Hi Everyone,
Here’s my post for Neptune turning retrograde. That happened on July 4, 2025 at 9:33 p.m. EDT. The main theme that came through for me was that of grooving the pattern, the habit, and the process of returning to the clarity of who we are.
I have also been struck by the emergence of another layer of wounding for me as it relates to Neptune’s retrograde and its tie to the Virgo Lunar Eclipse that occurred on March 14th. I talk about both of these themes in the video included above. I have also included a transcript of the video at the end of these show notes.
In the following section, “Rebalancing the Masculine and Feminine”, I talk about two additional threads that I wanted to address. The first is the astrology underlying the personal experience I shared in the video and its connection to a greater theme that is up for healing in the human psyche. It has to do with the restoration of the masculine protective charge to balance and support all life.
The second is the theme seen in the Sabian symbols for Neptune’s retrograde cycle. That theme has to do with the right relationship with identity formation at a collective level. This theme emphasizes the healing of the re-cognition of the feminine - yin, nurturance - principle in society as it relates to identity formation.
All Sabian symbols quoted below, including in the transcript, are from James Bugess’ site, Sacred 7 Academy. All Tarot card quotes are from Biddy Tarot.
Rebalancing the Masculine and Feminine
The Restoration of the Masculine Protective Instinct
One piece of the astrology of the experience I shared in the video that I didn’t talk about is its relationship to the symbolism in the chart about re-imagining the masculine, protective principle. Currently, masculine protection plays out within the context of an us-versus-them construct that perpetuates trauma. It says that, for us to be safe, someone else must be harmed. For myself, this construct has been part of the challenge I’ve experienced in embodying - in internalizing - a felt sense of protection. How can I trust a safety that says that someone else must be harmed for me to experience it? It doesn’t make sense.
In the chart, there is an invitation and an opportunity to heal this principle so that protection comes not at the expense of traumatizing others, but in support of safety and well-being for all humanity and all creation.
Neptune says that the opportunity we have is to dream this new possibility into being, the extreme trauma currently being created the very heart-and-soul-deep contrast we need at this moment in our human evolution - a moment when we are standing on the precipice of a new level of being and manifesting as a collective, a moment when we are primed and ready to throw off the past but just need the crystal clarity required to do so. Because of the readiness of the human collective, because of the heart-and-soul-level yearning that is there, this contrast provides the clarity we need to unequivocally choose a new way, a new path forward, one that supports the life principle of all, not just a select few.
This symbolism can be seen in the decans and in Neptune’s aspects. In terms of the decans, its retrograde station occurred in the first decan of Aries. In the Chaldean system, this decan is ruled by Mars. It will turn direct at 29 degrees Pisces. This degree falls in the final decan of Pisces, a decan that is also ruled by Mars.
Looking at the aspects at play, Neptune at 2 degrees of Aries forms a waxing quad-novile aspect (160 degrees) with Mars at 11 degrees Virgo. While a litte wide with an orb of just over 2 degrees, it will be locking into place within the week so I feel it is relevant. This energy of not-quite-there is itself resonant with the novile aspect series, which symbolizes something in the process of being created. The novile series speaks of the promise to come. In this case, that promise will come when we show up every day and do the work that is there to do - the work of embodying love one step deeper in our cells, one small practice at a time.
The quad-novile aspect itself, when measured out on the natural wheel, falls at 10 degrees Virgo, one degree shy of where Mars is in Neptune’s retrograde chart. It is notable that both 10 and 11 degrees Virgo fall in the beginning of Virgo’s second decan. This second decan is ruled by Venus, which represents the principle of balance.
In the context of a deeply wounded humanity, Venus’ rulership of the second decan of Virgo asks us to restore ourselves to balance. The Virgo signature reminds us that this process occurs one day, one person, one step at a time as we learn this forgotten skill - the forgotten lived application of it.
Taken all together, this symbolism tells us that new, rejuvenated, re-enlivened humanity is coming. But it takes each of us doing the unsung part of the work that is ours to do - the work that occurs in the quiet of our own processes, of healing and the slow step-by-step process of learning new ways of being.
Mars’ position in the first half of Virgo’s second decan suggests that our focus is more on what’s happening in the world, on sifting and sorting through the experiences that got us here and choosing what to keep, what to give energy to, what to nurture and nourish and facilitate to its peak. What is happening in the world, as horrible as it is, is giving us the clarity we need to choose something different.
