By Molly Hall | About.com
The (Spiritual) Game Plan
What does Neptune in the birth chart have to do with our higher calling? How can we draw meaning from it as a guide?
When I interviewed Marguerite Manning on Neptune’s Nudges, she shared her unique perspective on Mars, the Sun and Neptune in the birth chart. She told me, “We need Mars to push that Sun to stardom and Neptune out there reminding us of the initial game plan.”
In the article Three Ways Mars Champions Your Purpose I looked at ways Mars alerts us to how we’re pushing the Sun’s intent — or not. Mars is the vitality, drive and will to act on what we sense is the higher calling.
One way to look at Neptune, is as the inspiration to re-balance karma. But here I’ll take a peak at Neptune as a guide to an inspired dream, something that satisfies the soul.
Re-enchantment and Remembering
Neptune reminds us that we’re magical creators, limited only by our own blocks on imagination and belief. The occult writer Dion Fortune is quoted as saying “Magic is the art of changing consciousness at will.” The possibility of change revives something innate, a knowing that can get crowded out by insidious conditions like learned helplessness.
In his article on Magic and Depression, Jon Rappaport writes, “In truth, the desire for magic never goes away, and the longer it is buried, the greater the price a person pays. Neptune’s medium of magic is the imagination.”
How does Neptune lead us into new possibilities? Elizabeth Rose Campbell writes in Intuitive Astrology, “Your imagination forms bridges to possibilities through beliefs.” She uses the example that if you’re not able to imagine moving to a new place, finding a job, making friends, you’re unlikely to take that leap of faith.
What kinds of dreams does Neptune call us with? And where do we find shades of Neptune in the birth chart?
Dream Portals
Neptunian points in the chart are where, writes Campbell, “you are getting mail from the Muse twenty-four hours a day, which you, in turn, pass on to others.” She notes these are:
- Your Neptune (in its Zodiac sign and House)
- Planets in Pisces
- Planets in the Twelfth House
And I’d add just one thing to that list, and that’s where Pisces falls in your chart. Like if Pisces is on the Ninth House cusp, you could be inspired by seeking far and wide, or travel. Your draw to wandering could be part of your spiritual questing, like sacred travel.
So take time to free associate what kinds of magical flow you experience related to these areas of the birth chart. Since we’re looking for divine guidance here, you invite messages through prayer or walking meditation.
Beyond the Known
Sometimes Neptune’s influence in our lives seems to be to dissolve what’s so seemingly fixed and certain, like the goals we have up to a point in life. In her article Getting Neptuned, Jamie Walters notes the power of Neptune, sometimes subtle, other times as mighty as the great ocean, the “the immense boundaryless, formlessness of it.”
She continues, “Similarly, these forces in our lives move through just like water — sometimes persistently trickling water that slowly softens hard edges, and sometimes like flood waters that wreak havoc — reshaping or completely dissolving the worldviews, order, habits, and structures that have shaped our lives up to that point.”
Sometimes Neptune shows us how to dream a new dream.
And in Let the Mermaid Move You, Jamie writes of the Unseen, and times when it holds sway, and sense something is happening in the world beyond form. She writes that in those times, “energy is on the move, shimmering, vibrating, getting ready to flow (if it isn’t already). But then, that’s always really the case — things are created and shifted first on the energy plane.”
Neptune Notes from Real Life
Jamie Walters of Sophia’s Children shares some insights by email on her own Neptune Scorpio in the Sixth House.
She says, “I see that energetic or archetype manifesting as an innate sense of vision, an empathic sense of interconnection with all that’s around us, that is in play every day (Sixth House). It’s a ‘marker’ of the mystic and the empath, if you will, depending on other placements, because of that. And one that’s aware then of shadow and the more intense life and death issues (Scorpio).
How does Neptune keep us tuned in, to what’s real to the Soul?
Jamie says, “Neptune also takes us into deep uncertainties, and therefore invites us back into our innate intuition, instinct (body wisdom or ‘spider senses’), and a more spirit-centered or spiritual trust or faith that’s actually ‘reasonable’ and sensible because it comes from the information and ways
of knowing that result when we’re once again attuned to and connected with all that’s around us.”
It seems that some strata of society are choosing to evolve to extremes of a left-brain outlook.
And yet, says Jamies, “…Neptune is really a balancing force, particularly now in Pisces, opening the heart centered, spirit centered, Love centered perceptual lenses to balance the potentially destructive and psychopathic (as in ‘without empathy or conscience of consequences’) sole reliance of the intellect or left brain functions.”
Switching On
In a noisy world, it’s sometimes hard to quiet enough to be still, and receive beyond the chatter. But when you invite guidance, the intuitive flow increases, writes Campbell. And then, you’re “switched on,” and the messages and synchronicity catch your notice.
Recently, I realized I was overcome with worries, and it was crowding out my usually pretty strong intuitive flow. So I took some time in the garden to pray and ask for guidance. And I’ve been led so far to this line of seeking, to find new inspiration and I hope, share it.
I see it’s urgent to stay close to that flow,in these chaotic, insane times. This is how I find stability, and also entertain new possibilities that first come through as an imagined impression.
In the days ahead, I’ll be looking at the rest of the chart, and how it supports what’s flowing from the unseen, the imagination and dream states.