There’s an interesting commercial on substance abuse. It shows a daughter being egged on by her mother to have a party as mom says she’ll supply the beer. We learn from the commercial that even if mom is buying, it’s still wrong. We learn mom is enabling bad behavior and also mom has some issues herself.

This is a very powerful message because it says mom can’t always be trusted. And while that’s true, what do you do if mom is buying the beer? What do you do if your friends like it and you don’t?

I see some painful situations here that need more than a commercial to solve.

Bringing these messages into the image portals such as television is probably courtesy of Chiron in Pisces and the generation born under it who is also trying to stop bullying and other issues of victimization.

This is also an interesting message as Neptune transits Pisces, Neptune being the natural ruler of Pisces. It’s time to talk about such Piscean life situations such as ecstasy and escape, the feelings we generate ourselves and those we pick up from others, saving and rescuing, influence through image, faith and belief and, as some Buddhists term it, idiot compassion.

Neptune takes about 15 years to make it through a sign so we’ve got a little time to work this out.

Escape Routes and Enablement

Pisces and Neptune when overwhelmed with reality are known, more than other signs, to escape. Escape comes through fantasy, imagination, drugs (legal and non-legal) and alcohol.

Everyone escapes now and then. What is a vacation but an escape? Who doesn’t need a bit of rejuvenation that comes from a short break with one’s life?

Escape goes bad when it’s done regularly. Like drugs, escape can be difficult to try “just once” as some escapes latch onto parts of your brain that turn them from escapes to compulsions.

Water Escape

Although Neptune traveling through a water sign and our current transiting grand trine (Neptune in Pisces, Jupiter in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio) are focused on water escape, escape can come through any of the elements.

Escape through water (drinking) is a very common one as it is half food item half intoxicant and has existed for millennia.

Water escape comes through merging and dissolution of boundaries and can also include things like film and music where you lose a sense of self. For two hours of a movie in a theater, you are a superhero saving princesses or a princess being saved by a superhero.

The lights hurt when you walk outside.

Water enablement also exists through the culturification (is this not a word?) of intoxicants. In the TV commercial mentioned above, mom says it’s okay to have a little beer at the party. What’s a party without alcohol?

Air Escape

Air escape comes through socializing, partnering and talking.

All of these escapes are from physical aloneness. Today’s enhanced phone capabilities are bringing communication 24 hours a day from a number of communication channels.

The talking never stops. There are no holy days.

For me, a manifestation of air sign escape is marketing. Data is so prevalent today (due to technology but also our willingness to continuously provide data) that ads and coupons are geared particularly and exclusively to our habits.

Maybe in a fit of emotion I eat a whole Sara Lee cheesecake (and I swear I’ve never done this) and post this information on a social media site. Now I receive offers and pictures of Sara Lee cheesecakes. I don’t receive offers for quinoa or split pea soup or frozen hash browns. These products cease to exist.

Is this not enablement?

This also occurs in the realm of news. No longer is the news “news” but information feeds based on my interests. How do I receive relevant information outside of my interests? How do I know the polluted water is coming downstream?

Fire Escape

Fire rules the spirit so escape can take the form of daring activities, sports, romance or simply creating dramas in the environment.

Romance, of course, is fun, but when you’re married, romance outside of the home is often frowned upon. The constant need for romantic conquest is a type of escape. Sex as escape, in contrast, is more in the realm of water and escape through merging.

Enablement of fire escape also comes, I think, in the form of media specifically tailored to my desires that comes through sports, gambling, online gaming and film.

In the Star Trek episode The Cage, the captain and a stranded female on an alien planet find themselves suddenly in the midst of their own desires and fantasies. Their desires become the external reality and they are like actors.

The captain longed for the green pastures of home and suddenly finds himself there, in the flesh. His stranded female falls right into her part but the captain knows it’s not real and refuses to participate.

Who could resist an entire universe created from our own desire?

Earth Escape

Earth rules practical affairs, responsibilities and material goods.

Earth sign escapes can include working too much, shopping too much or taking on too much responsibility.

The workaholic is a typical earth sign escape artist. The workaholic is noticeable (if you work with him or her) but escape through excessive responsibility less so.

The person taking on too much responsibility is escaping fire, or the life of the spirit. Separation anxiety for earth comes when there is no work to be done and the day is an empty slate. Earth sign anxiety may also come from worrying about finances and security.

How do you enable earth?

Keeping people in a cycle of debt is a form of earthly enablement as allows for material possessions beyond one’s means that must be protected by continued work and asset accumulation.

By enabling earth, companies make more money in which to enable earth in a continued (and endless?) cycle.

Neptune in Pisces

Neptune will be in water-sign Pisces until about 2025. Prior to this transit, Neptune was in air-sign Aquarius from 1998-2011, in earth-sign Capricorn from 1984-1998 and fire-sign Sagittarius from 1971-1984.

I’m expecting Neptune in Pisces to bring increased consumption and culturification of alcohol. As this occurs, the now nascent Uranus/Pluto in Virgo generation will have Neptune opposing this natal conjunction. I can imagine strong debates about whether alcohol consumption is good or bad for health.

Prohibition in the US occurred during Neptune in Leo and was repealed as Neptune entered Virgo. Uranus was in Aquarius, Pisces and Aries during Prohibition while Pluto was in Cancer.

In 1933 when Prohibition was repealed, Neptune was in Virgo and Pluto in Cancer. Now Neptune is in Virgo’s opposite Pisces and Pluto is in Cancer’s opposite Capricorn. Uranus was in Aries then and is in Aries now.

The debate in the US begun in 1920 and ended in 1933 may pick up again, especially as we legalize other non-prescribed drugs such as marijuana.