Free Weekly Astrology Lesson: Mod Astrology

Mod or Trad?

Are you Mod or Trad? If you’re Mod, then you’re into Modern Astrology, Daddy-O, which began changing in 1930 when they found Pluto and was updated again in 1977 when Chiron was discovered. Since then, more rediscoveries in the old Roman/Latin family tree of original astrology have been added to your chart using all the latest software. Whenever the astronomers find them, we throw them in to see if they work.

I gave a lecture on Diana at The Astrological Lodge of London, once. She’s part of Mod Astrology. She was the goddess with the greyhound. After the lecture, half the group was stopped in its tracks, on the way to the pub, by a woman walking her greyhound. Synchronicities like that happen all the time when you work with non-planets or dwarf planets like Ceres and Pluto, these days. It’s almost as if Mod Astrology wants to be known.

If you’re deeply Trad, then you may only work with the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. That’s it. Hey, you won’t even count Uranus and he was found in 1781!

(Astrologers have Victor Olliver to thank for all this ‘Mod’ and ‘Trad’ terminology.)

These are just a few of the players in Mod Astrology. Maybe we can call it Modstrology. I’ve always loved The Who.

Modstrology is a function of the internet and software age. Trad and Mod both work. The rule is – if you cross-reference all astrological systems when making predictions about election outcomes (say) and they agree, then each of those systems, in their turn, is ‘correct’ just as all languages are ‘correct’ when read in context.

You filter reality when you choose a chart method. If you’re Trad, you’ll want Trad World. And, if you’re Mod you’ll want Mod World.

Chiron – Here Come The Mods!

The 1977 newcomer. Chiron in your personal birth chart describes where you get away with the impossible or unthinkable. It is where you prove to yourself, and others, that sometimes the mavericks are right. Sometimes the most outrageous idea is the right one.

You will sometimes see Chiron described as a wounded healer. He can occasionally turn up in medical charts if there is a maverick at large in medical research – or a so- called impossible outcome with a very, very alternative method of healing.

Chiron was found in 1977, the year the Sex Pistols had an anti-monarchy anthem called God Save the Queen in the number one position, as Her Majesty the Queen celebrated her Silver Jubilee. Outrageous! That’s Chiron. In 1977, they began plans to create the world’s first test-tube baby, Louise Brown, who would be born in 1978. Unacceptable! That’s also Chiron.

After enough time passes, we come to see that Chiron was meant to be, and even the so-called impossible or unthinkable has a place in the world.

The Hunt for Planet X – New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto by Govert Schilling tells the story of Chiron’s discovery. He was found in 1977 by Charles ‘Charlie’ Kowal. Charlie began using the new name, Chiron, two weeks after he had discovered it, before it had been officially approved by the IAU. He was not an established astronomer. He was an outsider.

In the early days, according to Schilling, Chiron was ‘a loner with little respect for conventions. It was an unauthorised intruder in the territory of the solar system.’ Kowal was inspired to call the new heavenly body Chiron, because ‘during his lonely nights on Palomar Mountain he had read The Centaur by John Updike. It was a recognisable story of a difficult father-son relationship on the East Coast of the USA, based on the myth about the centaur Chiron…’

Chiron in your chart is about the old, established, traditional way of operating, versus the new, confronting, audacious, outrageous way. It’s about the way the old generation thinks about life – versus the new generation.

I really like the work of the astrologer Maya White. She writes, “Most people who have heard of Chiron associate it with the words ‘wounded healer”’ but there is more to his tale. Chiron’s first keyword, as described by its discoverer, astronomer Charles Kowal, was ‘Maverick.’

Zane Stein, known as Mr. Chiron, works at Solar Fire, the company who create the software I use for my astrology. Solar Fire is well-known for going beyond the boundaries of conventional or traditional astrology, which is a very Chiron concept! Zane has an interesting angle on the key word ‘maverick’ for Chiron too. ‘This word came from Samuel A. Maverick, an American pioneer and rancher who did not brand his cattle, unlike all the other ranchers around him.’

