Regarding neptune, I have been having some interesting conversations via email recently with astrology blogger extraordinaire Neeti Ray, keeper of the flame on Astrology Expressed. 
Our conversations were prompted by some recent postings on Neptune on my part and some comments and attitudes regarding Neptune and relationships on her site. She very kindly asked if she could use some of my thoughts and love as a guest blog on her site. Please visit Astrology Expressed. It’s a wonderful blog, and Neeti has a very fresh and honest viewpoint about living with and learning astrology.
One of the reasons I specialize in synastry is that relationships are the fast track to spiritual development (and even ordinary old common sense, when it comes down to it). We often learn more of the soul’s desire from being in relationship than we would in ten or twenty times the same space in ordinary ‘life’ experience. The state of love itself is a spiritual state, in all of its manifestations. The ability to experience love is both a gift, and a power. Sometimes, we give our power over to another, and sometimes we wield it, and learning about all that is part of the trial.
We often long for completion, yet we are not incomplete. However, there is something lacking in us, a cry for wholeness, which nags at us eternally. It is something inherent in us, the result of the separation from the Source which is physical manifestation. No human being born can complete us. However, we are born with the need to have certain experiences that expand our conscious awareness. Astrology tells us so much about this. Other people fit into our patterns of lack–perhaps connecting with us from other lives, perhaps not–and they help us learn what we’re here to learn, to know what we’ve come here to know. These people, these loves, appear to be the missing key to what is needed. Unfortunately, a lot of people mistake this for fate, for destiny, as if there is no choice, and I don’t blame them, because it feels like it. Some one or some thing has brought us exactly what we need, at the right place, at the right time. Why? Beats me. For me, it’s one of the great mysteries. It’s one of the things that has convinced me that not only is the universe intelligent, but, in its own perverse way, it is kind and generous.
If there was more proper synastric astrology about, people wouldn’t get into these delusions about one everlasting partnership. Or they might, but at least they would be forewarned. It’s one of the goals of my site, to wisen people up about the meaning of relationships. There’s too much negative Neptune about–we’re still experiencing the fallout from the so-called ‘Romantic’ period (when Neptune was discovered) and the fallout from the Medieval period, when courtly love (i.e. longing for the unattainable) was the order of the day. I think there are more and more of us who are experiencing other ways that Neptune weaves us together, no less powerful or passionate, no less profound, but more purposeful, less delusional. Sometimes I think that our ideas about what relationships should be are 600 years out of date.
It drives me crazy when people start categorizing states or stages of love, as if there is some kind of ladder of love we need to climb. I don’t think it works like that. Love is so varied, so multi-planed, so infinite, that I don’t believe the human mind or heart can grasp its reaches, let alone give us some kind of twelve step plan to a twin flame existence (God, I hate that term, twin flame, don’t you? It’s like something someone would read on a Hallmark card.). There are even some otherwise very good astrologers out there who think they have it all figured out–which just tells me very loudly that they don’t know what they’re talking about.
I don’t agree that soul connections are about unresolved issues between people. Sometimes they are. But that’s far too mundane an explanation. Sometimes, a lot of times, they’re about healing. We can help one another heal. Sometimes they’re about pure joy. Sometimes they’re about taking responsibility. Sometimes people are here for us to simply help us through, or to learn. Those aren’t issues. And yes, I have to say it, sometimes they’re about giving unconditionally. But the giving that we do in those circumstances is never painful, and doesn’t leave us lacking. It brings us more joy. It makes us stronger. And it teaches us how and when to let go, that when we let go, we don’t lose love, we live it. It becomes a part of us.
There is a mistaken notion that people who love are always on the same level of loving. It isn’t always an equal playing field. This is where we get into difficult territory, because we can be intensely in love with people who are not up to our level of loving, and cannot reciprocate. However, where real love is concerned, there is always a kindness and an understanding that allows us to let go.
The notion of ‘forever after’ in love is rather strange to me, because for me, the love we feel for others is always forever, embedded within us. If the love is genuine, we will pick up where we left off. In particular, intense sexual loves carry the deepest imprint. There is a belief in Tantric Buddhism that every time we make love to a person, we create a little ‘ghost,’ an echo, a psychic imprint that will reverberate through time. What we often don’t realize, and what I hope we are opening towards, is that these seemingly ‘extraordinary’ experiences of love are everyday, common experiences. The world is not put together in the way we have been taught. And we need to be more careful about where we put our energy.
It’s human nature to want to cling. Deep down, we know our lives here are ephemeral, and we fear it. Our reaction to our human brevity is to long for ‘forever’ types of love. For one love that will never alter, never abandon. Yet in real terms, each love is defined by the participants, and each love is unique, with its own purpose and history. Some of our loves will develop side by side. For others, we will play ‘give and take’ throughout lifetimes. But in truth, we are obsessed with love because the experience of loving is one of the few in life that allows us to experience our own immortality. When we are in love, we are at one with the movement of the universe. We are past, present and future all in one. No boundaries can contain us, there is nothing we can’t achieve. If we had more of a sense of how we could use this power, we would advance so much, so far.
As I’ve said to you, Neptune and I are old friends. My experiences of him have run the gamut, from the typical longing for the ‘unattainable’ in my youth to, well, the strange and intense and awe-inspiring new experiences of love that keep coming along. If we’re open to love, it is never finished. It grows stronger and wiser and more flexible and more sure. The kind of power that love wields, the power of awakening and understanding and healing, is alive and running through all of us, all of the time, if only we would stop being distracted by temporal things. If only we could tap into it on a regular basis, instead of focusing on the silly bits, think how far we could go…
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dawn Bodrogi has studied astrology since the age of twelve, and has been a practicing astrologer for over twenty years with a special emphasis on synastry. Her studies in Jungian psychology, alchemy, and Buddhist philosophy inform her work. Her upcoming book, The Inner Wheel, takes a new look at interpreting secondary progressions. You can see more of Dawn’s work at her blog, The Inner Wheel: Living with Astrology.