I try to hide most of the astrologuese in the footnotes because so many folks have complained that it Confuses them. Yes, Confusion is the First Stage of Growth, because it indicates that the Conceptual Bars in our Mental Birdcage have come loose, Granny isn’t home, and we’re expecting Sylvester to notice our Broken Cage any minute. Almost all of the educational systems in Western Civilization are Dictatorial and Dualistic, with a great emphasis on Right and Wrong, and a Strong Multi-Pronged Enforcement System on the Right part, including the liberal application of Shame. Shame is an excellent Enforcer, and many of us grew up under its thumb – or its knee on our neck.
I’m making a frequent exception for Moon Out of Bounds, which makes us more Vulnerable to Freakout, because it so dominates its 22-year Cycle, where for eleven or so years it goes Out of Bounds for several days every two weeks, then for the next ±11 years it stays In Bounds the whole time. Classic examples from the first Moon OOB of the prior and current Cycles – the first Moon OOB of the previous Cycle occurred at 9 am on 11 September 2001, which you may remember. The first Moon OOB of the current Cycle began when “On 16 or 17 March 2020, we find out whether the Coronavirus is the Headliner, or just a Teaser, as the Moon begins going ‘Out-of-Bounds’ (further away from the Equator than the ‘Tropics’ of Cancer and Capricorn at 23:27° N or S of the Ecliptic) in earnest.” (https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2020/03/16/truth-or-dare/)
And it makes sense to make exceptions for the classical planets, which are probably familiar to most everyone, at least by name. Such as Neptune, which signifies Material Confusion and Spiritual Clarity, and which is Lit Up Bigtime (Standing Still in the Sky) until at least 12:54 am PDT 28 June 2022.1 The impact of planets on us Hupers and our Planet, is Greatest when they Stand Still.2 Neptune also symbolizes Everything Bigger Than the Individual Ego, but of course any Recognition that something larger than the Individual Ego Exists is likely to dump a Huper into Confusion about the Nature of Matter, so this is merely a Corollary. Spiritual Clarity moves us Beyond the Ego, but the Ego has to have enough Presence to remember to Request it.
The Neptune Station “features” two Challenges3 (known in the astrovernacular by the quaint geometrical term “T-Square”). They’re both Self-Resolving, but not Doubly so.4
One of them is a Contest between two Rival Compulsions.5 We Crave Rebirth, to Liberate us from our Limitations. But our Limitations are founded in our Security, and the Ego does nothing if not Protect our Security.6 So we Really Want to Clear that Brain Fog, so we can Focus more Intensely on our Enlightenment. But our Limitations are even Stronger, so they Really Want another Cookie, so we can Space Out and Avoid Facing the Sources of our Limitations and Clearing them! Besides, they’re very Deep, and we may not be able to Clear them! What if we’re able to Dredge them up out of the Dungeon, undo all those decades and Lifetimes of Conscious Suppression, forgo all that Hard-Earned Comfort, and they still won’t Leave? Our Life just becomes a Huge, Uniform Bummer again! Right?
Well, Life is Risky. I always suggest appending Lovingly and Gently to our PIAVAs, because if we bite off more than we can chew, it can set us back. Natha Jay advises, “Two coping skills stand out for this passage: remember to rest and be careful what you wish for” (https://medium.com/@nathajay/and-were-off-d5c27c7ad203). I’m already violating the first Skill, by exercising (successful) new Denial Skills to push away Brain Fog so I can Strive to finish these essays while the Energy is still Current. I know we’re Eager, but using another of Natha’s Metaphors, we don’t need to “Push the River.” We have All the Time in the World. Linear Time is an Illusion, one we Create.7 The secret door to this My-Own-Time Universe, according to Gay, is to Ask yourself, “What Am I Not Owning? ” I sounds weird, but it works.
The other Self-Resolving Challenge revolves around Neptune itself. As it Stands Still, it’s Merged with Guilt and The Brutality of the Patriarchy.8 If you were raised Catholic or one of the other Autocratic or Guilt-based Religions, you’re probably dealing with a good deal of Ancient Anger these days. Lord Knows there are ample Present-Moment Stories to Focus that on, potentially Losing the Opportunity to Dump a Solid Load of Karma.
Neptune is the Outlet for these Stresses. The complex Source of the Stresses9 Revolve around our Feeling that we’re Stuck with it, that we’re Powerless against the Patriarchy. While that may be True in the short run, it’s not at all True in the long-term TimeLine. Remember that it will be 2081 before the New Pholus-Quaoar Cycle Climate Change Energy reaches its Waxing Square10 and becomes Mainstream, two generations hence. The demise of the Patriarchy will take at least that long as well. Like the Medieval Cathedrals that took generations to build, we’re putting in a foundation here, not a Rose Window. It will be our Great Grandchildren who will Witness the Results. Our job is to Hold the Vision and dig the basement.
