Tag: Neptune

Sun Opposite Neptune – Dissolve Your Ego And Let The Real You Emerge

Astro Butterfly

Sun is opposite Neptune on 4th of September. Sun is in Virgo and Neptune is in its domicile in Pisces.

The opposition takes place in the Virgo / Pisces axis, the most compassionate and service oriented axis of the zodiac, inviting you to challenge your ego and learn to become more humble and giving.

Because Sun represents our identity, and Neptune dissolves any planet it touches, the transit is a good time to leave behind the old definition of who you are and meet  the timeless, infinite, unchanging Self that you really are.

Sun Neptune opposition

Neptune is an outer planet, which means it cannot be seen with the naked eye. In fact, Neptune is the first planet to be discovered by using mathematics only. Neptune has therefore a very abstract quality.  With the discovery of Neptune, mathematics and theory, rather than observation became the rule in astronomical research.

The Sun is You, is the role you play in life. We identify so much with the Sun, that we reduce all the sky to the Sun. If someone asks you “What’s you sign” you answer with your Sun sing, not with your Moon sign or with your Mercury sign.

What does it mean when an outer planet makes a challenging aspect to the Sun? An outer planet applying an opposition to the Sun signifies a crisis that happens outside the consciousness. The crisis happens outside our consciousness, because as we’ve pointed, an outer planet is a planet we cannot see, we cannot perceive, at least not with our limited material senses.

That’s why Neptune transits are famous for the confusion they bring. When something happens outside if yourself, it something you cannot see, you cannot measure, you cannot make sense of. In these circumstances it is absolutely normal to feel confused, to feel lost. You don’t know what’s going on.

Sun opposite Neptune can also shake your self-esteem and self-confidence. You can feel powerless yourself, or something from the outside can come seemingly out of nowhere and take away your power.

Another way you can experience Sun opposite Neptune is through a loss in motivation. Neptune can fog your vision and blur your focus – you can suddenly loose interest in something that was very important to you before, for example your career, or a big project you were involved in.

Neptune is the opposite of Saturn, if Saturn builds, Neptune demolishes. Neptune opposite Sun will dissolve or demolish the foundations you built your life on. Your mission, your goals, your ambitions can make no sense to you anymore. All the order in your life transforms into chaos.

But it is in the chaos that a new order emerges. The old foundations of your ego are demolished so you can find who you really are.

Neptune opposite Sun disintegrates your old self, so your new, higher self can emerge.  Neptune dissolves the identification with your ego, so you can move to a higher expression of yourself.

Sun is not only who you are, is also who you think you are. We tend to identify with our origins, with our community, with our workplace, with our career.

Sun opposite Neptune will challenge all these projections and layers of identification and will push you on a different direction, on an unknown direction, on a path you’ve never been before, on a path that scares you.

But the path that scares you the most is usually the one that liberates you the most. Neptune is also the planet of liberation from the material world, representing the higher, immaterial, spiritual level of our existence. It is that part of you that is immortal, that part of you that is pure, unconditional love.

Sun opposite Neptune can also bring you deep longings, desires, restless nights, regrets; you will aspire to something higher, something divine, something out of this world, something magical.

Sun opposite Neptune can also bring disappointments with authority figures, with people that hold some sort of power. During this transit some people can let you down. If someone promised you something they might not stick to their promise when Sun is opposite Neptune.

But before you get disappointed and decide to remove these people from your life, think how you may have contributed to this situation.

Even if you did everything right, maybe you idealized too much that person, or that desired outcome. Maybe you projected some supernatural power on that person, maybe you expected some sort of magic, maybe there was a bit of an illusion from your side as well.

Deep inside we always know who to trust and who not to trust. Can you consider that maybe you knew that project will collapse, you knew that person will let you down, but you decided to believe it anyway? Maybe there was something unrealistic about your goals in the first place.

Or maybe it’s YOU who needs to become that authority person you admire. Maybe you haven’t really put yourself “out there” in the past and you have projected your own power onto others, hence the disappointment.

Neptune makes us see what we want to see. Did you put your rose colored glasses on? That’s fine, but the reality is not always pink. With Neptune we need to keep in mind that the scenery might change when we take our glasses off.

But there is a big WHY behind all this confusion and chaos – the purpose of the Sun opposite Neptune transit is to help you let go of the old identification of the ego, of all the goals and desires that are outdated, that no longer serve your best purpose.

However confusing this time is, right now you are actually searching for who you truly are.

