The Sun dives into Scorpio at 2:10 am EDT tomorrow, immediately trine Neptune’s Pisces position. As result, you will be able to find a more conscious connection with Neptune than is usually the case. That’s because Scorpio and Pisces (along with Cancer) share a common element — water.
Signs that share a common element form trine aspects. Trines, in turn, form connections known for their unimpeded flow of understanding.
As for the consciousness of the connection, that’s because one constituent of the Scorpio-to-Pisces water trine will be the Sun. As Phil Sedgwick recently put it (albeit in reference to a different solar aspect), “The Sun requires conscious attention.”
The Sun’s correspondence with consciousness, combined with the flowing connection of a water trine, will go a long way towards your understanding of Neptune in general, and finding it in your everyday life.
Understanding Neptune is one of the greater, and most important challenges in working with your astrology. That’s because Neptune paradoxically combines pervasiveness with elusiveness for astrologers. Indeed, even scientists have found it to be that way.
Just over 400 years ago, Neptune fooled one of the smartest guys ever. Galileo observed Neptune at least twice during 1612-13, but thought he was looking at a star. Variations of the same thing happened to others in the centuries to follow. Time and time again, the fourth-largest planet in our solar system (after Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus) was either looked at but not seen, or looked for but not found. That’s the challenge of working with Neptune through astrology as well.
Time and time again, Neptune will manifest plainly in your life without your being conscious of it, but the next week or so will be a chance to discover it for yourself. The first step is to learn from the success of science.
In a way, it was a case of the blind leading the blind. When Neptune was consciously observed for the first time during the Libra equinox of 1846, it was the result of a mathematician conceiving and an astronomer achieving. When the Sun enters Scorpio to turn on its water trine with Neptune tomorrow, think of your own consciousness and your own observations teaming up in the same way.
Proceed from the water connection. For astrology, elemental water includes literal water, but implies more. The symbolic nature of water for astrology includes feelings, emotions, intuitions and creativity among its positive expressions. Historically, the same has been true of Neptune. Also historically, when Neptune has occupied astrology’s version of water the two have amplified each other.
The first time Neptune occupied Pisces after its conscious discovery was basically 1849 to 1863. During those years, people from all walks of life gave vent to their feelings, expressed their emotions, acted on their intuitions and valued creativity as rarely, if ever, before. The same can be said for the immediately previous time Neptune occupied a water sign before now, when it cruised Scorpio seas essentially from 1956 to 1970.
Of course, both the mid-19th Century and the late 1950’s through 1960’s were marked by some of the less positive expressions of Neptune. Strong feelings sometimes led to open conflict. Sensitive emotions were too often steered awry by psychoactive substance abuse. Intuitions were frequently unchecked by reason, and creativity was as unconscionably applied to destructive or manipulative purposes as it was to uplifting endeavors.
Now, and only since 2011, Neptune has come around to where it rules: in Pisces once again. Now, and for the next week or so, the Sun will open and sustain the flow of a water trine to Neptune. Now will also be your own chance to discover.
Be conscious and conceive of where water is represented in any of its tangible or metaphorical forms in your life. There Neptune, in all probability, will be expressed in earthly form. Let that consciousness guide where, and how, you observe. There — where it is wet to the touch, where feelings are most strongly felt, where emotions are most powerfully emoted, and where creativity is most fecund — is where you will find Neptune in either its magnificence or wrath, and you will be blind no more.
Once found and recognized, Neptune will never be lost to you again. Neither will you be lost to it. It will be yours in awareness, and in the responsibility that must certainly follow. If you can find Neptune like that over the next week or so, you will have found more than just the manifestation of a powerful planet in your life. You will have found a large part of your pervasive, yet elusive, humanity. No small find will that be.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Strawberry, Daniel, and Chief Niwots Son: Thank you all for sharing your own contributions to help us all find Neptune.
Good stuff Len. So, my natal Mercury on my midheaven in Gemini, and now that old Hermes is traveling retrograde everything is backwards. The Sun entering Scorpio and trining Neptune, and my natal Chiron in early Pisces, felt to me like landing on solid ground. Since before last week’s eclipse everything (physical, emotional, psychic, spiritual) has felt ungrounded and haywire, but beginning yesterday morning all of my life has come into focus, settled, and found ground.
