December 9th ~ 16th

Yes, there is a Nirvana; it is leading your sheep to a green pasture, and in putting your child to sleep, and in writing the last line of your poem. ~ Kahlil Gibran

There are 4 cross-corners to the Sun/Neptune cycle each year. If we were to begin with the Sun/Neptune conjunction on March 13th, this would have been the beginning of the Sun/Neptune cycle this year. That is when we were asked to plant our own fanciful dreams and notions in what we believed to be the fertile soil of possibility. And at each of the other corners of the year those ideals were and are then challenged for validity. Often they end up floundering haplessly upon the rough shoals of the Neptunian shores. But occasionally they can also offer us a glimpse into the realm of divine and/or magical possibility. 

On June 16th, 12 days before the retrograde station of Neptune, it made its first opening square to the Sun. This was the first challenge to our wistful notions planted in the earlier conjunction. This was a time of adjustment, which compelled us to dive deeply into the retrograde phase in order to cultivate our own internal Neptune: our dreams, our ideals, our imagination and our fantasies. Neptune junctures can feel hapless and unmoored, but it is also when we are inspired to seek ever greater understanding and meaning in our lives. And not doing so would make us feel as if something was missing. 

In the middle of the retrograde period the Sun opposes Neptune as it did on September 17th subsuming us in a collective Neptunian wave. Those who had been working on cultivating their connection with their own inner Neptune will have that inner gps system guiding them through the Neptunian matrix, confirming and reaffirming their ideals, while simultaneously divesting us of our delusions. Dreams are vivid, disappointments are laden, and the intuition is strong as we navigate the treacherous and liminal waters at the edge of the Neptunian sea. This is where we stand between the real and the unreal, between loss and transcendence.

And now, approximately 12 days after the direct station of Neptune, on December 14th we have yet another adjustment: the closing square between Sun and Neptune. This is when the rubber meets the road. Now that we are emerging out of the retrograde phase of Neptune, it could feel a bit like we are coming out of a long dream. And we are being asked to put those dreams and ideals into application in our everyday lives. 

It may be that we find our hopes and dreams out of alignment with reality or our current circumstances. And so we may ask ourselves: Is there something I can change in my life that would allow this dream to become a closer reality? And if there is nothing that can be done, what can I change in my perspective or my expectations, so that I can arrive at a greater level of acceptance and understanding of what is, or is not, realistically achievable? 

Neptune can drive us to madness with despair and disillusionment, but it can also carry us aloft to the land of the gods. When we center ourselves in our own inner Neptune, whether we do so through introspection, meditation, the imagination, or inner prayer, it can be a magical, beautiful and wistfully divine experience. If Neptune were to desire anything for us, it would be to find deeper meaning and purpose in our lives, and to recognize ourselves as being part of something much greater than ourselves. Neptune in action imbues us with compassion, inspires us to be charitable and fills us with a social conscience. It identifies with higher causes, and with those things that invest our lives with meaning and magic and beauty. 

Even in our ordinary everyday lives, we can feel its magical influence trying to remind us of who we really are. Neptune is that feeling you get when you see the magnificence of a perfect sunrise, when you write the last line of your poem, when you immerse yourself in the beauty and profundity of nature, walk by the sea, or notice the dew on the petal of a flower. Neptune is that which inspires, and fills your heart with meaning, whether in a dream, a song, or with the feel of a subtle breeze like the breath of a baby on your skin. Neptune is that experience you have when you do a good deed, say a kind word, or come to realize the ways that we are all so deeply moved by and connected to one another on these subliminal levels. 

And it is through these very ordinary experiences in our lives, that we are brought into alignment with that inner divine spark, and our most profound ideals. The sort of ideals that invest everything we do with meaning, no matter what happens, no matter where we are, no matter what we do or do not have. It is that which transcends the material world, and re-enchants our lives. 

And as much as I’d like to believe there’s a truth beyond illusion, I’ve come to believe that there’s no truth beyond illusion. Because, between ‘reality’ on the one hand, and the point where the mind strikes reality, there’s a middle zone, a rainbow edge where beauty comes into being, where two very different surfaces mingle and blur to provide what life does not: and this is the space where all art exists, and all magic. ~ Donna Tartt

What this week is good for: 

• Getting lost in your imagination: Draw, paint, play music, sing, dance, write poetry, watch a good movie, read a good book, and dream. 

• Practices that help to align you with your spiritual center: Meditate, Pray, Chant, read something spiritual. Take long walks in nature, near water, or seek solace in sacred spaces. 

• Let go of that which you no longer need to carry and is taking up too much room: Release. Forgive. Shake off the old leaves of regret, anger, dismay and sorrow, in order to make room for something better to take root.

• Connect with yourself: Reflect, journal, lay out the cards, read the I Ching, dig out the pendulum & oracles

• Doing activities that connect you to Neptune: Perform acts of compassion and random acts of kindness, a kind word, stop to listen, be present for others. Volunteer your time or your resources for a good cause. 

• Slowing down: Pay attention, See, Hear, Feel, Be present in order to honor and fully appreciate each moment.

For Neptune through the Solar and natal Houses, click below: 

HOROSCOPES

Image: “Dharma Moon” by H. Kopp-Delaney

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