Rise of New Age, Manes & Exaggerated Celebrities: Neptune in Sagittarius (January 1970 - November 1984)

When I grew up during the 1970s, young girls were obsessed with horses, wild manes were the hair styles for both men and women, and Hollywood celebrities received exaggerated salaries for appearing in television network shows. And from January 1970 until November 1984 (Jan to May 1970, November 7, 1970 to January 1984 and then June 1984 to November 1984), Neptune transited in Sagittarius.  From March 1974 to March 1975, Jupiter transited in Pisces giving us a double dose of Neptune fog, religious fervor, new age exploration and celebrities with big hair.

While I was shuffling around on YouTube last night I ran into an expose of the 1970s big hit sitcom, Three's Company which starred John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlMGfy7D8Qg and many of the Neptune in Sagittarius themes surfaced in this behind-the-scenes movie-of-the-week.  In 1977, when it was still controversial for unmarried women to shack up with unmarried men (hard to believe this was the case after the Summer of Love and Woodstock, but), television script writers and producers came up with the concept of two single women living with a heterosexual man who posed as a gay man to protect himself from eviction.  While this concept wouldn't cause us to bat an eyelash now, perhaps Americans were in the throws of Sagittarius religious fervor in the late 1970s.

Cast of Three's Company

So in this movie, we follow the rise and fall of a superstar-in-the-making, Suzanne Somers who received bad advice from her partner.  Not satisfied with her role in an ensemble cast, Somers set her sights on the stellar heights that another blonde with big horsy hair, Farrah Fawcett had achieved.  She gambled her reputation, her friendship with her co-actors, and her relationship with the director, producers, crew and television network so that she could earn an exaggerated salary of $5,000 per show episode (which the producers refused).  By 1984, Somers' gamble ruined her career as an actress and she was appearing in television ads sponsoring Thigh Master.  In 1984, Neptune rolled into Capricorn who constricts and contracts, not to mention brings hardship to those people who lacked integrity during Neptune's Sagittarius transit.

While Neptune in Sagittarius obviously affected the entire world for 14 years and doubly when Jupiter transited in Pisces in 1974, we would have expected to see exaggeration in comedy, religion, philosophy, the movie and music industries.  My focus for this post is on the United States and mainly the entertainment business which provided us with themes of space travel, new age spirituality (Shirley Maclaine wrote her book Out on a Limb dealing with reincarnation towards the end of the Neptune in Sagittarius transit), drug culture (Neptune), mental health, drama on and off stage, and the age of the superstar.  During this time, we also saw the emergence of the confessional-style talk shows beginning with Phil Donohue's show where celebrities would reveal their innermost secrets such as battling with depression, addiction or food disorders such as anorexia and bulimia (Karen Carpenter comes to mind).

Pop culture revolved around big dreams and gambling one's reputation to achieve those big dreams no matter who was stepped on in the process.  This was an era of disco fog, dancing queens, and unlikely movies such as Star Wars capturing the imagination of millions of viewers around the world.  This was also the era of horror movies (lingering from when Neptune was in Scorpio) such as Jaws, Carrie, and the Exorcist (which involved religion and the devil).  Connecting with aliens also captured our attention with the hit movies E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  The men portrayed in hit movies were the rugged adventurous type or self-effacing comedians (Woody Allen) and women portrayed possessed feminist attitudes, were often independent career women (Mary Tyler Moore) or sexy women with athletic bodies (Charlie's Angels).  Other television shows that fit the Neptune in Sagittarius themes were the sarcastic Cheers in which a group of losers hang out at a bar or the philosophical M*A*S*H which was just as much about race and foreign relations as it was a criticism on war.

On the spiritual side, people were searching for saviors to the point of joining cults such as the Moonies, the Hare Krishnas and they were just as likely to follow a television evangelist, not noticing that this Christ representative was fleecing them of their hard-earned money.  New Age practices emerged and created new celebrities in the form of channels, mediums, astrologers, and past life regression hypnotists.  People, mainly baby boomers searching for deeper spirituality traveled to India and other foreign destinations or became students of foreign gurus who founded spiritual centers in the United States and in Europe.  When Neptune was in Sagittarius people either opened their minds too far to the point of gullibility or they closed their minds clinging to old time religion.

Another popular past time or obsession during this time was dance and choreography. Hit movies such as Fame, The Chorus Line, The Turning Point (starring Shirley Maclaine) and Flash Dance centered on the world of dance and acting.  Young girls dreamed about auditioning for the New York City Ballet company or meeting Mikhail Baryshnikov and other ballet and modern dance superstars.  And this is when young girls weren't dreaming about becoming the next Nadia Comaneci in the world of gymnastics or obsessing about horses.

It's true I have singled out the planet Neptune and used it as a trend marker without considering the other major transits that took place during the 14 years Neptune transited in Sagittarius. Some astrologers will complain about this.  However, the point I'm trying to make and a point that was made in an astrology book I read on Neptune (years ago so I don't remember the title or author of the book) is that Neptune sets trends depending on what Zodiac sign it falls.  And it's actually entertaining to go back to the various Neptune transits and see what was happening in the world or in a single nation (like I have done).  Nations represented by Sagittarius would have figured prominently into the news during that era too.

I spent most of my formative years and my first two years of college when Neptune transited in Sagittarius and so this post acts as a nostalgic trip for me.  However, when Neptune rolled into Capricorn in 1984 we definitely felt the tightening of the belt financially speaking.  Now that Pluto is transiting over the same points that Neptune transited in from 1970-1984, we are again feeling economic stress.  I currently live across the street from the university I attended from 1982 to 1986 and I have noticed similar fashion trends and even music trends from when Neptune rolled into Capricorn.  I pinch myself sometimes when I feel that I'm 20 all over again and back in college.  You couldn't find a job in this town back then and you have a challenging time finding a job here now. I just hope that the Me Decade never returns since that was also the rise of gas guzzling cars, polluted air and wicked politics.  

Of course, now with Neptune in its own sign Pisces, we are seeing the legalization of drugs and new forms of inhaling nicotine.  We will also see the rise in addiction and mental illness caused by drugs, as well as, many celebrities succumbing to the glamorous haze of drug culture.  We will see saviors and martyrs, but we could also see us ditching all the above and finally ascending into Oneness.