Neptune in Pisces 2020: It’s A Seriously Bad Trip

Neptune in Pisces seems to have been around a long time. Neptune entered it’s own sign way back on February 3rd 2012. Since then? We seem to have been sleepwalking to disaster. In this post, I’m going to take a look at the meanings we associate with Neptune in Pisces and the twelfth house. However, this isn’t a general resume of all things Neptunian. During this difficult year, Neptune sextiles the Jupiter Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and I would recommend reading that article as it’s all part of the huge celestial procession that’s having such a massive impact on our lives right now.

So, what I’m going to look at more specifically in this post is the impact of that sextile, specifically in the context of the current global coronavirus crisis and I’m going to begin with a closer look at Neptune in Pisces.

Neptune in Pisces

We tend to forget about Neptune. Compared to the cataclysmic associations of Pluto and the shock and awe of Uranus, Neptune is easily overlooked. Dreamy, drifting, spaced out Neptune doesn’t seem to carry the same threat as the other outer planets. We couldn’t be more wrong. To make this point, I want you to look more closely at the sea. On a good day it looks still, beautiful and benign. However, we all know how storms can arise out of nowhere – and the sea becomes a monster of unimaginable force.

Neptune in Pisces works the same way. There’s a rule of thumb when interpreting planets transiting their own signs and it’s an easy one to remember. They become more powerful in their effects. With Neptune in Pisces this means the waters look more peaceful but the storms are bigger and more unpredictable. In other words, the Neptune in Pisces transit has us all fooled a lot of the time – usually until it’s too late.

If we look back to what’s happened in the world since 2012, we can see how Neptune in Pisces has been working on a grand scale. I’m going to look at this in the context of the public realm rather than the private one as this is a matter of huge concern right now. It’s fair to say, that since 2012, the truth has been bent out of all recognisable shape. We have seen blatant lies masquerading as truth and blatant liars elected to power. I know people will say politicians always bend the truth but in recent years this has become so extreme it beggars belief – a classic Neptunian state if ever there was one.

The real problem is, of course, that equating lies with truth (‘fake news’) means our perceptions have become distorted. Lies and distortion are classic Neptune. So is gas-lighting large sections of the public to believe in those lies. Blindness is a classic Neptune trope – everything from actual physical blindness to obscuring the truth by presenting an alternative reality. Some might call it ‘alternative facts’. Gullibility and being blind to reason and inconvenient truth is also classic Neptune in Pisces. However, political hoodwinking and fake news is not the only Neptunian show in town.

Collectively (and remember, Neptune is an extra-personal planet representing the collective conscious) as a society, we have been guilty of blindness on many fronts. There have been many signs that we’ve been travelling down the wrong road. I’m not going to go into detail on the specifics, but classic Neptune can often be characterised as having your head in the sand. You know you need to change but would prefer to ignore stuff until it’s too late.

On a societal scale, we can see how this can be said of the refugee crisis (Neptune = displacement), climate change (Neptune = emissions), economic crisis (Neptune = fraud), as well as politics (Neptune = lies). Neptune in Pisces seems to be working incredibly well. Neptune knows no boundaries.

Now, here we are in 2020 and now we have a global crisis because Neptune also equals infection. And Neptune in Pisces means it’s on a grand scale and truly knows no boundaries. So, as Neptune in Pisces has been around since 2012, what made the difference this time? Why is this something we cannot ignore? Well, it seems as far as Neptune in Pisces is concerned, the gods have decided this is the moment when our illusions and delusions need to be stripped away. That is also how Neptune operates. You can’t hide from the truth forever.

But why now, in 2020? As usual, things happen when the stars align – and in 2020 they have aligned big time as Neptune in Pisces tunes into the Jupiter Saturn Pluto stellium in Capricorn to restructure our lives in a big way. So, I’m now going to look at how Neptune sextile Jupiter and Pluto has signalled that we have reached the tipping point. Saturn has pushed into Aquarius so I’ll leave him out of the mix for the time being – but do read my thoughts on that one here.

