Although it didn't seem it at the time, in retrospect a dreamy, romantic fog hangs over my memories of the 1990's. It was a time of the emergence of cyber-space, of the rise of "alternative" music, and a fascination with teen culture a'la MTV's The Real World, the teenage drama My So-Called Life, and Saturday morning's relentless showings and re-showings of the high-school sitcom favorite Saved By the Bell. It also saw a resurgence of mournful, emotive, romantic (in the sense of John Keats, I mean) music like Sinead O'Connor, the Cranberries and the Smashing Pumpkins. Teenagers attempted to re-create the 60's via Woodstock '94.
       
        Astrologically, I think much of that contentedly melancholy and rebellious energy that *I* associate with the 90's can be traced to the Uranus/Neptune cycle, as the two planets were directly conjunct in Capricorn three separate times in 1993, but were within an orb of conjunction for the entire year. They continued to be less than 10 degrees apart until mid-'98, even though Uranus pushed ahead into its own sign of Aquarius in 1996 while Neptune remained in Capricorn until 1998. And though rebellious Uranus combined with dreamy/artistic Neptune did serve to create one helluva teenage experience for many in the 90's, the ramifications of the 1993 conjunctions of Uranus/Neptune are much broader than that. It just happens to have been the time of my own childhood, and I find myself drawn back again and again to the romance of that time period.
       
        Dane Rudhyar, however, writes of the 1993 Uranus/Neptune conjunctions before they happened, and his perception is no doubt more insightful and less nostalgic than mine. Thanks to the Khaldea Project, we have an excellent online archive of Dane Rudhyar's articles, and I recommend THIS ONE about the Uranus/Neptune Cycle and its conjunctions. I think it is interesting that Rudhyar writes:

"It seems that these conjunctions of Uranus and Neptune provide us with a very valuable indication of the process by which larger ideas flow into the mind of Man. They indicate the time for the clearing away of Saturnian crystallizations. Then as the collective mentality of human beings becomes more open to the spiritual downflow, the "seeds" deposited into that collective mind at the time of the conjunction of Neptune and Pluto are able to produce a really new "vegetation" — new institutions, new ways of life."

        Currently we live in a time of Pluto transiting through the sign of Capricorn, travelling the same path that Uranus and Neptune took together in the 90's. Pluto's disassembling of Capricornian structures may seem more obvious to us than did those of Uranus/Neptune, but we can see, perhaps, how Uranus and Neptune led the way to where we are now. Edmond Wollman has an excellent article detailing the three conjunctions of Uranus and Neptune in 1993 in his article "Uranus/Neptune Conjunction 1993: A Collective Unconscious Awakening," which I highly recommend reading. I'll leave you with Wollman's poetic introduction to that essay:

"Just past the sharply focused realm of Saturn and its crystal rings, lies the planet of unconscious forgotten knowledge, Uranus. Its wild and fluctuating magnetic field reflects the rebellious will to de-structurize Saturnine rigidity and 'authority'. One pole of this planet is always in darkness, and the other, in light. Waking up the Buddha or Christ consciousness, requires breaking up the entire concept of hierarchy. Awakening this unconscious knowledge leads our consciousness to the merging and blending with other dimensional or spiritual awareness at the orbital consciousness marker of Neptune."


   

We passed upon the stair, we spoke in was and when
Although I wasn't there, he said I was his friend
Which came as a surprise, I spoke into his eyes
I thought you died alone, a long long time ago

Oh no, not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With The Man Who Sold The World

I laughed and shook his hand, and made my way back home
I searched for a foreign land, for years and years I roamed
I gazed a gazeless stare, we walked a million hills
I must have died alone, a long long time ago

Who knows? Not me
I never lost control
You're face to face
With the Man who Sold the World

Who knows? not me
We never lost control
You're face to face
With the Man who Sold the World