Saturday, September 19, 2015

Mysteries of a Neptunian Sort

Neptune, our planet with closest connection to drugs, visions, and mysteries currently traverses its zodiac home, Pisces. I sometimes get to wondering whether, during its sojourn in Pisces, we're going to see a revival or "re-working" of something even more mysterious than we're accustomed to experiencing (which is mysterious enough, at any given time!)

During the 1960s, for the whole decade Neptune was transiting Scorpio, one of the three Water signs where Neptune is said to "feel most at home". Look what happened then! Neptune's "influence" was made clear in the prevalence of hippie culture and fairly widespread ingestion of mind-altering substances among members of the young generation. Some iconic music came forth from that decade, and that's no coincidence I feel sure.

In Pisces Neptune will be feeling even more "at home". I'll not be a bit surprised, at some point, to be reading of the emergence some new cult or mysterious goings on, involving new (or old) mind-altering substances. Neptune will move through Pisces until early 2025, so, though nothing of that nature has appeared so far - ten more years are still to go. However, with Pluto travelling through Capricorn and Uranus in Aries the outer planetary "atmosphere" might bring forth a different type of cultish mystery. The only current Neptunian mystery involves Neptune's other link - to the oceans: the disappearance of flight MH370. The plane is thought to be lying somewhere on the seabed of the Indian Ocean, but is eluding all discovery attempts.

Speaking of mysteries, Wikipedia tells me that tomorrow, 20 September, marked "The seventh day of the Eleusinian Mysteries, when the secret rites in the Telesterion began" in Ancient Greece. Ancient Greeks had no knowledge of planet Neptune, as far as we know, but the Eleusinian Mysteries seem to be purely Neptunian in nature.

From an archived 2011 post:
Long ago, humans felt a deep need to celebrate and honor times of sowing, reaping and harvest, keenly aware that, should anything untoward negatively affect nature's cycle, many people - perhaps all - would die in the ensuing famine. For instance, 20 September, in ancient Greece, would have marked the 7th day of the Eleusinian Mysteries: revered initiation ceremonies held every 4 or 5 years (sources vary), lasting 9 days, honoring Demeter the Mother Goddess of agriculture and fertility, and Persephone, Queen of the Underworld.

The Mysteries originated in the city of Eleusis, 15 miles west of Athens, possibly as far back as the early Mycenaean period (c.1600 B.C), and continued for almost two thousand years, in a world both alien yet oddly familiar to us, in the twenty-first century. Theirs was a world permeated with anxiety and dread, perhaps not unlike that of the USA after 9/11, or during the Cold War years. Famine was, for them, a persistent threat. A single crop failure could spell the difference between life and death. The risk of war, whether from marauding bands or organized armies, was constant. Death or slavery awaited the losers of a conflict. Family provided the only social safety net for most. People lived constantly on the edge of disaster.

The long drawn-out structured rituals of the Mysteries produced a change of consciousness in the participants bringing about a kind of spiritual birth, intended to reunite the person with the divine spirit of the cosmos. The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept strictly secret. Since The Mysteries involved visions of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries came from psychedelic agents. Before experiencing the final soul-shattering vision of the Greater Mysteries, initiates drank kykeon, an entheogenic potion made from ergot, from which LSD is derived. The initiates then spent the night in a darkened hall, where they beheld a great vision, which was “new, astonishing, inaccessible to rational cognition.”

 Pisces by Johfra Bosschart
Neptune's earlier transits through Pisces have been investigated by several writers online. A reliable source of such data is astrologer Steven Forrest's website here:
Timeline of dates and notable events under the transit of Neptune in the sign Pisces. Though interesting, I'm undecided as to how much of astrological use can be gleaned from this. During each of Neptune's trips through Pisces other patterns, made by the slow-moving outer planets, would have been different, those would have to be factored in to any conclusions reached about Neptune in Pisces "influence" on events.

During Neptune's previous transit of Pisces, 1847-1862, not long after the planet was discovered, there was a surge of interest in spiritualism in Britain and Europe. Spiritualist churches were founded, and spiritualism's attendant mysteries were on the the minds of many. At that time Uranus and Pluto were either in, or about to move into, Taurus. Though Taurus and Pisces are quite different "flavours", both have a strong creative side; Neptune in Pisces wouldn't have been overly watered down by the other outer planets' placements.

