An Encounter with Spirits During the Recent Mars-Neptune Square
An Encounter with Spirits During the Recent Mars-Neptune Square
An Encounter with Spirits During the Recent Mars-Neptune Square
Astrologer Maureen Richmond, Ph.D.
The Recent Square
On September 2, 2024, Mars and Neptune reached an exact 90 degree separation in the zodiac. With Mars at 29 degrees of Gemini and Neptune at 29 degrees of Pisces, the two planets formed a configuration which emphasized both of their natures as well as that of the mutable signs in which they were astrologically placed. Mars connotes direct, outgoing effort and vigorous pursuit of objectives. By contrast, Neptune connotes fluidic atmospheres, the intangible, the ethereal, the indistinct, the spiritual, and the amorphous. The mutable signs connote restless movement, instability, change, and effervescence. All these characteristics would combine into a complex mixture and come into play at the time of the Mars-Neptune square in the life of paranormal investigator, Mark Wentz.
The Natal Astrology of A Paranormal Investigator
Born on July 10, 1954, at 4 am in Leavenworth, Kansas, USA, paranormal investigator Mark Wentz is a Cancerian with the Moon in Scorpio and Cancer rising. Water signs Cancer and Scorpio are legendary for their propensity toward psychic sensitivity. Both Cancer and Scorpio confer the capacity to make a deep emotional and psychic connection with the surrounding environment. As the archetype of conception and growth, the sign of Cancer confers a link with the subjective self and the history of the soul. As the archetype of death and resurrection, Scorpio is uniquely qualified to endow the ability to converse with the spirits of the dead. Cancer and Scorpio working together have the power to connect the consciousness with the life indwelling any form and the progress of that life when it leaves that form at death or transition.
As the chart below indicates, Wentz has a stellium in Cancer. Mercury, Jupiter, the lunar south node, the Sun, and Uranus are all positioned in the sign of the Crab. This grouping includes a relatively tight Sun-Uranus conjunction, with the Sun at 18 degrees and Uranus at 23 degrees of Cancer.
The Sun-Uranus conjunction is a sure indicator of a disposition inclining toward interest in the unusual, the atypical, and the anomalistic. It confers the independence of thought necessary to escape the control of limiting perspectives, reject the dominant paradigm, and to challenge the assumptions of the common point of view. Discovered at the dawn of the technologically-driven Industrial Revolution, Uranus is linked with scientific inquiry and a particular genius for math and abstract thought. This facet of Uranus is strongly reflected in the life expression of Mark Wentz. By profession, Wentz has been an educator in the science field, studying and instructing in biology, chemistry, and physics.
Within the field of conventional science, the particular passion of Mark Wentz is physics, a Uranian field if ever there was one, with its mind-bending explorations into the nature of time, space, and reality. Think mind-trips like Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity, String Theory, subatomic particles, wormholes, time distortions, Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, The Double Slit Experiment, the observer effect, and the like. With his Sun-Uranus conjunction, Wentz navigates this territory as though it were no greater a challenge than wading a neighborhood rain creek.
The Sun-Uranus conjunction with its accelerated powers of inquiry and perception is not the only factor, however, inclining Wentz toward a study of the borderlands of knowledge and consciousness. In the detective and perceptive sign of Scorpio are found both the Moon and Saturn. While the Moon sign reveals the innate style of interaction with the surrounding environment, the Saturn sign indicates a type of work or major theme the individual is concerned with throughout life. The Moon in Scorpio shows a natural affinity for the deeper pools of life and feeling, while Saturn in this same sign shows a life-long concern with the mysteries of life and death. These factors surely contribute to an interest in the paranormal, which includes the field of ghost hunting.
In 2018 with transiting Saturn opposite his natal Jupiter-Mercury conjunction and transiting Pluto moving into place for a two-year opposition to his natal Uranus position, Wentz took a turn toward the depths of the psychic and paranormal world. After learning first-hand of a unique UFO abduction case, Wentz launched into the serious study of the UFO phenomena and added the role of paranormal investigator to his nearly four decades in the profession of mainstream science instruction and professional laboratory research.
Tools of the Trade: The Equipment of the Paranormal Investigator
Now some six years and multiple investigations later, Wentz operates almost twenty cutting edge devices designed either to detect various features of paranormal activity or to reach out to other dimensions. These devices include a MADAR node for the detection of environmental indicators possibly associated with the appearance of UFOS, a spectrum analyzer for detecting the wavelengths of electromagnetic or radio waves, magnetometers, a REMPOD for detecting spirit presences, the LIDAR scanning system, a Geiger counter, electric field meters, the FLIR camera for detection of infrared radiation, standard infrared cameras, a sound listening and amplification dish, the Electronic Voice Protocol (EVP) or standard spirit box, a Sonya Renaldi vapor driven spirit box, an auditory signal generator, a pure wavelength electromagnetic generator, microscope systems, a professional level telescope, and most recently, a special arrangement called the Structured Light Sensor, or SLS camera.
