How Strong is your Neptune? Here’s the Score!

©3-28-2010, revised 1/2012 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 I’ve already published tests to measure the strength of Pluto, Uranus, and Saturn, and they’ve been hugely popular.  Would you be considered a Neptunian person?  You would if Neptune, the sign Pisces, and the 12^th house are strong in your birth chart. Below is a test to give these chart features a score and then a description of what a strong Neptune says about you.

What makes Neptune strong? While there aren’t any scientific measurements of a planet’s strength, I’ve assigned number scores to certain chart factors, based on 40 years of doing charts professionally. (In order to find them, you’d need to be at least an intermediate student or know one who can do it for you.) In each category used, add the total score of all the factors that apply to that item, and write the total on the blank. Then add all the items up to find out how your Neptune ranks.

Orbs for aspects: 8° for a conjunction or opposition, up to 6° for a square or trine, 3° for minor aspects. The only exception would be a conjunction or opposition to the Midheaven or Ascendant, and, using the Gauquelin research, that’s 10°. Minor aspects include the sextile, septile, semisextile, quincunx, quintile, semisquare, and sesquiquadrate.

Here’s the Test:

____Neptune conjunct, square, trine, or opposite the Sun, Moon, Midheaven or Ascendant, 10 points each.

____Neptune conjunct, square, trine, or opposite other planets, 5 points each.

____Neptune in minor aspect to the Sun, Moon, Ascendant, Midheaven, or other planets, 2 points each.

____ Sun, Moon, or Midheaven in Pisces, 5 points each. Ascendant (chart ruler) 10 points.

____ Other planets in Pisces, 3 points each.

____ Sun or Moon in the 12^th house, 5 points each.

____BONUS: Neptune in the 12^th or Pisces on the cusp of the 12^th, 5 points each

____ Other 12^th house planets, 3 points each.

____BONUS: Part of a major configuration like a stellium, T-square, or Grand Trine, 5.

____ Add 2-5 points for each other factor you consider important, such as Neptune aspects to the nodes or having a Node or Part of Fortune in Pisces or the 12^th. Specify.

____Total. 0-15 low, 16-25 moderate. 26-40 strong. Over 40 off the charts! (Check your math.)

What does Being a Neptunian Mean?

 Neptune has a wide range of expressions. At the evolved level, the expressions can include creativity, inspiration, desire to transcend the self and surrender to something greater, seeing beyond apparent reality, compassion, selfless service, psychic abilities, and the urge to find spiritual meaning in life.

At the unevolved level, Neptunians can be prone to illusions and even delusions, can deceive themselves and others, be poorly grounded space cases, fall into the savior/martyr type, and struggle with a variety of addictions.

A huge issue for many Neptunian types is boundaries, and they can have great difficulties in setting healthy boundaries of their own and also with respecting boundaries of others.  This is in part because on the deepest–or maybe highest level–there is no separation.  We are all one.  But not being able to draw them in the “real world” can create all sorts of difficulties in relationships, such as codependency.

It should be noted that the suffering negative Neptune brings upon the Neptunian (and those who love them) can ultimately lead to redemption. On the other hand, even the most positive Neptunian with the highest intentions can gradually go down that slippery slope to deceiving themselves and others about their motives.  Only rigorous honesty with ourselves can keep the highest expressions of Neptune from morphing into the lower ones.

Neptune, at its core, is neither good nor bad.  It’s the part of us that yearns for spiritual awakening and to transcend this reality.  When you do awaken to the spiritual side of life, it may take many years—or even lifetimes—to deal with it in a bal­anced way. The novice seeker is prone to false trails, self-delusion, and ideas that are quite strange.

During many Neptune transits, an important task is to sort out, either by careful thought or bitter experience, what is of value and what is false among spiritual teachings. Since Neptune rules both psychic experience and fraud, there are many phony or misguided occultists and self-styled gurus. Using psychic powers and finding your way among spiritual teachers is like learning to walk all over again, only more difficult. With all that fog, who can see where to plant their feet?

Interpreting your Scores—ARE you a Neptunian?

 If you had a high score, you’re an over-achiever in the matters of Neptune: You’re probably a Neptunian and therefore extremely strong in some the qualities listed above—the positive ones, the negative ones, or both ends of the spectrum at once.

If you had a low score, you’re an under-achiever in the matters of Neptune: If your score is down in the single digits, you may be lacking in some of the qualities listed above like creativity, empathy, or imagination. Until challenged by Neptune transits like the long Neptune-Chiron-Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius that lasted most of 2009, you might not give a rat’s behind about saving the world—or, more to the point, yourself.

So, folks, how did you do?  Were the test results accurate about you and your loved ones? This is a new and simplified version of some of my older tests, so you’re my beta testers.  Tell me how it went in the comments section.

Tests for the other outermost planets:

• How Strong is your Pluto? Here’s the Score!
• How Strong is your Uranus? Here’s the Score!
• How Strong is your Saturn? Here’s the Score!

Finding out More about Neptune

 There’s much more to hazy, confusing Neptune than we can cover in one short post.  Several of my ebooks at moonmavenpublications.comcontain chapters about Neptune, and you get a $15 discount when you order three at once:

• There’s a chapter about Neptune in the career houses—the 2^nd, 6^th, and 10^th—in The Outer Planets as Vocational Indicators (The Outer Planets and Inner Life, v.1)
•  There’s a chapter about Venus-Neptune aspects in Outer Planet Aspects to Venus and Mars. (The Outer Planets and Inner Life, v.2)
•  Aspects between the Outer Planets: (The Outer Planets and Inner Life, v.3) has chapters devoted to Neptune-Saturn and Neptune-Uranus aspects.
•  My classic text, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness, completely revised and updated in 2004 as an ebook, contains a long chapter about Neptune.
• 20 Articles about Neptune on Skywriter

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