Neptune is a social planet and its utopian idealism extends to all sections of the community. It wants everyone to share in a best of all possible worlds. This yearning for a world where everyone benefits equally gave birth to the political philosophy called socialism.
In 2024 you live in a complex political environment. The socialist left believes there is no need for the inequalities that exist in society and that most of these inequalities derive from the international economic and political system called capitalism (Jupiter). Liberal capitalism concentrates wealth, land, property, factories and machinery in the hands of the minority and the majority work for wages and have little or no property.
The ferocious commercial capitalism that drives the world creates severe social problems in terms of wealth inequality and poverty and Neptune’s socialist philosophy argues that if this system can be changed, so that every individual has a fair and equal chance, then many social problems would be solved or greatly lessened. But in actual practice both socialism and capitalism give people little control over their own lives.
The seeds of socialism were planted between 1825 and 1850 by Robert Owen, the trade unions and czarism – an alliance of owners and workers – and Neptune’s discovery in September 1846 released a tidal wave of utopian sentiment.
The most important socialist thoughts came from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in Germany. Within two years of Neptune’s discovery Marx had published Capital and The Communist Manifesto (January 1848). By May of that year Europe was in flames and a worker’s revolution soon swept across France, Germany, Hungary, Austria and Italy.
Flying
Neptune has flights of fancy and human actors seeing birds fly wondered why can’t I. Unmanned balloon flights got the show started and then on December 17, 1903 the first successful heavier-than-air machine flight took place. Aviation was really born this day on the sand dunes of Kitty Hawk NC, when Orville Wright crawled in between the wings of the biplane he and his brother, Wilbur, had built, opened the throttle of their homemade 8-hp engine and took to the skies. He covered 120 feet in 12 seconds. Later that day Wilbur stayed up for 59 seconds and covered 852 feet.
The stresses and demands of World War 1 accelerated scientific progress and in the 1920s and 1930s pilots like Charles Lindburgh, Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post became immortalized as their aviation feats dazzled a world running on excitement and sensation.
World War 2 further accelerated the human dream of flying and on July 21, 1969 Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin landed on the Moon.
Now in 2024 Neptune’s planes make people’s dreams come true and some visionaries have their eyes set on flying to Mars and establishing a colony on the Moon.
Photography
In 1826 – 20 years before Neptune was discovered – Nicéphore Niépce took the first surviving permanent photograph; and in 1839 Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre invented the first photographic process, the daguerreotype.
Image caption photography had arrived and with Neptune’s discovery in 1846 visionary inventors paved the way for humanity’s love affair with taking photos.
In 1900 Eastman Kodak introduced the Brownie camera and people became snapshooters taking photographs of their family and friends
By the 1930s, photography had become the medium of choice for most print advertising, and a new generation of photographers applied a modernist sensibility to their commercial work.
In 1935 Eastman Kodak introduced Kodachrome, the first color transparency film; and in 1947 Edwin Land introduced the first instant camera, the Polaroid Land Camera Model 95, which produced prints in approximately 60 seconds.
Intrusive photojournalism had existed since the nineteenth century, but the invention of quicker and more portable cameras facilitated the process of capturing unauthorized celebrity photographs and publishing them in illustrated newspapers.
Paparazzi are freelance photographers who specialize in capturing candid photos of celebrities for media outlets and by 2000 the paparazzi business was booming. They could make between $5,000 and $15,000 for a candid photo of a celebrity pumping gas, getting coffee, or doing other mundane errands.
Then in 2000 the camera phone was introduced and with smart phones and social media people could post photos of themselves online doing this, that and the other.
In 2014 artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques were developed that could manipulate or generate realistic-looking pictures that aren’t real and in 2017 the first images called deep-fakes appeared. The ‘deep’ refers to the neural networks built up in many layers (deep learning) that help generate the images.
In 2024 Neptune’s photos have become digital files that can be shared online deliberately or through malicious means such as hacking. Deepfake pornography – where someone’s likeness is imposed into sexually explicit images with artificial intelligence – is alarmingly common; and governments are playing catch-up establishing regulations to protect the public.
Myths
Neptune is a myth maker and in the age of science many people prefer Neptune’s myths to cold hard scientific facts. Neptune doesn’t need scientifically researched data: it goes by its psychic impressions. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong but they’re a lot more entertaining than the clinical, emotionless information served up by Mercurial scientists.
A mechanical life motivated by dead chemicals is just too much for Neptune. It knows there are more mysteries waiting to be solved than scientific man has ever dreamed of.
A myth is usually a traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon and Neptune’s myths are real, larger than life, sometimes hated, most often adored and fascinatingly mysterious.
The myth of Atlantis, the secret mysteries of Stonehenge and the intrigue of the Loch Ness Monster, Dracula, Frankenstein, werewolves, new-age ghosts, zombies and friendly aliens are more fascinating than DNA and life on Mars.
Neptune’s hall of fame is jam packed with fabulous myths and people who had the courage to chase their dreams.
Magic
Neptune believes in psychic powers and magic and it doesn’t need scientific facts to prove if something is true or false.
It just goes by its psychic impressions. It uses extrasensory perception to learn things without the physical senses. It doesn’t need eyes and ears: it’s got clairvoyance and clairaudience. And Neptune believes in magic too.
According to Paracelsus: ‘Magic is the power to experience and fathom things which are inaccessible to human reason. For magic is a great secret wisdom, just as reason is a great public folly.’
And Eliphas Levi claimed: ‘Magic is the traditional science of nature which has been transmitted to us from the magi. By means of this science the adept becomes invested with a species of relative omnipotence and can operate superhumanly: that is, after a manner which transcends the normal possibility of man.’
There’s a big difference between real magic and illusion. T. H. Burgoyne was a true magician and a great seer. His magical skills pierced the illusions of matter and he was the first to place the Brotherhood of Light teachings before the world.
Neptune reckons that fake magician should be rightly called illusionists.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
