Previewing Mercury’s Long Square to Neptune in Pisces

Transcript:

0:00
Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Monday everybody. Today we are going to take a look at Mercury's upcoming square to Neptune. This is a particularly potent square because Mercury's square with Neptune is going to last quite a long time. And that's due to Mercury slowing down right now to station and turn retrograde. So the square will be around for about two to three weeks really you'll you'll be feeling it. So we're going to take a look at that today. And before I do that, I want to remind everybody I'm in the midst of promoting my new programme right now ancient astrology for the modern mystic. It is a one year course in ancient Hellenistic astrology and it meets on Sundays starting in June. I'll take you to my website so you can see it. You go to my courses page on nightlight astrology.com click on the first year course. And you can learn all about it. It's about 100 hours worth of course content that I teach in live webinars. Of course the webinars are recorded and archived for you in case you can't make the live class sessions. So you can participate from anywhere in the world. You know, regardless of what your timezone might be. Lots of people follow along remotely and study at their own pace from the recordings other people like to attend live. Either way, there are also breakout study and tutoring sessions. There's lots of bonus material homework guided reading, you can ask me questions anytime throughout the year as we're studying. We also have 12 guest lecturers who come out and give talks. And also at the toward the end of the class. We bring in live clients, you'll see me read for them. And then we have these breakdown sessions where we spend maybe an hour with a client and then hour to hour and a half breaking that reading down and helping everybody understand everything from craft points to counselling. One of the goals of this programme is to really synthesise and blend some of the richness of ancient astrology which very few people understand or or have studied, and, but marry marrying it together with modern archetypal, or what sometimes called psychological astrology. So that's kind of the goal of the course because those are both forms that I love and appreciate. If you pay before the start of class, you can save $500 off with the early bird payment. You can use the payment plan if you need it. And there's also need based tuition for people who might need a little help. We try to make the programme really accessible. I hope to see some of you there in class. And again, any questions feel free to email me info at nightlight astrology.com.

2:27
Alright, so let's take a look at this Mercury Neptune square that's building. First of all, today, you can see that the square is starting to be activated. Once Mercury gets to within about three degrees, you're going to start to really feel it. Here's Mercury at 18'50" and change. So today we'll move into that 19th degree start getting into that three degree range with Neptune at 22 Pisces. Now let's watch how this evolves over the upcoming days. Mercury is starting to slow down now. So it's not moving at quite the same pace that we're used to seeing mercury moving out. You can see Mercury gets to the 22nd degree by Friday. And then very slowly on Saturday gets closer to that exact square and makes it by Sunday. So we're talking about this upcoming weekend, it might seem like it's a ways away. But the reason that it's important to start with this right now is because this is a developing story. Like as they say on the news, a developing story with mercury and Neptune, so Mercury will square Neptune over the weekend. But then watch what happens when we get to the very end of the month mercury sits down at about 24 degrees. You can see this because it's on my solar fire programme here. There's a little s under Mercury that means Mercury is stationing. Then Mercury is turning retrograde. And this is by the very end of the month. As Mercury is turning retrograde, it's going to move back through the square with Neptune and hasn't left within one degree of the square with Neptune. This is by next week. So they go on to watch how watch how long it takes before now it's squaring it again by June 3. And it goes through that 23rd degree all the way until about June 5 and June 6. So you're talking about between now and June 6, that's it's really close to Neptune. And it'll stay within that three degree range all the way until about June 10. Now, of course when it eventually stations turns direct, it will go back through that square once more. So let's just give you a sense for when that's going to happen. That happens a little bit later. So you'll see Mercury coming back through the square with Neptune by about July 6. Here we go. There's Mercury and Neptune that's about July 6.

4:52
So this this dynamic in total doesn't really clear until you know between right now, the middle May and the early part of July. So it's a long term transit, we need to have a good understanding of it, we'll probably revisit it several more times. But today, we're just going to kind of break down some of the major things to watch for with this transit, which as I said, again, we'll be perfecting for the first time this weekend. Okay. So one of the things that I like to do from time to time is I like to just dig up charts, there's a couple of good resources online where you can basically just dig up charts and find famous people, whether they're entertainers or historical figures, who were born with the a particular aspect. And I find that in doing that, you'll often be able to quickly identify some of the main archetypal characteristics of the planetary combination, and they can help to sort of exemplify what the transits going to be about. So that's what we're going to do next. So of course, not personally, knowing any of these people, I have to say, first that, you know, it's low hanging fruit, right, we're just going to take a look at this list of people and how certain aspects of these individuals that are well known in the public eye match with the archetypal characteristics of the planet. But this is not to pigeonhole these individuals, it's actually to just kind of pull something out and amplify it. And obviously, there's a lot of different sides to Mercury, Neptune, and not everyone will carry every expression of a planetary combination, they may, an individual may, and individuals life or psychology or personality may be an expression of some of the qualities of a planetary combination, but not all of them.

