I spoke a lot about Neptune last week and since it is still in play, I want to talk more about it this week as well. When I teach my archetypal classes, I share stories I learned along the way. When I work with clients on their charts, I share stories of what archetypes are active in their charts at a specific time and a story drives home the point better than a bunch of words. So here goes.
Neptune has two sides as do all the planets. The two sides have to do with inspiration (which comes from the word Spirit) or madness and ecstatic experience. There are two stories I remember from Wendy Ashley, a mentor of mine, and another story from Liz Greene, Jungian specialist, and well-known astrologer. The following stories drove home the two sides of Neptune, also known as Dionysus or Bacchus in the Roman pantheon. Following is story one from Ashley:
Dionysus’ name means ‘he who is twice born.’ Why ‘twice born’? Zeus (Jupiter) was in love with Semele, a beautiful mortal. She became pregnant with Dionysus and Zeus had promised her anything she wanted because of this new child she carried. She asked Zeus to show himself as a ‘full god.’ Zeus knew full well that if he granted her wish, she would be consumed by flames – but he promised and so he did.
In that moment, the baby Dionysus is released from her womb and Zeus immediately places little Dionysus into his thigh for a few more months so that his son would have a successful birth. Once Dionysus arrives at the Pantheon of the Gods, Hestia (Vesta in Rome) gives up her seat (to tend the sacred fire) so that Dionysus now has a seat at the Pantheon. He becomes, at best, an uncontrollable god of stark contrasts ranging from the ability to bestow inspiration and hope all the way to bestowing extreme ecstasy and madness and much like the energy of the currents of the oceans. Following is story two from Greene.
Dionysus, associated with Neptune is also associated with Poseidon, the god of the seas. He wanders the world like a drug-crazed rock star. If you want an image – think of Jim Morrison of the Doors. As he makes his way through towns, women, both single and married, succumb to a need for an ‘ecstatic experience’ which will, ultimately, in the end transform them. The women drop everything to follow him to the mountain top for the ‘ecstatic experience.’ The husbands who foolishly try to go after their wives are destroyed by Dionysus. Other husbands, who think twice, wait patiently until their wives return and are not destroyed by Dionysus. Meanwhile, the very stern, Saturnian figure, King Pentheus, fearful of what is happening in his kingdom, tries first to imprison Dionysus, but Dionysus is a god and cannot be contained.
Pentheus, in desperation, disguises himself as a woman to see what is going on spying on the women as they descend from the mountain top. Ironically, they are led by his own mother! The women including his mother are still imbued with this ecstatic and mesmeric hyper-sense still in process of transformation and even somewhat crazed. Because of this, they ‘know’ the disguised king is not a woman but someone invading their momentary lapse. They attack King Pentheus and dismember him (I know a horrible image). But as Greene continues with her story, she shares the image of Pentheus’ own mother, not in her right senses, putting her dismembered son on a stick while leading the entourage down the mountain as they slowly come back to reality. Yes, a horrible story, yet Greene wraps up this whole story by saying, that when Neptune is hyper-active… “If you don’t use your head, then you will ultimately lose it.”
Neptune is going to be in the last degrees of Pisces for another year and a half. Greene’s take on this myth, especially now as we move into a very dicey election season, along with war teetering throughout the world suggests we use our heads. Step back, assess, and think before we act or speak.
As this week unfolds, Mars in late Cancer is disrupting and opposite Pluto. Another aspect is icy Saturn is in a hard aspect (square) to the usually fun-loving Venus in Sagittarius. Key thing is don’t lose your head this week. Push through to get projects finished for which there is consensus. If there is contention, the smart thing is to step back, not lose one’s head, then re-visit it closer to week’s end.
Venus is in middle Sagittarius and what we call out of bounds – so she is conducting social contracts (possibly involving foreign deities) that we are not able to completely see quite yet. With Saturn in hard aspect to Venus – taking a hard look at international challenges and what must be done to quell the political heat may be in the news. Saturn helps cool things down; a good part of what Saturn can do in a positive way.
