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Neptune is a transpersonal planet of collective emotion, of archetypal imagery, of dreams and escapism. Neptune is unbounded, impersonal and can be found in the trends of culture more than anything – that which is sought collectively as an ideal or transcendent image. Depending on the sign Neptune is in at a point in time will effect the images and notions people associate with the highest and most refined state to aim for, it will also point to what is perceived to be key to sooth the self in the face of the darkness of mortal reality. I’ve written about Neptune before but it’s such a difficult planet to get a grasp of. It’s like trying to concretize the nature of the ocean – it’s too boundless and multi-faceted. When it’s contacting personal planets in the birth chart, the oceanic deity that is Neptune is influencing the personality. This means that the person is set up to experience some aspect of the personality as belonging to the archetypal realm of the unconscious ; image-making and dreams. Dreams are essentially a way for the psyche to smooth out the edges, intuit the subtle messages and process the things that happen in life through symbols. Dreams are often distorted, exaggerated or confusing but also wonderful, romantic and blissful – they are unpleasant as well as pleasant. Many people occupy themselves with dream analysis to get better insight into the workings of their own unconscious. After all, it’s said that archetypes of the unconscious are governing our lives – making us repeat patterns and gets us into certain dilemmas until we become conscious them. Often times an archetypal pattern has taken over the person rather than the person consciously cooperating and working with the pattern.

Even though archetypes of the unconscious are autonomous and real in the sense that they’re living through us and defines us, they are not real in an ultimate sense. Life is not what appears on the veil, rather, it’s pure being, pure consciousness. There is no hierarchy of illusions – all of them are equally real or unreal. For example, Venus as an archetype, is not more or less real than its counterpart Mars. They both have their legitimate place, yet, we can’t find any ultimate truth looking to either the goddess of love or the god of war. Perhaps they can be viewed as agents of the divine, as opposed to being divine in and of themselves. People often refer to the divine feminine vs. the divine masculine as the highest and purest expression of these principals, but even in their most subtle, ”spiritual” and refined expressions they are not to be confused with the ultimate. Neptune is commonly manifesting itself in us as seeking the ultimate, while perpetually confusing it with images on the veil.

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Sun aspecting Neptune

The Sun is representative of the self, the conscious ego, the center of the personality. It’s the Sun that constitutes our path toward self-actualization, self-discovery and self-knowledge. In it’s most evolved state, the ego is able to illuminate and include all aspects of the greater Self as its own. It’s the ego that consciously responds and reacts to the things that happen within the psyche.

The typical interpretation of Neptune aspecting any planet is that it gives it a lack of boundaries and a strong receptive nature. In the case of the Sun, the ego isn’t very rigidly defined and is very open to being swayed by the dominating influence of the environment. In the case of the conjunction especially, there’s a sense of not having a definite center from which one consciously respond to inner and outer events. The conscious self is taken over by the the ocean, making the person too swamped to be able to respond in a way that is stemming from a place of clarity. The Sun has a lot to do with personal integrity and pride, but Neptune kind of negates these traits because it is functioning to dissolve and obscure the planet that it conjuncts. This person might be at a loss of how to consciously asses situations and the will might be weak. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the person’s physical drive and motivation is weak, it simply means that the ego doesn’t take a definite stance at any point. It’s difficult for these people to get a grasp of what makes up their sense of self because it’s so subtle that it’s barely noticed. To individuate is a process, but Neptune doesn’t allow it to ever become too tangible and linear. The very recognition of a conscious center can feel fictive, like something one has made up for the sake of blending in. People with Neptune conjunct the Sun will live their lives trying to actualize and realize themselves through the collective ideal. Not only is this impossible to reach in practical terms, but it bordering on self-undoing. It is impossible to be everything and anything, and so either one becomes a puppet of the subliminal cues of the environment, or one completely shuts down and can’t respond at all. The person usually can’t stand to get into any harsh confrontation with ”reality”, which might lead them to seek escape or transcendence.

The trine and the sextile aspects are not as intense as the conjunction. They give the conscious self a sensitivity to shifts and changes in the atmosphere and an ability to spontaneously pick up on subtler cues without consuming the will of the individual. One also has the ability to illuminate the archetypal realm, of bringing fairytales and fantasy to life through one’s own pursuit of self-actualization. While the conjunction would be more prone to delude and confuse to the point of detriment through these mechanisms, the harmonious aspects would gently add a bit of glamour and sense of elevation to the self, as well as a sense of connectivity or rather subjective awareness of the oneness of life. Music or any type of art is a typical Neptunian expression and the person might have a natural gift for appreciating and creating musically and artistically. The trine is usually so natural to the individual that this gift is usually taken for granted while the sextile usually is linked with the recognition that one has the potential for accessing the realm of the intangible and draw inspiration from it. While the trine denotes a sensitivity and imagination that is innate and unable to ”shut off”, the sextile needs to be ”tapped into” and can therefore be a resource rather than a constant.

