(Fig 1) 

 
M is conjunct Neptune, Mercury is semi-square. From Rules for Planetary Pictures: To decline. To refuse something. To be unsure, unable to support. Unintelligible attitude. To follow wrong ideas. To deceive. Untruth. Falsehood. Swindle. To be intuitive. To concentrate on the future. To follow the unknown, the doubtful. Mercury is on the midpoint: Intuitive, false, imagined or fradulent thoughts or feelings. Thoughts and the way of expressing them are not clear and distinct. And, Venus is 22.30 or on the midpoint Mercury/Neptune: to desire people, to wish for people in whom one can trust and get along with harmoniously. New love acquaintances.

 

Well, that last bit with Venus isn’t so bad, but...it’s still pretty weak. Why am I complaining? Mainly because it’s my chart, and I do NOT relate to these interpretations of it. As much as I value and count on my multiple copies of Rules for Planetary Pictures, I’ve never liked the Uranian interpretations of Neptune! Why didn’t I, as a student, become discouraged in looking at my own chart? Because by the time I began studying astrology, at the age of 33, I was already well established as a creative artist, so I simply reinterpreted Neptune in my own way from the start, at least somewhat mollified by Ebertin’s allowing, within his extra notes at the back of Combination of Stellar Influences, that Neptune, in combinations for one’s career, might be positive if one is in the arts or in “parapsychology.” But, what about the young student whose career life is still ahead? Or the unaware astrologer who reads the chart of a child for its parents, or for a young person just starting out? Could a potentially very successful person be discouraged before he or she has given a special talent a chance? It’s high time we broadened the interpretation of Neptune to include the many uplifting potentials that can be evoked by this planet’s presence in a horoscope! So, with the chart examples to follow, I will attempt to be very “clear and distinct” in demonstrating the positive potentials of Neptune.
 
One major positive we could cite when viewing a chart with strong Neptune aspects to personal points should be the potential of talent in the arts that can rise to the heights of inspired expression. Art was my first career, following my college degree in fine arts with major in painting. Although astrology eventually became a primary identity, I still paint and in fact, had a one-person show recently—“Her Spirit,” featuring paintings based on the sacred feminine in Nature. But let’s view other examples, beginning with the chart of one of the greatest artists of all time, Leonardo da Vinci. (Fig. 2)

 

 

As you can see, Leonardo has his Neptune exactly on the axis of Aries and on the midpoint Ascendant/Mercury, with the 22.30 aspect to Uranus. Neptune is widely conjunct his MC. Aries-Neptune, from “Rules”: daydreams, disappointments, general poisoning, blood poisoning. Ascendant/Mercury = Aries: conversation in public, announcements, advertisements, newspapers. And = Neptune: to discuss unclear matters; to be told lies; evil gossip. Come now, how about this alternative interpretation: the native becomes known to his world for his visions, dreams and sense of beauty, and with Mercury/Ascendant, he communicates all this to others through artistic expression...(and with Uranus) his creations are unusual and innovative in a way that is exciting to others.

Next, look at Figure 3 for the dial chart of a more contemporary artist, Salvador Dali. He also has Neptune conjunct MC, and MC is on the midpoints Moon/Neptune, Jupiter/Pluto and Pluto/Zeus. Moon/Neptune = MC in “Rules” has: sensibility, touchiness, sense of smell, state of dreaming. To live in a dream-world. Not facing the realities of life, not able to recognize them...mentally impressed thru secrecies of females. Well, we can concede that many of Dali’s paintings seem like dream images, but this can obviously be very good. Perhaps this configuration, especially with Jupiter/Pluto could be read: a highly successful career and sense of the “I”, the soul, the spiritual sense, can emerge from translating one’s dreams into artistic expression.

 

Let’s look at one more example from the visual arts, this time from the modern world of popular art and technology, the chart of Walt Disney (Figure 4). This is another example of bringing ones dreams and visions to the world—Neptune on the Aries point. On the axis are Moon/Admetos (crowded people or dying, dead nations facing uncertain, black future, desperate and deluded), Jupiter/Uranus (this is luck, and one could call it that, though I think Disney’s successess are due to far more than just luck), Jupiter/Poseidon (to sense higher things; see metaphysical truth), Sun/Kronos (with Aries, fine--creative, active, but with Neptune: incompetent, fraudulent leader). Couldn’t Neptune on Sun/Kronos also be “imaginative or artistic father figure?” Then there’s Sun/Cupido (unfortunate in marriage, deceived man, dissolution of communities, mediumistic artist). Well, at least the the last of those options offers hope. But I mainly object to that Moon/Admetos = Neptune “no hope” delineation, and propose this be considered as a more positive alternative: from deep, inner contemplation, artistic expression emerges from the soul.