"Confusion is a word we have invented for an order which is not yet understood"

On Monday (22nd May) Neptune will be stationary, and will turn retrograde. What this means is that, as viewed from our vantage point on the Earth, Neptune will appear to stop moving forwards through the Zodiac, and will instead appear to move backwards.

Although Monday is the exact date that this happens, the effect is palpable for around 3 weeks before and 3 weeks after the exact date.

You might've noticed that, as we approached nearer and nearer to this exact date, confusion began to abound. Miscommunication, misperception, "I thought you said so-and-so?", "I thought we agreed to do such-and-such?", has been rife.

What happens during Neptune stations is that fantasy takes over from reality and chaos reigns. Instead of seeing things clearly, our projections become even more dominant than usual. This leads to our misperceiving ourselves, other people, and situations. Instead of seeing reality, we project onto reality as if it's a cinema screen, moreso than usual.

If you're an artist or visionary you may find this a heightened time for creativity and inspiration, but you need to be careful because what you envision could more easily sweep you away at this time.

For those of us dealing with facts and figures, dotting i's and crossing t's, even triple-checking won't suffice. Data is still likely to be found to be flawed or inadequate at a later date, simply because what you currently perceive as the full picture or the accurate details is likely to shortly turn out to be based on incomplete information. Chaos seeps in, hard data turns to mush, and watertight plans spring leaks. Don't resist these things: go with the flow of them.

After Neptune has turned retrograde we'll be collectively revisiting situations that we've been dealing with since November last year. Come 10th June 2006 and things will be much steadier, as by then we'll have adjusted to what's now required of us in this review process that lasts until the end of October 2006.

We can work with this process by not resisting confusion. Generally we're too obsessed with pinning down details and focusing tightly on deadlines that we forget to nurture our sense of the numinous, the ineffable, the intuited, and the subtle. We need to re-tune ourselves into flow - we simply can't push the river.

We need to tolerate ambiguity, and even welcome it. Through embracing ambiguity we discover nuances, hidden pearls of wisdom, new insights, and creative ideas. We need to be more comfortable with the 'right-hemisphere' functions of our brain: the capacity to think in pictures, think wholistically, and understand rhythms and patterns, rather than the logic-obsessed, rationality-worshipping, analysis-and-facts reductive 'left-brain'.

In terms of relationships, this is a time to develop real love and inner peace. Not soppy romantic love, and not fake niceness that passes for keeping the peace, but genuine heartfelt emotion, and deep tranquility amidst chaos and disharmony.

Neptune is about letting go and flowing with the currents of the river. Most of us fear this because we're convinced that controlling life and managing situations is the way to live, but that logic doesn't apply now. Life requires us to explore other, equally-valuable, approaches. Just as a surfer looks to catch the wave, rather than trying to control when the waves come, so too must we practise this Judo-like or Ju-Jitsu-like way of living our lives, flowing with events.

We need to focus on taking back our projections, seeing our fantasies more clearly, not mistaking them for reality, and simply be content with being less in touch with reality at the moment. Also, and most importantly, not arguing with other people about their different 'realities' - at the moment, the sense of differing realities is peaking, and while it's tempting to be angry and accuse people of misunderstanding you, it's better to try to put the external world on hold a little while, and deal with your projections and 'emotional baggage'.

To be confused is to fuse one thing with another: con means with or together, and fuse means to pour. On a negative level this results in bewilderment, chaos, pointing the finger of blame, and loss of contact with reality. But on a higher level to pour together is a wonderful Neptunian image - Neptune is associated with water and the oceans.

Physically we are made of over 70% water, our emotions ebb and flow, as does our energy, and in fact our entire selves are fluid, gradually shifting over time. When Neptune stops moving forwards things can go into a kind of meltdown, where we feel that we're drowning. The more we hold on, the worse we feel. It's time to let go, to pour out the old and allow the new to flood in. If we let go and surrender to the process, we'll float with natural buoyancy.

Here are some quotes about confusion, and a list of symptoms, all of which are Neptunian in nature and could be on the rise during this Neptune stationary period - around 10th June onwards they should be much more settled.

"Confusion now hath made his masterpiece!" ~ Shakespeare

"“Confusion heard his voice, and wild uproar Stood ruled, stood vast infinitude confined; Till at his second bidding darkness fled, Light shone, and order from disorder sprung." ~ John Milton

"Confusion may range from mild to severe. Symptoms of confusion may include:

* Jumbled or disorganized thought
* Unusual, bizarre, or aggressive behavior
* Difficulty solving problems
* Difficulty performing tasks that used to be simple for the person
* Inability to identify whereabouts or recognize family members or familiar objects
* Illusions
* Hallucinations
* Paranoia
* Disorientation"