Chiron in your horoscope is like a maverick teacher who shows you that the ‘impossible’ may not be impossible at all. When he transits, or travels through, your chart you are taught confronting but crucial lessons.

The writer C.J. Mackie tells us that in mythology, Chiron dwelt on Mount Pelion where he worked as a teacher. Achilles, Jason, Medeius and Actaeon were his students. Achilles was taught music, medicine, hunting, horsemanship and martial arts by Chiron, who was a multi-tasker. Healing was just one of his talents and it was confined to herbal or plant medicine. Chiron was also a music teacher. In the year they found him, 1977, punk rock broke and bands like The Buzzcocks taught the music industry that alternative labels were the future. That lesson still resonates decades later.

Charlie Kowal, the man who found Chiron, taught stargazers that you didn’t have to be a big-name astronomer to find a new heavenly body in the night skies. An old copy of Time Magazine from October 27th, 1975, tells us more about Charlie. Essentially, he was a research associate who had no Ph.D., had published no papers and had no academic achievements to his name. “I know nothing about astrophysics or electrodynamics,” Charles Kowal told Time magazine, “All I’m good at is using a telescope.” How very punk rock of him. Time Magazine quotes Charlie as saying, “I enjoy learning things, but a University is the last place in the world to learn anything.” This sums up Chiron perfectly. He rules that part of you which teaches yourself, and also teaches others, in the School of Life.

The astrologer Dennis Elwell once wrote that if you mention Chiron in an astrological gathering, the first thought of practically everybody in the audience is:

‘‘Ah yes, the wounded healer.”

Elwell wasn’t buying it. “The result is a very woolly perception of this fascinating influence, which has become a sort of wild card, able to mean almost anything you fancy.” Elwell, one of the greatest predictive astrologers of the 20th century, also preferred to see him as a maverick. Elwell wrote, “I always see a mischievous twinkle in Chiron’s eye. Left to himself, his style is roguish, provocative, teasing, impertinent, prodding, irreverent, sometimes outrageous…”

You can read more about Chiron, by the late, great Dennis Elwell, in his book The Cosmic Loom. Or in an excellent article online by him, in Pulsar: The Journal of the Scottish Astrological Association.

The best-known image of Chiron we have today comes from The Tate Gallery in London. It is an amazing piece of work called The Education of Achilles, by Barry (pictured above). The Tate Gallery tells us, ‘Chiron, a centaur who was renowned for his goodness and wisdom, was a teacher of a number of celebrated heroes. Here he instructs the youthful Achilles in the use of weapons, in the arts, symbolized by the lyre, and in mathematics, represented by the Euclidean diagram traced on the ground at the end of Achilles’ robe.’

Chiron is the maverick maths, military, music and medicine lecturer who fell out with his dad. What is he teaching you about the so-called impossible or unthinkable? And what are you teaching others?

Erminie Lantero, M.Div. Ph.D., knew a thing or two about Chiron. In the foreword to her book, The Continuing Discovery of Chiron, Zane Stein wrote: “In my research, one of the primary meanings that surfaced for Chiron was the word KEY, to open new doors to new worlds.”

I love this way of defining Chiron. He is like the maverick schoolteacher with the keys to the classroom jangling on his belt. The headmistress who also happens to like punk rock, who has the key to the music room.

Find your Chiron Return! When Chiron returns to the same sign and degree he occupied when you were born, you will be invited to open a massive door into a new world where you are not supposed to go, perhaps, or not ‘allowed’ to go. It will work. On your Chiron Return, watch for key synchronicities. I mean it. Keys may turn up in your life for the strangest reasons, yet they will symbolise the key to Chiron in your chart. Trust Chiron. If your chart agrees, he’ll make you very happy.

