Today is Friday, Jan. 27, 2012. We’re actually on the cusp of an historical era, marked by Neptune’s ingress of Pisces next week on Feb 3. The god of the sea is coming home to the ocean. It’s the last of the major outer planets taking its place for the events of 2012, and the cosmos is giving us a ‘real moment of astrology’ to be sure we pay attention just before Neptune crosses the threshold.
Let’s check in with the Moon first, since it’s the celestial body most people feel most palpably (even those who don’t ‘believe in astrology’). Today, just before 1:28 pm EST, the Moon ingresses Aries. Aries is the first sign of our zodiac; the first of the initiative-taking cardinal signs that begin seasons (Cancer, Libra and Capricorn rounding out the roster).
That first degree is so special, it has its own name – the Aries Point – whose effect extends to the early degrees of the other cardinal signs. And that effect is to make sure that what is personal impacts the body politic, and vice versa.
What’s so beautiful – elegant, really – about this latest visit of the Moon to the sensitive Aries Point, are the conversations between the other planets and Neptune, which is just at the last quarter of the last degree of Aquarius at this moment. (In other words, Neptune is at 29 Aquarius and 45 arc minutes.) It’s as if Neptune’s homecoming is so momentous the gods are offering all kinds of signs to celebrate, aligning in honor of the transition.
For starters, check out the other end of Aquarius: when the Moon enters Aries, Mercury will have just made its ingress to Aquarius moments before 1:12 am EST. It joins the Sun, which entered last week, to light up our consciousness as Neptune leaves. The mind moves faster than the soul; if we’ve struggled with the spiritual implications of our technology, it seems we’re finally about to catch on to what that means.
Briefly occupying 00 Aquarius and 01 arc minutes, Mercury makes a sextile to the Moon and a semi-sextile to Neptune. The keynote for the Sabian symbol for the first degree of Aquarius (which is “an old adobe mission in California”) is, “The power in all great human works to endure far beyond the workers’ life spans.” Mercury, entering the sign of the individual in the collective, the sign in which Neptune ushered in a whole new way of communicating and thinking via the Internet, is sending a message: what Neptune in Aquarius has spurred us to create may endure, but our individual understanding of how we use it to engage with the world, and how the world enters our little lives, is what may have the most lasting and dramatic impact right now. Witness the SOPA/PIPA blackout last week for an illustration.
The last degree of Aquarius, which Neptune has almost completely traversed, has a long, convoluted Sabian symbol. So here’s the keynote instead: “The ability for the person with an open mind and a deep feeling for self-transcendence to come in contact with higher forms of existence.” And here is Neptune, planet of soulful depths, pouring from the charged, electrical waters of Aquarius into the sign of higher spirit, where it can perhaps finally float up to its true level. The ability for transcendence is there, but will we exercise it?
Well, Chiron is waiting for Neptune in early Pisces, having recently made the same transition. It’s as if Chiron is holding space for the arrival of Neptune, creating light in the othewise invisible waters of Pisces. We may see more clearly our Neptunian blind spots in the coming weeks – those places where we have perhaps been substituting delusion for divinity. What we do in the world with that insight is up to each of us.
In the middle of Pisces, Venus is lighting up the torch of Vesta in a conjunction. The sacred fires of love and devotion are honoring Neptune’s homecoming, like a lighthouse beacon to a world-weary mariner. Meanwhile, across the way in Libra, Saturn is in its own last degree, making a trine to Neptune. But instead of crossing its own threshold, Saturn is holding slow and steady, about to retrograde. The traditional ruler of Aquarius, it’s as though Saturn is holding the edge for Neptune to cross over, shoring up the doorway’s frame to channel the water through.
Juno, in the last degree of Scorpio, is about to release her grip on her jealousy in favor of some Sagittarian open-mindedness. And even Mars, god of war, drive and willpower has momentarily stopped (a station retrograde) to witness the transition from across the wheel. We don’t actually know what we’re in for in this next era. But the gods and goddesses are offering signs indicating it’ll be something to see, honor and experience fully.
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I agree wholeheartedly with the Quaker sentiments. Theirs is an orthodoxy that puts the welfare of man – in this life rather than in any to come – firmly at the centre of their belief in God’s purpose. Even their name – the Religious Society of Friends – incorporates Aquarian themes of universal friendship and humanity.
One of the Quakers’ main proposals was that any man could speak directly to God without the need for church incumbents to intercede on their behalf – about as (r)evolutionary a concept in religious communication as could be imagined. No surprise then that their first meetings in 1647 were held as Uranus conjoined Neptune in Sagittarius opposite Pluto in Gemini. English Puritans meanwhile were busy banning Christmas.
As Patty said, Quakers were later at the coalface of social change on behalf of the poor, women and slaves; even their attitude to LGBTs would put most Christian churches to shame today. They started businesses which took care of their workers’ housing and other social needs and established FMCG brands which are still famous in Britain today.
