Neptune stations retrograde

As if life weren’t confusing and overwhelming enough, on Friday evening (EDT), Neptune shifts into reverse gear in its home sign of Pisces until December 6. Over these five months, it’ll cover scant ground—from 27º41 to 24º53. But that doesn’t mean its impact won’t be palpable.

Take a moment to check your chart for any planets or major points that fall in between those degrees of all four mutable signs, Gemini, Virgo, Sag and Pisces.

Anything getting the full Neptune treatment will be the most affected. And whichever house it’s transiting through has also been undergoing a lengthy, shall we say, sensitization process.

So what is "the full Neptune treatment”? The modern ruler of Pisces is associated with a host of qualities and behaviors, ranging from (on the low-vibe end) escapism, delusion, fantasy and addiction, to (on the high end) sensitivity, empathy, intuition, creativity, dreams and altered states of consciousness, communion with the divine and dissolution of ego and attachment.

We’ll all feel this back-turning influence in one way or another; how we experience it is dependent on our normal ways of relating to and utilizing Neptunian energy.

Neptunian Attunement

For very left-brained people or those with a strong need to control situations, relationships and their environment, this can be a highly disorienting and even maddening time. Neptune’s m.o. is the opposite of those qualities. It’s much more right-brained and knows in its dense, icy core that control (like resistance) is futile. Thus its association with the concept of surrender.

Folks who live a more free-flowing, creative, non-pushy, intuitive way, guided by feeling, may find this retrograde cycle a boon, much as the 20 percent of the population born with Mercury retrograde feel more comfortable when the messenger planet shifts into reverse three times a year.

In general, Neptune retrograde is a time to loosen our grip in any areas of life where we’ve been white-knuckling it. Realistically, most of us left-brained, driven, type-A, goal-pursuing folks can’t easily just chill the eff out. Nor do many of us believe there’s any value in that.

But trickster Neptune has a funny way of showing us otherwise. These next five months—during which most of the rest of the solar system will be spinning “backward”—could be rife with false starts, false friends, deception or just plain bad judgment based on false hope.

Neptune retrograde invites us to slow down (and possibly to stop) and turn inward. As the ruler of the archetypal twelfth house, Neptune favors quiet reflection and introspection over analysis and chatter. It feels its way through situations, and takes us to depths we’re always surprised to discover. (Hopefully pleasantly so.)

Again, where it’s transiting your chart and what it’s hitting will be most revealing. Not sure what to do with this? Try crafting "predictive" sentences for yourself, plugging in your natal configurations, to get clues. For example, Neptune transiting the tenth house brings a new sensitivity to professional situations and associations that could spark genius ideas, increase creativity and make you more tolerant of colleagues and clients. But squaring Mars in your first house, your own patience is going to be tested, and personal initiatives may take a back seat to those for the greater good.

On a positive note, this can increase your tuned-in-ness to almost psychic levels. Give yourself time and space and you might produce your magnum opus or hit record. You could spontaneously start channeling or suddenly "get" astrology charts. Or you might find yourself reaching for your “drug” of choice, be it Pinot Noir, Netflix, doomscrolling, compulsive shopping, shirking responsibility, or an actual drug. Those things are actually all neutral. Abusing those things will thwart your soul’s evolution.

And that’s what it really comes down to: Grow and thrive, or stay stuck in fear or avoidance mode. You’ll have five months to get to the root of old recurring patterns that don’t support your dreams (which are also Neptunian). As it pivots into reverse, Neptune will form a semi-square to graceful healer Chariklo, suggesting (to me anyway) that even if you do slip into unconscious behavior, perhaps that’s exactly the step you need to take to turn it around and reclaim your divine birthright. The catch: You have to be brutally honest with yourself.