Yesterday I had a conversation with my teenage daughter, she’s a got a Scorpio sun, and she was feeling emotionally distraught. I explained to her the astrology of Mercury retro in Scorpio, and how her brain would be working backwards for three weeks. She immediately understood what was happening (we’ve talked astrology a lot), and asked me to warn her in the future when stuff like this was going to happen. I promised I would, and told her: “Don’t Believe Everything You Think!”
This merc station is right on my natal Sun/Merc rx degree, and it stations direct (like Kelly) on my birthday. This is a sacred period. I was very spontaneously drawn to a stone I have called Prehnite. I’ve been using it in meditation lying down, just allowing a flow and a connection.
http://www.healing-crystals-for-you.com/green-prehnite.html
As much time as I’ve spent with Neptune lately, Len, this post was challenging for me. I’ll admit I got a bit distracted. But this morning, I came back to it & after working with my singing water bowl to get centered, I asked within where Neptune was in my life. And was drawn to a notebook I use for my “conversations with the infinite.” There have been things come from those conversations that are beyond my imagination, beyond anything I’ve known to be inspiration, beyond me; things I couldn’t understand at the time, and when I read them later, I can’t remember having heard them. And yet they make my life make perfect sense.
I’m just now appreciating that the cover of this notebook is illustrated with a watercolor-and-ink mermaid (holding a megaphone!) & the following quote from Anais Nin: “I must be a mermaid…I have no fear of depths, and a great fear of shallow living.” So very, very Neptune — right there on my desk, it goes with me everywhere, the words it contains live and grow within me, subtly creating a space & a vehicle for me to evolve beyond anything I could imagine — and yet, I had to ask, because I wasn’t sure that was my Neptune.
Thanks.
Good morning, Len, Thank you for your response. I was using this space and your inspiring article to muse aloud on my mysteryious relationship with Neptune, and my desire for something more embodied. I meant to say that directly, with thanks, but forgot to write it. Repeating your advice is always useful. I need to hear things many times, many ways, sometimes.
Be, Barbie! I have my 1960 Barbie here somewhere. Bubble hairdo. Not quite a first edition. Thank you for some fun astrology.
Thank you Len, perfect timing!
=Today I was seeking a Pisces friend at a cafe, although he was standing a feet away I could not see him. Then I did..
As Mercury begins his retrograde phase conjunct my own natal Neptune in Scorpio and then stations direct on my natal Sun 2 deg Scorpio, it will be interesting to see what this period will be about…much ado about Neptune it would seem after reading your blog.
P. Sophia: Thanks to you in turn for the stunning Sabian symbol reference. It’s amazing how those little oracles of synchronicity continue to elucidate the astrology.
nilou: i can empathize with how you found the confluence of events you described to be a bit scary, but what is truly inspiring for all of us is your mastery of what i can only call poetic impressionism. Thank you so very much for taking us with you once again.
Bette Loreen: Thank you for sharing the insights gained from consciously consolidating your personal astrology with the subject matter today. You have allowed us to walk your beach, and hear your waves. That is deeply appreciated.
aword: Thank you also for sharing how the transits continue to light up your nativity so as to provide greater illumination for the rest of us.
Lea: You are most welcome. May now indeed be the moment when your the immense progress you have made with your astrology precipitates into even more powerful perceptions.
DivaCarla: Please forgive me for not clearly perceiving whether your questions are rhetorical or requesting a response. Assuming the latter, i would ask that you consider careful observation followed by correlation over the week or so to come, based on the guidelines of today’s offering in service. That way, you have the opportunity to make your own discoveries, which will surely lead to more satisfactory, and memorable answers than those proffered by somebody else. Please, would you accept that as an agreeable and worthy recommendation?
be: Thank you for yet another amazing, erudite, authoritative, and absolutely refreshing correspondence of the current astrology, to the US, to it’s President and on through to one of its most enduring (and confounding) cultural icons. It’s enough to inspire taking another look at that inherently unreal doll in order to get another perspective on reality. What would we do wthout you, be?
