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James - I do not regard the terms benefic and malefic as black and white and neither did the ancients. Malefics can bring both good and bad but ultimately they tend to bring more difficulty than good, and often good is mixed with difficulty. Even the ancients did not believe malefics were entirely "bad," but their energies were more unpredictable and generally more difficult than some of the other planets. However, they could still bring good and they said as much. That is not black and white at all. If anything, they were very gray about the terms. I often hear modern astrologers give a cursory response about malefic and benefic terms being too black and white but it is they that interpret the terms that way.

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Tanit3333 wrote:Neptune also can show compassion, healing abilities and intuition in natal charts. I am on the fence about Neptune transits, though. I personally have experienced it as malefic when it aspects my personal planets, especially with hard aspects.
I agree. And even though in natal I like Neptune ifluences , it does malefic in transits. Even in synasty I tend to be super cautious of Neptune hard aspects. I also have quite a bit of Saturn in my chart. I would choose Saturn hard aspects over Neptune anytime.

:D
Last edited by Serene on Sun Dec 09, 2018 2:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Serene wrote: I agree. And even though in natal I like Neptune ifluences (the harmonious ones), it did become malefic in transits. Even in synasty I tend to be super cautious of Neptune hard aspects. I also have quite a bit of Saturn on my chart. I would choose Saturn hard aspects over Neptune anytime.

:D
Good point about synastry. It's hard not to project your own feelings and desires onto others and neptune involvement can make it even harder.

When I was in college and beyond I took art classes and painted a lot. Those were some of the most sublime and joyful times of my life. I will give that one to neptune.

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tanit,

if there is a more nuanced view on the terms malefic and benefic, then i am keen to understand it...you mention it yourself- the ancients were very grey on the terms... as it is, reading others views on neptune transits, or understanding my own is more enlightening then trying to put neptune or the other outers in this malefic or benefic box...

i feel the same way about defining aspects as good or bad, soft or hard... these ideas only go so far..

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I have some harsh aspects happening and I was worried in particular about transiting Neptune moving into a partile conjunction with natal Saturn which sits exactly on my 8th house cusp. When I started experiencing some health problems I even cast a horary chart to see if I was about to die (I don't think so. Not yet anyway Smile ).The health problems then disappeared as mysteriously as they started.

I've realized, though, that a whole bunch of other things have happened including:

1. The income tax people messing up my taxes (for once it wasn't me).

2. A water main break on my street about 50 metres from my place.

3. A burst water pipe in my building.

4. A short circuit in the boiler which left the building without hot water for a while.

5. The valve that controls the hot water heating system in my apartment needed to be replaced - this was discovered after the temperature went up to 27C in my apartment.

6. The valve that had been replaced had to be fiddled with again two weeks later when again the temperature went way up.

7. I discovered a leak behind my kitchen sink.


So nothing too bad (touch wood). Hopefully things stay this manageable.

I suppose though, I should apologize to my neighbours for bringing this scourge upon them!
I wrote the above in a different thread.

This last week I had to have a plumber in again to fix the seal on the toilet tank as it was leaking. So I guess Saturn + Neptune = leaks from aging plumbing/infrastructure.


Sorry to hear of your Neptune outcome, @Donna Chang. London sounded better than dentistry, that's for sure! :(
The Moon is opposing Jupiter. Don't get involved, it's their problem. Jim Critchfield

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Really great to read such feedback on this planet I can relate to.

Neptune is incredibly enigmatic. One of the best profiles I ever read, many years ago in either Dell Horoscope or American Astrology, was Anais Nin, who was apparently a triple Pisces and they selected an excerpt of some of her non-erotic writing which was unbelievably beautiful. She waxed poetic in her lucid interpretations of undersea life replete with tendrils, ferns, the movement of the waves. I was so inspired I devoted the next several months to painting just waves. Those natural explorations were her finest writing.

Also on Neptune; Max Heindel writing on the dangers of alcohol for those afflicted with badly aspects, i.e., DTs not simply being physiological effects but actually manifesting elementals.

Furthermore: a rather eerie bit of Hollywood nostalgia came out some years back. I just googled it and somewhat surprised it survived and was recently released. It's called Return to Babylon, and a lot of the rather dark, unsettling images seem to have been scrubbed by the producer- weird as it is. I mention it because it seems a fitting example of overpowering illusion.

I realize Neptune was discovered in 1846, but only 20 years before that the first photo was taken. I've already seen the thread and all the planetary assignments made to the camera, but I can't remove ILLUSION.
And just look at the lives changed and frequently ruined by Hollywood and the illusion, and delusion of what it stands for.

Then there's Chopin, our favorite opium addict, with his watery Raindrop Prelude. His Sun, Venus and Pluto, all in Pisces. He died of any number of speculative illnesses at only 39. He was known to exclaim "I AM my piano!"

Prolific Joni Mitchell, loads of water- Moon and MC in Pisces. Which of her songs doesn't cascade and flow?

I have Neptune in Scorpio, 11th house, with an assortment of aspects, some good, some bad. It has fueled so much in my life.

This is a very powerful planet. You learn to respect it, or drown.

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I wanted to thank again everyone who commented on my post about neptune's influence and whether I should go to London or not (Neptune is square my sun in gemini by transit.) In fact I did go to London and had a lovely time! I spent oodles of time in uncrowded art museums, bookstores, had great weather, nice homey accommodations...blah blah.

I still think neptune is weird and ambiguous but I'm not so negative and wary about it as I was before this trip.

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I was very curious what Jac said about Chopin, so looked up his chart. Astro data bank give it DD data, so the time of birth could be out. My guess is that the Ascendant is about 14 degrees Virgo 18 minutes, which would aspect within one degree the Moons Nodes antiscion at 13 degrees 18 minutes Pisces, which would indicate fame, and also turn the Ascendant axis and all it aspects to closed.

No luck with linking either the astro data bank page or wikipedia page for Chopin, you need to Google them. The astro data bank page said Chopin composed his first pieces age seven.

I added transits to give a rough idea of what was happening when he was about seven years old, when his talent was already showing.

The antiscion of his Mars is 22 degrees Virgo 14 minutes, which was being activated by both Pluto and Neptune at this time around the age of seven.
Image

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I have Neptune exactly over gacrux at 6.47 of scorpio this has initiated a strongly secretive Christain theme in my life.Especially when Neptune transited my ascendant ruler Mercury.
An interesting observation concerning Gacrux is that when armed soldiers in
Manila Philippines were ordered by Ferdinand Marcos to kill demonstrators on the streets, who had been holding rosaries & praying the rosary, a strange thing happened.The virgin Mary appeared in front of the soldiers & told them
not to harm her children.So overwhelmed were the soldiers by the apparition that they turned against Marcos.
This occurred in 1986 as Pluto was over gacrux.

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with Neptune over Gacrux the Pope announced changes i.e. the second Vatican council which relaxed the strict rules for nuns which caused up-to 90000 nuns to leave their calling unhappy with the changes.
The second Vatican council seems to be the reason the apparition of Mary at Fatima, wanted the secrets exposed before 1960 but the third secret remained hidden some speculate it is about the smoke of satan entering the Vatican, & the subsequent abuse scandal.A mystery very Neptune in Scorpio we will never know the third secret.
The other theme of Neptune in Scorpio is Martin Luther King's famous speech I have a dream the Pastor was assassinated leading to mass riots whilst Neptune was in Scorpio