Love and Ego: Neptune and ???

The battle between Love and Ego has been going on for a long time. Let’s look back 2000 years or so, and even before that. Way back in the dim and distant past, God had a favourite angel. He gave special gifts to this angel (music was one of them – Lucifer is a brilliant musician). But then Lucifer’s ego puffed up, and Lucifer decided that he should be the big shot – number one (I AM), and he tried to set himself up as “God”, to be worshipped by all.

And then there was war in heaven (I always visualise a Star Wars type of battle scene whenever I read that phrase 🙂 ) and Lucifer, or Satan, or the Devil, whichever you prefer, was cast down to Earth. (I prefer the term “Ego”.)

So Ego ended up on Earth. So, as pure souls with unconditional love and compassion deep inside us (Neptune/Pisces), we come down into this ego-saturated world (and dimension of reality), and occupy (these often inadequate) bodies for a while (design flaws). We crash-land on planet Earth so to speak. This occurrence points to the three Earth signs: Taurus: material status, Virgo: efficient money systems, and Capricorn (HandiCap): gravity, weight, restrictions, limitations, lessons

You may believe this story about the battle between God and Lucifer and Lucifer consequently being cast down to earth, or you may not – whether you do or not doesn’t really bother me, but the symbolism is interesting.

We Are One, and Divide and Separate

A way to distinguish Love from Ego is that Love is compassionate and all-inclusive, and Ego is all about ‘divide and separate’. Here is another ‘fable’ that you may or may not choose to believe. According to this one, during the Piscean age, Jesus Christ came to earth with a message of unconditional love, which was all-inclusive in that it included everybody. In true Piscean style, he was “invisible” to many, especially the Jewish religious leaders of the time and probably the larger portion of humanity, and he sacrificed himself. Jesus demonstrated many of the best qualities of Neptune and its sign Pisces: compassion, unconditional love, forgiveness, non-judgement and so on. The message of love Jesus delivered was all inclusive in the way that unconditional love is. But then the Ego intervened, in the form of self-important Jewish leaders that ridiculed Jesus, and then later in the form of different interpretations of the bible being formed by different individuals into different religions (divide and separate), with each separate religion proclaiming that We Are Right (W.A.R), and that the rest of the religions and their many followers are all going straight to Hell (I hope they have good pizza’s there :-)).

You may believe that a wise teacher named Jesus came to earth, or you may not, and that really doesn’t bother me, but to me it is fairly obvious that Love and Ego are both powerful forces here on earth.

How do these two forces align with or fit into astrology? Ahh…the million dollar question.

I have (loosely) identified (unconditional) love as falling under the rulership of Neptune/Pisces, so what about Ego? Lucifer/Ego is associated with Fire, so let’s look at the three Fire signs just for a laugh.

Aries: aggressiveness, competitiveness (divide and separate), being ‘number one’, and the keywords for Aries are ‘I Am’.

Leo: arrogance, self-importance, and the keywords for Leo are ‘I create’.

Sagittarius: hubris and overconfidence, which can lead to delusions of grandeur.

Not a bad fit, don’t you think? 🙂

Please note that each Star sign, or more correctly, Sun sign, has its evolved and unevolved traits or characteristics. In the Fire sign paragraphs above, I have drawn heavily on the unevolved characteristics of those three Sun signs. No one belonging to a particular sign is completely like this: astrology just doesn’t work that way. As well as a person having a mix of the evolved and unevolved qualities of a particular Sun sign, ALL of the other eleven signs feature in that person’s astrological makeup (try going makeup free 🙂 and contribute to the unique and beautiful individual that each person is.

Our True and False Self

Our soul describes the true reality of who we are. Our ego describes our false, illusory self. We all have an ego because we live here on this earth plane, this earthly dimension of total existence. I guess the difference between individual people is that some people are aware of their ego’s and monitor them, and others aren’t, and blunder through life using that false, puffed-up identity. Try to avoid them if you can!

Aries to Pisces: An Astrological Journey

It is interesting how the signs, from Aries through to Pisces, tell a continuing and changing story, and how each sign changes the focus of the one preceding it.