Pallas, Eris and Sedna

Astrology has become a dazed and confused business since the arrival of computers. On the plus side, you can now track a Food Truck on Twitter while you cast your horoscope and have an apple pie delivered.

We now have more potential horoscope symbols and systems to use, than at any other point in history.

In comes Eris, found in 2005, and originally known as Xena. Yes – Xena from the TV show. She is named after the Greek goddess of discord. In comes Sedna, found in 2003, part of the inner Oort Cloud. The inner what? These new arrivals have been thrown into the 20th century Roman/Latin line-up of symbols like playing cards into the Tarot. Like Bible verses into the I Ching.

I see people trying to use Pallas as well as Minerva. Pallas is Greek. Minerva is her later, evolved Roman version. Popping both Minerva and Pallas into your chart is like putting in Jupiter as well as an asteroid called Zeus. They’re both versions of the same archetype. If you want your astrology to hang together as it was intended, stick to the Roman/ Latin named heavenly bodies.

Much of the confused thinking about Pallas stems from the fact that she was included in pioneering programmer Neil F. Michelsen’s book, Tables of Planetary Phenomena.

Pallas was included in a section on Chiron, Ceres, Juno, Vesta and other new discoveries, so that astrologers could set about their research. Somehow, she ended up being thrown into an exclusively Roman/Latin system. Pallas evolved into Minerva in ancient civilisation. Mod astrology uses the Roman/ Latin ‘evolved’ version of the original Greek archetypes. Not both together.

I will have more on Minerva in next week’s free astrology lesson.

Divination Systems

Horoscopes work when you honour their inner logic. Horary has its own integrity. So does Vedic. They are all complete systems, within themselves.

Writing in her classic book Divination, Cherry Gilchrist comments, “An effective form of divination is like a small world, a microcosmos.” She continues, “The microcosm can be the world of Nature, a set of cards, a family of planets, or anything which has a unity.”

Modern astrology is about that unity. It comes to us from people in Roman togas, which is why we use Mercury not Hermes. Venus not Aphrodite. Jupiter not Zeus.

Mod astrology is like the real Mod. Italian style, shipped to Britain, like a Lambretta.

Your horoscope today shows a family tree of old Roman archetypes. They are all related. Venus and Mars were lovers. Saturn was Jupiter’s father. Neptune and Pluto were Jupiter’s brothers. Mod astrology extends the family tree branches. Vesta was Saturn’s daughter. Ceres was Pluto’s mother-in-law. Chiron was Saturn’s son. The small number of asteroids and other heavenly bodies in that Mod family tree are naturally connected.

I sometimes have questions from people on my website asking me what it means, if some astronomical symbol drawn from Eskimo history or possibly a member of Monty Python, transits their chart. I have absolutely no idea.

The Astrological Method

When astronomers find a new heavenly body and they name it after a Roman God or Goddess, related by birth or marriage to the originals like Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the rest – astrologers put it into their horoscopes to test it.

This is what they did with Uranus in the 18th century and then Neptune in the 19th century. Both these discoveries opened up the chart and gave astrologers new ideas to work with. New ways of predicting the future or defining personality.

Astrologers, dealing with new discoveries, look to the original Roman myth for meaning, then wait to see if striking events occur in the year in question, that mirror the myth and also mirror the circumstances around the planet’s discovery and naming. They’re looking for powerful connections. Convincing links.

It’s synchronicity, baby.

Uranus was always going to symbolise wild times because he was found in 1781, when America threw the British out and pulled down a statue of King George III, in protest. In myth, Uranus was the father whose children rebelled against him, also seeking independence. (Picture below  – The Mutilation of Uranus” Giorgio Vasari and Gherardi Christofano).

Years after found Uranus in Bath, a stargazer called John Varley speculated that when Uranus and Mars (heat) lined up, there would be ‘eruptions.’

