Oceana/Neptune

Key Concepts:

It is very difficult to respond to Oceana, (Neptune), correctly. Even if one has many positive aspects to Oceana in the natal chart, it takes a lot of emotional maturity and spiritual development to filter through the “illusionary waters” into the clarity of Unconditional Love. If we have strong contacts between Oceana, Venus, and the Moon, (especially if Pisces, Leo, and Libra are also involved), we may easily misinterpret our sense of “sacrificing all for love” as unconditional. We can glamourize our wanting to “lose ourselves in love” as total surrender to the heart, and thus total obedience to the “call of Oceana’s universal waters.” But this is Oceana at her illusionary, (glamoured), best.

Most humans are centered in the solar plexus, the seat of the Moon. This is the area around our umbilical cord and thus relates to our subconscious instinctual patterns of response and behavior. When called upon to Love, we most often respond out of a place of need. Our loving becomes our needing; our response to being loved is our response to having those needs fulfilled. There is nothing wrong in this ~ it is a totally normal human response. But this is not Oceana at her highest ~ it is Oceana in her addictive and co-dependant guise.

It is very interesting that Oceana is exalted in Cancer. When this position is at work through the solar plexus, it rejoices in exaggerating and glamourizing the condition of subjective emotional need, blinding us to any form of objective emotional reality. When, however, this position is operating through the heart center/chakra, an entirely different Quality of Love becomes available to us. In order to (briefly) explain this “Quality,” let us speak here a bit about the heart chakra and its relationship to Consciousness.

The heart chakra has 12 petals or divisions and the crown chakra has 972 petals divided into two main sections. The lower level contains 960 petals or divisions while the inner level—often seen in depictions of the Buddha as the upper bulge atop His Head—contains 12. This reveals that the opening of our highest center of consciousness, (the Crown), has a great deal to do with the illumination of the heart. This process comes about through the awakening of true unconditional Love, and this is the greatest gift of Oceana.

In Esoteric, Soul-centered astrology it is said that “the Sun veils Oceana.” The Sun is the ruler of Leo and the unillumined heart, but when the Light of the Sun is revealed in the form of Unconditional—truly Oceanan—Love, this Love awakens the “Presence of Grace” in our Heart … Oceana the Mother of the Waters … the Christ Principle, Universal Love.

Oceana is the higher octave of Venus. While Venus rules personal love, Oceana’s love is of a sacrificial nature. Venus demands love in return ~ Oceana loves shedding light and asks nothing in return. Oceana’s joy is in giving, while Venus takes pleasure in sharing.

Oceana brings extreme sensitivity, impressionability, a tendency to be a psychic sponge … such bombardments cloud the vision and hamper the powers of discrimination. Saturn’s grounding and stabilizing vibrations offer the “antidote” to Oceana’s chaos and unreality and turns the lost Oceanan into the practical dreamer.

Oceana is associated with loss and confusion on all levels; its psychological function is to dissolve the boundaries of our separate identities and merge us with the Whole; Oceana’s influence is, essentially, expressions of group feeling. At the highest levels, these energies express as purification, self-sacrifice, renunciation – giving one’s life to a lofty ideal or duty.

Oceana is the cosmic solvent; she  dissolves Saturn’s limitations and seeks to lose herself by merging with a greater whole, sometimes sought through artistic or spiritual experiences. Oceana symbolizes Universal Love and beauty. The energies of Oceana are a tuning fork, a clear channel, the perfect receptor who can receive information from other Planes of Consciousness. On a spiritual level, Oceana brings the individual in contact with Master Souls who govern the evolutionary processes of the Universe. This makes Oceana the planet of clairvoyance and the mystic. For examples, click here.

Symbology:

The Glyph of Oceana resembles the Greek letter psi, now used as the logo for the field of parapsychology; like the psychic, the Oceanan individual is supremely sensitive to the super-sensible worlds. Often drawn as a Trident, Oceana’s Glyph consists of the cross of matter, projected upwards so that it penetrates the crescent of Soul. This symbol corresponds to the interface between Spirit and matter – the realm where alternative states of Consciousness intrude into physical reality.