Neptune Retrograde ♆ 2020
June 22 – Nov 28, 2020
Planets in retrograde are not spinning backwards – it is an optical illusion as seen from Earth due to the fact that planets travel at their own respective speeds around the sun. In astrology, this illusion manifests as a “backwards” functioning of the planetary roles. Click here to learn more about retrograde.
Since April 2011, Neptune has been “at home” in Pisces. With Neptune here, a global spiritual awakening continues to unfold – think of 2012 alone and how potent it was. This transit also continues to manifest as a collective existential crisis. Many trends from the 2010s reflect Neptune in Pisces: legalization of marijuana; global enthusiasm for yoga and meditation; extra-terrestrial themes in music and pop culture; virtual reality; opioid addiction; media manipulation; politicians lying to the public every day, and so much more.
Neptune turns retrograde for five months every year. This is when we drift into the subconscious. Neptune Retrograde is a subtle yet profound journey. This is the time of year when we are most likely to engage in regressive, destructive behavior. We might enter into an unhealthy relationship, or fall back into an old habit, for example. Get all the details and take your time, whatever it is. Neptune is muddling and hazy, not clear or logical. Stand strong against impulse and seduction, my friends, because I can tell you now that if it seems too good to be true, it is. Neptune is the queen of illusion.
Neptune Rx reminds us that vices do not equate to higher consciousness; addiction and escapist behaviors are just the soul crying out for greater awareness. From Coleman Bark’s introduction to a collection of Rumi poems:
The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two drunks meet so that they don’t know who is who. Pronouns no longer apply in the tavern’s mud-world of excited confusion and half-articulated wantings. But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off from the tavern and return … The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in search for truth … A breaking apart, a crying out in the street, begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way home. (The Essential Rumi, p. 1)
From Kilaya Ciriello’s “The Scorpio Ring of Fire: An Astrological Journey into the Heart of the Galactic Center”:
[T]he archetype of Pisces is the story of two fish – one swimming down to the depths and the other swimming up to the surface of an ocean … [T]he archetype of Pisces includes a simple choice to do good or bad, to move towards the light or towards the darkness … For a fish it feels the same to swim up or down and this tells us that within Pisces it is often difficult to distinguish between what is good versus what is bad. So like a fish in the ocean, when under the influence of Pisces, deciding where to go is often confusing because things appear murky, not clear or out of focus. (p. 69)
Neptune in Pisces is both an ending and beginning. Neptune is ego death, sacrifice, surrender. Her retrograde is an introspective and reflective period and you may struggle to express yourself. This transit is like being woven into a cocoon. It happens so deftly and slowly that you don’t even realize what’s taking place until you’re deep inside the trance.
Neptune’s movements affect sun sign Pisces the most. This is true for people with moon or rising sign in Pisces too. Those born with natal points in Gemini, Virgo, or Sagittarius will struggle the most with this transit. We will all be able to draw on this mysterious water energy more easily during the Cancer solar cycle, as well as the upcoming Scorpio season this fall. Sun/moon/rising sign Cancer and Scorpio can integrate this nebulous energy pretty effortlessly.
When outer planets turn retrograde, nothing dramatic happens. This is not like Mercury Retrograde. I encourage you to see this retrograde as an extended meditation on your beliefs, as well as your hope. I don’t feel much hope right now. As I write, my heart aches for the POC who are murdered in my country. I see the way Neptune’s influence has both illuminated and deluded humanity. Politicians and billionaires ignore the suffering of Black people. White readers, do your work. Deprogram this dangerous societal conditioning before another POC is murdered.
Listen to Neptune, the Mystic from The Planets Suite by Gustav Holst. Celebrate the first day of Neptune Retrograde with Pisces Yoga. I was born with Neptune Retrograde. To find your Neptune sign and whether she was direct or retrograde at the time of your birth, click here.
Affirmation: the highest good is unfolding
I love your article so much more than any ive read so far about Neptune retrograding. I love and find so much truth in the part “I see the way Neptune’s influence has both illuminated and deluded humanity. Politicians and billionaires ignore the suffering of Black people. White readers, do your work. Deprogram this dangerous societal conditioning before another POC is murdered”
Its so refreshing to see this! Thank You! I will be sharing and passing this along.
Hey Jesica, thank you so much for your comment. I never know who is reading my content or what they take away from it, so it’s great to know that my message resonates with you, and hopefully others too. Much love.