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If 2020 astrologically was mostly marked by the intensity of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Capricorn and Jupiter in the mix, 2022 gives us an otherworldly Jupiter-Neptune conjunction in Pisces. A pairing that meets in exact conjunction around every 13 years and this year on Tuesday, April 12. While these two planets are often considered benefic or positive--I feel dubious. I don't trust Neptune, I fear its delusions and its ability to fog things up. With Jupiter it can take on a larger than life persona or a righteousness that cannot be challenged. Both planets tend to want to transcend, go beyond. And I'm not sure collectively we are ready for that, we still have so much work to do on the ground.
My fear is that it will only empower illusion or religious righteousness rather than dreaming a vision that works for all. In pre-pandemic life of 2019 these two planets danced in a square alignment and now we have them together since 2009 in Aquarius. The 2009 energies brought a ton of beauty in music and film, but it was in Aquarius more innovative, less dreamy.
Though Neptune and Jupiter last met in Pisces was in 1856, a time with the Paris Treaty of Peace ending a war in Eastern Europe as well as a mini Civil War in the USA in Kansas. (This is a major paraphrase, but I don't want to pretend to know more history than I do.);) Though I do find it interesting we are navigating Russian/Ukraine unrest and continuing civil unrest that seemed to only worsen the past several years since the square in 2019.
This combo remains activated through early May and then loosens as Jupiter moves into Aries on May 10. However, the Jupiter retrograde brings them closer together in October. As Jupiter is considered a social planet it works often with groups and communities and shifts culturally. My hope collectively would be to see creative leaps in music and the arts and large scale humanitarian impulses towards alleviating hunger, nature mysticism that desire for climate change action, or collective dreaming.
In the spirit of spiritual teachers and Neptune-Jupiter in Pisces, I appreciate the words of astrologer Dane Rudhyar on this cycle:
"The Jupiter-Neptune cycle is very much like a walking process. Every 13 years- and, even more, every 166 years- mankind should take a step forward, even if only a tiny one. It should be a step ahead of our past traditional, social, cultural, and religious sense of human relationship. Unfortunately, such a step tends to lead at first to confusion, disarray, dismay, perhaps temporary blindess and panicky escape “back to the womb” of what may be thought to be a secure and familiar institution or religious organization. However, progress is only through the confusion and the glowing mist over the hills, yonder. There is no way ever of going ahead, except through!"
I also appreciate my mentor and teacher Richard Tarnas' thoughts on the 2009 conjunction and the magic of the film Avatar:
"...with its extraordinary technical realization of a virtual world, seen by unprecedented numbers of people throughout the world, projected onto vast theater screens with three-dimensional vividness—strongly carried the Jupiter-Neptune archetypal meaning, like a collective cinematic dream. With its narrative embodying values of a spiritual, mystical, sacramental, idealistic character, with its depiction and facilitating a state of participation mystique in nature and in the theater, and with the theme of a healing marriage between opposites, Avatar was a striking, immensely influential manifestation of the Jupiter-Neptune conjunction."
On a personal level I suggest looking at which planets and asteroids sit in Pisces, particularly the 20-30 degrees Pisces or across from it in Virgo. Noticing which house holds Pisces can offer clues about which area of life may be the most impacted by this planetary combination. Working with this cosmic energies can be a fun experiment in magic and creativity. I recommend spending more time near water to align with the flow state this combination can suggest. And certainly watching out for disassociative or escapist tendencies.
Here are some of the combinations more detrimental expressions: spiritual bypassing, unrealistic optimism, gullibility, naivete, misplaced sympathy, sentimentality; escapism through excessive fantasy, daydreaming, addictive substances, television or video games or other ways of losing oneself, zoning out, indulgence through alcohol or drugs; being overly concerned with celebrity, deceived by illusory promises, swept up into financial speculation, gambling, or other questionable ways of becoming rich or famous, lured by the mirage of great wealth and superficial success; projecting a successful image, narcissistic tendencies; spiritual inflation, ungrounded mystical impulses, overenthusiastic beliefs, excessive drive to see everything in a positive light, to ascribe all events to benevolent intentions, overlook significant differences in the service of an ideal or mythic unity
Elevated expressions: synchronicity and good fortune, faith in life, hopefulness, high ideals, trust life's generosity; increased capacity for empathy, humanitarian impulses, joyful altruism; elevated sense of the sacred, spiritual grandeur, imaginative breadth, artistic inspiration; ability to surrender to grand emotions, elevating experiences of flow; heightened spiritual, intuitive, and imaginative impulses and capacities; devotion to culture and liberal education as having spiritual importance; interest in myth, dreams, fantasy, imaginative literature, film and theater; mystical tendencies, religious devotion, enjoyment of ritual and ceremony; sense of being blessed by the benevolence of life, spiritual joy, cosmic optimism, nature mysticism, trust in the Tao or in divine Providence, faith in a higher principle; enriching and elevating experiences involving non-ordinary states of consciousness, dreams, sacred medicine, sublime works of music and the other arts; experiences of oceanic unity, melted ecstasy, redemption, feeling at one with the universe, encompassed by the womb of life; spiritual experiences associated with mountains and other elevated places, or experiencing high and broad inner vistas, grand views from above the ordinary, heightened understanding with a numinous aura; happy experiences associated with the sea, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, baths, water; religious pilgrimages, spiritual or imaginative enrichment stimulated by travel and contact with other cultures and lands.