The second chapter of The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption reveals how the mythological images “produced” by the archetype behind this planet are embodied in concrete psychological experiences, including pathological ones. The chapter is entitled Psychological Neptune, and at this point the reading becomes even more compelling, because we begin to recognize ourselves in some of the descriptions. In doing so, we come to understand what Joseph Campbell meant when he said that myth is “something that never happened, but is happening all the time.”
The gods of mythology associated with the Neptunian archetype are not figures that lived “there and then,” but inner experiences that are continually unfolding in the psyche of every human being—here and now. These include both the states of unity and fusion belonging to the intrauterine world of the infant and the period following birth, as well as the spiritual longing to transcend the boundaries of the earthly ego and return to the Source.
As always, the positive expression of this archetype in life depends on the degree to which we have managed to resolve the equation of duality inherent in life in matter. If a person has not sufficiently developed Neptune’s opposite—that is, the capacity to separate, to form healthy ego boundaries, and to mature—the spiritual longing for the dissolution of ego boundaries manifests in its negative forms.
It is no coincidence that Liz Greene entitled the chapter on Neptune’s psychological dimension Hysteria Coniunctionis. Hysteria is a psychic illness whose core feature is the absence of clear ego boundaries and an immature, weakly formed core of personality. For this reason, she calls it the Neptunian disease par excellence. In the hysterical personality, the longing for fusion with the other, for unity with the whole and dissolution of the ego, is realized in a pathological way, because it is not balanced by its opposite: a mature and emotionally autonomous individuality.
Thus, instead of achieving unity by integrating the opposites within, the individual chooses a shortcut in order to avoid the suffering involved in bearing the tension of their crucifixion. But since the path toward inner unification—individuation—is neither easy nor short, the shortcut leads not to Paradise, but to Hell.
Instead of Mysterium Coniunctionis—the term used by Carl Jung to describe the union of the mystical paradoxes that characterize life in matter—we encounter its negative form: Hysteria Coniunctionis. Instead of inner wholeness, we find manipulative behavior aimed at covertly extracting from others what we desire, as well as various forms of emotional dependency—on alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, or relationships.
The gate to Paradise remains firmly shut, because the return path to it passes through another gate altogether. In the language of Jungian analytical psychology, this means the development of consciousness. It involves a long series of differentiations that lead to the birth of ego individuality. And when the final distinction disappears—the distinction between Observer and Observed—enlightenment occurs: individual consciousness dissolves, and the experience of unity with the Whole emerges.
Liz Greene’s book is invaluable because it demonstrates how “the longing for redemption, accompanied by a revulsion toward incarnation, manifests in characteristic forms of psychic and physical illness, as well as in characteristic forms of treatment.” The characteristic forms of suffering and healing in question are hysteria and hypnosis.
“To pursue Neptune through these waters—inhabited not by oceanic mothers and redeeming sons, but by very particular forms of human suffering—we must enter through two closely related gateways which remain enigmatic even to twentieth-century medicine and psychology: hypnosis and hysteria.”
— Liz Greene
Whether we are dealing with a therapeutic hypnotic session or a soul-stirring religious ritual, with falling deeply in love or experiencing ecstasy at a concert, with creative inspiration or a drive toward self-sacrifice, Neptune stands behind all these experiences. It is the longing to escape the prison of matter and return to Paradise—to fusion and unity. Whether such an experience proves healing for the personality depends entirely on whether healthy ego boundaries have been sufficiently developed beforehand.
And this is an excerpt from Chapter: The Psychology of Neptune – Hysteria Coniunctionis
“What, then, is hysteria, and what is hypnosis?
One may initially seem easier to explain than the other, since we have apparently reasonable definitions in most psychiatric textbooks. But hysteria, like hypnosis, is a slippery fish to catch, and ultimately both defy rational explanation. We will begin with hysteria, which has the most ancient pedigree and is the Neptunian disease par excellence.
The disturbed emotional states associated with Neptune’s more problematic face express, in greater or lesser degrees of seriousness, a quality best described as ecstatic. The word ecstasy comes from a Greek root meaning ‘to be beside oneself’ or ‘to be outside oneself’. The flood is near; the sea is flooding the land; the ego is porous, permeable, or only partially formed, and disintegrates—voluntarily or involuntarily—in the face of overwhelming archaic longings to merge with a primal source.
Neptunian ecstasy may be expressed as extreme emotionality or through a set of characteristic physical symptoms, only some of which are currently recognized by orthodox medicine as psychosomatic. Or the state of ecstasy may constitute a hidden paradise to which the individual retreats, leaving others waiting outside the walled garden, puzzled by the calm, relaxed face of the siesta baby. These states may arise spontaneously from within or be induced by drugs or alcohol; but their sensuous tone is unmistakable. The individual is no longer contained within the confines of a separate identity, but is blurred, dissolved, and leaked.
Even when dramatic and apparently genuine emotional affects are expressed, there is often the sense not of an individual feeling these things, but of a stream of primitive affects unconnected to any coherent identity. Neptune’s ecstasy is both that of the oceanic mother and the divine child. It is a regression to prenatal bliss—an oceanic experience of union with the divine—and at the same time an eruption of primitive rage at any threat of separation. Neptune’s loss of boundaries is both invasive and evasive.
Dissolving the contours of the ego-personality not only leads to great vulnerability to the Saturnian world and subsequent resistance to being pulled out into the lonely and searing daylight. It also generates tremendous anxiety, so that the individual, gripped by overwhelming longing, may involuntarily attempt to destroy the boundaries of others, even strangers, in order to achieve the fusion he seeks. Thus others experience a strange ambiguity in response to an enraged Neptune: one searches for a coherent unit and fails, encountering instead something fragile and unformed. Yet the power and influence of this unformed thing may be extraordinary, for such individuals can exert great power over others through the subtlest emotional means.
One of the most striking images of this process can be found in Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Solaris. There, an alien planet reflects back to individuals the deeply buried longings of their unconscious psyches and manifests these longings in hallucinatory form—to their initial delight and eventual horror. This protean capacity to identify with another’s psyche and effortlessly become what the other secretly longs for is one of the great artistic and therapeutic gifts of the Neptunian temperament. But if the essential core of integrity and honesty with oneself is lacking—as it inevitably is when unconscious childhood wounds remain unexplored—then this gift becomes a great danger.
Identification with an archetype always brings power. But power is borrowed, and therefore becomes a deceiver and an ultimate destroyer at the human level when it is used to compensate for what was lacking in early life. Identification with Neptune evokes the seductive allure and watery magic of the oceanic mother-creator and the divine son-redeemer. In the hands of a deeply wounded and unformed personality, however, this power to enchant is used to serve infantile longings at the expense of others, no matter how great the gift.
For this reason, the hysterical personality, as it is understood in psychiatry, has long been associated with the most extreme forms of deception, manipulation, and emotional blackmail.”
Liz Greene, The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption.
Quoted from the original English text.
