Neptune the Mystic

Neptune's moon Triton is a dwarf planet, a captured body from the Kuiper Belt. The moon was photographed by Voyager 2 in 1989. Image Source: JPL/NASA.

Voyager 2 is the only spacecraft ever to visit Neptune and reached its closest point on 24 August 1989. The eighth planet was discovered on 23 September 1846 and was named for the Roman god of the sea. This gas giant has fourteen moons, all named after water nymphs and lesser sea deities. It has six rings, some of the fastest winds in the solar system, and a dark storm spot on its surface large enough to swallow the entire Earth. For the sound the planet makes from space, see my earlier post here.

Even today, astrologers maintain ancient religious values in their notions that Neptune dominates sleep and dreams, the imagination, ecstatic visions, mass entertainment, news as political theatre, and the 'eternal everything.' The planet can positively inspire the arts or negatively spin dark, mad fantasies. In his First World War Planets suite, composer Gustav Holst dedicated his musical poem to the planet as Neptune, The Mystic.

Image Source: Ruby Slipper.

Image Source: Illume Astrology.

Image Source: pinterest.

Reality is a Dream series © by Chiara Fersini. Image Source: Colossal.

About Religion asserts that Neptune is master of:

the vast mysteries of the unseen realms, and the psyche. ... Through Neptune, we recognize that all we see is energy shifting forms. And it's this planetary archetype that opens our eyes to the eternal self that shifts shape through lifetimes and aeons, wearing different masks and personae. ...

In real life, we swim in Neptune’s waters when we’re divinely inspired, or filled with a soul longing to re-unite with God. It’s the province of fantasy, escapism, glamour and illusion. Neptune’s vibe is beyond the intellect, and its strange pull draws us inexplicably toward both dreams and delusions. It’s a world of the psychic and out of body experiences like astral travel.

Neptune is a generational planet shared by everyone in an age group. And Neptune is a trans-personal planet, since it takes us into terrain with forces larger than ourselves. ... [It] shows us that what we call “reality” is always changing form, which can be both freeing and incredibly disturbing. It’s meant to quicken the pace of our growth, by casting and revealing delusions, denial, deception. Wrapped somewhere in its offering, is the path to redemption.

On 28 January 1998, astrologers claimed that Neptune began to move mainly through the sign of Aquarius, an air sign, but a water bearer, sparking the explosion of technology, communications and the Internet. Now, we reap what we have sown. On 3 February 2012, Neptune arrived in its home sign of Pisces, the fish, where it will remain until 30 March 2025. There, it now supposedly exposes the world to the spiritual side of technological change, dissolving boundaries and controls, and immersing everyone in a big soup of virtual reality consciousness.

Holst's Neptune, The Mystic from The Planets (1914-1916; premiered 1918). Video Source: Youtube.