Belief will always get its way, and people will always believe what they want to believe. Whether something is true rarely makes a difference; it is usually the last criteria by which most people evaluate reality. By Eric Francis. First published spring 2004.

Today's Long Essay is Brought to You by the Letter D.

I have had a number of conversations about astrology in London, but I've been surprised to hear a few people suggest that I am somehow deceiving the public with my work as an astrologer. One person asked me how I "justified" being a newspaper astrologer in the context of being a research and counselling astrologer. Another guy, very nice, recommended a great Thai restaurant, patted my tummy and reminded me that I, too, have to eat; therefore naturally I would resort to the fraud of astrology if I could.

I asked him my usual question: "Have you ever read an astrology book?" No. Nor had he encountered a word of my writing; I am learning not to take these things so personally. But he was adamant; astrology was a sham. (He also told me how when he was younger he used to lure girls into bed by giving them fake palm readings.)

For many, astrology, which stands outside the Church of Reason*, is by definition a profane thing: beyond the sanctified walls of truth and justice, outside the temple of modern enlightened thought. Off-campus, if you will. That is the issue. It cannot be supported by the normal lines of rationality, which make up the New Order, imposed on the old. Astrology's thinking is elliptical; its ways are complex and often occult; there's a lot of room for interpretation between those planets -- a gulf of empty space into which you can write anything you please. Besides, astrology hasn't been proven. To most people this is pure anarchy.

I was thinking about how certain people interpret the Bible in very literal terms. Imagine doing that with an ephemeris, astrology's equivalent to the Bible. You would be reading a bunch of numbers, with the occasional word (Mars, quintile, Pisces) tossed in. A literal reading is impossible.

Yet as someone who dances with both the sacred and the profane, as I endure various legacies with science as well as with mysticism, I can tell you that science is not always as well-received as many people might think. Typical case, maybe you read about it here: I spent several long weeks earlier this year working on my old story involving toxins in the air vents of a college dormitory complex. In February I personally got into the vents with two witnesses watching (yes, wearing a respirator), took samples, had them analysed in a reputed laboratory, and produced scientific results that said there was contamination. Then I produced a current federal government policy that said any contamination is significant. These results could have been, and still could be, and still should be, verified by additional testing. But the answer I got back from anyone to whom it should have made a difference was that I was not an expert and had no business collecting dust. This basic turn of events was absolutely not novel and has been repeated at the scene of just about every toxic contamination in history.

Science was suddenly not enough. To be qualified to do fill jars with crud from radiators and vents, it turned out I had to be a scientist -- a very minister of the Church of Reason, whereas I am merely an ordained minister of propaganda in the First Church of Common Sense (true).

Belief will always get its way, and people will always believe what they want to believe. Whether something is true rarely makes a difference; it is usually the last criteria by which most people evaluate reality. Nobody wants cancer; many people smoke. Reality is very much a matter of personal preference (to a point; cancer once you get it is a tough recovery). Preference is often based on convenience, how much money is involved, or how badly manipulated you are. Addiction often plays a part. Or, we believe what we think other people want us to believe; that is how precious social acceptance is. We will live together in this contaminated dormitory inhaling dioxins rather than break consensus and live someplace else. Why? A guy in a suit said it was safe, it's convenient, it's easier and I really don't care anyway. Magnify that up to the biggest scale you like.

But there has always been bullshit and there have always been bullshitters. People have for long centuries believed what was false and failed or refused to believe what was obvious and true in the simplest sense of that word. As long as a dude in a frock or tie blesses an idea, it's generally held to be brilliant.


Day One of 5,118**

However, when Neptune entered Aquarius on Jan. 29, 1998, the modern world with it entered a phase of truly impressive mass manipulation and perpetuation of fraud on the public. Every bit of it has been waged by and through the mass media, particularly broadcast media, very Neptune-Aquarius in imagery and feeling. The sequence of events from 1998 to the present day has certainly been beyond the pale, off the scale, over the top, under the bottom, unbelievable, incomprehensible, ridiculous, absurd, obscene and reprehensible. If you stop and notice it, that is. I speak mainly of United States' antics, politics and policies, which were and remain at the epicentre of world military and economic activity, and which are driving the world toward an unfortunate environmental destiny.

The key turning points of Neptune in Aquarius era:

- Fraudulent presidential impeachment, digging into the petty private affairs of the commander-in-chief irrespective of their impact on his abilities in office. Let's just state it clearly for the record since it's been a while. President Clinton, who was actually elected and could really read, was impeached because he lied about whether he had consensual sex with someone. The impeachers knew there were not enough votes to convict; this was a staged diversion.

- Fraudulent presidential election, wherein the loser became the winner, and so many other shenanigans were foisted. A Supreme Court packed with Reagan-Bush appointees stopped the Florida recount and certified the election in favour of the loser.

- Fraud-riddled terrorist attack on New York City and an even more blatantly fraudulent attack on Washington D.C. This has been the source of ten or twenty separate scandals, each of which has been forgotten in turn. Let's remember the Aug. 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief, the Rowley memo, the lack of scrambled jets once the hijackings were known, and so on. Many books have been written about these frauds.

