It’s that time of year again. The civil calendar being used by most of the world is about to turn over into a new year. Almost by default, people will be gathering in what is intended (but does not always turn out) to be convivial celebration. At many of those gatherings, refreshments will include at least one form of alcohol.
Because the civil calendar does not consistently correlate with what are normally regarded to be the more substantial astrological events, the astrology of its turnover will vary from one year to the next. This time around, the threshold has some interesting features.
Perhaps foremost among the more fascinating astrological events corresponding with the last day of 2016 and the first day of 2017 is Mars moving to share the same degree of Pisces with Neptune. When two planets come together to share the same degree of the same sign, the pair of objects is said by astrologers to be in a conjunction.
All astrological aspects must necessarily be interpreted in context with what is going on in the rest of the sky. This year, that context will be complex, and (in at least some ways) unprecedented. Even so, every time two planets conjoin, three features stand out.
First and foremost, every conjunction is the beginning of a new cycle for the two planets involved. Think of the hour and minute “hands” of an analog clock coming together at midnight and you’ll get the basic idea. For Mars and Neptune, such a meeting tends to happen once approximately every two years. To have the roughly biennial merger of Mars with Neptune take place within hours (if not minutes) of the moment when one year yields to the next is an event that goes beyond rare to be plausibly remarkable.
The second thing to remember about every conjunction is that it represents the identities of its two constituents essentially melding together into an amalgam. For its part, Mars is relatively straightforward. Astrologer Robert Hand refers to Mars as “an energy planet.” In its most fundamentally consistent context, the Martian archetype functions as the “yang” complement to the “yin” of Venus. Think of the human personality trait known as “drive” and you will have a handle on how Mars most often expresses in and through your life.
Neptune is not so straightforward. First sighted by telescope in in 1846, Neptune has made only a bit more than one orbit of the Sun (and one circuit of the 12 zodiac signs) since it was discovered. Hence, as Eric might put it, the astrological interpretation of Neptune is still in the process of being proven. Even so, of all the sign-ruling planets, it would be fair to say that Neptune has the most consistently and specifically demonstrable correlation with alcoholic beverages — especially their downside.
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Finally, there is what one might call a blind spot when it comes to interpreting conjunctions.
Just as with the prototypical conjunction known as a New Moon (when the Sun and Moon come together in the same degree of the same sign to start their roughly monthly cycle over again), there are some inherently unseen ingredients. Hence, only over time will the full meaning of any given conjunction aspect be gradually developed and revealed.
Put it all together, and the astrology that correlates with with the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 strongly implies that the impending new year will be anything but boring for nearly everybody. When it comes to the specific conjunction of Mars with Neptune, the hours just before and just after the stroke of midnight tomorrow night will implicitly be a period when you should be very careful regarding the consumption of alcohol. If you were to pick only one new year’s eve out of your entire life to stay home and stay sober, this might be it.
Above all, and as always, it would be a very bad idea to drink and drive. If you choose to get inebriated tomorrow night, either leave your automobile safely parked or designate a sober operator to get you safely back home. All of us here at Planet Waves want to see you here again as 2017 begins to unfold.
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Happy New Year Len!
Planet Waves ebbs and flows, and keeping up when you guys/girls when y’all start flowing, and life is happening, it can take some discipline to keep up. Thanks for pointing out the synchronicity of the Mars/Neptune conjunction. Being a Neptunian (Neptune conjunct the IC/Nadir), and now the Jupiter transit conjuncting it; time is feeling metaphysically (doing tai chi, the yin/ yang to time-for example), is very appealing to me. Its how I move within myself. There’s an aggressive/aggression to our times, as Eric mentioned in the Astrology 2017 broadcast; packed with information. A World Age that is pasting but is fighting at its must Neptunian level.