At noon, his house caught fire. Varley didn’t fill a bucket with water. Instead, he sat down and took a lot of horoscope notes. His son Albert picks the story up. ‘He was so delighted at having discovered what the astrological significance of Uranus was, that he sat down while his house was burning, knowing though he did, that he was not insured for a penny, to write an account of his discovery.’ At this point, let me say that barking mad astrologers are very common in our profession and you should never let them house-sit.

John Varley was onto something, though – Uranus as a symbol of upset. When he was found in 1781, astrologers thought the sky stopped at Saturn. Uranus turned the world upside down and the whole profession had to change. Such upsets often liberate us, even if we don’t want to be set free. Perhaps Varley’s house fire liberated him from a home life he didn’t want. We can only speculate!

Uranus certainly liberated astrologers. It gave them a new way to cast a horoscope and it also changed the rules. When Neptune came along a century later, they were allowed to pop him into their charts…because he was Jupiter’s brother. He was in the Roman family tree. The synchronicity was powerful. Neptune was found and named in the same year that anesthetic was used publicly for the first time. What a gas! Ironically, Neptune is partly composed of methane.

In Roman mythology, Neptune ruled the sea. The ocean is associated with sea mist and fog. From these kinds of small beginnings, astrologers put the meaning of Neptune together. Knowing the rules, from the days when Uranus was being interpreted and researched, helped astrologers piece label and define Neptune, decades later.

As you might expect, the discovery of Uranus helped to reinvent astrology. His very existence made it necessary that stargazers come up with The Astrological Method. The internet has given astrologers an exciting new way to test a hypothesis about a new discovery, like Salacia (Neptune’s wife).

In 1961 – as with Pluto – they had to organise small meetings of astrologers to decide this stuff. Now we can have forum discussions online and test the meaning of a horoscope factor like Salacia with market research figures in the millions.

If a Trans-Neptunian object called Salacia, after Neptune’s wife, turns up in the year of the Asian Tsunami then that’s your first clue.

Astrology’s fans and followers decide the rest by voting with their feet. It either works for them or it doesn’t.

Private prediction is a good way to test new discoveries. If Salacia makes dramatic aspects, then are we about to see flooding or tidal waves again? What about your own life? Are you about to need an anchor?

Uranus and His Meaning

The early astrologer Raphael linked Uranus in the horoscope to a balloon crash. Uranus also began to be associated with eccentricity and the unexpected. One astrologer even decided that Uranus transits resulted in people storming out of rooms!

In any case, George Wilde in Chaldean Astrology upped the research in 1909, referencing Uranus as “outre – out of the common, odd, queer.”

Uranus itself is unusual. It spins on a tilted axis and looks as if it’s moving sideways. It was found by an unusual man – a musician whose sister helped him with the telescopes. The sister later became an astronomer, paid a salary by the king. She was single, like Bridget Jones. Her name was Caroline Herschel (right), and she was about 200 years ahead of her time, considering they were all reading Jane Austen up the road.

Caroline is a fantastic example of what Uranus is all about – the unconventional. The unusual. The independent. The discovery of the planet, alongside Caroline’s personality and lifestyle – and the old Roman myth about a new world – all came together to help astrologers figure out what the hell Uranus meant.

At the time, it makes big transits in the sky, Uranus is exciting, troublesome, shocking, and disruptive. History later tells, Uranian people and events were just way ahead of their time.

Example: Barack Obama decided to run for President, on a major Uranus transit.

Uranus is the planet that astronomers tell us, appears to revolve sideways. It was found in the year that the American Revolution, French Revolution and Industrial Revolution peaked or began in earnest. The word ‘rev’ is a good keyword for Uranus. The revolution always revs up when Uranus cycles hit your chart.

The British had a revolution on June 23rd, 2016 when they threw out the European Union in the referendum on independence. Everyone was shocked. Not me. Uranus was in exactly the same zodiac sign, at exactly the same degree, as Ceres. People wanted freedom. Read the comments on my website, dating from that time, if you want to see how explosive that astrological pattern was in people’s lives.

