Through the Looking Glass
On Sept. 17, 2024, we re-engage with an especially profound process: another rapid evolution of consciousness.
This eclipse cycle opener is a complicated one. It starts a process that won’t fully resolve until February 2027 and yet, it’s also accelerating an ending to a 16-year era.
An entire belief system is collapsing and a new one is being born. Watch my video on the Pisces Lunar Eclipse here.
This is both a culmination (as Full Moons always are) and an accelerated new beginning (it opens a new eclipse cycle). Every eclipse cycle brings pivotal moments to two areas life in nine and 18-year intervals. Each one builds on the last, like a spiral in time moving through the millennia, ever upwards.
The lunar eclipse on Sept. 17, 2024 echoes themes from 2006-2008 and 2015-2017, periods of radical shift in our collective paradigm. The introduction of the iPhone, the near-collapse of our financial system and the election of the first Black president characterized the 2006-2008 cycle. UFO revelations, #MeToo and Donald Trump as president were the highlights of the 2015-2017 cycle.
Draining the swamp
Expect shifts of equal — and even greater consequence — in the next three years.
I’m watching for signs that the collective is (finally) ready to drain the swamp of conspiracy theory and march boldly into new territory. Astrologically, this describes the year-long process, starting in late March 2025, of Saturn and Neptune leaving the murky, humid realm of Pisces and entering the purifying flames of Aries.
Tuesday’s lunar eclipse takes place at 25° Pisces aligned with nearly every outer planet, an omen of significant cultural change. It promises crucial personal shifts as well.
The Pisces eclipse comes on the heels of a lovely, Venus-Jupiter-type development, something that might be cause for celebration. It’s clear to us now that a tough chapter is coming to a close and spiritual renewal and emotional healing is palpable. But something weighty and meaningful is also present here, possibly a decision with long-term consequences.
We may finally getting our arms around whatever threatened to overwhelm us in August. We’re also clear on the consequences of too much self-sacrifice. There has to be a balance between our devotion to work and surrender to spirit.
We may be questioning our glimpse of our 'happily ever after.' Check any cynicism and choose optimism. Make space for the best-case scenario. Synchronicity is real and this Full Moon offers an out-of-the-blue chance to radically improve our lives.
A creative breakthrough or a serendipitous encounter could change everything. We’re getting a chance to level up.There’s something magical about this eclipse. It’s wish-fulfillment energy. We can sense our place in the All That Is. It renews faith while keeping us on task.
Everything’s a vibe now.
Since 2011, the Pisces place in our lives has been especially inebriated. Which is really saying something since Pisces energy is all about dissolving into the ethers, dissociating from the hard cold reality to reach exalted realms of consciousness through art, love, faith, drugs or madness.
It's where we're most attuned to ethereal realms and the most susceptible to delusion. Here, we’ve either been divinely inspired to embrace a higher octave of love or high on fantasy.
This journey through the looking glass began as Neptune began its ingress into Pisces from April 4, 2011 to Feb. 3, 2012. Culturally, this marked the Instagram-ification of our experiences and the rise of the “influencer,” a Neptunian archetype if there ever was one.
From that moment, every experience — no matter how mundane — had to satisfy our insatiable need for the fantasy version of itself. Suddenly everything was a “vibe.” Escape came more easily thanks to relaxed cannabis laws and an almost religious fervor for psychedelics. Neptune loves a good extra-dimensional trip.
The rise of nihilism
The funhouse mirror quality of this Neptune in Pisces transit was never more evident, though, than when Donald Trump, a “reality” TV star, ran what most people took to be an epic troll disguised as a presidential campaign — and won.
Three years later, the global pandemic — another Neptunian phenomenon — accelerated the dissolution of what threads of our past life still remained. Our entire concept of time disappeared overnight. Esoteric preoccupations became overwhelmingly mainstream.
Everyone was suddenly an astrologer. Conspiracy theories and psychotherapy became de riguer. Binge-watching TV was normalized as we all sought new ways to numb out, a Neptunian coping method.
Today, as Neptune in Pisces continues, our presidential campaign is still dominated by a destructive cult of personality (cult leaders are Neptune’s domain) but now there’s a glimmer of hope that democracy (a Neptunian concept) just might survive.
The end of the long con.
The beginning of the end of this madness was March 2023 when Saturn entered Pisces and plunged us into the ice cold reality of the Neptunian situation.
Trump’s Litigation Era opened then and the consequences of his long con began to emerge. We’re mid-way through this three-year reality check and there are more consequences to come. See my deep dive into Trump’s astrology on Substack.
When Democratic vice presidential candidate Chris Walz declared the Republicans “weird” he was channeling this Saturn in Pisces moment, calling out what we’ve all known to be true but were too grief-stricken, overwhelmed or numb acknowledge. As Saturn and Neptune complete transits through Pisces next year, we can expect more come-to-Jesus moments that ratchet up the weirdness so we’re forced to acknowledge reality.
Virgo-Pisces Eclipse Series
Sept. 17, 2024 - 25° Pisces 40’
March 14, 2025 - 23° Virgo 56’
September 7, 2025 - 15° Pisces 22’
September 21, 2025 - 29° Virgo 05’
March 3, 2026 - 12° Virgo 53’
August 28, 2026 - 4° Pisces 07’
February 20, 2027 - 2° Virgo 05’
Conspiracies are real.