I hope the recent mutual reception of Uranus and Neptune will prove to have been a similarly beneficial period in the development of humanity’s spirit. Neptune in Pisces will tell.
I see it as a spirit awakening. Water is like spirit because it is everywhere, in the clouds, mists, fog, rain, humidity, and in the earth and under the ground and in the caves – there is no escape from water. People will have to live empathically through spirit, and won’t be able to escape the feeling that what they do impacts someone or some place. How you live may be judged through a new lens, not necessarily with a rosy tint. During the last visit of Neptune to Pisces, many reforms began: women’s rights, anti-slavery, and freedom of thought. Darwin published Origin of Species. The Mormans travelled to Utah to build their new Jerusalem. The Utopian church was founded about that time wasn’t it? The world changed.
I like the idea that many might lean toward the Quaker faith. My ancestors were Quaker.
I, for one, intend to enjoy every moment of Neptune in Pisces.
Perhaps just as Aquarius brought technology to an intuitive level, maybe unselfish service to others will become such a part of our lives that we won’t even have to think about it.
On the other hand, Pisces can be hard to handle for a lot of people. They resent the lack of concrete focus, and feel that they are lost in a fog, and what they see is illusory. And they are right. Life is an illusion, but it’s one we need. These people need to learn that you can’t find your way with your eyes open. You have to find your true emotion and inner voice-the one that gets drowned out by fear and noise. Once you learn to hear that voice, you have all the guidance you need. You’ll know the voice is true if it it is always loving, kind and compassionate to you. Your true voice will never diminish you.
So maybe we’ll see a surge in membership of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
I too, thank you Patti for causing memories of the 80s to surface; they seem suddenly SLOW, don’t they? wow.
Other forms of connecting are forming to be sure. Spent the morning/early afternoon with friends sharing woman-to-woman stories of recovering health and angel visitations.
There is a new day dawning; I’ve been feeling it so strongly for, um oh about 14 years. Now it isn’t so much a stronger feeling as a more clear vision. Well then, and again; onward.
Perfect photo for the moment. Thx PW.
xo
Thank you, Eric, this is a beautiful image of the planetary choreography as Neptune leaves Aquarius. His sojourn there always leave humanity’s knowledge imbued with greater spiritual understanding, but this occasion was especially significant since the ruler of the passing Piscean era was domiciled in the sign of a now-emergent new age. This was the transit when the baton changed hands.
As if to herald this important transition, Neptune’s entry into Aquarius could not have been more majestic. The Sun was exactly conjunct Uranus in that sign as Neptune entered on January 28, 1998. A great light illuminated humanity’s inventive champion as the ruler of the spiritual ocean was welcomed into the house of the sky god. For the past 14 years, Neptune’s loving wisdom and eternal reverence has been at the disposal of our future generations; in return the host has entertained lavishly with evermore wondrous technological tools.
Let us celebrate this period when the community of man found a way to articulate its spiritual connectedness to all humanity throughout the world. We spoke to the world, and the world could speak back. Instantly. Hallelujah!
I sincerely hope that the return of Neptune to Pisces does not result in science being submerged beneath the waves of fundamentalist spirituality. There is another sentiment from Dylan’s Mr Tambourine Man which seems pertinent to the effect we sometimes seek when we reach for the alcohol or drugs so often ascribed to Neptune’s realm:
“With all memory and fate driven deep beneath the waves
Let me forget about today until tomorrow.”
Let us remember Neptune in Aquarius and give thanks.
Moon is now in Aries and be-friended by Mercury still at 0 Aquarius, so I’m not sure why, but while I can do so safely, I want to share a story about symbols, myths, and life on earth.
My friend is going through the ordeal of caring for two 90+ year old parents; one in a nursing home getting therapy for a broken hip, the other into early Altzheimer’s, and a former nurse, and bothof them are pretty much running her ragged. Her back and shoulder (old injury) are killing her and I gave her the news that Persephone was conjunct her Pluto and opposed the trans. Sun. Her Nessus was square her Pluto, and now Persephone too, and there was more to come when Jupiter caught up with her Nessus next month. She took it in the spirit it was meant (please don’t kill anyone just because your mom is driving you crazy and you can’t get back at her because she’s your mom, and that’s why your back and shoulder is hurting. . cuz you can’t express your 1st house Pluto fury).
She offered the possibility that it was Hercules having to carry the weight of the Universe on his back that was more appropriate. Her not being a mythology student, I noted that it was Atlas not Hercules, who was the one who carried all that weight and then I wondered why there was no heavenly body named after Atlas. Leafing through a book on Mythology and Legend I found this piece of information, new to me, that I want to share with you now.
