Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one.
Voltaire
What is unfolding in the news and all around us, rising from the depths of our society’s psyche is both overwhelming and daunting. But it also holds the keys to the creation of a new way of being in the world. Birth is always messy and chaotic. The water has burst and we are on the threshold between dying and living.
Keeping our wits in these times
For this week’s Cosmic Monday, I want to take a look at the dance between the Sun in Gemini and the union of Mars-Neptune in Pisces. Both of these signs are MUTABLE and invoke a sense of change and adaptability.
Although traditionally, these two signs don’t get along, as Gemini wants to hold the rational side, and Pisces the loss of boundaries, there’s a way through.
But it’s uncomfortable and edgy at first because to do so; we have to first come to terms with the rise of our emotions. We can’t think through the tightness in our chest, our tears, and our sadness. That would be Gemini’s first way of dealing with things, a point that our rational-loving culture feels more comfortable with.
How can we stay open and yet avoid the negativity, especially as we feel overwhelmed by the assault of the images that come through the news 24/7? Interesting that Neptune/Pisces has to do with photography and video, and we are being assaulted from our collective slumber through the constant stream of images.
For us to keep our wits about us and still navigate these turbulent waters, we have to bridge together the gifts of Gemini and Pisces. All around us, what has been held under by the collective seethes and roils like the ocean, and we are all susceptible to what is rising – especially this week.
Curiosity and Soul Work will carry us through
The way through is by bringing in Gemini’s gift of CURIOSITY and asking the right questions while doing the SOUL WORK, the INNER WORK that Pisces helps us bring forth. The razor’s edge for all of us now is that we have to both stay open, ‘feel the feels,’ but avoid the spikes of anxiety and reactivity that sweep through the collective consciousness. We have to allow things to wash over us, pass through us, and not get swept away. Easier said than done, and yet we must do this.
Times of crisis bring up every fear known to humanity. And fear is exceptionally contagious. Our job is to ‘flatten the curve’ by taking care not to add more negativity to humanity’s sea of consciousness. We do that by knowing ourselves, our coping ways, and how to tend to our emotional needs. We also help by recommitting to our sense of purpose for this life.
If you are reading this article and you follow astrology, I’ll assume that you are somewhat comfortable with the idea that your soul has a purpose, and you are here for a reason. As I often say, and find myself this even more recently: we are born as an answer to a question of our times. Whatever is your gift to this world, you are also part of the cleanup crew of all the things that our ancestors couldn’t attend to before. Knowing ourselves is a step towards reducing our psychic footprint to the collective pool. That means identifying and addressing our blind spots, understanding our privilege, our part in the fabric of systemic racism, misogyny, and patriarchy.
This may feel like asking a fish swimming in the ocean what it knows about water. Here is our opportunity to bring the Gemini curiosity to bear. Use it to question your assumptions, known facts, and ideas. Engage with other ideas and see what you can learn about how your ideas came to be. The message all around is that we have to educate ourselves, and that is an evident Gemini adage. Know thyself through educating yourself.
Danger at sea – stay alert and yet in the flow
With Neptune … in Pisces, those who prize their sanity will need to be clearer than ever about the dangers of the archetype in its low-level of expression. We’re going to need to watch out for fuzzy thinking and denial where deep healing is required. Escapist longings are strong when Neptune is prominent in the sky.
Jessica Murray – At the Crossroads
Neptune teaches about the illusory nature of this world. We have to keep our finger on the pulse of what is currently happening and yet also keep some distance for the sake of perspective.
But it’s not all smoke and mirrors. Neptune transforms the world one individual consciousness at a time. When we can open up to the experience, let the emotions flow through not and not grasp at them, we can glimpse the truth we’ve been searching all along – interconnectedness. The task for us as the cleanup crew is to savor the inspiration of this moment and to work through the pain and grief.
Behind all anger, the uncertainty, the violence, lies centuries and centuries of unhealed pain and grief. To work through this will take immense spiritual fortitude, as grief and pain will give us a deeper understanding of our place and purpose in these times. We connect to our medicine and gift to the world through our pain and grief. The flip side of that is that our encounter with nourishing joy.
Stay alert to what’s happening, follow that Gemini curiosity of being in the know, but tap into your inner spiritual resources to address what’s coming through you. That’s the Pisces gift, especially as Mars is now joined with Neptune, the sign of the shaman, a spiritual warrior.
Challenges to our belief systems
Last week’s Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius sent shockwaves to our long-held beliefs. Eclipses don’t just hit on the day of but can have their thematic waves come much earlier. The last few weeks have been a tsunami of the need to recognize many truths about our reality. As I said in my June Forecast, this is a month that will give us whiplash.
However, a common misconception when dealing with Neptune (Pisces) and its dissolving of our ego boundaries is that we must surrender our ego. But that is not the way.
The secret to working with Neptune is to learn how to surf the wave. It’s to have a healthy relationship with one’s ego while letting it be strictly known that it is not the driver.
Look to your Sun Sign as a way to cultivate your relationship with your Ego. In this week’s case, while the Sun is in Gemini, one way we can work with our ego is through finding the facts, learning new ideas, stretching our mind towards new thoughts, and being curious: asking the questions to yourself and others.
Neptune squaring the Sun, brings out a feeling of much uncertainty and disorientation. It’s like a cosmic concussion. So we mustn’t fall asleep, we must stay engaged by being active. But active in grounded activities. Do activities that recharge your vitality, as this is a transit that can wipe one out. Plus it affects one’s immune system. So take ample breaks, deep breaths (Gemini is about the lungs), stay in communication, but know when to shut it all out and take a mental break. Work with your hands as much as possible, be it gardening, cooking, crafts, etc. This can help calm down the mental nervousness of Gemini.
There are no atheists in foxholes
Mars and Neptune can be troublesome and chaotic. Confusing, unclear, and yet times that call for the inner spiritual warrior in all of us.
Times of intense uncertainty call us to reconnect to a Higher Power. Mars wants to fight back, to defend and take care of oneself. And yet when it meets up with Neptune it learns that it’s a meeting of the Fates.
It shows us that in the moment of death – and our world as we know it is dying – we are reawakened to something more visceral and alive within ourselves. We see fear and we know that to survive we will need to harness it.
We have to fight intelligently, not just as survival mode. Mars and Neptune together is an opportunity to activate powers we never dreamed we had. We can have super-human focus and be realigned with our sense of fate and purpose.
Our minds can become clear and understand what is truly important in life. The edginess of now is awakening all of us to remember our sense of purpose. It’s a reminder that we are born as an answer to a question of our times. How will you answer it?
Lastly…
During intense Neptunian times, we don’t know what to do for a reason. It’s a protection of sorts. We don’t know because we can’t know what we are doing. Too much thinking and explanation will feel like we are just rearranging the furniture in our heads. Neptune is about consciousness-expanding first, creating space by dissolving old ways of seeing the world, so that a new consciousness will flow into the now expanded space. You can’t move into a new house if the previous tenant has left all their old furniture there. You must first eliminate the old furniture so that you can come in with the new. That’s Neptune for you. Except that it does it much more subtly.
Meditate on this during this week.
Loss, in the outward sense, creates the space into which this new, expanded awareness can express itself … So, naturally, you are confused in a Neptunian time. You just haven’t caught up with yourself yet. … In a Neptune time, you need a vision.
Steven Forrest