Just to be different, lets start with Pisces: We are all One (we come from Spirit, and we return to Spirit, each and every one of us. We Are, as One, and in more than just the relationship sense of relating to one other person)

Aries: I Am (my self, my individuality, my ego self and my personal challenges – I have separated from the womb of Pisces where I was One with my mother)

Taurus: I Have (all of my possessions, including my self worth and physical bodily attributes – this is MY body)

Gemini: I Think (and I am full of ideas and I communicate and I multi-task really well)

Cancer: I Feel (and I collect photos, feelings and emotional experiences, and I am very sensitive)

Leo: I Create (wonderful, fun creations, and even though I am a generous person with a big heart and I do a lot for others, I am quite a self-absorbed person)

And after that, the signs seem to incorporate the larger world and outer reality a lot more.

The service oriented Virgo (I Serve, and in doing so I sacrifice myself for others, just like my opposite sign of Pisces)

The relationship-focused Libra (We Are, as opposed to opposite sign Aries’ “I Am”)

Scorpio’s “I Desire” (intense, personal, focused pursuit, that definitely does include other people!)

Sagittarius: “I See, and I Seek”: “I find other people’s philosophies really interesting -oh, what an interesting way of looking at life, I could talk about that for hours, and I wonder what the truth really is”… and I better move on to the next sign before it takes up all of this article… 🙂

Concrete Capricorn: “I Learn, and I Teach” (Black and White, this is the way it is – ‘Reality’ and the rules, and this is my structure. My way or the highway. Don’t bother me with philosophies; I have ‘concretised’ my philosophy on life, and this is the way it is)

Aquarius: “I Know” (Don’t try to lecture me or tell me what to do. I want to break all the rules, rules are made to be broken, I like to pursue alternative ways of doing things, predictability is boring, it’s time for a change, I’ve had enough of the ‘same old same old’. I sense a better way, and I’m going to manifest it down here on earth)

And back to compassionate Pisces: “I Believe” (We are all souls, living in these physical bodies. I try not to judge until I’ve walked a mile in someone else’s shoes; there but for the grace of God go I – we are all one).

The 12th House – A Positive Spin

The 12th house of the zodiac wheel contains a certain amount of mystery, and when one looks on the web in an endeavour to find out more about it, there seems to be a lot of misinformation and confusion around it (in written form). This is natural because the 12th house aligns with the 12th sign of Pisces. Remember that the sign of Pisces contains two fishes; one swimming upstream, and one swimming downstream. One fish could be considered generally negative, and the other broadly positive.

Unfortunately, the majority of people seem to identify the negatives more easily than the positives when it comes to astrology (and perhaps life in general).

Yes, acting out the downstream fish can lead to self undoing, imprisonment, institutionalisation etc (and anything else restricting and negative that the imagination may dream up). And the imagination has a lot to do with both Pisces and the 12th house. But lets look at the upstream fish – the one that swims against the current towards consideration and compassion for others and personal spiritual growth and enlightenment, rather than the downstream one which can sometimes disappear in a cloud of beer froth, or perhaps diminish ones spiritual progress with overindulgence in hard liquor or drugs.

I am someone who has two planets in the 12th house, and one in Pisces itself. I have a Neptune flavoured North and South Node also. If I didn’t have these natal placements, I wouldn’t be writing this.

I enjoy my 12th house and its placements. Yes, I enjoy my solitude, and need a bit of it everyday, and the occasional weekend alone is great for personal introspection, but I am also a very social person. i like all the different types of people in the world (just like all the different types of fish in the ocean). And, in true Piscean style, I recognise that the ocean is the one habitat that contains all those individual types of fish. Individuality within the Oneness.

To me, the 12th house is like a joyful monastery.

Imagine a monastery in a beautiful setting with plenty of silence, contemplation, dedication and devotion (to something greater) going on within it. And experiencing amazing personal spiritual breakthroughs every now and then. Seeing and recognising the light that resides at the centre of ones being.

We all have a personal beautiful spiritual light shining at the centre of ourselves. Sometimes the accumulated shadows of our subconscious mind may diminish that light from time to time, and in varying degrees. Correct use of our 12th house represents our opportunity to break through those personal shadows (we all have our ‘story’) and let our light shine. Our 12th house represents our opportunity to recognise our own personal light, and then amplify it, without attributing it to something outside of ourselves (there is no separation – separation is an illusion)

That is what the 12th house represents for me.

I don’t want to live my life in a monastery, and I surely don’t, but I sure do enjoy those special spiritual 12th house times!

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