Whoops! I’m in Another Dimension: Mercury Opposing Neptune

Transcript:

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology, and today we're going to take a look at Mercury's upcoming opposition to Neptune. Mercury is in the sign of Virgo, where it is in its own domicile and exultation, and it's heading into an opposition with Neptune in the sign of Pisces. It's within that three-degree range that is going to be perfecting over the weekend. So we will take a look at on the real-time clock. Today I have three stories and three insights that we go from themes and lessons to stories and insights a little different format for today. Playing with it, you have to tell me what you think. So before we get into it, don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments, and click on the notification bell for updates. If you want to be aware of the time, those times that I go live. I'm also going to take you over to the website right now because we have two new classes that we are running, and they are on sale through pre-registration sale through. Let's see here September 12. So once you're on the website, nightlightastrology.com, Go to the Courses page, scroll down, and you can check out Roots and Spheres.

This is a class that Ashley and I are leading over the course of 2023; we will be having new and full moon gatherings. And during those new and full moon gatherings, we will be looking at the astrology of the month and pairing it with different herbal or plant teachers and dieting different plants throughout the year. So this is a way to learn more about astrology, learn more about the ins and outs of the moon cycle, and really take a much more personal and immersive dive into the astrology of 2023. And also, pairing that astrology with some plant teachers that can really help us deepen our connection to the astrology. So this class starts in January; want to sign up and get a significant discount on the course or the early bird that's available until September 12. We also have a six-month payment plan and tuition assistance in case you need it. So please check those out. If you have any questions, you can email us info@nightlight astrology.com. You can also check out The Master Class series. This series is for students of astrology, probably people who already have a little bit of a background in astrology. In the first part of the year in February, we will be looking at the mysteries of the moon cycle. That is a four-part series that will take place in February and March. We are then looking at Morningstar Eveningstar, the cycles of Venus and Mercury in the spring, Zen, and the Art of zodiacal releasing in the summer. It's an ancient timing technique and unlocking temperament and personality in the birth chart in the fall.

These are more advanced classes for people who are looking to dive deep into some very specific, slightly more advanced topics in ancient Hellenistic astrology. But if you're someone who's really appropriate best for people who are either in one of my first-year programs, or any other of my programs, or people who already have a little bit of a background in ancient astrology or traditional astrology, but anyone's welcome to join for sure. So, again, we have a pre-registration sale until September 12. You can purchase any one of those master classes, or you could take all four; you save the most if you take all four; there's a payment plan. There's also tuition assistance, so hoping to see some of you guys in the new classes coming up.

And let's get into our let's get into Mercury's opposition to Neptune. I'm going to put up the real-time clock. And let's dive in. I hope you guys will enjoy this new format today to tell me what you think about it. So you can see here Mercury in the sign of Virgo is within the three-degree range here on Thursday, August 18. And we're moving forward. Friday comes within two degrees, and then by Saturday, it is rolling into that 24th degree, so this is perfecting Saturday you'll be able to feel it into Sunday Monday. For sure. So you know, a transit that really lasts until August 22, you should be feeling it already. What can we expect from this particular what can we expect from this particular transit?

So I have three stories for you guys and three insights that come along with them. Each one of these stories happened during a Mercury opposite Neptune, so I did a deep dive into my Astro journal to look for you know notable stories from my own experience of Mercury opposite Neptune and three things that I've learned about Mercury opposite Neptune from these stories or experiences, so I hope you guys will enjoy this.

Okay, so the first story is, I think the funniest lot of people asked me, you know, it was there ever like a moment at which you decided to stop really kind of disengaging from watching the news. A lot of people know on my channel that I'm not the world's most politically invested or involved person. And I don't really; I don't tend to watch the news; I sort of stay away from it. I honor and respect you if you feel differently or quite strongly that people should or ought to watch the news or whatever, but I don't. And here's, here's the story under a Mercury opposite Neptune transit, as to how that happened for me. So. Okay, so one night, my wife and I went out on a date, and my daughter Virginia was at home. We didn't have our second child yet. And this was before I got into bhakti yoga and took my monastic vows, one of which includes not being intoxicated, so no drugs, alcohol, things like that. So, at any rate, we went out, and then we came home after going out, and the babysitter who had been with our daughter made banana bread. And so we got home, and we had a wife had a piece of banana bread, I had a piece of banana bread sitter had a piece of banana bread, our daughter, who had we just put to bed, we let have like a little corner, just a little tiny bite because we were just about to brush her teeth and put her to bed. So we gave her like just a little, I don't know, like a chunk.