Do you feel lost? Stay with that feeling, don’t try to fight it, resist the temptation to label it as “wrong” or inappropriate. It is ok to feel lost. Is in that place of apparent confusion where you can find the real you, where you can find your true goals.

Remember that Neptune represents the “higher power”, God, the cosmic womb, the ocean of existence where we all emerged from.

We are not higher than Neptune, we cannot control Neptune, we are just a drop of water in the ocean.  The best thing you can do is to simply go with the river, go with the flow.

Don’t try to resist change, don’t fight your circumstances. This is not a time to fight, or to show others you’re right and they’re wrong. This is a time to show compassion and understanding and let life be.

On a positive note, Sun opposite Neptune can make you more compassionate, more gentle, more responsive to suffering. You can now tune in with others more easily, you can connect better with other people, you can see behind their projected ego, you can see deeper, you can connect with their soul.

What to do to make the best of the transit

  • Do something nice for others – show them that you care, send them a nice message of support
  • Be there for people in need – you can volunteer for a cause or do a small donation, for example to the victims of the Hurricane Harvey or the victims of the South Asia floods. Neptune also rules water and floods.
  • Stay away from negative vibrations and surround yourself with positive vibrations – travel to a secluded place, visit a spiritual site, listen to enchanting music, meet gentle and compassionate people
  • Try hypnotherapy, dream therapy or mantra chanting
  • If someone lets you down, try to forgive them. Look for the silver lining – what could be the purpose behind this betrayal?
  • Design your ideal you and your ideal lifestyle – with Sun opposite Neptune it’s ok to do dream big and aspire to the best version of yourself

We are all going to feel the Sun opposition Neptune transit but if you have planets or angles around 12° in mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) you will feel it more intensely.

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Neptune Retrograde – Remembering The Source Of All There Is

Astro Butterfly

Neptune is our connection to the web of life, the sacred script of our existence. Neptune is the ‘space in between’, all that cannot be seen, or defined.

Probably the most mysterious and misunderstood planet of our solar system, Neptune rules Pisces, the last sign of the zodiac, acting like the ‘final frontier’ of our existence, the place where everything merges into oneness, the Source where we all emerged from and where we will all return to.

The experiences of ego dissolving and the yearning to be ‘one with’ the cosmic ocean of completeness are what we call ‘Neptunian’ experiences.

Neptune

Neptune’s station retrograde on June 16 is an invitation to find this space of ‘oneness’ inside, as opposed to chasing for it in the outside world. The inner world becomes now the fertile soil of imagination, the place where everything becomes possible. During Neptune stations, we feel that God, the source of all there is, is on our side. The ocean, the sky, the mountains, each plant, each animal, everything is God manifesting and coming into being from that place of completeness, of perfection.

The message of Neptune is that there is a unity beyond the egos, bodies, and that separation is only an illusion. This reality of ultimate unity cannot be explained with our limited processes of the mind, it has to be experienced. We cannot “prove” Neptune.

But Neptune is also associated with illusion, delusion, and deception. The paradox of Neptune is that, when we start to believe too much in this perfection, in this unity, we lose ourselves, we are left without any reference point, we have no more home to come back to. When we realize we have ‘lost ourselves’ the tendency is to prolong our stay in this space of oneness by using drugs, alcohol, and other artificial mediators.

Like with every spell, Neptune magic does not last forever. Neptune retrograde is a reminder that you can dive into the Neptunian divine waters as many times you want to connect with that space, as long as you don’t forget to take your diving gear with you.

Psychologically, Neptune is described by our drive to return to the womb. In this way, Neptune acts in opposition to Pluto, who wants to preserve the matter, and sustain life as we know it. Because of these opposite drives, we humans want to live, create, leave our mark, reproduce, in order to honor our purpose as outlined by Pluto, however no matter what we do, the longing to return to the Source, to find again the paradise we have lost when we came into existence, is always there to haunt us.

I experienced Neptune strongly during a hypnosis session few years ago. The hypnotherapist had his natal Neptune conjunct my natal Mercury to the minute.

During the session I envisioned myself in my mother’s womb. From there I plunged directly into the deep waters of the ocean, where I experienced the fury of the water and had to fight with sea monsters. Soon after, I drifted into a space where I would float effortlessly. My heart and the heart of the Universe were beating as one. I felt one with the universe, there was no distinction between me and anything else. There was no separation.

