Ann Kreilkamp ~ Mercury Conjuncts Neptune in Pisces: SO WHAT IS REAL?

Today’s post comes from friend, permaculture village pioneer and astrology mentor, Ann Kreilkamp. I’m sharing it because these themes have often surfaced during this week’s sessions and personal interactions. Combined with other planetary energies, this extra Neptune/Mercury influence can feel spacey and out of it … or it can lead you to expressing big dreams. Are they really so fanciful? Allow yourself some quiet time to journal, paint, and creatively express those dreams.

You might also find new perspectives on older intentions. Have some of your dreams already come true in ways you didn’t recognize before? Here’s Ann with much more:

Ann Kreilkamp ~ Mercury Conjuncts Neptune in Pisces: SO WHAT IS REAL?

On Monday last, when I was preparing a post on the then upcoming Spring Equinox plus Full Moon, I also looked at other configurations in the Equinox and Full Moon charts, paying attention to aspect patterns which were exact or within one degree of exactness. Thus, one of them, Neptune conjunct Mercury, escaped my view, since it was only within two degrees of exactness.

Nevertheless, as I realize now, that aspect was of tremendous importance for especially the next two weeks, since Mercury then at 18°59 Rx, stops, turns and goes forward during this time, all the while remaining within close orb of a conjunction to Neptune.

That I framed my inquiry to just include aspects within 1° of exactness is a good example of how our conceptual frames dictate just what realities we are going to find. We see what we are looking for! Which is why I always say that no map, no matter how precise or immensely framed can adequately cover (and therefore, predict and control) the territory we call “reality,” which itself is infinitely small and large, so that any single infinitesimal point, when focused upon, expands to become an infinite space. 

This way of talking is “Neptunian,” recognizing the inherent mystery that we call (even 3D!) “reality,” and that the religion of science (scientism) foolishly pretends to be able to comprehend. 

Meanwhile, back to the current Mercury/Neptune conjunction. This aspect will continue within 2° of exactness through April 6th. And, the day that it turns to go direct, March 28, it does so at 16°06 Pisces, exactly conjunct Neptune at 16°56 Pisces. In other words, the conjunction is moving closer and closer day by day until March 28, when it turns to equally gradually move out of exact conjunction.

So if you feel as if you’re immersed in the dreamtime, despite your best efforts to ignite springtime Aries action during these weeks, don’t be surprised. 

In the screenshot slice I took from the Equinox chart above, I included the Saturn/Pluto/South Node conjunct, since Saturn at 19°14 Capricorn closely sextiles Mercury/Neptune within 3 degrees. Saturn, the planet of discipline, form, focus, will help us to flip out of the dreamtime when necessary; however since both Saturn in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces are in their own signs, they are both very powerful; there is bound to be a tug-of-war, no matter how “harmonious,” between the intention to focus and the tendency to space out — and, with Mercury involved, to be able to talk about it, think about it, wonder about it .  .  . but perhaps in a somewhat garbled manner (Neptune)!

Which brings me to a selection from an A.K. Reader post on Neptune that, I’d say, pretty well describes what has happened to us since Neptune went into Pisces, a recognition that no matter what we think we know, we probably don’t know anything about what’s really going on, given the panorama of conflicting, agenda-ridden perspectives ratcheting up with fake news. 

I wrote that post in 2011, in preparation for Neptune’s entrance into Pisces in 2012. Neptune will remain in its own sign until 2026.

AK Reader: Neptune in Pisces: Reality and Illusion

Excerpt:

I have a sense that as we move more deeply into Neptune in Pisces, especially starting next year when Neptune slips imperceptibly and subtly into that ocean where it feels most at home for 14 long years, that we will become more and more rabid on this subject of needing to come down one way or another: “reality” or “illusion.”

We need to know! There’s got to be something solid to stand on in an ever-shifting world!

But what if there isn’t? And what if it doesn’t matter? What if energy crystallizes and dissolves into and out of form endlessly, creatively, spontaneously, with no breaks, no clear demarcations, and no end? What if even names become useless?

I predict that, by that end of those 14 years, we will have come to a radically new understanding of both reality and illusion.

After all, what is “reality v. illusion” but yet one more 3-D duality, and as such just another illusion that keeps this (so-called) reality afloat?

The entire debate reminds me of the final question during my infamous oral examination for the doctorate, back in 1973. The dear old professor who agreed to be my second reader after all the others had refused (the dissertation, titled “This Is Not A Book about Wittgenstein,” had become a political hot potato), asked: “Well then, since you think that there is a fine line between fiction and fact, give us an example.”

“Just yesterday,” I responded, “my six-year old son Colin said to me, ‘Mommy, which is more real, my dreams or yesterday?’”

That was it. I was dismissed after only 20 minutes of what was supposed to have been a two-hour exam.

My response embarrassed the professors. But which is more real? And what does real mean?