Neptune has just entered Pisces, the sign that it rules. Neptune is an outer planet like Uranus and Pluto and represents a generation, “the times.”  For example, the “me” generation has Pluto in Leo (born 1940-1958). The Neptune in Libra generation, who I call the “make love, not war” generation, were born 1943-1955 and grew up in the late 1960s. Uranus represents what is invented or discovered, Neptune what is idealized or worshipped and Pluto what is being destroyed and transformed.

What have we been idealizing?  And what will we idealize?

Neptune is leaving the sign of Aquarius (1996-2011). Aquarius rules brotherhood, groups, originality and individuality. Although Aquarius loves groups, it is not an emotional sign. It is more interested in the ideals of society than in nursing souls. You see Pisces serving soup at the homeless shelter. Aquarius will be in an office raising awareness of the need for the shelter, and maybe even raising funds. Being inventive I see Aquarius as interested in technology, technology being an impersonal bettering of our lives.

Writing about Aquarius, I think of Facebook, the impersonal, detached “friending” of everyone we know. I formally brand Neptune in Aquarius the “Facebook generation.”  We have idealized technology and have used technology to join us in a society that is not as community-based as it once was. With Facebook, I do get more birthday greetings than ever, but fewer and fewer cards and phone calls (and the same with me to others). It’s much easier to keep in touch, but not as personal.

Prior to Neptune in Aquarius, Neptune was in Capricorn from 1984-1997. What happened then?  I heard one astrologer (I can’t remember who) call it “the idealization of greed.”  This brought in the dot.com bubble, the lead-up to the housing bubble, and complicated financial transactions such as securitizations that ultimately contracted around 2006-2007. Read about Enron in its heyday and the complicated, misleading financial transactions they created to mimic true cash flow. Enron is Neptune in Capricorn.

Neptune in Pisces is the idealization of spirituality itself. There is so much religion around me, I can’t imagine more. But I see a rise in what was called in the past “spiritualism.”  According to Wikipedia, spiritualism’s rise was 1840s-1920s. Neptune coincidentally was discovered in 1846.

On the positive side, Pisces is empathic and I imagine we will start to truly feel each other’s pain. American awareness of where consumer goods originate seems to be growing and Americans are ever more concerned that the products they buy do not hurt others either in their manufacture or distribution. That is one aspect of Piscean empathy – when I drink my cup of tea, I can feel what this means to the people on the other side of the world who grow the tea, harvest the tea and send it to my local grocery store. I think we will be helping each other more, not just with checks in the mail, but in personal ways.

On the negative side, Pisces is a believer, and is vulnerable to being manipulated by others. Religious and spiritual beliefs, to me, are the core of our being. In our world of commerce, people want to sell to all inner needs, including this one. And some simply want to use it to gain power over others. This is a regular challenge of life – being open while also protecting the self. I believe in the idea of possession, but not as ghosts or evils spirits inhabiting an individual. I believe it is the living who cause damage to the living, the living that “possess” the living. Possession is sometimes called “the inner . . .” such as the inner mother or inner father, etc.

All three outer planets have recently changed signs:  Uranus entered Aries, Neptune entered Pisces and Pluto entered Capricorn. Together I imagine:  discovery of self while idealizing the spirit and transforming the structures of society. Sounds fascinating. What an incredible time to be alive!