I Don’t Trust the Data: More on Mars Retrograde Square Neptune

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're going to continue exploring Mars Retrograde and its square to Neptune. I've done probably four videos on this already, but this is a transit that, because it's lasting for such a long time under a retrograde, it just keeps generating for me in my daily, like when I'm sitting down to prepare my talks every day, I just keep getting more insight and ideas about this transit because also because I'm noticing it across the board and the lives of my students, my clients, you know, in my own life, I'm noticing it. And so I decided that today would be a good day to go even a little bit deeper with Mars Neptune and turn that archetypal jewel, as I like to say, in a different direction, let the light bounce off from it from a slightly different angle. And hopefully, that's helpful for everybody. We'll get into that; we'll take a look at the real-time clock and get a picture of where this transit is as we are looking at it today.

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Anyway, let's go to the real-time clock. I can't wait to talk about this one today. I think I found another really interesting angle through which to discuss this transit, which, you know, that's always the goal is can we find yet another way that we haven't thought of before to understand a comment of planetary combination. So let's revisit it here. We have Wednesday, as I'm making this, but today as you're listening, it's going to be Thursday. So let's let me just push this ahead one day. Here we go. So you've got Mars Retrograde moving on Thursday, November 17. Back to the 22nd degree of Gemini, where it will then be in the square with Neptune. Now, we did it on Monday of this week. We looked at Mars square Neptune. And we talked about the difference between the individual and the collective. And that was a really interesting way to look at the transit. But today, we've got another one.

But again, why is this transit so important? Because if we start advancing this chart, look at what happens. So within three degrees is typically the sort of like the effect range. And that's taking place all the way till the end of this month, November 28. So the next 12 days, 13 days you got going on. And then when we go beyond that, Mars, of course, after its stations and turns direct, in January, we'll push back through, and eventually, we'll come back into the square with Neptune one more time through direct motion. And remember, for a very long time, since late September, Mars was slowing down and stationing in a square with Neptune. So we've just been dealing with a very long period of Mars square Neptune. And hence, my times sort of laboring the dynamic because it's going to show up in your life in a variety of different ways. And so every time that we can spend with it is an opportunity to deepen what we're actually experiencing right now or expand our capacity to understand what we're seeing or what we're dealing with. So that's why we're doing it.

Okay, well, in order to illustrate, you might be looking at the title of today's talk and going, okay, you know, what is this is an interesting title, you know, I don't trust the data. What is this about? I want to start with a quote from an author that I really like, who I was turned on to by my astrologer friend and colleague, Sean Nygaard, who is also here from Minneapolis. And John Moriarity was a brilliant philosopher and just essayist and writer and general like sort of like, dream time poet anyway, he, there was a quote that he gave that Sean mentioned in a talk that he recently did for my students on Saturn's entrance into Pisces. And so I'm quoting him. I'm using his use of this, I heard about it from him, and I just want to give him that credit. But here it is from John Moriarty. "Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe." That's John Moriarty from his book Gnosis dose. Let's read it again. "Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe."

Now, what does this have to do with Mars Retrograde in Gemini square to Neptune in Pisces? Well, something that I started noticing in the lives of my clients and an epiphany that I had as an astrologer that I realized was just quintessentially Mars Neptune. So what have I noticed in my clients and students? I have noticed that people are getting something called, you know, just information overwhelm. Now, sometimes that happens in classes when people are studying astrology, and there's lots of new information coming at them fast, they'll be like, Oh, my God, I'm just I'm sort of overwhelmed. And it happens, usually, about two-thirds of the way, maybe halfway to two-thirds of the way through, say, my first-year program, where people will hit this point where they will feel so flooded by the new paradigm and the new language that they're learning where it's like a sink or swim moment, you're kind of like, Oh, my God am I going to just give up because I'm overwhelmed.

And a very similar experience if you've ever been in a foreign country, and you've been thrown in and not knowing the language, you can get there are points where you feel like giving up. But if you just hang around, and maybe if spate has that, you just have to stay in that country for a while, sooner or later, you find you're speaking the language, and you don't even really know how you got there. So, I've been noticing a lot of that going on in the lives of my students right now, not just my students, though, but my clients as well. People have been talking regularly to me about feeling confused or overwhelmed by like an array of different data that they have to sort through in different kinds of information, different kinds of opinions, different kinds of facts, and different kinds of positions, and they're feeling overwhelmed. So that's very natural for Mars Retrograde in Mercury's sign of Gemini square to the vast, overwhelming oceanic and watery qualities of Neptune in Pisces.

