Astro-logical Forecast for Wednesday 7/30/2014: Neptune in Pisces Update

Analyze it. Critique it. Break it down and get it right. Then, assimilate it. The practical, earthy energy of today’s Moon in Virgo is yours for the taking, supporting by a communicative connection to authoritative, disciplined Saturn. That’s good for harnessing the surge of tenacious will and physical release suggested by patterns that are exact on Friday, but in effect now. What was your New Moon agenda again? Some fabulous work of creative self-expression, with a flair that’s all your own? Make it so.

And now, the news.

I’m seeing so many headlines reflecting expectations of nebulous Neptune’s journey through Pisces, so I thought it would be helpful to do a review. Neptune, dipped into Pisces for four months in 2011 before fully committing to a 14-year run in its home sign in 2012. Neptune energy can be challenging for people who live in a material world, as Neptune tends to dissolve whatever it touches. It doesn’t strike with a lightning bolt, like Uranus, or blow things to smithereens, purging and/or transforming, like Pluto. Its effects are much more subtle, but no less powerful. A few key words for Neptune:  intangible forms (wireless communication including film, photography, telepathy, healing, intuition, spirituality, rarefied art forms, including music), oil, dreams, drugs, blood, alcohol, poisons, viruses, water, oceans, seafood.   A few key words for Pisces: surrender, empathy, compassion, collective consciousness, belief, martyr, saint and all human beings that society tends to sweep under the rug, including refugees and other homeless persons, prisoners, orphans and others locked away in institutions.

The last time Neptune entered Pisces was in 1847, and I thank astrologer Adrian Duncan for putting together some key developments reflecting that last journey so I do not have to write it up myself. Read on for clues to what we can expect to see — and already are seeing — from 2012 to 2026:

“This was the period when Charles Dickens wrote his novels of social realism, and social democratic demonstrations shook the capitals of Europe. This was also a time when painters like Renoir, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne and Monet made their impressionist paintings, expanding the world of fantasy and imagination. On the scientific front Darwin’s theory of evolution completely undermined Christian tradition. The first photographs were taken, ultimately leading to the coming world of the movies. Anesthetics were used for the first time in hospitals. Opium became a socially acceptable drug. The accepted reality of the day was undermined and new spiritual, emotional and political realities took form.”

Sometimes it feels like we are living in a Dickens novel, with so many headlines of human suffering in a haves vs. have-not world. An op-ed in the NYT Sunday Review bemoaned the empirical data confirming the inability of the haves to empathize (Pisces) with the have-nots. Seriously, their brains are wired that way & the data proves it.  I think Pope Francis, with his apparently exceptional ability to empathize with those who are suffering, is an apt reflection of Neptune in Pisces. So is every headline about water (and lack thereof — witness California and Detroit), oceans and fisheries in crisis. So is every headline about infectious diseases, such as the recent items about bubonic plague in China and the Ebola virus in Liberia. And let’s not forget the recently-discovered vials of smallpox left lying around and the workers at the CDC in Atlanta who may have been exposed to anthrax (the Director of the lab just resigned).

Instead of opium, we’re seeing marijuana becoming more socially acceptable — and in fact, Sunday’s NYT editorial made a strong case for making marijuana legal nationwide, as Colorado and Washington have done already.  It’s not just about about raising revenue; it’s about a more compassionate approach towards the tens of thousands of people currently incarcerated (Pisces) in the United States over drug-related charges.

What Duncan doesn’t mention in the excerpt above is that Uranus and Pluto were quite active in the early years of Neptune’s last 14-year journey in Pisces, just as they are now.  The  “social democratic demonstrations” mentioned above included the  “Year of Revolutions of 1848, in which much of Europe was in upheaval. This coincided with Uranus and Pluto hooking up in the cardinal sign of Aries, along with Saturn. So now we have the return of Neptune in Pisces, and a highly charged pattern between Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn.  And we have headlines of upheaval all over the world.  And we also have refugees, too, as Neptune dissolves whatever it touches, including boundaries and borders.  Coincidence or conspiracy?

So there you have it. A few thoughts on Neptune in Pisces — and how we may see this reflected in the headlines. You are personally affected by this potentially bewildering and/or ego-denying planet if you were born around the 28th of February, May, August or November….or if you have a planet or angle around 7 degrees of Pisces, Virgo, Gemini or Sagittarius. Bewildering and/or delusional is a potential downside; visionary and/or creative might be upsides. Marco Rubio is under the influence. So is Clay Aiken. What’s going on in your horoscope? Consult your local astrologer for details.