On April 4th 2011, Neptune quietly slipped into its home sign of Pisces for the first time in a century and a half. I say quietly because Neptune’s ingress didn’t pack the punch of Pluto’s entry into Capricorn nor Uranus’s into Aries. No, gossamer Neptune transitioned into Pisces like a gentle breeze announcing a shift in the direction of the weather. You’d be forgiven for not noticing. We get a part two of this energy on February 3rd 2012 as Neptune, after having retrograded back into Aquarius, re-enters Neptune for a 14-year stay in its home sign.
Don’t be fooled by Neptune’s hazy nature; this transit is a big deal not only because of the length of its transit through Pisces, but because no one alive has experienced Neptune in its home sign. The years 1847 through 1862, when Neptune was last in Pisces, correlated with photography becoming an everyday element of the then modern world, the rise of the temperance movement, wars in China over the opium trade, and the advent of spiritualism. These are all Neptunian concepts — an image snatched from the ether and fixed into form via a chemical process; the use or abstinence of alcohol and drugs; and a peering beyond the veil via mediums and seances.
