Astrology of Now: Through The Looking Glass
Stormy Sea at Night, Ivan Aivazovsky, painted last time Neptune and the South Node were in Pisces
As some readers of this blog may have noticed, I couldn’t bring myself to take a close look at the close of polls chart for the US election. It was just too important — and I was scared of what I might find. However, a couple of weeks ago, when I was writing your horoscopes for November, I saw something that made my heart leap into my mouth — in a manner of speaking — something which I could not ignore.
It was the passage of Neptune through the South Node in Pisces this month. The image that sprang to into my mind immediately was “Through the Looking Glass”.
… and here Alice is in Looking Glass world, where everything is a little bit strange.
These illustrations are by John Tenniel for the first edition. Here Alice has climbed up on to the mantlepiece and starts to go through the glass.
“How would you like to live in Looking-glass House, Kitty? I wonder if they’d give you milk in there? Perhaps Looking-glass milk isn’t good to drink — But oh, Kitty! now we come to the passage. You can just see a little peep of the passage in Looking-glass House, if you leave the door of our drawing-room wide open: and it’s very like our passage as far as you can see, only you know it may be quite different on beyond. Oh, Kitty! how nice it would be if we could only get through into Looking- glass House! I’m sure it’s got, oh! such beautiful things in it!
Let’s pretend there’s a way of getting through into it, somehow, Kitty. Let’s pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it’s turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It’ll be easy enough to get through — ‘ She was up on the chimney-piece while she said this, though she hardly knew how she had got there. And certainly the glass was beginning to melt away, just like a bright silvery mist.” — from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Neptune slides through the keyhole of the South Node in a few days time, but yesterday and today, the Moon slipped through the sign of the fishes, sliding over Neptune and through the South Node. For a few days, the silvery Moon lights up the path Neptune will have to tread through this deepest part of the Piscean ocean.
Neptune in Pisces 2011-2025
Although Neptune has been in Pisces for many years and will stay for many more, this moment happens just once in that time. Indeed the last time Neptune joined the South Node in Pisces was October 1849.
So far Neptune seems to be extremely powerful in its own sign — and indeed to be gaining momentum and power as he goes along. This is the planet of illusions and magic, fairies and Dionysus, dissolution and dissolving, in the sign associated with mass hysteria, glamour, mist, fog and the deep, blue sea — and of dreams and nightmares.
Jupiter (as a cloud) and Io by Correggio. Painted when Neptune and the South Node were in Pisces (1531)
Neptune and Pisces are associated with lies and delusion, drunkenness and Dionysiac madness, with idealism and mysticism and slander, with music and poetry, and sacrifice. You don’t need me to tell you that lies have triumphed this year. People are embracing a shimmering image of a possible future, and rejecting the recent past in favour of a distant, fantasy past. Some ideals and some people have already been sacrificed.
The South Node is also known as the Dragon’s Tail. It shows us where eclipses will take place and travels slowly backwards through the signs on an 18-year cycle. The eclipse on September 1 took place here at 9° Pisces, and the one on February 27 will also take place here — 8° Pisces.
It is considered a Karmic point in a personal chart, and it is said that planets that contact the South Node may be drained of power — or behave in an uncontrolled way. Planets here can bestow great gifts, sometimes talents which come so naturally that the person may take them for granted. For example, Alfred Hitchcock, (probably a terrible person and definitely a great film-maker) has Neptune conjunct his South Node. Neptune is, of course, the planet of the silver screen.
The South Node is also about the past, about what we carry from the past, even past lives. Collectively, this node connects us to our histories.
Where the Nodes transit is likely to be an axis where you experience a process of rapid evolution. So currently the Nodes are in Pisces and Virgo. It’s worth looking at where these signs are in your own chart.
The Nodes are gateways — into the past or into the future.
Now as Neptune passes through the South Node, we are collectively stepping into the dream — or the nightmare. We are in Looking Glass world now. Everything looks the same, but backwards.
“It is an enormous and very rare privilege to have lived in the days of good government. Across nations and centuries, few people have ever done so. By a rare bit of luck, certain groups in a few corners of the globe tasted decades of this remarkable, anomalous blessing. They might even, foolishly (especially if they traveled little, seldom read history books or had a very high estimation of their own populations) have started to assume it was a natural or God-given norm.” — Alain de Botton. To read the rest of this essay, click here.
