Neptune’s five-month retrograde comes to a halt on the leading edge of Pisces this weekend. Neptune resumes direct motion opposed the hypothetical object Transpluto, which is just inside the cusp of Virgo. Considered as a whole, with placement, aspect and timing together, this case of Neptune stationing direct can be interpreted as challenging you to be creative with no illusions.
Separating creativity from illusions is no small task. The imagination required to innovate is only a short step from the edge of reality. To walk that edge requires both curiosity and conviction.
Most of us are not encouraged to be curious. Proverbs about curiosity being fatal for cats are intended to keep your nose to the grindstone and away from what is interesting. Even fewer of us have the courage of conviction to improvise from the inside out when there is so much conditioning working its way from the outside in. Neptune and Transpluto in opposition along the Pisces-Virgo axis represents a way to overcome both conditioned discouragement and the pitfalls of delusion.
Neptune, discovered in 1846, is the modern ruler of Pisces. It’s a good match. Like Jupiter, the traditional ruler of Pisces, it’s a giant globe of gas. Neptune is named after the Roman god of the seas (analogous to the Greek Poseidon), which fits with Pisces’ position as the ultimate water sign. In regards to astrology’s experience with Neptune since its discovery, there is a very deep compatibility with the Pisces vibe of being everywhere and everything while also being nowhere and nothing at all.
Neptune’s demonstrated role as both source and dissolution corresponds to both creativity and illusion in your life. The question is how to engage such energy without getting lost in it. The circumstances of Neptune’s discovery hold a clue of how to work with it, as well as a connection to Transpluto. It begins with the discovery of Uranus.
The surprising and accidental discovery of Uranus in 1781 changed human consciousness forever. The idea of there being other planets in our solar system beyond those that the unaided human eye could see was revolutionary. Perturbations in Uranus’ orbit let us know that something else, something big, had to be out there. Thus, a search for Neptune got underway.
For nearly two generations, astronomers searched the sky in vain. Finally a mathematician took pity on the poor astronomers, spent a few hours calculating where Neptune should be and told the astronomers where to look. In other words, Neptune was discovered by the human mind before being properly identified by human eyes. It took the rigorous and disciplined, yet also creative, use of mathematics to bring the surmised into reality. It also inspired a new way of looking for other planets: calculation without observation.
Transpluto is the product of calculations not verified by observation. Yet, its hypothetical position has proven useful for astrologers, revealing the extent to which the creative human mind, tempered by discipline, can tune in with the music of the spheres. As such, Transpluto symbolically validates the curiosity and conviction needed to walk the edge between creativity and illusion.
Transpluto itself is walking an edge right now. After being in Leo for about 80 years (almost as long as it takes for Uranus to move through all 12 signs), it’s gradually transitioning into practical, grounded, yet improvisational Virgo. The timing is extraordinary, demonstrating the need for creativity without illusion at this time in human history.
The amount of time it will take for Transpluto to finally complete its calculated oscillations back and forth across the Virgo cusp corresponds almost exactly with the period it will take Uranus and Pluto to complete the series of seven square aspects that form the background for this era of astrology. What’s more, Transpluto is making its first Virgo forays just as Neptune has returned to its home sign for the first time in more than a century and a half. Neptune’s direct station this weekend, and its final precise opposition to Transpluto, has some rather uncanny timing of its own.
Neptune’s current retrograde period started on June 4. It was a few hours after an eclipse cycle ended, and a few days before Venus transited the face of the Sun for the last time until the next century. Hence, Neptune started its sabbatical just as we were being initiated into the core of of 2012 astrology. Now, as we near the Capricorn Solstice with all of its transcendental connections, Neptune is all but starting over where it belongs. Symbolically we are being asked to do the same.
The fact that you are alive now is no accident. You are among those to have seen Venus cross the Sun. You are present for the rare tests of Uranus to Pluto. You will witness the intersection of eras, epochs and eons uncounted. You belong here and now just as surely as Neptune belongs in Pisces, and everything you do, or don’t do, will count. To count for all you are worth, you will need to be creative and divest yourself of any illusions. It is not too late to start.
