On April 4 2011, the planet Neptune begins its journey through Pisces, another symbolic key enhancing the shift in human consciousness slowly unfolding on our planet. Neptune has strong associations with Pisces, both water energy, both belonging to a realm of the mysterious, the inspired and the imagined. Both have no boundaries, build no barriers, escapist and mystical in attitude. Neptune swims quite freely in this watery and boundless sign. We find no wave breakers in Pisces for Neptune as we consider a world letting loose and moving forward with what must be done, changed, seeded, even destroyed as we look optimistically towards the future.

During its sojourn in the fixed sign of Aquarius, Neptune has had its bounds , has been far more restricted than is its nature. Every planet has a particular purpose in a sign , each planet spends different times in a sign depending on its orbit. Neptune will enter Pisces in April 2011, leave at the beginning of August and return in early February 2012 where it will stay until 2026 . With every passage through a sign a planet is either considered an el supremo guest, a friend, an enemy or a pain in the arse! Neptune moving into Pisces is the el supremo guest as Pisces can and will deliver anything Neptune may demand or ask for. Neptune doesn’t ask for the tangible, he doesn’t even ask, he sends messages, waves and undercurrents and Pisces responds. Together these two create an overwhelming image, one so full of the imaginative, wild, out of this world, inspired ideas, concepts and passionate actions ever experienced, but also perhaps the most depraved and destructive. The destructive element comes in as Pisces being the last sign of the zodiac, the one concerned with the next cycle, destroys that which is not appropriate for the next wave.

Neptune last spent time in a water sign in Scorpio in the 1960’s when peace, love, flower power, drugs and open sexuality changed our world and our cultural attitudes. Now just think, Scorpio is a fixed sign and still all this happened, shifted and changed! This also had much to do with the revolutionary presence of a Pluto Uranus conjunction in mid Virgo throughout this time. Despite Virgo’s restraint and Scorpio’s fixity we still experienced a world in revolutionary fervour. This is mindboggling when we consider the coming planetary line-up. This time we have Neptune in the mutable sign of Pisces, with Uranus in Aries demanding the freedom to express itself, squaring Pluto in Capricorn. The cardinal energy of fire and earth will challenge the world and its governing foundations. Not much restraint with this combination, as Uranus fuels change, Pluto demolishes established rules and Neptune infuses inspiration. These three outer planets all work together to encourage us to construct a new and better world.

Pisces imaginatively germinates and nurtures the seeds of the future . With Uranus’ sojourn through Pisces in the past seven years we witnessed the churning of the waters and the seeding ideas of what must change. With Uranus in Aries those seeds begin to sprout and some have already done so. Neptune will now connect the fragmented pieces of the Uranian turmoil and weave them magically back together . Germinating the seeds of the future , has much to do with what we allow ourselves to believe and hope for. With this passage we are challenged to trust in a future we can’t see but can only imagine. From the personal microcosm to the global macrocosm, these two energies create greater access to highly passionate and emotional experiences and actions, collective inspiration and insightful motivation. We are also prompted to think of all invisible energies, ephemeral, mysterious and mystical. With this journey the paranormal becomes normal. We step into the oceanic realm of the spiritual and the divine, where the swimmer doesn’t follow a particular current, but swims to what feels right, what smells good, what looks the best, senses working overtime for sure.

It’s interesting to look back previous eras when Neptune journeyed through Pisces to get an idea of what we may expect this time round. What becomes apparent with hindsight is that boundaries were broken, radical ideas were germinated which led to paradigm shifts in human consciousness. These times seemed to add to our understanding of ourselves as part of the world and the greater universe. What spawned during these times had far reaching and long lasting influences that didn’t seem to be integrated immediately, but slowly permeated our world view , human psyche, wisdom and knowledge. Many influential philosophies, theories and practices developed about the connection between body, mind and spirit and the power of healing that are still very much part of our world view today and will be added to and developed during this phase of the cycle.

Here are some of the inspiring and significant ideas that I found transpired during previous Neptune in Pisces eras. Not all periods are noted and by no means is this complete :

443 – 430 BCE
- Empedocles writes on the four humours : blood , yellow bile, black bile and phlegm.
Later these became associated with the four elements and then the four humours.
- Meron establishes the four solstice points.
- The Parthenon was built. A 13 metre statue of Zeus was built in Athens

280-267 BCE
- Zeno of Citium (334 - 262 BCE) a Greek philosopher founded the Stoic School of Philosophy emphasising the goodness and peace of mind gained from living a life of virtue in accordance with nature

1029 – 1043 CE
- Abd All?h ibn S?n?’ (980-1037CE) created the first Pharmocopeia, a great synthesis of practice which included arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, earth science, philosophy, metaphysics, psychology, physiology. He was also the first known person to study infectious diseases and the benefits of quarantine.
- On May 24, 1032, he observed the earliest recorded transit of Venus.

1520 – 1534 CE
- Copernicus gave his first talk on the sun centred solar system to Pope Clement VII, the idea was spawned.
- Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe was completed in 1522.
- Paracelsus (1493 -1541) physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer - did most of his great work during this time. Pioneering the of use of chemicals and minerals in medicine. He used the 7 metals, 7 known planets associating them with 7 organs known as the Great Idea of Harmony, the macrocosm and the microcosm.

1684 – 1698 CE
- Isaac Newton published Principia in 1687. Newtonian mechanics explained the laws of gravity, laws of motion and the universe as a mechanical machine. Newtonian physics dominated the scientific view of the laws of the Universe for 300 years The idea that God created the universe and left it to work on its own came from Newtonian theory.
- The Salem witch hunts and trials

1848-1862 CE
- Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 expounding the theory of Evolution
- Marx published The Communist manifesto in 1848.
- The first plastic was invented by Alexander Parkes in 1855.
- The world's first commercial oil well was drilled in Poland in 1853.
- James Clerk Maxwell unified electricity and magnetism into a single theory, classical electromagnetism, thereby showing that light is an electromagnetic wave.
- Dr John Snow traces the source of one outbreak of cholera in London to a single water pump, validated his theory that cholera is water-borne thus beginning the study of epidemiology.
- The first public exhibition of a Foucault pendulum took place in February 1851 in the Meridian Room of the Paris Observatory.
- American Express was founded by Henry Wells & William Fargo.
- Solar flares were discovered by Richard Christopher Carrington (1853 -1861).
- The Production of steel was revolutionized by the invention of the Bessemer process
- The first commercially successful sewing machine made by Isaac Singer.

Most of the above are now fully integrated into our lifestyles and consciousness. Many of the above we can’t imagine living without. With this next long transit many of the above are up for review: the theory of evolution, our global economies reliance on oil, the pervasive use of plastic. We must also review our healing techniques and medicines and how the way we perceive our environment impacts on our well-being.