Since February of 1994, Neptune has been traveling through the sign of Capricorn.  Neptune and Capricorn are two radically different sets of energy: Neptune is otherworldly, romantically spiritual, and sensitive; Capricorn is hard, unforgiving, skeptical, and down to earth.

I have come to regard the position of Neptune in Capricorn as probably one of the most dangerous manifestations of the late 20^th and early 21^st Centuries.  I attribute Neptune in Capricorn to the leadership of the West dropping the ball, and the leadership of the East (the former Soviet and present Islamic world) being so subtly deceptive as to almost defy the imagination.

Capricorn denotes authority and the rule of law.  Neptune denotes illusion and delusion as a karmic force on the world stage.  (Yes, there are positive manifestations of Neptune energy, but they usually appear AFTER the negatives have their day.)

The West deludes itself with acquiring vast sums of money in the financial markets, and building paper (asset) castles in the sky, as it were.  The political/governmental leadership deludes itself by forging flimsy global alliances and congratulates itself at creating a new world order of enlightened secular humanism.

The West dis-empowers itself by re-channeling vast sums of money from military and defense (in an increasingly unstable and nuclear world) and directs those resources into a seeming infinitude of self-introspective and pathologically “wounded” political and social issues.

The East, on the other hand, DELUDES the West by playing the backward third-world bumpkin now entering the democratic social, political, and economic arena; all the while quietly and methodically continuing their military/nuclear buildup, testing programs, and modernizations; preparing for what can only be a third world war.

On 9-11 the West received a shock, but the tragic sacrifice of thousands of lives one morning sadly was not enough to permanently wake them up.  The DELUDED of the West continue to recite the mantra of economic recovery and boom times, and parade their scapegoats such as the Taliban and Osama bin Laden, and continue to bomb and kill thousands of innocent Bedouins in the hills of Afghanistan.

The DELUDERS of the East, quietly continue to buy tons of gold on the world market and form alliances with each other for mutual cooperation and defense.  Seemingly the East wait for the other shoe to drop on Wall Street, Japan, and other hotbeds of capitalist hubris; before they unleash their sleepers, terrorist plants, chemical warfare, ICBM’s, and tactical nuclear weapons.

Now the West possibly continues in this vein if only because of the collective guilt (Neptune) over the crassness of their materialism (Capricorn), and seek atonement and penance that only recession, depression, nuclear war, and totalitarianism can bring.  Yes, it is sick, but people only have themselves to blame for their misfortunes.

The process of Neptune is to bring disillusionment that spurs a questing for more eternal values.  I know that pain and truth has brought me to God and the sacrifice of my wounded co-dependencies for the strength of the intervening Christ.  Is the world at large, in a more roundabout and recalcitrant way, going through that same process?

Neptune is now only halfway through Capricorn and leaves the sign in 2008, we all have a ways to go before it is done.  I think, however, the time is ripe for more of the meek and humble light and power to come through in the minds and hearts of many and change the whole world equation.  I am in fact somewhat urgent in my belief of that.

The leaders of the West have a plan, the leaders of the East have another, and God Himself has a plan for Planet Earth.  God works through those who let Him into their life.

The title of this essay is “Where there is Life, there is Hope”.  I am determined to get to the hope.

Jesus Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, said that the meek shall inherit the Earth.  Proud people, lovable as they are; they are the salt of the earth, and they will find their inheritance as they realize the futility of worldly prizes and accept God’s direct dominion over their affairs.

The cosmic cavalry may be just round the corner as Jupiter finally comes into his own (and it has been a good wait) as he enters the sign of his exaltation, Cancer, in late June 2002 and moves into aspect to Neptune in Capricorn; and that will be what we cover next time.

End Part II.