PART 1 of a series of Articles looking at Neptune’s passage into the Sign of Pisces:
Pope John Paul II was beatified just hours before Osama bin Laden was reportedly killed. Soon after, a man in South Korea was found in a stone pit, crucified and wearing a crown of thorns. His neighbors stated he was a deeply religious man. A Christian minister, Harold Camping, who had been practicing his faith for 50 years, predicted both the end of the world and the rapture on May 21, 2011, rallying many thousands of believers (This obviously failed to transpire) On the same day, Pope Benedict made a call into space for the first time since humans traveled to space in the 1960s. With these events, and following the ingress of Uranus in Aries, coupled with its square on Pluto in Capricorn, we welcome Neptune into Pisces.
In April of 2011, Neptune entered Pisces for the first time since it left in 1862. Neptune will be in Pisces for approximately 14 years, through March of 2025. This marks the completion of a full turning of the Neptunian wheel through all the 12 astrological signs. In its purest sense, Neptune in Pisces is an ideal place for spiritual transmutation. It is a time to reach to your higher self to find that we are all of the same species occupying the same planet. It is a time to have compassion and universal love for all other beings. However, each time Neptune ingresses into Pisces, it does so in a unique way because the other outer planets (primarily Pluto and Uranus) are in different spots and/or signs with different angles.
This time, Neptune is joined by Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn. As I wrote about in my earlier article, the physical structure of modern civilization is undergoing collapse and revolution. Neptune in Pisces brings a potent spiritual aspect to this unfolding.
While Neptune is only in Pisces this year until the beginning of August, after it retrogrades back into Aquarius briefly, it will move back into Pisces during 2012 to stay. However, with the events listed above, combined with the other outer planetary energy, it is clear that the world is involved in upheaval forcing mankind into facing fears and the shadows of the material realm and encouraging us to evolve the strength to overcome all obstacles while also inviting spiritual evolution.
In Shamanic Astrology, Neptune and Pisces are nearly one and the same when it comes down to astrological energy.
Neptune is the planet of dreams and visions, of transcendence, universal love and compassion. It represents the field of intuition, inner guidance and the Higher Self or God Consciousness. Neptune is a celestial planet and the shadow aspect can be illusions, addictions, escapism, unrealistic dreams and confusion. i.e. the ‘unreality’.
Astrological Pisces has many of the same characteristics, except this energy operates more on the human level. It, too, operates from a celestial realm, but practices it in the material or middle realm. The Shamanic Astrology Handbook states, “The Pisces gift to humanity is the ability to merge with another person, feel what they are feeling, and then give the person the love and understanding they really need.” Ideally, Pisces is a transpersonal energy, which means beyond personal or, impersonal. Pisces wants to merge with ‘spirit’ as it’s ultimate expression. At times, this has been seen in history as sacrificing one’s self – one’s life – for erasing/negating the ‘sins’ of others. The sacrifice, in essence, becomes the symbol of taking on the world’s ‘bad blood’ and only through death can the negative energy be transformed to bring about healing and love without prejudice or judgment.