Neptune in Action

Photo by Elena Kalis

I love it when I find the most perfect way to demonstrate the workings of astrology. And I just stumbled on one so I have to share. This one involves the planet Neptune. Neptune is the "dissolver." He represents all things that cannot be quantified or even grasped... illusions, dreams, romance, glamour, fantasies, deception, magic, smoke and mirrors, etc. I once read that a great way to understand how Neptune works in a birth chart is to think about what it's like to open your eyes under water. Nothing is solid, nothing stays the same or keeps form. Things are blurry and hard to see. This is exactly what Neptune does to any planet or angle it touches in a birth chart.

Any hard aspect (conjunction, opposition, quincunx, square) from Neptune to a personal planet (sun, moon, mercury, venus, mars) will make that planet become blurry. For instance, let's say someone has Mars square Neptune. Mars, being the planet that represents action, initiation, sex, motivation, anger, etc. would become quite weak due to Neptune's influence. It is as if Neptune takes mars and throws it out to sea, drowns it. A person with mars square Neptune would then have a really hard time finding motivation. They may spend a lot of time thinking about doing things but never actually getting the oomph to get those things done. Because of a weak mars, it would be hard to know what to do at any given moment, because they are lacking direction, impulse, enthusiasm, and fight.

Neptune with venus can make a person very, very idealistic, so it's hard for them to see their relationships or their love interests clearly. This is the classic hopeless romantic. They see what they want to see and not what is right in front of them. Neptune distorts. Neptune also leads to great disappointment. Because eventually, reality sets in, and reality includes human imperfection, disappointing the idealist.  What they thought they had turned out to be something very different. That is Neptune. This is why Neptune also rules romance and glamour, neither of which are based in reality.

In the video above you see what is called Refraction in action. Refraction is when water makes a ray of light change direction. The word "refract" comes from the Latin refract- ‘broken up,’ from the verb refringere, from re- ‘back’ + frangere ‘to break.’ Remember, that's exactly what Neptune does, it breaks up (dissolves) the forms or structures of reality and presents something else or nothing at all.