During an early scene in The Matrix, Neo, played by the beautiful wooden doll Keanu Reeves, receives a mysterious message on his computer: “Follow the white rabbit….Knock, knock….” Next, an actual rap at the door. Neo opens it to find a group of derelict cyber-punks. They are looking to buy some code/software for purposes that aren’t quite clear.

After the transaction, Neo, yet disturbed by the mysterious message, asks the scallywags: “you ever have that feeling, where you’re not sure if you’re awake or still dreaming?” The chief punk, Choi, responds: “All the time. It’s called mescaline.” Interesting, but he could have just as easily said: “It’s called this upcoming Jupiter-Neptune Conjunction in Pisces on April 12th.”

Like The Matrix’s blurring of the virtual and the real, the rendezvous of expansive Jupiter and illusory Neptune is going to have us walking through a kind of daydream until May 10th. In the upcoming month, expect more spiritual yearnings for something transcendent, particularly a week before and after this exact conjunction on April 12th. By the same token, prepare for the prospect of being duped, deluded, or hoodwinked while our heads are in the clouds.

Let’s take a big step back to contextualise this transit.

In 2011, Neptune, Planet of Dreams, Smoke and Mirrors, entered into no-boundaries Pisces, the sign it co-rules with Jupiter. Neptune is associated with art, magic, glamour, and sleight of hand. It lords over the Sea and its darker valences can manifest in addictive behaviour and deception. It’s a deeply mysterious planet – hazy, beyond our ken, slowly orbiting our cosmos (it takes 156 years to circle the Sun). Its soundtrack might be something like Kanye’s My Dark Twisted Fantasy, and its realm is that of the unconscious, the unseen, and the mis-perceived.

When a planet enters into its sign, as the Sea-God did in 2011, the qualities of said planet begin to bubble more in our lifeworld. Not to make some big correlative claim, but since the Spellcaster’s ingress, we have witnessed the rise of face-tuning, social media AR, bunny filters, metaverse utopianism, NFTs (um?), crypto, Q-Anon, fake news, deep fakes, and myriad other parlour tricks of “through-the-looking-glass” virtuality. These percolations are all very, very Neptune.

Now we add Jupiter, the great expander, into the Neptunian mists of the past decade, where all that’s solid has melted into air. Planet luck has been moving toward this big conjunction since late December of last year, when it floated into oceanic Pisces (the sign it also rules). Jupiter is a spiritual force in our cosmic drama. It stands for luck and opportunities, but also for knowledge and wisdom. In its negative valences, however, Jupiter can lead to excessive behaviour – too much drinking, too much eating, too much face-tuning.

Aside from being prone to excess, Jupiter also augments that which it comes into contact with. In other words, it can be excessive and lead other planets toward excess. Jupiter and Mars: lots of anger. Jupiter and Moon: lots of moodiness. With this in mind, Neptune (fantasy)+Jupiter (excess)=lots of delusion, particularly around romance (Venus is co-present with these planets from April 5th to May 3rd).

Despite its beneficial qualities, then, Jupiter could have the effect of intensifying Neptune’s magical irreality. Keep in mind, too, that watery Pisces is in the mix, meaning that we could find ourselves emotionally over-invested in apparent opportunities and romantic interludes during this time, believing them more positive and/or substantial than they are. While we may be feeling swept away by these oceanic Neptune/Pisces/Jupiter tides, the advice is this: try to stay moored to the safe harbours of healthy skepticism and practical reason. If something seems too good to be true out in the world or online over the course of this placement, it most likely is.

Due to the slow-moving nature of Neptune, the last time this conjunction occurred was in the 1850s. Many are getting over-hyped about this rare transit, seeing it as a once-in-a-lifetime wonderland of vague enchantments and enlightenments. But to overpraise it is to fall into the very head-over-heels Neptunian fantasies we should be wary of. Don’t get mystified. Instead get mystical. Ultimately, Jupiter is a worshipful, religious, and spiritual planet. At the same time, Pisces, like Neptune, can take us to otherworldly dimensions. Follow the white rabbit but do so to a spiritual place–yoga, reading, meditation, ashrams, quiet, soundbaths. Focus on augmenting the reality of your inner life, and save the bunny filters for another time.

Photo by Jose G. Ortega Castro on Unsplash