NEPTUNE: REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS TIMELESS

Neptune goes Direct in early December. Just as Pluto abducts, dismembers and renews, so does Neptune madden, drown and re-ensoul. The difference between the two is poetic rather than literal. Astrology itself is better viewed as poetry rather than some kind of fact.

Transits from Neptune are not easy, but if you are going to seriously transform, life may need to be difficult. What is the point of being here if we don't face serious challenges as to who we are, that may go on and on for years, until finally the ground is ready for a new piece of soul to be born, around which our whole being re-arranges itself?

If you are in the middle of a Neptune transit, let the water fill your lungs, let your consciousness drift away from this world and into the loving embrace of Mother Ocean. Ariel's Song from the Tempest puts it well:

"Full fathom five thy father lies; Of his bones are coral made; Those are pearls that were his eyes; Nothing of him that doth fade, But doth suffer a sea change Into something rich and strange."

Neptune moving forward points to a new phase. The retrograde motion, if you like, pulled you into what seemed like the swamp. Now you can start to pull yourself out. What I mean by that is that things you were not clear about, and were not ready to be clear about, can now be clear. Retrograde Neptune tests our ability to dwell in the not-knowing, the 'negative capability' to accept “uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” (Keats) Neptune's reputation for confusion is often simply this "irritable reaching after fact and reason."

If you are at the end of a Neptune transit, with Neptune already a degree or two away from its exact crossings, then you may be ready for the soul to unfold. It is time to remember who you always were.

 

 

MERCURY

Mercury is changing signs, from Sagittarius to Capricorn. This planet describes the way our minds work. He will do a dance between the 2 signs until mid January. So we are entering a period where, you could say, idealism and pragmatism are having to speak to each other. The ongoing struggle in Israel/Gaza comes to mind.

The principle is that a sign grows out of the preceding one. (I think more could be made of this in astrology.) In this case, it involves taking big, maybe philosophical ideas and making them practical. Fire meets Earth. It is a combination that has the energy of incarnation in it. So ask yourself during this period about your beliefs (Sag) in particular: do they keep me in a comfort zone, above and beyond the big, bad world, or do they stand the test of reality, of being lived?

 

 

TALKING TO TREES

It is arguable that plants, and particularly trees, be assigned to the 4th House. They are the life-form that stays in one place, that has physical roots. They are at home to themselves. If you are feeling out of sorts, talk to a tree and you will come back to yourself. That within you which has yet to unfold will be given the attention it needs.

Maybe choose a tree associated with the sign on your IC, or its ruler. In my own case, I have Sagittarius on the IC. I recently planted a Japanese Snowbell tree in my garden. It brought the fairies with it, and I spoke to them, and my prayers were quickly answered in the usual tricksy way the fairies have, where you learn something. For me this tree is Sagittarius not just because it brings the spirit realm with it, but also because it comes from a faraway land.

 

 

PREDICTING THE FUTURE

As an astrologer, I don't see the difference between predicting the future and predicting the present. And, indeed, the past. If you can't tell people things about themselves in the present that are true, then they probably won't be impressed, and rightly so. And the same goes for the future and the past. People are looking for guidance, and for magic, a universe that reveals itself as alive and enchanted, beyond time and space, that knows them and cares about them.

Predicting the future has become something that many modern astrologers have become too sophisticated to attempt. Indeed, it is often judged as something we should not do. I think that is a craven attempt to make astrology appear more rational, in the modern, narrow sense of the word. Astrologers collectively yearn for respectability.

Predicting the future provides us with a great opportunity to show people how to relate to it, and that kicks back into how we should relate to the present. Sometimes we may have a specific intuition about the future, and we may or may not tell the client. But generally, what we can always see are shapes in the mist, pointing people in a general direction about themselves, but not giving them easy answers.

What one paradoxically learns as an astrologer is just how unpredictable the future is. "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans." So we can point people to the boat they need to get into - it's this one, that crosses the river Styx, or it's this one, in which you may feel drowned, but don't worry - and that helps them be in their life, instead of looking for answers at a distance from it.

The future tells us that change will happen, so hang loose to who you are, surrender your will to the intentions of those 10 gods and more, the sky spirits whose callings we cannot resist. And that, in turn, becomes a lesson for the present. And maybe our past too: it is a story that changes each time in the telling.