If you think about it like this, how many of you have ever taken the time to, like, listen to the science related to nutrition or diet or lifestyle? You know, what's amazing is that you can find someone using a study to justify just about any kind of food there is; you'll be like, you know, Well, Could M&M's be good for my blood pressure? There will be a study, you know, be like yeah, m&ms are great for your blood pressure if you have one every six days, something like that.

But have you ever run into that before? or suddenly you're like, Okay, there are 30 different kinds of diets, and there's science explaining all of them. And then, the scientists or the nutritionists are using the different data points and studies to argue and debate with one another. And you can very easily just feel completely overwhelmed. Like, I don't know what's true. I don't know what's real. I don't know what to do with these conflicting Mars in Mercury sign of Gemini ideas and thoughts and facts and data sets because they're all conflicting. And I'm getting to the point where I'm feeling overwhelmed, and I go, maybe nothing's real. Is this the real world? You know? Gosh, have you guys ever seen that? There was a video I remember feels like years ago now as a little kid who was like coming back from the dentist. And he had, I don't know what, he had Novocaine or, you know, something. And he was like, just like, groggy and coming out of it. He's like, Daddy, is this the real world, you know? So memorable.

That's how you can feel when combative Mars in the sign of information, data, information, data, opinions, facts, and ideas are all conflicted. And then stirred up in the ocean of Neptune? It's like, well, you know, and that's why you could see people using data or information to justify just about anything, or there's so many conflicting facts and data, and they all seem sort of, you know, like, they seem reasonable. But what do I do with that? Where do I even start? You know, sometimes it feels like, like, I'll just again, I'll go back to the idea of diets because I talk to so many clients who will come in, they'll ask about their health. And there'll be saying, you know, I'm trying to stay on paleo, carnivore, vegan, what like, Oh, gee, I'm juice cleansing. You know, I never heard it all. And I, you know, it's always interesting to me to hear what people are doing. And, but one thing I've noticed, over the past couple of months, as Mars has been in the square with Neptune has been, have been people coming to me being like, I'm just really overwhelmed with my options; I don't really know the right one to choose. And that could be, you know, like their diet or just like anything else. But that's the thing with Mars, in Gemini square to Neptune.

And also interestingly, Mars in Mercury sign square to Neptune is often at the heart of, like, that's a science transit. It's it is it could be a spiritual science, like acupuncture, or it could be, you know, a science of the study of genetics or something. But you will often find, interestingly enough, that Mars square Neptune, not just Gemini, and Pisces, but any kind of Mars square, or opposition to Neptune, or even conjunction will often result in people studying, you know, studying science. And you might wonder why that is. And I think that that's because whether you're, you know, a physicist or a mystic, there is a way in which you're trying to, you know, take everything apart, which was very Mars-like activity, which is why Mercury and Mars have something in common, and both were also associated with, you know, different kinds of analytical abilities. Whether it was like you wielding a scalpel or taking a machine apart, that Mars and Mercury both have like a deconstructive, executive, cutting, severing, or dismantling kind of feature. It's a part of their natures. So when you put Mars in a Mercury-ruled sign you have you definitely have a really analytical Mars, but maybe playfully analytical and exploratory, like an exploratory Mars. So when you pair it with Neptune, you're pairing, for example, the, let's say, the desire to cut, dissect, analyze, scrutinize, and you're pairing it with the imagination.

And if you don't think that imagination is a part of the life of a scientist, you know, you're sort were sorely mistaken. It's easy to pit spiritual, imaginative, romantic, or artistic things against scientific things. But I would tell most scientists that I know, including some of my best friends, my best man at my wedding is a Ph.D. chemist who worked for NASA. So the thing that often captures a science, and I've talked to lots of scientists who come and do astrology readings, too, it's not like I think that people think there's more of a divide than there is between science and spirit. Sometimes at least, it's easy to just blow that caricature up, and you know, point at it, but there's an imaginative dimension to science it captures people they want to know truth. They're fascinated by nature. They want to understand the mysteries of nature, and it's elusive.

