Worthy Illusions; Neptune’s Never-Ending Dance

Metaphorcast 9/13-19, 2021

Listen to this episode here.

It is said that all rivers flow to the sea, but what about those rivers of thought that run through each person’s mind.  Do they also flow to the sea?  Some place that one would rather be?  A world that is ideal, a place of dreams?

When was the last time you said the words “there is no place I’d rather be?”.  What beautiful illusion surrounded you then?

This week Neptune, the planet of dreams and illusion will not only be the closest to earth this year, the Blue Giant will also be fully illuminated by the Sun.  Though it will be but a small blue dot in all but the most powerful of telescopes the fact remains, bright and beautiful illusions are within reach.

Now don’t go thinking I’m talking of flat trickery.  The Mona Lisa is an illusion, its fake would be a delusion.  Illusions are the arts, the beauty in life that points towards the divine, the places where creativity is breathed back into existence.  Cast aside those delusions, those fakes, those things that cheapen the reality of true illusion.  

True illusion expands hope and creates a kind of inner buoyancy.  True illusion finds you on a sunny day in a garden as a kind of veil seems to be lifted to reveal a new layer of crisp beauty.  Delusion on the other hand throws up more veils and narrows the view.  Somewhere beyond the sea, the real me spots a liar.  

Mark Twain said “Don’t part with your illusions.  When they are gone you may still exist, but you have ceased to live.”

Einstein himself called reality a very persistent illusion.  

The question becomes, which illusions are worth your time?  Which illusions do you bond to as tightly as sodium might bond to chlorine?  Which places or ideas in your mind stir an electricity that sparks action at the most intimate and quantum level?  There is nothing delusionary about a sequence so sacred as this.  

Mars, the planet of action, moves into artistic Libra on Tuesday, the same day that the fully illuminated Neptune will reach its closest proximity to earth.  Art in action at the height of illusion!  Bob Dylan said that “art is a never-ending dance of illusions”.  The stage is set for an epic performance!

It is art, with its never-ending dance of illusions which ultimately gives order to the chaos of existence, just as science does to the natural world.  

Never delude yourself into ignoring your most worthy illusions.  

Beautiful dreamers, 

Happy astro pondering

Advertisement

Neptune podcast: the song and the memories of the sea

Back! Back beguiling sirens!

The latest podcast is all about the seductive beguile of the planet Neptune.  Wherever Neptune is found in the birth chart is a place where the beauty and the spell of the sirens live within.

The collective unconscious is the ocean that lives within each one of us.  During dreamtime, Poseidon’s chariot is literally navigating us through an ancient world of memories, connecting to more memories.

Tune out and tune in!

PODCAST    –then scroll down to find the episode “Neptune, the song and the memories of the sea”.

Happy Birthday Johnny Cash!

To say he is an enigma is quite the understatement when it comes to Johnny Cash.  “The Man in Black” without a doubt lives up to his mysterious nickname.  His words come out straight, with no extraneous descriptive poetics, yet they hit us deep within our soul by way of emotional accuracy.  This man knows pain and suffering, and he strides through that dark territory like the outlaw that he is.

On to his chart!

The fist theme that jumps off the page here (always a good place to start) is the EXTREME Neptune/ Pisces energy.  He has his Sun (life energy) conjunct his Mercury (speech and mind) and Mars not far behind (what makes him tick) ALL in sensitive Pisces and all in Pisces’ natural house, the 12th.  The 12th house brings Pisces types of issues into your world- issues like times when you feel vulnerable, overwhelmed, or weak.

The 12th house can be your own personal prison. A place where you are stuck until you learn that you hold the key to your freedom. Here stands Johnny outside of San Quentin prison, one of the two prisons he famously performed in.

On the higher end this could be times/places that bring feelings of rapture or interconnectedness with all of life.  But suffering is no stranger to the 12th house, and Pisces energy feels everything more sensitively.  Let’s add the very important detail that Neptune itself is EXACTLY opposite his Sun/Mercury- adding one more POWERFUL thrust of vulnerability to this equation.  It’s really unbelievable this set up.  This man is either walking with God or walking with his demons.