- 1 in 26 Pisces (Letting Go of Limitation). Of course it’s “Coincidence” that Neptune chose this Degree to Stand Still in, just when we’re being Asked to Let Go of Any Limitations We Have in the Quantity and Quality of our Self-Love (Chaos Initiating Sappho; see previous post). The Neptune Station is Exact at that time and date (meaning it’s still moving ever so slightly before and after); the Strength of the Energy usually Builds to a Max at the Exact Station, then Falls Off sharply. If however we Get Lost in Our Stories about the Energy (particularly Easy around Neptune) and make a Decision about it, to counteract it for instance, then we Extend the Energy in our own Lives.
- I remembered for example that Black Radish and Lemon, with Food and much Water, might reduce the Brain Fog that the Neptune Station (in combination with other things, such as dietary shortcuts) is Triggering for me, so I tried it and it seems to be working. I didn’t want to resort to Caffiend, which only seems to Quicken the Fog, and it’s too late in the afternoon for a large dose of Vitamin B, which would be Healthy but keep me awake longer than I want. It would be better to Meditate on the Fog, that way I may be able to pick up on what it’s trying to Teach me, rather than just Learning how to Suppress it.
- 2 Fortunately, the Earth doesn’t Stand Still, or we’d Fall Off. It spins at over 1,000 mph on the surface at the Equator, 700 mph at my Latitude (you can Feel the Breeze blowing your hair off your head, right? No wonder Flat-Earthers don’t Believe – think of the haircut money we could save!). So to actually Notice in “Real” Life that a planet is Standing Still, we have to take a dddddsnapshot of the same chunk of Sky every night at the same time. From our Perspective, it’s the fact that a Star stays in the same place in such snapshots, while, usually, planets move. So a Stationary planet is pretending to be a Fixed Star, trying to Fake us Out, pausing to wag a finger at us for ignoring it the rest of the time.
- The Earth is also whizzing around the sun at 67,000 mph, and the Sun is zooming around the Milky Way at 448,000 mph. Tell your Dog to keep their head in the car, okay? Not to mention that the Dairy Queen is moving around the Local Galaxy Group at 216,000 mph, all of which is moving toward Leo at 1⅓ million mph. These numbers mean nothing of course, they’re just a Story. We all know we Live in a Snow Globe that moves only when Shaken.
- 3 Known in the astrovernacular by the quaint geometrical term “T-Square” because lines drawn from each of the three planets involved to the center of the Zodiacal circle forms a “T.”
- 4 Self-Resolving Hassles leave everyone Living Happily Ever After, if Everyone is able to Leave Well Enough Alone and patiently Endure any Discomfort that the Challenge Triggers (it’s still a Hassle, even if it’s Self-Resolving – we just have better odds of Surviving it Enhanced). On the contrary, Doubly Self-Resolving Hassles turn out to be basically Easy. Even if the Hassle itself produces Discomfort, the Self-Resolution process more than makes up for it.
- The Crux of a T-Square falls on the planet at the base of the stem of the “T,” while the other two planets are three Signs away, a Graduate-Seminar sort of Angle, Teaching Rare Skills, but Asking us to Adjust our Identity in the process (ie, not as Fun). A Self-Resolving T-Square adds two more planets, each five Signs from the Crux planet, making a Wedge that astrologers call a Finger of the Goddess, or, in the case of Muggle astrologer, Finger of God. These Focus our Attention and add Context that makes it Easier for us to Adjust our Identity. A Doubly Self-Resolving T-Square adds two additional planets, each four Signs from the Crux, making an equilateral triangle called a Trine and meaning Dumb-Luck Blessings. The Trine makes both the Learning and the Adjustment Effortless.
- That’s seven planets all together. We’re really talking about positions rather than planets, because each position can hold several planets. But we’ll continue to imagine that there’s only one planet in each position, as it’s easier. Adding an eighth planet Opposite the Crux planet, called the Vacancy of the T-Square, converts our T-Square into a Grand Cross – four planets more or less equally spaced around the Zodiac. Four is the number of Dominion, and the Grand Cross is Balanced, converting it from a Challenge and a Hassle, to a series of Irritations that Complement one another. We may still have to Endure some Discomfort while we patiently await the Complementary Actions, but a Grand Cross is much easier than a T-Square, as we know that we’re In Charge – we have Dominion over it.
- Notice that any Natal or Birth planet(s) we have that fill any Vacancy in the T-Square “in the Sky Now” (called Transiting planets in astrologuese, as opposed to Natal or Birth planets) Count! So if we have two natal planets five Signs from the transiting Crux planet, We Are the Self-Resolution. That puts us in an excellent position to help others Expand their Identity and Learn from the T-Square. Similarly, if we have two natal planets four Signs from the transiting Crux planet, We Are the Double Self-Resolution. If we aren’t Arrogant about it, people will come clamoring for our Help.