You know, Heraclitus said, nature likes to hide. And I think that there's something about Mars and Neptune that adequately represents the search for knowledge that is often elusive the desire to penetrate, analyze, and find something that eludes our grasp. It's very Mars Neptune. So my point is that I'm trying to build the case here. For all of you that Mars Neptune, in fact, has a lot to do with knowledge and the acquisition of truth and knowledge, data and analysis, and can be confounding when it comes to actually finding it or can present lots of conflicting and overwhelming amounts of information in the same way that trying to learn a language if you just sit down with a book can be super overwhelming. And at the same time, if you just go and immerse yourself in a language, suddenly that immersion becomes the way that you suddenly become fluent and you understand it. And those are both Mars-Neptune dynamics. I am overwhelmed by trying to understand something through a sort of linear approach. And my linear brain is being melted. It's very Mars Neptune.

On the other hand, by immersing myself deeply in something, asking questions, and penetrating but also probing this marriage of Mars Neptune, I come to an intuitive grasp of something. So these are Mars Neptune dynamics, and they're amplified by the fact that Mars is in mercury sign right now, in an Air sign at that. So that Okay, so now, let's go back to this quote. Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe. Well, I want to talk today about that split because I believe that split represents a dyad that is present often, like right now that I'm seeing it in my life client, everything. I'm seeing it everywhere. It is a dyad that is present in the Mars Retrograde in Geminis square to Neptune in Pisces. So the dyad is an astrological way of knowing, we'll call it broadly speaking, not just the discipline of astrology, but all that living in an astrological Cosmos entails beyond just the astrology of, you know, the Hellenistic people or the Indian people, the astrology of the whole world, and astrological Cosmos could mean the astrology of you know, the Polynesian islands, or the South American, Mayans or whatever.

There's an astrological cosmos. And there's a way of knowing, a sort of spiritual, scientific way of knowing. And then there's also an astronomical universe. And these are very, very different. And so in, in order to understand this, I think this diet is present right now. So in order to amplify that distinction, let's look at three ways in which choices everyday choices that you and I make can be made in an astronaut or tend to be made in astronomical universe first. So three ways that choices are made in an astronomical universe.

Number one, I need to know before I decide. And first of all, I don't want I'm not trying to say that these are all wrong, but they tend to dominate us. And I want to contrast them eventually with three ways that choices are made in an astrological cosmos. So in an astronomical universe, in a universe that has been stripped of mystery that has been, you know, stripped of symbolic correspondences, the hermetic way of knowing is not the modus operandi. We're talking about it more of an empirical approach to knowing. I need to know before I decide in that universe, so of course, Mars Neptune is really frustrating. Because if you're faced with Mars, Neptune, here's what you say to yourself, you say, well, making a choice isn't safe because I need to be sure that the outcome is guaranteed, you know, I need to make sure that the choice I make leads to a guaranteed outcome of which I am comfortable with, or which I desire, or which at least I can live with somehow. So I need to know all of the data and all of the information before I decide so that the minimal amount of risk is taken so that the ideal or optimal or even livable outcome is achieved.

Okay. I can't blame people for that attitude or approach, but it is part of living in an astronomical universe to a certain extent. And it's not the only way of knowing. I think that's the point. It's not the way of knowing that I think astrological people tend to thrive on. So I need to know everything before I decide. It is risk averse. And it is also very socially determined. One of the reasons that you wouldn't want to make a choice that doesn't result in an outcome that you're pretty well aware of before. Forehand is because you're trying to guess or predict the approximate response that the environment will have to your choice or to the outcome of the decision. You know, whether it's your spouse, or your kids, or the parents of your, you know, your children's friends, or, you know, the people at your church, or, you know, wherever your job, you know, or if you're in social media, it's like trying to say the things that you think, you know, get the most likes, or, and you everything is really calculated. It's rooted in algorithms; it's rooted in an understanding of, you know, what's the least likely to offend people? Or do you know what I mean? So I need to know everything before I make a choice. Gather as many facts as you can.

