Neptune Enters Pisces: The Tide is Up

Neptune, photographed by Voyager 2 spacecraft.

By Eric Francis

Neptune entered Pisces today. This is the first time Neptune has entered Pisces since 1847, that is, long before the Civil War. So this is news. Neptune, discovered in 1846, is considered to be one of the modern ruling planets of Pisces (the traditional ruling planet is Jupiter). So for our time, this is significant. No living person has been through this transit. We are actually the first to experience something.

And what would that something be? Well, we need to pay attention — though we do know a little about both Pisces and Neptune: these are influences that affect the imagination. For example, they are associated with imagery, cinema, dreams and ‘mystical’ states of mind. They’re also associated with mind-altering substances such as drugs and alcohol, and on a really bad day with delusions that can lead one down the dark road of psychosis. So with strong Pisces influence, which we now have stronger than any prior time in our lives, we need to keep things real, and know what aspect of the mind is talking. We need to see through the haze — and there are a lot of fog machines turned up to full tilt at this particular point in history.

When planets transition from one sign to another (in this case from Aquarius to Pisces) that is usually something that works out over a year, due to the retrograde effect. The planet goes back and forth over that imaginary line, till it settles into the new sign. So we are now in this transition phase. Neptune will station retrograde in the first week of June and return to Aquarius in the first week of August. In February 2012, what was once and is once again defined as the outermost major planet in our solar system will return to Pisces for the long run of about 14 years.

We have seen this pattern before, since we’ve recently been through the transitions of Uranus into Aries and Chiron into Pisces. Speaking of — this fills in some of the story of how much has changed involving Pisces the past year. Uranus, which was there since 2003, has recently left; Chiron, which was in Aquarius for five years, has recently arrived. In a society dominated by advertising, imagery, drama, romance and deception, the influence of Pisces is extremely strong on any day — and now we’ve experienced changes involving three outer planets. Pisces is, in a sense, a whole new sign now that Uranus has left and Chiron and Neptune have arrived. Navigating this is going to take some discernment.

We live in a world where deception is commonplace. For example, watch any TV commercial and listen to what your fellow human beings are saying. Is any of it true? Does that guy use that deodorant? We take for granted that this kind of lying is normal, but it’s not. Then the “news” comes on and, thanks to your conditioning, a politician can say anything he or she wants, and most people will take it on board without the least discernment or even a moment of thought.

While we’re busy doing that, the many forms of creative experience that we were told are useless (as kids) are some of the best that Pisces has to offer. By that I mean everything but social studies and accounting: the stuff you do with your imagination and your hands. Your talents and your desire to express your imagination may be coming under focus now. That would include music (to create the stuff, or at lest to experience some in person), as well as your poetic senses. And what about those paints in your closet? what about the art supply store down the street? You DO have time to experiment and play, and now the astrology is floating you like the tide rising beneath a boat.

Pisces is also the sign most associated with clairvoyance (Scorpio would be a close second, and these are two signs that usually get along nicely). Just wondering — have you been experiencing any enhanced non-physical communication? Any premonitions that have come through, or out-of-body communication? Have these events involved fantasy, imagination or creativity? I’m suggesting here that there may be a connection between what we think of as out-of-body communication and many of the other ideas that Pisces or Neptune represents.

Then there is water, the actual stuff that comes out of the shower nozzle. The same stuff we expect to just be there. We see a lot of water when we fly across the ocean — but that is not the kind of water we need for our individual bodies to survive. Less than 1% of the earth’s water is drinkable fresh water and that is going away fast. It’s also becoming one of the biggest businesses around; the World Bank and many other institutions have been muscling in on this for decades. So Neptune in Pisces is likely to call even more attention to this issue than we’ve been seeing in recent years, here as a nuclear complex in Japan is dumping tons of radioactive water into the ocean and groundwater.

We got our first really big lesson about this last year when — as Chiron entered Pisces, on that very day — the BP oil spill happened. When Uranus left Pisces two weeks ago, the earthquake happened in Japan. So Pisces seems to be sensitive to global changes involving water. Now, we need to get there. Astrology is suggesting that now it’s our turn.