Jupiter sextile Neptune

First, a reminder about sextiles. The sextile (60˚) aspect is primarily an enabling aspect. It opens the door and allows things to make contact with each other. We tend to think of a sextile as enabling good things to happen because it’s a harmonious aspect. However, ‘harmonious’ means enabling something to happen easily and productively. There’s no value judgement in play about the outcome. It’s a communicative aspect. Think about questions and answers. You don’t always get the answer you want, do you?

So, back to Jupiter in Capricorn sextile Neptune in Pisces. Jupiter has been Conjunct Pluto in Capricorn since early this year. Lets look at the basic meaning of that transit. I’ve written about it in detail but basically it means big (Jupiter) irrevocable change (Pluto) in our social structures (Capricorn). The question is, how does that happen? Maybe the answer lies in the nature of Neptune in Pisces. Something that overwhelms boundaries (because they don’t exist in Neptune’s watery world) and is infectious. Infectious, by the way, can be widely interpreted. It can mean an an idea or an ideology – something that takes hold of the imagination as well as the body.

What we now have in 2020 is Coronavirus. Quite literally the door has opened (sextile) to a disease (Neptune) that has spread globally (Jupiter). The sextile is working harmoniously because it has enabled something to infect our bodies – and our minds. We tune into the news daily to get our fix of dread. It has also lifted the scales from our eyes about the true condition and meaning of society and this brings me to the thing we’ve been avoiding for a long time. The necessity of social change – for all our sakes, including the planet on which we live.

Pluto sextile Neptune

Pluto is the most feared of the gods. The planet of irrevocable and cataclysmic change is moving through society (Capricorn) but as Pluto is a slow mover, this planet needs a good contact with other planets to really become effective. So, things really ramped up when the powerful conjunction with Saturn (let’s get serious) and then Jupiter (and this means all of you, wherever you are) in Capricorn took hold.

However, Pluto is volcanic. Pluto is about something so life changing it really can’t be ignored – and nothing after can ever be the same again. Pluto is that apocalyptic – wars, natural disasters and tragedies his specialities. Enter Coronavirus, riding on the coat tails of Neptune in Pisces, like a medieval plague. One thing about Pluto you should know is we are powerless in the face of plutonic events. Sadly, this is something many of us are realising as we struggle to come to terms with something we cannot see, yet we know it could cost us our lives – and it is reshaping the societies in which we live.

The combination of Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces is also particularly heartbreaking. The grim reaper (Pluto) claims the vulnerable (Neptune) in society, those with ‘co-morbidities’ (Neptune) more than the healthy – though the healthy are in no way immune. It also claims the lives of those who devote their lives to helping others (Neptune). Our doctors, nurses and care workers find themselves on the front line of a battle they can not win and we can only watch and wait, helpless (Neptune) in the face of something we cannot control (Pluto).

The Twelfth House

So, in the context of the natural zodiac, Neptune has us imprisoned in the Twelfth House. I mentioned the natural zodiac (Aries = First House) as it seems appropriate in the context of what we’re going through. If we equate Capricorn/Tenth house with social structures, then Neptune in Pisces represents the Twelfth House. And what do we find here when we open the door?

Isolation, imprisonment, loss, hospitals, medical staff, mental instability, concern for others – all of the things that seem to be our lived experience right now. Many of us are living in a way that would have seemed unimaginable (Neptune) a few short months ago. However, what can we take from the experience? First of all, it’s going to be emotionally traumatic (Pluto) and mentally destabilising (Neptune) for many of us. Sadly, many of us will lose loved ones – or know people in that situation. We will have to develop coping mechanisms to deal with grief, pain and loss – and that includes dealing with the financial problems that are going to be huge for many of us too.

However, I think for many of us, this enforced period of stillness can become a time of reflection (Neptune) and that’s maybe one of the positives that can begin to emerge from this situation. This time spent in our Twelfth House gives us all space to reflect on what is truly important to us, not just personally but as a society. We know there will be no going back to what was previously considered ‘normal’.

We know what was deemed acceptable by those in power has contributed to this pandemic having worse effects than was necessary. A reminder. With Pluto in the mix, any attempt to ‘revert to type’ after this will not end well. The universe is reminding us of it’s power. It’s up to us to use this time in isolation well. That, I believe, is the true message of Neptune in Pisces.

© Sara Shipman 2020

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