What comes along with this is number two, I need to have a way out or an explanation should I be wrong. So, in other words, we also tend to make decisions based on the hope that we can get to the approximate outcome that we think the data will lead us to or making a choice based on the best data available to me, and it will hopefully get me to this outcome. And then, if it doesn't, and something should go wrong, then at least I have a defensible position legally. This is; I don't know if there's a time in history where that has been more of a premeditation on potential legal culpability. No one can sue me. No one can cancel me, no one can, you know, something like that?

So I need to also have a way out or an explanation, should I be wrong about whatever I'm going to do or whatever outcome comes about. So it's; also there's this way of trying to, you know, make a decision with all the data that you can get into an outcome that you can live with or feel comfortable with, but then also trying to predict the various ways in which the outcome could go, should it not go the way you think it will, and then how to deal with or defend yourself against any fallout, or problems that come as a result? Does this sound stressful to you, you know, like, it is stressful. This is an astronomical universe, not an astrological Cosmos; that's the point. Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe.

Number three, I want to know things. But I don't particularly care about the why. Or I don't even particularly care about anything that I'm coming, you know if I come to understand something, great. But it's, I don't really particularly care about the data or information that I'm gathering; there's a kind of ambivalence that underlies living in an astronomical universe. In other words, because the data is just there, it's there in the same way that, you know, a tree and its leaves are there, and you just, you know, it's sort of like just objective and apparent. And when we treat the universe as though anything that is worth knowing is it doesn't involve or it doesn't require anything of us personally or spiritually. It doesn't require any real interest or sincere curiosity. If you want to know, data's just available. And this is also a feature of living in an astronomical universe. And all of these are reflective of Mars Neptune, for example, when I don't want to know, but I want to know something, but I don't particularly care. That approach to truth is, so it's so data-driven that we can just collect data, but it can depersonalize how we're collecting it or who is affected by the way in which we're collecting it. Or you could say, I want to know something; I don't particularly care because I'm going to use whatever I learn to whatever is, in whatever way is most advantageous to me, for me.

So, in an astronomical universe, it's like there's no real reason for data being there. It's just there, and information or truth or knowledge or what you know, it's just, it's just there for the taking. There's no need to have any investment or real interest in it. Any sincere desire to know something, it's just like, oh, how does that work? Tell me; you know what I mean? So all of these reflect Mars Neptune. Mars Neptune, for example, is often associated with the magician who will, you know, gather information and then feign some like if you saw there was a movie that came out Last year, I think it was, it's called Nightmare Alley. And in the movie, there are some psychics who work at circuses. And they gather information about people in duplicitous ways and then feign like they're doing, you know, magic for them. But in a sense, that's sort of what we're a lot of what we're doing with, you know, anything from technology to the books that are being written to the way that news or media or information is being shared when we're living purely in an astronomical universe, we're just gathering data. And then we are bringing it forth in a way that is maximally advantageous. And that feigns a level of investment that is often not really there.

And I'm not trying to criticize anyone; I myself feel I feel susceptible to this. That's why I'm talking about it. I feel like this happens to me in the way that I consume information or data or media, and then it's just, well, isn't it handy to use it in this way, or that way, as though it's just like, some kind of monotone, you know, currency that can just be, you know, regurgitated out in sound waves that I inflect with meaning in the hopes that it'll bring me something, you know, in return. And it's like, it's really easy to do that. And it's easy to do that now. Because especially in some ways, because of the world, you know, the world wide web and, and there are so many wonderful things about information being free and available. So I don't think it's like, it's not I'm not trying to suggest that it's all bad. But this is one thing that we have to be careful of. And remember Mars Neptune, Mars, and Gemini square Neptune in Pisces. That's the knowledge that is potentially deceptive. The objectification of knowledge and information for a subtle or ulterior motive. And, so, these are the kinds of things that can happen. And that these are the things also these are the things that not only that happen in an astronomical universe but that tend to guide the way that we make choices.

So let's review three ways that choices are made in an astronomical universe. I need to know before I decide; I need to have a way out or an explanation should I be wrong. Or should the outcome go off the track somehow what I was expecting, and three I want to know, but I don't particularly care. Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe.

