Neptune Trouble: Drowning Not Waving

not waving drowingI’m a pretty neptunian character. I think fairly rationally but I also think in metaphors. Unfortunately, if I’m not feeling on top of things, I sometimes communicate in metaphors. Whenever you have Neptune or Pisces involved with Mercury or the third house, that’s bound to happen. However, most people are not going to sit around and parse one’s watery communications, plumb them for meaning. Other people have their own concerns and rightly so.

An ElsaElsa regular posted a link to an article on how to spot a drowning victim. It’s sure not what you’d think and it’s an eye-opener: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning. It immediately made me think of a concept that’s always stuck with me from a poem by Stevie Smith, Not Waving But Drowning.

Drowning not waving: that’s heavy. Sometimes that’s how a person feels. Sometimes I feel like I’m drowning but I know it will pass, so I don’t worry too much about people thinking I’m just waving. The drowning article jolted me when I realized, wow, people who are really drowning just slip into the deep and die. It’s a metaphor and it’s reality. It’s a reminder to keep an eye out for what is not obvious. It’s also a kick in the pants for me. If I’ve got the ability to wave maybe I should kick my legs and swim to shore.

Where does Neptune fall in your chart? Where is it transiting? Do you feel obscured in these reas?

 

47 thoughts on “Neptune Trouble: Drowning Not Waving”

  1. Avatar
    Read_em_and_weep

    Satori… Timely in my life… Been clinging to the side now for months, just waiting for someone to throw me a life jacket… Never knew it could get this hard… And I’ve been through some shit thus far…

  2. i’m more neptunian than i realize, though as i get older it is harder to ignore how much i live at sea, and that i am married to a mermaid who visits only to whisper in my dreams.

    it’s something i keep to myself; it is expressed in my work, though there are no visible signs in it of me having been in deep ocean, treading water while fishing. nobody gets it, i wouldn’t expect anyone to, nor do i need it. it’s a highly personal aspect that i barely understand myself. it’s a lot to put on someone else, like a different language. it’s connected to my deepest self, not so much about personality. and when there is mutual understanding, it’s with someone as neptunian. and it doesn’t require a single spoken word.

    natal sun/neptune conjunction/5th.

  3. Hi,

    My Neptune is in Scorpio and falls at 19 degrees, conjuncts my moon-15 degrees, My mercury-19 degrees and my ascendant 20 degrees all in my 12th house. Right now Neptune is transiting my 3rd house (Aquarius) and going right into my 4th house shortly. So much is going on with me right now, not sure what planet is doing what.

  4. Avatar
    Read_em_and_weep

    @Tamra5619 – Mine is at 14 degrees sitting on my 6th/7th house cusp… Wonder what it means…

    “My Neptune is in Scorpio and falls at 19 degrees, ”

    Been feeling the stress of it though…

  5. Neptune conjuncts my ascendant in Scorpio – presently transiting my 4th. Asking for help is something I avoided most of my life – mostly because I had parents who resented it if you imposed your problems on them. It took me years to realize there actually are people out there who want to help.

    This reminds me of a news story I heard not too long ago, where a young man in his 30’s died alone in a tent that he ended up living in because he became homeless. It was a long process of losing his job, eventually losing his apartment – his friends could not believe that he never told them anything. One of his friends went to his apartment one day only to find out he was gone. He called some of his family members, and they had no idea either. They would have helped him, and they were so devestated to realize they just did not pick up on any clues of his problems.

  6. @Read_em_and_weep,

    You are opposite me, we would probably make a fine team. I love your screen name too.

    Dorothy, your story brought tears to my eyes and you know what, I can totally relate to it. I rarely talk about anything that really matters to me with real life friends and family. But with me, no one ever asks either, they only tell me their dramas and traumas. I’ve only ever been offered help in very dire emergency when you can’t help but notice I need help, lol.

  7. Natal Neptune conjunct my ascendant, my Mercury, my mars, moon and sun in the first and square my MC. Transiting Neptune conjunct my IC (in Pisces with Jupiter) with the concomitant MC opposition.

    Drowning. Not waving. Both professionally and on the home front. Never drowned before. Not sure what to do to make it not look like waving…..

