Uranus-Neptune and the Virtual World

More on the planets in the days to come, but there are several things I want to blog about first.

The Uranus-Neptune mutual reception is turning the virtual world inside out. The creation of new online worlds is a trend that will grow and morph in startling ways. These are more than just online games, although that is a big part of this phenomenon. The Uranus-Neptune mutual reception creates a longing for a Utopia and, since the everyday real world sorely lacks such perfection, the online world is becoming the closest thing some people have to a Utopian community. Of course, once one raises the idea of Utopia, the Platonic ideal immediately opens up for debate—the imperfections in MySpace are already glaringly apparent when we read about a 16-year old girl enticed to fly from Michigan to Jordan to “marry” a man she met on MySpace.

Habbo Hotel is a Uranus-Neptune Utopia created mainly for teenagers—50 million of them. Habbo Hotel allows members to create a fully customized online persona called a Habbo. Habbos can explore the hotel where they can hang out and make friends with other Habbos, play games, party and dance, or create and decorate their own room with furniture. They pay for stuff in the Habbo Hotel with credits bought with real world currency.

Kids’ Utopia Neopets, which also fits nicely with Uranus in Pisces (the Pisces-Virgo axis being a pet-loving polarity), claims to have 70 million members. Kids can create their own imaginary pets, choosing from over fifty possibilities such as Poogle or Gnorbu.

The ability to don multiple identities, create online personas, “avatars,” personalized icons, etc., is also a growing trend discussed in my new book, Cosmic Trends. This is part of a new fluidity of identity. The digital artwork of the online virtual world is often imaginative and creative, making a new world out of the old. If anyone has seen the movie Cars, there are scenes in that movie which show the desert or a neon-lit small town with a digital beauty more exquisite than real life.

The alternate reality of the online digital world is going to have a huge impact on culture and the world. When individuals can access this world anytime, anywhere—via cell phones and wireless mobile devices—it will be more difficult for some to separate the virtual and real worlds.