The Astrological Timing of a Spirit Communication Session
Of particular current interest is the Mars position in the chart for paranormal investigator Mark Wentz. Mars at the time of his birth stood at 28 degrees of philosophical, expansive, and instructive Sagittarius. True to Sagittarius as his Mars sign, Wentz has traveled throughout the world on a quest for knowledge and experience in remote natural areas. There he has encountered portals to the beyond and stretched his mind far beyond the confines of mainstream thinking. This 28 degree Sagittarius Mars is a powerful part of the Mark Wentz chart as Mars was just setting at his birth, as the chart shows. Mars is thus angular and therefore of prime importance in the Wentz chart.
In 2023 and 2024, the Mars position of the Mark Wentz chart has been switched on like a Yule tree. Activated by a square from transiting Neptune, Mars in the Wentz chart has been generating results in the area of spiritual seeking, education, and travel. During this period, Wentz has retired from his job as a physics teacher, bought land in rural western Arkansas, relocated, and organized his thoughts for the establishment of a paranormal investigation and research organization he’s tentatively calling The Polaris Institute, his thoughts circling somewhere around the North Star. It’s no stretch to say Wentz has been following the indications of the visionary Neptune square to his initiative-taking Mars placement.
The recent square between transiting Mars and transiting Neptune took this dynamic even farther, producing a T square arrangement, with transiting Mars opposite the Wentz Mars and squaring transiting Neptune. The whole thing significantly amplified the power of the existing square from transiting Neptune to the Wentz natal Mars.
In early September 2024, the three bodies involved were:
1. Transiting Mars at 28 degrees Gemini
2. Transiting Neptune at 28 degrees of Pisces
3. Wentz natal Mars at 28 degrees of Sagittarius
Here’s what happened when transiting Mars in late Gemini opposed the Wentz Mars and squared transiting Neptune, bringing into sharp focus the meaning of the long-term square from transiting Neptune to the Wentz natal Mars.
On September 3, 2024, a piece of paranormal investigation equipment which was to radically change the outlook of Mark Wentz arrived unexpectedly by postal shipment. Called the SLS or Structured Light Sensor Camera, the device arrived far earlier than expected, in mid-day on the Tuesday following Labor Day. Tech genius Mark Wentz immediately hunkered down on the floor and assembled the complex system involving a sensor unit, a computer in pad format, and a battery pack. Lunch and everything else was forgotten in a Uranian flash. Within an hour of receiving the equipment, Wentz was at work viewing the interior of his new home in western Arkansas through a technology essentially developed for virtual gaming.
The SLS is an infrared sensing camera which can detect energy forms not visible to the human eye, though it can also detect the visible human body. Once it detects a coherent energy pattern before it, it presents the image in the form of a neon green stick figure displayed on the screen of a tablet computer.
From watching a video made by paranormal investigator and distinguished filmmaker Ron Meyer, Wentz suspected that the SLS had the capability to detect and represent spirit entities present but not visible to the unaided human vision. So he moved around the interior of the house pointing the camera to what appeared to be unoccupied space. In what he calls the hearth room, what he had previously thought of as unoccupied space was just about to reveal its hidden contents.
The Spirit Communication Session
Shaded by a deep overhang on the northeast side, the hearth room is dim even in daylight hours. Wentz started there first because it’s dark, plus in the weeks previous, he had been using that room during late night hours for the purpose of contacting spirits, séance style. Further, in that room was located a partly constructed, historically and architecturally accurate foamboard model of his childhood home, into which Mark had conceptualized he would invite the spirits of his deceased parents as a prelude to communicating with them as fully as possible.
In the hearth room lay half of the model, which had been in construction for a couple of weeks. In the adjoining dining room lay the other half. For the first test of the SLS camera, Wentz slowly scanned all around the dim hearth room. As soon as the SLS camera pointed to the corner where part of the model lay, he immediately saw a clearly delineated but quivering or scintillating neon green stick figure positioned smack on top of the model. He began inquiring of the stick figure as to its identity. Mark immediately felt it was his mother. He asked out loud if the stick figure would confirm its identity as his mother, Mary Elizabeth Alleman Wentz, deceased in 2004. The stick figured seemed to gesture intriguingly.
On an intuitive leading, Mark then pivoted and pointed the SLS camera the other way at the remaining portion of the model in the adjacent dining room. There atop that model, too, stood a scintillating slim neon green stick figure. He then gravitated to the dining room table where the stick figure stood and began asking it questions. After some stumbling around about the best questions to ask and phraseology appropriate for the purpose, he decided to ask the figure if it would hold both arms and hands up high to signal if it was indeed Mary Elizabeth Alleman Wentz, Mark’s mother. Not immediately, but in about 30 seconds, the stick figure held both hands up in a V shape and kept them there for several seconds. Thereafter, it continued to shoot one or both arms upward intermittently for the next few minutes.
