Are you noticing difficulties concentrating? Kind of fuzzy headed? Dreaming about all sorts of things besides the actual, on-the-ground tasks you need to accomplish? You might not be, but if you are, chalk it up to Mercury, newly in Gemini, making a square to Neptune in Pisces (exact Saturday at 3:19 am EDT).
We’re actually in the midst of several planets making or getting ready to make squares to Neptune, since all those faster-moving personal planets that have been in Taurus are in direct motion and heading for Gemini (Venus is the other planet that has already arrived; the Sun is next, on Monday).
What this spells for most of us is a phase of time when the solid feeling we’ve enjoyed with planets in Taurus loosens up and — thanks to Neptune — gets a little slippery, squishy and dreamy before the lighter mental quickness of Gemini arrives full-force.
This is extra challenging in square format. With an aspect that emphasizes flow, you might find it easy to surrender to your imagination and creativity and just go with it. But squares ask us to take action to resolve tension. You can think of them kind of like using a lever to push against a fulcrum, thereby moving yourself past an inner obstacle.
A square to Neptune is kind of like trying to use a lever against Jello: you have to get creative and really pay attention to what you’re doing, and you have to be honest with yourself about what you’re actually trying to accomplish. Your usual type of ‘push’ might not get you anywhere.
In terms of Mercury in Gemini squaring Neptune in Pisces, this could translate to: instead of ‘making’ yourself concentrate, can you ‘trick’ yourself into focusing in some playful way? (Mercury being the trickster, after all.) Gemini is famous for being able to see (and live) two sides of an issue. Can you simultaneously see your dreaminess and some logic to work with it? Or in some cases, your self-deception and the truth?
Deception and truth might actually be the biggest theme all these squares to Neptune have in common. We’re in a moment of ‘integrity check’; question and reassess your integrity. Notice what some of the bigger news stories (especially in politics) have to show about integrity, deception and honesty.
This matters even more than usual because we are still in a period between eclipses. We’ve had two on the Taurus-Scorpio axis, and next weekend (May 25) we get a third on the Gemini-Sagittarius axis. This is a time to set patterns consciously; easier said than done for anyone living a busy and digital 21st-century life. Facebook can just as easily undermine your desire to release old patterns and set new ones as Neptune can, if you let it.
Still, we’re nearing a useful turning point before that third eclipse: the first quarter Moon on Saturday, May 18. This is the midpoint between the Taurus New Moon solar eclipse, and the Sagittarius Full Moon lunar eclipse.
What’s interesting about that chart is that the centaur planet Nessus in Aquarius turns the Sun-Moon square into a T-square. It will be opposite the Moon (which will be in Leo) and square the Taurus Sun. In fact, the Sun is square Nessus now (about three degrees from being exact).
If Mercury-Neptune is providing the broader theme of detecting lies, speaking truth and knowing the difference, Sun-Nessus represents ‘the thing to lie about’. Nessus in Aquarius can be interpreted as ‘abuse by or within groups’. In other words, social conditioning that’s at odds with who you really are; peer pressure.
It’s easy to see it in politics, often harder to see in our own lives. We’re very, very good at convincing ourselves we want things we don’t want, or believe things that are not true for us, especially to ‘belong’. The messages start coming in very early in life. But that does not mean we can’t learn to see them for what they are, call them out, and ‘stop the buck’ of their influence on us.
Sometime near Saturday’s first quarter Moon (exact at 12:34 am EDT), do a little integrity check in the honesty department. Then see if you can discern anything in your life that is at a turning point since the New Moon, especially if it feels like it wants to gather momentum. This span of time between eclipses might feel a little ‘different’, but it could also be incredibly useful — kind of a cosmic lever. Just save some room for that Jello — Neptune is square the next eclipse, too.
Rereading. Though retreading is appropriate in its own way. I am indeed walking this back and forth as I find my way through it.
Amanda, I keep coming back and retreading this because there’s so much that’s powerful in it for me. And I so appreciate your continuing discussion with Len about how to use the lever–I hadn’t understood that before; it’s like a light just turned on for me on how we use the energies. I think I’ve been looking at all this & just trying to be aware of everything, which can be kind of exhausting. But for the first time, this idea of using the lever has come home for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
With mercury in Gemini all good are possible and when Neptune gets involved can invent all sorts of reasons to avoid getting caught in the spinning of the fisherman, Ah this fish it more than a ride in his bag but much less than the more astute Gemini Zodiac, thank you Amanda I just understand my own strategist have delayed this quarter of the Moon 🙂
Stopping the buck of unwanted desires is easier said than done. A lot of energy is put into manipulating us into wanting things we don’t need. Consumerism depends on it. ‘Time is money’ is bullshit fed into the system by the lords of money. And then they go and call money ‘the bottom line’. If that’s only as low as you can see well then no wonder the biosphere is in danger of extinction. Distracted by a symbol we rip the Earth to pieces. The planet is burning and there’s still so many people jumping through the hoops of the money system. I don’t know how it changes, but I do see people doing all sorts of horrible things with money as their only excuse. If you’re torturing sentient beings how does ‘I’m only doing my job’ differ from ‘I was only following orders’? This is forefront in my mind as recently I’ve witnessed friends alienating one another and going through nervous breakdowns that alienate themselves from their web of allies via verbal violence- all because of money. I’m sick of it.
Amanda: Thank you. Yes, you said it perfectly.
thanks, len — that is a great way to think of it! i was trying to imagine the wider sort of “lever” that might be more useful, and you’ve hit on it perfectly. not only the idea of breadth, but the fact that chiron gets included when we expand the idea.
it’s maybe more like a scoop or a paddle, in that case? we still apply ourselves with some focus (chiron) on the handle, but allow the scope of the other end to work for us — broadness moving the softness, taking it all in…
or something like that?
Amanda: Thank you for the pertinent and useful imagery of how problematic applying a lever to gelatin can be. Since, as you wrote, the Mercury-Neptune square includes “the broader theme of detecting lies, speaking the truth, and knowing the difference”, perhaps we can get the leverage we need by simply employing a broader lever that holistically includes the entire breadth of the square in all of its meanings an connections. Perhaps that is how holistic Chiron is integral to, and included in the 90-degree arc the square takes in.
Let me add my thanks too, Amanda
These are helpful and thought provoking words for me today
Creativity with Jello: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranjit/5910418380/
Thanks for this great piece and advice on how to deal with that Jello, Amanda!
Thank-you, Amanda, for a useful discussion of the march of personal planets into Gemini & subsequent aspects. My 12 hse cusp is zero Gemini & contains natal Uranus; anything 12th hse seems to be really hard to FIND & work with, at least for me. Having Neptune in Pisces approaching my M.H. does indeed add some more “jello” potential. Good imagery.
I’m hoping that as Sun, Mercury, & Venus oppose my Sagittarius Sun/Mercury, I might be able to get a better sense of the whole 12th hse process.
You are so right that truth/deception are often easier to discern in politics than in our own inner processes & character. In fact, we Canadians seem to have some new scandals on our ordinarily rather staid political scene.
As for the personal, well, that Leo moon you mentioned will be transiting my Mars & Pluto, so I expect I’ll have any incongruities I’ve been (unconsciously) running with brought to my attention one way or another!
The older I get, the less willing I am to hide or fudge anything for the sake of acceptance or belonging. There’s a lot of freedom in that. Perhaps I could read up on the crone personna?