30 thoughts on “Neptune Enters Pisces: The Tide is Up”

  2. awordedgewise – I know what you mean – it is so cool when our vision is clear and then validated by the astrology. One thing that faked me out was my husband’s Sun is conjoined Neptune in Libra, so I attributed much of his Neptuneyness to that.

    He calls himself an “un…(fill in the blank)” Like, “I’m an un-husband.” By which he means he disegnages himself from the cutural exectations of hubandry, so to speak. (I have Venus/Uranus Gemini on my descendent and Jupiter/AC Sag, so I appreciate this about him.)

    I do, however, now see that I was also a bit defended against seeing his Pisces AC. Once I knew it was Pisces, instead of Aquarius, I also saw him through new eyes – aspects of him that I had to adjust to (square to my Gem/Sag stuff, after all. It really was disorienting.)

    I have friend who says that in her long (40 years now) marriage, she has had many marriages to the same person. I know in 15 years we have had about 4.

  3. The transcendentalists came to mind when I was reading this article. I wondered what our Neptune in Pisces era might have in common with theirs. Then, my computer went down for a few hours (more bowling balls), and I ended up digging in a box of books and “happened” to come across a long forgotten edition of Walt Whitman (May 31, 1819 1:45 AM Huntington, NY- check out his amazing chart!):

    I opened the book to this poem: TO YOU

    Whoever you are! Claim your own at any hazard!
    These shows of the East and West are tame compared to you.
    These immense meadows, these interminable rivers, you are immense and interminable as they.

    These furies, elements, storms, motions of Nature, throes of apparent dissolution, you are he or she who is master or mistress over them.
    Master or mistress in your own right over Nature, elements, pain, passion, dissolution.

    The hopples fall from your ankles, you find an unfailing sufficiency,
    Old or young, male or female, rude, low, rejected by the rest, whatever you are promulges itself,
    Through birth, life, death, burial, the means are provided, nothing is scanted,
    Through angers, losses, ambition, ignorance, ennui, what you are picks its way.

    Here is another very Piscean poem: The World Below The Brine:

    The world below the brine,
    Forests at the bottom of the sea, the branches and leaves,
    Sea-lettuce, vast lichens, strange flowers and seeds, the thick tangle, openings, and pick turf,
    Different colors, pale gray and green, purple, coral, gluten, grass, rushes, and the aliment of the swimmers,
    Sluggish existences grazing there suspended, or slowly crawling close to the bottom,
    The sperm-whale at the surface blowing air and spray, or disporting with his flukes,
    The leaden-eyed shark, the walrus, the turtle, the hairy sea-leapord, and the sting-ray,
    Passions there, wars, pursuits, tribes, sight in those ocean-depths, breathing the thick air, as so many do,
    The change thence to the sight here, and to the subtle air breathed by beings like us who walk this sphere,
    The change onward from ours to that of beings who walk other spheres.

    Here is a last poem: Full of Life Now:

    Full of life now, compact, visible,
    I, forty years old the eighty-third year of the States,
    To one a century hence or any number of centuries hence,
    To you yet unborn these, seeking you.

    When you read these I that was visible am become invisible,
    Now it is you, compact, visible, realizing my poems, seeking me,
    Fancying how happy you were if I could be with you and become your comrade;
    Be it as if I were with you. (Be not too certain but I am now with you.)

    I am seeing in Whitman’s poems a gift from the past that may bring solace and hope during these troubled days.

  5. Jere; yes! haha! tangled up in my big blue beach ball…

    (Hittin’ ‘send’ is better thn craps…must be roulette)

  6. Having missed all the earlier confusion with articles and pictures (occasional work helps put food on the table) and the wonderful blogging of everything Neptunian and Piscean posted today, and my being a Gemini, and needing at least one belly laugh per day to maintain any kind of balance, I am so proud of Mercury for finally reminding us of its Retrograde, and is refusining to be left out of the picture, and wiggled in here, having been soooo neglected on April Fool’s Day. ; > ) Love you all.

  9. Kat, isn’t that cool? I’ve found that I can nail a time pretty easily with that AC thing. And one good friend insisted (he had been told by a prominent astrologer) that his moon was in Aries but I was POSITIVE it was in Pisces……and of course it is, late degree’n’all.

