Month: May 2024

Neptune, the shape shifter, creative, compassionate, idealistic, ethereal, escapist, evasive, downright dishonest, chillingly cruel, addictive-prone and commitment-phobic is a complex, multi-faceted energy and tricky to pin down. Its’ artistic repertoire tends to focus on music but also the image – photography and films.

  On the Ascendant Neptune can give ‘bedroom eyes’, an attractive, appealing appearance which draws bystanders in with a magnetic power though may hide a ragbag of self delusion and confusion. Sensitive, impressionable, easily led.

Neptune in the 2^nd house of personal finances at best gives the ability to earn money through creative or helpful ventures, can be idealistic and humanitarian about resources, but tends to be unrealistic, impractical and careless when it comes to money management.

Neptune in the 3^rd house of siblings and everyday communications, tends to make for muddled and/or disappointing relationships with brothers, sisters and cousins, as well as workmates and neighbours in adult life. A tendency to trip into misunderstandings through mixed messages, not concentrating on details or stopping to check what was intended. Generally head-in-the-clouds. Finds it difficult to give straight answers.

Neptune in the 4^th house of family and roots produces dreams and delusions of a perfect home and family, preferably near water as a compensation for a chaotic childhood family life.  It can bring an idealized view of father in particular, which overlooks his weaknesses. The father is often unable through incapacity or temperament to be a solid, sensible presence. The family often demands sacrifices of the individual so there is a sense of having to choose between personal identity and belonging to the family. It is one or the other, not both.

Neptune in the 5^th house of children, romance and creativity. Musicians and singers abound, as do romantic dreams and illusions but emotional staying power and commitment is often absent. Yearning for the perfect love leads to disappointment as reality falls a short. Children, as with Paul Auster below who had a drug addict son and a singer daughter, can be creative or prone to Neptune’s failings. Often there is confusion around children, sometimes a lack of responsibility in caring for them. The 5^th house also rules speculation and Neptune can be intuitive though taking risks with money can backfire.

Neptune in the 6^th house of work and health – can be good for those in the healing and helping professions though suggests slightly delicate physical constitution. Not ill health so much as needing to take care and not over push excesses, whether with overwork or eating/drinking too much. There can be unreliability where work is concerned.  

Neptune in 7^th house of one-to-one relationships can give a telepathic understanding of partner’s needs and unspoken thoughts, though can lack commitment and responsibility in cooperative ventures and in relationships. Will tend to attract Neptunian partners who can be spiritual, creative or evasive and unreliable.

Neptune in the 8^th house of joint finances and sexuality. Caution needed when handling business finances or taxes, credit cards etc since there may be confusion about responsibilities and paying back loans. Partners will tend to be equally lax when it comes to practical financial matters. Secrets will tend to slide out into the open, financial and other, at inopportune moments. Film stars often have Neptune in the 8^th since it seems to bestow an ability to project an aura, probably unconsciously. Gives an interest in the occult, clairvoyance and psychic matters. Suggests a psychic grandparent.

Neptune in the 9^th house of religious and spiritual beliefs, higher education, knowledge and legal affairs. Inclines the individual towards mystical beliefs rather than organized religion. Creative with words though not always good at concentrating so education can suffer.

Neptune in 10^th house of career and reputation. Good for caring and healing professions and creative ones. Personal glory is less important than following the vision. Can bring confusion about direction, indecision or irresponsibility at work. Mother will be Neptunian – and the child may be the carer, forced into adult responsibilities too young. Lack of psychological boundaries with mother can carry over into adult life which can be helpful vis a vis intuition but can also bring confusion.

Neptune in 11^th house of friends and future plans. Idealistic, spiritual and/or creative friends, humanitarian group activities. Can also be unreliability in friendships either because of lack of commitment to the responsibilities involved or because Neptunian friends prove to be evasive.

Neptune in the 12^th house of the unconscious and secrets. Escapist, dreamy, intuitive, can be addictive-prone. Mystical beliefs, creative sensitivity Not good psychic boundaries so need to protect self. Peace and seclusion needed along the way to clear out psychological clutter soaked in from other people.

University students voicing displeasure with authorities and the status quo is practically a rite of passage from the anti-Vietnam uprisings in the mid 1960s alongside anti-apartheid and pro-civil rights demos when the revolutionary transiting Uranus Pluto conjunction was in place. French students staging mass protests in 1968, involving street fights, demanded democratic and educational reforms, cultural liberation, social justice, and better working conditions. The protests had a lasting impact on French society and politics and also on a global level, inspiring similar movements in other countries.

  There are armed clashes at the moment at Columbia University in New York and UCLA over the Palestine situation, with some blaming outside agitators. The 1960s protests had the advantage of being fought on simpler issues – apartheid is wrong, the Vietnam War is a disaster and should be stopped, freedom of speech should be inviolable.

