Training in the Art of Love: considering Saturn + Neptune on the Aries Full Moon

I was in a discussion about an Abraham Joshua Heschel book recently, and I was struck by this phrase of his: 

“All observance is training in the art of love.”

Heschel was talking about religious practice, but I read “observance” as the act of seeing. As a visual artist, I’ve trained my eye to observe closely for a long time and I find it does indeed inspire love.

One member of our group didn’t think that was necessarily a good thing. They mentioned Stockholm syndrome, the (now discredited) theory about hostages bonding with their captors—implying that as love grows, self-preservation diminishes. In this view, loving more deeply can actually endanger us.

This vision of love is classically Neptunian. Neptune, ruler of Pisces, is the planet that asks us to surrender to love—no self-protection, no rational thought, just the ecstasy of merging and abandoning the self. Neptunian love is the stuff of so many pop songs and rom coms, and it can be profoundly damaging in real life relationships.

But Neptune isn’t the only portal through which love flows. Decidedly less romantic and not always associated with love, Saturn is the planet that stabilizes our commitments to one another. Saturn is practical, patient, and very interested in what we can do sustainably and ethically to meet our goals. In the Heschel quote above, Saturn is what helps us keep up with observance. It is the force that asks us to steady our gaze and keep practicing, to train ourselves so that when love comes it won’t uproot us but deepen our roots.

Right now, an interesting thing is happening as Saturn and Neptune are moving together. As this transit continues (it peaks February 20, 2026), notice what might be shifting for you in how you approach love. Notice what you are observing, and what kind of love that inspires. Today’s Aries Full Moon may bring deeper feelings to the foreground—let them teach you how to love with all the self-advocacy of Aries energy. 

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