I’m amazed by the nodes…just in the last couple of years I’ve started to really pay attention. Do you think Bernie would have gotten a better chance on this election?
I’m wondering if the Mercury ruled NN is a good guide…
This election is dèjá vu for some of us and the NN was in the same sign as the one Who won the elections..
I have the SN and Neptune conjunct my descendant right now and anticipating the outcome of both this and the event in February. Certainly feeling disconnected during Neptune’s transit here. I really appreciate your blogs and horoscope, thank you.
“Planets here can bestow great gifts, sometimes talents which come so naturally that the person may take them for granted.” …
I have natal moon conjunct south node in Sag. And my saturn is 10 pisces 5th house, which opposes u/plu conj in Virgo in 12th, part of a t-square with venus/mars conj in Sag. I have a Sag stellium. I also have a grand water trine with my sun, saturn and jupiter. Another easy take for granted thing.
I’m sun scorpio, with mercury in scorpio too. My neptune in scorpio is exactly conjunct my sun-moon midpoint. I have vesta (activist) conjunct MC in Cancer in 10th house.
I want to help, I feel that might be my purpose, but I don’t know how or where to begin. I am an activist online so far, but that’s it.
A complicated question to answer here — but I’m interested in the Vesta conjunction and the Moon conjunction. Suggest your SN-Moon is partly at least about spreading knowledge.
Where is your Ceres?
Ceres is in Pisces, conjunct Chiron 6th House. Ceres is exactly trine neptune/sun-moon midpoint in scorpio, and trine Vesta, actually. Another grand water trine. Never noticed that before!
I find networking very easy, and I took to social media like a duck to water. Sharing information is second nature.
Christina,
what margin do you take for a planet to be conjunct the SN or NN ??
mimi
That depends on the chart, but you know I like everything tight. Also I think applying and separating is important. Still I would go as far as 10° in some charts, although I’d really like it to be within 3°
Just for the fun of it, I cast charts for Washington DC for 08:00 AM, election days Nov. 05, 1968 and Nov 08, 2016. There are some interesting positions shown on the charts that resonate and connect across the span of 48 years.
This year’s South Node is conjunct the 1968 Jupiter. Mars trines itself. Saturn trines itself. Pluto doesn’t quite, but trines the current Mars. Venus is conjunct itself and the Nodes are at nine and ten degrees of the signs in both years
It’s an interesting exercise. I tried it because there was something about this election that resonated with Nixon’s rise to power. I ever heard a college age Trump supporter refer to the Silent Majority in an interview on the CBS national news last night.
If there is any illustration of the saying “What goes around, comes around,” this chart and this election is it.
Also that Nixon turned out to be a “crook”.
exactly my thoughts – very interesting indeed.
mimi
Dark though that painting is – its not near bleak enough. The Raft of the Medusa seems more fitting
I cannot express the depth of grief and dismay with which I view this debacle.
Every step of the way there was opportunity after opportunity to turn aside from the cliff.
The domino effect this will have doesnt bear thinking of, but must be faced.
Weve been there before, we cannot go back again.
I lay a large portion of blame firmly in the lap of the media. Pisces ran amok. They are king makers without responsibility.
This should have been shut down from the beginning. Everything about him investigated and exposed prior to nomination. I cant even bring myself to say his name any more.
And the case for Hillary should have been reported immediately and with investigative rigour rather than the tsunami of innuendo and repeated lies – the smoke and mirror emails with nothing of substance- and the endless insult on injury of outrageous double standards.
Obama said it perfectly in his last Press awards speech just before the mic drop. You could tell he was both deeply angry and worried as he castigated them for their irresponsibility and wasted opportunity. That moment felt like a goose walked over our graves as their eyes dropped and the room shifted collectively in discomfort.
And the moment passed and they didnt heed it.
As to Assange, words fail.
So well put aqua. I agree with you absolutely. The media has failed, failed, failed. And the same is true here — although even more shamefully, I think.
This morning I woke up to hear the BBC reporting on president-elect Trump as if it was normal. The world is on it’s head
We are the resistance now.
And re Pisces South Node/Neptune and Saturn in Sagittarius square Neptune I think one of the collective lessons re fear is the discernment between healthy realistic fear based on observable data such as Climate Change or the candidates affilition with Neo Nazis and Russia or his documented views and actions towards Blacks, Women, Mexicans etc etc as opposed to post truth fantasy spread through social media.
