Additional coverage of Neptune in Aquarius is at the Reality Check diary.
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012. One distinctive feature associated with slow-moving Neptune changing signs is that it’s doing so in opposition to an even slower-moving point, Transpluto. Neptune is an actual planet; Transpluto is a hypothetical point. Astronomers would not acknowledge Transpluto’s existence. It exists in the minds of astrologers as an observed trait in the human personality, and as a function of mathematics in their computer programs. Developed in Germany in the early 20th century, Transpluto was more popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and it fell out of vogue many years ago. Most astrologers have heard of it but few use it.
Transpluto moves so slowly that it’s taken since the mid-1930s to transit across Leo — and it’s changing signs around the same time as Neptune. That is to say, as Neptune is entering Pisces, Transpluto is entering Virgo. The two points have been and will be in an opposition for a while — but these are the last few days that the opposition involves the last degrees of Leo and Aquarius. Soon it will shift over to Virgo and Pisces. One interesting thing here is that astrologer Lynn Koiner associates Transpluto with Virgo, and most astrologers associate Neptune with Pisces. (You can read Lynn’s excellent delineation of Transpluto here.)
In addition to being in an opposition aspect, they also represent opposite concepts. Neptune is inspiration and denial; Transpluto is about criticism and narrowness. Both influences have a way of seeing what they want to see, though Neptune is likely to represent a condition of denial whereas Transpluto can be a perfectionist over-focus. Neptune takes a wide and generalized view, sometimes so broad it has no traction in reality. Transpluto focuses in on the smallest details and cannot see the big picture. Where Neptune has at tendency to deny, or to substitute idealism for awareness, Transpluto will find the fault in anyone or anything, especially oneself.
“Used constructively, self-criticism and the perpetual alert for imperfections can motivate the individual to continually strive to do better, to achieve a standard of excellence and to make improvements where needed for the betterment of all,” writes Lynn Koiner. “Used destructively, perfectionism never allows the individual to be content. Always dissatisfied and troubled by self-recriminations, the ego is diminished by a low self-esteem, an image unfairly projected by the parent. In anticipating failure, the individual painfully procrastinates or gives up before the efforts see fruition.”
So, these two points are opposing one another; the two principles they represent are in a kind of face-off — uncontrolled idealism that alternates with obsessive self-critique. And I would say that it’s a reasonable illustration of the double-bind that many people face; a sign of the times. If you factor in Transpluto in Leo — a narrow and critical self-concept, opposite Neptune in Aquarius — an idealized idea of what it means to be accepted by a group — it’s a little more obvious what’s going on, if not for you personally, then on the level of what people are being conditioned to feel.
Looking for insights on how this week’s astrology affects your personal Sun and rising signs? Eric Francis interprets the signs every week, every month and every year. Weekly and monthly horoscopes are in Planet Waves and Planet Waves Light. Annual readings are in a special edition called Revolution. Revelation. Reality Check.
{{{{Mystes}}}}
so many passages of late…
{{{{to all}}}}
Thank you, Patty… I *know* you get this… No, Miss Stormi, not in your neck o the sands, but soon.
I am a little puzzled by how hard and persistently hard this is hitting. I loved Davis, but we haven’t been close in years. I think there’s some leftover Carla-grief that is trying to work itself out.
Dunno. But it sucks.
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Oh Mystes, I am so sad for you.
Big Hugz o’Love to you Ms. M! i did wonder if by the Rio Grande you meant you were closeby. ♥☮♫
Thank you SO much, Len, Linda and Carrie… I take your concern to heart; it has been a strange 36 hours.
Did I write that the Rio Grande ran through central Texas??? Hooboy, I *am* tilted. That’d’be the Colorado running past Davis & Lyn’s windows. The Rio Bravo/Grande is a piece south.
M
mysti; love, light and hugs. xo
Ah Mystes. {{{Mystes}}} Take care.
Mysti,
Please accept my expression of sympathy as well, along with a virtual hug. Thank you for the link to see the watercolors.
Thank you, Amanda… the whole constriction/opening thing applies here, too.
Last week, as Davis was getting sicker (he died of pneumonia), I was *trying* to have a small house party. It kept getting smaller and smaller, and even my guest of honor was struck down with a respiratory illness a few hours before the party was to have started.
I simply could NOT figure out where the blockage was – but then started having freakadelic feelings about Davis, and contacted his eldest son. Yep, the old sweetie was in the hospital, and had decided to stay off of the tubes.
Yesterday was just horrible. There’s no other word for it. It was a good death – as they go. But my heart is still broken.
mysti — my condolences. and i’m very glad you were able to see him in his studio and in his element last month; what a blessing.
within minutes of reading this post, i logged in to FB to post the link. and do you know what i found? First this bit shared by Sarah T:
and then just 2 or 3 posts below that, my friend tavia posted this in her status update:
so shared the two wise ladies offerings with them both, and thought i’d include them both here. they struck me as perfect illustrations of this Daily post. and i appreciated the sense that maybe transpluto and neptune are not in a standoff, but rather illustrating a type of cycle on both the personal and macro scales all at once.
My fairy godfather, Davis McAuley died this morning at 6:30. He leaves behind a big, boisterous family – of which I was a part from 14-17 years of age, then intermittently until my fairy godmother, Carla, moved to Montana.
I was Carla’s darling, but Davis’s sudden illness and death has suckerpunched me with a force I would *never* have expected. I feel like the prodigal daughter, but I know how the death of a cornerstone family member can make everyone a little crazy, so I’m calling and writing condolences, staying home and crying. Alot.
Davis was a writer and scholar, then a gifted watercolorist until the end. He specialized in the spare & innately subdued coloration of the Hill Country. When I went to see him last month, he took me back to his studio, which looked out over the Rio Grande as it wended its way through west Bastrop. An *amazing* view. His lovely (second) wife, Carolyn, had ceded this gorgeous view to him, and her office next door was the more modest space. Still, the buzz in the household came from these two artwranglers, riding along shoulder to shoulder. What could be better?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX_v6bj9OZg
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I do not know that — and I don’t have that association personally. I know that’s what Tracy calls it on Serennu.com but I am not sure why. For details you would need to ask around astrologers who were prominent in the 1970s.
ef
I wonder if you could tell us about the association Transpluto has with Isis? Does it have anything to do with her search for Osiris taking her to the underworld?
be
ohhhhh……and wow. -and Isn’t astrology Amazing?
This will have to sink in a bit. There is something deeply important here. Thank you, PW.