6:40
So first of all, Mercury obviously got a mind, speech, communication, translation. A God that has a lot to do with markets and highways and places where information money ideas are being exchanged, even court games like basketball, where things are going back and forth all the time. So I think that's really interesting. Now, if we take a look at this list, you're going to see that a lot of the people in the list are like singers, songwriters, some of that has to do with just the database and how the database online is set up, it seems to, you know, gather a lot of like Hollywood or music industry celebrities into the search engine, but there are some examples of Mercury Neptune that aren't just about singer songwriter, but that is one of the greatest expressions of Mercury Neptune. Neptune, on the other hand, which represents things that are sublime and vast and transcendental and sort of mystical, elusive, subtle, intangible ineffable, but also imaginative sometimes conducive to, you know, drugs, addiction, escapism, deception, and, like a like a like a veil or almost like a falseness that has to be seen through disillusionment, ridding ourselves of fantasies that aren't healthy. Those are all things that can kind of come up with Neptune. I like to say that with Neptune, there's generally two ways that Neptune will go, one is it will create within us the yearning for for something more than the mundane. And that can be a very good thing. On the other hand, it can create with within us an almost intolerance for the mundane, or an intolerance for difference. It wants everything to be sort of seamlessly blended, mixed up. It likes unity, but sometimes just really can't stand differences, or it'll be almost indifferent to people and their individual uniqueness. It likes to Neptune, for example, is, you know, almost like losing your individuality, which could be nice, like in the state of trance or ecstasy or, you know, maybe people are at a festival and they're dancing, you sort of lose yourself, but Neptune will also almost show indifference toward individuality in favour of collective meldedness or something like that. So at any rate, of course, mercury, Neptune is going to be associated with people who carry some of these mix mix qualities together. So here's a good here's a good example. Elliott Smith when I was a kid, I loved Elliott Smith music. I was a big fan. I think I've actually first heard him through the movie, Goodwill Hunting and then I got really into him. .

9:53
So here's singer songwriter, beautiful, sort of tragic story of you if you know of him He obviously he died, I think while trying to get sober from heroin. But he had a heroin addiction. It was pretty serious. And he was also in a kind of incredible poet, singer songwriter type with a very memorable and distinct sort of misty voice. So Elliott Smith plays that role of the kind of tragic singer songwriter addict. You got a bunch of those. You've got Miles Davis, for example. You know, other worldly mystical, psychedelic jazz, a kind of bewitching quality to him. But of course, you know, if you go on to his Wikipedia page, heroin habit, supported it by playing music and by living the life of a hustler, exploiting prostitutes receiving money from friends. If you ever watched the documentary that came out about him a little while ago, it was really interesting, but so he had this very classic mercury Neptune ability to like, come up with all sorts of side hustles and some of its based on illusion or deception or secrecy. And in supporting a drug habit, but then he was also just this other worldly jazz blues virtuoso, you could I mean, I consider kind of a mix. But anyway, so, you know, Miles Davis, another singer songwriter type with that, just that fluid Mercurial trickster singer songwriter, bard. Bob Dylan, there's Bob Dylan, and people who know more about the life of Bob Dylan than I do might be able to say more about how you saw Mercury Neptune on display in his life, Jim Morrison, another singer songwriter type. There's others too like Amy Winehouse is a classic example someone with a really amazing voice. really talented musician, very Mercurial personality. Also struggled with alcoholism. That was pretty severe. You have people who are like very far out and spacey, like David Bowie, obviously, like a Space Oddity and just that kind of sci fi, otherworldly glam rocker. I just I love his music, obviously. But he's he's he really exemplifies mercury Neptune. He's very, like, if you think of the movie, the Labyrinth that he was in, and if you guys remember that movie, but it's one of my favourites when I was a kid. And, you know, he played the Goblin King. And n the end of that movie, he's in this castle where the stairs are twisting all around and you can't find your way and he's kind of this elusive figure in the middle of a labyrinth. Very mercury Neptune.