Once Mars reaches the peak point of Virgo at 15 degrees, the work will shift to integrating what was brought to its peak. Mars will reach this degree on the same day that Saturn turns retrograde. This correspondence reminds us that mastery is built on the practices we do day-in and day-out. Our work is to choose, from all the things tht were brought to a peak, which we will integrate, which we will give our attention to, which we will embody in our cells via the habits we groove into being through our daily practices.
The Essential Role of the Feminine (Nurturance) in Identity Formation
Another piece of the astrology that I didn’t talk about has to do with the distinction between imposed identity versus aspirational realizations. The former can be seen in the Sabian symbol for Neptune’s station retrograde point. According to James Burgess, that symbol is “A cameo profile of a man in the shape of his country”. We can see in this image three possibilities. One is the idea of someone imposing their identity on the rest of us. Another is the corrollary to the first - the idea of being required to conform to artifically constructed identity requirements.
A third possibility is the idea of a nation, when formed according to laws resonant with the principles of thriving life and well-being for all, providing the container that allows each of us to realize our highest individualized expression in service to the whole.
The Sabian symbol for Neptune’s station direct point is “The Great Stone Face”. This symbol draws on a book written by Nathaniel Hawthorne of the same name. I have not read the book so you will want to confirm for yourself what the story is about. As I understand it from what came up on Google searches, the story is about a young man who hears about the legend of a great stone face. This face is naturally embedded in a rock formation (not imposed on it like the faces of Mount Rushmore). The legend is that, one day, a person will be born who has this face. The young man, called by this story, spends his life in search of this person. In the end, it is revealed that he is that person. Upon learning this, his response is not an egotistical one. Rather, he continues to live his life searching for this other and striving to be the best version of himself - the version embodied by the Great Stone Face - that he can be.
The story of The Great Stone Face provides the clarity we need to move into the next stage of Neptune’s journey as symbolized by its station retrograde point and the Sabian symbol of “A cameo profile of a man in the shape of his country”. The path forward is not an egoic one of imposing our identity onto others or of demanding adherence to our ideas of what is best. This manifestation is that of the two-year-old. I say that with zero judgment or disparagement, but as simply what I see.
While an essential part of our developmental path, and one I believe humanity has been stuck in for a few millennia now, we are being called to develop beyond it. That call is not being externally imposed. It is emerging from our yearning hearts and souls. This yearning, I believe, is a natural part of the developmental process, the signal that sufficient foundations have been laid down to support us in stepping into the next level of our collective being. Those foundations have been laid down because of the inner healing work so much of humanity has been doing.
The Sabian symbol for the solar point of Neptune’s retrograde cycle is “A woman has risen out of the water, a seal is embracing her”. This symbolism reminds us that life emerges from oneness and nurturance. The distortions represesented by the symbol of “a cameo profile of a man...” come about when we exile the nurturance principle from human society and claim that enslaving it is honoring it. The woman in the solar point symbol is free and independent, emerging into her own unique shape and form, yet also fully supported by the roots that gave rise to her. She represents the feminine, or yin, principle. From nurturance, the individual emerges and, embodied in that individual is the everpresent embodiment of that memory of nurturance and thus the capacity for it.
Yin freedom and independence is not a threat to yang emergence. It is the essential precursor, grounding, and context. In remembering this truth, we help to restore the masculine and feminine, both, to balance.
Video Transcript
Hi everyone,
This is Ellen from Astrology Journal. I want to talk about the chart for Neptune retrograde. That's happening on July 4 at 9:33 pm Eastern Daylight Time. By the time you get this, it will have already occurred. I'll probably get it out on July 5th. But I'm recording this before it's actually happening.
The main theme that comes through for me when I look at this chart is the idea of: we need to keep returning to ourselves. We need to keep returning to ourselves. And how we actually go about doing that. So Neptune is the vision, the dream. And in order for the dream to become reality - Neptune is turning retrograde, conjunct Saturn - reality. In order for the dream to become reality, it has to be anchored. We have to be anchored in ourselves so that the dream itself can be anchored and rooted. And I feel like a lot of the reason humanity has been repeating these same really troubling, horrific, violent patterns for the past few millennia is because we haven't really been able to truly anchor ourselves and therefore our dreams.
And so the challenge to doing this work is healing the trauma, healing the wounds that have been preventing us from doing that. And I think the energies are supporting us in that. That's been my personal feeling - that as all the outer is happening - and it is horrific, and it is horrible and it is affecting people - but to the extent that it's bringing up triggering stuff in us, we can do the process of integrating those, healing those, resolving those, feeling those, allowing them to move through our bodies, to the extent that's possible for us - not going beyond the foundations that you've laid to be able to do that - and it can be just a little bit at a time. But as we get good at that, we can then process more and more of these wounds, more and more of these traumas, and that allows us to become more and more clear in who we are. And then that allows us to ground and anchor the vision for the future of humanity that we really want more deeply in our beings.