So, alright, so fast forward to, I don't know, maybe an hour, hour and a half later, Ashley's on her computer, and she's, you know, and she's writing an email to someone. And, and I, I'm sitting there, and I'm watching the news, okay. And I don't know what was on; it was on CNN, this was, I think, probably not long after Trump had been elected, you know, and it was just all drama that and I was just getting, so it was like a vortex I was just going like, just going right into it. But this was not like your world's most you know, this was like, not a sober, rational place that I was in, like, considering and thinking about the information was like, I was like, Oh, my God, like, this is so important, you know, like, the, like, what kind of like the fate of the world, you know, and it was, and I didn't even realize how intensely I was getting absorbed into this. And I was like, you know, just like I might have, I might as well have been watching, like, you know, the JFK assassination or something. And it wasn't nearly that dramatic, right? But I was like; I was so intensely emotional. And I was like, called Ashley; I was like, you have to see this. Like, you have to come and sit down right now and see this. And she was like, I can't, and I go, why. And she was like, I'm this you would not believe who wrote to me. She was like I have this is like a really, really important email that I have to write. And I was like, okay, strange that she's like equally like intensely absorbed into like writing this email. So, all of a sudden, maybe five minutes later, I'm getting more and more absorbed. Like the little hypnotism like spinning wheel, and I'm like, going into it. And I'm like, like, why? Like, my eyes were like saucers, and I was like, so.

So Ashley, all of a sudden, goes, and she starts laughing hysterically, like, hysterically laughing. I go, what? Like, what's the deal? Like, what are you laughing at? And she looks at me, and she goes, I think I'm really, really stoned. Like, Oh, my God. Yes. I was like, that's what's going on. I'm super high. And then I was like, how did this happen? How is this possible? And then it was like, all of a sudden because she had the realization while she was like really absorbing this email, like, Wait a second. This email isn't like, why am I so; I'm like getting totally lost in it, like what's going on? And then she realized that I was doing the same thing with the news. She put it together that somehow you know, we were both stoned as hell. So at that point, we put it together. Okay, this is maybe; I don't even know how long it must have been like a year previous. Ashley and I occasionally; This was years ago. Occasionally we would smoke, like a very occasional, I'm talking like maybe twice a year or something. It was pretty occasional. Once in a while, we would partake. And this particular occasion, we actually had some leftover, and she decided To make some cannabis butter, so she put it in the refrigerator and put the lid on it, and labeled it Canna butter. And our babysitter thought that it was just some kind of herbal butter because she knows Ashley's an herbalist, and we didn't have any butter in the house, and she was making banana bread with Virginia because they like to bake together. So she used all of it. It's like the world's most potent loaf of bread.

So, at any rate, she so we called the sitter right away, right, we called the sitter right away. And we go, did you use the Canna butter in the fridge? And she goes, yeah, why don't you go that was that's cannabis butter. And she goes, Oh my God, that explains so much. I was just having a panic attack, thinking there was something really, really wrong with me. She's just freaking out. So, I mean, this is actually really bad because then we were up, we ended up being up to like five in the morning because we had a massive big piece of banana bread that was just loaded with, like, way too much Canna butter. And I mean, this was very, it was like way too potent. So but then the next thing that happened, the next thing was like, Oh my God, our daughter ate like a little chunk of it. Holy shit, you know? So. So like, I like, we both run upstairs, and we go, we go next to our daughter, and we both have our ears down, and we're like, is she breathing? Like, Is she breathing? And then Ashley looks at me. She goes, I think she's breathing. I can't tell I'm too high. I can't tell if she's breathing. So then I started I'm just cracking up laughing because we're too stoned to tell if our daughter is breathing, which is a terrible thing to say. And then I was like, no, look, look at her chest. You can see it's coming up, and we're on our hands and knees, like the night lights on. We look so ridiculous. So anyway, turns out she was breathing. She was absolutely fine. But then every like 20 to 30 minutes. Ashley would be like, can you just go in and make sure she's breathing? So I would be like in there. And I'd be looking, and I'd be like looking at her, and I'd be like, she's a miracle. She looks. She looks like me. She looks like my wife. And she's breathing. She's breathing. Oh, she's right. I can't tell it to her heart's beating. I have to. Okay, wait, no, I gotta look at her chest. And my wife in the other room was like; I'm serious. Just check. What are you doing? Sorry. So anyway, that was the last time that I got high, by the way. And it was totally accidental. Like I said, at this point, we weren't even really getting high that often. I mean, it was very rare. And we just happen to have this cannabutter sitting in the fridge. Terrible. Okay, so anyway, that story, though, happened during a Mercury Neptune opposition. Unbeknownst to us, you know, totally unintentional, I learned something really important. It was really funny.

