Jupiter conjunct Neptune; magic and mystery

On April 12th Jupiter met Neptune in Pisces, the sign they both rule, for the first time since 1856. This is a powerful transit, not just because it’s rare, not just because both planets are at home in their own sign. for me, the power of Jupiter conjunct Neptune is that it offers us a different way of being, astrologically speaking, to what we’ve experienced for the last two years and even beyond that.

Since the beginning of 2020 when Saturn and Pluto met in Saturn’s own sign, Capricorn, the astrological energies defining our reality have done exactly that, defined our reality. Saturn conjunct Pluto, then Jupiter conjunct Pluto in 2020, and Saturn square Uranus in 2021 (and still lurking around the edges of our consciousness this year). All of these transits have brought restrictions, challenges, structures, and fear. They have shown us where and how we are divided or have been conditioned into believing we are divided. The dualism and separation inherent in western thinking - going right back to Descartes and the idea that human consciousness is somehow superior to all other kinds of consciousness. The systems which bring us - some of us at least - material wealth - are damaging the planet, beyond repair. We are conditioned into treating resources as endless, infinite, not to mention something we are entitled to exploit as much as we like. We live in a toxic world, in our literal reality and also our psychic reality, and the astrology of the last two years has brought much of that toxicity into the open. Where ideally we can purge, release, transform.

For me, that’s where Jupiter conjunct Neptune in Pisces comes in. This is a different kind of energy entirely, an energy or merging, uniting, of returning us to an awareness of our essential oneness with the universe. The forms of the Saturnian signs, Capricorn and Aquarius, are dissolving away. Pisces is the final sign of the zodiac, the portal between dimensions, poised on the threshold between cycles. As indeed we are, as we emerge from the restrictions of the last two years. We are in a liminal time, still justifiably fearful, reluctant and yet ready to re-emerge. There are many voices speaking of this conjunction as a time of beauty and dreaming big and great spiritual potential - and none of that is wrong. But the shadow side of Jupiter transits often gets ignored, the exaggeration, the lack of boundaries. No boundaries at all, with this conjunction. There’s a risk of cosmic idealism and spiritual bypassing, a head in the sand transit where we are willing to believe anything. Jupiter exaggerating Neptune’s illusions and delusions.

For me, what needs to heal is our separation or the illusion of separation. That Capricorn insistence that we are disconnected, that we don’t need each other and the world around us. For many, the pandemic has been a powerful reminder of the power of community, of collective action, a reminder that we are more connected than we have allowed ourselves to believe in this age of the individual. Once, we knew how deeply connected we are. Indigenous beliefs are almost always animistic in nature, based on a deep awareness of the interconnection of all beings. Nature is relational, and we as human people are a part of that. But the scientific worldview, determined to divide and analyse and organise, has made us forget. We’ve somehow come to believe that we are disembodied human consciousnesses, individual and separate. There is soul loss - in a culture that only accepts empirical reality, which places us “above” the rest of existence - it can be a lonely and alienated place.

So we are in transition, knowing that our old story is no longer working but not yet ready, or able, to bring the new story into being. That takes time. That takes sitting in the liminal space of Jupiter conjunct Neptune, sitting with the uncertainty. This transit washes away the separation and the fences we’ve raised between us, between ourselves and the natural world. It offers a possibility for re-enchantment, a reconnection to magic and mystery and the sacred. It carries us on the currents of Pisces back to the source, the source of ourselves but also of all of humanity, of all of life on earth. An enchanted world is a world we participate in, where we welcome mystery, where we co-create the myths and stories which will take us into a new way of being. Jupiter conjunct Neptune in Pisces reconnects with the inherent magic of our existence, with a cosmos that is co-responsive with us - and then the possibilities really are endless.