  8. in scorpio (too), by the way.

    i keep my troubles to myself, for better or worse. my family, for example, would be paralyzed with fear if they had any inkling of my deeper doubts, the issues i wrestle with. my friends are sure that i’ve always got it all together. hardly, but no matter. i suspect i’m the guy who dives deep, takes the big gulp, and finds rest at the bottom. sounds morbid, i suppose. luckily, i’ve adapted and grown gills.

    thanks, satori.

  9. Neptune in 12th natally; transiting 3rd House currently.

    I don’t feel too obscured in 12th House matters. In fact I feel privy to something big, a gift from divinity.

    Now, the 3rd House! Yes.

  10. Neptune in my chart is at 7 degrees Scorpio, in the 4th house. It’s sextile my sixth house Saturn on one side and second house Pluto on the other. Transiting Neptune has been squaring my Sun for a while. There are some other heavy transits to my chart right now so trying to distinguish what transits are corresponding to which circumstances is daunting.

    I am drowning and people are telling me how strong I am while simultaneously (seemingly) not knowing how to help or just saying there’s nothing they can do. In my case it’s not a matter of overcoming pride to ask for help, really, it’s long past that stage. Getting help, though, is another matter, even from people whose job it is to do so.

    Anyway, I’m planning on getting an astrological consultation but need to put out various other financial fires first… it has been an expensive past few months.

  11. Neptune in 7H Sadge on my mooooon, opposite the Sun/Saturn/Ascendant holy trinity in Gems.

    My feelings are always obscured to me until I dig them out – but I KNOW this and therefore I dig. Or, swim. Or, whatever – it’s nebulous you know.

    Currently sitting on the cusp of my 9th/10th houses. Work is. Hmm, I don’t wanna say nebulous again, but it’s tricksy anyway. I often ask my boss “If I understand correctly, I am doing ABC to accomplish XYZ, is that right?” Fortunately AwesomeBoss is a stickler for detail and loves these kinds of questions. Whew.

  12. I have strong neptunian influences. 9th house Moon, Mars and Venus conjunct in Pisces and squared by Neptune. Neptune is opposite my Ascendant. I have a terrible childhood and a couple years ago I told my childhood friend about it… and she NEVER NOTICED ANYTHING!!! Neptune now is conjunct my Sun and I feel that people see me as something that I’m not… I’m social but shy but I’m perceived as extravagant and loud!!
    I agree with the term drowning.. I concealed all my Pisces before Neptune passed over my Sun (and before I knew I had all this Pisces in me!!! ). Now I cry sooooo easily and I feel EVERYTHING sooooo easily also. I’m able now to go back and see my past and forgive my past so drowning sometimes has its good side. I feel so detached and so overwhelmed with emotions and it helps me understand..
    Neptune is transiting my Sun and Uranus was transiting my Moon (mutual reception) so Uranus help me to liberate myself from toxic emotions from m past. Neptune helped me get in touch with them. Sooo much Neptune in my life

  13. First, @ Bob: “…i am married to a mermaid who visits only to whisper in my dreams.”
    Wow. How beautiful. You have quite the way with words, if I haven’t already said.

    Neptune 21 Scorpio 21 (8th House). Not sure I wrote that right, but anyway. Even though it’s a bit of a wide orb, Astro has it conjunct my Mercury (0 29). I do think that people sometimes have a hard time understanding me. One square, to my Moon, but otherwise it’s well aspected.

  14. Dorothy, I had the same upbringing…my parents told me NEVER to borrow, or ask anything of anyone else unless it was an EXTREME emergency…so subsequently, I do not ask for help or let anyone know if there is anything wrong..Yeah, I get ya sista!!!

    Neptune in Scorpio in 12th, now Neptune is transiting my 4th..

  15. A lot of the discussions on Neptune I don’t feel like I get, even though I have a tight Neptune opposition to my Moon/Mercury and it does not go away even if I tweak the time of birth. It would scare me to be misunderstood like that.

    Is it true that Neptune oppositions sometimes work as, “Who me, Neptunian?” “No, you’re Neptunian, not me!” Kind of thing. Projection, right?

  16. I have an 11th House Scorpio Neptune, which conjuncts Mercury.

    Scorpio Mercury also Sextiles Virgo Venus and Virgo Pluto in the 9th. Scorpio Neptune Sextiles Virgo Pluto & Uranus in the 9th.

    I have a Pisces 3rd house with Chiron in it, in a t square.

    I have to really concentrate on communicating clearly, if I’m not writing poetry at the time haha.