Okay, so I really don't like smoking pot. I never really did. It was never really my thing. It tended to make me more anxious. Like I'm one of the more anxious pot smokers. Unless I found out I took it by accident, at which point I realized that this guilt was like taken away. Okay, so you can imagine I realize I don't have any choice. I didn't choose to do this, right? So I might as well just go with it. Like, it's so absurd and funny that this happened that I kept laughing. The and then whereas when I was high, but I had chosen to get high. If you're following me, I was always dealing with anxiety. And part of it was related to guilt. I shouldn't be doing this. This is a waste of time. This isn't mature blah, blah, blah, and all these judgments and guilt and, and so on and so forth. And suddenly, because that guilt was taken away because I hadn't chosen to do it, it just sort of happened. I found the whole thing comical and absurd and had one of the most enjoyable times I can remember taking marijuana.

Okay, so the reason that I find all of this really funny or interesting for Mercury Neptune opposition is because when I went back downstairs, and I had had this realization after being in my office, and I had this realization that I don't feel guilty right now I don't feel anxious because I didn't choose it. And it's so absurd that it chose me, and it's so funny that I can't stop laughing, and it's so it's like this joyful thing. And the guilt was sort of taken out of it. And then this insight came. You don't have to do things out of a sense of guilt. And you don't have to feel guilty doing things that feel good. Now, I never smoked pot again. It was not that was not an insight that, for me, was about justifying going and smoking more pot; I really had no desire to smoke more. And I ended up getting into bhakti yoga, which is a path of sobriety, among other things. So I was like, Well, you know, it left my life.

But it was really important because when I went back downstairs, and the news was on, I realized that two things were driving my decision to watch the news. First of all, I could, I could see myself as a caricature getting sucked into the news and feeling high, unbeknownst to myself. So high, so engrossed that it was like, but it was just an amplification of what I was regularly doing, every night watching the news on a little lesser, like a lesser level, I was getting absorbed in something thinking it was way or so important, elevating my stress response, probably my cortisol or whatever it's called. And I was like, really tripping out. And I always felt like you have to do this like there was a guilt that was driving me. And then I realized I don't like watching the news. It doesn't make me feel good. Not that I want to bury my head in the sand or anything. But like, as a regular thing, like, this doesn't feel good. And I also have a hard time doing things that really feel good to me because I sometimes feel guilty doing them. For example, on such a night like that, when I watch the news, I might prefer to do something simple like play my guitar. Okay, well, but you got to know what's going on in the world. Right? So then there'd be some guilt playing my guitar. I know I'm this is my own, like neurotic little world. And I'm not suggesting anyone's has to be like mine. Or you should come to the same conclusions or anything.

This was a Mercury opposite Neptune transit. And what I find so amazing about it is the insight that came to me that suddenly your mind can change. You can have experiences that happen to you, not that you think and choose every single frame of mind or perception or belief in your life, but that things happen to us that change how we see and how we think, and how we perceive. This was something that happened to me like, I mean, my wife made the butter a year ago or whatever. And then suddenly this happened. But it was not something in the moment. It just felt like this weird event that changed my perception. That changed my mind that changed the way that I think, and it gave me it also allowed me to understand that you can make you can, your mind can change, and you don't always have to have a reason for it. It can be a feeling could lead you to shift your thinking on something.

It was a very powerful moment where I realized that there are these shifts in perception, awareness, and mind thought consciousness that are not really rational. They're most like transrational and a lot of how we end up a lot of what we end up doing in life. We say I believe this, I think this, and here are the reasons but most of the reason that we actually believe what we believe is because something happened to us or something happened. And that event somehow intangibly changed the way that we think or perceive.

