Dena DeCastro’s: Tuning Into Neptune

February contains several planetary transits which connect us with the sign of Pisces and its planetary ruler, Neptune:

Venus conjoins Neptune in Aquarius – 2/8
Venus enters Pisces – 2/11
Sun conjoins Neptune – 2/14
Sun enters Pisces – 2/18
Mercury conjoins Neptune – 2/27
Mercury enters Pisces – 3/1

So, there is a pattern: Venus, the Sun, and Mercury each conjoin Neptune in Aquarius and then move into Pisces. These three planets usually will tend to constellate in Aquarius and Pisces around this time of year. However, this year is unique in that they all neatly fall within a month’s time and conjunct Neptune, Pisces’ ruler, before doing so. I took this as a call to pay attention to what Neptune/Pisces might have to say to us right now, as if we’re all kind of going through a collective Neptune transit this month. Neptune and Pisces, rulers of the 12th house, connect to our spiritual life, the unconscious, the dream world, and the hidden aspects of our lives and ourselves.

“Neptune is the mysterious, the unfathomable planet. It greatly influences our spiritual life, in the positive and the negative sense.” Reinhold Ebertin, Transits.

With a spotlight on Neptune and Pisces, this month is less about doing and more about being. It is a time to go with the flow, to still the mental chatter, and to observe what is when you stop trying to make things happen. As westerners, we are often driven by the gratification cycle of action + results = reward. The reward may be monetary, or it may be somebody’s approval, or it may be the approval that we withhold from ourselves unless we are doing something “useful.” Neptune and Pisces, both part of the same archetypal field, is about relaxing into the flow of something larger and all-consuming that always exists all around you. While the phrase “relaxing into the flow” sounds nice and inviting, the real experience can be difficult to get to, and even downright scary for some of us (visual of me raising my hand here). Neptune/Pisces dissolves, much like water begins to dissolve and erode whatever is placed within it. We might feel like we’re losing something if we’re not accomplishing, doing, achieving, tasking.

It’s as if this whole month is about looking at our collective resistance to meditation and Neptunian experiences. I find that the panic that rises up in me when I sit down to meditate is that I am not “Dena-ing”… that is, I’m not doing a task with which I can be identified. I’m also invisible when I meditate (not literally), in the sense that I’m not doing anything for which I will be recognized. Nobody’s going to notice me over here meditating; nobody sees how hard I’m working (irony intended). What am I getting out of this, right? These are the voices that come up. As Robert Hand puts it in Planets in Transit:

“…Neptune often has an ego-denying influence, which may make you feel discouraged, futile, undeserving and unworthy.”

But this “ego-denying influence” seems to be the medicine we need, paradoxically, to remind ourselves of who we are and what is truly important to us. When we get caught in the gratification-cycle model, the ego begins to feed upon itself, and hungers for more of the same food: approval and other externals which we believe show us our value. The danger is that we can lose perspective of the grand vision, our higher purpose, or the meaning behind all the tasking we are doing. Steven Forrest writes about Neptune transits:

“When Neptune strikes a chord, remember this: You are the problem. Something precious within you has become dissociated from your biographical life. Meanwhile, however, your outer self is going merrily along its way, trying to pretend that those old patterns still have life in them. Listen to that deeper voice. Allow it to guide you. Imagine. Dream. Flow.” The Changing Sky

During a Neptunian time, we need to be still, slow down, and forget who we currently think we are in order to reconnect with our soul. We might think we have it all figured out, and such woo-woo phrases as “go within” set our eyes to rolling. Like, I don’t have time to go within. Right? But if we miss this calling for a pause, a moment of rest, a time to daydream, then our actions become hollow. They drive us, instead of being inspired from us. And the world loses for us its mystery and beauty. Life becomes like a treadmill of endless duties, signifying nothing.

So, February is a time to…ahem…go within. Perhaps for you it will be to take a cup of tea, sit on the couch, and stare out the window. For an hour. Or maybe it will be an absolutely purposeless stroll in the woods (not even trying to “get some exercise.”) Or maybe, rather than hopping out of bed for that first cup of coffee, you want to spend some time to reflect on your dreams, playing with the images. Who knows where these things will lead?

—-
Visit Dena Decastro’s Website