Neptune enters Pisces

Neptune entered Pisces April 4th

Silence of the Mists by Prozac1

Cold hearted orb that rules the night,
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is gray and yellow white.
But we decide which one is right.
And which is an illusion?~the Moody Blues

conscience, compassion, humility, oceans, water, gases, poisons, oil, unity, art, film, artists, music

In society, Neptune is the idealistic backdrop in the human community.  Its entrance into the various signs, and the major aspects Neptune makes, are reflected in the culture, through the Neptunian lens of essential unity and conscience.  This is the inner understanding of our connection, not only to other human beings, but to all sentient beings everywhere, as well as to all of life, including the planet we live on.  The more we identify with Neptune, the more the attributes that are associated with that Oneness are expressed: compassion, humility, inspiration, imagination, artistic expression and a realization of that which is spiritual within: interconnectedness with nature and humanity, a healthy conscience, and ultimately transcendence and enlightenment.

imagination, inspiration, deception, confusion, delusion, illusion, addiction, victimization, sacrifice

When the channels to Neptune are filled with filters made up of paradigms, rationalizations, and preconceived notions, these same attributes become distorted and confused... leading to the erroneous idea that spirit or deity is separate from us, or that we are the sole possessor of deity.  This in turn can lead to other more malevolent distortions of Neptune, such as thinking one is superior to others, and conversely, thinking of oneself as inferior, helpless and hopeless: the victim/savior dichotomy; glamour and enchantment which leads one down the garden path of deception; and a detachment from the material world due to mental illness, or deliberately through drugs and alcohol. 
 
charity, social welfare, altruism, transcendence, escapism, enlightenment, enchantment, glamour, deity, fairies, magic, myths

Neptune in its home sign of Pisces, allows Neptune to be expressed in all its glory, for the good and the ill.  It is pure Neptune.  So the same planet that rules transcendence and enlightenment, also rules mental illness and escapism.  And the same planet that rules the imagination, and artistic expression, also rules liars and con artists.  But the difference between the con artist and the Buddha, is the degree to which the essential quality of Neptune, its essential conscience and link to the divine, is expressed without the distortions of rationalization and selfishness.  Without what Buddhists refer to as the deception of self-cherishing.

The Mind is the great Slayer of the Real. Let the Disciple slay the Slayer.
The Voice of the Silence

The last time Neptune was in Pisces (1848-1862), we saw the emergence of Spiritualism in the United States, and Spiritism in Europe.  The belief that man was able to communicate with the spiritual world was not new, but the modern movement began with two young girls in upstate New York, in March of 1848.  The Fox Sisters had moved into a home, that had been plagued with curious knocking sounds and a history of ‘haunting’ presences.  The girls boldly figured out a means to communicate with the knocking sounds, that responded with accurate answers to the questions they asked.  Within a very short period of time the news of their discovery spread like wildfire.  The girls became an instant sensation, and spiritualists and mediums emerged from every nook and cranny, Spirit Guides in attendance.  

The Fox Sisters communications, were seen as proof, that man is more than just their human bodies, that there is existence beyond the material world, and that ‘we’ do not ‘die’ when the body perishes.   With Neptune newly ensconced in Pisces the time was ripe for the exploration of supra-terrestrial realms.  By the time Mary Todd Lincoln was engaging in spirit circles in 1862, historian Jean Baker noted that prior to the Civil War, there were more spiritualists than abolitionists. 

In the years that followed the discovery of the Fox sisters, variations on mediumship proved to be popular, not only from a spiritual point of view, but from a profitable one as well.  The Fox sisters were able to earn a living... and before long there were many and sundry ‘entertainers’ who would follow their lead, the result of which was often fraud, and extravagant tableaus.       

While the Spiritualists were gathering en masse in upstate New York, Henry David Thoreau had just returned from Walden Pond, and was devoting himself to the exposition of all that he had surveyed while he had been living in his remote ideal.  In September of 1847, he left Walden, and began his manuscript, which was published in 1854 as “Walden, or Life in the Woods”

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.~ Henry David Thoreau

Thoreau, naturalist, philosopher, transcendentalist, anarchist... he was also one of the first ecologists.  He wrote, “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”  He believed in a spiritual state that transcends the physical, and that insight is gained through one’s inner or intuitive connection to the divine, rather than through religion.  “Heaven is under our feet,” he would write, “as well as over our heads.”

Thoreau was also an avid abolitionist and supporter of John Brown.  So was fellow transcendentalist, Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, published in 1852, which brought to light the conditions that African-americans were subject to under slavery.  Although it created many stereotypes of African Americans that have continued to this day, its popularity was instrumental in inspiring and widening support for the abolitionist movement in the Northern States. 

A Ride for Liberty~Eastman Johnson

It was between the years 1854 through 1859, while Neptune was in the sign of Pisces, that battles between pro-slavery and free state settlers in Kansas reached such a furor... that it eventually led to the American Civil War.  It was also during the 1850’s that the Underground Railroad reached  its height.  It was the zeitgeist of compassion, a stirring of feeling for the disempowered and the disenfranchised, and a belief in the redemption of the soul that lay the backdrop of the Neptune in Pisces era. 


Also, interestingly, was the unintentional saving of the whales.  Neptune rules the oceans and the water.  With the increased use of ‘kerosene’, which was developed in 1846, and the ability to ‘fractionate’ oil... oil and kerosene would soon replace our reliance on whale oil as a source of light and energy.  Neptune also rules oil.  So perhaps we should look for more issues and resolutions surrounding our present reliance on oil.

Diaspora: A series of revolutions in Europe in 1848, led to mass migrations of refugees to other countries, but particularly the industrial cities.  And in response to the Industrial Revolution, many inequities in factories were addressed at this time, concerning working conditions.  The first trade unions were formed in the 1850’s and 60’s.  So perhaps we should see more issues surrounding refugees, immigration, and workers’ rights.

So, what can we expect in 2011 through 2025?  It’s the principles we need to observe.  The desire for spiritual confirmation, that we are not our bodies, that there is more to life than just this one mere terrestrial existence.  And if we were to know God, or Spirit, where would we look?  What about conscience?  What about our relationship to nature, the earth, and to each other?  Neptune in Pisces inspires us to consider those among us who have the least, who are disempowered, disenfranchised, the vulnerable or disowned, and issues of inequality.  These were the questions that arose in the previous Neptune in Pisces era, an era of enlightened conscience.  We can expect now to see more of the same.