The Neptune-Pisces transit before 1847-62 was during 1664-1698. Though we have dry, factual history books to guide us, we can't imagine quite as clearly the general atmosphere of those times. I don't see that religious wars and expulsion of Hugenots relate to Neptune in Pisces. Religious wars had been more or less continuous for centuries. Witch trials seem to be the opposite of Neptune in Pisces. The other two outer planets during mid to late-17th century moved: Taurus and Cancer (quite friendly to Pisces), and Gemini to Leo (less friendly to Pisces). Perhaps witch trials reflected that move?

One more step backward in time.

1520 - 1534: Factually: Martin Luther condemned as heretic, excommunicated...Henry 8th cutting ties with church of Rome...Religious Peace of Nuremburg...Calvin's Protestant movement in France...etc. All religion all the time! Religion is traditionally Pisces territory, though I'd have said more linked to Pisces' traditional ruler, Jupiter than to Neptune. But religion is...well... something of a mystery itself isn't it, and therefore overseen by Neptune also! During that 16th century span the other two outer planets were in Taurus and Capricorn in the early stage, and had moved to Cancer and very early Aquarius by the end of the transit. Neptune's Pisces position didn't blend at all well with Pluto in logical Capricorn and early Aquarius, but got along reasonably well with Uranus in Taurus and Cancer (though not as well while Uranus traversed Gemini). So religion and its mysteries won some and lost some!

Beyond that time, I believe Neptunian mists become much too dense, and Neptunian mysteries too "far out" - just like the Eleusinian ones, to allow easy translation into 21st century logic and language.

14 comments:

mike said...

The previous Neptune transits of Pisces, starting with the Renaissance, brought scientific and industrial revolutions. Copernicus' heliocentricism of the early 1500s; Newton's laws of physics and calculus of the late 1600s; Charles Darwin on evolution, photographic innovations, Suez Canal started, the second industrial revolution began emphasizing chemicals and petroleum (kerosene first refined in 1847 and gasoline was a waste product); coal derivatives produced (paraffin, coal tar, naptha, lubricants).

I think our current Neptune cycle is bringing a revolution in our understanding of the universe via quantum physics, as metaphysics is merging with reality, and reality is merging into the fantastical. The Higgs boson (god particle) was announced in 2012, as Neptune was in the early degrees of Pisces. Quantum teleportation and quantum computers were actualized in 2011-2012, as Neptune first entered Pisces. A revolution is upon us that will make the special effects of Star Trek mundane events in the near future.

Twilight said...

mike ~ But isn't Uranus supposed to be the planet involved in all or most of the things you've listed? Mind you, I wouldn't be averse to discovering that the stuff attributed to Neptune, Uranus and Pluto, individually, isn't necessarily correctly attributed. I've never been 100% convinced on that score.

I came across an interesting post yesterday on the message board at Bob Marks' website.
Not sure if this link will take you there:

http://www.bobmarksastrologer.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=12915

It's the post by "woodwater" second one in the thread called "A Perfect Storm is Coming" - talking about outer planet stelliums.
That's a concept I haven't seen mentioned before. As well as the three farthest planets they use Saturn and Jupiter.

mike (again) said...

BTW - Due to the precession of the vernal equinox and its movement from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius, at some point in each of Neptune's return to Pisces, Neptune will conjunct that vernal equinox point. Neptune takes 165 years to orbit the Sun and each Age is 2,150 years, which means that Neptune will make 13 solar rotations during that time, or about 2.3* each pass. Each time Neptune returns to Pisces, the true vernal equinox point has moved an additional 2.3* toward Aquarius.

An interesting note about precession is that precession indicates the SIDEREAL position of the vernal equinox. Tropical astrology maintains the vernal equinox at 0* Aries, which corresponds to 23* to 25* Pisces by SIDEREAL astrology. For some reason, we tropical zodiac users are very concerned about when the sidereal Age of Aquarius begins...LOL.

Re http://astro-calendar.com/shtml/Research/tropsidzodiacs2.shtml

Anonymous said...

As I understand it, we are living in the end times of the Piscean Age and may or may not live to see the arrival of the 'Age of Aquarius' - these ages lasting about 2,000 years each. Here is one account -

http://www.ohotto.com/features/astrological_ages_tour.asp

A fondly remembered childhood book, The Dancing Floor by John Buchan, invokes the Eleusinian Mysteries by way of the cult of Kore.

http://www.vintagenovels.com/2012/09/the-dancing-floor-by-john-buchan.html

mike (again) said...