If you start over this weekend with a healthy curiosity and an open mind, you will enhance your creativity. What you begin creating is for you to decide. If you are rigorous and disciplined in how you create, you will escape illusion and actually produce something. What you produce is for you to value. If you can proceed with the conviction that you and what you produce have a rightful place in the here and now, you will be able to walk the line through an eclipse cycle that will take you to where you need to be for the Capricorn Solstice — and the work of a new season to follow.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Gift to celebrate this great event
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JGCsyshUU-A
discovered by a user, I love 🙂
Excellent Len, I like much Neptune is in conjunction has my Sun and finally arrives on my chiron
This Eclipse you be lucky, thanks once again 🙂
. . . guess that would be Eris forming a cardinal cross to his natal T-square. Petraeus born on November 7, 1952 in Cornwall on the (?) New York . . no birth time available.
be
Gen. David Petraeus has just quit the CIA due to an extra-marital affair. Don’t see transiting Neptune affecting his chart so much but do see transiting Eris forming a T-square with his Mars in Capricorn opposite his Uranus in Cancer and square his Neptune-Saturn conjunction in Libra. Bummer.
be
hcohen,
It would seem that each newly discovered planet contributes to the ongoing, unfolding of humanity’s intricate nature. Each newly discovered planet, and other newly named object that circles the Sun, is studied by both astrologers and astronomers for a better understanding of how it affects our own planet. Much has been written about Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Chiron and other centaurs, asteroids, TNO’s, etc., by astrologers who have observed how these bodies behave on their own and how they interact with other bodies in the charts of people and places and events. This in turn expands the understanding of how we humans behave with each other as well as how we develop and evolve as individuals. The unseen celestial bodies relate to the unseen characteristics that would otherwise not be perceived consciously, and this contributes to the growing consciousness of who we are as a species and as individuals. To learn more about how and what each new planet has contributed to that understanding, one can easily Google the name of it and research the findings.
Overall, the new planets have broadened the playing field from basic understanding to more specific understandings in specific catagories of human behavior. It has led to better understanding of the health of human beings and most importantly, it has increased consciousness of how cause and effect has given individuals the power to make change in their lives and move away from the conviction that fate solely controls their life path. Len notes that the increase in planets has increased the number of keys astrologers have to play, and that the basic principles of astrology haven’t changed. My guess is that attitudes have changed regarding the study of and the belief in astrology, and to a certain extent, the purpose of this art. It is no longer just for the royalty and the rich, but is accessible to all of us. We can thank our lucky stars (and maybe Uranus) for that!
be
Answers? No. Intrigues? DEFINITELY. So many questions. So many future conversations. 🙂
Huffy: You are welcome. Thank you, in turn, for your kind words.
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you for being so generous in your assessment of my service.
hcohen: Thank you. It’s nearly always the right place and time to ask a question. Your question i a good one, and you are not the novice at all. The short answer is that there is no right or wrong way. Vedic astrology, an ancient, profound, useful and sacred form of astrology does not use any of the planets discovered by telescope. Neither do some world class tropical astrologers. In the end, it is not the instrument that makes the music what it is. It is the proficiency and integrity of the musician. A piano has 88 keys, a thumb piano has three or four. Both work only to the extent that they are played with skill and feeling.
Astrology has only changed to the extent that there are a greater selection of keys.
Hopefully, that answers your question to your satisfaction. If not, please inquire again.
Maeve: Thank you for being so generous with your words and your hair. May your health improve and allow your life to improve with it.
Green-star-gazer: You are very kind, i am very grateful for that.
mia: It is for me to thank you, endlessly so.
aword: Your brilliant words and generous spirit are appreciated and thank you so very much for sharing how powerfully your own chart is being transited.
mystes: Yes, good idea with the water for those of your tribe. Thank you for the mention.
be: Thank you once again for taking us to a broader picture and a deeper perspective. As among the most be-autiful stars of Planet Waves, it is only right that you should be the one to mention a very auspicious star.
aword – Thank you. 🙂 Things are beginning to fall into place.
“The mills of the gods grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.” This phrase (and its many different forms) comes to mind after reading this article of yours Len. I love looking at the big picture as well as all the exciting details, but it’s the big picture that inspires and gives me hope. Although I don’t have a good grasp on Transpluto yet, I remembered what someone reminded us of in one of your earlier writings; that the fixed star Regulus had moved out of Leo and into Virgo, adding yet another exciting detail to this Zeitgeist.
