Pisces is the last sign of the zodiac, watery and mutable (changing, flexible) and ruled by Neptune. Like fog, Neptune obscures then dissolves in a way not entirely discernable to the eye. Neptune has been transiting Pisces since 2012.
Have you noticed your world dissolving?
When Pluto the destroyer and transformer entered Capricorn in late 2007 we noticed immediately the effects of destruction and transformation of Capricorn structure, authority and rules – the global financial crisis sparked by the housing market collapse. Here at the end of Pluto’s cycle through Capricorn most of our global structures have been destroyed and are being rebuilt and ideally transformed.
Uranus the enlightener and ruler of sudden changes has been transiting Taurus since 2019 (with a brief foray in Taurus in 2018). Taurus rules the 3D world and its tangible components, including the body and stuff (and money in tangible form, but not its digital component). At the higher level it rules values.
Notice any changes there: Sudden changes to the physical body and relationship of body to society? Sudden changes to logistics and consumer products? Changes in how you spend money?
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the outer planets that govern the larger patterns of society. Astrology teaches cyclical time to a human life that today spans about one cycle of Uranus, 84 years. Other cycles are more difficult to see from a detached perspective because we won’t see that today’s values may mean nothing tomorrow – we only learn that in history books.
While Uranus and Pluto are more evident in their effects, Neptune is a different type of experience, highly subjective, intuitive and emotional. It the experience of finding great love of humanity one day while riding the bus and trying to explain that to your friends and family.
During this Neptune transit of its own sign, have we seen an increase in intuition and mystical spirituality? Have people become more compassionate and loving? These are the positive aspects of Neptune that are difficult to measure.
The negative side of Neptune and/in Pisces is more easily seen and quantified: escapism and distortion of reality. Neptune loves heightened experience which comes through drugs and alcohol. Excessive media and living vicariously through it is another Neptune/Pisces escape pattern.
In 2025 Neptune will move from Pisces to Aries. Neptune glamorizes what it touches. If today’s Pisces spirituality and escapism are glamorized, the shift will be toward activities that enhance the self from standing up for one’s rights to warrior cultures.
The End of Pisces
Dissolution of reality
Neptune transiting the very last degrees of its own sign, the last sign of the zodiac, indicates the dissolving of the reality of the last 165 years. In this Guardian article about the satirical news outlet The Onion, there’s discussion of the difficulty in parodying a reality that parodies itself:
Neptune has dissolved “established truth.” One can’t relate to a being that’s living in a different reality. At the extreme, Neptune delusion is the much-caricatured mental patient who thinks he’s Napoleon. In our established truth, we agree that Napoleon is no longer living and this patient can’t be Napoleon.
But what if half of the population believes this patient is Napoleon? Then what?
What ultimately happens and is happening is that we retreat into our own separate realities (assisted by media meant for binge watching), a dangerous state for a group of people that need to make collective decisions. Alcohol, drugs and media have helped us to dissolve the common, shared, reality. From a media perspective, the last common realities are politics and sports which we watch together, live.
While we can quantify some of this, the dissolution of reality can’t even be discussed because it takes a common reality to even address it. If this sounds like highfalutin nonsense, think again. Today it is difficult to have a conversation lest a solution with someone who tosses out your reality. Our ideas, talk and delusions may not be real, but the earth is.
Saints, martyrs and scapegoats
Also in the realm of Neptune/Pisces are saints, martyrs and scapegoats. The Age of Pisces brought us the Christian era and that story involves all of the Pisces manifestations: Pisces rules the feet and is represented by the two fish swimming in opposite directions – both images of the Christian era.
At this very end of Pisces, the double Pisces (sun/moon) children’s television show creator Mr. Rogers was honored with a documentary and feature film. This is the compassionate, saintly side of Pisces.
Martyrdom may be in the eye of the beholder, but I believe we will see some late-Pisces martyrdom on the world stage. As Pisces moves to Aries, these same folks will be the next cycle’s heroes.
Scapegoating is the very common psychological mechanism where we project our negative, dark qualities onto other human beings. Or we blame people we don’t like rather than blaming the people we do like for specific indiscretions.
Victimization, another area ruled by Pisces, is real. There are victims, folks who are at the wrong place at the wrong time, are caught up in the wars of the powerful or are children who cannot extricate themselves from situations. You walk down the street and a rock hits you in the head – not your fault.
Collectively, however, what we see “out there” is what we have created through our decisions: whether to participate or whether to allow others to decide. Who decided to put up all these cameras?
Collectively we have allowed (and continue to allow) ourselves to be lured by Neptune’s addictive pleasures. We believe the problem will be the solution, just better versions of the problem. Balancing life’s routines with life’s joys and spiritual insights is the topic of all religious writings and manuals. The ancient religions may have addressed it in the terms available in those times so may lack the terms we need in the digital world. Today medicine is prescribed to counter the negative side effects of other medications and it’s all sold on the television.
