The Window of Bliss Conjunction of Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces

Contents ( jump to the part that interests you and/or see the video talk on AOAUK)

1: The Time Line

2: Jupiter and Neptune as Archetypes

3: The Neptune- Jupiter Conjunctions 2022: Phase 1 and Phase 2

4: Chart Example: William Bramwell Booth

5: Chart Example: Mikhail Vrubel

6: My War Gone By

7: The Immersion Experience

8: The Double Rainbow

1: The Timeline

Jupiter and Neptune are almost in town and it’s good to review all the key dates leading up to this momentous fusion of incredible archetypes:

Neptune was discovered 1846.
Jupiter spends about a year in each zodiac sign – a full cycle is 12 years.
Neptune cycles through a zodiac sign every 15 years.
Jupiter meets Neptune in different signs e.g. 1958 in Scorpio, in 1971 in Aquarius, in 2009 in Sagittarius.
Jupiter meets Neptune in Pisces – the sign they co-rule-only every 166 years.
Neptune was conjunct Jupiter in Pisces in 1856.
They meet there again this year 2022. Next time is in 2188.
Next time Jupiter is at 23° of Pisces is 2034 and again in 2058.
Neptune entered Pisces in 2010– and stays until 2025 when it enters Aries finally.
Jupiter dipped in to Pisces May 23rd-July 28th 2021.
Jupiter re-entered Pisces in December 29th 2021.
Phase 1: Jupiter is close to Neptune during April but is exact April 12th 2022.
Phase 2: Jupiter and Neptune are within 6° from Oct 28th– Dec 20th.
Jupiter stays at 29° of Pisces for last two weeks November 2022 within orb of Neptune.
Jupiter enters Aries Dec 20th 2022 the day before the Winter Solstice – the Capricorn Ingress.

In May of 2021 I wrote about the King of the Gods in the House of Spirituality as we had a taster of what is to come. When the King of the Gods dives into the King of the Oceans domain, expect monumental things to happen. Similarly when the King of Oceans lodged in a watery mutable sign floods into the King of the Gods, the blend is intensely spiritual and mystical of the highest order of vibration. Borders will melt on all levels, physical, political, mental and emotional. What is striking is that are both in the House they themselves rule. So although Jupiter rules Sagittarius, he also used to rule Pisces in the traditional perspective, so he is coming to an old home. It’s comfortable there for him. Jupiter and Neptune are not father and son but brothers who have little or no antagonism and quite a lot in common. They are both associated with religion and spirituality of seeking something ‘other’ that goes beyond the material world.

Neptune is porous and wears away at boundaries where people assume the lines are clear but by the end of it they have blurred and shifted or just dissolved completely. When this happened in the 19^th century it aligned with the rise of Spiritualism, contacting the dead through seances, the first colour photography, and the instigation of political Utopias e.g. of Karl Marx who wrote the Communist Manifesto in 1848 and Art movements like the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood also in 1848.

The previous conjunction of Jupiter-Neptune in Pisces was in March of 1856. Some notable people were born with a Neptune-Jupiter conjunction in their charts: Sigmund Freud and Nikola Tesla. Freud who has Neptune and Jupiter in Pisces but ten degrees apart and with Tesla it had moved into different signs. They were the previous children of 1856 so I wonder what kind of children will be born this April 2022.

Balloon — *Jupiter and Neptune conjunct in Pisces*

In the lyrics of this song by Monolink it says ‘Father Ocean hear my song. You’re the wave I was made from. Take me back to where we once began.’ This suggests a longing to return to the womb, the primordial waters where we were unseparated, residing in indivisible oneness. This links to Tiammat goddess of the deep dark waters known as ‘the glistening one’. And these words reminds us that the Sun is visible light and the obvious one to worship, but it is what you see when you close your eyes that matters. There is an added paradox that it is ‘darkness’ or looking within to the unconscious mind that holds the key and Neptune, Pisces and the 12th house take us to the unconscious mind both personal and collective.

