Entertainment

Movies, television and popular music dwell in Neptune's kingdom, where illusion rules supreme. Projected images, especially those on the silver screen, are larger than life, and movie stars become the mythic gods and goddesses of our time.

Special effects create entirely different realities, worlds of escape from the mundane. We welcome the illusion of a more dramatic, romantic life by adopting certain stars as idols, identifying with a TV couple, or by talking about characters' problems or triumphs as if they were our friends. A story line can linger in our minds for days or even a lifetime, as if we had experienced its events ourselves.

Even songs have their own movies now in the form of music videos. Like movies, music can transport us into altered states. Think of the large concert venues, where mammoth sound systems and gigantic projected images surround and bombard the senses. We experience the performance as part of the group, almost as a form of mass hypnosis that makes us feel like members of a community for a short time. The performers that evoke such emotions become invested with the power of shamans.

Theater also belongs to Neptune's realm, but its illusions are more transparent. We can see what's going on -- we know that actors are acting, backed up with props and lighting -- so we don't endow stage actors with the same power as film stars.

The power and prestige of movie stars is a power given by the public -- us -- through our pocketbooks and through our adoration. Recognized all over the world, actors make astronomical amounts of money compared to what most people earn. Their lives are as much of a show as their work.

We need them because entertainment is one easily accessible form of fun. A movie is a mini-vacation from the stress of the day. And we all need the break. As long as we remain aware of the boundaries between entertainment and real life, we can enjoy Neptune's illusions to the fullest.

We enter the dark side of Neptune's illusions when we can no longer distinguish reality from fantasy.

Often it seems as if only the most violent, sensational or disastrous bits of the world are delivered in news programs. We see little of everyday kindness, friendship or successful community projects. Even ordinary situations that we must deal with in our daily lives become trivialized. Trips to the market are glorified in ads that urge us to toss a particular item into the shopping basket.

We may mitigate our loneliness through identifying with a group of television friends, all of whom are witty, smart and pretty.

The stars of hugely popular films like Pulp Fiction make violence look glamorous; sexy, dramatic music combined with stunning physical beauty makes a psychopath seem desireable in Basic Instinct.

Because the news is so "entertaining," it resembles other television programming and even film clips. Over time, the lines between what's real and what's made up can blur. Wag the Dog explores that phenomenon, and the illusion masters "create" the news of the day.

Since the rise of television as something that most contemporary cultures participate in, we now receive the images that populate our imaginations instead of conjure them the way people used to do with oral storytelling. It's a passive rather than an active process, where we are bombarded by imagery that's not of our own making. Unlike storytelling or even books, these illusions have nothing to do with our own imaginary landscapes.

All of these extremes belong to Neptune's fluid, slippery world, where we're never quite sure if our perceptions are keen or distorted.

Popular television stars who project strong Neptune influences range over a broad spectrum of personalities. Gillian Anderson, who plays Dana Scully of the X-Files, is a strong, rational female who operates from a position of power with confidence. Ally McBeal is an attorney, but we see her imagination, her vulnerability. Even her ditzy qualities make her accessible and identifiable.

Film leads us to believe that a woman can be the predator, typically a male quality. When Sharon Stone showed up in Basic Instinct, she reversed the roles -- she was not a "nice girl," she was the aggressor. Sigourney Weaver projects a competent, adventurous woman, who takes power in a variety of troubling situations. In the Terminator blockbusters, Linda Hamilton's character was as strong and competent as her male companions. In fact, she received some criticism from women that she was "too hard-bodied" and "too masculine" in that role.

Two women have reached icon status through film and music with their power to project the illusion. Marilyn Monroe gave us such a gorgeous image -- she was desired by a whole generation of men and represented the impossible standard of beauty for women. Her sexpot power over men masked a deeply unhappy life that we only learned about after her death. Madonna (whose appearance mimicked Monroe's for a time) has created an ever-changing public persona and each illusion is so strong that she takes us with her.

The entertainment industry has given women a rich field to play in, changing their expected roles in society. The strength and audacious behavior of some of these female leads has encouraged women to express in a wider range of possibilities.