Neptune

Neptune the god-

According to legend, Neptune is the God of water and sea, who also controls the winds and storms. Neptune commands fear and respect particularly from those whose lives are greatly affected by emotional or physical tides of the ocean. Neptune has sunken many ships, leaving countless sailors adrift at sea. If you are someone who prefers to stay firmly on land, the kind of person who is not curious about the deep, dark unknown, water where there’s no land in sight, you will not be as affected by Neptune, for that realm is out of his domain. The etymology of Neptune is unclear and disputed. A modern scholar proposed that Neptune might be derived from the Indo-European *neptu- (“moist substance”), perhaps an adjectival form (-no) of *nuptu- (“he who is moist”). Neptune didn’t arrive in the Roman pantheon of gods until 400 years after the city’s founding.

The planet-

Analogously in astronomy, Neptune was discovered 236 years after Saturn, the farthest traditional planet that you can still see with the naked eye. Neptune was not seen at first, but rather it’s location was inferred mathematically based upon observed perturbations in Uranus’s orbit. In either case, mythology or astronomy,  Neptune can symbolize what’s beyond a human’s “natural” domain without the aid of technology: be it the ocean or other planets.  

The astrology-

With the discovery of Neptune, new age astrologers have reassigned Pisces’ ruling planet to be Neptune and have added the significations of this archetype to include imagination, creativity, and spirituality. In astrology, the age of pisces is from 1AD to 2150 and has been characterized by the Rise and fall of the Roman Empire, and Christianity and Islam. During this era, Some people argue that Jesus was a pisces, as he’s now perceived to fit that archetypally and he was also born on the dawn of the age of Pisces and has dominated its narrative. 

But prior to Christianity, according to legend, the two fish in the Pisces constellation are the goddess Aphrodite and her son Eros (Roman: Venus and Cupid). They turned themselves into fish in order to escape from the monster Typhon. At this time Jupiter, who was said to govern abundance and good fortune, was said to rule the sign of Pisces. 

For me-

This piece is called Neptune. It was inspired by an image i generated using AI. I created this piece during a time in my life when Pluto was separating from a conjunction with Neptune in my natal chart. The story I tell with that is that Pluto, characterized by fear and power, obscured my ability to connect with the more mystical inclinations I might have, understanding those tendencies to be childish or foolish under a paradigm of reductionist materialism. It’s still scary for me to post this as someone who was a student of physics in what can be a very dualist and closed minded society, but this is where my mind is drifting these days.