So anyway, hope you guys enjoy that story number two, under another mercury, opposite Neptune transit; I will actually take this down for a second until it makes more sense. I happen to be with a famous astrologer on his deathbed. He was passing under it was a Mercury Neptune square, I believe, actually. But he was passing. And in the room while he was passing, there were a number of people he could still he had had a stroke, so he could still hear, but he was he had lost some functionality. So he could like lift his hand a little bit to show that he could hear. But people in the room we're not always cognizant of the fact that like he can hear everything we're saying. And people were saying how tragic it was that he wouldn't be able to finish some of his work. And that his research and the riddles that it would solve for the astrological world.

You know what a tragedy it was that the astrological world would never get to the answers to these things because he had such a unique mind and such a gift to be able to unravel them. And I was really torn because I didn't necessarily disagree with anything they were saying because he was a unique mind. He had a unique capacity to think through problems in ancient astrological texts. And a lot of what we know now about Hellenistic astrology is thanks to his detective work. And so I could feel that lamentation like it is said we may never get to some of what he had in his mind that what his capacity was to help us unsolved these or unlock these mysteries, whatever. But then I started thinking, I wonder what he's thinking, seeing, hearing all of this, and what kind of impact it's having on his soul as he's preparing to leave his body? Does he feel like there's something left unsaid? And then I remembered something he said in a talk. He said that it's the best things in these textbooks are not often what's being said. But if you can be very thoughtful about what is not being said, or where there's a kind of lacuna, a hole of omission, or almost like, something doesn't quite fit up, you're following a pattern, and you think you're deciphering something in one of these ancient texts. And then there's an exception to the rule. And it's when those things appear that you have to go into those spaces and start pulling the mystery thread. And if you keep pulling at that thread, then things start coming out. But there's always going to be that place because there's something about this ancient hermetic science that is by nature, concealed and then revealed, concealed and then revealed, and it's not something that ever maybe ever comes to an end like you ever get everything, that it's, it's like a language that; is it's a living matrix, and that you, you're moving through it, and you're always discovering new things, but it's so vast. This was the way he thought. And I had this appreciation for him as he was passing, thinking, it's everything you left unsaid. It's everything you weren't able to solve. It's the lacuna in your work. It's that unrealized space, in what you were able to accomplish with your intellect, that will keep so many people continuing to pull it the mystery thread.

So number two insight for me was that the rational mind when the rational mind of Mercury could say, meets the vast Neptunian imaginal waters. There's a way in which the rational mind can go no further. But that doesn't mean that there's nothing more to be learned. It's there are places that we reach in our lives when our logic or rational understanding of our ability to comprehend or understand the situation just ends. We can't. And so then we think, well, because you know, I can't get any further. I can't solve this riddle, or I'm coming up against the wall in my understanding of there's something that's deeply mysterious, and I can't crack the code. It's, that's a good sign. Mercury. Neptune has taught me that when those spaces of mystery, befuddlement, feeling puzzled, overwhelmed, feeling like we can't understand or see something or perceive something clearly, that those things come up. They're very magical. Often they're, they're very magical interludes in our life that are leading us somewhere. If we can just be content to walk in the fog at times. And let our minds be confounded. That mystery keeps us pulling the thread. It's the exception to the rule. It's the blank; it's the missing paragraph in the ancient text. We need those things archetypally; we need those places where the mind is it can't keep on with its logical pattern. It tends to be overwhelmed and confounded. And then something appears, a sign, an omen, the next step, a clue. And then we're off again. But those interludes are so important because they suggest to us that reality is an ongoing relationship, even on the level of our searching and probing of the mind, that the mind, when it hits its roadblocks, is not hitting some kind of analytical stopping point. It's meeting with a presence. And it's how we respond to those mysterious moments of uncertainty that leads us along and starts to deepen our understanding. And then we really appreciate and need those mysterious places to be there in life.

