Neptune

Neptune was discovered in 1846 — and in a remarkable way: by calculation, from perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, before anyone had seen it. Le Verrier predicted its position, and Galle found it the same night, one degree off.

What is attributed to it

The dissolving principle: boundaries that turn permeable. From that follow the usual attributions — imagination, compassion, art, intoxication, deception, self-deception.

Modern practice gives it rulership over Pisces, which classically belongs to Jupiter.

Where the attribution comes from

From the name, and from the spirit of the age that discovered it. The planet was named after the god of the sea; the sea dissolves outlines; and from that the interpretation was derived.

Then there is the closeness in time: the years around 1846 are the years of anaesthesia, photography and spiritualism. This simultaneity is readily adduced as confirmation. It is not — everything else happened in the same decade as well.

The limit that counts

Two objections, and the second is the practical one.

No dignities. Neptune has no domicile, exaltation, triplicity, term or face in the classical system — the twelve signs are distributed in full among seven planets. Its condition therefore cannot be determined: it cannot be said whether a Neptune is strong or weak.

It distinguishes almost nothing. Neptune takes around 165 years for one orbit and stays about fourteen years in a sign. Everyone born in that stretch of time shares the position. As a statement about a person it is therefore worthless — only its house and its aspects are individual.

The same holds for Uranus and Pluto. They are generational factors, and anyone who reads them as character traits is describing an age cohort.

A workable way to handle it

Anyone who wants to work with it should keep to what is individual: the house it stands in, and the close aspects to the personal planets. And what Neptune is to stand for should be settled beforehand — otherwise it turns into what every factor taken up after the fact turns into: the explanation for whatever the rest of the chart does not yield.

See also: the seven classical planets, Chiron — the same case.