Last time we introduced the mini triangle configuration of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto that remains in place until the end of this decade. To get a feel for how these planets work with each other when they get together, we can look at how it works in the natal chart. So in this post we’ll explore what it’s like to have one of the rare alignments of the outer planets with Saturn and Mercury.

The outer planets team up in alignments with each other fairly regularly and you may or may not notice them depending on whether they plug into your personal chart. The outer planets represent collective energies and many people only relate to them through the collective unconscious – i.e. through society and mass consciousness.

However, those who are born with the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune and Pluto) in aspect to their personal planets (Sun–Saturn) are forced to deal with these energies directly, which isn’t easy to do. It’s especially interesting when the outer planets combine with Saturn as well as one or more of the personal planets because there’s really no avoiding Saturn – although people try!

It’s quite rare to have all three outer planets aligned with Saturn and it’s even rarer for a personal planet to be plugged into the pattern too. The alignments usually only last days to a week or so, depending on how fast the personal planet is moving. So Jupiter will hang around for the longest, followed by Mars, then Venus, and then Mercury and the Sun.

For example, I have Mercury conjunct Uranus and Pluto and sextile Neptune and trine Saturn. Saturn also opposes Neptune and trines Pluto, but it doesn’t trine Uranus and Pluto doesn’t conjunct Uranus. So this configuration isn’t quite the complete pattern of all three outer planets aligned with each other and Saturn and Mercury simultaneously.

To get the complete pattern we have to go back to September 1966 when Saturn was in Pisces and opposite the Mercury Uranus Pluto stellium in Virgo and trine Neptune – this alignment lasted 5 days. A month later, Mercury had moved to conjunct Neptune and sextile the Uranus Pluto conjunction which was still opposite Saturn – this lasted about a week and then returned when Mercury went retrograde.

Then in January 1967 Mercury moved into Capricorn and formed a Cradle with the outer planets and Saturn which lasted about a week:

To get a feel for how the outer planets affect the personal planets we can draw on the research of Richard Tarnas and his excellent book Cosmos and Psyche. He explores the charts of two men who shared the same birthday and both had the same rare alignment of Mercury with all the outer planets and Saturn.

Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were born on 12th February 1809 within hours of each other. As Tarnas says, Darwin was born into wealth and privilege while Lincoln was born into poverty but they both grappled with the same archetypes and had many similar psychological and emotional experiences as a result.

The configuration in question consisted of Mercury conjunct Pluto square Saturn conjunct Neptune, while Uranus was also trine Mercury and Pluto, and Pluto was also widely conjunct Jupiter.

So these charts don’t have the full complement of all three outer planets aligned with each other as well as Saturn and Mercury because Uranus doesn’t align with either Saturn or Neptune. But we can still get a sense for how these energies work by exploring them.

When Mercury is aligned with all the outer planets and Saturn it tends to correlate with particular archetypal tendencies and qualities. The outer planets are channelled through Mercury which represents your mind and how you think and communicate. And with Saturn there too, this forces you to make these energies real in some way, to embody them concretely in your thinking and life.

Tarnas offers a list of characteristics that these men embodied as described by their charts. As someone with a similar configuration, I resonate with many of these descriptions which show how the outer planets feel when they crash into your mind:

“educational circumstances that were constraining, inadequate or discouraging (Mercury-Saturn); self-critical intellectual rigor combined with unusual economy and clarity of expression and a tendency to remain silent for long periods (Mercury-Saturn); a certain mental stubbornness or tenacity in slowly pondering seemingly intractable problems over extended lengths of time (Mercury-Saturn);

“a tendency to think with acute, penetrating intensity that in exceptional cases reflected the possession of a powerful, driven intellect (Mercury-Pluto); an unusual capacity for strategic thinking and cunning, shrewd analysis of underlying or hidden motivations (Mercury-Pluto); often combined with close, detailed observation (Mercury-Saturn); a desire to penetrate below superficial levels of understanding to grasp deeper principles and operative forces (Mercury-Pluto); a drive to develop a facility for effective and even compelling communication, written or spoken, intended to influence and transform the opinions of others (Mercury-Pluto);

“a tendency to think in ways that dissolve previously established structures and boundaries, and to intuit, usually after sustained periods of mental confusion and amorphous daydreaming, larger unities underlying apparently separate and divergent phenomena (Mercury-Neptune); and a heightened impulse for conceiving or entering into ideas and perspectives that defy conventional views and assumptions (Mercury-Uranus) and that often elicit intense negative judgement, criticism, and sarcastic attack (Mercury-Saturn with Mercury-Pluto).”

The Uranus Pluto trine coincides with “significant concern with or active participation in major revolutionary or emancipatory movements of some kind.” We have this alignment active right now and it remains in orb for many years to come. He also describes the Saturn Neptune conjunction which correlates with:

“an acute sensitivity to the suffering and sorrow of life, whether experienced by oneself or others; more than the usual concern with death and its spiritual implications; and potential tendencies towards persistent melancholy or depression, insomnia, and difficult-to-diagnose chronic psychosomatic symptoms. Such individuals frequently experienced an enduring response to poignant emotional loss of some kind and a pervading sense of being haunted by guilt or responsibility for tragic events.

“This same aspect was also associated with individuals whose philosophical outlook showed an emphatic tendency towards sceptical realism, which ranged in character from, on the one hand, agnosticism or atheism to, on the other, a critical attitude towards conventional religious belief combined with a serious, sometimes sombre spiritual vision of life of a highly pragmatic, this-worldly nature.”

Obviously, these descriptions relate to the natal chart and the character of the individual concerned but it gives an idea of the themes that can arise during these alignments.

The mini triangle that we’re currently enjoying is more harmonious than the alignment in the above charts so it might slip by unnoticed. It won’t force itself into your awareness unless it contacts part of your natal chart. But you can also choose to tune into these energies and become more conscious of how they work whenever the personal planets align with Uranus, Neptune or Pluto.

There will be plenty of opportunities to do this over the coming years, especially when Saturn joins the triangle and conjuncts Neptune in 2025–26. The faster moving personal planets will then also align with Saturn and the triangle as they move around the zodiac. These alignments won’t hang around for long but there will be more of them than usual thanks to the stable nature of the mini triangle.

For example, in May 2025 Saturn is closing in on his conjunction with Neptune and Mercury is conjunct Uranus at the end of Taurus and this lasts 4 days. By June 2025 Mercury has reached Cancer and early Leo and opposes Pluto forming a Cradle with the mini triangle which lasts 9 days. This configuration returns in August when Mercury goes retrograde and that lasts just over two weeks!

And there’s a lovely Kite that forms in September 2025 when Mercury opposes the Saturn Neptune conjunction from late Virgo/early Libra which lasts for 8 days:

There are many more examples like this with Mercury and the other personal planets that run through the entire period of the mini triangle. So by 2030 we’ll all be experts at dealing with Uranus, Neptune and Pluto – I’m sure! 😊

We’ll explore the implications of this rare alignment of the outer planets in more detail next year…

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