    I have a weird metaphorical shorthand language that I share with my sister. We’re on some weird wavelength with each other that we can communicate in metaphor and we know what we’re talking about haha.

    I have a different weird metaphorical shorthand language with my husband (our mercury’s conjunct each other and our gemini moons conjunct each other) & our conversations are a lot of that, like with my sister.

    Neptune has been going thru my 2nd house, where my money and income and health and job (and spouse) disappeared.

    Pisces Neptune in my 3rd will be a trip. I’m kind of irrationally scared that something will happen and I’ll be hospitalized in a coma LOL.

  17. Neptune falls in my 11th house. I’m always holding my friends to a pedestal and I’m disappointed by them. I am also humanitarian for any cause that is good. It is transiting my first house and I have been more escapist, dreamy, nostalgic, and sensitive. I feel quite Neptunian other than this.

  18. To ask for help – an acquired skill for sure and then some. Mustering the nerve is a tiny part of it; the core lays in discerning what, when. And who. And how. I aim to not bother asking unless I’m really clear about it or unless the situation is unbearable and even then I often did not ask.

    Neptune opposes Mercury -tight, and the Sun wide and the 3rd and lots else are involved. I’ve likened my Neptune-Mercury to many things all in submerged situations: reading a book under water, tracing with a china ink pen under water. Right now it’s looking for directions on a disintegrating paper map in the middle of the ocean.

  19. Neptune in the first, people never seem to know when I am drowning. If I need help I have to make very sure that I state it …clearly.

    It used to frustrate me a lot, because I always seem to have my finger on the pulse of those close to me and I know when they aren’t doing so well, they don’t have to tell me.

  20. Neptune conj. Asc at 8 Scorpio, and Neptune is at 24 Aquarius in the 4th house, just past conjuncting Chiron. Not waving but drowning. @GW- ditto that, twice.

    Here’s something classic Elsa on Neptune:

    And now you’re in a period where you are doing self-destructive things. You’re flailing. And the way to stop flailing is to stop flailing. And I know this sounds strange, but I think in the end, you will find that I am quite right about this.

    You have to quit thrashing around. Instead look for a gentle solution. Instead of fighting all this water, lie back and let it carry you. You need to let the tide do the work. Let the universe do the work. Your work is to submit. And I realize this may be a terrifying but it’s really one of the best things this world has. Magic, that is. Coincidence, synchronicity, etc. Because it’s while you’re out there in the water, off your beaten path that you are most likely to collide with the someone or something that changes your life forever.

    So just try to muster up some faith, because down the road, I imagine you will see clearly how this transit in your life enhanced you. Saved you, even.

  21. Satori – so timely! Wish I had the energy to type out a full response but i’m on my phone. But i’m putting together what you said with something I read on planet waves yesterday. Apparently there was a yod yesterday that pointed to Neptune. In my life, this amounts to me having to fight the police bc they did not collect all the evidence for a crime of which I was the victim. Namely, a videotape which would prove the other person is lying. They are going back to get it now but I had to kick kick kick to make them see.

  22. Very Neptunian here (looks like I’m in very good company)! Natally, it’s conjuct my Moon & AC in the 1st and trines Mercury & Mars in Pisces. – So pretty much everything I present, feel, and communicate is flavored with Neptune (it’s really a wonder anybody ‘gets me’). Currently Neptune is transitting right on top of my Aquarian Jupiter in the 4th- so, I guess it’s expanding that Neptune flavor, especially when it come to my family (roots). Even through the obscurity, I can definately pinpoint how this is going down… Raised Catholic, there are certain ‘beliefs’ that I walked away from years and years ago, but on occassion remnents that were so ingrained, still pop up and cause havic in my head. With this transit (which will also be passing over my N. Chiron soon as well)- it’s time to ‘walk away from the corpse’, to finally rid myself of self doubt and guilt and confusion.

  23. It’s true you know. My brother had Sun conj Neptune and when he killed himself….well NOBODY knew there was a problem.

  24. I found this somewhere on the web when I was first investigating my chart and I saved it because it is rare that something has described my experience so intently.

