Neptune is the principle of the all-knowing cosmos and the oneness that runs through all of life. It is neither linear nor structured. It shows its power of erosion through the dissolution of boundaries of all kinds. Structures that were made to stand the test of time eventually crumble. Concepts we learned in school that we thought were part of a solid, concrete reality turn out to be fallible, giving way to a much more fluid & malleable reality made up of many potentialities. We first wonder what is fact and what is fiction. Then, we try to figure out whether the words ‘fact’ & ‘fiction’ are actually fundamentally different from each other or if they are nothing more than words which give us some fleeting sense of the illusion of control. If you’re confused, take a number! This is the fluidity of the Neptunian experience where the illusion might be real and your certainty might be a delusion.
Neptune transits can rid you of a superficial understanding of your own identity, especially if we still equate who we are with what we do or what we have. Whenever those things leave our life, we come face to face with our deeper spiritual essence that’s un-changing & unaffected by worldly events. These Neptune processes will leave you much wiser. They will give you the kind of unshakable faith that a steady stream of good vibes & positive energy could never produce. Neptune aspects & transits are akin to spiritual weight-lifting on the invisible plane. An unshakable faith of a Neptunian caliber has got to be earned via consistent effort and an increased load, like the challenge of discovering our own true inner nature.
Consider for a moment the difference between self-trust and radical self-trust. The former can make you appear confident in your decision making & comfortable in your own skin. The latter will have you surviving Lord-of-the-Flies, Armageddon style scenarios where you have to face starvation, pandemics, economic downturns & enemies of all kinds who are dishing out all sorts of negative energy, and it will turn all of the negativity into fuel so that you come out of all this thriving.
In other words, self-trust will work for you in fair weather, but with enough stress it might fail. Self trust has to become radical in order to for it to stabilize you through crazy storms. It is the same with faith - Neptune symbolizes the shake ups & the stripping down of your supposed certainty, where your grip on ‘normal’ reality gets turned on its head. A Neptune transit can be a very disconcerting experience, but it’s extremely psychologically valuable because it brings you to a deeper intimacy with the divine source through direct experience.
It can feel heavy, foggy, disappointing or tragic but it can also be poetic, romantic, mysterious, & magical. You can position yourself to dance with the Neptunian energy anywhere along this polarity because you have the freedom to choose how you’ll work with the Neptunian placement in your chart. It’s helpful to understand that the energy doesn’t go anywhere or disappear, but will take on different forms because of the creative efforts you make at interpreting it. Often much of our inner workings are hidden from us, but once we see the patterns in the chart we can work with intention to bring them to life in ways that better suit who we’re becoming.
It can feel heavy, foggy, disappointing or tragic but it can also be poetic, romantic, mysterious, & magical. You can position yourself to dance with the Neptunian energy anywhere along this polarity because you have the freedom to choose how you’ll work with the Neptunian placement in your chart. It’s helpful to understand that the energy doesn’t go anywhere or disappear, but will take on different forms because of the creative efforts you make at interpreting it. Often much of our inner workings are hidden from us, but once we see the patterns in the chart we can work with intention to bring them to life in ways that better suit who we’re becoming.
These Neptunian patterns that are hidden from us can also include addictions of all kinds, which are essentially ways to artificially induce the feeling of oneness with all of life. Unless these substances are being used in a therapeutic manner, the use of them can become a trap, or toxic dupe. It’s not about a sense of moral rightness or wrongness. It’s more productive to think in terms of you being the director of the movie.
We each have Neptune somewhere in the chart, and as one of the gods of change, Neptune will dissolve the boundaries of our ego identity - it’s just a matter of how we set the choreography. For example, if an alcohol addiction is something we want to change, it would be better to provide ourselves with a Neptunian replacement - taking up dancing, painting, screenwriting, or going to Alcoholics Anonymous with our sponsor - rather than try to impose Saturnian like limits (“Just one drink!” or “No more indulging in X!") upon the Neptunian energy which is many times more vast than the Saturnian limitations are. Neptune just keeps knocking down whatever wall you build against the impulse toward unity until you realize that it’s futile to try and work against it from Saturn's more limited consciousness.
