I was chatting the other day with an astrologer friend whose birthday is the day before mine, and we were comparing notes about the recent opposition from transiting Neptune to our natal Suns. In short, pretty good for me, not so great for him. We pondered and mused about this for awhile, and then I remembered something my teacher told me many years ago. Her contention was that a transiting planet in hard aspect to a natal planet isn’t so bad, provided the natal relationship between those two planets is also hard (e.g., square, opposition, semi-square). But if you have a trine between two planets in your birth chart, she warned, and then one squares or opposes the other by transit, you’re in trouble.
“The theory is,” I explained to my friend, “that if you have them in hard aspect natally, they’re accustomed to wrestling with each other. But if you have a trine or a sextile, you’re used to things being easy where those planets are concerned. You’re used to them getting along, so you don’t know what to do when they don’t.” I guess it’s the same as having a good friend who you get along splendidly with, just about all the time: the occasional spat or disagreement between you is really disturbing, because it’s so … unexpected. You haven’t developed any coping strategies for this situation.
Aha, we concurred: My friend has a natal Sun/Neptune trine, while I’ve got the square. So this transiting opposition of Neptune to my Sun has occasionally left my him feeling a bit adrift in Neptunian waters, while if anything, I’ve been feeling uncommonly focused.
On the other hand, folks like him and my artist friends Tim and Claudia (damn, I’m surrounded by you people!) get to enjoy the spiritual, creative, compassionate, divine magnetism of Sun trine Neptune more or less constantly, except for a year or two out of their lives when Neptune makes a hard aspect to the Sun. All things considered, I think I’d rather live with a happy cat who scratches me every 25 years than with a wild one who jumps up to lick my face once every 25 years, but who the rest of the time has to be held at bay with a whip and a chair.