When Neptune is active the sky like it is now, or when we have Neptune transits to personal planets or angles, we feel an urge to unite with something vaster than the self, to lose the boundaries of our small egos and merge with something larger. Our instinct for preservation dissolves and we let ourselves dive into the unknown, without any fear.

‘I never walked near the edge

Used to fear falling

I never swam far from shore

Never tried the secret door

But when you five me love

When you give me love

I have no fear of heights,

No fear of the deep blue sea,

Although it could drown me,

I know it could drown me’

Katie Melua / No fear of heights

The recent Neptune / Saturn square has showed us what happens when we fail to distinguish the dream (Neptune) from reality (Saturn). The square has brought us the crisis of immigration in Europe and the crisis of “fake news” all over the world, proliferated especially through social media.

Things gotten out of context and posted on Social Media have become viral. We don’t know any more if what we share on Social Media or what we see on TV is the reality. Fake news also bring very important questions: What is a fact? What is reality? Is perception the same thing with reality? Where do we cross the line?

The dystopian world described in the book 1984 gives very good examples of the shadow sides of Neptune. In the book, the so-called Ministry of Truth is in fact a propaganda machine. The word used is a misnomer because in reality the Ministry of Truth is responsible for the opposite, to falsify the historical events that do not serve Big Brother’s agenda.

With Neptune, it is very important to distinguish between awareness and deception. Neptune tells us we are one with the universe, but in this vast universe you can find the good and the bad, you can assimilate energy that serves your higher purpose, but also energy that drags you down.

During Neptune retrograde we need to be as awake as we can possibly be. Instead of putting the rose colored glasses on, simply put you glasses on, you want to see the world for what it really is. You can chose to lose yourself into the world of imagination to unleash the divine spirit inside you, and you also want to turn the TV off when you realize that what you are watching is someone else’s novel.

During Neptune retrograde, allow your ego take a break through myth, poetry, artistic cinema, and listen to the whisper of the dream. Allow memories and dreams to surface. Look for the truth that transcends the ego and remembers its source. And then take what has been revealed to you and bring it to the next level to fulfill your unique purpose. Not someone else’s.

Neptune Conjunct South Node – The Art Of Letting Go

Astro Butterfly

Neptune and the South Node of the Moon are now exactly conjunct at 9° Pisces.

The Neptune South Node conjunction, which takes place just before Neptune turns direct, is a warning about the danger of falling back into the old ways, and in the same time an invitation to finally drop what is not working anymore. Let it go.

Everything that has been hidden and repressed is now coming up to the surface, to be acknowledged and healed, before we can finally let go and can move on.

neptune-south-node-let-go

Easier said than done. The South Node is our Karma, our point of comfort. We have the natural tendency to be reactive and allow previous patterns of experience to repeat themselves:  we choose the same type of partner each time, despite a track record on relationships ending for the same reasons, we keep on delaying giving up a bad habit, thinking that one final indulgence will be the last.

The temptation to stay there, victimize and think “hey, but that’s me, and I’m doing this because of that” is very strong. But don’t give up! The answer is always in the North Node – and the North Node is in Virgo, inviting us to get our act together, set tangible objectives, and make plans to reach them. We need to finally take responsibility for maintaining healthy routines in our everyday life.

For this, we need to leave the past where it belongs – in the past, with all its routines and comforts.  We need to LET GO. Mercury and Saturn are in square to Neptune / the Nodes, helping us in the process of releasing the old patterns.

What do you need to let go of? What thoughts, habits and attachments keep you stuck and create unnecessary stress in your life?

Here are three exercises you can try to support you in the process:

The “Neptune” exercise

Take a pen and two pieces of paper.

Can you think of a metaphor for your past? Draw on the first sheet of paper the image that comes to your mind. After you finish, close your eyes and visualize your future. Can you think of a metaphor for your life tomorrow? Now open your eyes and draw it on the second sheet of paper.

Your past is the South Node, and your future is the North Node – look at the two drawings to get any clues. What can you start doing tomorrow, to bring you closer to your North Node?

The “Mercury / Saturn” exercise

Write down three things that you are holding on to that are no longer serving you.

  1. I am holding on to_________________________________________
  2. I am holding on to_________________________________________
  3. I am holding on to_________________________________________

Pick one of these three things, and make a plan to let it go.

The “Nodes” exercise

Take a mirror – hold it into your dominant hand. Look into the mirror. Hold your gaze for at least 2 minutes. What do you see? How do you feel? What thoughts, feelings, memories, come to you? Now move the mirror in your non-dominant hand and look again. What do you see? How do you feel now?