Neptune is where we open ourselves to the realities of the Otherworlds.
He is Lord of the Oceans.
Neptune is where we open ourselves to the realities of the Otherworlds.The ancient Irish equivalent of Roman Neptune is in Manannan, and Manannan is actually a very good guide to the energies of the planet Neptune. I teach visionary contact with him, and with the other Gods and Goddesses of the ancient Irish in my Druid Forest School Courses.
Manannan is Lord of the tides and the otherworld Irelands and the realm of the dead. Manannan is burley man who ride over the waves on a horse named Enbharr or Aonbarr (= ‘water-foam’).
But equally he is a trickster wears a ephemeral shimmering mutable swirling cloak of shifting colour and light which can confer invisibility, and can in fact take on any colour. He carries a crane skin bag (the corr-bolg) of magical treasures and he is god of the sea so we can attune to the currents and depths of our life.
Manannan is the supreme shape-shifter who calls us to transform and meet new demands and imperatives for healing and empowerment.
More negatively, Neptune is the Pied Piper of Hamlyn who led the children to their cave of loss. And most negatively Neptune is the Alcoholic and the compulsive phantasist. And any family that has an alcoholic member would be fortunate not to be destroyed in the controlling web of manipulation, denial, projection and scapegoating that will be generated.
Neptune can manifest as a channel through which we are motivated to pay of Karmic debts to others, to humanity in general and to the planet.
Neptune in libra of the 1960s led to ideals of communal give and take: musical pied pipers expressing the Neptunian ideals of love of the Hippy generation, Narcissistic seekers of greater self-understanding. The idea comes first – then the striving towards it.
Neptune’s transits through the houses show potential for promptings of –
God
the unconscious
the super consciousness
Depending upon how practical or courageous we are They show:
Higher Forces +
Protection +
Possession –
Dissipation of energies –
Acute discrimination (Virgo) is needed to actually clarify what is really required to fulfill this potential for our spiritual growth.
Comparison of Neptune to the other gods of Change:
Uranus = mental understanding of the Higher Planes
Neptune = emotional understanding of the Higher Planes
Pluto = commitment to act, to transform to the Higher Planes
Uranus shocks and cracks the structure of the separate self
Neptune’s subtle touch is an eroding potency dissolving the separate self prior to the resurrection of the holistic self
Pluto creates tectonic upheaval to subvert the separate self through seismic ripples of intuition and deep undermining
Neptune and Saturn:
Fascinatingly, Neptune was exactly conjunct Saturn in the heavens at the moment he was discovered. See the chart below.
When one senses that there is a subtler, higher plane accessible to the human consciousness, it is difficult to live in a mundane world which looks and feels like a prison (Saturn) and which depletes the sensitive person’s psyche through stress.
But we have to accept responsibility (Saturn) for making our live ideal through creativity and devotion: We have to live the real Neptune ideal, in order to make it authentic and find peace.
It’s no use always looking for the perfect situation.
Neptune and Saturn energies pull in different direction.
Neptune dissolves Saturn’s boundaries.
You have to decide how to find the natural balance by using the positive qualities of Saturn to liberate Neptune through self-reevaluation – a determined look at your situation. Ask what you actually want of life – spiritually, intellectually and physically. What is uniquely meaningful for you? i.e. What makes you feel good? Decide how to change your life to get there. Follow the path of your enjoyment. Check out what you get from remaining in your present situation. Affirm and visualize your dream. Pay due respect to Saturn (practicalities and consequences) and co-operate with Neptune as Neptune will give you radical solutions.
NEPTUNE – POSITIVE MANIFESTATIONS
The Planet of serenity and peace
The Mystic
The Artist
The primordial ocean from which all forms were brought forth
Nirvana
Bliss
Oceanic One-ness
Eden
Ecstasy
The Womb (9th planet – 9 months)
Being guided by dreams
Being guided by intuitions
Being guided by visualizations
Encountering dreams and archetypes
Losing one’s self in another state of consciousness
Escaping the limitations of ego and personality
Compassion – a heart response to suffering
Sensitized and refined
Dispersing – as a defense against attack/invasion (lymph)
Dissolving – Baptismal waters
Neptune has the quality of Air + Water = felt thought/intuition
Neptune is the spiritualization of the House/Aspect involved
Imagination
Inspiration
Idealism
God answers as Grace
Visions of Utopia
Deeper social and collective integration
Practical and positive idealization
Tuned in to the unseen, immaterial forces of life
Self-sacrifice (positively)
The King is One with the Land
NEPTUNE – NEGATIVE MANIFESTATIONS
Cruelty
Addictions
Addictive-compulsive dependence on the Great Mother (Drugs)
Escapism
Drowning in a sea of illusion
Denial
Delusion
The Liar
The Swindler
Amnesia
Delaying Tactics
Avoidance
Unconsciousness, leading to Projection
Prey to -osophies and -isms (closed psychic loops)
Prey to transient fashion
The Deceiver
The Betrayer
Subversion
Entryism
Manipulation
Disintegration of the personality
Getting manipulated, used or exhausted by another’s demands
Spiritual self-delusion
The Love Addict
The place of our deepest vulnerability and naiveté
Fears
Anxiety attacks
Denial of drives/emotions
Denial of anger, sex, love
The projection of troubles
Sealing your fate with self-fulfilling prophecies
Self-sacrifice (negatively)
The Waste Land
Getting hung-up on images
Becoming the Victim of others
NEPTUNE ASTRONOMICAL INFO:
Neptune orbits the Sun once every 164.8 years.
Neptune was discovered on September 23, 1846 at 00.09 hrs. in Berlin. The astrology chart for the moment of the discovery of Neptune is set out below.
Fascinatingly, Neptune was exactly conjunct Saturn in the heavens at the moment he was discovered.