On a cultural level, the next two and a half years will pull focus to the human suffering on a mass scale due to homelessness, poverty, drug addiction and war. Neptune in Pisces, amplified by this next series of Virgo-Pisces eclipses, is a signature of these crises. It also offers the solution.
Part of this process is sorting truth from lies, fantasy from reality. The last time we had a Virgo-Pisces series with Neptune in Pisces, a whole generation of collective “truths” were disproven and our concept of reality was shaken to its core. Long held conspiracy theories - the wobbly realm of both the sign of Pisces and the planet Neptune - proved to be a mind-blowing reality.
What’s reality anyway?
The #MeToo movement, the inauguration of Donald Trump, Brexit and the revelation that the American government had been hiding the UFO experiences of its own Navy, all took place during the 2015-2017 series.
Ideas that defied conventional wisdom, that tapped into deep, often unconscious, collective currents, were made mainstream. Consider the #MeToo movement and how the phrase “believe women” became a mantra, emphasizing Neptune’s rulership over both gaslighting and belief systems.
In the case of the housing bubble — a banking conspiracy, if you will — unconventional loans ended the so-called “American Dream” during the Pisces eclipse series from September 7, 2006 to February 21, 2008 and the beginning of Pluto in Capricorn.
The ongoing consequences of that long ago crash is that homelessness hit a record high last year in the U.S. Just last month, the Biden Administration announced more federally-funded housing is under construction now than any time in the last 50 years.
The Opioid Crisis + Neptune
The disastrous so-called ‘second-wave’ of the opioid crisis took off just as Neptune entered Pisces in April 2011. (Pharmaceuticals are the domain of Neptune.) This came years after the Sackler family deliberately deceived the entire American healthcare system about OxyContin, an opioid pain medication, leading to a rise in heroin, then Fentanyl.
Now 100 people die each day from opioid deaths in the U.S. The deceptive practice of selling painkillers that put people permanently to sleep (all of which are signatures of Neptune) ultimately resulted in the downturn of American life expectancy, reversing a 50-year trend.
Collective healing (a Piscean concept) has also been a signature of Neptune in Pisces plus a Virgo-Pisces eclipse.
Saturn and Neptune in Pisces
In April 2011, Neptune entered Pisces and inspired:
Increased collective empathy for animals, children, neurodivergence, gender noncomformity, the mentally ill and disenfranchised people
Widespread escapism through the opioid crisis, broad acceptance of cannabis and psychedelics, binge-watching TV
The blurring of boundaries between reality and illusion, fact and fiction, QAnon, “fake news,” the rise of influencers
In March 2023, Saturn entered Pisces helping us sober up and:
The government started cracking down on tech companies and the social media influence on children
Donald Trump was indicted in multiple cases, was convicted on 34 counts and awaits trial and sentencing on others
Consequences of Israel’s harsh treatment of Palestinians are finally being widely acknowledged
The real-life consequences of climate change are now incontrovertible.
We’re all one.
Neptune’s signature of dissolving boundaries coincided with the mass migration of a million refugees into Europe in 2015, the most since World War II.
Today, millions escape impoverished and war-ravaged places to hire drug cartels to lead them through the impenetrable jungles of Central America to reach the U.S. The Neptune in Pisces experience is one of dissolving boundaries, of perpetrators coming to the “rescue,” of the consequences of living on a prayer.
Meanwhile, the world is reckoning with the devastating aftermath of Israel’s unrelenting response to a Palestinian terror attack and America’s role in the carnage. For the first time, mass demonstrations around world are demanding U.S. institutions reckon with their passive role in Israel’s apartheid system.
The Saturn and Neptune in Pisces process can also inspire the healing power of collective action when we transcend nationality and act as one, when we wake up from our self-inflicted delusion and confront reality with real solutions.
The Paris Agreement on climate change, adopted in 2015, represented a global awakening to our interconnectedness with the planet. While Trump immediately withdrew from this agreement, Biden returned the U.S. back into it in 2021. We can only hope that this next round of Pisces eclipses with both Saturn and Neptune in Pisces will accelerate and further global cooperation to save the planet.
The Great Social Media Detox
The collective consequences of the iPhone and social media — both of which launched during the Pisces series of 2006-2008 — are now abundantly clear.
We’re more interconnected and more lonely than we’ve ever been. Our entire political process has been hijacked by this technology. And our children are suffering profound psychological injury due to their exposure.
The correction to these dire consequences has been underway since Saturn entered Pisces in March 2023.
Legislation is now underway in several states to ban social media to children under 14. A federal age limit has also been proposed in the U.S. and Australia. Several countries are attempting to ban TikTok due to misinformation.
The Biden Administration is pursuing anti-trust litigations against the major tech companies. Expect further corrections in the next 18 months.
Another silver lining.
Unlike the last series in 2015-2017, this Virgo-Pisces series could bring profound spiritual awakening and renewal.
The overwhelm and despair of 2015-2017 is due to be transformed into a grounded sense of unity and purpose.
The political upheavals of the Trump years, for example, might now inspire more conscious, inclusive forms of governance.
Personally, the pain or confusion of that era may now produce a wellspring of wisdom that we’re inspired to share.
So make a wish on this Full Moon on Sept. 17. And try to believe in the best case scenario.