The square and the opposition aspects indicate that the conscious self is pitted against and disconnected from the higher octave experience that Neptune endows, which usually leads to an acute sense of needing to not lose either planet to the other. In the case of the square, there’s effort and struggle to dissolve the boundaries of the self, yet there’s resistance to being completely swayed by the dynamics of the unconscious. Carl Jung had this aspect and it certainly stimulated him to become aware of the workings of the psyche – probably because of the tug he felt within himself between forces of the unconscious and his sense of self. In his book ”The Undiscovered Self”, he argues that only by gaining awareness and understanding of one’s conscious mind, and true inner nature, ”the undiscovered self” can we as individuals acquire the self-knowledge that is antithetical to ideological fanaticism and the dangers posed by mass society. ”Mass society” in this case is Neptune – the collective waves of ideology, while the self (the Sun) is an antidote to this big and frightening force. This square relationship between Neptune and the Sun is very characteristic of Jung’s work. Squares tend to stimulate action because they present a conflict that is uncomfortable enough for the person to want to fix. The opposition is not so much of a conflict as it is a disconnect - the person has to strike a balance between the planets. There’s an obvious risk of overdoing Neptune – escaping the conscious self and failing to individuate, of sacrificing consciousness for sweet oblivion.

Moon aspecting Neptune

The Moon is representative of the inner emotional nature, personal needs and subconscious reactions and responses to the environment. The Moon, unlike the Sun, is something that isn’t consciously chosen, but rather innate and instinctual. It is not possible to be a slave to one’s ”Sun” because it is consciously strived for, but the Moon is what it is, regardless of our ideals and desires. The emotional needs often go hand in hand with our physical comfort and well-being.

Moon conjunct Neptune is perhaps a more difficult aspect than the Sun-Neptune conjunction considering that Neptune elevates and obscures the personal needs rather than the conscious will. My grand mother has this conjunction and she is neglectful of her basic needs while simultaneously going for more refined and glamorous pleasures. She likes to ignore the rougher and less refined parts of being a human and likes to focus on the superficial appearance. To her, it doesn’t really matter if she feels bad as long as she can be living her fantasy of luxury. To put it bluntly, she would rather delude herself into living a different reality than acknowledging the ”flawed” one she has in front of her. It doesn’t even have to be that ”flawed”, but there’s an irrational tendency to overlook certain things that are deemed that way. Curiously, she can appear to be very accepting of circumstances, but only because she has dissociated from the actual reality of them. Needless to say, this aspect can really get the person into trouble. The instinctual reaction is so elevated that it is barely anchored in any concrete reality. The person may unintentionally hurt the body because of the need to be boundless. This need seems to extend itself to wanting space and lose clothing, nothing that pinches or constricts bodily movement – it might also make the person crave being near water and the elements of nature. The Moon is a cyclical planet and wants different things at different times, and the person might naively demand that these needs will be met by other people or the world at large. The victim complex can set in when something is being ”withheld”, even if it is completely understandable from a practical perspective. For example, something as irrational as becoming upset that there’s no money left after just spending it all. Or, that one can’t afford the most expensive jewelry or luxury item when one wants it soooo badly. In any case, there’s usually some kind of story that is made up around every event that is constructed and molded into something tragic or wonderful. The person is essentially living in a fairytale where everything and nothing makes complete sense.

The harmonious aspects of Neptune to the Moon denotes a delicate constitution that is sensitive to stimuli and very receptive. In case if the trine, the person is automatically sensing and picking up on the subtleties of the environment and is emotionally attuned to the collective ideals and narratives. The person naturally merges with the emotional urges of the masses without loosing touch of the personal needs. The person is typically quite empathic and soft-hearted for this reason. Although the same could be said for the conjunction, it’s much more prone to confusion and loss of boundaries that one can’t effectively empathize in the same way without being swamped. The trine aspect might be difficult in the sense that the person might be vulnerable to strong emotional influences and might not be able to emotionally react in a way that is wholly personal. One is too aware of the emotions of other people and the overall atmosphere to be solely in one’s own personal emotions. People with Moon-Neptune often seem to have very universal emotions that they need to process, which usually gives them the reputation of being sensitive but impersonal. They dislike discordant and messy emotional influence yet can’t take it personally – they simply need to accept it, because they can’t blame anyone or take personal offense. They might crave solitude in order to process everything. The sextile aspect is probably the most easy to deal with because Neptune isn’t in free flowing communication with the Moon the way the trine is. Neptune nudges the Moon in a way that is stimulating the personal emotions in a creative way – it gives the potential for sensitivity and receptivity without being a constant. The sextile denotes the capacity for imagining and dreaming while the trine denotes it as a natural state. As stated with the Sun-Neptune aspects, artistry might be exercised and appreciated – especially with the sextile.

The square and opposition aspects are more straining. The square indicates that there’s conflict between the personal emotional nature and the movement of collective emotion. Jung, who had Sun square Neptune emphasized the importance of pursuing self knowledge (the Sun) as to not be victim to the dangers of giving in to mass movement (Neptune). The square between Moon and Neptune would consequently make the individual concentrate to define and experience the private inner nature as to not give up personal needs through the pull of collective emotion and the collective unconscious. As always with Neptunian aspects, they lend themselves to creative pursuits and exploring collective themes, myths and emotions, but with the square, the individual will suffer a lack of emotional integrity and personal needs. The tension between these planets often stimulates concentrated effort to learn and practice connecting to one’s own needs and that which is felt through reflecting and embodying the immortal archetypal energies. The pull to experience something greater and glamorous and ”higher” is strong, but usually because of a sense of being deprived that very thing in childhood. Singers like Rihanna and Justin Bieber have this aspect and they are both perfect examples of escaping their own emotional nature and sacrificing their own needs for a spot in the limelight. The pull to give oneself up for the sake of becoming an ”icon” and puppet of the collective unconscious might be done at the expense of personal well-being.

Photography by Xuebing Du