Neptune in Pisces – Into the Unknown

by Julija Simas, Agent 12

…On 4 April 2011, and again on February 4th 2012, the planet Neptune begins and continues its journey through Pisces, another symbolic key enhancing the shift in human consciousness slowly unfolding on our planet.  Neptune has strong associations with the sign Pisces:  both water energy, both belonging to a realm of the mysterious, the inspired and the imagined.  Both have no boundaries, they build no barriers, and can be escapist and mystical in attitude.
Neptune swims quite freely in this watery and boundless sign.  We find no wave breakers in Pisces for Neptune as we consider a world letting loose and moving forward with what must be done, changed, seeded, even destroyed as we look optimistically towards the future.

During its sojourn in the fixed sign of Aquarius, Neptune has had its bounds, has been far more restricted than is its nature.
Every planet has a particular purpose in a sign, and each planet spends different lengths of time in a sign depending on its orbit.  Neptune enters Pisces in April 2011, will leave at the beginning of August 2011 and return in early February 2012 where it will stay until 2026.
With every passage through a sign a planet is either considered an el supremo guest, a friend, an enemy or a pain in the arse!
Neptune moving into Pisces is the el supremo guest as Pisces can and will deliver anything Neptune may demand or ask for.
Neptune doesn’t ask for the tangible, in fact he doesn’t even ask – he sends messages, waves and undercurrents and Pisces responds.  Together these two create an overwhelming image, one so full of the imaginative and wild, so out of this world, with inspired ideas, concepts and passionate actions never experienced, but also perhaps what is most depraved and destructive.
The destructive element comes in as Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, the one concerned with the next cycle, and it destroys that which is not appropriate for the next wave.

Neptune last spent time in a water sign when it was in Scorpio in the 1960’s, when peace, love, flower-power, drugs and open sexuality changed our world and our cultural attitudes.
Now just think, Scorpio is a fixed sign and still all this happened, shifted and changed!
This also had much to do with the revolutionary presence of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in mid-Virgo throughout this time.
Despite Virgo’s restraint and Scorpio’s fixity we still experienced a world in revolutionary fervour.  This is mindboggling when we consider the coming planetary line-up.
This time we have Neptune in the mutable sign of Pisces, with Uranus in Aries demanding the freedom to express itself, squaring Pluto in Capricorn.
The cardinal energy of fire and earth will challenge the world and its governing foundations.
Not much restraint with this combination, as Uranus fuels change, Pluto demolishes established rules and Neptune infuses inspiration.
These three outer planets all work together to encourage us to construct a new and better world.

Pisces imaginatively germinates and nurtures the seeds of the future.
With Uranus’ sojourn through Pisces in the past seven years we witnessed the churning of the waters and the seeding of ideas of what must change.
With Uranus in Aries those seeds begin to sprout and some have already done so.
Neptune will now connect the fragmented pieces of the Uranian turmoil and weave them magically back together.
Germinating the seeds of the future has much to do with what we allow ourselves to believe and hope for.
With this passage we are challenged to trust in a future we can’t see but can only imagine.
From the personal microcosm to the global macrocosm, these two energies create greater access to highly passionate and emotional experiences and actions, collective inspiration and insightful motivation.
We are also prompted to think of all invisible energies, the ephemeral, mysterious and mystical.  With this journey the paranormal becomes normal.
We step into the oceanic realm of the spiritual and the divine, where the swimmer doesn’t follow a particular current, but swims to what feels right, what smells good, what looks the best, senses working overtime for sure.
It’s interesting to look back to previous eras when Neptune journeyed through Pisces to get an idea of what we may expect this time around.  What becomes apparent with hindsight is that boundaries were eroded, radical ideas were germinated which led to paradigm shifts in human consciousness.  These times seemed to add to our understanding of ourselves as part of the world and the greater universe.  What spawned during these times had far-reaching and long-lasting influences that weren’t integrated immediately, but slowly permeated our world view, and human stores of wisdom and knowledge.  Many influential philosophies, theories and practices developed around the connection between body, mind and spirit and the power of healing, that are still very much part of our worldview today and will be added to and developed during this phase of the cycle.

Here are some of the inspiring and significant ideas that I found transpired during previous Neptune in Pisces eras. Not all periods are noted and by no means is this complete:
443 – 430 BCE
– Empedocles writes on the four humours : blood , yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.  Later these became associated with the four elements and then the four humours.
– Meron establishes the four solstice points.
– The Parthenon was built. A 13 metre statue of Zeus was built in Athens.
280 – 267 BCE
– Zeno of Citium (334 – 262 BCE), a Greek philosopher, founded the Stoic School of Philosophy emphasising the goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature
1029 – 1043 CE
– Abd Allah ibn Sina (Avicenna)(980 – 1037 CE) created the first Pharmocopeia, a great synthesis of practice which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, earth science, philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, physiology. He was also the first known person to study infectious diseases and the benefits of quarantine.  On 24 May 1032, he observed the earliest recorded transit of Venus.
1520 – 1534
– Copernicus gave his first talk on the sun-centred solar system to Pope Clement VII but the idea was spurned.
– Magellan’s first circumnavigation of the globe was completed in 1522.
– Paracelsus (1493 -1541) – physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer – did most of his great work during this time. Pioneered the use of chemicals and minerals in medicine.  He used the 7 metals and 7 known planets associating them with 7 organs – this was known as the Great Idea of Harmony, the macrocosm and the microcosm.
1684 – 1698
– Isaac Newton published Principia in 1687.  Newtonian mechanics explained the laws of gravity, laws of motion and the universe as a mechanical machine.  Newtonian physics dominated the scientific view of the laws of the Universe for at least the next 300 years.  The idea that God created the universe and left it to work on its own came from Newtonian theory.
– The Salem witch hunts and trials in Massachusetts.

