Neptune in Astrology: The Divine Within You

Neptune in Astrology: Your subconscious and conscious self merging.

A fantastical, deceptive and seductive reality, I would equate Neptune experiences to a drug-induced high. In a euphoric state, you feel free, connected, and absorbed in hyper-sensory reality. You’re flooded with dopamine pleasure, an unfiltered rose-colored lens.

A trip, you are one with the experience, with every cell of your body, as it dissolves the separation from everything around you. Your subconscious and conscious self merge. Like augmented reality, one existence is superimposed on the other. There’s awareness of both worlds, but you’ve allowed your rational self to become devoured by ecstasy, seduced by the beautiful mirage.

Esteemed Astrologer Dana Gerhardt calls it the abduction of Neptune.

But when it’s over–and trust me, it always ends, the crash is the feeling you never want to go through again. That is, until your ego urges another trip and the cycle of chasing the dragon begins. You desire to experience the elation once again.

As an outer planet, the sign it is in during one’s birth is what gives expression to a generation of people. The natal Houses and aspects make the planet’s collective energy personal for each of us. Life’s functions will always seem unclear, vague, non-sensical, full of delusion, and sometimes deceitful with Neptune. It is what we do with the mysterious experience that expresses Neptune. Do we go with it and allow our intuitive, creative self to lead logic? Or do we tread against the stream?

While Neptune at the bottom half of the chart (Houses 1-6)will be expressed in a personal setting, the top half will be expressed socially (7-12). Neptune veils the House it tenants, giving reality a fantastical element. Where the rising personal quadrant (1,2,3) will create, initiate the allusions, the setting personal (4,5,6)quadrant will attract the Neptune high. The social Houses signify similar qualities but on a broader social scale (Houses 7-12).

Whether you are the seducer or the one lured in, it is what we essentially accept, just like the chemical intoxication–what we choose to see. It is our own gauzy perception.

Neptune is the communion with the divine. It reminds us of the bigger picture that we don’t always have control, nor do we want it (whether we know it or not). It is our surrender to the universe. A connection to invisible worlds and the House shows where we can let go and let god.

To trust in the divine is to see perfection. When we resist the flow of Neptune, we create a loop distortion in the House and any other associated Houses. Our ego forces the loom to take control of the natural weaving process of our lives. In such acts, we cut ourselves off from the power of the divine source and the power of intuition. We fall victim to the delusions and uncertainty of Neptune.

When we swim against the currents of mystical waters, we have allowed for little imagination or creativity in our lives. The dullness of everyday life grips us. With responsibilities and logic running rampant, we subconsciously desire to swim back to Neptune’s deep seas. Our subconscious selves navigate the waters to reach communion, the perfection, the intoxicating high. It is a state of euphoria connected to releasing control, similar to the feeling you get when floating in water, your body dissolving, becoming one with the ocean.

By projecting that hidden reality, our conscious lens are stained in rosy colours. It’s an act of abducting others in our clouded view. It searches for the exhilarating effects of relationships in the 7th House, intimacy in the 8th, and friends in the 11th. Deluding ourselves through our immediate identity in the 1st, through values, possessions in the 2nd, our work in the 6th House and so on.

Neptune Transits: A Reconnection

By transit, we get a conscious dose of Neptune when we go through the trials associated with the planet’s symbols of letting go and trusting. A challenging and long dance with the sea god, we unlearn old steps and fresh movements down diverging paths that dissolve expectations and force examination and awareness. A journey to rebalance and allow for more imaginative play and heightened intuition to chart uncertainty and establish faith in the flow of life.

Neptune is the higher octave of Venus, the goddess of love. Ruling over the signs of Taurus and Libra, she symbolizes the earth and our relationship with it. While through abstract concepts and refinement of Libra, Venus also rules beauty, art and ideas. Neptune transcends Venus’ expression by showing us our cosmic connection. A symbol of divine love, we become aware of our oneness. Our interconnection dissolves our ego-self, our individuality. It weaves us back to the threads of the universe, an intrinsic part in each of us. When we learn to trust in Neptune’s energy and trust in the flow, we no longer crave or look for the high outside of our divine selves.