And so I believe that the month of July is a month where many of us may be feeling even more clear than we ever have about who we are and about the vision we want. And then the challenge will be to keep returning to that, because it’ll be new. That newer clarity, we’ll still be getting to know it and we’ll be entering into an environment that is turbulent and will be sort of throwing us off, like - I’ll talk about the Sabian symbols in a minute, but one of them has to do with this idea of like white water kind of cresting type of thing. You know, we’re on the water and there’s all this white water waves and so we have to keep bringing ourselves back. We have to learn to steer that, too. And part of that might be, or probably will be, the fears and the whatever comes up in us. And that's ours, that's what we get to focus on and heal, to tend and process and allow it to move through us in the way that it needs to and to reveal to us what it needs to reveal to us, so that we can then return, for, you know, return back to who we are.
So the ultimate, the ultimate thing is we want to keep envisioning the reality we want. But it can't take root if we're not then also doing the process of healing what comes up. As we dream these dreams, that’s going to be bringing things up because there’ll be parts of us that won’t be in alignment with it because of the wounding, because of the trauma that we’ve experienced. And I’m talking here about - I think this is deep soul stuff at a human collective, human organismic level. And so I think that's more what I'm addressing here. But for each of us, individually, things may be coming up and I’ll share with you something that's been coming up for me that I think is really fascinating.
Where I'm getting the deep emotional stuff is that the Moon is in Scorpio, and it's at the focal point of a t-square, with both Mercury here and then Pluto in Aquarius - the Soul and the Soul of humanity. And Pluto rules Scorpio in modern astrology. So the Moon is kind of looking to Pluto in Aquarius. And so this is about going into the depths of our human experience. And a lot of that I think in these days we’re seeing is trauma - a lot of what we’re seeing in the world being acted out right now is the projection of trauma. And so how can we heal that within ourselves?
I had this moment earlier in the week where I was like, all of this stuff is really horrible. But then I had a moment where I experienced something within myself. I saw how, when I was a child, there was a way which, because I was in a survival pattern, I was sort of trying to put a hook into somebody else in my life, for them to be my father figure. But they weren't my father, right? And so, in this way, I was kind of enslaving. And that was what I thought about - enslaving this person - not because I'm bad, not because I'm horrible, whatever. But it was sort of a pattern that was really interesting to me. And I thought, Oh, wow. So the enslavement we're seeing in the world - and I do not mean to be minimizing it, I do not mean to be dismissing it - but I was like, that is just a huge mirror for us to see: how are we doing that in our relational lives, in our one-on-one lives. Would that mirror be outside of us if it wasn't inside of us?
So,that was something that I thought was meaningful. It gave me more motivation to heal the layers that are in me that are creating this mirror, these activities outside of me. Not that I think I'm some kind of grandiose whatever that, you know, that if I heal myself, the world will change. But I think if we all heal ourselves, the world will and can change. And part of that is because as we heal ourselves, we'll be able to better understand our vision and better be able to anchor that. Each of us has a really important part to play. That's kind of what Aquarius says. Aquarius is the enlightened individual, and it’s also the enlightened society. And the enlightened society arises from the enlightened individual. And then the enlightened society creates the space for the individuals to grow into enlightenment. So it's a give and take type of thing, or a both/and one - you know, a virtuous circle, or a virtuous cycle or something like that, where one supports the other and then that, in turn, supports the other and it supports the other, that sort of thing.
So what I thought I would do… Neptune turning retrograde - it's really interesting, looking at this from the perspective of time. Up here I have a grid that just shows what’s been going on. So here we have Neptune retrograde, and it's happening on July 4th, at 9:33 pm. This is Eastern Daylight Time. All these times here are Eastern Daylight Time. And it's happening in between the First Quarter Moon and the Gibbous Moon. So the First Quarter Moon is on July 2nd and the Gibbous Moon is on July 6th.
And the Sabian symbol for the First Quarter Moon is miners emerging from a mine. And the degree that this is happening in, the Moon will be at 11 degrees and some change of Libra. And so there's this idea of relationship in here, which I'll talk about. And then there's this decan, the tarot card associated with the second decan - that's what this number is - is “difficult decisions, weighing up options, an impasse, avoidance” [edit: this symbol is not the right one; the correct one gives better nuance - see note1]. I talked about this in the Overview for July that I sent out to paid subscribers. And I want to talk about it a little bit here.
