Neptune retrograde 2023 begins on June 30 at 27° Pisces and ends on December 6 at 24° Pisces.

Generally, Neptune retrograde is associated with stripping away the illusions, dreams, and false realities that have clouded your vision.

Neptune retrograde in Pisces 2023 is sextile Pluto. This aspect of mass consciousness and spiritual evolution is just starting again after a break of 30 years. It will hopefully give this younger generation a greater sense of belonging.

More detail about Neptune retrograde 2023 follows some general meaning on Neptune retrograde in transit. See this post for natal Neptune retrograde.

Neptune Retrograde Meaning

Neptune retrograde in transit is a regular cycle lasting 160 days yearly during opposition to the Sun. As with all outer planets, it causes less concern than the rarer inner planet retrogrades. Neptune is retrograde 40% of the time compared to Mars at 9% and Venus at only 7% of the time.

Transiting Neptune retrograde can internalize your fears and anxieties by stripping away the illusions, dreams, and false realities that have clouded your vision. The destruction of your fantasy world will show those harsh realities you previously sought to avoid. Maybe you have kidded yourself about true love, financial situation, or career prospects.

The further from the truth you have traveled, or the more extreme your methods of escape, the bigger the shock. The fact of your reality is often quite painful, as is often the case when addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, or porn has been your escape. It does not require intervention or withdrawal to recognize your self-deception either. This realization has always existed in your higher self, or pineal gland, as Neptune represents.

A new relationship or a critical event can trigger an old or past life memory of pain. Neptune rules self-sacrifice, victimization, false accusation, scandal, and slander. Neptune retrograde can show the source of the pain you sought to escape. You may feel humiliated, betrayed, scared, anxious, or guilty.

The internalizing influence of retrograde motion means you may spend more time worrying about yourself and your problems. Self-pity, social anxiety, or depression could lead to withdrawal and loneliness. Neptune retrograde is the ideal time for spiritual self-development. Self-help books or counseling may help, but other tools include meditation, Yoga, Tarot, astrology, swimming, and a healthy, toxin-free diet.

Phobias, hypochondria, and paranoia may become more noticeable during Neptune retrograde but also easier to discuss. The world may seem boring when conspiracy theories are debunked or Armageddon is postponed indefinitely. Sometimes, however, your suspicions may be based on realistic psychic impressions. In the case of health matters especially, it is worth seeking a second opinion in case of misdiagnosis or misinterpretation of results.

Neptune Retrograde 2023

Neptune stations retrograde on Friday, June 30, 2023, at 27°41′ Pisces. The only planetary aspect to Neptune is the sextile to Pluto. There are only some minor fixed stars around 27° Pisces, but Neptune does station direct within the orb of Alpha Pegasi, Markab.

Neptune sextile Pluto lasts for 87 years, from 1947 to 2034. But it occurs with a two-degree orb in two separate time frames, as shown below:

• 43 years from 1947 to 1990
• 12 years from 2022 to 2034

So we have had a break from this spiritual aspect for 32 years. The next exact aspect is in July 2026, so we are in a building-up phase. By making us turn inwards for spiritual meaning, Neptune retrograde 2023 will give us a deeper understanding of what Neptune sextile Pluto means and how it may manifest over the coming decade.

For those born between 1947 and 1990, Neptune retrograde in Pisces 2023 will reacquaint you with the shared sense of community spirit and connectedness, even if it is subconsciously. For the generation born from 1991 to 2021, Neptune retrograde 2023 will hopefully give you a greater sense of belonging and an understanding that we are all in the same boat.

Neptune sextile Pluto gives a pioneering spirit, making you unafraid to challenge the accepted way of thinking and doing things. It helps you deconstruct any aspect of life, a system, belief or procedure. You can then remove political, religious, cultural, and gender bias and reconstruct it in a more advanced and unadulterated state. 

Mass Consciousness

Neptune retrograde 2023 can help you tap into the mass consciousness and gauge the prevailing thoughts of humanity, of where we are heading in a collective or evolutionary sense. You may even take this shared sense of destiny to life, the planet, and all of existence.

Humanity is undergoing an evolutionary leap forced by powerful change. We all have a role to play in adapting to society to survive extreme change. A significant part of this role transforms everything from communication to spirituality, creativity to sexuality. The ultimate aim is to bring people closer, not in the physical but in the spiritual sense.

Your input to the mass consciousness transforms how we communicate and live with each other through political, religious, and cultural renewal. Old systems and beliefs based on empire and superiority are disintegrating. In their place, you are dreaming up, or imagineering, a more humanitarian approach and shared responsibility for the welfare of everyone and everything, the collective dream.