    Fun stuff to learn and live by!

  11. Len, I’m glad to see you stepping up to the plate and taking responsibility for all this interconnectedness and synergy. Where you intended to be meek, the universe proclaimed otherwise!

  12. ‘Echo your thought eco11: “We are on our way to the *Inner Net* and we won’t need computers to connect anymore. We will just be connected.”

    this methinks for sometime now. Internet is teaching us what we have forgot; interconnectedness; how and why and who.

  13. Dear Fine Fellow Fish – I am sure feelling fishy – like being plunged into warm water (did someone just say that?). My chart is mostly fire and air – WOW – this feels really different. I was wondering, “Is this just my imagination?” And of course, the correct answer is YES!!!!

    Speaking of Pisces, my husband, whom, I thought FOR THE PAST 15 YEARS, had an Aquarius ascendent, we just found out his exact birth time – and he has a Pisces Asc! OMG. How could I have missed this! I can’t tell you the shock of realization – he is SOOOO Pisces rising. It was a great example of how beliefs get in the way of observation, clear thinking and intuition.

    The comment thread for this blog was just as much fun as reading the article (and an excellent one, as usual, Eric). Speaking of dreams, I have been a big-time dreamer all my life, but the past week or two dreams have been unusally vivid, active and meaningful – and that is saying something.

    This Mercury retrograde has been messing with my communications on a whole new level, and, now that you mention it, it feels more like Neptune. In my own chart, Mercury went retrograde exactly trine Mars Leo, sextile Moon Aquarius, and sextile Venus/Uranus Gemini and a close trine to Asc/Jupiter Sag. I was expecting an easy ride of it all, but nope. There have been more confounding miscommunications rolling around my life that at a bowling alley on a Saturday afternoon. One after another. (I did find my passport though – phew!)

    OK – I’m hitting the submit button – who knows what will happen???

  15. recognizant!

    Pat, glad to see you here as well as Nancy’s blog and Astroworld. Love the pictures and will be ordering a calendar. . . that is if my government check comes in!
    be

    eco11. . .I think you have nailed it!
    aword and alpssmile, I appreciate your reassurance.
    Eric, thanks for letting me stay. Out of body communication indeed.
    Len, it’s all your fault! (you know I’m just kidding don’t you?)

  16. I see the pattern! In 2009 I was awarded a grant to paint “The Energy of Water.”……
    That was just a warm up………Now I am in my element ( pun intended)
    Samples: Pluto has been renamed, thanks to Planet Waves…….. It is now ( in memorium) Uranus in Pisces…………..
    The polluted spring runoff invading the woods also took out 1/2 the road and required a new culvert.
    The beginning, & I have barely tapped the energy of water yet!
    http://mecollective.blogspot.com/search/label/Pat%20Sharp

  17. Well, although I too found myself transporting between these two related articles, and authors slipping into each other, I feel that is just perfect for what feels like is going on here at this blog. You are –all of you– on such a wavelength. It’s like you have all been plugged into the main frame. That’s when magic is happening. My thoughts become your thoughts. We are on our way to the *Inner Net* and we won’t need computers to connect anymore. We will just be connected.
    This blog is really a magic place right now. Brilliant synergy.

  18. This new piece I’ve added is designed to cover the topic of Neptune and Pisces for those who have never heard of them — our most important constituency at Planet Waves: non-astrologers, people who don’t usually read or study. It’s designed as an easy access point without too much astrological language.

  19. be and All:
    The blog under the ferris wheel is what i wrote. i did not write the blog under the photo of Big Blue, although there are some words in common. i see Eric’s name there now.

    Apologies for the confusion. i will take responsibility for the situation.

  20. seems we all got caught in the joke; mercury or neptune…..the pictures and authors were changing ’round as we “spoke”.

  21. Well, whatever. but my main comment was made after reading the other Neptune story. But now I’ve read this one too, and although I can’t see through the haze it’s okay to leave me here. Good grief.
    be

  22. sweet be . . . there are 2 articles up by Len this day . . . one DOES have a ferris wheel and the other a picture of neptune. at least it seems that way.

  23. apparently Mercury was initially unhappy about not being mentioned….but then gave up the April Fool and posted Be anyway….