12:56
You also people like Jim Carrey, incredible comedian, obviously actor who has this ability to really contort his body and expressions, and that ability to change and also he liked to find the comedic Zeitgeist, you'll often find that people with mercury Neptune are able to tap into the collective mind and imagination and they somehow represent it. I think David Bowie was similar. You have people who have maybe cult like personalities who are able to take in huge amounts of followers with a very compelling message. For example, David Koresh, who is a cult leader. Also you have people who have major major secret scandals associated with Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump, Mercury Neptune. So you have like anytime that like scandal the media disinformation, misinformation, lies deception, illusion sleight of hand, I'm doing this but I'm telling you this any and also people who have the ability to shift and change very, very fluidly and almost maddeningly, for for better or worse.

14:24
So one of the things that I think characterises that shift that ability to to change views or change paradigms or change your mind about something which might seem very dramatic to other people how profoundly one's mind can change with the Mercury Neptune transit. It's as though there's a sea change in an intellectual or spiritual paradigm considered for example, Cat Stevens, whose name is now Yusuf Islam I think that's his like initiated name. He became either like a Sufi or Muslim I can't remember. But one of the things that's so fascinating about him is that apparently he had like a near death swimming incident, like in Malibu or something like that, where he almost died. And he called out to God while in the waves, you know, if you if you save me, like I'll dedicate my life to you, he and then like a wave, like, brought him in toward the shore, and he lived. And so that's exactly what he did. He made good on his promise, I always think that that's kind of amazing that he did that. And he gave up, you know, secular music. I mean, I remember, you know, Tea for the Tillerman, Teaser and the Firecat there were these albums that he made that were just, you know, when I grew up, like when I was playing, learning how to play guitar, like these were some of the first guitar song books that I ever got, that my dad got for me. And, you know, I remember hearing the story that he like, almost got swallowed by a wave and then gave his life to God, and to make music for God to was one of the revelations that he had.

16:03
So, this idea of almost Neptune Mercury, Neptune as like baptism, rebirth, that the sceptical mind or the questioning mind or the petitioning mind being overwhelmed by some act of mercy or grace or something miraculous kind of descending into the ordinary world, you know, there's just that that sort of sublime thing that can happen that can sort of totally shift a person's mind or or worldview somehow that's very mercury Neptune. You know, people like Lord Byron, who wrote the famous epic poem, down one and if you guys remember that, but that was you know, obviously the Don Juan motif is really interesting about the sky who falls in love with a lot of women. So and you have other people who represent that quality of like, sweet, soft, gentle, subtle seduction. Audrey Hepburn for example, Mercury Neptune and also Audrey Tatou. I don't know if you guys know her, but I think she was in the movie Amelie. But in both of them have this kind of sweet, innocent on assuming almost secretive, like qualities very, very gentle and alluring. That's mercury Neptune as well. How about another musician who had a major kind of like conversion experience, Shania Twain, she became a devotee of Saint Mott, I think that's how it's pronounced. And that's like a, it's like, it's like a yoga it's sort of like a yoga. Sufism, it's very similar to Bhakti in some ways. So you know, giving, giving her she had this major, very much like Cat Stevens a major kind of conversion experience, where she's, like, also called the queen of country pop or something like that, I think, one of the best selling artists of all times anyway, and of course, she has, she had this kind of Eastern mystical conversion experience. Very fascinating. You also have people who deal with the feeling of being in writing or an art will deal with the topic, very Mercury, Neptune topic, which is the need for the sublime. The sublime could be driving in the mountains to see some vast, you know, quiet, empty wilderness landscape and to somehow be be taken up to that 20,000 foot view and the mind, you know, it's, it says the mind needs to be kind of consumed and taken over by something really vast. So that's Jack London. One of the things that you know, define Jack London's writing was these vast wilderness landscapes that man had to like, deal with in his soul, humankind, so to speak. So, Jack London, a lover of the sublime, sometimes dealing with more tragic, heavy themes. You think of someone like Arthur Miller, also one of my favourites, singer songwriters that I think really embodies the mercury Neptune dynamic, at least when her album first came out whatever I think it was, her first album came out I think it was in like junior high or something like that, but it was or maybe High School, but it was Sarah McLaughlin. And she had this just haunting like, like beautiful voice very otherworldly. And it it she was a part of a wave of in my memory anyways, musicians were their voices were were really distinct and sort of ethereal and yet they were very popular on the on the radio. So anyway, just a simple example. But sometimes it's the quality of voice is sort of angelic and otherworldly in singer songwriters. But all of these qualities doesn't have to be in music. It doesn't have to be. You know, in some great work of art there can be very mundane, all of these things are transporting of the mind to another dimension, sort of mystical, otherworldly, deceptive and elusive. It can also be about great conversion are sort of miraculous eye opening experiences see changes paradigm shifts that are unexpected and Mercurial personalities that are shifty and soft and subtle and very alluring. I love the Audrey Hepburn, Audrey Tatou comparison that they both had Mercury Neptune squares because there's something about both of those women in particular to me that are so indicative of mercury, Neptune sort of elusive, secretive, shy, sensitive, subtle, but also like quirky and surprising and playful. So watch, if you've never seen the movie Amelie, it is like a Mercury Neptune movie. It's like through and through. It's like mercury, Neptune.