This is a ‘divine’ pairing and is set to bring blessings and peak moments. So it is a hotly-anticipated conjunction. But keep your eyes firm as there is a smokescreen around it of obfuscation in the news and of media hyperbole. Placing attention on the more peaceful and beautiful nature of this conjunction could help realign your perspective to a broader more multi-dimensional awareness . It appears to go away from everyday concerns, but this is not to ignore them but to ask yourself at every moment: ‘Where is my mind at?‘ ‘What am I focussing on? ‘ ‘Is it promoting fear or calm?’ ‘How useful is that to others?’ That is a choice point and challenge here. To select to see the world through spiritual eyes despite the chaos and confusion going on.

People can often become lodged in inflexible ways of thinking and feel afraid to poke their heads out of the box. Jupiter is about truth and Neptune is about lies and deceptions so this could hold both of these domains in a energised state of tension that could swing either way; where the one could appear like the other, depending on how it plays out. But ideally, this energy could push us into glimpsing the 360° picture for the first time. That’s the eagle’s-eye view and the whale’s view combined covering the spectrum vertically and horizontally in its breadth, width and depth and all its glory all at the same time. It’s Jupiter’s magnification lens -seeing the big picture.

2: Jupiter and Neptune as Archetypes

These two planets represent two hefty archetypes that annex a huge space in the universe. You could spend a lifetime studying each one independently but here they are fusing together in our lifetime and on April 12^th 2022 it peaks which has not happened since 1856 and will not happen again until 2188.

Separately Jupiter and Neptune have their well-defined functions. Jupiter is Higher Education, Philosophy, Law, Religion, Foreign Travel and cultures. He is the big picture of partying, gambling, gifting, and I can’t help thinking of him as Falstaff in Shakespeare, or in another version as Father Christmas with good cheer and lugging a sack of gifts to give to all. On the downside he is also about gambling, philandering, telling tall tales, putting on weight and being pompous and self important.

With Neptune we also have a full range of qualities. On the the more elevated side Neptune is about poetry, music, art, photography, film, salvation, selflessness, mysticism and having a spiritual point of view, but inherent within that are the darker elements of loss, suffering, deception, lies, subterfuge and disillusionment. Evil can often dress itself up as salvation to siphon off our most elevated thoughts.

Neptune and Jupiter Tao — *Neptune and Jupiter*

‘Nebulous’ is a word that crops up often as Neptune can be loose, foggy, misty, not to be trusted. It is related to gas, oil, and anything fluid, not just literally water. We sink or swim in this foggy environment, mostly without knowing. “A fish does not know it is water” is a statement that reveals how there can be a lack of awareness of the environment we inhabit. Do we know what is out there or do we just ‘think’ we know?

Dane Rudhyar said Neptune is “an agent of the vast galactic field of cosmic existence. It is an emissary of the greater to the lesser.” And Jupiter I have said is the ultimate wish-fulfilment junkie. Writing in 1910, the Mundane Astrology author Raphael (aka Robert Cross Smith) outlined that Jupiter rules “the religious and judicial world, divines, judges, lawyers, bankers, merchants etc.” and Neptune rules “Socialism, suffragettes, the smart set, plots, sedition, fraud and swindling, and the more degrading forms of vice and wickedness.” So we have the higher and lower functions of these two operating a two way process that ought to be mind expanding and certainly not boring. When they come together, we may learn about things we never knew existed, or undergo a paradigm shift that takes the rug from under our feet and instigates a deep ‘sea’ change within.

Jupiter however brings with him the potential to be addicted to false hope. His optimism wears only rose coloured glasses. The danger is that hope alone cannot keep you grounded. The bubble of hope can be easily perforated. When it vanishes, you are left with hollow nature of what you believed to be true. Jupiter is about truth and Neptune is about lies and deceptions to there’s a huge tension between this search for truth and the mystification of lies right now. This is where I am using the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol to see how these two operate together as the dark pointed circle in the light side is the starting point for growth and dynamics to change into the the light pointed circle in the dark side. They are complementary and dynamically engaged. This is a beautiful image that helps prevent too much fixity and includes their essentially fluid dynamic natures. On the Yang side you could say the the traditional ruler of Pisces and any Piscean native could be more jovial, joyful, exuberant, generous, lucky and open hearted; and on the Yin side, the modern ruler of Pisces, and type two of Pisces is slightly more forgiving, empathetic, egoless, spaced out, not knowing any boundaries, and hence more inclined to confusion. There could also be a cocktail blend of the two as extreme Yin becomes Yang and vice versa in a perennial cycle of being and becoming.

