IDENTITY UNSAFE
One of the effects of a Sun-Neptune aspect is being 'praised into heaven'. Or if you are in heaven, being 'suspected of being the devil'. There is often a big difference between which you are (Sun) and what people think you are (Neptune). I knew someone with Sun conjunct the oriental Neptune who used to say: "Am I who I think that I am, or am I who other's think what I am?” She had an oriental Neptune conjunct the Sun. Your image can be different from who you really are because embody the dreams and nightmares of others, you are their living fantasy. Of course this is not happening to everybody with a Sun-Neptune aspect. It only occurs when this aspect is tight and/or related to the Midheaven or Ascendant, the cross points in the chart that correspond with the individual identity.
People who see the readings of their charts sometimes wonder: "Is that me?" and it is easier to believe the positive characteristics, is not it?:) When you have Sun-Neptune and somebody tells you to ACT like a president, you say” Yes I can", because you can ACT like a president if it is needed. Sun-Neptune has multiple personalities. Often with Sun-Neptune conflicts you see the 'double life', the actor who has problems to keep the role in the play apart from personal life.
PRETENDING
Actors benefit from the Sun-Neptune relationship. They can imagine how another person thinks, feels or acts and they can actually imitate it. Imitation is what we learn when we are little children. We do as our parents do or tell us to do. That is 'reflecting, mirroring' and symbolized by the Moon. The Neptunic imitation is mirroring a fantasy, an idea, something that is not real.
Josef Fritzl has a Sun-Neptune biquintile aspect. The biquintile adds 'being creative' to the concept of the vivid imagination and 'living your dream'. What he imagined was realized in a creative way. People did not think of him as a person with a double life, but he had it. It was a perfect act. More about the positions on his day of birth…
http://astropost.blogspot.com/2008/11/chart-of-josef-fritzl-man-of-cellars.html
ADDICTION/HEALTH
There is another side of the Sun-Neptune aspect and that is that it debilitates health. The same openness to others personalities and concepts opens the health system for intruders like, viruses and the bad effects of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and medications. Anytime that Saturn transits the combination or makes an aspect in progress, there is a chance of becoming ill, in particular when Sun, Neptune or Saturn are related to the Ascendant. Think of Elvis Presley, the great pretender, with Sun in Capricorn trine the elevated Neptune and Saturn quintile Ascendant. When he died, his progressed Sun had recently changed sign (to Pisces, ruled by Neptune) and was about to join the progressed Saturn. Or think of Lisa Minelli, who recently gave up drinking and had a come back. She has Sun quindecile (165 degree aspect) Neptune. President-to-be Obama is a smoker and he has Sun square Neptune. More about the smoker in the chart of Obama in another post… http://astropost.blogspot.com/2008/12/smoker-in-obamas-chart.html
PRETENTIONS
Sometimes or from time to time people with this aspect dream about being another person or being somewhere else. Speculations about a glorious future after winning THE prize in the lottery go together with plans for building houses and in the meantime forgetting that it is time to eat. More serious is it, when a person starts believing that he CAN be the ruler of the world or SHOULD be it. But that is more the pathological Sun-Neptune...
EMPATHY
The bright side of Sun-Neptune is that it is easy to love pets with any harmonious aspect, because a person with Sun-Neptune is empathic, not only with human beings, but also with animals.
SPIRITUAL OR RELIGIOUS LEADERSHIP
The challenge for a Sun-Neptune person is spiritual leadership. With that I mean founding a religion or conviction, or being important or in charge of the spiritual group, a representative, like the Dalai Lama is or the Pope. I don't mean political leaders. Having an aspect between Sun and Neptune is not necessary to be a spiritual leader, but it helps when a dream, illusion, vision or ideal is related to your way of living. Aspects between Sun and Neptune can be used positive or negative, but will always have the effect that the amorphous world of movies, art, dreams, hallucinations, fantasy, spirits, empathy and the spiritual is closer than in the lives of those who don't have this aspect.
L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology) has Sun in Pisces trine Neptune and Neptune square Venus and Midheaven, with Moon quindecile Venus. It is a pattern for art and creativity. Lafayette Ron Hubbard wrote various poems and science fiction books. He had the Sun square Ascendant, Pluto on the Descendant, Venus opposition Midheaven and Jupiter sesquisquare Aries Point. There is also a prominent Uranus, rising before his Sun. The prominent planets in his chart show us that he knows how to draw attention (perform or lead) and that he had a lot of support (Venus with Jupiter and Pluto) though he was controversial.
Another spiritual leader is the Dalai Lama. In his chart Neptune is the most elevated planet, square the prominent Sun on the Descendant and square Ascendant.
The present Pope Benedict 16th has the natal Sun and Midheaven exactly trine Neptune.
Billy Graham has the Ascendant square Jupiter/Neptune and Neptune square Sun and Venus. Thich Nhat Hanh has Sun septile Neptune and Neptune oriental.
Other spiritual leaders may have variations on the theme, like Joseph Smith (founder of the Mormon Church) who has Jupiter rising before the Sun and Neptune 'calling'(not making major aspects in sign) but no aspect between Sun and Neptune. But that is the story of Jupiter and Neptune combinations, like in the charts of monks and popes.
http://www.astromarkt.net/artpopes.htm
http://www.astromarkt.net/artmartyrs.htm
