The fifth part of Liz Greene’s book The Astrological Neptune and the Quest for Redemption is entitled “Psychoanalytic Neptune.” In it, the negative expressions of the Neptunian longing for fusion with the Source are explored through the lens of the psychoanalytic interpretation of hysteria—the dominant psychic illness at the time when Freud’s psychoanalysis emerged (and one that profoundly shaped the development of its theory of the unconscious and its interaction with consciousness).
This material is especially valuable for people who carry a strong Neptunian emphasis within their psychological makeup. As a rule, these are highly sensitive individuals with a tremendous capacity for empathy and compassion. But, like everything in the world of duality and matter, this gift also has its shadow side. I have come across many publications that describe empaths as innocent victims of unscrupulous people who exploit their kindness. This, however, is not entirely accurate.
In psychotherapy it is well known that the roles of victim and perpetrator are closely intertwined, because they define one another. The relationship between them is a relationship of opposites, and in this sense they are secretly identical. If a person fails to unite these opposites within themselves, someone else from the external world will eventually enact the rejected part. Sooner or later, the encounter between the two reveals the truth behind the so-called “selfless sacrifice” of the giver. If the latter is not sufficiently honest with themselves, their resistance to limitation will begin to manifest through concealed rage and various forms of manipulation—including becoming incapacitated or ill. Regardless of whether this takes the form of a psychogenic illness (such as hysteria) or an organic disease (including cancer), any illness may be suspected as an unconscious means of obtaining “secondary gain.”
If we fail to become conscious of the inner contradiction, instead of enduring the pain of limitation and imperfection, we develop neurotic suffering and secondary emotions (see the article Primary and Secondary Emotions). Instead of solutions, we are left with thoughts of blame and self-blame, which perpetuate the problem. These thoughts are the true foundation of “endless suffering” and the main source of inspiration for the drama of soap operas.
The enormous potential for self-sacrifice with which empaths are endowed can be realized only if they develop a strong ego with healthy boundaries. We cannot sacrifice something we do not possess—and this is precisely what most so-called empaths lack: a formed, healthy ego. Mature forms of empathy require a high degree of differentiation, that is, high levels of psychological health. Such levels of psychological health, however, are rare (see the article The Scale of Mental Health).
And since knowledge helps us move toward higher levels of psychological health, I am glad to share an excerpt from Liz Greene’s writing on “psychoanalytic Neptune.” I believe it will contribute to a deeper understanding of both the positive and negative manifestations of this archetype.∗(please read the end note)
By the end of the nineteenth century, the accumulation of medical and psychiatric research had established important links between states of extreme suggestibility and the hysterical disposition. A picture emerged of a personality structure in which there were undeveloped ‘pockets’ in the psyche, independent of consciousness. These ‘pockets’ contained feelings and memories unacceptable to the conscious ego, tyrannically ruling the individual’s life through a variety of physical and emotional symptoms which expressed conflict in symbolic form.
In this conflict we can recognize the clash between ‘sinful’ impulses and the need for redemption so characteristic of Neptune—although the emphasis of psychoanalytic work is on the personal and pathological rather than the archetypal and teleological nature of emotional difficulties. These theories of hysteria form the cornerstone of what later became classical psychoanalytic theory. The core of the mythic images we have already explored offers us both the inner landscape of the complex and a glimpse of its wider meaning.
At the root of this specifically Neptunian form of suffering lie feelings and fantasies which have remained in an infantile state. While the body grows and the intellect develops, the emotional condition remains at the level of blissful fusion with a loving, protective parental deity. This fusion is as erotic as it is mystical. In the infant’s world, body and feeling are indistinguishable.
Because of environmental factors as well as constitutional reasons, the child—now an adult—cannot or will not face the necessary experiences of psychological separation which form the bridge between the archetypal world of Paradise and the human world of relationship and embodiment. The ego, the centre of individual personality, does not fully coalesce, and the archetypal realm of the sea-gods periodically or continually erupts into ordinary life, sometimes in very destructive ways. The gates of Paradise do not open, and the core of individuality remains shut behind the walls of the Garden of Eden.
While the rest of the personality matures around it, this secret inner Paradise continues to exert an extraordinarily powerful influence on many of the individual’s apparently free choices and actions. Because this is an incestuous bond, there is always a profound sense of guilt within it.
When the individual is threatened by the challenges of the external world, terror and rage emerge through symptoms which attempt to manipulate the environment in order to remove the threat, as well as to punish the sin. This is the dynamic of what early psychoanalysts called hysteria. It is also the dynamic of Neptune in a state of amok.
From an astrological perspective, a powerful Neptune conjunct an angle or forming major aspects to other important points in the natal chart describes an innate tendency to linger too long in Paradise. The waters of Paradise can fertilize extraordinary creative gifts and generate an acute sensitivity to human suffering. Not every individual with a strong Neptune is hysterical—unless we broaden the definition of hysteria to include all manipulative psychological tactics aimed at fusion. These lie at the root of both art and religion, as well as hysterical symptomatology.
— Liz Greene
∗Note: This text is translated from Bulgarian. The quotations do not coincide verbatim with the original English text of Liz Greene’s book and should be read as an interpretive translation rather than as direct citations.
