Skywriter’s Readers share their own Neptunian Career Tales

 ©1-24-2010 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Yesterday’s post about Neptune transits to the 2nd, 6th, and 10th houses ( Neptune’s in your Career House? It’s not a Transit, It’s an Epoch!) sparked a productive discussion in the comment section.  Since many of you don’t read the comments, I wanted to share some of the stories here. For the student of astrology or the professional, real-life examples like these are a great way to learn how the transiting planets affect people.  We owe a big thank you to the readers who shared them!

Example #1: The woman whose story follows gives us a textbook Neptune in a career house tale that ends by her recovering a life-long dream.

“This is why I love you, Donna. I’m always learning something insightful with your writings. Today’s post had me pulling up my chart since I’m one of those with Neptune currently midway through my 10th house. In 2006 it was crossed my Midheaven while squaring my Sun & Neptune conjunction in Scorpio in the 6th. Your description of career uncertainties fit for this period. My work life took a dramatic, sudden change due to dissatisfaction with my job. I found myself a stay at home mom, living back in my rural hometown to be near family and not having to work for first time since I was 12.”

“It was a sea change for me but I actually loved it more than expected. For first time in my life I wasn’t pushing myself at a job to excel and strive to “do” or “be” something in the outside world. I gave myself the freedom to just slow down, be a Mom and do things because I wanted to do them ‘just because.’

“In the summer of 2009 (after my period “semi-retirement”) my old ambitious, career-oriented self emerged again as Neptune continued to move through my 10th house. Faced with an opportunity to lease an adorable retail space, I suddenly found myself thrust back into retail life.

My sister and I opened up my dream shop where all my past career skills now come into play in a creative and enjoyable way. But this time I’m the boss, not just an employee. For the first time in my life I feel like “yep, this is finally the right ‘career’ path for me.” And the shop is so far exceeding our goals and building a terrific nurturing community among our customers.

“So for me Neptune in the 10^th has brought clarity and direction after years of moving through misty avenues searching for the right direction. Ironically, what I’m doing now is exactly what I wrote 25+ years ago as a freshmen in high school as my dream: to someday own my own retail book/gifts in a charming space in my historic downtown. Maybe the fact that my Sun and Neptune are so tightly conjunct has something to do with it. I’m probably more attuned to Neptune and actually benefit from the square energies than someone not as comfortable with the murky, undefined but creative nebulousness that is Neptune’s realm.”

Example #2: Another reader has Neptune involved in both the natal and transiting picture as well as a further Neptunian influence, the 12^th house.  She writes:

“I have Sun conjunct Neptune in Libra the 2^nd natally, with sextiles to Saturn conjunct Pluto in Leo in the 12th.  I’ve never had a clear career path, but always gravitated to the arts and worked most of my life as a technical illustrator. Now, I have Saturn coming to conjunct the Sun and Neptune, while Pluto (transiting the 5^th) will be squaring it. Then, Uranus will oppose from the 8^th. Right now, I feel trapped in my job. I will be eligible to retire in May, but am afraid I might not make it financially. True to Neptune’s nature, I feel lost and floating in rough seas.’

Here’s my reply:

“A Neptune transit fairly often involves a downsizing because the old types of work just don’t suit you any more. But in the long run, though you’re out of the mainstream and not so affluent, you get to open up a more creative or spiritual life path that fulfills you more.”

“What’s particularly significant is when a transit in some way echoes a natal aspect.  In your case, the Pluto-Saturn conjunction in the 12^th house is in some regards a career indicator, because Saturn usually carries a career connotation and the 12^th is a house of service…just as much or more so than its opposite house—the 6^th.  (The 12^th is also related by nature to Neptune.)

“The current transits by Pluto and Saturn will therefore evoke the natal 12^th house conjunction and give you the opportunity to work it through on a new level. Retirement will bring you the opportunity to live out the quieter, more contemplative side of your nature that the 12^th house represents.”

One reader wrote by email that she’s already living out her Neptunian ideal in her work:

“I have the Sun and Mercury in Pisces in the 10^th house of my natal chart.  Currently Jupiter, Neptune, Uranus, and Chiron are all transiting that house.  Transiting Neptune is 3 degrees from the MC, along with Jupiter and Chiron.  They’re square to my natal Neptune in the 6^th house in Sagittarius.  Transiting Neptune also squares my natal Saturn in the 12^th house in Gemini. Could my life get any more Neptunian than that?

“I love my job at the Zoo and wouldn’t trade the low pay for another job that wouldn’t bring me satisfaction and happiness I feel at the end of the day.  The only stipulation is that I am giving the Zoo 5 years to hire me full time, and currently I am still part time and almost at my 3 year anniversary.  This is a job I wouldn’t mind staying in until I retire, so I hope I get hired full time by then.  If not, I will pull up my roots in fertile Missouri and transplant myself in south south south Florida with all the other tropical plants.  Can you tell I am a horticulturist? My favorite quote is: Get off your cross, I need the wood.”

…And then I Discover that IT’S ALL ABOUT ME!

Sometimes I think that when I write, I’m really only writing messages to myself.  Do any of you other writers find that to be true? Or do you astrologers or healers suddenly get the odd sensation in the middle of a session that the wise advice you’re offering a client applies equally to the way you’re living your own life? And do you realize with no little embarrassment how much better off if you’d be if took your own advice to heart?

After I posted yesterday’s piece about Neptune and career transits, I began to realize how much it mirrored my own experience of Neptune transiting the 6^th,  and I got a great many new insights about the turning my career took during that epoch.  I’ll close by sharing  some of my Neptune story with you.

What you may not realize is that the houses of the horoscope come in a variety of sizes from small (22° wide from one cusp to the following one) to medium (about 30°) to Xtra large (up to 45° with a whole sign intercepted.) My 6^th house is 41° wide and so when a slow-moving planet like Neptune that moves only a couple degrees of the zodiac a year comes along, it can be in that house as long as 20 years. The time Neptune spent in my 6^th felt more like 40!!

The 6^th house is not just the house of work, it’s also the house of health, and so career changes that occur during a 6^th house transits often come about because of health issues. The most significant event that occurred during that epoch was a head injury in a car accident about 17 years ago that changed my life—and my work—forever. It affected my ability to focus for long periods of time and created a permanent loss in short-term memory.  (I won’t go into detail, but if you’re interested, you can read about it here: Cancerians, Memory and Emotion.)

I do have Neptune in the 3^rd natally squaring Mercury on the cusp of the 12^th, and so a significant head injury certainly could be related to that transit. As I mentioned to one reader in the comment quoted above, the most significant transits are those that in some way echo a natal aspect, because they bring you to a new place in expressing the energies of that aspect.

This past year, Uranus in Pisces, Saturn in Virgo, and Neptune and Chiron in Aquarius have all been setting off that natal Mercury-Neptune square.  I’ve changed my career direction significantly this past year so that:

• I’m retired from chart consultations in order to be a full-time writer
• I’ve changed my writing style to a punchier one that works well for internet writing.
• And I’ve learned excellent work-arounds for managing the head injury better.

It’s all been unfolding naturally through these three sets of transits, but yesterday’s post and your responses to it in the comment section helped me put the pieces together.

How about you, readers?  Do you have any stories about how the process of a Neptune transit to your 2^nd, 6^th, or 10^th houses affected your career? If you haven’t already, read Neptune’s in your Career House? It’s not a Transit, It’s an Epoch! and leave your comments there.

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Art Credits: Like most posts on this site, the art here came from Clipart.com.