, alongside social justice movements and uprisings, that have echoes in the second decade of the 21st century (for more on this check out Tarnas’ documentary Changing of the Gods). The opposition of Saturn to Uranus between 1963-68 was heightened by Pluto conjunct to Uranus, amplifying the revolutionary spirit of rebellion, in opposition to the status quo of conservative Saturn, a T-square formation that accentuated the social upheaval.

The closing square in the Saturn-Uranus cycle, active between 2020-2023, took place during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponded with uprisings of the Black Lives Matter movement, possibly the largest movement in U.S. history. These disruptions of the status quo also coincided with the Pluto Return of the United States, which served to pull back the veil and reveal the state violence, ongoing since the inception of the country built on stolen land by stolen labor, and maintained through policing at home and imperial force abroad.

Alongside BLM, liberation movements for disenfranchised communities swelled during the Saturn-Uranus period. Movements organizing for transgender rights became increasingly embattled in opposition to legislation across the country aimed at denying gender-affirming care and restricting human rights for transgender people. The 2022 Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade was met with demonstrations across the country to protest the reversal of reproductive rights.

In the midst of political actions of social justice movements against structures of oppression, grassroots movements to decriminalize entheogens grew in popularity and power. In 2019, Denver and Oakland voted to decriminalize psychedelic plants and fungi, with Santa Cruz and Ann Arbor following suit in 2020. The state of Oregon passed a ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin in 2020, as did Colorado in 2022. At this writing dozens of cities across the U.S. have passed legislation to decriminalize entheogenic plants and fungi, and many additional states have drafted bills for statewide initiatives as well.

Acceptance of psychedelics at the federal level for psychedelics have been advancing since the FDA approved clinical trials with MDMA in 1990. Notably, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) was formed in 1986 at the opening of the current Saturn-Uranus cycle as the two planets entered a 10° orb, applying to a conjunction in Sagittarius which perfected in 1988.

Bursting the Bubble

The outcome of the Advisory Committee hearing on June 4, 2024 (8:30-5:30 EST) undoubtedly played a role in the ultimate FDA decision to withhold approval for MDMA-assisted therapy pending further research. The outcome of the AdCom decision came at the conclusion of a full day of testimony provided both in favor of and against approval of the drug-therapy combination. Notable in the chart of the moment is the Sun-Venus cazimi in Gemini, exact at 11:32 am ET. The Gemini stellium of Jupiter, Mercury, Sun and Venus form a sign-based square to Saturn and Neptune in Pisces. The Moon approaches an exact conjunction with Uranus in Taurus, ruled by the cazimi Venus in Gemini. Mars in Aries is co-present with the North Node.

The Gemini characteristics of intellectual curiosity and an (over) abundance of information, emphasized by the presence of Jupiter in a tight configuration to Mercury, along with the Part of Fortune and South Node in justice-seeking Libra, resulted in the decision to withhold support in favor of further evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks of this modality.

Chart of the conclusion of the AdCom meeting in Silver Springs, MD on 6/4/24

On August 9, 2024 when the FDA Complete Response Letter announcement was made (10:45 am PT email blast from Psychedelic Alpha), Mars was applying to a conjunction with Jupiter in Gemini (13°28’ and 15°54 respectively), as both planets moved toward a square with Saturn retrograde in Pisces (18°07’). Within a 3° orb the aspect becomes activated, as was seen in July when Mars conjuncted Uranus at 26° Taurus. The Moon and South Node in Libra are near the Ascendant, invoking the series of eclipses taking place here between 2023-2025. Eclipses signify fated endings and beginnings, with the South Node in particular referencing loss and release.

Chart of announcement of Lykos Therapeutics CRL rejection from FDA

Saturn and Neptune

Tarnas describes the archetypal principle of Neptune as relating to non-ordinary states of consciousness. As such Neptune mirrors characteristics of psychedelics and the mystical experience, including:

Dissolution of boundaries

Non-duality, oneness
Surrender (“trust, let go, be open”)
Striving to embody faith, higher ideals

Saturn’s domain of boundaries is in contrast to the dissolution of Neptune, and the polarity of these two can work to generate structure around formlessness.

Saturn and Neptune have been co-present since Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023. Saturn in Pisces delineations include a sense of disappointment and disillusionment, which we certainly saw in the bursting bubble of the FDA decision. Characteristics of the archetypal polarities demarcated by Saturn-Neptune periods include the following:

Heightened tension and dialectic between ideals, hopes, and beliefs on the one hand and hard realities of life on the other (Tarnas, 470)
Critique of religion and spirituality from materialism
Illusion, skepticism, truth, and confronting delusion
Social malaise, deeply discouraging or tragic events
Existentialism, acceptance of suffering and impermanence
Development of new structures for expanded consciousness
Hidden shadows of past actions and policies become apparent
Discontent and loss of faith, dark night of the soul

Saturn and Neptune will form a conjunction at initiatory 0° Aries in February 2026. Some astrologers have hypothesized that one of the manifestations of this transit will be the establishment of structures for the delivery of psychedelic medicine in a more formal and comprehensive way. Time will tell if this is meant to be, and perhaps the conclusion of the eclipses Libra-Aries axis with the final installation on March 29, 2025 at 9° Aries will open the way.

Saturn/Neptune in Pisces and the ‘Trough of Disillusionment’

Naropa 2023 Commencement Speech