Exactly — and really you just have to listen to what is actually said. “Hiding in plain sight.”
“Hiding in plain sight.”
Bang on!
Thank you Christina.
Oh good ness but the BBC makes me so angry.
The nauseating pretence of being non partisan. They were interviewing Trump fans before the election, asking why they were voting for him, and despite the answers being the usual insane conspiracy theories, they once didnt challenge them.
That is the bad side of Jupiter in Libra, right there, an inflated ‘right’ to impartiality.
Thats not wise justice. Justice is presenting ALL the facts, challenging lies, weighing up whats true and drawing a rational conclusion, not giving equal weight to false equivalences and conspiracy theories
Quite apart from their criminal links, murky motivations and lack of genuine ethics, I strongly believe that the BBC with their constant programming of nostalgia fests and has nourished piscean tendencies of wallowing in avoidance, rose tinted nostalgia and a masochistic glamourisation of Austerity . These ‘revolutions’ on both sides of the Atlantic, despite the ironic pretence of shaking up the system, are fundamentally about returning to the days of kowtowing and forelock tugging.
The chip on the shoulder arrivistes and keeping up with the jones and the aspirationals who hanker for the illusion of the American dream, are desperate for the respect and attention of the genuinely admirable or powerful, and resent them in equal measure for their need. And those who are desperate and overlooked are thrown the bone of a demographic to hate.
Look at how Trump so desperately wants Obamas respect, but he cannot face that in himself, so that when Obama mocks him, his need turns in on itself, a twisted cancerous desire to beat Obama and simultaneously be him/own him. Or in his wifes case – Michelle.
And just wait until he starts claiming Obamas successes as his own and worse, enacting Obamas initiatives which congress had blocked. For instance the infrastucture and roads bridges etc that Obama tried to get done. Im banging my head on the desk.
And now when Obama exhibits his usual bigness of spirit [ and watching him shaking hands with Trump was literally insane making] Trump rolls on his back, exposing his belly to be scratched and whimpering like a milk fed pup.’Obama is a great man’ FFS how DARE he!
I never thought I would look back on Romney as a model of integrity
Assange, Murdoch, Farrage, the Alt Right Trump, Putin, they kick and scream and break things, manipulate those in genuine need, bully and control and try and kill the Father, but all they want is him to pat them on the head.
Could this Farce get any more archetypal?
And Speaking of farce [and circuses] the inherent dark side of Gemini, re Saturn in Saggitarius, Neptune and the nodes is coming more and more into focus.
As you brought up in a blog during the referendum, there is the beyond statistical probability amount of Geminis, currently in UK politics.
And in America not just Trump but Pence, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich…and likely many more.
This ‘lesson’ is presenting itself repeatedly like a hall of mirrors.
All highlighting Americas Mars and Uranus in Gemini.
The Fool, the Scary Clown,the Snake Oil Salesman, the Court Jester, The TROLL.
We are collectively trolling ourselves with circular gossip, Chinese whispers, fact free slanders and pride in intentional ignorance all designed to create ever greater divisiveness.
Until we grasp the splitting and projecting and lack of awareness of that internal process that the dark side of Gemini represents, it will keep accelerating.
God Im dribbling with rage 🙁
We have a strange method of electing a president here in the USA. Trump won the electorate votes that determine each states’ electors that will cast votes in the electoral college. The states’ electors meet December 19th to vote, then those votes are presented to the Senate. There is a slight chance that the electoral college determination could still elect Hillary. The defecting electors for the electoral college are called “faithless electors” (see Wiki) and it has occurred numerous times…gads!
https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/key-dates.html
Here are the transits for December 19th:
http://planetwatcher.com/#1482170400
Note that Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus form one-half of a mystic rectangle, called the wedge…19*-20* Gemini completes the wedge to form a mystic rectangle. This area of Gemini is on Trump’s Uranus and Sun! Also draws-in his Moon as transiting Saturn nears conjunction.
This may end-up being like the uncertainty of Brexit, with the high court declaring the necessity of a Parliament vote.
The November 8th USA election is when the electorate (people) vote, but we actually are voting for electors to cast their ballots December 19th. Hillary Clinton had the majority popular vote, yet Trump won the electorate vote. Since the USA utilizes an obscure electoral college method, what importance would you place on the December 19th election chart, Christina?