    The person who incarnates with Neptune on the Ascendent has evidently invited a difficult experience. Even with the best of aspects the
    physical body is sensitive to an extreme degree; susceptible to all manner of thought forms, atmospheres, and emotional vibrations. This
    position of Neptune is the arch-symbol of the “instrumentalist;” the vehicle can be used, beautifully, by the White Forces or disastrously by those of Blackness. Such a chart must be approached with great care; it is advisable to find out a few things about the person to acquire a perspective on the “Neptune-picture.” A highly developed Ego can be represented by this position, and the planetary afflictions to Neptune could represent the difficulties he may have in “keeping his feet on the ground” in adjusting to the practical phases of life. These aspects can tell a story karmically, of the phases of human life which the person can regenerate by his own spirituality. Since “planets are people,” each square or opposition to the Ascendent-Neptune can symbolize persons who need the spiritualizing influence or persons who serve as “testers” for the Neptune person. This person, to neutralize the negative effects of unregenerate influences must keep himself “inwardly alive” by repeated spiritual recharging. Particularly difficult is the pattern of Ascendant-Neptune being squared or opposed by the ruler of the chart, whatever that planet might be. The Ascendant and its ruler are the
    “newness” of the personality–its focal point of expression for this incarnation. This pattern presents a picture of the physical body itself
    being particularly sensitive to Black Forces and the indication is clearly shown that psychic training of only the most spiritual kind can
    be dealt with. This person needs continual alignment with White Forces through dedicated service, prayer, physical purity, and inspirational agencies such as music. If he chooses to walk a spiritual path, in his
    life activities, his motives and purposes must be immaculate, and he must acquire conscious understanding of the psychic nature of the human
    organism–he must come into an understanding of his own sensitivity and the responsibility that he has to those around him to “be a Light.”
    Without understanding of his own nature and potentials he could be misdirected into negative expressions and eventually find himself on the
    downward grade.

  25. virgo mercury in the 12th, sag neptune in the 3rd, but i usually can count on getting the help i need when i need it.

  26. O. M. G. nota!! that was EXACTLY what I thought when I read that!! (Shaka when the walls fell)

    (((((((Opal)))))))

  27. Neptune in 1st house conjunct ASC in Sag here (Sextile Saturn & Pluto). So even after I’ve drowned I can still say it wasn’t “me”. Moreover, when in trouble, I end up in a circle of people who are just waving back… b/c of that I’ve learned to be self reliant thanks to Capricorn moon occupying my 1st house too.
    ~I never really connected to my Sag Neptune (“that’s a horse of a different color!”) but now I think maybe I should…

  28. Neptune plus moon in scorpio in the tenth house. I always thought I’d have some big great artistic career but ended up being my mother’s secretary for most of my life. At work on my own, I was a target for serious, unbelievably tense office politics, betrayals and intrique. I burnt out of all of it by the time I was 40. I haven’t even had a job in a couple years.

    I know it sounds dramatic but the only way you’d get me back into the “workforce” would be at gunpoint.

  29. I don’t think I feel my natal Neptune placement that strongly, I think Neptunian energy isn’t that uncomfortable in the 4th house. But I blame the on going transit in the 6th for the fact I’m 35 and still don’t know what I want to do when I’m grown up. Also, not getting credit for what I do at work. For instance, I present an idea, and people above me disregard it. Some time later, somebody else presents the same idea, and they think it’s awesome.

  30. Interesting. Being Neptunian is being very sensitive to recognize what’s not obvious to others – that someone is drowning. Maybe with Neptune going into Pisces more people will become sensitized…

    I having a Neptunian year – Neptune closely conjunct MC in my solar return. Plus Neptune is transiting opposite my Mercury at 0 Virgo (rules my Virgo Sun) and Venus/Pluto at 2 Virgo. I tend to forget that Neptune is already very connected to my Mercury by being sextile natally, plus Neptune is at the end of my 3rd house (7 degrees from IC). Virgo has predominated in being clear and discriminating, but I hope the Neptune transit will bring out more of the creative and imaginative (as I drink another glass of wine – oops).

  31. @Jilly “I have an 11th House Scorpio Neptune sextiles Virgo Pluto in the 9th … I have a Pisces 3rd house…

    Neptune has been going thru my 2nd house, where my money and income and health and job and spouse disappeared.”

    Wow, me too! Sounds familiar. I’ve only recently realized the transiting “Neptune” effect on my 2nd house; it was a tsunami that washed away all the foundations of my life.