[After one of his many labors] “Hercules was now free to go forward once more, and at length he came to Mount Atlas, where he found the weary Titan [Atlas] bearing the heavens upon his broad shoulders, a task imposed upon him in punishment for his rebellion against the gods. Atlas listened to his visitor’s request and then offered to go himself to fetch the apples if Hercules would relieve him of his burden meanwhile. The hero consented gladly and Atlas successfully perfomed his mission. Once more, although with a bad grace, the Titan shouldered his burden and Hercules returned with the apples to Eurystheus.” (Thomas Bulfinch, the Golden Age of Myth & Legend)
Stories about the symbols in the forms of gods and goddesses do help us make connections, I agree with you Hugging Scorpio and Burning River.
“The mind moves faster than the soul”, it would seem so, Planet Waves, it would seem so, especially when the mind is working solo and not in harmony with the heart.
Thank you Patty for giving us a story that shows how far we have come in such a short time, and how the internet or the “universal mind” can enable or empower us as individuals to accomplish miracles.
Thank you my friend for again reminding me that I don’t know everything, but I can keep on learning. Looks like you might not have to hold the Universe up forever; just until Atlas gets back.
be
what an insightful article PW team, thanks dearly!
I love the connections you make, along with the sabian symbols. Wonderful.
I’m not sure what I’m in for either. I’m not sure I’m meant to. If I knew, I’d probably screw it up. 😉 So, I’ll just enjoy this moment where I am now and feel comfortable in myself and my integrity. If opportunity arrives in a boat on these newly illuminated waters with messages of love and healing, no one shall be better pleased than I.
Have a beautiful weekend all!
HS
I know I’m probably early, but thinking about the subject of my little letter Len had us write on Monday, combined with conversation here about technology (both in post and comments), and the palpable sense of relief in the post about Neptune coming home… Wow.
My letter was about not being so tied into technology, about releasing myself from the OCD tendencies I’ve developed. About enjoying the beauty around me, instead of nose-to-the-screen with a cell phone. And really, it’s what Patti said. Perspective. Just because we have that technology available, we shouldn’t all be beholden to use it ALL THE TIME.
Combine that stepping back with yesterday’s post about stepping back, not because we don’t care, but because we do, and stepping back offers perspective…
Gah, it’s all making sense. All of it. Right now. It all just Clicked. Wow.
So, stepping back for perspective, using the gifts we’re born with instead of those thrust on us, Neptune’s homecoming, perspective with technology. It’s about coming back to me (or you) and really being who I am, instead of what everyone has told me I am (or should be) (sounds like the mother-centered post from a few days ago, too). It’s about using the tools one has available, instead of being used by them. While technology is great in certain ways (I mean, I’d never have had any of these conversations with you wonderful folk otherwise), it’s also a way to mainline access to what people think you should be. Internet is often devoid of subtlety. You’re reduced to an algorithm. All your are is your data (a la Facebook). But really, I’m not _only_ what I post online. I’m ever so much more. And so are all of you.
Tie all of this homecoming with the themes of spiritual, physical and sexual health… heck, it almost seems like the Homecoming is so that I can better work on health (and vice versa). Hmm. Need to think on that one a bit.
Thank you for this post and the apropos picture. It is apparently just what I needed.
I had a series of dreams a few months ago and the big take away was how very important Water was to me and how I needed to embrace it. I have hardly any water in my chart. I think this is some of the Water I need. May it be peaceful, gentle and just the right temperature.
REALLY appreciate the clarity of this post which gives us the degrees of planetary placement and the sabian symbols. I can visualize and “feel” what you are saying with those extra descriptors. Thank you.
This ingress of Neptune into Pisces is momentous, even though I don’t like to get hyped up about things like this–especially since it is Neptune. The last 14 years have been the most intense and confusing and upsetting of my life due to Aquarius being the ruler of my 7th house and Neptune messing with all of it (denial and dissolution are not fun to me). Now we get into the 8th House of jointly held securities. Great. The promise of true and deep spirituality is my only hope for peace in the next 14 years it looks like to me.
Anatoly’s picture is breath-taking.
Patty thanks for the remainder of what life on another planet in another world felt like in the 80’s……before Neptune in Aquarius made living in a sea of electronic buzzing feel normal.
+-=+
I taught a class at work this week, and tried to explain why changes to a system were so slow in being implemented in the early 80s – no adobe downloads, no email. We relied on technical writers, whose work had to be fact-checked and approved by legal, then sent to printers for mass distribution, classes set up around the country, and instructions given, re-written, scrutinized and litigated. Next we back-tracked to retroactively implement the changes and correct everything we’d done for several years, to bring on a new era in benefits.
In a few hours, one can implement what used to take years, and the class is toe-tapping to get to their in-boxes. What’s taking you so long, talk faster.
In other words, I can’t even begin to imagine what comes next.
Perspective.
And the photo is so apt!
“The sacred fires of love and devotion are honoring Neptune’s homecoming, like a lighthouse beacon to a world-weary mariner”. Wow! Trying to open that mind WIDE. Thank you. xx