Neptune Returns to Pisces

1.30.12

When I woke up, excited to continue what I'd begun to write about Neptune's entry into Pisces (which occurs this coming Friday Feb 3), I had to pause and consider whether, in fact, I had already written anything or not.

Having thought, shortly before falling asleep, about wanting to tackle my Neptune-in-Pisces writing the next morning, this article—which I actually hadn't started writing yet—apparently must have appeared in my early-a.m. dreams prior to its inception.

The enthusiasm to 'continue' something I had been eagerly working on, if only in the dream-world, was, however, real… just as anybody who's ever awakened to anger or sadness, due to events that transpired during a dream, and struggled to shake off the feeling despite it having no genuine roots in their actual lived life can attest. The emotions generated by the fantastical, and sometimes bizarre, narratives we experience as we slumber are indeed as real as any emotions can be—sometimes so real, we have to check in with ourselves about whether the events behind them really happened.

The emotional realness really makes one wonder what exactly occurs while we are dreaming… a great and presently unanswerable mystery which only looms larger and stranger for those of us (myself included) who have dreamt strange events that later came true precisely as they had been foreseen in the dream.

Neptune's activation by transit through Pisces, the sign of its modern rulership and its happy place, plays with this fuzziness of boundary between the tangible 'real' and that which is much less tangible—though not necessarily 'unreal'. Was I dreaming, or did that really happen? Am I picking up that person's feelings without any words, or merely perceiving what I want to perceive? Did I just receive a message from my dead grandmother (or some other guardian-angel-type being), or is it just my subconscious making itself known? Is there a difference? Has my awareness genuinely transcended the mundane and entered a truly mystical realm, or am I fooling myself?

This is the line that Neptune straddles: These questions can never be fully, reliably resolved. If we opt for the 'less tangible' reading, we always must do so at least partly on faith… and must develop a certain confidence in our ability to interpret our own primary experience of such confusing phenomena.

Intention, therefore, takes on added importance when we decide what to do with the potentially insightful sensitivities Neptune in Pisces will reveal. Should we be moved to follow a feeling into strange territory, to heed a calling or fulfill some divine service, we'd better make sure our highest motives are being effectively funneled into the action. We might want to jump in and offer compassionate caring, possibly at the expense of what might more easily suit our own stable security… but first we ought to confirm that any recipient of our goodness is worthy and will productively use our support, passing along the goodwill in ways that improve the world for all of us. Otherwise, we're devoting ourselves to ideals which may be too many steps divorced from the existing reality to reap beneficial results.

Blindly giving ourselves to people or entities who suck up every last drop and still crave more, without making anything meaningful from our service, will sink the whole ship and everyone aboard. As we check our egos at the door, we must also check if we're selfishly indulging our own savior complex, deriving some unhealthy sacrificial pleasure in trying to rescue somewhat hopeless cases from their own destructive paths. This is the Neptune/Pisces archetype at its worst.

Yet, as I described in my e-book, ASTROBARRY'S 2012, Neptune in Pisces makes caring cool again. Its lowering of ego-boundaries between individuals creates situations where it'll become increasingly difficult to avoid exposure to others' emotional fallout. The more delicate among us will feel the feelings of others (whether their loved ones specifically or humanity at large) more strongly than ever. Even those who typically detach from the emotional effects that modern life's complexities and cruelties often impose on the human soul will have a harder time perpetuating that willful ignorance. Intellectual justifications fall flat when met by Neptune-in-Pisces's unbounded sensations.

And unmitigated emotional engagement, even when the emotions aren't pleasant or pretty, is itself a beautiful thing. When we proceed according to the heart's logic, we know there will be an impact from our contribution. Neptune is a beloved ally not only of spiritual enlightenment seekers, but of artists… those brave volunteers who use their skills to create aesthetic gorgeousness from the common materials of life, to create pause for the rest of us to contemplate the beauty that exists all around us all the time. In Pisces, Neptune has a clearer channel to Divine Inspiration than in any other sign, an influential boon to all those who seek to create artistic visions that touch those elusive universal experiences—rather than, say, the type of art which merely shows off the creator's clever abilities, with no emotional resonance at its core.

Neptune briefly entered Pisces last year (from April 4 through August 4) before retrograding back into Aquarius, but will now stay in Pisces through 2025. But unlike other more dramatically obvious astro-phenomena like the Uranus-Pluto square or a Mars retrograde, this arrival of Neptune into Pisces won't necessarily make anything happen… at least not right away, and not in an obtrusive manner. Instead, I think of its influence as gradually and subtly fostering an environment in which the cold rationality that characterizes much of our contemporary discourse is no longer allowed to monopolize our ideas of what's right and true. Meanwhile, more seemingly quaint or naïve approaches to life, predicated upon mutual understanding and sympathy and celestial justice, are likely to return to fashion.

This transition may not be evident at first, though the more we consciously feed its manifestation with our hope, the greater its positive effect on our own experiences. We have many years of this astro-effect ahead of us; I look forward to observing its unfolding together with you.


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