The beginning of Aries
Self Assertion
Aries as the first sign of the zodiac is about self, standing up for the self, assertion of the self and self awareness. For those that have experienced end-of-Pisces victimization may suddenly feel inspired to take independent, positive action away from the situation.
At its worst, Aries is self-centered and aggressive, bossing others in an effort to convince them that what Aries likes they also like. It’s a boundary issue, really, with the fire-sign Aries getting overly excited about its newest venture(s) and wanting others to be excited as well.
After the dissolution of reality in Pisces, we will see the re-creation of reality by those who take positive, outward action. Neptune in Aries will not glorify victimization and martyrdom. It will glamorize those that step forward, those that lead, and those that appear strong and virtuous.
Sports and Politics
As noted above, sports and politics are the last, two shared realities. In American culture, they share very similar qualities: there are two teams and we are on one side opposing the other side. We want the other side to lose as there are only two sides. We can’t win if they don’t lose.
American sports-minded culture does not question the two-party system but I (and others) would argue that it’s what is destroying the culture. “There are two sides to every argument” is a cliché. There can be many side and many nuances which take time to digest and are not understood through social media memes and one-liners.
How does one pick their favorite sports team?
Often it’s associated with location, where one was born which is random. Or maybe I live on the border of two teams’ territory and choose one over the other. A few rebellious, Uranus/Aquarius types, pick the team they like best for a variety of reasons located in some other part of the nation. Sports has an arbitrary nature while politics technically does not. However, the political strategists do all they can to make sure there are a few issues that clearly separate the population into two sides. It’s a calculated dualism that serves only a few.
Aries is competitive so I expect both sports and politics to get more, rather than less, contentious during the Neptune in Aries transit. The companion dualism of sports-politics has been present since the Byzantium era, at least. In Byzantium, it was blues and greens. While Neptune transits Aries, sports and politics may intertwine more.
Warriorship
Aries is ruled by Mars, the god of War. How does spiritual Neptune handle such energies?
Historically we have had spiritual warrior groups both of the violent and non-violent kind. The last time Neptune transited Pisces in the mid-1800s several Western countries fought with and occupied China when it tried to restrict the opium trade, the only product the Chinese wanted from the West. As some political karma, this current transit of Neptune in Pisces sees China supplying the opioids that are destroying cities in the United States.
If the political karma continues, we’ll see in the West what we saw in China during the Opium Wars – backlash by groups with political/spiritual foundations like the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions. We are already seeing that today in the United States as militant groups, mostly male and white, some with group names including the word “boys” stormed our capitol on January 6, 2021.
As with the Boxers in China, there’s a feeling of powerlessness that leads to the psychological/spiritual nature of the group being infused with fighting or warring imagery. The Boxers may have wanted human rights that didn’t exist for them during that time and place. The American “Boxers” are seeking an idealized state that has never existed but is part of our cultural myth.
The Crusades are a perfect example of this Neptune-in-Aries energy. The first crusade in 1095-6 occurred with Uranus and Pluto in Aries, not Neptune. While there are technically eight or nine historical crusades, my own opinion is that the crusades have never ended. The Middle East is the focal point of this type of energy but may span to other regions during this transit as we have the benefit of social media.
Imagine the social media postings that would have occurred in 1095!
Peaceful and spiritual “warriorship” also exists such as with Dan Millman’s The Way of the Peaceful Warrior or Carlos Castaneda’s “warrior” who is at war with the idea of self (24/7, seven days a week!). As with the positive side of Neptune in Pisces, we may not see this type of warriorship as it doesn’t storm capitols and make news. This kind of warriorship is internal.
Kungfu is the term used generically in the west for the martial arts and is associated with the fighting, external side. Traditional Chinese philosophy and culture stresses balance so there is also a “internal” kungfu, if you will. Internal is for self-development; external for defense.
Warriorship can be internal or external. We’ll probably see the external on the news and talk with our close friends about the internal aspects.
Neptune Glamor
Planets are energies and the signs are the qualities and the houses the location. Kind of like who (planet), what (sign), where (house).
Neptune glamorizes, Aries asserts. In your horoscope, you can see where this will be triggered and where you be inspired to assert the self. When the American Warriors stormed the capitol, they were harbingers of Neptune in Aries, feeling inspired by a charismatic leader that it was necessary to save the country.
Although Neptune is still in Pisces, global patterns don’t shift in a day so we’ll see some more Neptune in Aries; there’s a ramp and the shift means that this is the result of what you’ve decided until this point. The housing market collapse in 2007, for example, occurred due to years of irresponsible behaviors.
This is Neptune.
Are you in this picture of Beatles fans in hysteria, laughing, crying, and yearning? You may not be old enough to be in this photo but you may have felt this way about something in the past, in your youth.
Now add Aries.
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