The astrological transits of December 19th have the Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus wedge, as I mentioned in my previous comment. Donald Trump’s Sun-Uranus complete the wedge into a mystic rectangle and his Moon is part of the rectangle, too. That might be a significant indicator of his winning the November 8th electors. Assuming the electors voting on December 19th provide him a victory, the December 19th election chart seems much more telling. The mystic rectangle is a difficult aspect requiring incredible balance to hold the sextiles, trines, and oppositions together…and his natal Sun-Uranus opposed Moon slide right into that configuration. The mystic rectangle reminds me of the Talking Heads, “Life in Wartime”: “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco, This ain’t no fooling around”.
I haven’t looked at that chart yet, Mike, but I am now.
I see what you mean. Saturn will be on his Moon and opposite his stellium in Gemini — which can be a depressing transit, but actually can be about taking on emotional responsibility (like a parent). I think your point about the “mystic” rectangle is right. It’s not necessarily mystic at all — a complete misnomer IMHO. The rectangle can be a concretising thing. You often see it in natal charts of people who are talented, and able to apply the talent in a practical way. In this case, it’s about stepping into a very difficult role — hence the Saturn thing. It’s no disco, but for him it’s all coming together…. (sigh), like a key in a lock.
There is a possibility that the Jupiter Return(!) will be about biting off more than he can chew. His downfall would be through the courts (Jupiter in Libra), and to do with money perhaps (2H). The Return is happening in November, April and August. So three hits.
I looked back at his previous Returns and as always with the Donald, found a mixture of downfall and uplift simultaneously — very Uranian. Just before the one in 1993, he was filing for bankruptcy. In other words with Jupiter in Virgo (1H), he got caught, and Jupiter in Libra he had to cough up the dough. Allegedly, (via Wiki) he had to borrow from his siblings trusts in 1993. That Jupiter Return (one hit) his daughter Tiffany was born. He married her mother Marla Maples a couple of months later in December that year.
At the previous Jupiter Return in 1981, his other daughter Ivanka was born — and his older brother died of alcohol poisoning.
At the Jupiter Return in 2004, he had to file for bankruptcy again! But he also started working on The Apprentice (Jupiter-Uranus or what!) and married Melania. Jupiter-Uranus is one of the reasons the Donald is so very lucky, of course. It’s exact and the Return is exact on December 2, the first time, which pings off that Uranus too.
Just briefly, it’s also noteworthy that the Moon is going through the NN on that day, just as it went through the SN on November 8.
Thanks for looking at his charts and commenting! The Moon on December 19th also opposes Neptune and squares Saturn, setting-off the pesky Jupiter-Saturn-Neptune T-square of the last year, which seemed to work wonders for Trump. The November 8th election chart wasn’t that impressive to me and perhaps is more telling of how the voters felt, but the December 19th electoral college chart fits Trump like a glove.
BTW – The same wedge is prominent in Trump’s swearing-in on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017 (12 PM, noon), Washington, DC:
http://planetwatcher.com/#1484938800 [set for 1 PM CST, which is noon EST]
And with transiting Uranus right on his N Node!
The post-truth T-square.
Ooops…forget my last comment…transiting Uranus will be exactly sextile his N Node.
I am just learning about these nodes and stunned by their relevance to my immediate circumstances. Also, my North Node is in Pisces (9th house) & South Node in Virgo (3rd house)…exactly what is occuring now, I guess. And though I don’t understand how this impacts, I can say that EVERYTHING in my life is in transition.
It’s all so Neptunian… People who should work together mistrust each other, or trust the wrong person… No one knows what the right decision is. Bernie Sanders offered Trump his help, if he gets rid of the racists. If that works, great. But if it doesn’t, than Bernie is helping Trump to consolidate his power. The reason doesn’t help us anymore, but the feelings are tricky too.
Found another instance of Neptune/South Node–with dramatic parallels to our current experience–and immediately thought of this post 🙂
Almost fell out of my chair when I looked at the chart for the 1933 Reichstag Fire. The arson fire of the German Parliament which was infamously empowered the Nazis to establish the Third Reich/dismantle the Weimar Republic. Neptune rx was conjunct South Node in Virgo at the time, as well as opposite the Sun in Pisces (3 days after a Solar Eclipse that opposed Neptune/SN).