  24. Ooops, disregard, I AM at Len’s . . sorry, the picture of the ferris wheel has deceptively moved to another author. So Neptunian!
    be

  26. How the hell did this happen! Can you transfer me back to Len’s article, along with the reply I just posted! Sorry to intrude!
    be

  27. Len,

    So even old Neptune is starting something new and leaving the past behind. Except for Mercury and Saturn, and soon Pluto, nobody wants to look back it seems. Who can blame them, what with all the troubles we’ve seen? Wouldn’t we all love to jump into the Pisces waters and prepare for a new story? And yet, with the blessing of astrology, we can benefit from looking back. Some day, decades from now maybe, we will look back at when Neptune first entered Pisces and realize it was when something changed.

    When we look back to the time when Jupiter and Saturn last conjoined, just over a decade ago, Neptune was in the early degrees of Aquarius and the Sun had just past the exact degree of a trine to him. Venus was on her way to do the same when Jupiter joined Saturn. But the tranquility wasn’t all that was happening; there was an opposition brewing between the Sun and Venus in Gemini and Pluto and Chiron in Sagittarius. Nobody was bumping up against one another, in fact even Mars was on the side of Gemini and the Sun/Venus conjunction. Not too close though. Nobody’s energy was pushing hard on another’s energy; everybody had at least 3 or 4 degrees of space. Why Mars even had 10 degrees between himself and the Sun, as was only proper respect for the Sun, and all was peaceful, relatively speaking.

    Not like this past March 12th when all hell broke loose at the Fukushima Plant in Japan, just as Uranus was entering Aries. Just a couple of weeks before the exact opposition between Jupiter and Saturn. Nobody expected it and nobody was prepared, and yet, what if we had looked back?

    What if we had looked at the chart for the event 10 years previously, when Jupiter started his cycle with Saturn. Would we have seen that opposition between Mars + Sun and Venus to Pluto and Chiron? Would it occur to us that when the Moon on March 12, 2011 reached the point opposite that Pluto in the chart for 3/28/2000, it would set off all the fury of a huge earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear nightmare? Well, no, probably. But we might have noticed a T-square between the March 12th Sun, Juno and Pholus that formed a Mutable Grand Cross when combined with the Mars in the chart for 3/28/2000. The same Mars who was opposite Pluto and Chiron in his own chart. We might have remembered that careless Pholus in Sagittarius could take a small event and turn it into a very big production. We might have realized that Juno in Virgo could miss a careless mistake of detail due to her retrograde, and we might have remembered that the Sun in Pisces wouldn’t even be all that interested in details.

    Same goes for the midheaven degree. . . who would connect that it was in the same degree on March 12 as the Jupiter conjunction to Saturn was in 10 years before? Or that the south node was conjunct the Mercury of 10 years before when Saturn and Jupiter were doing there thing? Oh, who am I kidding; none of us would have caught that or even the coincidence that Nessus, the centaur whose myth includes lying, revenge and poisoning would be where Uranus was on 3/28/2000.

    If only we could have known. But it is the way of human beings, at least for now, to only learn that there are no shortcuts, no tricks that don’t have to be paid for sooner or later. This time it is Nessus’ poison, through the shock power of a long ago Uranus that poisons our waters and lands today. Astrology can sometimes help us avoid trouble, but sometimes it is only good in hindsight; to teach us that what we do now affects us all later, and so to learn to do the right thing now. So begins a new story which will develop over time. Neptune and Chiron in Pisces, Uranus in Aries. If only we can learn something from it. Well, there’s hope that with you as our story teller Len, we will.
    be

  28. Awesome intuitive take.
    And, yes, I’ve been dreaming in very new ways steadily for the last three months, as well as experiencing heightened sensitivity to an already heightened sensitivity. The past several weeks have been close to unbearable. But today, there is this poignant, blissful softening, a calm, warm, wet, soothing feeling that is also powerful and growing more-so, but with a new stability in the feeling. I feel supported by Neptune in Pisces like belonging and memory of home. And the art, for so long on sabbatical, has returned, coming from Japan, it feels.
    You are such a mystic, Len. I enjoy your words like water too. Yes. It feels deep and true.
    Thank you.

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