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NEPTUNE in SCORPIO ROCKS THE WORLD
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Neptune, Mythological Lord of the Waters, is of course most at home in a WATER sign, such as Scorpio. The realm of Water provides no easily available oxygen to feed the Air sign brain, allowing us to get “out of our heads” (the name of an early Rolling Stones LP). The realm of WATER dissolves or overwhelms the familiar pragmatic utilitarian inclinations of Earth, hence the Rolling Stones’ “I know it’s only rock’n’roll, but I like it, like it, yes I do!” The realm of WATER excites Fire to steaminess, or concocts “Fire Water.” (Paul Rodgers of the band FREE: “Fire and Water must have made you their daughter….”) In and of itself, WATER is THE element of IMAGINATION, as WATER is the only element that reflects images back to us, whether with mirror-like clarity, or otherwise. We can also “imagine” visions in WATER, like the ancient art of “scrying”, looking into water. This is how the great seer Nostradamus “saw” the future.
Well it had been a long time, been a long time, been a long lonely, lonely time from 1915 to Christmas Eve of 1955, and the world had changed a lot. However, in all that time the world, like Delbert McClinton, hadn’t yet been rocked enough. In that very mean time between, technology had been used in the service of killing and decimating life, but not nearly as much in the interest of loving and celebrating life. All of that was about to change, beginning in the country that had first invented and first rationalized technological mass destruction.
Scorpio is the WATER sign associated with the genitals and sexuality. Scorpio is a FIXED sign, constant, repetitive, even obsesional. Mars, whose assertive expression is sexually oriented, rules Scorpio. Fixed signs connote POWER, and Scorpio’s power is basically libidinal, sexual longing that leads to intercourse, inevitable pregnancy (“The Blues had a baby and they called it Rock’n’Roll), and the continuation of the species, overcoming the threat of Death. The French expression for orgasm is “the little death.” To “rock and roll” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. Hence rock’n’roll music is music to make love to, or to be made love to by the music, like Elvis’ adoring female fans. Given the chance, they grabbed at his clothes and body, like wild Dionysian maenads.
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“And Now for Something Completely Different”
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Before 1956 in the USA, African Americans played the most overtly erotic music for African Americans, especially in the raw form expressed in the rural South. A minority of whites, mostly males, appreciated the music too, but not yet the “main- stream” Waters of the larger collective white majority. One such then-young man, Elvis Presley, would be the most influential helper for the music to “cross over” into the main stream, like the lock keeper of a musical canal, opening the floodgates.
December First, 1955, just three short weeks before Neptune splashed down into Scorpio, Elvis signed with RCA records, bringing him national radio attention starting in the following year. 1956 brought Elvis unprecedented, unsurpassed recording success, national TV appearances and a movie contract. On 12/31/1956, The Wall Street Journal said that Elvis’ gross income was $ 22 million (about $ 182 million 2012 dollars). This was only the start of his career, and Neptune wasn’t even one tenth of the way into Scorpio. Clearly there was “something of value” that many, many people longed for from Elvis’ “wet look” mystique, his music, and from his (and others’) Neptune in Scorpio message. “Elvis the Pelvis” physically embodied the Neptune in Scorpio sexuality that excited his fans and offended his detractors, but there was mysteriously something else, something ineffable, as well.
As profound as this musical change was, there was more involved in this changing era of Neptune in Scorpio. This music itself had a power to influence culture in a variety of ways. Black – White race relations improved in large part because whites (often despite themselves) fell in love with what formerly was inferior Black music (usually described in crude racist terms). African American Chuck Berry, with his “processed” Elvis-like hairdo, also helped the transition.
Although when Elvis was drafted into the Cold War army, his fans were sad to see his hair shorn and his glimmering suits replaced by G.I. drab uniforms. Young women wanted the return of the “Lover” not the heroics of a “fighter” warrior. Elvis’ “G.I. Blues” was the antithesis of heroic martial music. Neptune in Scorpio turned the world away from war, and the “MAD” (“mutually-assured destruction) of the constant threat of nuclear war between the U.S. and the USSR. Note that Neptune was in Scorpio during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
The entire philosophy (9th house) of what sex and life are all about was re-oriented, consciously or less so, for the fans of Rock’n’Roll. Although the phrase “Sex and drugs and rock’n’roll” may have emerged later, the message was there from the beginning, when alcohol (firewater) was the drug of choice. Caucasian rock’n’roller Jerry Lee Lewis sang to a white audience about the joy of “drinkin’ wine spoodie oodie”. Why is there a Ninth House dimension to Neptune in Scorpio? Whether we set the Neptune into Scorpio ingress chart for Elvis’ Mississippi, Chuck Berry’s Saint Louis, rock’n’roll cities like Memphis, New Orleans, or Cleveland, all are in the Central Time Zone, and all such charts have Neptune in Scorpio in the Ninth House.
This different life philosophy sees sexuality as a life attitude, not just for eighth house procreation. The music and its culture can be believed in as what makes life worthwhile. When rock’n’roll is involved, there is no need to ponder the bumper sticker question “What if the Hookey Pookey IS what it’s all about?” If “what matters” is rock’n’roll, it is a very different existential answer to Sartre’s depressing suicidal and otherwise violent existentialism of a different sort.
In any Neptune Ingress chart for 12/24/55 at 9:22:11 a.m. CST, there is a wealth of supplemental astrological information, unique to this particular visit of Neptune to Scorpio. Neptune is part of a Grand Cross, opposite to the Moon in the very last part of the Last Degree of Aries. The Moon, like the Sun takes up ¼ of a degree, so it “leans into” the first degree of Taurus. The Sabian Symbol for this image is “a clear mountain stream” where WATER ‘rolls’ over ‘rock’. Neptune Squares Promethean Rule Breaker in royal Leo, hence Elvis’ (shocking to some) title, the “King of Rock’n’Roll.” This Square also describes the steaminess and the intoxicating “firewater” dynamics of rock’n’roll.
(Although not part of the Grand Cross, Saturn is on “The King of the Fairies approaching his domain.) The Sabian Symbol for Uranus in Leo here is “an epidemic of mumps.” When The Beatles came to the States, it was described as “Beatlemania” --- as if a benign disease.
Neptune also squares Venus in Aquarius on the “New Mission” degree, which is conjunct Chiron in this Fixed AIR (Radio “Air Waves”) on the Sabian symbol “Healer” --- rock’n’roll can heal your soul. Rogan Taylor’s fascinating book, The DEATH and RESURECTION SHOW (from Shaman to Superstar) makes a strong verbal and pictorial case for the shaman-like role of certain famous rock’n’roll performers, including Jerry Lee Lewis and Jimi Hendrix (to name only two).
The SUN is conjunct Black Moon Lilith on the Sabian Symbol “The human soul, in its eagerness for new experiences, seeks embodiment.” These two are sextile, complimentary to, Neptune whose Sabian Symbol is “A sightseeing bus filled with tourists” like The Who’s “Magic Bus” or The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” as an underwater bus, or the Beach Boy’s “Woody” or other vehicle to take us to the Water.
And so Neptune in Scorpio and rock’n’roll rocked the world from late ’55 through all of the 1960’s. Reverberations rippled through time even after that. Neptune in Scorpio was an era that changed the world, in my opinion, largely for the better. Now that Neptune has found His way into another Water Sign, Pisces, Neptune can have, and bring us, another remarkable imaginative era of a different sort. That’s another story for another article.
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Copyright Chiron Soul Journey Truth 2012 / Web Design by KSL Design |
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