The Reichstag Fire was a huge propaganda coup for the Nazis, who arrested and executed a rogue communist sympathizer, thus accomplishing the goals of establishing a dictatorship, solidifying public support, and pretext to persecute leftists en masse. The official story for decades was that the fire was just a lucky accident that happened to play directly into the hands of the Nazis. Although it has long been speculated that the Nazis themselves set the fire, it wasn’t until 2001 that direct sources were uncovered for the first time to support the claim. Most people carried on believing the Nazi narrative for many decades; a deception that was aided by the post-war establishment including the mainstream German media, and especially Der Spiegel.
Amazingly, the Reichstag Fire Neptune/SN conjunction is exactly opposite the current one–meaning half a Neptune cycle ago. Another striking similarity is that the RF occurred during a Uranus/Pluto square in Aries/Cancer; we of course just concluded a set of Uranus/Pluto squares in Aries/Capricorn. Also, the RF Uranus is conjunct current Uranus in Aries within half a degree–one full Uranus cycle!
Beyond the more obvious interpretations of these similarities, I wonder if it indicates that some crucial factors in the current dramatic shifts in power are yet unknown to the public. Or may remain so for quite some time? Complicit media/institutions? Certainly post-truth seems relevant. The reason I looked up the RF chart in the first place is because I have a research interest in the ideological battle between fascism and communism, which I suspect is not yet over. The spectre is (still) haunting Europe.
What do you think? Any thoughts on how Neptune/SN in Virgo might differ from Neptune/SN in Pisces? At least it’s not happening on an eclipse this time around.
Reichstag Fire Chart: http://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Historic:_Reichstag_Fire
Reichstag Controversy/Coverup: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/1310995/Historians-find-proof-that-Nazis-burnt-Reichstag.html
Oh God! Shocking… I will go look at it now. However, just on immediate thought: you show something here really well, which is that choosing the right chart to look at is half the work in astrology.
Further on that chart — Uranus is 1° from the same position in Aries also. ASC on this chart is 15° Libra, so square current Pluto. Pluto was at 21° Cancer, so opposite where it is today. In other words, this is part of the same Pluto-Uranus cycle. Pluto and Uranus are square but Cancer to Aries rather than Capricorn to Aries.
I am really worried. Do you think it makes a difference that so many people are recognising Fascism when they see it?
PS Do you mind if I use this for a blog post? I have horoscopes to write so it may not be for a while, but I think it’s very interesting.
Here is the full text of Jung being interviewed about Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. Fascinating! Especially since Jung used astrology to inform his insights.
http://christopherdickey.blogspot.fr/2016/11/carl-jung-on-hitler-stalin-and_5.html
Absolutely, please do use it!
As for your prior question, sadly no, I don’t think recognizing and naming Fascism is an antidote to it. Fascism has a mystical sort of appeal that defies and resists that sort of abstraction. As Jung perfectly captured in his description of Hitler as “medicine man”:
“He is the loudspeaker which magnifies the inaudible whispers of the German soul until they can be heard by the German’s unconscious ear. He is the first man to tell every German what he has been thinking and feeling all along in his unconscious about German fate…” (1)
(Sounds very much like Neptune/SN to me.)
Fascists are reactionaries who seize upon the vulnerabilities of their time and present themselves as the only medicine. The failures of the neoliberal echo chamber created the sickness that gave us Trump, despite the fact they will be the ones who suffer the least from his reign. Neoliberal institutions are fundamentally unable to fight Trump, as was already made clear by the recent campaign.
The historically demonstrated antidote to Fascism is Communism. I have been predicting the resurgence of Marxism for two or three years now. I studied Political Science at UC Berkeley 5+ years ago, and despite Berkeley’s left-leaning reputation, Marx was presented as merely a useful criticism of capitalism. Marxist philosophy was marginalized as distinctly out of fashion (though of course it never really went away). Over the past year, I’ve seen a lot of former liberals radicalizing at warp speed, especially post-election. All of a sudden socialism is no longer a dirty word – an incredible feat when you consider the decades of negative propaganda.
I expect the ideological battle to peak during Uranus in Gemini beginning in 2025. Interestingly, memes are one of the primary modes of radicalization right now–on the right and the left. In short, I think Baby Boomers were too willing to believe we had reached the “End of History” post-WW2 and post-USSR, which of course, we have not. That’s my take anyhow.
(1) http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/11/12/the-shrink-as-secret-agent-jung-hitler-and-the-oss.html
Very insightfull article and makes you wonder how the leaders of the current governments fit into this. It changes my view of the world as a whole and about history, that is for sure.
mimi
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