21:01
Joseph Campbell, that's the one I'll end with today. How about an exploration of unit like the mind exploring universal themes archetypes, mythology, myth, metaphor, story. And, and being able to see in an almost mandola, all of the themes of the world that are shared by different religions and cultures and, and of course, one of the things that he's been accused of by scholars who don't like him, I happen to like him, but I understand where people are coming from who don't like him, they will tend to criticise him for being someone who wants to eliminate cultural religious historical diversities into universals, they'll say, Oh, you know, you're, you're trying to essentialize too much. There's that Mercury, Neptune tendency sometimes to want to essentialize everything - see the commonality, but almost be indifferent to particular differences. So these are all things of course, to pay attention to. One of the things that you have to do when you're studying archetypes is, in order to learn the language of archetypes, you have to learn how to see them, the transits are the best way to see them, with astrology anyway. And you can't, you can't see them, they're going to show up in ways that you don't always expect. So one of the best ways to prepare for them so that you can, you can start to see them. When you start to see them you have a relationship with them. When you have a relationship with them, everything in your life becomes more conscious. And more conscious means more happy because more conscious means you're being yourself more. You are a conscious being. When we live in unconsciousness, we're not in touch with ourselves. And so we're not in touch with the wellspring of actual joy and happiness. Studying the archetypes brings us into conscious awareness of the the field of activities happening around us. So in order to become aware of the transitive to prime the pump by describing them in all different kinds of ways as they're starting to come into your field, then you'll start to see them. You could also notice them in really simple things like I mean, well, I poured water on on a piece of, you know, tech equipment or something like mercury, Neptune can show up in the simplest of ways. For example, I think I told you guys that I've been kind of dreading Mars in cancer going around some of my planets in cancer and my birth chart because last time it happened, I got stung by Hornets. Well, this past weekend is Mars in cancer was opposing my moon in Capricorn, I I tripped and I was carrying armful of dishes, I tripped and fell flat onto the floor and they all smashed and I was like literally laying on the floor covered in like broken glass. So and I was like, I was on the floor, and my wife was like, Oh my god, are you okay? And I was just sitting there laughing because I like it really hurt my toe like I dropped off, dropped all the plates on my toe. And then I was laughing and I go trying to make dinner in the home. I dropped glass and fell and dropped glass over the floor and I'm laying in a pile of broken glass with like an injured foot. And in my head. I'm realising all of this. And my wife is like, Oh my god, are you okay? And I'm laughing and she's like, what? And I was like, and I was like, it came back. It's the hornets again, but this time I got some broken glass on a banged up foot. And my wife was like, You're so weird, you know? I'm like, it's amazing. It's amazing. My foot's fine, thank God it wasn't anything worse. But like, That's amazing. And I'm sitting in broken glass and I was wondering what was going to happen while Mars opposes my my moon. So the thing about knowing that these transits are coming and knowing that we have the you know, it's being able to identify this web of archetypes that you may encounter in some way. I mean, maybe someone lies to you that kind of sucks. Or maybe you don't see something clearly or you know, whatever something thing might happen like that? Well, when that happens, you can be like Wow, there it is, there's Mercury Neptune. It's not nearly as threatening and you can stay in love with the universe you can stay in love with your experience and you can stay conscious rather than, you know, if I didn't have this knowledge I wouldn't be there laughing, like this is divine lila, then I still hurt my toe I'm not gonna say it didn't hurt, but like my immediate understanding of what was happening was so profound. So I don't know like a better tool for life than being able to identify the moving mandala of archetypes and hopefully today kind of primed the mercury Neptune pumping and gets the gets your imagination flowing with what these archetypes might bring. Now all the way to the early part of July, Mercury and Neptune will be interacting really intensely between now and like early part of June in particular backs off a bit and then it comes back again toward the beginning of July so yeah, I'd be I'd be really curious to hear your stories, please leave them in the comment section below. Remember my new class ancient astrology for the modern mystic is starting up pretty soon in June. I'd love to see you there come study archetypes for a year, change your life. Get a get a cosmic GPS programmed in your head and you learn how to see the world through through the lens of astrology at a much deeper level. It's an amazing tool to have whether you plan on practising it for others or just using it for yourself. All right, well, I will see you guys for lots more content later on this week. Take care everyone. Bye