However, Galileo’s drawings show that he observed Neptune on December 28, 1612, and again on January 27, 1613; but on both occasions, Galileo mistook Neptune for a fixed star.
At the time of his discovery, Neptune was retrograde at 4 deg Aquarius in the sidereal zodiac of vedic astrology and 25 deg Aquarius in the western tropical zodiac.
Neptune is an ice giant and has 14 Moons and is the eighth planet from the Sun, the fourth-largest planet by diameter, the third-most-massive planet, and the densest giant planet. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times the mass of Earth and slightly larger than Neptune.
Like Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune’s atmosphere is composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, with ices such as water, ammonia and methane. Neptune’s interior, like that of Uranus, is primarily composed of ices and rock. Traces of methane in the outermost regions in part account for the planet’s blue appearance.
Neptune’s weather patterns are driven by the strongest sustained winds of any planet in the Solar System, and because of its great distance from the Sun, Neptune’s outer atmosphere is one of the coldest places in the Solar System, at −218 °C.
MEETING THE ENERGIES OF NEPTUNE:
- Neptune is ephemeral, ungraspable and must be approached respectfully, through disciplined search and meditation. You must earn your access to Neptune’s foggy, hazy, watery world. You need awareness, simple faith and strong ethics – and to have healed the wounds in your guts.
- You must have come to terms with the pressures, realities and obligations of Saturn, to be able to handle the intensity and disruption of Neptune (and indeed: Uranus and Pluto), and to be able to incorporate Neptune into your life with honesty and diligence.
- Although you may successfully hide from a Neptune awareness, you will fall prey to the very influence we seek to control.
- Under the Neptune influence, there is a risk of becoming convinced your lies are truth and that you may reorganize the world to suit one’s self. Watch for these tell-tail signs of grandiosity. You cannot control or manipulate Neptune: If you try, her rises like a cobra, and destroys you.
- And so much in this culture of domination and fear is toxic: toxin dramatically rising in the unconscious, and with each from of toxin that arise, Neptune will be there playing his part, for example:
Toxic Venus: sex and love addiction – false coziness.
Toxic Mars: rage and crime.
Toxic Jupiter: rapacious materialism. Shallow looking-good.
Toxic Saturn: depression and suicide.
Toxic Neptune: seduction of bliss, drugs and co-dependency and false life-stories.
Remember: for water to be poisoned, toxicity is measured in parts per billion!
- One example of Neptune in men is ‘Flying boys’ are constantly coming from ecstatic heights (Neptune) to deep, dramatic depths, flying away from commitments, responsibility, intimacy, feelings and male friendship. Fate and circumstances always seem to be controlling them. They can’t quite seem to make their lives work for themselves.
- Neptune’s spiritual experiences can’t be controlled. We can’t consciously decide to have one. They arise spontaneously. We anchor them by: images,ritual, meditation, visualization and in places of sacred energies on the Earth.
- Neptune’s energy is a force that: is beyond control, is not comprehensible to the logical mind and has to be surrendered to – but with perception.
THE TRANSITS OF NEPTUNE:
Transits of Neptune are initially characterized by a phase of:
Victim scripts
Martyr scripts
Sometimes addiction
confusion
being ‘up in the air’
‘spaced-out’
lacking groundedness
Fear (we prefer to remain in the dark)
Dread (of the emptiness of our self-deception)
wanting new experiences to fit our pre-conceived mental categories
nervous/psychological illnesses
dissatisfaction or longing (especially in the affairs of the House of Neptune’s Transit, or that of the planet aspected)
There can be peevishness, divine discontent, inner flux and agitation
Persistence becomes difficult, aims become hard to achieve.
There’s disorientation, lack of focus, indecision, moodiness, diminished self-confidence, diminished psychological certainties. Familiar life-patterns are swept away. You come to realize something has happened without really noticing it.
There can be fantasy or paranoia.
THE ARCHETYPES AND NEPTUNE:
Neptune and The King Archetype:
People who choose careers in art, dance, spirituality and drama. Highly sensitive – feeling acutely anxious about the limelight they seek. They crave recognition for their dreamy idealism. Often have a naive disposition, so that the bulk of their money is creamed off by their managers.
Shadow Neptune, here has a dreamy ethereal nature which makes it difficult for them to manage their career, often drifting for years, getting ‘nowhere’. They have an innate sense of denial about their ineptitude in this area which leads them to perpetual procrastination.
Neptune and The Lover Archetype:
Neptune here loves togetherness in any form, seeking ecstasy in relationship, powerfully embodying a philosophy of peace, love and happiness, ultimately searching for a soul mate who embodies all their dreams and fantasies.
Shadow Neptune, here, is co-dependent, feeling empty and directionless without their partner, and can live in constant fear of betrayal and abandonment. Will sell their soul to secure the future of their relationship. They live in a fantasy world and are afraid to examine their partner honestly.
Neptune and the Magician Archetype:
Neptune Magicians are highly sensitive to the inner world of dreams and impressions from the unconscious. They enjoy following these whispers in the safety of their sacred space. They may convey this information in such mediums as drawing, sculpture, writing poetry and chanting. Their home will be womb-like in its decor and furnishing.
Astrology Chart for the Discovery of Neptune: 24th September 1846 at 00.09 hrs, Berlin, Germany:
If you would like a reading for yourself or family members covering your birth chart and this period ahead, or if you would like to enrol on one of my wonderful astrology courses, with their dedicated individual attention, please contact me on my starwheelastrology website.
And see details of my earthspirituality courses and novels on:
www.druidforestschool.com
For Maggie’s healings see: www.maggiepashley.com
Blog: blog.starwheelastrology.com/
YouTube: www.youtube.com/michaelconneely
I look forward to hearing from you
Michael
