Neptune Enters Aquarius:
Galileo "Discovers" Neptune!
Part II
by Mark Lerner
[Note: Please see our March/April 1998 issue for Part I of this series and the all-important, true Neptune discovery chart of Sep. 23, 1846. Also – read letter on page 3 of the current edition about Neptune's discovery.]
Imagine how the life of Europe would have changed in the final days of 1612 if there had been a mass media backing up one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians of the age. That's because Galileo made an incredible astronomical observation on December 28, 1612, but didn't realize the awesome magnitude of his discovery. Here's the essence of the story. [We are indebted to Astronomy magazine's article on "Neptune's Discovery 150 Years Later" (Sep/Oct 1996 issue) for the pertinent information on Galileo's telescopic sightings.]
Telescopic lenses were the latest rage in the first decade of the 1600's – particularly in their design in Holland. In early 1610, Galileo (born Feb. 14, 1564) shocked the European world by announcing that he had seen and discovered four moons orbiting the planet Jupiter. And then a little less than 3 years later (Dec. 28, 1612), Galileo was observing Jupiter when he came across an object (seemingly in alignment with Jupiter), a celestial body that he noted was probably an 8th magnitude star. A month later – late January 1613 – he again observed Jupiter and found the same cosmic object. But he never followed up after that!
However, with our trusty modern ephemerides, we now know what Galileo saw through his early-model telescope in 1612. It was Neptune – which at the time was in a precise conjunction with Jupiter (26+ Virgo).
As a matter of fact, note this incredible scenario. On the day that Galileo saw Neptune for the first time – probably the first time anyone on Earth had seen Neptune via a telescope (ignoring for a moment an ancient Atlantean race on Earth in the distant past) – Neptune had stopped dead in its tracks. It had been going direct for many months and was pausing to turn retrograde. Thus, it was making a station – one of the most powerful placements for Neptune in any given year! And as just mentioned above, Jupiter and Neptune were conjunct at the same degree of the zodiac (26+ Virgo).
Later in January 1613, Jupiter stationed (turning from direct to retrograde) – also at 26+ Virgo. And later in January 1613, when Galileo found Jupiter and this other object (Neptune) together again, both bodies were still locked in unison at 26+ Virgo. Why is this so fascinating? Several reasons.
When Galileo was born, his Sun in early Pisces made an almost precise square to Neptune in Gemini. Not only did he find Neptune 233 years before the German astronomer Johann Galle (notice the last name's similarity to "Galileo"!) did so on Sep. 23, 1846, but then he failed to continue his observations. Talk about being fooled and misguided by the planet of dreams, visions, imaginings, confusion and strange mysteries. Perhaps his natal Sun-Neptune square, so close, blinded him to the amazing truth of his "discovery."
When Neptune was actually discovered for what it was – an outer planet in our own solar system – Mars was located at 26 Virgo (the very place in the zodiac where Galileo saw Neptune and Jupiter 233 years before).
Here’s another extraordinary tie-in. In December 1612 when Galileo found undiscovered Neptune by telescope, Uranus was located at 24 Gemini. Does that position ring a bell? Two complete Uranian cycles later (84 years X 2), Uranus itself would become the first outer planet discovered (March 13, 1781 by Sir William Herschel in Bath, England). Discovery placement? 24 Gemini. Right where Uranus was in December 1612 when Galileo "saw" Neptune conjunct Jupiter!
So – think about the ramifications of "what would have occurred" in the history of astronomy and astrology. Instead of Neptune being discovered in September 1846 (at 25+ Aquarius, conjunct Saturn exactly), the planet of spirituality, religious fervor and higher artistic genius would have been discovered 233 years earlier (at 26+ Virgo, conjunct Jupiter exactly). What a difference! Neptune's archetypes, images, principles and qualities would have been ushered into humanity's awareness via Jupiter – a far happier and more flowing bond than that of opposites Neptune (the immaterial) and Saturn (the material realm). [Remember – Jupiter and Neptune still share the rulership of Pisces.] That’s assuming Galileo and associates would have called the planet "Neptune" and not something like "Cosimo's Planet, in honor of Cosimo de'Medici II (Galileo's patron) – according to Astronomy magazine writers William Sheehan and Richard Baum.
However, had Neptune been discovered in 1612 – when Galileo became the first astronomer we know of to sight it – Uranus would still have been undetected. It's discovery would also have been hastened – probably pushing the finding of Uranus to the 1600s or early 1700s. And if it is true that the discovery of outer planets symbolizes the cultural-social-political-religious "times" at that moment, then the history of the world from 1612-1613 onward would have been vastly different.
Might the second and third decades of the 1600s have become a Neptunean romantic period, a time of artistic-musical revolutions, early communism-socialism movements in Europe, widening interest in spiritualism and magic-psychic phenomena? Perhaps someone would have uncovered the secrets of photography 200 years before they were actually revealed in the 1800s. And this could have meant the birth of movie film, video technology and television far earlier in history.
And if Uranus had been found decades earlier than 1781, who knows what kind of scientific breakthroughs and political revolutions would have happened – speeding humanity to what? Possibly an avoidance of two World Wars in this century, the horrors of Nazism and concentration camps, a greater control of atomic-nuclear energy. For what's also amazing is that Pluto in 1612 (when Galileo spied on Neptune) was at 3+ Taurus – the exact future discovery placement of the "wounded healer" comet-planet, Chiron (Nov. 1, 1977)!
The strange combinations here are mind-boggling. But in true Neptunean fashion, this is all a great "what if" because of one bizarre fact: Galileo – a man born under a frictional Sun-Neptune square – didn’t follow up on what would have been the discovery of his century: finding Neptune!
Next issue: Part III of Neptune in Aquarius – World Leaders show powerful links to Neptune’s discovery degree (26 Aquarius) and World War I – "the War to end all Wars" – begins on an extremely potent Neptune vibration. Intrigued about Galileo's "almost discovery" of Neptune at 26+ Virgo? Why not locate that zodiacal position in your chart and see if there's a magical, mysterious presence hovering about.
Copyright 1998 by Mark Lerner.
All rights reserved.
[Mark Lerner is the publisher of Welcome to Planet Earth magazine. He can be reached at PO Box 12007, Eugene OR 97440 or via e-mail at Markgobear@aol.com]
To top of page