Well, I want to talk about three ways that choices are made in an astrological cosmos, and I'm going to read you a quote that I found super interesting from an article that I love. The article is by a scholar named James Evans, and he wrote a text called The Astrologers Apparatus, a picture of professional practice in Greco-Roman Egypt. You can find a PDF copy of it online if you want. So three ways that choices are made in an astrological cosmos.

Number one, a voice comes to you speaking. Now, did you know that in the ancient world, astrologers often practice with something like a game board, it was like like a wooden board, and there was like be like a pouch of gemstones that were placed into portions of the wheel to represent the planets in the houses and signs. And this board was then used as a divinatory, or irregular device for, you know when consulting with clients over their birth chart. So this article unpacks that whole process, and listen to this, one Papyrus of the second or third century AD provides evidence that this was indeed the case by mentioning a special board apparently to be used by an astrologer in consultation with his client. The astrologer lays out the board, particular stones to represent the Sun, Moon, planets, and horoscopic point that would be like your ascending degree. And the quote comes from the papyrus a voice comes to you speaking, Let the stars be set upon the board.

The writer of this papyrus is clearly making a connection between the planets and the magical properties of stones. Probably we should imagine the board is a circular diagram divided into zodiac signs. Some commentators have regarded the voice as incompatible with the technical astrological literature as if it was just a science and there was no divinatory component. However, it is worth pointing out that Petosiris, that is one of the legendary founders of astrology was instructed in astrology by a voice that came to him from heaven in the darkness of night. Let's repeat that. It is worth pointing out that Petosiris was instructed in astrology by a voice that came to him from heaven in the darkness of the night. On this papaya, A voice comes to you speaking, Let the stars be set upon the board in accordance with their nature.

In an astrological Cosmos, I would say that the first major way that we can describe what knowing looks like is that it is a question that is being asked to a cosmos that is, that is vibrant, intelligent, musical, poetic, and elusive, but likes to talk to us. It likes to talk to us. And so when you presume that the universe is sentient, and that there are not just there's not just one voice, but that, that there's a chorus of voices, through the planets through nature, through the, you know, the stars, the rivers, the mountains, the animals and they're the appearance of things in strange moments, dreams, that things speak. And that is the speaking, from being to being, from sentient being to sentient being, that is the primary place in and through which any real knowing takes place to know is to have I thou exchange me, and you we are a collection of living beings, not an nothing is nothing elude nothing is outside of that.

The rocks and trees, the sun, the rain, all of it can speak if you have ears to listen, if you have eyes to see. And if you ask questions and approach to talk. This is the fundamental difference in an astronomical universe and an astrological Cosmos. First, we assume that any desire to know something, and if we're having trouble making a decision and we need to seek, we don't seek out data and facts so that we can know solidly before we decide what an outcome will be. Instead, we inquire, and we ask an intelligence, and we can do we can find that intelligence living within us as much as it is outside of us. But we ask a question, and then we listen. And that is a personal exchange that puts us into a personal cosmos that speaks to us through symbols.

And that's the difference in a sense between Mars Neptune trying to sort through an overwhelm of data and Mars Neptune as something that probes and, through curiosity, is trying to penetrate into the mystery of a choice or a decision or a problem. But through asking and listening, the knowledge, the understanding, the intellection, it comes, it arrives. And this is a practice that we need to be in right now. Because it could be so tempting to try to prop ourselves up through a collection of data that we then manipulate, and we tend to do that the more overwhelmed and lost we feel rather than trusting. If I put a signal up, if I shoot the flare gun into the ocean of the night, something shows up and helps me, and it gives me understanding.