Neptune Retrograde 2023 Stars

The star map below shows Neptune retrograde within the Constellations of Pisces and Pegasus, but it also aligns with some stars in the constellation Cygnus, which is just above Pegasus.

• 23♓49 – Alpha Pegasi, Markab
• 24♓43 – Mu Pegasi, Sadalbari
• 24♓53 – Neptune Direct 2023
• 25♓14 – Omicron Pegasi, Sadalmatar
• 25♓30 – Theta Piscium
• 26♓02 – Eta Pegasi, Matar
• 26♓54 – Lambda Piscium
• 27♓30 – Pi² Cygni, Pennae Caudalis
• 27♓41 – Neptune Retrograde 2023
• 27♓58 – Iota Piscium
• 28♓35 – Pi¹ Cygni, Azelfafage
• 29♓42 – Beta Pegasi, Scheat

The Body of the Southern Fish

Iota, Lambda and Theta Piscium are in the body of the Southern Fish of Pisces Constellation. They are like Jupiter and Mercury: Religious mind, thoughtful, philosophical, and writer on religious or similar subjects. ^[1]

The Swan

Cygnus Constellation gives a contemplative, dreamy, cultured and adaptable nature. The affections are ill-regulated and unsteady; the talents develop late. There is some love of water and swimming and the arts. ^[1]

Cygnus was a dreaded constellation hostile to everything in the air. Its stars are like Venus and Mercury: Idealistic, psychic, handsome, neat, lovable, refined, genteel, and intelligent. ^[2]

• Pi¹ Cygni, named Azelfafage, comes either from the Arabic phrase al thīlf al faras, which means “the horse track,” or from al ʽazal al-dajājah, “the hen’s tail.”
• Pi² Cygni is named Pennae Caudalis, which means “tail fathers” in Latin, and Sama al Azrak, Arabic for “the blue sky.”

The Flying Horse

Pegasus Constellation gives ambition, vanity, intuition, enthusiasm, caprice, and bad judgment. Its bright stars are like Mars and Mercury: High enterprise, combative, and destructive. ^[1]

The constellation portends events concerning ships and the ocean and also changes in the weather. ^[2]

Pegasus, like birds, angels, and most celestial winged creatures, is an allegory for the superior spiritual power that the hero (Perseus) first sought out to aid him in his task. ^[3]

Fixed star Markab gives honor, riches, and fortune. But also danger from fevers, cuts, blows, stabs and fire, and a violent death.

With Neptune: Unbalanced or abnormal mind, many disappointments, emotional, romantic, distasteful environment, secret enemies, domestic disharmony, many accidents, violent death in early life. ^[1]

• The name Markab is derived from the Arabic word مركب Markab, “the saddle of the horse.”
• The names for Omicron Pegasi (Sadalmatar) and Eta Pegasi (Matar) are derived from the Arabic سعد المطر Al Saʽd al Maṭar, “lucky star of rain.”
• Mu Pegasi is named Sadalbari, which derives from Arabic: سعد بارع saʿd al-bāriʿ, the “auspicious star of the splendid one.”

Summary

Neptune retrograde 2023 should give insights into the positive influence of Neptune sextile Pluto and how that might manifest over the coming decade. The older generation has some understanding of this already. But an entire generation has missed out on the sense of belonging this natal aspect brings, a subconscious or superconscious link many share.

Through my children, I have come to believe that this younger generation feels scared, hopeless and angry about the future that previous generations have left them. I hope Neptune retrograde sextile Pluto helps them see they have a brighter future than they think. And that they are not alone, that we will all work together to find solutions to the existential crisis of climate change.

The smaller fixed stars triggered by Neptune retrograde are generally positive, especially the Jupiter-Mercury stars in Pisces and the Venus-Mercury stars in Cygnus. Even the Mars-Mercury stars in Pegasus have names that indicate good fortune.

There is hardship associated with climate change ahead, as indicated by Neptune passing over fixed star Scheat from 2024 to 2026. But Uranus sextile Neptune (2025 to 2027) and Uranus trine Pluto (2026 to 2028) will bring scientific and technical advances. These Uranus aspects will also quicken the individual spiritual evolution and our evolution as a species that Neptune sextile Pluto brings.

Neptune Retrograde Dates

• 2022, June 28 to December 3, 25°26′ to 22°38′ Pisces.
• 2023, June 30 to December 6, 27°41′ to 24°53′ Pisces.
• 2024, July 2 to December 7, 29°55′ to 27°07′ Pisces.

References

1. Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology, Vivian E. Robson, 1923, p.42, 56, 57, 174.
2. Fixed Stars and Judicial Astrology, George Noonan, 1990, p.29.
3. The Living Stars, Dr. Eric Morse, 1988, p.127.