Would you believe that the Barbie doll has a Scorpio Neptune? It’s true, she was “born” (launched at a toy fair in NYC) on March 9, 1959 at high noon. Not only that, she has a Sun-Moon conjunction in Pisces that is opposite the U.S. Sibly Neptune in Virgo. Today’s now-retrograde Mercury at 18+ Scorpio trines Barbie’s Sun and Moon and it seemed very Neptunian that I should just have become conscious (Sun!) of this today through the written word.
Oddly enough, Barbie’s Uranus at 12+ Leo is conjunct the President’s natal Sun which is trine the U.S. natal ascendant, and Barbie’s introduction to the doll world shocked a lot of folks, just as the U.S. voters electing Obama did. However, Barbie’s north node at 14+ Libra conjuncts the U.S. Saturn and it didn’t take long for her to become part of the establishment, while Obama’s Uranus is opposite the U.S. Sibly Moon and that apparently takes longer to adjust to.
It didn’t surprise me to learn that the U.S. natal north and south nodes square Barbie’s Neptune in Scorpio since her Neptune also opposes the U.S. natal Salacia (6+ Taurus), and Barbie was quite scandalous in the doll world for a long time, especially in 1959. In December, the transiting north node will reach Barbie’s natal Neptune (6+ Scorpio) just as transiting Saturn (18+ Scorpio, where Mercury is today) trines transiting Jupiter (18+ Cancer) and they both trine Barbie’s Sun (18+ Pisces). I think it’s safe to say that Barbie has become a pillar of the U.S. society and a tribute to the creativity of the U.S. as represented by it’s own Neptune in Virgo. Maybe when Barack Obama reaches 54 he too will have become a beloved icon born in the U.S.A.
be
“Be conscious and conceive of where water is represented in any of its tangible or metaphorical forms in your life. There Neptune, in all probability, will be expressed in earthly form. Let that consciousness guide where, and how, you observe. There — where it is wet to the touch, where feelings are most strongly felt, where emotions are most powerfully emoted, and where creativity is most fecund — is where you will find Neptune in either its magnificence or wrath, and you will be blind no more.”
I wonder what this means. My late Libra Neptune is in my 12th house, sextile Pluto on one side and the Galactic Center on the other, and square Uranus in Cancer. Invisible Neptune in my 12th house.
Enter Neptune into Pisces, into the glare of my natal sun. I still can’t claim to understand Neptune but his effects are evident. I started hearing the planets talking sense to me. That’s the most concrete effect of Neptune in my world.
Len, reading your advice to follow the wet to catch a sight of Neptune, I suddenly see Neptune and his team of horses in the surf. The edge between earth and water, and all the forms this can take! I feel like letting powerfully emoted, strongly felt feelings LOOSE!
What have I the opportunity to learn about Neptune that I will never forget?
Blind no more, though only seen through averted vision. The senses you refer to are not the direct line of binocular vision, but wet to the touch, felt feelings, emoted emotions, and pungently fecund creativity.
Neptune is a different sight, a different light. Sly.
As you had been trying to help me understand this in my readings with you, NOW may be the moment finally for me that the veil is lifted. Thank you for your labor of love, again and again, to help us veiled one’s ( aren’t all of us veiled somewhere? Neptune is in everyone’s chart) finally SEE the elusive and pervasive. Deep breath. Conscious awareness. Looking right at it and Seeing, looking for it and then Found!. Yes. Now. Thank you.
(((((Len)))))
“Sight” has often come up as a subject recently for me – so I shall take notice; “Blind leading the blind”….
I was a wee-thing then and innocently “blind”, but the affects of Neptune last in water certainly has it’s lasting effects. With the transiting Sun now on natal MC/Jupiter/NN/Neptune as well as natal Sun conj transiting Neptune, and of course, Jupiter in Cancer in trine — it seems like a good time to learn to see under water.
With Saturn making its presence well-know in those deep Scorpio waters, I’m beginning to believe there really is a world both structural and flowing all at once all here and now and all within and without. It’s up to me to open my eyes and see it.
Thank you again, Len for your perceptive tutorial.
Len, this so wonderfully speaks to my experience of Neptune in my chart/life & my observation of it in the charts of others. “…pervasiveness with elusiveness..” indeed!
