Blog — Neptune

"A Man Born Before His Time"
by Vernon Robinson

Bayard Rustin was the chief strategist for Martin Luther King’s famous march on Washington, but he was also a behind-the-scenes force in various rights movements, including Civil Rights, Labor Rights and Gay Rights. A man born before his time, he was a black, gay, pacifist (WWII), radical at a time when each of those identities worked against the grain of the dominant culture. He believed in changing the status quo to have a more democratic and equal society. Rustin has not been as well-known as other historical figures, perhaps because of his sexuality and the times he lived in, but also because others in the movement considered him a liability. We’ll talk about that shortly.

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A couple of months ago, I wrote about the ongoing square of Neptune and Saturn and how our rational minds and our intuitive ones are currently engaged in a long, creative talk. Collectively we are invited to aim for the integration of our capacity for reason and our capacity for spirituality. We need to allow each of these modalities of thought and perception to have equal time, to encourage them to support each other as good friends do—with hard questions, helpful criticism, and unexpected insights. We observed that under this Saturn-Neptune aspect any cherished, but ungrounded spiritual beliefs we held would be challenged by pressing Saturnian reality. We could deny that challenge—and choose to live in a spiritual fairyland. Or we could accept it and become far wiser.

Equally—and a lot more fun to say—we recognized that our attachment to “grounded reason” would likely be humbled by inexplicable experiences: miracles, acts of grace, and visionary moments.

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by Steven Forrest

The current square between Neptune and Saturn has been a weird elongated one, long-foretold but only now flowering. Technically, the aspect made first “partile” (exact) contact just a few weeks ago—on November 26, 2015. The reality is, we’ve all been living with it since December 23, 2014, when Saturn first crossed into Sagittarius. Neptune was only in about 5 degrees of Pisces then—thus, well within the orbs of a square. The aspect has gone on, stronger or weaker, since then—and it will continue through this year, as two more exact squares form on June 17 and September 10.

Saturn teaches patience. In eternal Saturn fashion, the square seems to be taking longer than it needs to.

All square aspects are about tension, but this is a particularly tense one because of the antithetical natures of these two planets. In other words, there seems to be a “natural square” between Saturn and Neptune, just in terms of their basic energies.

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by Tony Howard

The Saturn-Neptune cycle is fairly common - we experience a major aspect between the two planets (Conjunction, Square or Opposition) every 9 years. But that frequency doesn’t diminish its important role. Metaphorically, interactions between Saturn and Neptune can express on the high end as “sobering up.” And with Neptune currently in Pisces, we could probably use regular reminders to come back into balance. Because one shadow side of Neptune in Pisces is a weakness for succumbing to the pull to binge on things that give us the feeling of escape. And that doesn’t just apply to the usual suspects, like alcohol, drugs (legal or otherwise), or food.

Binge-watching TV shows became prevalent as Neptune entered Pisces, with online streaming services like Netflix and Hulu making it easier than ever to sit on the couch for hours at a stretch. We no longer talk about this week’s episode of a show over the water cooler, we talk about the entire season we watched over the weekend. Andy Samberg's pre-filmed skit for the 2015 Emmy Awards offers a hilarious take on this.

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Neptune In Aquarius – One Last Time

Neptune entered Pisces, as tentatively as a cat sniffing the air through an open door, in early April. Immediately, the cover of TIME magazine blazed with the question, “What If There Is No Hell?” Neptune’s passage into its own sign is a complex subject, but the bottom line is the turning of the collective consciousness of humanity in the direction of life’s ultimate questions. TIME’s cover story reflected that principle nicely — and if you want to know more about Neptune’s passage into the sign of the Fishes, you might take ten minutes to have a watch me talk about Neptune in Pisces.

Neptune in Pisces

With all the recent astrological focus on Uranus and Pluto, it is easy forget that mystical Neptune will be a major part of the mix for the next thirteen years. As the planet of dreams and visions enters the sign of its modern rulership, its impact on everyone becomes more powerful. What will Neptune’s passage through Pisces add to the current cultural mix?

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On June 2, 2011, not even having reached one degree of Pisces, Neptune got cold feet and started heading back toward Aquarius, where it has been since 1998. It re-enters Aquarius on August 4, turns around again on November 9, and enters Pisces definitively early in the coming year, on February 3, 2012. Once back, it will remain there for about thirteen more years.

Aquarius is an Air sign, so it is about ideas and concepts. It is also a Fixed sign, which indicates sustainment and stability. As with all the pieces of the astrological puzzle, there are potentially good things and bad things about this combination. On the dark side of the equation, when Fixity and Air combine, we can find ourselves in an arid wasteland of bodiless, lifeless intellect – rigid (Fixed) ideas (Air) can freeze out all vitality. Think of the most boring class you ever took in college. Think of the dried out academic prune of a professor who was teaching it. Now mix that ugly elixir with mystical Neptune. Not easy, right? Well, in Neptune’s 165 year cycle through the signs of the zodiac, its passage through Aquarius is the salad course for its arrival back on its home ground in Pisces.

In Pisces, we see an explosion of enthusiasm around mystical and spiritual subjects – a vast visitation of energy. Think of St. Paul coming to the “seven churches of Asia.” Think of the meteoric rise of Islam. Think of the Protestant Reformation, the coming of Buddhism to Japan, the rise of Spiritualism in the 19th century. All these events occurred with Neptune in Pisces.

What sets the stage for such a renaissance? In a word, boredom. When religion takes over from spirituality, when things that separate us from each other are mistaken for a spiritual path, when being “right” becomes more important than dissolving in ecstatic relationship with the Divine, when we have all mistaken ourselves for ideas and position papers, the stage is set. Thus the dark side of Neptune in Aquarius triggers the readiness and openness that allow Neptune to work its Piscean magic.

Between August 4 and February 3, 2012, with Neptune back in Aquarius for one last time, all of us can participate actively in helping humanity achieve this spiritual renewal. We can do that by reflecting on our own attachment to increasingly useless and dysfunctional theologies and beliefs. We are all invited to root out the inner Fundamentalist, the inner Inquisitor, even the inner Expert Philosopher. We are invited to clear away all the mental debris that insulates us from each other. We are invited to become beginners again.

- Steven Forrest

Featured Audio Release

Jupiter: How Have You Been Underestimating Yourself?

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Neptune Transiting the 12 Houses

Neptune entered Pisces in 2011. For several years to come, the transits of Neptune will take on heightened prominence. Follow Steven on a mystical journey with Neptune on its transits through the 12 Houses.

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