So “miners emerging from a mine”. My read on that is the idea that we go down into the mine to find the gem of ourselves. And so the miners emerging from a mine - they are us emerging from the mine having found that gem of who we are. And they're stepping out into a world - if we look at the Gibbous Moon, the Sabian symbol is “the ocean covered with whitecaps”. That was the word I couldn't come up with - whitecaps - “the ocean covered with white caps”. That's the idea of stepping into turbulence. And “difficult decisions, weighing up options, an impasse, and avoidance”.2 So as we emerge from the mine more clear on who we are, in possession of the gem of who we are, anchored in who we are, we're stepping out into the world as it was, and Libra - agreements, partnerships - we may experience difficult decisions in relationship to that because we may no longer be in alignment, we may no longer be resonating with what was. And so we may have to make difficult decisions around that. So there's kind of this turbulence that can come up around that - inner turbulence, but also some outer turbulence that can come up around that.
And this is part of the reason I was thinking this idea - the the thing we have to do this month is learn to keep returning to ourselves - because these will be difficult - if this happens, if this is resonating with your chart, if this is bringing these things up - it will be bringing those kind of difficult decisions forward. And if we can keep returning to ouselves. So that - the fact that we're faced with those difficult decisions can throw us off a little bit. The habit of who we are and the clarity of who we are hasn't been grooved enough that it may sort of be pulled away from that to what’s familiar, to what’s old. And so keep coming back. Just remembering: keep coming back, keep coming back, that sort of thing.
And within the context - so then the Gibbous Moon is within the context of “faced-paced change” and the ocean with whitecaps. So, especially, this is relevant, too, when we think about Uranus entering Gemini - the pace is really going to be picking up. So the more that we can learn to just groove and get back to ourselves, groove and get back to ourselves. And, again, part of that process means healing. Things maybe come up and we have to heal. So if we're just getting back without the healing, then I think that's probably what people would call bypassing. And so can we truly get back to ourselves if there's wound in the way and we haven’t healed that wound. So I think that’s part of it, too.
The other interesting thing about this timing with Neptune turning retrograde is if we go back in the cycle and we look at when the reconnaissance period began - in other words, when it entered the first shadow period - that was on March 13th. And on March 14th, we had the Virgo Lunar Eclipse. And then on March 15th, Mercury turned retrograde. So the interesting thing about Mercury turning retrograde on March 15th is that it actually stationed on March 14th, on the day of the Lunar Eclipse. So Mercury was very much tied to this Lunar Eclipse. And it turned retrograde at nine degrees of Aries. And it went back to 26 degrees of Pisces.
Neptune turned retrograde at two degrees of Aries, so within - so Mercury was a little bit ahead of it at nine degrees of Aries. And then Neptune went back to retrograde and back to 29 degrees Pisces [edit: will retrograde back to] . So Mercury went back to 26 degrees Pisces. So the entire Neptune retrograde cycle is occurring within the Mercury Retrograde cycle that occurred at the time of the Lunar Eclipse, or that began - the retrograde part of it began - at the time of the Lunar Eclipse. So this Neptune retrograde is kind of vibrating, sort of bringing, perhaps, that Mercurial energy back. And Mercury, one of the signs it rules is Virgo. So it's this idea of practice and skill development.
And a man - the Sabian symbol for Mercury Retrograde that happened on March 15th - “a man teaching new forms for old symbols”. So we're having to sort of learn - we're going to be encountering the old patterns and those sort of things, and we’re going to have to learn, perhaps, new ways of being with those old patterns, ways that don't require us to sort of sacrifice or adapt ourselves out of existence, but instead allow us to remain firm [edit: stabilized, secure, grounded] in who we are, to anchor ourselves. And the more we can anchor ourselves - heal what needs to be healed, and anchor ourselves - the more the vision can anchor. And that vision, in these times is, I think, the most important thing that we can do - you know, in terms of the future, in terms of what's possible in the future, when you're in the dark, the most important thing is that idea of anchoring the vision because that's what will eventually blossom, will eventually sprout into the new life, the new humanity that we all want to see.
And then Mercury’s second retrograde cycle of the - I think this is the second one of the year - that happens on July 18th, and it turns retrograde at 15 degrees of Leo. And that 15 degrees of Leo is a really interesting point on the phase wheel because that is at the beginning of the Gibbous phase, so the transition between the First Quarter Phase and the Gibbous phase. And that is this transitional idea of we're moving from really expressing our light to recognizing that we need to embody our light and learn the skill of it and make it into a container, and us into a container, such that the light of Spirit can flow through us and we can be the prisms for that light. And the way that we develop that is through skill - Virgo and Gibbous phase - through skill development and practice.