- Now suppose we also have two Natal planets that are each two Signs from the Crux. Combine these with the two planets four Signs from the Crux, and we have a Grand Sextile, one of the best Configurations in astrology, because it makes the whole process Full of Grace, and it includes the Crux of the Challenge. There’s only one Caveat with a Grand Sextile – we have to take the first step. If we’re willing to do that, the Goddess will handle the rest.
- We’ve now filled ten positions. Suppose we happen to also have two Natal planets one Sign from the Crux planet. Added to the other ten, that now fills the Zodiac with a planet in each of the twelve positions, one in each Sign, in more or less the same Degree. Some will be Transiting, some Natal. With twelve planets Aligned and no Vacancies, we have what’s called a Grand Unx, an “Unx” meaning one twelfth of anything. A Grand Unx is like having Two Cats in the Yard, Life Used to Be so Hard, Now Everything Is Easy Cuz of [the Grand Unx]. The Unx Angle, which Muggle astrologers unromantically refer to as a “Semi-Sextile,” is the Twelfth Harmonic, symbolizing Pattern-Breaking. So Adjustments to Identity suddenly become Easy, as the Universe Unlocks all of the Patterns that Connect and Bind the Energies of those twelve planets.
- 5 The Crux planet is Pluto – Compulsion, in 28 Capricorn (Letting Go of a Lifetime of Negativity). The base of a T-Square is an Opposition, the Second Harmonic, home of Duality and Argument.
- 6 The Rebirth side of the Argument is dwarf planet Haumea (Rebirth), daughter of Pele, making new Land as her Fiery Lava – molten Stone – hisses into the Sea, in 28 Libra (Integration of Extremes). Rebirth into Ascension, Ego Death Be Damned.
- On the other side of the table is dwarf planet Eris (Revelation of What’s Been Denied ), she who threw the Golden Apple into the dinner party with For the Fairest of them All written on it, generating a War-making Contest between the Classical Beauties – Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera – to claim the Golden trinket. None of the three Confronted their Vanity (Paris had to Decide, creating the War), so we have to do it for them.

- Worse, Eris is Merged with Mars (Action, Anger), who’s likely to Struggle mightily to Defend Ego’s Role as Protector, and Keep in place the Subterfuges that we use Unconsciously, Semi-Consciously, and Consciously, to keep our Demons chained to the wall of our Sub-Dungeon. I’m guessing we’ll be working mostly with the Semi-Conscious and Conscious but Actively Resisted Energies in our Psyche.
- Both are in 26 Aries (Union with All ).
- Paradoxically, the base of the Self-Resolving Finger of the Goddess is a Sextile (Grace) between Koronis (Coronavirus) in 25 Leo (Discovering Soul Inside Convention and Codependence) and the Out-of-Bounds Moon (Vulnerability to Panic) Merged with asteroid Sisyphus (Perpetual Fruitless Effort ) and dwarf planet Asbolus (Intuition), all in Gemini 28 (Union with Evolving Energies), with Sisyphus and Asbolus also both Out of Bounds.
- 7 Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap: Conquer Your Hidden Fear and Take Life to the Next Level, pp.159-184. See also O. Fred Donaldson, Playing By Heart: The Vision and Practice of Belonging, pp.192-195.
- 8 Stationary Neptune Conjunct asteroids Nemesis (Guilt ) in 27 Pisces (Union with the Basic Design of Life) and Herakles (Assassin of the Sacred Symbols of the Matriarchy in Service of Zeus’s Patriarchy) in 28 Pisces (see note 1 above).
- 9 The base of the Neptune T-Square, which describes the Source of the Challenge, is the OOB Moon-OOB Sisyphus-OOB Asbolus grouping that was part of the Self-Resolution of the first Challenge (see the end of note 6 above) Opposite asteroids Klotho (New Karma) and Atlantis (Demise of a Civilization) in 26-27 Sagittarius (Klotho in 26 – the Prenatal Decision to End All Karma in the Lifetime; Atlantis in 27 – Awareness of Many LifeTimes, Disguised as Everyday Knowledge). Sagittarius 26 is home to the Fixed Star Aculeus (Abuse that Strengthens Us), while 27 Sagittarius is adjacent to the Fixed Star Acumen (Destructive Gossip).
- 10 See the Getting Wild Again series of posts, starting at https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2022/03/04/getting-wild-again/, especially Ian Smith’s generous comment in https://astrobuss.wordpress.com/2022/03/15/getting-wild-again-7/#comments.
- The Self-Resolving Finger of the Goddess in this second Challenge of the Neptune Station is based from the Sextile between asteroid Koronis at 25 Leo and dwarf planet Haumea at 28 Libra (see note 6 above).