complex deals with the
reconciliation between the imaginal, subjective, transcendent, or ideal with
the mundane experience of our day-to-day lives, the negotiation of how one
copes with this divide is varied and complex. In the figure of Havel, the poet and politician is compelled to deal with
the Saturn-Neptune configuration through the creation of art, policies, and
political critiques that allow for greater expression of transcendence, soul,
and idealism into the cultural commons. In Shyamalan, the Saturn-Neptune
configuration is dealt through the themes of the supernatural and through gaining
faith through darkness. With Betty Ford, we have yet another way of coping with
trials and tribulations of the Saturn-Neptune configuration.
The Saturn-Neptune complex invariably
creates what might be called a “thirst for wholeness,” a need to return to an
undifferentiated, serene, and paradisal state. The true dilemma for the
individual born under a Saturn-Neptune complex is that the thirst for wholeness
may be quite intense—great even—yet the path to one’s wholeness is often
blocked, impeded, and significantly challenged. Moreover, the Saturn-Neptune
complex is known for stripping bear the common culturally-conditioned illusions
that we take for granted. Thus, the challenge for Saturn-Neptune individuals is
twofold: the archetypal configuration creates a great need to return to a state
of unimaginable beauty, bliss, and happiness while the configuration strips away common “illusions” to that
happiness that we find in our everyday lives. Hence, the solution with
Saturn-Neptune configurations, as with all Saturn configurations, is hard.
One relatively quick fix to the
Saturn-Neptune dilemma is through distorting, escaping, or otherwise negating
the “real world” (as represented by Saturn) to return to the “imagined, transcendent world” (as symbolized by Neptune). This is not a true reconciliation of the opposites suggested by
Saturn and Neptune but a by-pass that can be unfulfilling or, at
worst, highly self-destructive and unhealthy. In the case of Betty Ford, alcohol and
painkillers were used as a way of alleviating the extreme pressures of political
life in Washington, D.C.(see chart) However, what was first a difficultly, a detriment,
and a source of pain was ultimately redeemed, not only for Ford’s benefit, but
for the benefit of thousands. Her journey through substance abuse and recovery led
her to open her own rehabilitation clinic, The Betty Ford Center, in California.
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