Number two, knowing requires risk, and learning is the reward. So there is a hexagram in the I-Ching that I really love. It's number 20. And it's called often called contemplation. And it's funny how I will get this hexagram sometimes in these really incredible moments. I'm going to tell you a story about one time recently when I got the hexagram. But first, the hexagram describes, like, a diviner who's going to climb a tower and go up and look at the stars and then offer a prognostication, but it the hexagram sort of describes that, you know, the Diviners like wash their hands, but they haven't yet made the sacrifice, which is necessary before you go up and try to read the omens. So I did horary. Now horary is a divinatory form of astrology where you cast a chart for the moment that you ask a question, and then you read the chart to it ascertain the answer. Well, I got a kind of like a, how can I put it? I got a chart that I read, and the answer was incorrect. That's just the simplest way of putting it. The answer was incorrect. My read of the chart, I think, was completely solid, but the outcome was not at all. So I was like, how did I get that wrong? Like, I'm spending time really not understanding how I got this chart wrong. Like, did I miss something somewhere or whatever? And then I cast the I-Ching saying, Could you help me understand why I got this one wrong? Was it something I did? Because divination is funny like that. It's relational. And a big part of learning. Divination is the meta-conversation between you and the Oracle, where the Oracle sort of teaches you the etiquette. How do you How to Be sincere? How to put some skin in the game, and how how to make sure you're asking questions that aren't frivolous?

Or like, for example, if you don't get an answer you like you shuffle the cards and do them again, like that kind of stuff. If you've ever noticed, like, you shuffle the cards and ask again because you didn't get an answer, you like when you pull the death card, you know, you're like, oh, okay, I get it. I won't ask you. So the Oracle has this way of teaching us if we stick with it. So I approached the I-Ching. And I said, Well, why did they get this one wrong? And I got 20. sitting there thinking like, what's going on? Then all of a sudden, I got it. I asked a question that I had zero emotional investment in; I just wanted to know, I just wanted to know, I wanted to know, but I didn't particularly care. I actually, I really didn't. It was like, I was just it was I just want to know, I don't really care, I just want to know, and the hexagram 20, where it shows a diviner literally climbing a tower about to read the stars, but has not yet made the sacrifice. That is often a hexagram. And I've seen this for myself, but other people too, that you will get when you need to make sure that you have some skin in the game, whenever you're going to do something that's really meaningful, where you're hoping you'll receive some support or some validation or feedback or response from, from the heavens, from the gods from the universe, however you want to put it, you have to have some skin in the game.

I have an astrology something of an astrology mentor that I really admire. And he was talking about the fact that at one point in time, he was studying with a teacher, and they were doing horary. And he would, they would, they would try to practice horary on the horse races. And his instructor said to him; it's important that you, even if it's just like $1, not that you want to go gamble a ton of money, but like, even if it's like $1 or $5, that you put something down on the race after you've made a judgment with the chart, because it shows sincerity, that there is something that you're risking, or that you have something invested. And it's that form of sincere interest. That it's just a signal to the gods that there's an etiquette here, I'm giving something of myself, or I have a sincere investment in wanting to know and understand, and how do I show that now you don't always have to show it with money. That's just an example in the case of horse races, right?

It is a very good way of pushing chips, some chips into the center for something that other wires can be sort of like an arbitrary exercise of you have zero interest in horse racing, you're just trying to practice well, you get some duds that way, but putting a little tiny bit of money down, then you stand to learn something and so this astrology sort of mentor that I was talking about said that, you know, there's got to be something at stake. And I have had numerous teachers in divination and astrology say the same thing to me over time. You know, if you want to know something, it requires a certain kind of risk.

People say all the time while doing astrology, aren't you worried that you'll you know you'll get something wrong or say something that you know maybe scares someone a little bit or something? And it's like, well, that is exactly the risk of doing astrology or Tarot or therapy with someone. I think therapists could relate to this or doctors that if you want to know and understand medicine, or the stars or any subject whatsoever, you have to there's a little you gotta even if it's just like, you know, a very, very dull butter knife you have to scrape off like a little some flakes of skin you know, I don't want anyone cutting themselves, but like there is a little bit of blood is required. Blood could be, for example, When I asked that horror, so after I read that I-Ching going back to that story for a second, instantly I understood I was like, Yeah, I had no investment in this question that I asked. Right. So I went back and asked a similar question. And this time I had, I just realized if I needed to sit down and go, I really deeply want to know and understand more about this beautiful craft. And this is a question I'm going to ask, and I don't have a ton of investment in it. But I do have a lot of investment in learning. And I'm sorry for not being Reverend in the way that I approached last time. And thank you for giving me a dud chart that sort of just, you know, didn't really work.

