Neptune
by Sarah Stone
It took three men to discover Neptune. Or so I learned from my in depth research skimming a Wikipedia article. I like knowing that Neptune had to be triangulated by consciousness. “Three symbolises the trinity of life, substance, and intelligence, of force, matter, and consciousness. The ancients considered three the first real number. Monad, one, is mother. Dyad, two, is father. And three the first manifest. Neptune was discovered by three. First, Alexis Bouvard proposed that Uranus’s orbit was subject to gravitational perturbation by an unknown planet. Second, Urbain Le Verrier developed a mathematical prediction for its orbit. Third, Johann Galle first observed Neptune on September 23, 1846[1]
Neptune, astrological ruler of mysticism and addiction, is the eighth planet in our solar system and the one farthest from the Sun. Neptune’s composition is like Uranus, astrological ruler of sudden events and rebellions; they both have cores of rock and ice. Neptune’s atmosphere is similar to Saturn’s, lord of karma, and Jupiter’s, the great benefactor, but icier. Uranus is largely featureless. Neptune’s atmosphere has active and visible weather patterns. Uranus helped discover Neptune. There’s a wealth of information for the astrologically inclined to muse over. The symbols of the discovery, the similarities of the planets, let a pattern-spotting mind see a larger pattern at work.
Being “born” on September 23 makes Neptune a Libra. That’s the really mystical thing about astrology – you make it by naming it. So I googled Neptune’s birthday astrology on How Stuff Works. I like that Neptune’s health regime naturally includes time for prayer or meditation.
It takes 165 years for Neptune to make its orbit. That means it’s the first time Neptune has returned to the sign it was born and rules: Pisces. Neptune will enter Pisces the first week of February and stay there until 2025. And Neptune’s old friend Uranus, ruler of sudden and unexpected events, is fired up in Aries.
I can’t even begin to predict what kind of generational change this will lead to. The animal totem I get is a frog. A frog blends water (emotions) and air (thoughts). A frog’s borders seem permeable, much like Neptune’s perpetual nebulousness. Neptune is a mystical fog that could quite easily be a fog of obsession if the seeker surrenders reason to sensation entirely. It is the path of mystical experience, a feeling of universal oneness that once had can become an addiction of its own. A balanced Neptune triangulates – it uses senses from both worlds to reason, like a frog moving between land and water at home with both. For humans, this would be a shift in consciousness. A more conscious and reasoned acceptance of the function emotions serve in our lives as opposed to thoughtless and destructive emotionalism. All nature is both spiritual and material – not dualistically – as in spiritual on Sunday or spiritual with certain thoughts – but mystically, as in feeling as part of being and being a part of everything.
With Uranus, fired up in Aries, it’s hard to tell where the impetuous for recognizing our already integrated spiritual and material nature. Understand, our nature is always and has always been both spiritual and material here. It’s just we’ve been doing a lousy job at balancing that. I imagine there are lots of bursts of personal consciousness going on right now. The energies will balance out. The choice is only if people want to do it the easy way or the hard way. Drama can play out internally or externally. I do a lot of internal work. But if there were explosions in the street, I would see that as external drama of the group, who need to work it out in the physical to manifest change. There’re all types around here. It’s a matter of style. But the energies will balance out.
Plus, we have the second in a rare Venus transit this spring and Saturn moving into Scorpio in the fall. Exciting times.
Personally, I think of my animal totem. I had a dream last fall of a rainbow frog eating half dead bugs out of a spider web. I thought, “a frog shouldn’t do that – eat half-dead bugs out of a web like that – it’s not healthy!” but I sat and watched it eat the web clean. Then it jumped right at me and startled me awake. Late this summer, a frog jumped on me in the creek and I thought “stupid frog” because as often as I’ve walked the creek I never had a frog do that before. Today, New Year’s Day, I saw a hawk flying with prey. I am not sure what the prey was, but my first thought was that it was a frog.
I had an astrological consult that predicted my “psychic stuff” would really pick up when Neptune got into Pisces. That’s made me afraid because I’ve been through a lot of “psychic stuff” in the past few years. I don’t want to get lost in Neptune’s fog again. Seeing today a hawk carrying what I saw as a frog was the Universe telling me to not let my eagle-eye for details take away my spiritual rewards. Or so that’s what I feel is my challenge. And since Neptune is a transpersonal planet – its movements so slow that they effect a generation – I know it’s not a challenge I face alone.