Pluto and The Astrological Method

It took years for astrologers to figure out what Uranus and Neptune meant. Only two years after Pluto had been discovered and named, though, Fritz Brunhubner published his thoughts in a magazine called Zenit-Zentralblatt.

About thirty years later, Bruno then gathered together with the German Astrological Association in Frankfurt in April 1961 and they decided Pluto was about life becoming mechanised and shallow. Not really. The Pluto myth doesn’t say that at all. However, the Germans then hit the nail on the head by talking about the growth in power of violent ideologies, dictatorships and the atomic bomb.

So, is Pluto a baddie? As with all astrological symbols, you have to put him in context. It is true that he was discovered in the year that Fascism was rising in Europe, and the path to Hiroshima was clear. Absolute power (nuclear power) over the world would be within reach within a short space of time as a result of the early research being done in 1930 when Pluto was found.

The mythology tells us, Pluto was the ruler of Hell (Hades) who took – and took over.

Experiencing Pluto transits in your chart can feel like this. Someone or something tries to dominate. The best way to deal with Pluto is to understand that the purpose of the cycles (which run for years, like series on HBO) is to show you that only self-control and willpower will empower you. There’s that power word again.

Since 1930, astrologers have been collectively gathering intelligence on Pluto and reached agreement on his core meaning. When Pluto was ‘killed’ in 2006 (actually, he was demoted) astronomers reminded us that Pluto always brings a deep change in the balance of power. He went from being Big Pluto to Little Pluto. He was dwarfed and reclassified. You could say much the same thing about Hitler, who was born with an exact Pluto-MC sextile, triggered by transiting Pluto (in a pattern that had not been seen for 240+ years) wanting world domination. He now has millions of teenagers giggling at him on YouTube.

All those German astrologers in serious discussion about what Pluto ‘meant’ in Frankfurt in 1961 had no way of knowing that this planet would one day be dwarfed by astronomers, just as he had been by Jupiter, his brother, in the original Roman myth.

Astrology evolves. Through synchronicity, we learn more about a planet – or a dwarf planet – and deepen our understanding of it in the chart.

Make sure your astrologer keeps up with the latest discoveries and discussion or you could be talking about the 1961 version of Pluto rather than the 21st century model.

Ceres in Your Chart

After Ceres was promoted from asteroid to dwarf planet by astronomers in 2006, I changed the way I worked with astrology. I have now been using the whole Roman family tree, including asteroids, for ten years. I think a chart looks naked without them.

Ceres was Pluto’s mother-in-law. Pluto, of course, is one of the standard old Roman/ Italian symbols we’ve been using in our charts since 1930. I began using her, because it seemed crazy to ignore her if I were to continue with Pluto in my charts after he was ‘killed’ by astronomers.

Here’s the synchronicity part. This is exactly what happened in the old Roman myth. Pluto had his power taken away when he lost control of his wife. Who gained from that? Ceres. He was downgraded, she was upgraded. This story happened 2000 years before astronomers changed the rules. It’s irrational. It’s astrology. It’s synchronicity. It works.

Ceres fits The Astrological Method, completing the small Roman/Latin family tree. She’s not from the Pacific Islands and she’s not from Greece. She’s not from the distant reaches of the North Pole and she’s not from Disneyland, either. She’s a relative!

Look for Pluto and Ceres in your chart. By sign and house, they show you where you are taught critical lessons about power and control. Try Salacia, too. Neptune’s wife. She’s new. Just don’t let your house burn down while you do it.

Ceres deserves a book of her own, really, but I have written extensively about her on my website if you are curious. People ask me if Ceres is as important as Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and the rest.

Absolutely. In fact, all these horoscope factors are equal. Asking if Minerva (for example) matters as much as Jupiter, because she is an asteroid, and he is a planet is like asking if one word in the dictionary matters more than any other.

