The Astrology Bro Daily - June 19th 2025
Big Dreams, Blurry Edges, and Finding Free Will in the Fog
Good afternoon (at least in NYC time), and welcome to today’s Astrology Bro Newsletter!
I want to cover two things today. First, let’s take a look at the planetary weather. Then, a little philosophical aside for those who might be interested.
Read Me The Planets, Bro
Jupiter moves into exact square configuration with Neptune, separating from the exact square with Saturn that was made over the weekend. Of course, all three of these planets are still actively talking to each other. While they can’t be fully understood in a vacuum, I do want to spend more time on the Neptune leg today.
Mars is separating from the exact square with Uranus that also peaked this weekend. Mars moves a bit faster, so this configuration will dissipate a little more quickly. The apex of the energy has passed, but the ripples will continue to reverberate for the next couple of weeks.
Tomorrow, I’ll discuss what some of the other planets we’ve been ignoring are adding to this conversation.
Neptune–Jupiter Square
In a few words, we’re talking about delusion. And delusion gets a bad rap in our rational, materialist world. But it’s not always bad.
This Jupiter–Neptune square brings a core tension between chasing the unknown and clinging to the familiar. It dissolves ego boundaries and calls us to grow something new from the ground up. Idealism feels exhilarating, but also deeply disorienting.
Practically experienced, this square can feel like treading water in the middle of the ocean—stuck between nostalgia and the longing for something more. There seems to be beauty hidden deep beneath the surface, but it's hard to access directly. It can be a moment of deep spiritual healing while simultaneously experiencing a really painful dissolution. One day, you’re drowning in uncertainty. The next, you feel like you can learn to walk on water toward whatever impossible thing you seek.
As we discussed the other day, Saturn wants to contain the delusion into something real. So we can limit ourselves from it, or we can try to jam the delusion into practical form. Which sounds nice, but might feel like stuffing a sleeping bag into a plastic sandwich bag. It’s possible that we need to let some fantasies go. But others might require and challenge us to double down in finally taking them seriously.
Look, this can feel scary AF. Delusions are slippery because they’re inherently unprovable. You can’t outsource them—or ask anyone to validate them for you. Every big idea is a delusion until it becomes real. And some never do.
This is a riddle that will have to be worked out individually. It’s the risk that each of us must decide whether and how to take. It’s an opportunity to alchemize something big, but with the entry cost of possibly falling on your face.
Now, where this tension will be most felt (and how extreme it will be) depends on your individual chart.
When aspects are made directly to natal planets, the themes represented by those planets can become more poignant and personal. Aspects being made in the world chart are also intense, but they are more reflective of the ebbs and flows of the collective unconscious. Different people may tap into that more or less, and in different ways.
Q & A: Which side of the square dominates? There are different techniques for conceptualizing which planet in a configuration might be stronger. Slower-moving planets are generally given more weight. Hellenistic astrology uses the doctrine of overcoming, which would view the Saturn/Neptune side as stronger. On the other hand, Jupiter is exalted in Cancer. I’m not sure how much value that distinction has for a general audience trying to understand the aspect. Keep in mind that someone’s natal chart may be more harmonious with one part of the conflicting energies, making the other feel more challenging or disruptive—or, conversely—may naturally lean into the other side excessively.
Folks likely continuing to feel this tension mightily:
Cardinal Rising Signs (Aries, Libra, Capricorn, Cancer)
Pisces or Sagittarius Risings (ruled by Jupiter traditionally—Pisces ruled by Neptune in modern astrology)
Folks with very active 9th and 12th houses
Folks with planets in the early degrees of the Cardinal Signs (0–10° in Aries, Libra, Capricorn, Cancer)
And, as mentioned yesterday, Mars in Virgo can be a friend here and we will discuss again once the Jupiter Sextile goes exact on June 22nd, 2025.
Semi-Random Aside: Free Will vs. Fate, Juneteenth, and Dr. Manhattan
In the U.S., today is the national holiday of Juneteenth, which is “celebrated annually on June 19 to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States” (via Wikipedia).
On Juneteenth, I also think about the Tulsa Massacre, which is connected to the same broader historical context. Watchmen (the HBO miniseries version) is an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name into a modern meditation on race and political tension—centered in part around the Tulsa events. This isn’t a total non sequitur, I mention it not just because it’s a good watch, but because it offers a natural segue into a point I want to make today.
One of the characters in that story is Dr. Manhattan, who has omnipotent, god-like powers and can see everything that’s already happened and everything that will happen in the future.
The character is a fascinating exploration of the fundamental philosophical tension between free will and determinism: How can you live a meaningful life when you already know everything?
This question is at the heart of astrology with different traditions and different astrologers locating themselves on different points of the free will/determinism spectrum. Of course, this tension in the context of astro comes with a couple of obvious caveats. The lens astrology offers into the future isn’t ever perfect or exact. Trying to look too far ahead is limited by the accuracy of the predictions that precede it. You can predict what might happen in next year’s major transit, but as you keep extending further, you remain bound by the window of error and the significant figures you start with. The gap of potentialities only widens from there.
Having said that, if you’re staring down the barrel of some really gnarly transit you know is going to strike in eight months, how do you orient yourself to that? Or, more pertinent to this moment, how much do you lean in to focusing on the current planetary weather?
Stoicism and Philosophy + the Astrological Mindset
I find it fascinating that Stoic philosophy flourished around the same time as astrology, during the Hellenistic period. They weren’t in conflict. In fact, Stoic philosophers fully embraced the legitimacy of astrology, with a heavy thumb on the deterministic side of it.
Which inevitably begs the same conundrum as Dr. Manhattan: How should one live a good life when one’s fate may, at least to some extent, be predetermined? How do we live presently within planetary moments without externalizing them or trying to wring our unique experiences into pre-prescribed form?
Similar questions, though phrased in different ways, are found in Buddhist philosophies as well. When approaching astrology seriously, it can be a great asset to develop a personal philosophy—whether it’s rooted in Stoicism, Buddhism, something you’ve created yourself, or any other meaningful framework that grounds you.
It’s always a balancing act to remain healthily within the pull of focusing on the form of astrology, and, on the other hand, the beautiful emptiness of living each day with fullness, purpose, and attention, no matter what.
And look—I’m not trying to proselytize here, just remind everyone that having some type of framework can help bring you back to basics when you come too far out of your shoes. It helps us avoid externalizing and idolizing transits as something happening to us or as something we can totally control 100% if we try hard enough.
This is a topic I’m excited to discuss more in the future. But, just something to chew on. I’ll leave it there for today. Talk to you tomorrow.
*edited after publishing for minor typos