 That Gaza and the Palestinians have been badly treated by successive Israel governments with the complicit (and inexplicable) support of USA governments over the years is not in question. But as Janet Daley argued, the pro-Palestine demonstrators are putting their bodies on the line for – an alignment with forces supported by the most illiberal, authoritarian, repressive regime in the world.

  I’m not sure I have much that is illuminating apart from a few pointers.  Assuming the students who are demanding their right to be heard are around 20 at the moment they were born, some of them, with the Uranus in Pisces square Pluto in dogmatic Sagittarius so will be rebels by nature; with the added turmoil of the North Node in Taurus.

 Columbia University, 25 May 1754, oddly enough also has Uranus in Pisces square Pluto in Sagittarius, so echoes of the past have come back to set off a few firecrackers of resistance.  If this chart is anything to go by the disruptions will continue for another two years at least, if not five.

 UCLA has had a muddled history since the start, with the earliest version being founded 2 May 1862, which has a determined Taurus Sun and Pluto square Mars and trine Jupiter Saturn in Virgo; with Saturn Jupiter square Uranus. The Mercury is conjunct the can-be-fanatical Uranus Neptune midpoint.

  Perhaps the USA 4 July 1776 11 am chart with the Solar Arc Saturn conjunct the 9^th house (= higher education) Mars almost exactly now is stoking up some of the destructive, fractious, irritable energy.

  The students may be embroiled in a more complicated issue than they know but if they could exert enough pressure to persuade the US government to insist on a civilized solution to the Palestinians’ seventy five year ordeal, then it may not all be wasted effort.

ADD ON: A later date for UCLA is 23 May 1919. This certainly shows up a propensity for ructions, disruptions and violent protests with its Sun in Gemini conjunct Mars in Taurus conjunction square Saturn in Leo. Tr Uranus is square the Saturn exactly now and moving on to conjunct the Mars and Sun in 2025 – so it won’t settle anytime soon.  This chart in particular clashes with Israel’s Taurus Sun square Mars in Leo.

Paul Auster, author of The New York Trilogy and The Music of Chance has died. He acquired a cult-life following from his Kafkaesque novels in which ‘his protagonists would battle their way through surreal events to be confronted by the realisation that life is meaningless, motivation impossible to fathom and human beings’ sense of their own identity a fragile illusion’, according to one review.

  His main thesis was of how chance events can derail or rehabilitate a life. Which is not so surprising since he escaped death by inches in his teens when the boy in front of him was killed by a lightning strike; wrote his first successful novel on the basis of a wrong number phone call which sparked a plot – and later discovered his paternal grandmother had shot his grandfather, with his six year old father within earshot. Auster’s own drug addict estranged son died of an overdose while awaiting trial for the manslaughter through negligence of his 10 month old baby, Auster’s granddaughter.

  At which point an astrologer heads for his chart to extract clues as to why his life was so knife-edge, high-stress and catastrophe-prone.

 He was born 3 February 1947 12.20am Newark, New Jersey, with his Sun in Aquarius conjunct his IC conjunct Mars and opposition Pluto Saturn in Leo. Sun Mars and Saturn Pluto is heavy-duty, a walk on the dark side, deprived, challenging but giving him grit and perseverance. His Mars Saturn may be an echo of the father who was a bystander at his own father’s death. Luckily Paul Auster had his Mercury square Jupiter in Scorpio in his 1^st to give him a streak of optimism.

 What intrigued me was his son Daniel, 12 June 1977, who had his Sun Jupiter in Gemini conjunct father Paul Auster’s 8^th house Uranus  – the drug addict son connected back into his father’s generational trauma of the murdered grandfather with the grandmother later being acquitted on a plea of insanity.

 Paul Auster did have Neptune ruling his 5^th house of children, with Pisces on the cusp with one drug addict son and a daughter who is musician.

 His life may have seemed arbitrary, a series of surreal coincidences but his chart does have crucial clues as to a life pattern that did give even the extreme events which befell and surrounded him a meaningful context. He would not have appreciated astrology.

ADD ON: When Paul Auster had his lucky escape from a lightning strike at 14, Jupiter was highlighted – tr Jupiter conjunct his Sun Mars; SA Jupiter conjunct his South Node; and SA Pluto square his Jupiter. His first breakout publishing success came in the early 1980s on his Jupiter return and perhaps more significantly with his Solar Arc Pluto square SA Sun square his 8^th house Uranus – the curse and the blessing of his intergenerational legacy.

 Paul Auster appeared to have been obsessed by dead children who appeared in several novels: see https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/authors/daniel-auster-death-paul-auster-novels/

  And his own son Daniel walked on the dark side, being a witness to a brutal drug killing involving his associates in the 1990s. He had Mars Venus Chiron Moon in Taurus opposition Uranus square Saturn in Leo – which collided unhappily with his father’s Saturn Pluto opposition Mars Sun. The sins of the past generations all piling up to implode in this one.