When they join together the fusion could be magnified as Jupiter is known to expand the qualities of all it touches with mixed results. Their mythological selves are endlessly fascinating. They are both shape-shifters appearing in different guises and being able to hide quickly by morphing into different forms.

Neptune flows like the sea and is depicted as galloping horses – sea-horses too, and he’s surrounded by Tritons, and the incredible creature Proteus, the seal herder came under his domain. Proteus is like a mascot for me as he represents the oracle that is obliged to tell the truth, just that the truth has a slippery form and dodges captivity- he could even change himself into a drop of water in the ocean. Proteus has a physical form as one of the moons orbiting Neptune.

Jupiter is a different type of shapeshifter as he came by stealth in his form as Zeus and tales of his sexual exploits are many and varied. Yet he could appear in many forms and many an unsuspecting maiden and in the case of Ganymede, a boy. This all hints at his super alpha-style fertility impregnating anyone who took his fancy. Yet the shape shifting is very feminine, adaptable and more Yin style. None could defend themselves from Zeus as he would come in an unsuspecting way: for Leda he was a Swan, for Europa a bull, for Io a cloud, for Danae a golden rain and as an Eagle to carry off the youth Ganymede to become the cup bearer for the Gods. And while the Zeus-Hera relationship has that added twist not often mentioned, that they were not just husband and wife, but also brother and sister.

3: Neptune- Jupiter Conjunction: Phase 1 and 2

Jupiter and Neptune together is a fusion that could overwhelm us with new levels of imagination and ideas streaming in from all over the world. Jupiter magnifies so it can maximise the potential and create disasters, floods not just of water but of the thought stream, in consciousness levels, and of media information which is not always healthy to consume without your critical faculties being switched on.

Conjunction: Phase 1, April 2022

The chart of the conjunction shows Neptune and Jupiter exact at 23° and this peaks on April 12^th but the period of days around this all resonates with this peak moment which can be named a window of bliss. Venus is also in Pisces so co-present there in its exaltation, and while Mars spends a little time at 29° of Aquarius, it will join Venus in Pisces by the 16th April. This conjunction is conjunct the fixed star Markab which is the ‘wings of Pegasus’. Pegasus was a flying horse the lucky mascot the nine muses. When he stamped his foot a fountain was created. So that is hopeful in terms of how much inspiration may come through. Jupiter and Neptune stay close until the 17^th April- this chimes in nicely with Good Friday and Easter Sunday celebrations and perhaps a time for deeper reflection and not just to pay lip service to that but to do it genuinely. This may surface insights you had not bargained for that are more mystical than you experienced before. It is time to let the fear go and imbibe deep of your spiritual resources which may come to the fore at this time.

So what might it mean for you? Everyone will feel it in various ways but most obviously it could show up as a deeper more abiding interest in all things spiritual and you may even be flooded by this inner light, either through inspired creative ideas to write, paint, dance or sing, but also through deeper compassionate feelings, of deeper understanding of the world and human flaws and foibles, or it could trigger peak experiences of bliss, or feelings of transcendence- this super overview of life that allows you to see things ‘whole’ perhaps for the first time.

The Sun is in Aries so at this point it’s full force ahead for 2022- the ingress has passed. It is in harmonious aspect sextile and trine with both the North node and South Node. The Moon is at 0° zero of Virgo – so a new start for researching health matters and linking the psyche and soma.

How this affects you depends on where Pisces is in your chart. Anyone with any planet or point at 23° of Pisces will feel this most potently but also anyone with planets or points opposite or square to it, so that’s at 23° Virgo, 23° Sagittarius and 23° of Gemini. Check which house it resides in from your horoscope. Just to take the 9th (ruled by Jupiter) and the 12th (ruled by Neptune) as examples: in the 9th it might reveal a long needed overhaul and paradigm shift in your belief sets, your attitude to religion law and spirituality, and in the 12th, it may be that benign figures appear in your dreams to give guidance or you decide to go on that retreat in the countryside, to experience real peace, quiet and solitude. Or you may just spend more time in the bedroom.

