Neptune-related issues continue to crop up both in my life and in the lives and relationships of friends and clients, so I decided to pull this article on the effect Neptune has in our natal charts for today’s Saturday Archive post. In my personal opinion, Neptune is the most difficult planet to deal with in relationships, because it is so easy to mislead ourselves and others with only the best of intentions and the highest motives.

Neptune is so good at creating illusions and causing us to second-guess ourselves, it’s no wonder this post got put on hold. However, I have been seeing Neptune aspects showing up with great frequency in chart comparisons lately, so I thought I would take another shot at the elusive one.

Reading over on Elsa P’s blog the other day, I came across a great description of the way Neptune operates, especially in synastry. Here is the quote: And then he said the perfect “Neptune” thing. “It’s not that you look like a whore, it’s that they want you to be a whore… they wish you were a whore so when they look at you, you’re a whore.

If Neptune is playing a major role is synastry (aspecting the personal planets in particular) wishes truly can become horses and you can ride off into La La Land, no problem. We want to believe the best of anyone that we care about, and in general that’s no bad thing. One or two Neptune aspects, especially Venus-Neptune aspects, can amp up the romance factor and make all concerned very happy. If there are some good solid Saturn aspects to keep all parties grounded in something resembling reality, Neptune aspects add a nice touch to the overall relationship.

Where unrealistic expectations and projections start to become problematical is if there are several Neptune intra-aspects (same planets from both charts). For example, if Neptune is conjunct or square Mercury, it’s very easy for miscommunications to start snowballing. We can read way too much into the simplest statements and end up thinking someone is head over heels in love with us when they are putting out “friends only.”

Neptune on the Ascendant is often found in the charts of actors and actresses, allowing them to appear to be someone they’re not. All of us watching them perform are part of the agreement to suspend disbelief and see them as the role they are playing. For an ordinary person, Neptune on the Ascendant can create problems because it can be difficult to know exactly how others are seeing us in our day to day interactions in the world at large. Our friends and lovers are ga ga over their idea of who we are, not the actual person. Conversely, Neptune can lead us to believe we are quite undesirable unless we have ourselves painted to the hilt. The beauty industry makes big bucks off this . . . really big bucks.

There is a great deal to be said for consulting a trusted neutral third party if Neptune is heavily involved in synastry to help sort out what is really happening. I know I have brought up unmanifested potential before with Neptune aspects. I have Moon conjunct Neptune natally and can usually see the possibilities inherent in an individual. The dicey part is that those possibilities may never materialize.

posted by Neith . . .