This is a rerun of a previous post Neptune is such a slippery influence it’s always tricky to pin down, so interesting to see how it worked out in action.
November 16 2015 post:
I’ve been pondering on ISIL and the chaos they are inflicting both in the Middle East where it has carved out an empire the size of the UK, and the more recent Russian plane and Paris atrocities. The rise of Al Quaeda through the 1990s culminating in 9/11 felt like a Pluto in Sagittarius phenomenon – rigidity of religious ideology. ISIL/Daesh seem to be of a different order, their barbarity criticised even by Al Quaeda hardliners.
What keeps niggling at me is Neptune in Pisces (2011 to 2025). The standard view is that it should be dreamy, poetic, spiritual. Yet Neptune has a cosmically chilling side which can be so detached from reality that empathy doesn’t exist. To give just two examples – Josef Mengele was a Sun Pisces trine Neptune in Cancer; John Gacy, serial rapist and killer of at least 33 young men and boys, was a New Moon in Virgo opposition Neptune.
Janet Daley in today’s Telegraph described ISIL as a ‘hysterical death cult’ with whom there is no reasoning. There can be a brutal logic where Pluto is concerned, but none with Neptune doubled up in its own sign.
Both Al Quaeda 11 Aug 1988 and ISIL 15 Oct 2006 have the North Node in Pisces and ISIL also has Uranus in Pisces. Both charts are violent and ruthless. Al Quaeda has Mars in Aries inconjunct Pluto and widely trine Sun, square Neptune, Venus and sextile Jupiter.
The ISIL chart is much better tied together with a warlike Saturn in Leo trine Pluto, sextile Sun Mars. With Saturn opposition Neptune square Jupiter Mercury in Scorpio. All that anger and hostility hijacking Pisces’ supposed religious leanings to cosmeticise their actions.
ISIL has no Earth signs; Al Quaeda only Neptune in Capricorn – and yet they inflict the most physical of damage, their weakest element out of control. ISIL also has its Sun square the delusional, megalomaniac Neptune/Pluto.
Looking back over previous Neptune in Pisces, keeping in mind that planets never act in isolation, there are always other astrological factors in play: Great dynasties were begun and in historical times they never came without bloodshed. Suleiman the Magnificent, the zenith of Ottoman Empire. The Ming Dynasty started in China; and Genghis Khan was crowned the Great Khan, in whose wake came the largest land empire in history.
The previous Neptune in Pisces from 1848 (along with a triple conjunction) oversaw the Taiping rebellion which ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, with estimates of war dead ranging from 20 to 70 million.
The Crimean War of Russia versus France, UK, Ottoman Empire which was described as having a “great confusion of purpose” and a war noted for its incompetent international butchery, including the Charge of the Light Brigade.
Other Neptune in Pisces, occurring roughly every 165 years, saw two great famines in France on separate occasions. One of largest naval battles in history in China. The Sack of Rome – end of Italian renaissance. Henry V111 breaks with Rome. First Muslim Empire in India. Third crusade under way. Richard 1 of England defeats Saladin. Christian Queen of Jerusalem tho’ also open to Muslims. And last but not least MacBeth succeeded to the Scottish Throne after King Duncan’s death.
Whether tr Uranus opposition the ISIL Sun Mars in 2016/17 will be enough to dislodge it is questionable. It’ll damage but not destroy it. It may have to wait for tr Pluto square the ISIL Sun Mars, 2018 to 2021, to halt it in its tracks.