Meanwhile, a second clearly visible neon green stick figure appeared to the right of the first one. This one was larger, more square in nature compared to the first slender figure. Mark immediately sensed it was his father, Ralph Clarence Wentz, deceased in 1988. Mark asked the first figure to signal if indeed the second figure was her husband and Mark’s father. In a very few seconds, the first figure shot up one arm. Mark accepted that as a definitive yes answer. Blown away, Mark chatted delightedly to the stick figures ostensibly representing his parents and let them know he appreciated their appearing and communicating.
After this interaction, Mark felt it best to step back and contemplate the situation. Mark turned off the SLS camera and set it up to recharge. Meanwhile, he set to thinking. He decided to try running another piece of paranormal investigation equipment called a REMPOD while the SLS was in operation, too. Battery operated, the REMPOD produces a small electromagnetic field which, when disturbed by close approach of a person or other entity, loudly emits a sound and continuously flashes one or more of its four alerting lights.
Wentz had been working with the REMPOD for several weeks at this point, usually in what he referred to as séance sessions late at night. Some nights he sat in silent darkness for hours with no action. Other times, the REMPOD was wildly activated by some invisible force. Wentz was careful to avoid setting the REMPOD off accidentally, but still, on occasion it would alert so intensely and continuously that he would feel compelled to simply turn off the power supply to check and see if the device were malfunctioning. It never was.
So off he went on the evening of September 3 to the hearth room for the customary séance, only this time, armed with not just the usual REMPOD, but also with the newly acquired SLS camera. Wentz pointed the new SLS camera toward the hearth instead of the foamboard model of his childhood home. There sat a different looking neon green figure which did not have the appearance presented by the stick figure who had signaled affirmatively to the identity of Mark’s mother. Mark began asking who this new stick figure might be. By a process of elimination, it was discovered that the figure identified itself as a space traveling entity or extraterrestrial whom Wentz had once heard about in a seminar led by well-known paranormal investigator David Paulides.
Though the entity was clearly visible on the SLS screen, no activation of the REMPOD occurred. Wentz asked the visiting entity repeatedly to set off the REMPOD, but nothing happened. Finally Wentz gave up, moving back to the dining room table where the partially completed model of his childhood home sat in darkness. As soon as the SLS camera was pointed in the direction of the model, one slim entity appeared above it. It stood with both arms raised high in a V shape. Mark Wentz understood this to be his mother again and greeted her happily. Then a second figure appeared to the right, more square and angular than the first. His father, again, he figured! Both figures were queried as to identity and both signaled yes, they were Mark’s mother and father. But still, there was no REMPOD alert.
Mark asked repeatedly for the figures to set off the REMPOD, but nothing happened. So, after having had quite a bit of fun with this, he gave up and shut off the SLS. Astoundingly, the minute the SLS powered down, the REMPOD went off loudly and insistently, staying on for several minutes. It seemed to Wentz that the REMPOD alert was a non-random event, a signal of sorts from the other world, confirming that someone out there had heard his request. That concluded the paranormal experiment for September 3, 2024. Mark Wentz would continue to learn more in the days to come.
Presently, Mark Wentz says he plans to conduct further investigations, including research into the capabilities of the SLS camera. “I’m working on determining just exactly what the SLS displays, identifying false positives, and discovering what signals might constitute true communications from the deceased,” he said recently.
Transiting Neptune will continue to square the natal Mars placement of Mark Wentz for many months yet to come. As has already been the case, this transiting activation promises to deliver plenty of motivation for Wentz to search within the non-material realms and attempt communication with disembodied persons and spirit entities.
Take Home Points
If anything is to be learned from the experience of Mark Wentz during his amplified Neptune transit, it is the astrological nature of Neptune itself. Named after the God of the Waters, Neptune invokes the world of spirits, the mists of the other worlds, and the methods of travel between the physical and spiritual dimensions. Neptune is all about the thinning of the veil which seems to separate the worlds. Not only that, but the state of mind which allows for that boundary to be crossed. Neptune stands for the liminal, which is to say, the borderland between any two states of consciousness. Of course, Neptune rules illusion, too, and the potential for being misled is always present when the watery planet is about.
For Mark Wentz personally, the Mars-Neptune square of early September 2024 was also something more. For him, it correlated to what appears to have been the opening of a portal between him in the physical world and entities in the afterlife or other dimensional spaces. He has hopes that the days to come will bring confirmation in the form of authentic communications he can recognize as originating from beloved family members and other valued contacts. Meanwhile, he continues, the good Uranian scientist he is, to painstakingly evaluate the technology in play to determine its reliability and relevance.
With Neptune currently in its own sign of Pisces, everyone including paranormal investigator Mark Wentz has an opportunity to embrace the liminal zone hovering between the worlds of the living and the disembodied or invisible. Symbolized by Neptune, the liminal zone is the permeable border between the solid and the ethereal. Whenever Neptune is activated by collective or individual transit, the portal into liminality stands open, as the experience of paranormal investigator Mark Wentz has shown. Such was surely the case at the recent square of transiting Mars and Neptune in early September 2024.