1848 – 1862

– Darwin published Origin of Species in 1859 expounding the theory of evolution.
– Marx published The Communist Manifesto in 1848.
– The first plastic was invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855.
– The world’s first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853.
– James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.
– Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak of cholera in London to a single water pump, validating his theory that cholera is a water-borne disease, thus beginning the study of epidemiology.
– The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory.
– American Express was founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.
– Solar flares were discovered by Richard Christopher Carrington (1853 -1861).
– The production of steel was revolutionized by the invention of the Bessemer process
– The first commercially successful sewing machine was made by Isaac Singer.

Most of the above developments are now fully integrated into our lifestyles and consciousness. Indeed, many we can’t imagine living without. With this next long transit many of the above developments are up for review:  the theory of evolution, our global economy’s reliance on oil, the pervasive use of plastic.  We must also review our healing techniques and medicines and how the way we perceive our environment impacts on our well-being.

It is crystal clear from the ingress chart above that when Neptune moves into Pisces new beginnings are being channelled.
The dominant presence of planets in Aries heralds a new cycle.
Uranus and Mars conjunct are the prime motivators leading the way, ahead of the Sun, highlighting an active and restless period ahead, one full of drive and action.  There is no stopping us now.
The Sun-Jupiter alignment heightens and expands this urge, the need for growth and expansion and truth.  There is a strong urge for freedom from the constraints of the past.


With Neptune at 0º Pisces, we will have a long opposition to the fixed star Regulus.
Regulus (α Leonis) is moving to 0º Virgo in November 2011 (according to Solar Fire astrology software, although the period of 5 years or so either side of this is a reasonable orb) heralding a shift from a Leo-inspired world, based on leaders, kings, gold, the drive to succeed and be known and be better than the rest, full of egocentric attitudes, to a Virgo-ruled world, where the sacred, earth, and a service to Gaian principles move us to want to make things work better.
This is the new version of the archetypal hero’s journey.
The new heroes will be those attuned to the service of the Earth and the Sacred and natural technology will become king.
Regulus moving to Virgo is a hugely potent symbol of the great shift in consciousness.  With the opposition to Neptune in Pisces we will undoubtedly have a changing of the old guard.

What’s to come? Pisces and Neptune conjure inspiration and hope, and with the globe at absolute crisis point we may expect the following to take precedence and flourish:
• Water energy and all issues to do with water as a resource
• A sense of needing more nourishment, reviving, healing and strong, unavoidable feelings
• Doing without, depletion, giving up, a sort of ‘who cares?’ attitude
• Collective sacrifice, giving, involvement, passionate connecting
• Focus on hope, vision, creativity
• Mayhem, anything goes, no control
• Freedom from ties, moving away from the ordinary
• The development of a greater understanding and trust of invisible energies
• Psychic potential, healing with the paranormal, telekinesis, remote viewing, levitation, precognition, magnetism, telepathy
• Butterfly effects, following trends, ‘100th Monkey syndrome’, crowds, masses
• Ideas merging, sharing, seeding
• Previously inaccessible information becomes available
• Ideas, concepts, discoveries that greatly influence and shape our worldview
• Ideas, attitudes, trends that spread, take flight, take off, become totally unrestrained – and therefore also potentially super-dangerous.
• People finding ways of doing things, getting away from restraints and restrictions, doing it for themselves and their communities
• Undercover, underground, behind-the-scenes developments of all kinds – where there is a will, a need, there will be a way found.  Spies, secrets
In the fashion world – expect, or get creative!
• Lots of greens, blues, purples, whites and even blacks (still!)
• The saviour, Jesus, mystical look
• Long flowing gowns, embellished coats and jackets, fine details, buttons, lace
• Renaissance man., the Prince look, the guru look.
• Spray on clothing, clothes that don’t need washing
• Sandals. Bare feet.
• Wild shoes and styles never seen before, nor imagined
• Outta this world creations, space- and universe-inspired

With Neptune moving into Pisces we can expect a sensitivity about many things often ignored.  Pisces senses and perceives and most of all feels its way.  Neptune inspires and together they indicate highly passionate times ahead.  There will develop a better sense of how we as a species perceive and sense our environment, a closer connection to all around us will further unfold.  What we believe about the future and what’s possible is how we can be motivated and drawn to act in this time.  It is about survival, saving ourselves from ourselves, the seeds planted now are crucial to our common future.  There is a great capacity here for healing, for getting back to nature, the planet and ourselves as we move to a realm of invisible sources and gently ride with an inspired spirit over matter and what really matters, will come to light.
Pisces being the 12th sign, and Neptune in the sign of its modern rulership, and now the outermost major planet since Pluto’s demotion, we are at a point of letting go, surrendering, taking off to different waters, deeper and more fulfilling experiences and heightened awareness.  With this attitude our understanding of the universal, that which binds us all, oneness, a greater understanding of universal consciousness, its implications and power, will be germinating the vital seed for future development.  This all seems wonderfully apt and appropriate for the changes upon us, as is quite often said:  ‘the current worldview can no longer sustain us.’  The energies of Neptune and Pisces open us to channels, vibes, undercurrents from everywhere and asks us to source a more inspired way of living together on Planet Earth.  Let us have faith as we navigate our Gaian ship through these unchartered waters.

  “The most beautiful and deepest experience a man can have is the sense of the mysterious.It is the underlying principle of religion as well as all serious endeavour in art and science.  He who never had this experience seems to me, if not dead, then at least blind.

To sense that behind anything that can be experienced there is a something that our mind cannot grasp and whose beauty and sublimity reaches us only indirectly and as a feeble reflection, this is religiousness.”

Albert Einstein

from Speech to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin, Autumn 1932

 

Albert Einstein (1879 –1955)