- Weapons-grade mystery anthrax appearing in media offices, Democratic congressional offices and the Supreme Court, which issue also mysteriously disappeared, never to be heard from again. Investigation? Arrests? Recurrence? Developments? Follow-up story?

- Fraudulent "War on Terror" supposedly (but not really) focused on Afghanistan because bin Laden did business there. This, despite the fact that 15 of the 19 Sept. 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

- Fraudulent activity of Enron and Arthur Anderson, its accountant (dating back to 2000 and before), causing billions in losses to everyday people, in the wake of the fraudulent California energy crisis from which Enron's executives profited massively -- and most of whom got away with it. Remember that Kenny Lay and Dick Cheney are good buddies -- remember the Dear President Cheney email.

- Fraudulent war on Iraq based on non-existent connections to Sept. 11, fraudulent documents about non-existent weapons of mass destruction and a non-existent threat to the safety of the world. Remember David Kelly, the British WMD expert, "committing suicide." Remember, remember, remember.

- Arnold Somebody, an Austrian actor, gets elected governor of California on bullshit pretences; evidence has been produced that he cut a deal with Enron years ago to side-track the state's suit to recover its losses, once elected. You may not think this is a big deal now, but wait till 2008 and the self-ratifying "progressive" constitutional amendment allowing non-native-born citizens to run for high office.

Environmentalists could point out a lot more: the broken treaties, the gutted anti-pollution laws, and oh, a bunch of big tax cuts for the wealthy, the fake Medicare reform, all supported by so many lies they vanish into the fog of more lies and on it all goes. The United States has spent $200,000,000,000.00 allegedly fighting terrorism (somebody got that money) and Ashcroft is warning of an attack. We live in an ocean of deception.

This is an unusual, deeply unusual, constellation of events, and it is not over. In fact, it's about half over. Anyway it is unusual if you ask me. It is an unusual constellation of television events, particularly, but television and our minds have melded, Vulcan style. And each has been coloured or cast as glamorous with the light of Neptune in Aquarius. Each has been foisted by evoking the ideals of truth, justice and the American way. We will leap tall buildings and get the bad guys and free the people and spread feminism in Iraq and it will be quick and cheap and good for business.


Welcome to Multi D

My old astrology teacher David Arner once gave me some Neptune pointers a while back, one of which involved remembering that the best keywords for this planet begin with the letter D. There are at least nine of them, which you are supposed to write on the wall:

- Deception
- Delusion
- Denial
- Dreams
- Diffusion
- Dissolving
- Drugs
- Drink/Drunk
- Drama

Oh, might as well go for 10 and add "drenched." When you think of Neptune, think, "Someone left the cake out in the rain." Or: "How did all that Prozac get into the reservoir?"

Neptune is involved or rather invoked in all forms of film, advertising, music, theatre -- anything where inspiration, illusion or imagination is involved. It shows up at times and spaces where reality most dependably melts away, and that is to say that marketing culture is very much a product with Neptune as a significant ingredient. Study ads carefully and you will see that they push hallucination past all limits, twist us emotionally and inject their poison. And basically everything is marketing these days: every nanosecond of politics, TV news, and at least in the United States, TV programming.

Sure, Neptune is the "higher octave of Venus," meaning that it can represent unconditional or impersonal love. Neptune experienced from the correct angle can be an ocean of mercy. It is one of the most tangible energies that we think of as being on the spiritual level: not involving matter; somewhat beyond the mind; acting invisibly -- that kind of thing. (Venus by contrast is tangible, visceral, material -- sensual rather than extrasensory.)

With Neptune in Aquarius we also have a new level of functioning of the Internet, which was created or incarnated under the influence of Uranus in Aquarius. Aquarius could be another word for Internet; Rick Levine has an idea that it's this entity called Aquarion who has incarnated on Earth. Neptune, operating invisibly as it so often does, is changing the nature of the 'Net. And it could be changing it for the better, who knows. Certainly a kind of invisible community is evolving, presidential candidates have begun to take it seriously for the first time; it has served very well to keep many stories alive that would have died an early death -- but they grew up and made the networks.


The Gods Must Be Lazy

Let's presume for the sake of discussion that "the gods" are essentially neutral forces and what we do with our minds polarises them one way or another. (I am by the way speaking not of God or Prime Creator but rather of the gods as manifested planetary energies in constant interaction with the human family; I propose that the planets are closer in nature to us than they are to Prime Creator or God. I learned this in school on Alcyone.)

Now let's think of Aquarius: idealistic, intellectual, inventive, innovative, ingenious. They all begin with I, but Aquarius is really about We. Aquarius involves collective groups and spaces, the public, the public airwaves, intellectual property, and our shared social life. Aquarius is a good sign to symbolise "the culture" as an entity. There is within Aquarius considerable tension between individuality and conformity. (That is the dualism of this sign. This dualism is exploited in advertising by the way when products promise individuality through conformity.)