So it seems like there was something else. Oh, I thought what I would do is share what I'm experiencing during this time. So interestingly for me, yesterday and today, I've had fear come up - this fear of being rounded up, right? - with all that energy out there. And so I'm sure there's a huge soul resonance for me - the Moon in Scorpio - a deep soul, resonance. The Moon being the current incarnation of the soul. It being square Pluto - the Soul of humanity, but also the soul of individuals - the traumatized part of humanity. So, for me, as I'm witnessing what’s happening in the world, I am experiencing a lot of fear arising around the fear of being rounded up. And I’m sure I’ve experienced that in past lives, other lives, whatever. So that's what's been for me.
And what’s really interesting about that is for the Virgo Lunar Eclipse post that I did, I wrote a little story - I share a little anecdote from my life about how, when I was working one day I just was really thinking about, you know, what would I need to feel secure in the worst of the worst circumstances? What would I need to feel secure? And I was thinking about myself as a young child. And I thought, Well, I would just need to know that I was loved. That would do it. And what I shared in that article was that was my intellectual answer and it was a really good answer. But I knew that I hadn’t quite gotten deeper.
And so, that came up for me - that was a memory from, like, 20 years ago and it’s interesting that it came up then - in the shadow... The Virgo Lunar Eclispe happened a day into the shadow of the Neptune retrograde cycle. Neptuned entered its shadow period on March 13th. Virgo Lunar Eclipse happened on March 14th. So the Virgo Lunar Eclipse was within the shadow period of Neptune’s reconnaissance. And I remember this insecurity. And then as Neptune is preparing to turn retrograde, I'm feeling this fear around security.
And so the opportunity is to allow that fear, to allow myself to feel that fear, so that the fear can then process and reveal to me whatever it is it needs to reveal to me. And the other really interesting thing about this fear coming up is that, over the past week, I’ve had these shifts happening, these really incredible kind of releases of energy, these healing releases of energy of things, of just really old stuff that just has been intransigent and I haven’t been able to do anythhing. And they've been releasing. And now, suddenly, this fear is coming up. So it feels like, to me, it's like the next level, the next layer. Scorpio and Pluto is this idea of diving into the old and the murk and surfacing the crud that's there that needs to be surfaced so it can be resurrected and healed and renewed, you know, and all of that. And so that's what I feel like this is.
And so the opportunity - and so when we talk about the skill of coming back to ourselves - the opportunity here is the skill of coming back to that fear rather than trying to bypass it or leave it behind or figure out some kind of compensation around it. Part of coming back to myself right now, I think, is coming back to that fear because that's the center right now. And so as I can come back to that center and I can be with that fear, I can process more and more. And I suspect I’ll be able to get to the other side of it. And I’ll then be able to live a deeper layer of the intellectual understanding of what I felt I needed: was this idea of love - knowing that I’m loved.
So that is what I thought I would share. That's what's come up for me. I hope there was something helpful for you as always.
Thank you for listening. Thank you for taking time out of your day to listen. For those of you who are paid subscribers, thank you so much for supporting me at that level. It gives me a lot of confidence to coming back and doing more of this. And I appreciate being able to share what I know about astrology and what comes through for me around it.
If any of you would like to support my work at a paid level, please feel free to do so. You can just hit the subscribe button a menu will come up of different subscription options. And I would greatly appreciate that if anyone feels so called to do that.
So, once again, thank you so much for listening. I hope there was something helpful. What I like to always say is, whatever resonates, if it resonates, that’s wonderful and I’m grateful. If it doesn’t resonate, if it’s not helpful, then it wasn't meant for you, and that's okay, you just leave it behind. Because what's going to help you is what resonates with you and what helps you learn what you need to learn and understand what you need to learn about you and your experience in this moment. So that's the thing I care most about. Take what works and need the rest.
Okay, take care. Bye.
Neptune Retrograde Chart
Credits
Symbolism
Sabian symbols quotes by James Burgess. Website, Sacred 7 Academy
Tarot card quotes by Biddy Tarot. Website: biddytarot.com.
Cover Image
Note: I got this wrong. The Tarot card for Libra II is “Heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief, hurt”. This speaks more to the painful realization of betrayal that comes when we awaken to what has been expected of us and what we have agreed to through conditioning. It still fits within the larger theme of the work of grooving a new pattern of returning to our center, rather than reacting from the pain of heartbreak.
See footnote 1
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