My Neptune is in Libra, in my 4th, & is sextile sun in Sagg. (6th), trine Uranus in Gemini (12th), sextile Mars/Pluto in Leo (2nd), semi-sextile Moon in Scorpio (5th), square my nodal axis (12th/6th), & within orb of conjunct Jupiter & Chiron (5th). That makes it the most active (by aspect) planet in my chart – & rules my 10th. None of that seems to have made it easy to “find” – though I can see its touch in my life callings (art, music, writing) & in how I am perceived by others (as that “different, tree-hugger lady…”.), among other areas.
When I look back at when I was much younger, I can see Neptune in my seeking of the “ideal relationship”, indeed an addiction of sorts to romance, as I sought that “perfect, shining, only one…”, & was doomed to disappointment despite (& no doubt because of!) my chameleon-like capacity to please. It took a long time to get to a place where I am quite clear & open about who I am, & others may or may not be pleased, but so be it. Two words that come to mind are authenticity (perhaps harder to clarify under Neptune?) & courage (it can be appealing to blend in…& has a price).
Neptune & Chiron are both around my M.H. these days; some of my art is becoming more public. Privately, issues surrounding family conditioning & obstacles that undermined my art & hence my whole growth process a long time ago are coming up for healing. Neptune has a hand in that, no doubt. It does seem to easiest to “see” in its outcomes. Looking however intensely or carefully at where we “know” Neptune is, we often perceive only beautiful fog.(I love painting foggy landscapes, though they’re maddeningly difficult.)
I still have ideals around partnership/relationship, though I truly do not expect any opportunities. I know that I am very afraid of getting into another bad relationship, & do not (yet) totally trust my ability to discern true substance of character from sleight-of-hand when I encounter someone new, as I’ve often been fooled.
Your remarks a while back, encouraging me to keep an open mind about relationship, though, were well taken. I am not saying “never”. Perhaps crones can fall in love again?
Dear Len, thank you. I was just finished reading this on the bus on the way home and as i asked myself “where am i?” a track started playing; and it made me laugh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK8a6UlTh3U
I looked up an old friend I hadn’t seen since July (?) and it truly scared me, (you’ve been introduced) and now I’ve read the first comment (thank you, P.Sophia) and scared myself again! “Stimulating recollection.” Thankfully i’m no longer scared….thank you.
This story is a story
I am here, now
inside the equanimity
of a love that protects me,
its capacity renewing the community
in which I am but one part.
My patron guides have and shall not abandon me,
rather, they remain and maintain
the conspiracy that takes me home.
Can we live together? they ask
a small voice at my centre.
Yes, is my reply
for this is where the road has brought me.
The same that I planted
through many seasons
and with pockets full
I continue to sow.
What more do I need to know to gather myself to humanity’s unity?
Though rocks and stones may rise and block my point of view,
inside the sanctity of this sacred space of my being
their is a caring peace,
where all my experience is mine to understand with gratitude.
As my mortal state requires
I meet each completion in beginning once more, as often as I must.
When I receive only words to embrace
I hold them gently as I do my own integrity
and then purposely I speak the truth of my values
of my strength within a greater strength
of my desires within greater desires
of my will within a greater will
and my will carries my trust with grace and joy
as I carry with them the dreams of my children throughout
all their living and learning and growing.
To know all things pass as always in time is human
still
until then in my stillness time passes through me
and at the end of time in my atemporal being
there is no waiting
neither when? nor wherefore?
Attuned to my current state
there are only possibilities drawn to me.
I recognise them.
They are of me.
For such a long time I drew them from all I had inherited
but, today, I have reached a wiser place.
In my timeless state at the end of time
I begin anew.
I start a new cycle of recreation,
and with tools adapted to fit my hand
I colour with an eternal iridescent palette.
I set down the loom and feel the earth, the damp loam, at my feet.
I return to time where there is fun and where the sun shines.
In my sight, where-ever the sun shines is beautiful,
more handsome than bread,
more generous than the sap of song,
refreshing as water purified in light,
and drawn from the source of all devotion.
So for all as one, and one for all
my being is real
this night
as all those
who rest in the calm.
Sincerely moved by this one. Clearly the Sun has begun ‘lighting up’ this water trine through you.
The Sabian Degree, in septenary, is perfectly you.
2º Scorpio: A broken bottle and spilled perfume.
The fine scent of deeds well done as it persists in the memory of men. Stimulating recollection. Spiritual immortality.
Thank you Len -from the three corners of my heart.