Aquarius is one of two signs traditionally ruled by Saturn. The first is Capricorn, which is the sign associated with structure and tradition. Aquarius takes us a shade or two beyond this; it is the expression of energy patterns. These two fall under the domain of Saturn. It is a less dense energy than Capricorn, being an air sign rather than an earth sign. As an air sign it reaches into the realm of the mental, the ideological, and the expressive. The waves of Aquarius are the waves of transmission of ideas, broadcasting, belief, light, sound and concept. Aquarius has a lot to do with inventions (this was the sign rising in the Kitty Hawk chart, to give one example, and Thomas Edison's birth sign). But Aquarius is also about groups and is therefore about collective mental patterns.

When you run Aquarius through the energy of Neptune or Neptune through the energy of Aquarius, you can add all those D words to the experience of collective ideology. Aquarius is the sign of "isms" that exist as fixed patterns or what I call standing waves in society. Republicanism is a good example; fundamentalism; science; the political system itself. And with Neptune in Aquarius, there is a message to look at the extent to which we are a culture that is all about drugs and drug-like energies, including religion.

Now, I'm certain most astrology students are thinking at this moment: this sounds like it has something to do with Pluto in Sagittarius. Yes it does, because Pluto, which represents obsession, mass consciousness and the focus of evolutionary process, is moving through a sign that has a lot to do with religion and ideas, Sagittarius. The two placements are quite analogous, but one seems to be a yin energy system (Neptune in Aquarius) and the other a yang system (Pluto in Sagittarius). Sagittarius is like the brother of Aquarius: exactly the same and completely different, as brothers often are.

The rise of intense ideologies was promised to us at the beginning of the Pluto in Sagittarius transit in the mid-1990s, and now we're seeing the full expression of that in the form of the Islamic world in a war with the Christian world (stick a lot of quote marks around Islamic and Christian please, because both sides are faking it and using their religion as ideological garb -- advertising and packaging -- to justify their existence). There is a relationship between the processes of Neptune and Pluto in their respective signs; they are working together, with Neptune in Aquarius acting like a drug that makes people sleepy or highly unrealistic and Pluto in Sagittarius doing the psychic surgery: adding very specific ideas that can be extremely destructive if taken unquestioned.

Both Pluto and Neptune tend to work unconsciously, that is, with effects, but beneath awareness -- until we become aware of them, a task with which astrology itself can be enormously helpful. This has been fairly easy with Pluto in the fiery, expressive sign Sagittarius. Yet Neptune is particularly insidious in this respect -- that's why Dave Arner suggested I write the meanings of Neptune on the wall of my studio. I have spent long sessions looking at many client's charts and only at the end noticed that something extremely interesting was happening Neptune-wise; but I could not see it or did not notice. I've noticed no other planet behave in this strange way, going so far as to vanish from perception and reappear.


From 11-D to T-D

Pluto's process in Sagittarius became obvious around when Saturn opposed it for the first time in the summer of 2001. It was quite a television program (obviously created as such), and while something happened, what we were told happened was a lie. It was not, for example, a surprise to the U.S. government or any of our friends. Consider that most people are plugged into the television dimension, what I will call T-D. This is a whole unreality all its own, driven not by information but rather by marketing. Marketing, too, is a lie. Every advertisement is a false advertisement because through visuals, emotional cues, music and subliminal messages, each promises something it cannot deliver -- such as total fulfilment from a hamburger, multiple orgasm from shampoo and so on. We may feel "immune" to these messages, but imagine that since childhood we were growing up swimming in this world. We are immune in many respects because we have become this unreality. Scary.

Then between the ads, we see in T-D the display of extreme viewpoints, mass death and destruction, and so on. Then we get Bush trying to look serious. But seriously. He is such an obvious liar. He does not open his mouth except to tell twenty lies; how is it that so many people fail to see this? Because it's working on the level of a drug, as dark Neptune so often does, and that drug dictates that most people will believe what suits them.

This is using image to create a version of reality at the total expense of substance. As Rob Brezsny has suggested, "Images are dangerous." The power of image can work many ways, however. And as Neptune reaches the midpoint of its trip across Aquarius, we've begun to see image work differently.

There is the possibility that the spiritualising power that is also represented by Neptune will begin to have its effects; it may have already done so. This began, I think, with the broadcast of the images of the caskets that have returned from the battle-front. Then the whole file was released under the Freedom of Information Act. This was a close, honest look behind the bright shining lies of the war. That led the way almost immediately to the images of abuse in American prisons in Iraq. And this has come with a slow turning of the tide that I feel will not just shift our attitudes about the fraudulent war on Iraq but also our attitudes about war for our generation.

And because the question "what is real and what is not?" is always so personal, we cannot live through this without learning something significant about ourselves. Even if we forget it 10 minutes later.


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* For more details please see chapter 13 of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, where Phaedrus gives his account of the Church of Reason lecture at the University of Montana, Bozeman.

** Neptune entered Aquarius for the first time on the 35,825th day after the beginning of the 20th century, Jan. 29, 1998. It leaves Aquarius and enters Pisces for the last time on day 40,943 or Feb. 4, 2012. The midpoint is day 38,384 or Feb. 2, 2005, when Neptune crosses into the 15th degree of Aquarius for the second time of three. There are 5,118 days total of Neptune in Aquarius era.

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