Neptune

Neptune has a delicate musical and artistic sense and an idealism and spirituality that recall Venus, whilst in other ways it is reminiscent of Jupiter, and its connection with drugs and poisons is distinctly Piscean. It has a clear connection with all marine matters, and indeed with many things related to liquidity. It is the planet of the creative imagination, ranging downwards from the inspiration of the great poets and artists to the terrible and diseased fancies of the criminal and mentally afflicted. It is the planet of pretence and deception, including self-deception; it has a general tendency to make things appear other than they are, whence its relation to the stage and film. Those with a badly placed Neptune cannot be too careful to exercise common sense and to avoid all that is not entirely aboveboard, plain and straightforward. Neptune appears to rule spiritualism and kindred practices. It is extremely sensitive, physically and mentally. Neptune often causes worry rather than actual misfortune. It is less a source of hardship than Saturn, yet if often calls for the exercise of renunciation. The action of Neptune is subtle, gradual, and sometimes insidious. Neptune dissolves the boundaries between illusion and “ordinary” common sense reality. It dissolves self-interest and egoism, so that it can represent unselfish impulses and creative imagination. Equally though, it can represent self-destructive impulses; illusions, delusions, hallucinations, deceit and treachery. The affects of alcohol and most drugs, especially those which act on and distort perception and self-perception, are wholly Neptunian. Film-makers, actors and novelists are ruled by Neptune, though they are ruled by other planets as well; their illusory nature is Neptunian. Wherever anyone is sensitive and compassionate, Neptune is involved. The negative features of Neptune are by no means always immediately visible. Neptune is exceedingly sinister planet though it cannot be called “malefic”; being so intimately connected with the good and the beautiful. It plays its part in madness, credulousness, treachery, fraud and lying. Neptune always features in cases of paranoia and delusions of grandeur. It is also involved in escapism, vulgarity and vagueness. Persistently self-deluded people have Neptune in difficult positions, though this is not always easy to see. In many charts of men and women who are known liars and swindlers, Neptune seems problematic. Neptune will tend to refine whatever energies it comes into contact with in the natal chart. It will seek to refine, purify cleanse; to erase imperfections or defects. Planets touched by Neptune are rendered both purer and more difficult to get hold of. Neptune tends to remove coarseness or vulgarity from whatever planetary principles it touches. It will incline whatever that planet represents to greater delicacy, purity and subtlety. The ability to discern and appreciate subtlety is one of the main gifts of the Neptunian principle. This is surely one of the reasons why those whose charts are strongly touched by this planet are often very creative or artistic since Neptune heightens perception. Neptune represents our urge to transcend and escape from ordinary reality. Whatever Neptune touches in the chart it will urge that part of us to go beyond the mundane, to exceed the limits imposed upon us by living in the real world. Neptune will urge us to rise beyond earthly and material considerations. At best Neptune inspires us to go further, excel, surpass and exceed. When Neptune touches a planet in our chart we are capable of being very idealistic in expressing that planets energies. We often want to do so in the highest and purest way. Where Neptune is situated or what Neptune touches tends not to accept (possibly not even recognise) boundaries; it seems as if nothing will get in the way of the attainment of the wish, dream or desire. Neptune likes glamour, where Neptune touches a planet in our chart we want what that planet expresses to be expressed in the most glamorous way possible. Neptune is probably the most difficult planetary energy to understand. Its nature eludes definition because it is associate with aspects of the universe that are unclear, illusory, delusory, ill-defined and even imaginary. But Neptune can be understood in part by defining what it is not. Even more than Uranus, it is an energy that negates everything that Saturn stands for. If Saturn is reality, Neptune is unreality. If Saturn is our notion of time and space, Neptune is outside time and space. Neptune symbolises the truth and divinity perceived by mystics. Neptune energies are extremely hard for most people to deal with, simply because to be successful in the so called real world, one must be able to deal effectively with Saturn, and it is hard to deal effectively with both planets at once. Neptune is connected with psychic people of all kinds. Neptune can represent either illusion or mystical illumination, depending on one’s spiritual evolution. For this reason Neptune can represent the highest and lowest aspects of human experience, the most beautiful and painful of human emotions.