The Neptune Generations, Part Two

Neptune governs our dreams and ideologies, and shows what we fantasize about and idolize.  Neptune also represents loss, need, and failure, and so its sign placement shows what people feel they lack and need at any given period in history. Neptune also manifests as confusion and deception, and so shows how mankind is likely to err at any given point in history.

Neptune in Leo, 1914-1928

During this period, the world went through WWI, which dismantled several monarchies in Europe and Asia. The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary completely collapsed, and monarchies in Germany and Russia became republics. The sign Leo rules kings and kingdoms, as well as leadership in general, and during this period, the world suffered a loss of leadership, with many kingdoms changing into electoral democracies. Leo also rules celebrity, and during this period, the world idolized its public celebrities as never before, including icons of the newly-minted film industry like Clara Bow and Rudolph Valentino, icons of aviation like Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh, and even icons of crime like Al Capone. The sign Leo also represents steady strength and fortitude, and the world suffered a great loss of those qualities when the Spanish Flu hit in 1918, killing even more people than the war had done. Neptune traditionally rules secrets and alcohol, while Leo rules kings, and when prohibition began in the US in 1920, alcohol made kings when bootlegging turned many small time crooks into underworld giants.     

 

Neptune in Virgo, 1928-1942

This period almost perfectly coincided with the Great Depression, and Neptune was in its detriment in Virgo.  During this period, people had simple, modest dreams and fantasies, just as Virgo is simple and modest. Thus, people’s idea of a dream life during this period revolved around the basics - having enough food to eat, having a job, and staying healthy. All of these, food, employment, and health, are archetypal Virgo issues.    

 

Neptune in Libra, 1942-1955

This period coincided with WWII and the Korean War, and during this period, all the masses wanted and dreamed about was ending war and achieving peace, which of course is the perennial Libra ideal.  However, Libra also rules societal divisions, oppositions, and confrontations, and during this period, the world was split in two after WWII by the Iron Curtain, Communism, the Red Scare, and McCarthyism. Libra also rules femininity and Neptune rules loss, and so during this period, the world’s women abandoned many of their traditional feminine qualities and social roles, taking on far more traditional masculine occupations than previously, starting to work outside the home in factories and even competing in major league sports.

 

Neptune in Scorpio, 1955- 1970

The dark and brooding sign of Scorpio rules social, economic, and political power, and when Neptune passed through Scorpio, the world’s masses suddenly became transfixed by the dark thought that they didn’t have enough power over their own lives, and that outside forces had too much control over them. And so people like Martin Luther King Jr. started sharing their dreams about acquiring more power for their own people. Thus this era saw several social movements appear that sought more power for groups who didn’t have enough, such as the Civil Rights movement, the Woman’s Liberation movement, and the Vietnam War Draft Protest movement.  Nations and governments also idolized the dream of gaining more power and control during this period as well, and pursued that dark vision as never before, building bomb shelters, H-bombs, and ICBMs to get an edge over their opposition.

Neptune in Sagittarius, 1970-1984

Sagittarius traditionally governs religion, law, long distance travel, and mass communication, and Neptune is exalted in Sagittarius, indicating that Neptune's passage through these years would yield more positive  consequences than it does in other signs. The world was transfixed by the televised Watergate hearings in 1973-1974, watching in disbelief as the law took down the most powerful man on earth for the first time in history. This period also brought the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the Iranian Hostage Crisis in 1979 and the first international Islamic terrorism in 1979. These events began an Islamic renaissance that went on to sweep through the Middle East in the years that followed, creating a religious dream for some, a religious nightmare to others. This period also brought the first space station, the first microcomputers, the first computer virus, the first mobile phones, the first compact discs, the Yom Kippur War (the largest Israeli-Islamic conflict in history), the 1973 Oil Embargo, the Concorde (the first supersonic transatlantic passenger airliner), the first space shuttle, the first Star Wars movies, the US military’s Star Wars missile defense plan, the first deep space probes, the first Internet, the first stealth aircraft, the globe-trotting Pope John Paul II, the unbelievable religious insanity of the Jonestown mass-murder-suicide tragedy in Guyana, the 1979 terrorist takeover of Mecca (the holiest place in Islam), Catholicism's dreamlike Medjugorje Marian Apparitions, the Alaskan oil pipeline, and the deregulation of US railroads.  

Neptune in Capricorn, 1984-1998

The sign Capricorn traditionally governs big business, multinational conglomerates, government, and authority structures, while Neptune brings weakness, loss, confusion, mystery, secrets, and disorder. Thus, when Neptune passed through Capricorn, the entire governmental structure of one of the greatest powers in the history of the planet - the Soviet Empire - peacefully collapsed under its own weight between 1989-1991. This left hundreds of millions of people in Russia and Eastern Europe in chaos without any operational governments in the early 1990's, allowing the secretive Russian mafia to rise up and fill the power vacuum.  While several nations in Western Europe united to form the European Union during this same period, the collapse of the Soviet Empire allowed the US to finally achieve its ultimate dream of being able to completely dominate international affairs, facilitating the rise of globalization and multinationals during this period. The Chernobyl Disaster occurred in the USSR in 1986, throwing the USSR into disarray, while US President Reagan underwent surgery in 1987 and President Bush became violently ill in 1992, putting US leadership into doubt on both occasions.  In 1990-91, a coalition of nations united together in the Gulf War, an international mission of mercy to defend oil-rich Kuwait from an attack by Iraq.  Afterwards, the very Neptunian mystery of Iraq’s missing WMDs dominated the international dialogue for over a decade.  The  occurrence of the oil-based Gulf War allowed the establishment of a continuous US military presence in the Middle East from that point on. The simultaneous fall of the USSR and the rise of the Gulf War conspired to create a pivotal turning point in global international relations, replacing the previous US-USSR Cold War conflict with the new US-Middle East clash as the world’s primary international issue.  International concern and confusion about Global Warming began during this period, and a new global governmental structure - the World Trade Organization - was created to help control and supervise the world's economy. And since Neptune always weakens everything it touches, two of the most idolized figures in world government were knocked off their pedestals during this period, Britain’s Princess Diana  by death and US President Clinton by impeachment.