The Neptune-Pluto
Conjunction:
Continued from page 15
erates, such as Coca Cola and GE and
the booming industries of coal and oil to
serve the major developing economies
of railroads and automobiles. Neptune
rules gases and liquids in all forms, Pluto
is about digging, excavating and drilling
under the ground or under the sea - the
economic need for such resources during
the conjunction stretched so far that oil
became a major industry.
One man born of this era was Adolph
Hitler, who was born with the conjunc-
tion unaspected. Here Hitler’s influence
(along with others) saw the manipulation
of the masses, the toxic (Neptune) pen-
etration (Pluto) into the psyche of a col-
lective that resulted in the rise of Nazism.
Mussolini was born much earlier than the
Neptune-Pluto conjunction but did have
Saturn at 7° Gemini and his Moon at 9°
Gemini, both triggered by the conjunc-
tion which occurred at 7° and 8° degrees.
Neptune and Pluto could be said to rep-
resent fascism – Neptune wants to con-
nect, bring people together, and Pluto
is tyrannical – and here we see two men
who lead the way through much of the
early twentieth century in trying to cre-
ate an idealistic totalitarian unified state
and attempted to achieve this by erad-
icating what they thought was societal
decay – through mass murder. Neptune-
Pluto also reminds us of this historically
significant mass murder - which was pre-
dominately organised as death (Pluto) by
gas (Neptune).
A painting from this era depicts the
Neptune-Pluto conjunction well is by
Edvard Munch, and the original title in
German is Der Schrei der Natur (‘The
Scream of Nature’), now commonly
known as The Scream, which was com-
pleted in 1893. In 2012 it became the
most expensive painting ever to be sold
at auction.
Munch painted four versions of The
Scream and each was a variation of
the original. The painting is set in Oslo,
Norway, and is a depiction of human
terror. Neptune is associated with nature,
loss, fatigue and despair; Pluto with
death and horror. Both Neptune and
Pluto are associated with overwhelm-
ing dread and tragedy.
Munch’s inspiration
for the painting is
described in his diary,
which states;
Nice 22.01.1892, One
evening I was walking
along a path, the city was
on one side and the fjord
below. I felt tired and
ill. I stopped and looked
out over the fjord—the
sun was setting, and the
clouds turning blood
red. I sensed a scream
passing through nature;
it seemed to me that I
heard the scream. I paint-
ed this picture, painted
the clouds as actual
blood. The color shrieked.
This became The Scream.
Peter Aspden recently
wrote in the Financial
Times that the painting;
‘…is one of the most
disturbing images to
come out of the history
of modern art. It depicts
a moment of psychic [Neptune] calam-
ity [Pluto], of shattered nerves [Gemini].
Munch intended, when he first created the
image in 1893, to record “the modern life of
the soul”; and what a fraught, anxiety-rid-
den vision it was’ .
The Neptune-Pluto characteristics will
give us the flavour of what is to follow,
what will be marked in history. However,
we often forget ‘how’ the cycle will
unfold. What will dominate from this
cycle, what will be permeated into the
collective, and in hindsight what might
this particular era be known for? The
actual sign in which the conjunction
occurs can answer these questions. The
Neptune-Pluto conjunction in 1891 and
1892 occurred in the sign of Gemini. In
the relatively short space of time, even
before the first square between these
planets has occurred (the first will occur
2061-65 between Gemini and Pisces) we
have witnessed or lived through unprec-
edented major historical developments
in all things Gemini. Note that The
Scream is a representation of something
that is communicated (or not) – which is
not often or easily depicted in a painting.
In 1895, when Neptune and Pluto were
only 3° separated from conjunction, H. G.
Wells released the science fiction novel
The Time Machine, inviting the reader
to think about mobility (Gemini) and
where space and time can shift around
(Neptune). This piece of literature was
made into two movies and inspired sci-
ence fiction programmes such as Dr Who
(a very Neptune-Pluto in Gemini name).
Another interesting piece of literature
to come from this period is The Picture
of Dorian Gray, written by Oscar Wilde
in 1891. This is a story of a man trying to
maintain his youth (Gemini) by trading
(Gemini) his soul (Neptune) to the devil
(Pluto). Here the duality of the personali-
ty is highlighted by a young Dorian who
is curious (Gemini), commits horrific acts
(Pluto), and has a hidden self locked in a
painting in the attic (Neptune-Pluto). He
finally learns that his only redemption
(Neptune) is to kill the ugly part of him-
self, the aged and the scarred self (Pluto),
only to find that the dual sides of himself
Continued on page 17
The
Career
Astrologer
OPA’s Newsletter for Professional Astrology
V23 -03 2014
FALL
page
16