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Astrology, Neptune In Pisces, And Coronavirus, Part Two: Neptune And Pandemics

Last time, I introduced you to FibBash (CLICK HERE if you missed it). FibBash would have you believe that the Wuhan coronavirus is going to be a modern plague simply because Neptune is in Pisces. That’s balderdash, of course — not to mention displaying a fundamental lack of grasp of basic astrology.

But: suppose I’m wrong. Will a review of real, actual history that really, actually happened, undo my delusion? Let’s find out!

Although it is difficult to have exact casualty figures for any given epidemic, let’s have a look at history’s greatest outbreaks of disease and see where Neptune was at the time.

Asian flu pandemic, 1957
Estimated death toll: one to two million people.
Neptune in Scorpio, then retrograded into Libra.

Typhus, 1945
Estimated death toll: hard to determine but three million deaths in Russia alone.
Neptune in Libra.

Cocoltzli epidemic, 1576
Estimated death toll: unknown, but several million.
Neptune in Cancer.

Plague of Justinian, 541-542 AD
Estimated death toll: 25 million people.
Neptune in Pisces, but read on…

Antonine plague, 165-180 AD
Estimated death toll: 5 million
Neptune in Scorpio (165 AD) to Neptune in Sagittarius (180 AD)

The third plague pandemic, 1855 to 1875
Estimated death toll: just short of 10 million
Neptune in Pisces (1855) to Neptune in Taurus (1875) (peaked during Neptune in Aries)

The Black Death, 1334
Estimated death toll: about 25 million
Neptune in Capricorn

Spanish flu, 1918-1920
Estimated death toll: 20 to 50 million
Neptune in Leo

HIV- AIDS, first reported in 1981-present
Estimated death toll: 25 million deaths
Neptune in Sagittarius to Neptune in Pisces. But: since actual fatalities and the spread of HIV have decreased in recent years, should we actually give Neptune in Pisces credit for “curing” AIDS? No, because that would be dumb.

***

I won’t bore you with a long digression about Bayesian probability or using standard deviation to determine statistical significance. Instead, just show this blog entry to your mathematician friend and get his or her opinion. Here’s what your conversation will sound like:

YOU: Is there any particular statistical significance to Neptune being in Pisces and outbreaks of major pandemics?

YOUR MATHEMATICIAN BUDDY: (takes a few seconds to work things out on a calculator) Nope. None at all. Don’t you have anything better to worry about?

Finally, one more emission from the tortured keyboard of FibBash:

“Now for the second half of Neptune’s transit through Pisces, prepare for MASS HYSTERIA, which a global pandemic can certainly cause (yes, hysteria is also ruled by Neptune, page 65). For the majority of Neptune’s transit through Pisces so far, it has been acting very malevolently, which I’m sure everybody can agree with. There will be no end in sight until Neptune gets into Aries.”

(I think FibBash means “mass panic,” not “mass hysteria”)

From Dictionary.com:

“Mass hysteria

noun Psychology.
a condition affecting a group of persons, characterized by excitement or anxiety, irrational behavior or beliefs, or inexplicable symptoms of illness.”

But in case FibBash actually did mean “mass hysteria,” go ahead and look up all the cases of “mass hysteria” listed on the Wikipedia page dedicated to the subject. Even without an ephemeris, it’s pretty easy to see they’re pretty evenly distributed through history, and it seems pretty unlikely that Neptune in Pisces is a particular culprit — or that Neptune in Aries is a miracle cure for it either.

But you know one thing Neptune in Pisces really is good for? Spreading misinformation on the internet. Nice job of that, FibBash! Here’s your medal and your tinfoil hat.

***

Wait, you’re STILL worried that the Wuhan coronavirus is the beginning of something truly huge and terrible? Okay, tell you what: come back next time and I’ll accommodate your fears… and them take them (mostly) away again with more reasoning.