Neptune Transits to the Sun

When Neptune transits the natal Sun your need for transcendence and imagination influences your sense of self and how you express yourself. Neptune inspires new dreams and dissolves old structures and represents your need to spiritualise and refine this area of your life.

When Neptune transits the natal Sun, you may experience inspiration and confusion with almost any area of your life because it influences whatever you identify with. Neptune dissolves the boundaries of your personal self or ego so that your sense of identity can become more inclusive.

You may feel more sensitive, imaginative and compassionate and could adopt a spiritual practice or experience an awakening or breakthrough. You may feel more connected to others and could be inspired by mystical states of oneness or enjoy communing with nature and animals. Some of these experiences could take many years to fully understand and integrate into your life.

Hard aspects to the Sun (conjunction, square or opposition) may be more challenging to deal with as Neptune washes away old identities that no longer work. This may be disorienting and you could feel lost or become prone to delusions and misperceptions of reality that leave you open to disillusionment.

You may struggle with confusion about who you are and could lose confidence in yourself. This could be triggered by outer events that create disappointment, such as failures in your work or relationships, or you just lose your bearings in a fog of self-doubt. Your energy levels could also be lower than usual and you may feel tired or depressed and could be more prone to infection or illnesses that are hard to diagnose.

You may be tempted to escape into addictive behaviour using drugs or alcohol or anything that allows you to avoid reality or numb your feelings, such as playing computer games for hours or using spiritual practice to bypass your problems. But there are better, less destructive, ways to deal with these feelings and you may benefit from seeking the support of a therapist or friend who can provide a reality check.

You may need to spend some time being uncertain and wait for clarity to return before making significant changes to your life. This may involve letting go of the things that are ending so that something new can be born. The transit won’t last forever and what you’re experiencing will make sense eventually.

You can use this time to turn inwards and explore your inner world to develop a deeper understanding of yourself and grow in faith. You may have vivid dreams or spend more time daydreaming. But you could also put this extra imagination into creative work, such as music, writing, acting, dancing, photography, fashion, and art of all kinds.

Possibilities with Neptune transiting the Sun:

Increased imagination and creativity
Spiritual awakening
Expressing compassion through service to a cause
Increased psychic sensitivity
Vivid dreams
Inspiring mystical vision of your life

Watch out for:

Loss of self-confidence and direction
Self-sabotage or martyrdom
Gullibility and self-deception
Escapism or drug or alcohol addiction
Low energy levels
Increased sensitivities, allergies or illness

My Notes:

I was born with Neptune square my Sun so the first transit was the trine to my natal Sun in 1986-87, from age 15 to 17, when Neptune was in Capricorn in my 11th house. This coincided with when I was at high school and then sixth form and doing lots of music playing the flute in various orchestras, and when I began to play the saxophone. It was also when I had my first boyfriend who was also a musician and flautist.

This was a period of opening up my feelings in one-to-one relationships beyond my family because my Sun is in the 7th house. Having the Sun square Neptune natally means my identity is tenuous and I struggle to see myself clearly which undermines my self-confidence – a serious problem when I was a teenager.

The relationship opened up my identity and boosted my confidence, despite the fact that he dumped me part way through the transit. I remember knowing with an intuitive certainty that I would meet someone new at the Guildhall Summer School that I was due to attend later that summer – and I did!

Neptune transited opposite my natal Sun in 2013-15, from age 42 to 44, when Neptune was in Pisces in my 1st house. This coincided with when I was publishing my first novel and writing the second. When I saw the transit coming, I thought it would be great and was looking forward to having my imagination boosted and getting loads of writing done. But it didn’t work out that way.

Using a 7-degree orb the transit faded in around the start of 2012 when I was trying to heal my inflammatory bowel disorder and associated health issues while writing early drafts of Addled and looking for a job. As my health improved, I decided to go self-employed as Neptune got closer, and then published the book shortly before the first exact transit.

On the surface things seemed to be going well but underneath my confidence was draining away. I was struggling with the early drafts of my second novel with multiple false starts and confusion about what I was doing. But the writing was a distraction and avoidance of what I was really feeling: my unfinished dark night of the soul had returned.

My energy levels were also very low and I was struggling to sleep despite being exhausted. This was due to my hormones going absolutely crazy as I entered an early menopause and lost my fricking mind! Sleep deprivation meant I couldn’t think straight and that didn’t help the writing, or anything else. But I kept writing because I didn’t know what else to do.

The menopause officially ended just after the final exact hit of this transit and the fog slowly cleared. By 2016 I was thoroughly disillusioned with the whole idea of publishing and ‘being a writer’ and began to write more astrology stuff and embraced my identity as a weirdo!

But this transit was also about letting go of my identity as a woman and becoming a crone, despite being in my mid-40s. It was a hard sacrifice to make but now I can grow into the person I always was, since I was effectively born a crone!