I don’t like that man. I must get to know him better.
— Abraham Lincoln
The Sun enters Pisces at 1:18 am EST on Sunday. Paraphrasing Robert Hand, Sun represents your consciousness. The solar ingress to a new zodiac sign means a shift in your consciousness according to the nature of the sign. This particular shift will include a challenge to which we are not accustomed, because of the presence of Neptune in Pisces. The challenge will be to at once take more in and see it all more clearly than ever before. In your life that will mean getting to know people you don’t like and learning more about ideas you don’t agree with.
For the first time since Abraham Lincoln was alive, Neptune will be waiting at the door of Pisces when Sun enters. The very first aspect Sun will make after moving into Pisces this weekend is a conjunction with Neptune.
That conjunction will symbolize a host of things. It will be a consummation of sorts, making the solar ingress real. Additionally, like all conjunctions, it will represent a merger of energies, the beginning of a new cycle and a potential blind spot. Finally, when Sun hooks up with Neptune in Pisces for the first time over 150 years, it will hook you up with a past experienced by nobody now living. To the extent that you are alive and conscious of what is going on within and around you, this is likely to be a weekend you will not soon forget.
The consciousness of Sun in Pisces is influenced by the associated element, quality, position and ruler of the sign. Water is the element, and the quality is mutable. The traditional ruling planet of Pisces is Jupiter, shared with Sagittarius. The modern ruler is Neptune, and, for most astrologers, Pisces is the end of the zodiac cycle with an implicit connection to the elusive 12th house.
The 12th house is the experience you can’t express, the concept you can’t grasp. It is, as the translators of the King James Bible poetically put it 400 years ago, “The wind that bloweth where it listeth,” so that no matter which way you turn, it is always in your face. It is the the terrible sound of gods making love behind the elements of manifestation.
In astrology, it is not unusual for the elemental to manifest itself literally; this is especially true if the symbolism is reinforced. Therefore, when Sun consummates the transition to a water sign by merging with a planet named after a water deity, you can expect to have the wet stuff work its way into your awareness. It could be as mundane as rain, but don’t be surprised if it is something that really commands your attention, flooding over from the literal into the symbolism of the emotional and intuitive, forcing you to adjust.
Adjustment is also part of the Pisces experience. The mutable quality means we are about to enter the final four weeks before a change of season, in this case the Vernal Equinox. Preparing for a new season means letting go of the old one and accepting that a new cycle is about to begin. Adaptation may entail different clothes, food, habits or opportunities. Sun commencing a new cycle with Neptune just hours after entering Pisces indicates that some of those accommodations may be closer than we think, perhaps too close to see.
Conjunctions mean that objects are literally indistinguishable by their position on the zodiac. When Sun is one of those objects, consciousness becomes symbolically indistinguishable from the nature of object it is conjoining, creating a blind spot in awareness. Normally, that close identification is superficial, like a mask, and lasts but a few days. When Sun conjoins with Neptune almost immediately after entering Pisces, that will not be the case. That’s because the practical expression of Pisces and Neptune are very similar.
Two weeks ago, Eric averred that Neptune, as the modern ruler of Pisces, “works rather well.” Truer words were never written. Beginning with what water actually does and figuratively evokes, carrying over to what mutable means and how it functions, and including all of the difficult and paradoxical associations of the 12th house, what is said for the planet works for the sign. Whether you speak of the emotional, intuitive, fishy, mysterious, majestic, oily, dissolving, flowing, confusing, inspirational, murky, beautiful, ideal, unpredictable, elusive, dualistic, invisible, omnipotent, visionary, foggy, deep, placid, terrifying, creative, delusional or spiritual; individually or in combination, Pisces and Neptune are nearly always interchangeable and often indistinguishable. Yet, if we are not to be so lost as to be unconscious, we will need to expand our awareness to both take it all in and discern all the details when Sun enters Pisces this time around.
Jupiter, the original and alternative ruler of Pisces is, among other things, about expansion, and that’s where we need to turn. Whatever happens when Sun enters Pisces this weekend, it will not be superficial and it will not be short. Essentially, it will be a month-long conjunction with Neptune. Nobody living has seen anything like it, but history tells us that it has been encountered, and dealt with before.
The consciousness Abraham Lincoln brought to the office of President of the United States was forged during the last tenure of Neptune in Pisces. It was an expansive consciousness that could see beyond precedent and prejudice. It was an awareness that the work begun four score and some odd years before he assumed the presidency had not been finished and that division would not not serve the cause of completion. It was the sure and certain knowledge that wisdom is worthless without kindness and that kindness could not prevail without wisdom.