Here at Folsom Prison the climate is one more of rapture than isolation. He’s the man for the job.

Pisces seeks the rapture. Cash sought this through drug and alcohol addiction as well as religious experiences. Here he is with his good friend the Reverend Billy Graham. He valued this friendship so much that his house in Jamaica featured a “Billy Graham room” with a bed only for Billy.

Instead of cowering in a corner in the face of pain and suffering, Cash puts on a headlamp and marches straight in to the dark trenches of sorrow in search of something true.  This is the spirit of an 8th house Scorpio Moon.  Scorpio is emotional energy that goes deep and craves REALNESS.  The 8th house is the place in life where those things happen, like intimate relationships or offering values (like the messages in his songs) that can be truly SHARED by others.

Cash faces emotional trouble dead on and transforms (Scorpio) pain into wisdom.

Another Uranus/Venus Aries example is his spontaneous (Uranus) proposal (Venus) to June Carter in 1968. She tried to deflect his question, as he was a bit high at the time, but he made sure he got an answer (Aries). His unrequited love for June helped him “walk the line”, instead of floating off into obscurity. (Aries verse Pisces).

But there’s more to Cash’s approach.  He’s an outlaw.  Which brings us to his guns-blazing Venus Uranus conjunction.  Venus (personal charm) is fused with Uranus (the rule breaker/ outlaw!) and they are in fiery courageous Aries in the first house (personal style/identity).  This piece of dynamite is squared by Pluto, which blows it up even bigger with empowerment from the 5th house (the house of self expression).

Cash the outlaw. This picture is worth a thousand words to describe Uranus/Venus in Aries square Pluto.

His Jupiter is in Leo, bringing a restoration of faith through play and spontaneous fun (Leo).  Humor wedges it’s way into the tumultuous terrain of emotional bullets with songs like “A Boy Named Sue”.

So Happy Birthday to The Man in Black!  Hello, he’s Johnny Cash!  Thank you a million times over you beautiful man!

Cash in his element (Water) outside his home in Hendersonville, Tennessee.

High skies and deep waters: Frank Sinatra.

Let’s begin with his Sun, which is in Sagittarius.  His solar energy runs on inspiration, bigness, and optimism.  “If I can make it there I’ll make it anywhere” packs an extreme punch coming from the mouth of this man.  It seeps into our souls and makes us BELIEVE in ourselves and our potentials.  His Mercury is conjunct the Sun, so his words carry forth this uplifting energy.  This conjunction is in the 2nd house of his own values and talents.

Life is a barrel of laughs when your in the rat pack. Sinatra pictured here with Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin. Typical Sagittarius gleefully indulging in a lifestyle of excess (booze and smokes) and living like there’s no tomorrow.

Now let’s look at his Moon.  It’s in dreamy Pisces.  His reigning need is to merge with the mysteries of life.  In this quest he emits a dreaminess.  It’s hard not to immediately call up the Looney Tunes version of him, where he is depicted rail-thin on a stage with all sorts of animals swooning “Frankie!!” and falling to the ground.  They are under his spell.  His Moon is in the 5th house of creative self expression.

From Looney Tunes, “Swooner Crooner”, this hen is under his spell…. “oh Frankie!”

To emphasize this dreamy component, there is Neptune at the Midheaven.  His public role wrapped up in an ethereal “je ne sais quoi”.  And then there is Jupiter (always highlighted for a Sagittarius) squaring (giving structure to) his Sun, in what sign?  Pisces!  His own optimism and faith (Jupiter) restored by feelings of divine beauty and mystery.

“Old Blue Eyes” putting forth a look of reverie

Don’t we want to know about his Venus?  With all that charm he displays?  Well let’s talk about it.  It’s in Capricorn AND opposed Saturn, which basically just amps up that Capricorn.  His charm is CLASSIC (Capricorn).  He is threaded into society (Capricorn), as reflected by his MANY connections to politicians (also a Sagittarius theme), mobsters, and hollywood stars.  This Venus is in the third house of communications, putting that charm right where it’s needed, on that golden voice of his.

Ava Gardner was Sinatra’s second wife, followed by Mia Farrow.

