June 13 – Nov 19, 2016

Click here to learn about Neptune. Click here to learn about Pisces.

Neptune turns retrograde for five months every year. Planets in retrograde are not actually spinning backwards – it is entirely an optical illusion as seen from Earth. Backwards motion appears to happen when Earth passes slower moving planets in the outer solar system. In astrology, this illusion manifests as a “backwards” functioning of the planetary roles. Click here to learn more about retrograde.

The last Neptune Retrograde cycle was June 12 - Nov 18, 2015, also in the sign of Pisces. Since April 2011, Neptune has been transiting Pisces, the sign she rules. When a planet returns to its ruling sign, we say in astrology that it is “at home.” With Neptune at home, we are poised for spiritual awakening on a global scale. But we can also see how this manifests as a massive existential crisis. The membrane between each dimension and parallel reality grow thinner by the day. Many trends in popular culture reflect Neptune’s current placement: rapid legalization of medical/recreational marijuana; the popularity of yoga and transcendental meditation; extra-terrestrial themes in music and pop culture; simulators and next-level gaming blurring the lines between physical and virtual reality; and, on an imbalanced level, the skyrocketing of opioid addiction, and so on.

Just as Pisces represents endings and return to Source, Neptune rules ego-death, sacrifice and enlightenment. Neptune is the the mystic and medium: the dissolution of many into One. Ever since Neptune returned home to Pisces in 2011, my intuition and empathy have grown exponentially more powerful. Neptune aspires to universal love and compassion for all beings. She is master of imagination and boundless creativity.

Neptune asks us to confront our addictions. A major lesson of Neptune is understanding that our vices do not elevate us to a higher consciousness. Many fall into addiction and escapist behavior in an effort to gain greater soul awareness, although people often do not realize this is why they are using. I am always reminded of Coleman Bark’s introduction to a collection of poems about taverns by 13th century Turkish poet Jelaluddin Rumi:

The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two drunks meet so that they don’t know who is who. Pronouns no longer apply in the tavern’s mud-world of excited confusion and half-articulated wantings. But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off from the tavern and return … The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in search for truth … A breaking apart, a crying out in the street, begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way home. (The Essential Rumi, p. 1)

When Neptune turns retrograde in Pisces, she sinks deep below the subconscious into an underwater cove where turquoise grottos glow in iridescence, where fish swim up and down simultaneously, where music emanates from an ephemeral conch, where dreams are real, where fantasy rules supreme, where time and space coalesce in a giant bubble rising to the eye of eyes, until it bursts and sucks you through a current rolling endlessly into the dark, dark night. Even if you do not have an existing problem with substance abuse, I highly recommend avoiding drugs and alcohol. Remain sober and you will tap into levels of consciousness that are otherwise unavailable, obscured by the murkiness of hallucinogens. Neptune can drag you down, down, down into her lair, and I promise you don’t want to go there.

It is important to ground in a spiritual practice. You probably already have one. Anything you do on a daily basis that makes you feel whole and healthy is a spiritual practice, like taking a walk every morning, making art, singing. Without such practices, we become highly susceptible to Neptunian temptation. We feel lost, void, desperate, drowning. This is a dangerous place to be. Keep your inner world burning brightly lest the netherworld sea creatures wriggle their way into your dopamine receptors, whispering that they have something you’d like, just what you’ve been looking for.

This is the time of year when we are most likely to “lose our grip” and engage in regressive or destructive behavior. We might enter into an unhealthy relationship and in the process not only ignore our intuition but deceive ourselves - willful ignorance. Or maybe we take a job with little to no prior knowledge about the nature and conditions, coasting on blind faith. Learn as much as you can beforehand and take your time with anything and everything. Unlike other planetary retrogrades, Neptune does not push, she pulls. Stand strong against impulse and seduction, my friends, because I can tell you now that if it seems too good to be true, the Queen of Illusion has something waiting for you in the chamber.

It’s not all bad though, because even if you do mistakenly swim into the belly of the whale, Neptune delivers a higher love. Look around and you will find a light, a cord of ascension. She never leaves us totally helpless. However, do try to exit the nightmare if possible; silencing your intuition will only aggravate your situation.

Neptune Retrograde is an introspective and reflective period. Our sensitivity increases until we are able to see and feel much more than usual, so we will be more easily overwhelmed by our surroundings. Neptune fogs reality until it practically vanishes. Resisting outside influences may seem impossible. However, this is a blessing in disguise. We learn how to exercise better self-control and self-discipline. A surge in preternatural abilities is not uncommon. In all ways, we will be more entrenched in the right brain. This is a time for healing wounded beliefs and letting go of reveries that once uplifted but now only remind of what could have been.

Give a listen to Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. Celebrate Neptune with Pisces Yoga.

I was born with Neptune Retrograde. To find your Neptune sign and whether she was direct or retrograde at the time of your birth, click here.

Mantra: I believe