Abraham Lincoln was not born with wisdom and kindness, but he learned about them by expanding his awareness to include that of others. With that expanded and inclusive consciousness he saw a hugely complex, paradoxical and emotionally confounding transition through to a new beginning, then he too left work unfinished. Now, the Sun’s light is about to illuminate the fact that it is our turn. If that light is not to be swallowed by the depths of our predicament, we must follow Lincoln’s example. Instead of hunkering down to struggle, we must open our arms, as well as our minds, to take it all in.
Offered In Service
And thanks Be. Just beautiful.
For me too, dear Amanda, for me too! What’s more, the guy who stole my idea – actually stole a whole lesson I was going to do with classes we’re co-teaching, so I had to quickly work out another lesson to do (me still smarthing from it? what makes you think that!?).
Amanda: You deserve a lot of credit. Please accept my thanks for all that you do.
aword: Happy New Moon Birthday on Tuesday.
Burning River: Thank you for your kind words.
WOW, Len. I wanted to say that it can’t get any better in understanding and delivery than what you just wrote for us about Neptune and Pisces and the great A. Lincoln and the astrology that was surrounding him at his place on the time line and your giving us the heads’ up about what we need to watch for in the here and now–but then, I know you will again, eventually, and always, outdo yourself….again.
With much appreciation and gratitude always.
Len, Thank you.
Be, Thank you.
My chart is lighting up like a hot-wired christmas tree – and will continue to do so well past my solar return this upcoming Tuesday. I’m not certain how many traits Ol Abe and I have in common but the tidbits about the Sun as Gold are helpful – seems to give an element of grounding as Neptune heads for exactness with said Sun while Pluto squares Moon/Eris (and Venus conjuncts that conjunction). Venus, I suppose, will be old news by Tuesday – but there’s enough else going on to keep me jumping and tuned in, as always, to PW.
xo
“the important thing is that someone is benefiting from it, whether one gets credit for it or not.”
ooh…. that’s such a tough one for me to get the hang of! eek!
be: You are a national treasure. Thank you for catching the amazing synchronicity with President Lincoln’s chart.
Huffy and Carrie: Thank you for extending the theme by example (which proves that we can use “example” as a verb even if make the teacher blanch).
I agree with Huffy..reading about Mr. Lincoln was inspiring Len. Of course he being an Aquarian, whose birthday we just observed, was able to wade through that Neptune in Pisces period with some conscious detachment. I’m sure it helped too that his own Neptune was in Sagittarius and conjunct his stable Saturn. Not surprising that you would write about him for today’s offering since right now transiting Juno is conjunct Lincoln’s Saturn-Neptune conjunction while trans. Mercury and Chiron square it and trans. Jupiter is quincunx it. It’s a very Neptunian-Piscean gift of channeling you have done here Len!
That’s not all either. Lincoln’s Jupiter at 22+ Pisces is opposite where transiting retrograde Mars is as well as where he stationed last month. Next month the north node will conjunct Lincoln’s Neptune so most likely we will sense this President’s influence through the whole Sun in Pisces transit.
Here’s something that might interest you and others; astrologer Mary Jarvis wrote in Dell Horoscope in November 2009 that “the Sun rules the spirit, which is indivisible and always symbolizes a state of oneness.” She was writing about gold and the fact that “it cannot be magnetized”, and “gold represents the spiritual state of nonduality, for the spirit is beyond the play of opposites. Gold is ruled by the Sun and its sign of Leo. In an astrological chart, the Sun rules the spirit, which is indivisible and always symbolizes a state of oneness. The spirit (gold, the Sun) is beyond the reach of polarity. It transcends polarity or division.”
For me this in itself is an expansion of consciousness. I didn’t know the Sun symbolized a state of oneness, and if the Sun’s double exposure of Neptune and Pisces is a shift in our consciousness, and a challenge to take more in and see it more clearly, then I’m thinking it must be part of the Universe’s greater design for the evolution of humanity. That our “spirit” and “consciousness” will be influenced by the late great President Lincoln the whole time the Sun travels through Pisces can be nothing short of a blessing, don’t you think?
If you don’t believe that, think about this. Lincoln’s Venus was at 7 Aries 27. Transiting Venus was in this degree on Valentine’s day, this past Tuesday. Did you feel the love?
be
Yes, that’s lovely Carrie – the important thing is that someone is benefiting from it, whether one gets credit for it or not.
Huffy,
I have had times when I purposely gave someone who had a more “out there” voice some of my best ideas just to get them “out there.” I don’t get the credit for them but they get to where I want them to go. The person sending them might change them a bit but the underlying message was intact and therefore worth the “giving up” of my ego-centered need to recognition for them.
Thanks for this wonderful blog Len. I missed ya! Think I’ve already met that man, a work colleague who has nicked my ideas and paraded them as his own. I reached a state of frothy fury – but when I calmed down again I realised that it was all about ego – so, so what? And maybe it’s about getting to know *myself* better. So inspiring what you write about Lincoln.