Neptune Retrograde in Pisces ♆ 2023
June 30 – Dec 6, 2023
Planets in retrograde are not spinning backwards – it is an optical illusion as seen from Earth due to the fact that planets travel at their own respective speeds around the sun. In astrology, this illusion manifests as a “backwards” functioning of the planetary roles. Click here to learn more about retrograde.
Since April 2011, Neptune has been “at home” in Pisces. With Neptune here, a global spiritual awakening continues to unfold – think of 2012 alone and how potent it was. This transit also continues to manifest as a collective existential crisis. Many trends from the 2010s reflect Neptune in Pisces: legalization of marijuana; global popularity of yoga and meditation; extra-terrestrial themes in music and pop culture; virtual reality; opioid addiction; media manipulation; politicians lying to the public every day, and so much more.
Neptune turns retrograde for five months every year. This transit is a subtle yet profound river, the kind that carries us back to regressive, self-destructive behaviors. We might enter into an unhealthy relationship, or fall back into an old habit, for example. Get all the details and take your time, whatever it is. Neptune is muddling and hazy, not clear or logical. If it seems too good to be true, it is. Neptune is the Queen of Illusion.
Neptune Rx reminds us that vices do not equate to higher consciousness. Addiction and escapist behaviors are just the soul crying out for greater awareness. From Coleman Bark’s introduction to a collection of Rumi poems:
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)
Neptune in Pisces is both an ending and beginning. Neptune rules ego death, sacrifice, and surrender. This retrograde is an introspective and reflective period, so much so that you will undoubtedly struggle to express your experience. This transit is like being woven into a cocoon. It happens so deftly and slowly that we don’t realize what’s taken place until we’re deep inside the journey.
Neptune’s movements affect sun sign Pisces the most. This is true for people with moon or rising sign in Pisces too. Those born with natal points in Gemini, Virgo, or Sagittarius will struggle the most with this transit. Sun/moon/rising sign Cancer and Scorpio can integrate this nebulous energy more effortlessly.
When outer planets turn retrograde, nothing dramatic happens. This is not like Mercury Retrograde. This is an extended meditation on our beliefs, as well as our hope.
We are currently in Cancer Season, one of the most conducive periods of time for growth and healing during this retrograde cycle. This will likewise be true for Scorpio Season. Virgo Season will be one of the most difficult times of this retrograde, with the sun in opposition to Neptune Rx. The beginning of Sagittarius Season will also be tough with the sun squaring Neptune.
Listen to Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. I was born with Neptune Retrograde in Capricorn. To find your Neptune sign and whether this planet was direct or retrograde at the time of your birth, click here.
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