Regulus will continue to “grind” slowly through Virgo, even after Neptune leaves his own sign of Pisces. For now though Neptune’s dissolution capabilities, when applied to the forms that have been created by Saturn over time, reflect the message Regulus seems to provide regarding our times; that of balance. If we seek to move to a higher octive of being, then the polarity of divisions between men and women, rich and poor, feast and famine must also change. I do believe that in opposition, Neptune and Regulus work together to subtly dissolve the differences at one end of the spectrum, while sliding out of the patriarchal mindset of kingly Leo at the other end and into the softer, gentler (usually!) feminine earth thinking of Virgo. It’s a good thing. They may sound the same but dissolution and disillusion aren’t the same. They do work together though, and that is the meaning and purpose of Neptune, especially now.
be
Whew! I am taking 3 days next week to work my way over to the New Moon, and to hear that Neptune is going direct makes my little crabby claws go clickety-clack! Now all I have to do is get to the water. Anybody going to the Gulf this weekend?
(Will read the rest and comment later, Len. Looks dishy.)
M
Maeve,
What a wonderful gift you have made of your hair!
Best of health to you, I hope all is “uneventful” with your surgery.
Neptune Transpluto axis is takin’ a ride on natal Sun Pluto axis
(whilst Neptune additionally trines natal Jupiter/NN/Neptune).
Creative with no Illusions? For certain. You’ve let the cat out of the bag; for certain there’s more than one way to skin it (poor baby). – and there is no question in my mind or observances that all you say is true, for me, here and now.
With Uranus on Moon/Eris, perhaps it will all be surprising and “accidental.”
Thank you, as always for keeping me in touch and grounded and creative all in the same place, at the same time.
-with gratitude and Love to you Len.
“Curiosity killed the cat,” Fesgao remarked, his dark eyes unreadable.
Aly rolled her eyes. Why did everyone say that to her? “People always forget the rest of the saying,” she complained. “‘And satisfaction brought it back.”
― Tamora Pierce, Trickster’s Choice
Len,
I, too, am grateful for you and your gifts.
Thank you so very much.
Mia
Related somehow, I’m sure –
As part of my healing process (and in anticipation of surgery), I’m getting my hair cut tomorrow. I had planned just a modest trim (in my case, six inches), but I realized that it’s long enough that I can do more without making myself unhappy. I’ll be donating it to Locks of Love, which had been my automatic “it’s long enough, I can do this” thought. Then I looked up Locks of Love and discovered it’s for kids. Which made me a little cranky, and then I realized it is uniquely suited to what I’m doing (surgery to remove an ovarian cyst). I don’t particularly want children, which is why I got cranky. But given the location (ovaries, fertility, logical jump to children), giving to Locks of Love makes a certain amount of sense.
Len,
Tears of gratitude for your presence here, on this page, in this circle and on this planet at this time….
Absolutely STUNNING piece of writing…. tears of gratitude…thank you, thank you.
“Now, as we near the Capricorn Solstice with all of its transcendental connections, Neptune is all but starting over where it belongs. Symbolically we are being asked to do the same.”
Oh, Len. Look at you with your perfect words. Thank you.
I know, as a novice, that this might not be the right place or right time to ask this question, but , inspired by the talk about the newness ( at the time ) of planets mentioned above, how has astrology changed over the centuries when new planets or other relevant celestial entities have been discovered?
( I will completely understand if my question is skipped at this time. I’m just simply trying to learn and assimilate )
Len- thank you for taking out the flaming sword of discernment, seeing deeply into the symbology of this coming event, then delivering the message with clarity and hope.
Wow, Len – Neptune’s inching forwards again, solar eclipse coming up… No wonder I’m feeling totally and utterly weird. “If you can proceed with the conviction that you and what you produce have a rightful place in the here and now, you will be able to walk the line through an eclipse cycle that will take you to where you need to be for the Capricorn Solstice — and the work of a new season to follow”. Just beautiful. Thank you for this wonderful piece.