NEPTUNE
Principles The craving for spiritual unity with the Divine, serenity, bliss, compassion, imagination. Illusion, self-deception, escapism.
Character and Themes
Spirituality, vision, imagination, inspiration, intuition, meaning, Logos. The inner life, dreams, fantasy, mystery, enchantment, appreciation. Feelings of unity, connection, mysticism, no boundaries, dissolving, surrender, lettin...g go, merging, absorption, blending of realities, other dimensions.
Peace, serenity, tranquility, divine relaxation, higher nurture, melted ecstasy, reunion with the source, ablution, atonement. Compassion, service, faith. Exhalation.
Shadow Qualities
Confusion, deception, self-deception, escapism, illusion. Projection of the Divine in spiritual, romantic, or materialistic mirages. Narcissism, “uroboric incest,” the desire to return to the archetypal ocean but in mistaken or unhealthy ways, addiction. Vulnerability, weakness, dissipation, dissolution, paranoia.
Nature – The Arts
Space, ocean, water, mist, fog, gentle breeze. – The Muses, Higher Beauty, ethereal, mystical or spiritual art. Iconism, symbolism, allegory, fantasy, surrealism, abstraction, flowing forms.
Archetypes, Spirituality
The numinous, the Divine, the Infinite, the Macrocosmic or Supracosmic Void that is empty yet all-containing, Cosmic Emptiness and Nothingness. The yoni, the womb of existence, cradle of all dimensions in the universe, the Deep, Tiamat, Oceanus, the face of the waters, “In the beginning was the Word.” The Universal Mind, the Great Mother, the mother of the universe, God, the godhead, Brahman, the Tao, Buddha nature, dharmadhatu: “ultimate reality.” Sophia, Shekhina, Ch’ung, Quetzalcoatl, the Great Manitou, the Great Soul, the Oversoul, the universal essence, higher Maya, Lila: divine play. The indestructible jewel, nirvana, sunyata, the rock that the wise man or woman builds his or her house upon, the New Jerusalem (i.e., an inner state of sacred consciousness rather than an external place).
Unus mundus: one world, “all things are the same,” “indivisible, yet…divided among beings,” cosmic unity, the blanket of Indra. Geist, self-subsistent meaning, self-subsistent Being, the Unknowable, “the irrepresentable space-time continuum,” the timeless aeons of prehistory, “the vast ground of silence,” eternity. Cosmos. - Pantheism, the Fool, the number zero, the mandala (circular pattern): symbol of spiritual wholeness. “The human love affair with the Divine,” “the goal of human life is to see God.” Grace.
Grof’s Basic Perinatal Matrix I (Tarnas). The amniotic universe, the biological, emotional, and spiritual union of fetus and mother in utero. The union of soul and Divine. Also “toxic womb” experiences. Oceanic or Apollonian type of ecstasy. Heaven, paradise, unio mystica, “Thou art that,” atman-Brahman unity.
Neptune sensitizes and spiritualizes any archetype it combines with.
Neptune Quotes
“The experience of cosmic unity is characterized by transcendence of the usual subject-object dichotomy. The individual in this state becomes deeply aware of his or her unity with other people, nature, and the entire universe, and with the ultimate creative principle, or God. This is accompanied by an overwhelming positive affect that can range from peace, serenity and bliss to an ecstatic rapture….This state of mind is referred to as “contentless yet all containing,” “formless but pregnant with form,” one of “cosmic grandeur yet utmost humility,” or characterized by loss of ego while at the same time the ego has expanded and become the whole universe. Different subjects experience and describe this event within different symbolic frameworks. Most frequent references are to Paradise, The Garden of Eden, Heaven, Elysian Fields, unio mystica, the Tao, Atman-Brahman union, or Tat Tvam Asi (Thou art That).”
Stanislav Grof
The kingdom of God is within you.
Jesus
God dwells within you as you.
Tenet of Siddha Yoga
Look within, you are the Buddha.
Buddhist scriptures
Basic Nature
Neptune represents the archetype of “no boundaries,” the seamless web of higher connection between all parts of the universe. It is the sublime reality referred to in the world’s great mystical traditions, the unbroken field of pure observing consciousness underlying all that exists. Neptune dissolves the illusions of separateness between ourselves, other people, the natural world, and the cosmic creative principle itself, infusing our consciousness with a mystical flavour and revealing the sacred energy permeating every molecule of creation. Transcending apparent boundaries and divisions, it has the potential to awaken experiences of blissful unity, seamless connection, and higher meaning in our perceptions of the world. Ultimately, the mystics refer to Neptune as: “the Supracosmic and Metacosmic Void, the mysterious primordial emptiness and nothingness that is conscious of itself and contains all existence in germinal form.” At this level, Neptune is more than an archetype—it is the totality of all the archetypes, and All There Is.