Re your comment regarding my first comment - Most of what I presented as Neptunian concerns definitions of reality...heliocentric, Newton's laws allowed reality to be mathematically defined, evolution, quantum physics. Chemicals, petroleum, et al are Neptune ruled as is photography, and water (hence Suez Canal).

See this link for properties of Neptune: http://www.librarising.com/astrology/misc/neptunepower.html

Twilight said...

mike ~ We've been over the Astrological Age stuff before - most recently
here.
http://twilightstarsong.blogspot.com/2015/07/what-time-is-it-quite-possibly-its.html

And there are several older posts re Age of Aquarius in particular. This is one of those subjects where everyone has their own theory. I definitely don't think we're there yet - nor anywhere near, but we're heading in that direction, no doubt about that. Why people seem to think Age of Aquarius will be all that's wonderful puzzles me. Aquarius ain't all good, Saturn was its traditional ruler, and to my mind is still very relevant to the sign, more so than Uranus in fact, unless Uranus is linked well in the natal chart. That's just my opinion.

mike (again)#2 ~ Hmmmm - yes I'm a bit cynical about some of those Neptune "rulerships", and think it's stretching it a bit. An argument could equally be made for Uranus or Pluto to be ruler of some of the later ones in the link. I'm suspicious about allocation of stuff to the three outer planets...has there been sufficient time to research the accuracy - has anyone even bothered to undertake that research?

Twilight said...

Sabina ~ As commented to mike just now, I don't see us being anywhere near the Age of Aquarius yet, but everyone seems to have their own theory. :-)

I can see how the Eleusinian Mysteries might be good inspiration for a novel writer! Thanks for the link - I shall investigate.

mike (again) said...

Palden Jenkins has data and discussions regarding various stelliums over time (click on link, then go to the right-hand side, part 2, and select from each era. Stelliums are indicated by each conjunction pair, but listing all of the conjunctions for that date.

http://www.palden.co.uk/historical-ephemeris.html

I used to have a bookmark for a similar, very long discussion of synods and stelliums through history, which I think I've linked in one of my old comments here. I think the bookmark was lost, due to the last computer crash I had.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Ah yes - thanks. I'm not surprised Mr Jenkins has investigated along those lines - and in fact the person on the message board to which I linked has probably copied the information from his website (or from someone else who had copied it from there). :-) I actually looked at Part 1 under "Configurations (etc)"

This kind of thing sits better with me, seems more likely to be closer to what astrology is really telling us. It doesn't allocate specific areas to a particular outer planet. It relates to the really big stuff, not the more minute details of man's and history's doings. And maybe that's as it should be. Nobody knows for sure.

What I like to think is that the outer 3 planets are markers for huge powerful waves of space/time which, when two or more occasionally combine can, like some metaphorical tidal wave, bring stuff in and take stuff away ("stuff" being anything and everything once can think of!)

mike (again) said...

"The Illustrated Guide to the
New Millennium

What have we been through
and where are we going?

Palden Jenkins

I was commissioned to write this book in 1997-98 but the publishers decided against publication. Technical delays made it too late, and the publishers found that the Millennium was not going to be as sensational for book sales as they first expected.
Roughly half of the book's chapters were written, never going to print.

The text of these chapters is presented here."

http://www.palden.co.uk/newmillennium.html

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Thank you - the link is now bookmarked - I shall look forward to reading it a piece at a time. :-)

Twilight said...

mike(again) ~ I've just read the first 4 chapters of the Jenkins' online book. It's an easy read and an interesting one. shall be back for more later.

Did you look at his natal chart?

http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jenkins,_Palden

Sun Virgo and most natal planets between Gemini and Scorpio with just Jupiter adrift, in very early Pisces, acting as a "funnel" - that fits his philosophising very well!

mike (again) said...

Thanks! No, I didn't realize his chart would be available...most astrologers are guarded with their astro-info, I guess to not taint their clients' expectations, perceptions, or something. He was born two months before me...we both have the funnel-basket chart type with Jupiter as focus and share the slower-moving planets' positions within several degrees.

I read through chapter 7 last night and will probably read the remainder today (rather than mow the grass...LOL). It's unfortunate...our loss...that his writing concludes with chapter 29. He is one of several astrologers that have not been allowed to publish their writing, due to their publishers' withdrawal and contract cancellation, supposedly from a lack of readership interest.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ I still have to read a few remaining chapters - Part 3, but have remained engaged throughout (unusual for me in reading long screeds online). Although aware of much of the history piecemeal (& sketchily at best) it's so good to have it all compressed and combined in this way, so that patterns appear.
Thanks again for the link. :-)