Planets: Neptune—ray 6 (sacred)

I Ray 6 (sacred planet)

Method: Mystical wisdom and love, atmosphere, abstract ideals

Neptune: general information

Details to follow

Neptune: Rulerships

• Orthodox: Pisces
• Esoteric: Cancer Leo
• Hierarchical: Cancer

Orthodox: Pisces ⇧

Although Neptune has now superseded the exoteric rulership of Jupiter in Pisces, Jupiter acts to enhance the esoteric function of Ray 2 in this sign, as it “produces a constant stimulation” (EA 277) and steady expansion of the indwelling soul consciousness, as for humanity in general:

Jupiter and its influences indicate that the way of incarnation is the “beneficent” method of evolutionary unfoldment and that the way of love-wisdom is the way for humanity to go. (EA 127)

In connection with the Mutable Cross, the rays of the Sun in a threefold form (combining the lowest energies of the threefold Sun) pour into and through [humanity], via Jupiter. Jupiter is the agent of the second ray which the Sun expresses—cosmically and systemically. (EA 297)

However, the second of the three facets of the Sun—the “heart of the Sun”—employs Neptune as its agent …through which the Sun focusses its energy or influences (like a lens) (EA 296), so the shift of the orthodox ruler from Jupiter to Neptune during the sidereal “age of Pisces” would indicate the development of humanity under the beneficent path of love-wisdom, for which the gentler, more idealistic and altruistic sixth ray influence of Neptune has been an introduction.

Esoteric: Cancer ⇧

Neptune as esoteric ruler is veiled by the Moon, and leads to an ability to provide a “lighted house” for the developing self and eventually a group (inner or outer), and the facility to respond with compassion to what lies beyond the personal.

This sixth ray influence coming from three angles—orthodox, esoteric and hierarchical—and hence involving both Neptune and Mars—predisposes the race and individual man as well to become one-pointed disciples in Sagittarius. This latter constellation is ruled by Mars, bringing [us] into control or closer touch with the lunar lords, the sixth Creative Hierarchy. (EA 218)

Basically, this means that we are no longer passive to our material existence and circumstances, but are able to shape and construct our lives so that they express the core self or soul.

Esoteric: Leo ⇧

Here the Sun veils Neptune, however, the Sun itself (and the fifth house) is symbolic of the self-aware human soul:

The Sun, the transmitter of the energy of the second ray, rules the fifth house or mansion of the soul, the causal body … the force of Leo is also involved … spiritual individuals aware of their identity say in this house: “I am the eternal cause of all relation. I am and I exist.” The dualism of the second ray is first realised in the fifth house by humanity, the embodied fifth principle. (EA 509, edits)

This dawning duality is intimately bound up with the “Heart of the Sun” and the love-wisdom quality of the second ray, as expressed through the refined Ray 6 qualities of Neptune:

…the real Sun under which our planetary life will eventually function … is the Heart of the Sun. When that is controlling, the [aware individual then lives] a dual life simultaneously (which is ever the problem of [those] illumined by the soul as well as by the light of day) [which consists] of our apparent experience and situations and our inner spiritual soul awareness. The personality will still respond to influences coming to it from the [orthodox solar rulership] but the motivated life activity and the subjective experience of the inner [self] will be conditioned by energies coming… from the “Heart of the Sun.” (EA 110-11)

Many will be familiar with the inherent tension implied by the above description, with the consequent emotional and psychological conflicts that demand resolution. This rulership therefore begins to invoke the influence of Leo’s complementary, Aquarius, where Jupiter is the esoteric ruler and Uranus the Hierarchical so that:

…eventually the time comes when the nature of the Fixed Cross begins to dawn upon… consciousness … and the influence of Aquarius … begins to balance that of Leo. Then there comes the gradual shift of … attention away from the “one who stands alone” to the environing group, and an equally important shift away from selfish interests to group requirements. (EA 292-3)

Hierarchical: Cancer ⇧

Neptune—as veiled by the Moon again—here represents the lives that sustain the various bodies that our personal selves “inhabit”—as they are visibly drawn from “Mother Nature”, and also from the subtler levels. This is the sign that symbolises humanity’s coming into existence millennia ago as the “fourth Creative Hierarchy”:

for Cancer is the sign of birth; it is the door into incarnation and the sign of generation … in the connection between the sixth and seventh rays… that potent “desire for incarnation“ was aroused… (EA 218)

This desire (Ray 6) led to the origins of humanity through our original incarnation en-masse as a species in material form (Rays 3 and 7). See Mars as hierarchical ruler of Sagittarius, where the lunar lords of the form nature [are eventually] sacrificed (Ray 6) to the higher spiritual aspect and brought under the control of the solar Angel or human soul (EA 210).

Cancer-Neptune is expressive of the seventh ray which rules and controls the eighth Creative Hierarchy [of “mass life” and which is the ultimate state of a fully-developed humanity or the “Christ principle”]. This is one of the five Hierarchies whose names are unknown to us and this particular one stands upon the verge of liberation. At the same time it is closely connected with the mind principle as it works out through the solar Angels or through the human [the fourth] hierarchy. (EA 217-8, 34-5)

Neptune decanates

In conventional astrology, decanates simply follow the rulerships of each elemental triad, but Esoteric Astrology has inconsistent information. See notes about the decanates, and the “decans” tab under each sign.

Neptune Dignities

• Exaltation: Cancer Leo
• Fall: Capricorn
• Detriment: Virgo Aquarius

Exaltation in Cancer ⇧

To follow

Exaltation in Leo ⇧

To follow

Fall in Capricorn ⇧

To follow

Detriment in Virgo ⇧

To follow

Detriment in Aquarius ⇧

To follow