In order for the divine play of existence to occur, this ultimate Consciousness must split and differentiate itself into the myriad separate entities of the phenomenal world. We are the Neptunian Divine having a human experience—all the experiences—and our highest urge is to spiritually reawaken to this truer identity. Neptune is the deepest ground of being, the source and resting place of all things, where we come from and where we are going. Like droplets of the ocean that are evaporated, separated from the whole and carried through many cycles of experience then inevitably flowing back to reunite with the ocean, our deepest yearning is to reconnect with Divine Consciousness.
Neptune reminds us of our higher nature in dreams and inspiration, as ideas and meaning from beyond the veils emerge into the human world. It softens our boundaries and draws consciousness down into the realm of soul where it can be re-enchanted and renewed. Bringing feelings of relaxed security, a resolved Neptune creates an open sense of ourselves as bigger than the defensive ego. Because our true identity transcends the ego, threats to the ego are less important: The ebb and flows of fortune and difficulty are fully experienced while also being observed as if from a distance—to the transcendent part of us, nothing bad is actually happening. Consciousness is just changing forms, tasting the varieties of emotional experience.
There are many levels of Neptunian experience, from soaking in a warm bath, walking in nature, or emotionally merging with a lover —to, as Tarnas recognized, the serenity of the infant at the mother’s breast, the amniotic union in the womb, or ecstatic spiritual unity with all of creation. The experience of fundamental oneness with other people leads naturally to a desire to be of service and help others. As the Buddhists recognize, when we remove the arrow of ego-based suffering, compassion follows automatically. In the Christian tradition, the Neptunian figures are Mary and Jesus, ideal embodiments of tolerance, forgiveness, and love.
A well-integrated Neptune indicates a basic compassion and openness to spirituality, imagination, and inspiration. People will feel the self-evident validity and trust the guidance of their own inner life, what Joseph Campbell called following one’s bliss. The shadow side of Neptune emerges when its boundary-dissolving energies are experienced as confusing, deluding, or inflating. These issues are most likely to emerge when a person has unresolved “toxic womb” memories from being unwanted in utero or subject to maternal substance abuse, accidents, illness, or stress. These experiences result in blurred distinctions between everyday reality and the many other dimensions of consciousness available to the psyche. The solution to Neptune’s distortions, however, is not to adopt a more rigid identification with small “r” reality by building up the ego, but to surrender deeply to the emerging inner material and ultimately to the Divine within one’s own being. Grof refers to these unitive experiences as the oceanic or Apollonian type of ecstasy.
These melted states are also the antidote for the Neptune-Saturn problems of alcoholism and drug addiction. Addicts who reach genuine transcendence in therapy or self-exploration report that this was the experience they were craving all along. The intoxicated state was a crude approximation and cariacature of melted ecstasy, one that is clearly harmful and damaging, as opposed to the dramatic healing effects of genuine spiritual experiences. As Carl Jung said: spiritus contra spiritum: “spirituality is the antidote to spirits.” Drug and alcohol abuse, as well as codependence and other forms of escapism, are seen as understandable but mistaken strategies to go back to the cosmic womb and connect with the inner Divine.
This spiritual quest is also seriously inhibited by the world view of materialistic science, which denies and ignores the transpersonal dimensions of existence. People subscribing to this materialistic and monistic style of consciousness may be efficient and pragmatic in their everyday lives, but their inner experience will gradually become dry, barren and ultimately without higher meaning. It is possible to act responsibly in the world and fulfill one’s external obligations, while also opening one’s consciousness to the higher dimensions of reality. We can take the world seriously and at the same time periodically enter holotropic (from holos=“wholeness” and trepein=“moving toward”) states of consciousness that provide deeper and higher meaning in our lives. Holotropic states have played a central role in the spiritual lives of millions of people in pre-industrial and non-Western cultures, yet in our own culture they are inherently misunderstood and their enormous healing potential unutilized.
Neptune unveils the higher idealism and spirituality in any archetype it combines with. Planets aspecting or transiting Neptune reveal how and where imagination, compassion, and the mystical impulse are likely to manifest in people’s life experience. They also reveal the possibility of spiritual confusion or inflation: personally identifying with an archetype rather than fully experiencing and surrendering to its emotional energy in holotropic states.