Conjunction: Phase 2, November-December

It’s not over until it’s over so there is a second phase. After tearing through Aries, Jupiter comes back into Pisces on October 28th and he dances with Neptune for a last waltz at the end of the year. Like a lietmotif in music, all the themes we experience in April will loop back to be revisited, and they may return to us for a final resolution. For the last two weeks of November 2022 Jupiter is at 29° of Pisces so this is ending of the ending, the final conclusions that we might reach as we process all the understandings learned from this conjunction.

From October 28th to December 20th they hover together in and out of Pisces-Aries and then finally Jupiter moves back into Aries just in time for the Winter Solstice, the Capricorn Ingress on December 21st. Can it be an accident that the film Avatar was released in 2009 on a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction and Avatar 2 will be released in December 2022? Its themes are entering different dimensions as souls enter bodies in a different form. What might that tell you about how we feel about our experience? While Jupiter is in Aries and Neptune in Pisces they are across signs but still only 6 degrees apart so this might pull away from the purely spiritual feel to a more practical grounded ‘warrior’ like mode of Mars, the ruler of Aries. Jupiter, having learned all the compassion needed while in Pisces, now wants to put all that learning and understanding into action with a fresh start in Aries.

Things to Look Forward to

Loro Park Dolphins

Abundant creative impulses and perception of the miraculous
Big visions and ideas and plans emerge into realisation
Spontaneous healing and ‘aha’ moments
Oracular, premonitory and/or lucid dreams
Moments of bliss with profound spiritual/religious feelings
Armchair and astral travel – imaginary journeys
Going on a Spiritual Pilgrimage to a sacred site
Insights from the numinous, the mystical inner world; 3rd eye activation
Memorable emotional highs and ‘peak’ experiences
Enhanced appreciation of the whole world
Increased psychic ability, telepathy, UFO contact, and time-line distortion
Gains on investments in ‘Water’ related companies
Deeper understanding of Tesla’s: Energy-Frequency-Vibration
April is great for astrological magic intentions: doing electional charts and creating talismans and amulets
Writing/Singing songs: Jupiter-Neptune conjunct asteroid Euterpe Muse of Music

Things to Be Aware of

Poseidon Statue Gran Canaria

Flooding and Leaks: physical, mental, informational
Sense of unreality and Wetiko –world confusion- ‘dream-like’ reality
Mental health issues and uncertainties increase
Boundaries real/unreal truth/lies blurred-mixed feelings
Disorientation and depression in search for salvation
Decay of major narratives- politics as ‘theatre show’-disillusionment
Stories being overblown then being popped like bubbles
Grand scale deceptions entrenched- new variants turns out to be fake
Comedown feeling- the Low that follows a High
The metaverse overload: entangled truth and lies
Sugar coated toxic poisons offered to the public as remedies
Repressive laws and ideologies being pushed even further to point of absurdity
Shifting belief sets and paradigms about what the world is
Loss and death wish: People exiting the planet en masse –as the conjunction is in the last Decan of Pisces.

4: Chart Example: William Bramwell Booth

William Bramwell Booth (1856-1929) lead the Salvation Army that his father had created in East London. His father had founded it and he continued ruling with an iron fist having absolute command of the direction of the ‘Army’. Other members had to wait for him to die before any power could be shared or devolved to a committee. The Salvation Army had a motto ‘Soup, Soap and Salvation’ but over the years has been the subject of numerous scandals so it could be more like ‘Soup, Sex and Scandal’. It was noted as questionable that a charity such as the Salvation Army pay no tax and yet run itself as strict las a business profiting from all its donations and exploiting its workers. Booth was authoritarian and kept most of the scandal covered up, so knowingly deceitful.

Could that have been because he had a triple conjunction of the Sun, Jupiter and Neptune in Pisces?

5: Chart Example: Mikhail Vrubel

Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910) is another fascinating case. He was born in Siberia and had a very transitional style. It shifts between worlds as his paintings blurred several boundaries. You cannot tell whether they are fully representational or abstract. They seem half way. They are both realistic and mystical-symbolic, literally by smudging the lines that outline any form making them blend into the contextual. He did all this at more or less the same time as Cezanne shifted representation of nature towards the underlying platonic forms, and geometric shapes. He was born in Siberia and spent a lot of his life juggling these shifting moods. He was bi-polar by modern labels suffered from depression, was alcoholic and utilised ‘oneiric states of consciousness’ to obtain his inspirations. But on the Jupiter-Neptune in Pisces themes, he said something revealing about how Pisces love indulging their victimhood. When asked about scars on Vrubel’s chest he said: “I cut myself … I loved a woman, she did not love me … I suffered, but when I cut myself, the suffering lessened.” Some said that his excessive use of gold paint lead to poisoning.