We each have Neptune somewhere in the chart, and as one of the gods of change, Neptune will dissolve the boundaries of our ego identity - it’s just a matter of how we set the choreography. For example, if an alcohol addiction is something we want to change, it would be better to provide ourselves with a Neptunian replacement - taking up dancing, painting, screenwriting, or going to Alcoholics Anonymous with our sponsor - rather than try to impose Saturnian like limits (“Just one drink!” or “No more indulging in X!") upon the Neptunian energy which is many times more vast than the Saturnian limitations are. Neptune just keeps knocking down whatever wall you build against the impulse toward unity until you realize that it’s futile to try and work against it from Saturn's more limited consciousness.
There's a wonderful non-judgmental saying going around these days which is: 'The opposite of addiction isn’t sobriety - it’s connection'. This is why when you work collaboratively with Neptune to introduce more poetry, music, storytelling, dancing and spiritual ecstasy into your life, not only will you see a lot more of the miraculous side of life, but you'll also see your previous trouble with addictions recede.
Remember, Saturn introduces us to Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (the gods of change), the planets which shake up what our previous rules and structures tried to put a lid on. As one of the gods of change, Neptune’s energy cannot be contained, comprehended, or controlled. It makes light of the superficial, dualistic distinctions humans draw between good & bad, poetically demonstrating how that 'bad' flat tire you got on the highway saved you from ending up in the twenty car pileup that happened just five minutes later. What our immature, negative Saturn may have wanted to label a 'terrible' situation has actually made us directly experience a power greater than our conscious mind can comprehend.
Just as we have addiction on one side of the polarity with connection on the other, the principle is the same with the dream vs. delusion polarity. Neptune isn’t dogmatic - it simply shows you that longer-lasting states of spiritual ecstasy are possible to attain. It teaches that the consciousness of bliss that you earn after a sustained meditation session will not carry the same negative after effects of a blackout from a night of binge drinking.
Neptune asks: Isn’t confusion a necessary prerequisite for expansion & growth? Aren’t you amazed when life brings you to exactly the right person at exactly the right time in such a perfect way that it just blows away the conscious mind? There are many paths as there are people - enlightenment is a personal experience - but reaching these states is what allows you to go through life with an unshakable faith in the power of your divine source. Astrology is very helpful in this regard because it can tell you exactly where you're out of alignment with the higher self so that you can let go of any resistance weighing you down.
Neptune asks: Isn’t confusion a necessary prerequisite for expansion & growth? Aren’t you amazed when life brings you to exactly the right person at exactly the right time in such a perfect way that it just blows away the conscious mind? There are many paths as there are people - enlightenment is a personal experience - but reaching these states is what allows you to go through life with an unshakable faith in the power of your divine source. Astrology is very helpful in this regard because it can tell you exactly where you're out of alignment with the higher self so that you can let go of any resistance weighing you down.
Neptune is the planet which teaches us the art of surrender, which is the spiritual humility to just let go when nothing else has worked. In mythology, Orpheus learned about the value of surrender when faced with indescribable, agonizing grief over the separation with his true love. His bride had died on their wedding day, and he was inconsolable. He refused to accept the situation and tried bargaining with Persephone and Pluto, only to lose her all over again because he broke his promise not to turn and look at her until they were out of the Underworld.
Forced into the method of surrender after his bargaining fails, he embraces the experience of grief fully. That exact moment when Orpheus gives up his resistance to the transformational experience is when something truly miraculous happens.
(We won't spoil the story).
This planetary myth & that of the other planets are offered as interactive exercises in our level one course: Foundations of Planetary Myths. It allows you to dive deep into the ethos of each planet to understand how the energy of each celestial body plays out in your personal chart. Worksheets are provided that strengthen your ability to see your creative intentions come into physical manifestation with the principle of inner-to-outer alignment.
Course objectives include building two distinct skillsets:
- Learning to navigate the space of variations to find your soul's success sectors, and
- Effectively co-creating with archetypes in the natal chart so the inner image matches those sectors
The course comes with a bonus at the end: a workbook to prepare for and interpret the Saturn Return. By the time you arrive at this module, you will have already built aspect interpretation skills plus have a general idea of how transits work. In order to see planetary transits in action, we hit the ground running & cut our teeth on the full Saturn return!
You can take the course as an astrological beginner and it’s also beneficial for intermediate students seeking to understand planetary symbolism in more depth so that you can progress in your studies. No matter how far along you are in your astrological journey, you must have a strong mythological understanding of these planetary archetypes if you want to build more advanced skills.
It also teaches aspects from a process-point of view, because aspects are actually not discrete categories! Not all squares are the same; there is a waxing square and a waning square which represent different points of the cycle.
Enjoy the process!
Love,
Phoenix