  32. I have Neptune in Scorpio conjunct Venus and Mercury in the 5th house and Neptune moving into Pisces with be crossing my midheaven (3 degrees) and conjunct my Chiron (2 degrees) opposite Uranus (0 degrees Virgo). Not drowning or waving but swimming under water. At least that what I think, but it could all be an illusion.

  33. Neptune in scorpio in the 3rd house. Square mercury in pisces. I feel like I’m communicating through vaseline sometimes. I don’t seem to be ablo express myself to anyone unless I write it down. Then people are “moved to tears!” And I’m a “brave genius.” I feel like a mermaid myself. Not sure that I want land legs.

  34. Where does Neptune fall in your chart? Where is it transiting? Do you feel obscured in these areas?

    Tenth house conjunct the moon in scorpio, squared by mars in eighth, opposed to Jupiter from the fifth, Chiron in Pisces. Everywhere, and all my life. 🙂

  35. Neptune Scorpio 9th Square Saturn Venus ASC Aquarius. All I ever wanted to do was work and travel, specifically on cruises.

    I never had a family vacation growing up like my friends did. After my first divorce, I was determined I was going on a cruise. I saved up, put down a deposit, then ended up canceling it because I gave birth to my daughter the same week my cruise would have occurred.

    I finally went on one cruise with my now ex-husband’s boss and coworkers. I loved the cruise, but hated them. I couldn’t do what I wanted. No other cruise in sight at the moment.

    Trans Neptune 1st will be Conjunct my Moon in a few days. All I want to do is meditate, but find myself too tired most of the time. I can really feel this influence because I don’t know what to do. Logically, I need a job like NOW. I took one in desperation and was kicked in the ass about it. Neptune is not logical, so logic does not apply here.

    Trans Uranus 2nd Conj Sun demands I remake the way I earn money. Trans Neptune demands I remake the way I feel about myself and the way I project myself to others.

    I am not allowed to do what I used to do, or be the person I used to be. I’m supposed to be someone brand-new, and I definitely can’t figure out who that person is yet.

    Obscured? Hell yeah.

  36. Not very Neptunian at all, I don’t think, natally in the 5th and hardly aspected at all, just a weak square to the moon and trine ascendant are about it. None of the above rings any bells in me, fortunately :). Neptune’s passed over my MC now (but still conjuncting) and transiting my 9th house, where he’s approaching exact sextile to my Mars.

    I have no idea if it’s Neptune’s doing (it doesn’t feel very Neptunian, but just in case…)but the strangest thing happened yesterday. I am trying to get a book published – have been trying for over a year now and had a truly horrid rejection from a particular agent before Christmas. I’m used to rejection, but this was harsh, insulting and ugly – so strong, it made me question everything; I was completely unable to write for many weeks. Yesterday, I had another message, out of the blue (There has been no contact between us since the Evil email of Evil)apparently from the same agent, admiring my writing, saying how much she enjoyed what I sent but that there were certain problems (the same ones I already found myself – since I picked myself up from the last message, I’ve been working on a serious rewrite) and asking to see it again when I’d done the work.

    What happened? Colour me stunned. Feels more Uranian maybe than Neptunian (Uranus is currently making big aspects for me, exactly square my Mars and trine my Moon, approaching exact square to my ASC) – but with the 5th and 9th involved, and happening *right* after Neptune slid into Pisces…

    I’m not questioning, just going with the flow. 🙂

  37. Your so right felt many time like ending it all, I have scorpio sun conjunct neptune in the 6th house. I recently got type 2 diabetes, which is very neptunian, I mean I have always been a dreamer of many things, such as “oh things will get better” , but diabetes makes u go into a dreamy weak state of mind where you cannot do anything, but sit and wonder, also it has always been hard for me to keep a job. I am a entrpreneur and have a strong business acume due to saturn in capricorn even though it oppose my cancer moon inth 2nd house. I have great vision and creativity but because of the neptune and saturn in my chart I can never really go full force, its always some delay, blockage, or set back. I also attract losers, drug addicts,manipulaters for money and deceitful type men. So sometimes I fee l like I want to get off the ride called life

  38. I have Neptune in the 3rd house and I think in images and feelings more than words. Going through Neptune transits now and I feel like Im drowning. Saturn can feel suffocating but Neptune definitely feels like drowning. These subconscious waves just take you under… and you stop fighting. But that’s why you drown… because you stop fighting. I have to start kicking my feet again, somehow. Im glad to have stumbled on this post. Thank you Satori.

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