It is likely that his Jupiter-Neptune was in the 5th House of Leo as he also expressed his vision in stage and theatre designs. His wife was an opera singer. His work was the precursor to the Expressionists, Surrealists and even to Abstract art of the 20th century. He was in a way parallel to Cezanne who is credited as being the starting point for abstraction, but Vrubel more or less at the same time as Cezanne suggested that outward form is not fixed.

6: My War Gone By

Some astrologers have noted that there is a parallel to this conjunction as the Treaty of Paris was signed in March 30^th 1856. This brought to an end the Crimean War fought by the Ottoman Empire against Russia. The war had raged from 1853 and had ended before this Treaty was signed. It ceded the Crimean peninsula which is in modern day Ukraine and ceded Wallachia and Molodva from the rule of the Ottoman empire. So rather than be associated with war, this conjunction was the marker of the peace. But peace and war come into sharper contrast as when people realise what there is to lose, they begin to truly value all that they have much more intensely.

One of my favourite books is ‘My War Gone By: I Miss it So’ because it reveals the layers of attachment we have to life in all its funky entanglements. In Loyd’s case, it was from heroin addiction, to thrill-seeking in the wars in Bosnia and Chechnya, to intense feelings that appear to be the work of Pluto. There is a kind of perverse love of morbidity here that not everyone is happy to look at closely, but there it is. This book pulls back the layers on how the psyche can in circumstances close to death, become attached to that very love strife and anxiety. This attachment can become an obsession and that if you have lived in a war, you want it back when it ends. Without war, life feels empty, not to mention all the creeps busily exploiting it. Loyd exposes how he was living so intensely in a war that feeling of excitement itself became the fix where no heroin is needed. Not surprisingly, Loyd has a stellium of Pluto, the Sun, Uranus and Mercury all in Virgo, and as a Virgo was able to dissect these experiences as though he was in them but not of them. He was able to write very well about the most complex and peculiar form of attachment which is to discover that war can become like a drug- its opposite is peacetime which can be dull and boredom is a killer too, it just works more slowly.

7: The Immersion Experience

When Art Transforms — *Peter Breughel ‘The Hunters in the Snow’ (1556)*

A question of the moment is how do we know our experience of the world is real? A recent article explains the power of immersion in art, how we can look at a painting and find our attention plunged into the detail almost immediately so that we experience the art as if it were real. Then we are in a dilemma: we are in two places at the same time? It tells the story of Chinese artist Wu Daozi from the 7th Century Tang dynasty. Wu Daozi could paint so vividly that he disappeared into his own painting and never came out. Neptune has a habit of blurring boundaries and loves to merge with its subject and in Pisces it does that even more so, chipping away at all certainties until they vanish. But the problem is perhaps it is so subtle that we hardly notice it happening. Keep asking those questions when you feel you might be in a dream: Where is my head at? Is this what it claims to be? Or is it a simulacra? This is only a where is my head at? Is it a representation of the real, or are we in the real? Just like hypnotism, an ‘art’ trance takes us somewhere, just as when we read a book, watch a film, or watch TV.

Famously, propaganda works best on people who do not realise they are immersed in it. They think it is real so that is the trick; they then act as though what’s a lie is true like unscripted actors in a film. This too is like the Jupiter Neptune transit as it will plunge people in to deeper levels of immersion and entangle them further into whichever reality happens to have predominance in their minds.

Looking at art in this way could bring you expanded pleasure during this time as with this deeper understanding you could become more immersed but with a new attentive kind of receptivity. So going to exhibitions and gazing at paintings might be encouraged.