Astrology is a language. We add to it over the years, just as the Oxford Dictionary adds new words. Any time astronomers discover something new, or even reclassify it, astrologers run to their books.

These welcome additions to the dictionary of astrology expand our knowledge, but just as language has its own integrity, so does any particular astrological system, like Mod.

Throwing dear old Pallas into your horoscope alongside Minerva (not to mention Eris, Sedna and the rest) is like inserting random French words into an American dictionary, for no apparent reason. Your head will be in the soup in no time.

Neptune and Salacia in Your Chart

Neptune is not Mod, unless you think a planet found in the 19th century is modern (I expect you still think tiny demons caused the plague and everything). His wife Salacia is very, very Mod. As I write this, she is only just sixteen years old.

Salacia in your horoscope reveal where you escape from the real world. Together, they show how you take a holiday from reality. They describe alternatives to what is ordinary in your world. We associate them with the beach and the ocean. Those are also alternative worlds, and just as we associate swimming or walking on the sand with a vacation, Neptune and Salacia show how you take a vacation from ‘normal.’

Salacia is a Trans-Neptunian object. She was found in the year of the Asian Tsunami in 2004. You have to be careful with Salacia. Unless you stick to the rules, you can end up feeling all at sea. Unless you protect yourself, and take precautions, you can be overwhelmed. It’s like drinking tropical cocktails without watching the legal limit.

In the year they found Salacia, Tim Berners-Lee won The Millennium Technology Prize for creating the Worldwide Web. The internet is a good example of Salacia. There are no boundaries. You can be hacked or watched. You don’t know who you’re dealing with, online, because so many people are anonymous. Salacia reminds us that when we use the internet, we have to know the rules. You can’t just dive in without preparation. The internet, like the ocean, can be a strange place.

People with strong Salacia patterns in their birth charts can become problem drinkers or drug addicts, especially if they also have Neptune patterns. They need a channel, like art, poetry, music, theatre, film or television. This allows them to inhabit a different world safely, without becoming dependent on vodka or cannabis.

Salacia and Neptune in your chart show you where you can escape into the surreal and even make money from your distorted sense of reality. When you dive under water and open your eyes, you see a distorted, bent, fuzzy version of what’s there. The fish-eye lens was used to distort photographs in the Sixties.

Example: Salvador Dali, the king of surrealism, was born on May 11^th, 1904 at 8:45 am in Figueres, Spain. Neptune 4 Cancer, Bacchus 4 Gemini, Venus 4 Taurus. Salacia 14 Libra, Minerva 13 Aries.

What is the difference between Neptune and Salacia? Neptune in art is the king of the ocean. His wife Salacia is queen of the ocean but also the shore – the beach. He is in charge of one other alternative reality, as different to the ordinary, normal world as the sea is to the city. She is in charge of two ‘other’ worlds, like the ocean and the seashore. Salacia is always shown draped in seaweed or accompanied by dolphins. She shows two parallel universes, side by side, rather than just one.

The Worldwide Web offer two unreal realities. One is YouTube. The other is websites. Whenever there are new inventions which distort reality for us, watch for Salacia and Neptune transits. This also applies to new party drugs.

If you have Salacia in Capricorn in the Tenth House you may have two jobs, neither of them ‘real world’ in the strict sense of the term. You may be a Hollywood extra, but also a surfing instructor.

Example: Kurt Cobain had this pattern. He was strongly Piscean and of course this sign is ruled by Neptune. Neptune’s wife Salacia just added to Kurt’s need to leave the real world. In a previous life as a music editor I spoke to him at length about how Nirvana might use a gigantic wheel on stage to hypnotise the audience (he was joking).

Neptune was found in the year they performed surgery with anesthetic for the first time in public. Like the cold ocean, he can numb you to the pain. Prescribed and illegal drugs do this too. Neptune is about being Comfortably Numb.

Salacia and Neptune are neither good nor bad, they just are. It’s up to you to manage them. Without these two, we would not have Disneyland, nor champagne, nor HBO.

