When my young friend Dylan was about three years old, his mother and I took him to the beach and he built a sand castle. It was a labor of love, meticulously constructed and beautifully decorated. After a while, Dylan began to notice that the tide was rolling in, and that the water was about to wash his castle away. He stood up and put himself between castle and ocean. He held up his hand, to tell the waves to stay put! Of course, this didn’t work at all. Nature had its way. The tide came in, as always, and the castle was lost.
Last week and this week, we all feel like our castles are returning to the sea. Neptune stations today, Monday, June 13th, 2016 at 4:43 pm Eastern Daylight Time: afterwards, he begins to move backwards, till the middle of November. Release and let go. Even those of us who are NOT three years old sometimes have trouble with this part! But the structure you built is dissolving, and it’s useless to pretend otherwise. The time will come (before you know it!) when you’re ready to rebuild bigger and better, with a clearer idea of what you want. And remember – not ALL the sand that made up the old structure has been washed away. Some of it lingers, to be used in your next castle.
The station today also reactivates the story from late-February 2016. At that time, Neptune was at 9 degrees Pisces, the same degree he will station on at the end of this retrograde. What was going on in your life at that time? The project that was prominent then is entering a new phase now. You will keep revising and re-visioning it for the most of the rest of the year.
In the Neptune station chart, which I calculated for the eastern United States, the Sun rules the Midheaven, while being placed in Eighth House of endings, secrets, death and rebirth. The Sun and Venus are still traveling together, after their recent Venus Star Point – taking the first steps in their new 8-year cycle of love and creativity, which was seeded last week. We are getting the feeling that life is short, that it’s time to hone in more precisely on what we want to do with our time here, and (more importantly) why.
The Uranus/Eris conjunction in Aries, which also perfected last week, is prominently featured in the Neptune station chart, making up the apex of a Finger of God. Uranus represents, among other things, the unexpected and explosive, the principle of chaos, diversity, and rebellion. Eris is the Goddess of Discord, the Angry Feminine, who (astronomically) got Pluto demoted and (mythologically) started the Trojan War, when she wasn’t invited to a party.
These two planets have been arguing loudly in our collective consciousness over the past week. Hillary Clinton won the primary last Tuesday, becoming the presumptive presidential nominee of the Democratic party; she shattered a glass ceiling (Uranus), and entered a group from which women were previously excluded (Eris). The week also featured an unprecedented degree of public outrage (Uranus) over lenient sentencing in the Stanford rape case and a growing awareness that violence against women (Eris) is not to be passed over as insignificant. And finally, we encountered the horrific events in Orlando on Sunday, where a terrorist (Eris) targeted the LGBTQ community (Uranus) and killed at least 50 people: the worst mass shooting, as well as the worst massacre of LGBTQ community members, in United States history.
Uranus and Eris will meet in the sky twice more within the next ten months: on September 25th, 2016 and March 17th, 2017. Watch these dates for more public expression of anger, breaking of barriers, shattering of limits, and profound social change.
During Neptune stations, we often find ourselves in a period of cultural or collective mourning. Many of us here in the United States are mourning today for the victims of the Orlando shooting, and many are still remembering the loss of Muhammad Ali on June 3rd: he was an American icon of hope and inspiration, as well as a prominent pacifist and advocate for social justice (all higher-form Neptune things), and was finally released after a long illness (also Neptune).
On an individual level, Neptune stations tend to magnify our mental health issues – anxieties and depressions, any problems with addiction. These aspects offer us a potential turning point. Sober up, change your lifestyle, or release your inhibitions. One of the keywords for Neptune is redemption.
Even if you aren’t having a hard time with these aspects (and in that case, more power to you!) remember that they are still going off SOMEWHERE in your chart, and in everybody else’s chart too. Be patient, stay flexible, and take the high road!
Hang in there, everybody.