8: The Double Rainbow

Joseph Campbell said ‘The psychotic drowns in the same waters in which the mystic swims with delight ” and this is the paradox of such a conjunction- it highlights all the diverse expressions of the mind from highest to lowest. The maelstrom may seem like a vortex of energies that may take a lot of skill to operate the machinery of your mind. Watch out too for evidence of the zombie apocalypse. Jupiter is like the Big Yes to life and Neptune is like the Big No, or even a death wish and these two forces can be mingled in ways we do not expect causing impulses in different directions. That could affect mental health disorders. This is why somatic practices that focus on locating energy in the bodily cells and organs is so vitally important. The power of the collective anxiety is greater than ever at this time and that ‘Wetiko’ spirit can be chaotic and damaging as it does not care about us personally. So we do not want to be sucked into it.

There are so many other charts that could be mentioned where Jupiter-Neptune makes a mark. Percy Bysshe Shelly (1892-Leo) the iconoclastic poet was born with a triple conjunction of Jupiter-Mars-Neptune that allowed him to say things like ‘Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world’. Coming back to the religious distortion aspect of this pairing, and of William Bramwell Booth, running a religious cult there is Ron L. Hubbard (Pisces) who started Scientology. He may have started with good intentions but in the end he ran it with a ruthless almost psychopathic streak that did not mind co-opting lawyers to run smear campaigns to destroy reputations. But Scientology also built up many reputations – look at John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Juliette Lewis and Elizabeth Moss. There is both an empowering and a mind-bending quality from looking at these charts that have this signature.

However, Hubbard did not have it as a conjunction but he did have Jupiter and Neptune in grand water trine connecting to the Sun in Pisces. Another person who shines when mind-bending is mentioned is the writer who has given us many canny visions of future Philip K. Dick (Sagittarius). He received ‘downloads’ of Gnostic wisdom as if he was reliving a life from 2,000 years ago and gave us many of our most iconic science fiction scenarios. He had a trine of Jupiter, Neptune and the Sun/Mercury across Earth and Fire signs.

When we think what is the gift of music then we have to say that 1958 was a distinctly Jupiter-Neptune year. These two planets danced around in Scorpio and early Sagittarius the whole year. 1958 not only gave us great actors such as Gary Oldman (Aries) but also that some of the most influential and inspirational pop stars of all time. Prince (Gemini), Madonna (Leo), Kate Bush (Leo) and Michael Jackson (Virgo) all of them born with a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction or near enough.

And then again in 1971, when Jupiter and Neptune were in Sagittarius we got Sacha Baron Cohen ( Libra) who created satirical exaggeration of Borat, Ali G and Bruno and Tupak Shakur (Gemini) where the Jupiter-Neptune was one corner of an impressive rectangle formation destined to have a major impact.

Other notable personalities with a strong Jupiter-Neptune signature naturally include a few film directors and actors. Neptune in Leo is often a sign of film directors. Luchino Visconti (1907-Scorpio) and Federico Fellini (1920-Pisces) were both born with a Jupiter-Neptune conjunction. For Visconti Jupiter-Neptune was in a tight orb in Cancer and the lush style of film making where music plays a huge role as in Death in Venice, we get that peculiar feeling of Jupiter Neptune – a strange longing for death, transcendence, the desire to fuse with beauty with the most romantic music by Mahler. In his chart, it was also trine to Saturn and the Sun. For Fellini the conjunction was in Leo trine to Chiron so he brought a layer of weirdness to his work and a love of outcasts and the peripheral people in society. Lawrence Olivier (1911-Taurus ) also had Jupiter-Neptune exact in Cancer opposite Mars-Uranus in Capricorn so he martialed his expert skills to best effect on screen exuding a glamorous aura that is also innovative and competent.

Last Friday there was a rain storm combined with sunshine and the usual rainbow formed but this one was intensely clear and while a band of light looked almost concrete. Signs and synchronicities are happening already so the way I interpreted this is that I thought as the rainbow is Jupiter telling me there’s a pot of gold to be found, I just have to search. But then a second rainbow formed a few metres beyond the first. It was a double halo rainbow. Then it clicked, the second rainbow is Neptune aligning with Jupiter. They belong together one as an echo of the first, but the second was was hazier, much less visible, but still reminding me that it’s good to have hope of good fortune and for many it depends all on having a positive mindset But it’s also good to be aware that the gold might not be ‘real’ and that the best approach to this energy is to steer a course that is discerning the multiple levels of reality presented to us. But seeing a rainbow like seeing dolphins can lift your spirits and that’s what this conjunction is set to do.