Neptune  

Neptune represents our dreams and inspirations, our powers of imagination, and if disciplined, our ability to express creativity in a manner that taps into universal themes of suffering, love and compassion. It also can symbolize our desires to escape the ordinary suffering of mundane human existence, the ways that we attempt to escape reality and unwittingly confuse it with something we name as spiritual, and our yearnings to tap into a genuine spiritual source of sustenance which we unwittingly mix-up with addiction, illusion, grandiosity or escapism. For many Neptune represents an innate hunger for something unseen and internal--God, a Higher Power, the Great Spirit, Universal Mind--that cannot be satisfied by ordinary means, but which requires a good deal of conscious awareness to actualize. In this manner the Islamic saying that “Many are called but few listen” surely applies.

It is because of the great precision and wisdom required to utilize Neptune’s impulse that those most affected by it often unwittingly channel its expression into chemical dependency, food addictions, sexual addictions, terrible passivity, over-sensitivity to suffering, unhealthy fantasies, cravings for external things or objects that bring no internal satisfaction, or spiritual practices that feed on personal delusion, escapism and ego-inflation. Neptune represents the force of “divine discontent” and by house and sign, symbolizes the manner in which an individual must begin to work to destroy personal illusions and delusions they are captured by, thereby transforming their addictions and cravings through a disciplined spiritual or creative practice that activates the very essence of their Soul. Paradoxically Neptune can symbolize a perilous tendency to retreat from the responsibility of awakening one’s Soul by playing the victim or savior to someone, thus trapping oneself on a wheel of recurring self-pity, tragedy and angst. If captured by the shadow side of Neptune and enthralled by the “sincere” belief that one can single-handedly save another, one fails to see that the soul that truly needs to be saved is one’s very own.

As can be seen, the issues that surround Neptune are confusing, subtle, and very complex. Successful navigation of Neptunian themes requires the assistance of skilled guides, a capacity to see one’s style of delusion and escapism, a tremendous commitment to disciplining one’s creative efforts, and the ability to express compassion in a manner that helps those who are willing to help themselves.