The Dream Becomes A Weapon

Disillusionment isn’t just about losing faith in a thing.

It’s also about what you do when the illusion evaporates, and how that moment shapes your politics, purpose, and praxis. We see it everywhere these days: young men are disillusioned with the promises & expectations of patriarchy, mothers are disillusioned with motherhood, the laboring classes are increasingly disillusioned with the myth of “good hard work”, consumers are becoming disillusioned with the idols & influencers who profit from their attention, and large swaths of the voting public are disillusioned with the oligarchy masquerading as democracy—as it’s been practiced in the globalized West, anyway.

“The spiritual politics of disillusionment” is not just word salad. Disillusion is “a feeling of disappointment resulting from the discovery that something is not as good as one believed it to be.” It’s the moment you realize the myth you were surviving on is unsustainable. For many, the myths of capitalism, cisheteropatriarchy, & white supremacy have been eroding before their eyes in newly disturbing ways.

Disillusionment isn’t just personal; it’s structural & ideological, too.

Neptune understands this fact well, because Neptune has domain over trends, dreams, and illusions themselves—including the illusion of the never-ending power of the state—and disillusionment reveals where power hides itself: in dreams, identities, aesthetics, and moral performance. It’s not a surprise that under Neptune in Pisces, phrases like “spiritual bypassing” and “virtue signaling” and “quiet luxury” entered the zeitgeist. Bypassing harsh realities in favor of “good vibes only” serves power because it separates us from the felt realities of oppression. Signaling virtues sans any real action—or accusing others of doing so—serves power because it teaches us not to trust sincerity and to constantly question the motives of people who are taking inspired action. The trend of exhibiting wealth in “stealthy” ways serves power because it idolizes the uber-rich ruling class and positions extreme wealth as yet another impossible standard to strive for—a pipe dream.

Neptune rules over dreams, including collective dreams, and systems of power constantly scramble to rearrange society around the mythologies which serve them, effectively highjacking our dreams. When you’re disillusioned with power, those dreams can become a weapon.

Under Neptune in Aries, we don’t lose our personal & collective dreams. We forge them into tools—for better or for worse.

The last time Neptune was in Aries, dreams of freedom became propaganda as the emancipation of enslaved people in the US rolled over into a period of “reconstruction” and the creation of new systems of oppression for Black Americans. The spiritual longing for freedom fueled a literal & moral war, dividing a country in two. Labor was “liberated,” but then re-contained, as factory work became the new norm for the laboring class and the ruling class found inventive ways to exercise control over workers’ time and autonomy. The historical events of that time echoed collective spiritual ruptures & mass disillusionment with systems of power.

Neptune in Aries has returned, and already the patterns are re-emerging. Patriarchal illusions are experiencing an extinction burst—because when are you more alive than the moment right before you die?—and collective dreams of autonomy are being met with increased violence and genocide. If Neptune seeks to merge and Mars seeks to separate, what happens when our collective longing collides with our collective rage? Which illusions are being burned away? Which ones are already rising from the ashes, weaponized and reborn?

In my new lecture, The Weapon Becomes A Dream, I will take you through a historical-astrological exploration of the last time Neptune was in Aries and what we can learn from this transit as we move through uncharted territory, with Neptune, Uranus, and Pluto all having ingressed to new signs by the end of 2026. We’ll also discuss weaponized idealism in the Age of Air and how to maintain spiritual clarity as you navigate disillusionment—and the fresh illusions which emerge when another illusion dies.

We’ll be meeting Monday, May 12th, from 5 to 8 pm Pacific Time, and a recording + transcript will be sent out to all registered attendees 72 hours after the lecture. Sliding scale is $27-45 using the coupon tiers listed on my booking site. You can register here. Hope to see you there.