So, and then the next chart was just vivid. I mean, just like, Wow, holy cow. And that's that is what it means to live in an astrological Cosmos, that knowing if you want to really know something, really, what you're saying is that you want to know someone and that someone is a living presence called the universe that lives in you, and around you and in all people. And there's no way of coming to approach that kind of knowledge without having to have some skin in the game. And that risk could be existential anxiety; it could be a fear of inadequacy. But as long as it's if the risk is paired with sincerity, you will learn learning will be your reward. And it's much more important to you, at the outset, that you learn something than that you guarantee one particular outcome over another. And this, in a sense, really is the scientific spirit. I'm not necessarily interested in getting the outcome I want; I really want to know the truth. I'm invested in that. And so that's why I said, there's a real there's actually a deeply romantic, mysterious, imaginative thing at the root of all the scientists I've ever loved, like, for example, not that I love everything that Carl Sagan ever said, but I, as an astronomer, I just love him. Because he really wants to know, and he wants to know because he finds that the universe is elusive and beautiful and mysterious. And he respects it. Right. There's a reverence there. And it's that spirit. That turns us from feeling adrift and, you know, either objectifying the world around us and trying to gather as much data as we can and then make the safest choice and guarantee the outcome or keeps us wanting to know but not particularly caring.

In an astrological Cosmos, knowing requires risk. You have to shove something into the center of the table. And learning is the reward rather than a guaranteed outcome. And you're not defending yourself against being wrong because being wrong is such a treasure. It's such a treat, you know; I live to be corrected is something that one of my spiritual teachers said quite often, and I think that's a great spirit to have because then you're not constantly trying to elude, you know, being wrong, protect and defend and have reasonable explanations for everything. Because, you know, then no real learning ever takes place. You yourself are objectified. You're objectifying the world. You feel objectified.

Number three, truth is an ongoing experience, a process which requires sacrifice, sincerity, and real interest putting it all together now. Let's go back to that quote. "Like it or not, I thought the peoples of the West have fallen out of an astrological cosmos and into an astronomical universe." What I have found really amazing about Mars square to Neptune. Mars combative, you know, indecisive, changeable Mars and Mercury sign of Gemini square to the overwhelming vast oceanic Neptune in Pisces, is that the more that I have tried to grasp something, the more that in terms of facts and data and tried to make decisions like that as of late, man, it's just it's not working for me, you know? And this particular lesson I never understand, See, to me in, in studying something like the I-Ching or astrology, you'll be working with the same symbol for years. And all of a sudden, boom, out of nowhere, you will have an understanding of that hexagram or, you know, a particular symbol in astrology that you've never had before.

And how does that happen? The only reason it happens is because you never, you never get to a place where you think you, you, you've got it, right? Because you don't perceive truth as something to be grasped, right, you perceive it just like a person to be known. Truth known is something that is a process of relating. It's a process of living into something. And I think that Mars Neptune, much as it could be overwhelming for our factual data-driven brains right now. And as much as it could present us with all sorts of deceptions and illusions, and in manipulations of data, it can also be a reminder you need to be sincere truth is an experience, a process, be sincere, have some real, have some real existential skin in the game. And when you do, the real interest leads to real learning.

So some of the things that have been on my mind lately as I continue to explore this transit and just see it show up in really interesting ways. Again, never before had I perceived hexagram 20 in quite that way. It was, it was amazing, and how many times I can't even tell you how many times that hexagram has shown up for me in moments when I was having a hard time understanding why I didn't get an outcome that I hoped I would. And here's a picture of a diviner going up to the heavens but hasn't quite has not yet made the sacrifice. Well, you know, I think, should we be so lucky, you know, to have real deep invested emotions in anything that we're curious or want.

I mean, what a gift it is to be sincerely curious and interested in something and even anxious to know. And if you couple that with the paradigm of astrology, man, you're in luck, you know, because you're, you're gonna live a life that is just rich beyond measure. So anyway, that's what I've got for you today. I hope this was inspiring. Don't forget that we are trying to reach 1608 backers if you liked this channel if it gives you something good for your day-to-day life. Visit the description link in the comment section of this video. And it is in the description and the comments section. You click on it, you'll go there, pitch in, and choose a reward to pick up 50% off one of my classes to help us reach 1608 backers really appreciate you guys. Have a great rest of your day. Bye