People with a ton of exact patterns involving the King and Queen of the ocean, in their charts, have trouble dealing with the real world. Boundaries save them.

Boundaries which are commonly forgotten or ignored by Neptunian or Salacian types include times and dates. These people are always too early or late. They don’t know what day it is. They miss deadlines. Yet – they are the least boring people to sit next to on a plane.

Neptune and Salacia in your chart, by sign and house, show where you drift and cruise. They reveal where the randomness is, where the chaos unfolds. People who lead very structured, organised, rigid lives can be tempted by Neptunians and Salacians, who represent a holiday from reality.

Dylan Thomas was born on October 27^th, 1914 at 11.00pm in Swansea, Wales. Swans, sea and whales are encoded in the name of his hometown and country. You would expect to find Neptune and Salacia dominating his birth chart, because he was a drinker and a dreamer – and they certainly do. Dylan Thomas, that celebrated poet and waster (his wife Caitlin used to call it ‘pubbing’) was born with Neptune at 0 Leo, just one degree away from Hygiea at 29 Cancer. Read Caitlin’s biography of her husband, Life with Dylan Thomas, to see how the pattern showed in the choices they made about parenthood. People with Cancer/Leo stories in their charts steer their destinies by such choices, as both signs describe the world of children.

Salacia is at 3 Scorpio in the Dylan Thomas horoscope. The Sun is at 3 Scorpio, in exactly the same position. Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, Mr. Thomas! The pattern hooks up with Psyche at 4 Aquarius, The True North Node at 4 Pisces, The True South Node at 4 Virgo, Pluto at 2 Cancer and Saturn, also at 2 Cancer.

Sometimes all you have to do with a chart is look for Neptune and Salacia and the rest follows. If they lead a big pattern in your horoscope, it’s a big story. The person concerned (perhaps it’s you!) will have difficulty living in the real world. The Neptune cycles we all go through, tell us how people take a holiday from reality. They show how we all escape, for years at a time. At the moment, Neptune is in Pisces. He will be there until January 26th, 2026.

Neptune in Pisces describes the invisible surveillance that is taking place on the internet. Even the FBI are putting tape over the tiny cameras on their laptops. I am sure you read the headlines about Facebook! No need to be paranoid about the internet – but remember that Neptune is associated with the ocean, and everything that lies below the surface of the sea. Pisces itself is an ancient symbol for the fish who spend their lives, unseen and undetected.

In this cycle, all known boundaries (especially privacy) dissolve. That is an astrological fact of life. We associate Neptune with clouds, because clouds burst, and rain fills the ocean. Clouds feed the sea. The Cloud feeds the internet. If you park your personal messages, photographs and videos there, then be aware – the Neptune in Pisces cycle will be with us until 2026.

Salacia is with Neptune in 2016, also in Pisces. If you have a stellium in Pisces, you will be affected. Secrecy is a big part of you and your life. Look at how protected those secrets actually are. What slips, slides and sloshes around on the internet in 2016 will have far-reaching impact, for years to come. Later on, we may find that was the year privacy as we once knew it, disappeared forever.

When will all this stop? When Neptune goes out of Pisces. For now, we live in a world like a goldfish bowl, with no boundaries.

The internet is the ultimate alternative reality, but it has moved on from its original function (a gathering place for groups of friends, when Neptune was in Aquarius) to a strange, confused and confusing place, where nobody is who they seem, and all the old rules about introductions, etiquette, privacy and the rest have been washed away, like the action of the waves upon lines in the sand.

When Neptune goes into self-promoting Aries from 2027, we will present to each other as holograms or 3D talking heads. Please don’t call me. I’ll have my head in a paper bag.

Edited extract from 2020 Astrology: Your Five-Year Horoscope Guide by Jessica Adams.

All Images Courtesy of Unplash.com and Pinterest unless noted.