At Peter Lawford’s house with Marilyn Monroe.

Pisces Moon’s can be very sensitive people.  This may explain him converting to be a republican overnight when JFK snubbed him by choosing Bing Crosby’s house to stay at during a convention instead of his.  He had built a helipad and everything!!  Turns out Bobby Kennedy insisted that John not stay there because of all of Sinatra’s ties to the mob.  Sinatra ended up tearing apart the helipad with a sledgehammer.

Before the helipad incident these two were chums

On an ending note, Sinatra displays such a gorgeous balance of his Sun and Moon energies, which is something we all strive to do.  There’s a reason why the apparent size of the Sun and Moon are the same from where we stand on Earth.  He has this balance.  His Sagittarius larger than life, filled with inspiration, his Pisces dreamy as the day is long.  That’s why I would like to dub him Frank Sinatra, Piscittariun .

Pharrell Williams and the beauty of Neptune

I remember when I first saw Pharrell Williams on last year’s Grammy’s and thinking three things:  What’s with the hat?  Who is this guy winning ALL of the awards?  Why is he being followed around by spacemen?

Neptunian illusion and mystery

Flash forward a couple of months and my sister and I are mesmerized by the 24hour music video of “Happy” streaming online.  All different kinds of everyday people dancing in their own interpretative style on the streets of L.A- one, sometimes two or three at a time.  The song/dance keeps coming to an end and unbelievably I would continually feel powerless to turn it off as the music started up again and a fresh face appeared.  The next thing I knew we had been watching for 4 hours straight- one song over and over.

“Here come bad news talking this and that —   Give me all you got and don’t hold back —-   I should probably warn you I’ll be just fine —  No offense to you, don’t waste your time —-  Here’s why —-  Because I’m happy….”

By the time the choir-like back up voices come in “Happyyy…” I am just totally aboard.  The melody is so beautiful- the message so pure- I am hook, line and sinkered.  It’s this all powerful pull to be a part of this big beautiful thing– and knowing on the deepest level that I already AM a part of it.  You might ask when am I gonna get to the astrology of all this and the answer is right now with one word:  Neptune.

Neptune is love that is all embracing– all inclusive–  all forgiving.  It is divine love as opposed to Venus which is personal love.  Neptune celebrates the flawless beauty of us all.  Pisces is the sign that is connected to Neptune.  Michelangelo is a double Pisces (Sun, Moon) with Mars there too (energizing it even more) and all of this opposite Pluto (empowering it exponentially).  Look to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to get a feel for this type of divine love.

ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

Pharrell is not a Pisces, but he has Mercury in Pisces (style of communicating) and his Neptune is very strongly placed- which I will get to.  He is an Aries.  A pioneer, a risk taker.  His Sun is conjunct Venus merging creativity (Venus) with his true essence (Sun).  His Moon is in earthy, steadfast Taurus and in the 5th house (performing).  He needs to create structures (Taurus)- this need is intensified opposite Uranus.  And structures he did create.  He and his partner Chad Hugo created the very successful record duo, named of all things, THE NEPTUNES!

Pharrell’s’ chart

So let’s get back to Neptune.  Wherever Neptune is found in the chart there is a potential for vulnerability on one side of the spectrum and a potential for a deep connection to the divine on the other.  Pharrell’s Neptune is in the 12th, which is the house that is associated with Neptune.  The 12th is mysterious, as is Neptune.  It is commonly associated with trouble but that is not very accurate, and also kind of a downer.  I see planets in the 12th as being connected to seeking an IDEAL, often on a subconscious level.  With Neptune in the 12th we are looking at an ideal in the realm of ideals.  Divine love in the realm of the ultimate.  There is a thirst for heaven on earth.

I remember watching him on Oprah cry tears of joy as they watched homemade videos from around the world of people dancing to “Happy”.  He created a song that unified people from all walks of life in a very powerful way.  Living up to something within him so deep, and so hard to reach.  Masterful work from an artist with his heart in the right place.

Happy in Bucharest

Happy senior in Canada

Happy in L.A (24 hour video)

Happy in L.A (24 hour video)