All right, well, Story number three. This is a really weird one. So I'll keep this one off until it's time again. So this was years ago; I was home. This is a Mercury Neptune transit. I was home on my family land in Michigan. And there I was taking a walk in the back 40, was 80 acres. It was back 40 acres, and I was taking a walk on some of the trails, and I noticed there was a vulture moving along, and he was wounded. He couldn't fly. He had a wounded When, and he was hopping along the trail. And I ended up having like two or three encounters with that wounded vulture. And I could tell he was dying; he couldn't get food. And so, I decided to enact some kind of symbolic play. I took a shovel and garbage bag and gloves, and I took my dad's truck. And I started circling like a vulture around a big, big like three square mile loop of kinda like a big square at more than a circle. But I circled around this big this kind of these interconnected highways. And as I was circling around it, I was just looking, I was like, I'm gonna go around this big loops like three, four miles long. And I'm going to look for roadkill. And I'm going to put the roadkill into this garbage bag, and I'm going to bring it back to the vulture and give it to it. Because I have a feeling that the vulture has something to say. And the roadkill that I found was en route; it was going down a road that would have taken me toward my grandmother's house on my mom's side. My mom's mother didn't live far from my dad's father. So anyway, so I started taking the road down toward my grandmother's house, and the roadkill that I found was a dead turtle. A really big one. Well, it so happens that my mother's animal spirit animal that she's, I guess you'd call it that I don't know, a spirit guide, an animal that has spoken to her throughout her life, who is the turtle, she's got collections of statues of turtles, everyone gives her turtle gifts and so forth.

So I started thinking about my mom. And it was interesting to me that this turtle was also on the road out to my grandmother's house. And I brought it back. And I put it down for the bird. And I found it really interesting because I suddenly realized, Oh, my grandmother's gonna die. It's not too long until she's going to pass. It was a profound moment. And then I also had this realization after I put the turtle in place and near where the vulture was hanging out. And then I had this other realization that this is the last time that my family is going to be together. There is this vulture on the family land. Something about this signifies an ending for my family. Well, my grandmother ended up passing away not too long after. And my mother had a near-death car accident on the road from her grandmother's back to our land, which she had to escape; the car flipped, and she had to escape out of the back of the car. And was she had some good injury, you know, not good injuries. He had some bad injuries. She was injured good.

So, at any rate. And that happened to be the very last time that my family as a group was together because after my mom's not long after my mom's accident, my mom and dad decided to divorce. And that happened to be the very last time that I was at home, on the family land with my sister, my mother, my father, and myself. Not long after that, grandma died, not long after that, my mom had her accident, and not long after that, my parents were divorced. And we were never all together again as a family. And that was a Mercury Neptune transit. And I knew when that vulture that wounded vulture showed up on the land, and I went circling around and brought it a turtle that I happened to find on the part of the loop that was leading up to my grandma's house. That something was going to happen to my grandma. I was a little bit worried about my mom, but I didn't I wasn't really registering anything potentially happening with her. And that there was something about this that was signifying the death of the family. That was a Mercury Neptune transit.

And I have since learned that omens are sometimes enactments of future events. Now, I believe that intellectually, and I had plenty of experiences working with Ayahuasca, plant medicines, and theologians that told me that this was true as well. You know, but this, to me, was so beautiful in that it was almost like an invitation to participate. It wasn't just an omen that appeared and spoke. It was an omen that shared something with me so long as I participated in it speaking, as long as I spoke or helped it enact its mythic message, you know, its archetypal message. And so I remember that signs are not just things to be read; they are things to be participated in. And that when we participate in the symbolism that's appearing, what it has to say can deepen. And to me, that is a deeply Mercury Neptune kind of realization.

So, I hope that you have enjoyed these three insights and three stories and maybe gotten a few laughs. Share your own stories; I would love to hear your stories. Use the hashtag grabbed or email us at grabbed@nightlight astrology.com Tell me what kinds of stories you experience as Mercury opposes Neptune over the weekend. If you want to email us that story, rather than sharing it with a hashtag, grab in the comment section. Again, it's just grabbed at nightlight astrology.com. I'm really looking forward to hopefully taking the same kind of deep experiential journey in the upcoming Roots and Spheres course that begins in January of 2023. This is precisely the kind of thing that we want to be talking about in group and community with people under new and full moons next year, working with plant allies working to actually participate more intentionally with the energies and share our experiences together. And so I hope you'll consider joining that class if it calls to any questions about anything, email us info at nightlight astrology.com That is what I've got for today. Take it easy, everyone. Bye