The Astrology of Mental Illness
Starring: Neptune
With mental illness, there is an unpredictability (hey uranus!) to its nature that could leave people on edge. We can drive ourselves mad trying to figure out when our mental illness (or the illness' of our loved ones) are going to act out again. Contrary to what pop culture and self help books teach us, we are not ALWAYS in control of our lives (how's it going neptune?). This holds true especially for those with mental illness.
At 17 years old, I entered a passionate relationship with a sagg sun and pisces moon native. The relationship was everything I hoped for in life. That is, until I found out the individual was a schizophrenic. At 17 years old, I had no real understanding of what loving a person with schizophrenia would truly entail. But two years down the line when I found myself side by side with this person in a psych ward, I realized just how quickly the tables had turned. My circumstances only motivated me to use my love for astrology combined with my love for psychology in attempt to better understand how a person's chart could influence their mental health. After years of examining/conducting case studies, I could no longer deny the role Neptune plays on mental illness.
I have noticed an alarming amount of mercury-neptune and moon-neptune afflictions when observing the charts of mentally ill individuals. My ex just happened to have moon in pisces semisquare neptune while a good friend of mine with moon in pisces conjunct saturn suffers from chronic depression. However, these findings are not unusual. The moon is a very sensitive point as it rules our subconscious. Our mind is sensitive as it is responsible for our overall functioning. When these two sensitive points conflict with our Neptune (collective unconscious) we often find indications of mental illness. However, these findings are some what generic in nature and cannot truly explain the complexity of mental illness alone.
Sun and Ascendant in harsh aspect to Neptune can cause chronically low self esteem as well as confusion in regards to the self. This confusion is often painful to the point that the native may feel a need to escape through codependent relationships, drugs and alcohol, and possibly even choose the low road of manipulating others for protection and resources. This is mainly because the individual does not believe that they have the proper tools necessary to become self sufficient, yet is fearful of depending on others leading to deceitful and toxic tendencies.
Neptunians and Pisceans with earth and air moons (particularly aquarius and capricorn) can be susceptible to antisocial tendencies as the feeling center that helps us relate to others (moon=empathy) is in detriment. When neptune is restricted (earth/air moon) from feeling the empathy and compassion that comes most naturally to it, panic can occur within the native. This is because the person is being withheld from being able to express any of their energies fully and may be in constant battle with themselves internally. Imagine being trapped in a boxed room with no doors and windows and the only option left would be to walk from corner to corner, wall to wall, until your energy is depleted. These natives hold themselves in a prison because they cannot outwardly express themselves properly, causing long term feelings of unworthiness followed by a possible inferiority complex. In turn, this prison can cause these natives to go into self preservation mode and become extremely self indulgent in attempts to survive. This will often be interpreted as having antisocial, borderline, or narcissistic traits.
The most unusual finding I've encountered is a strong 12th house presence. In my opinion, natives with a lot of personal planets in the 12th house are prone to the most lethal of mental illnesses. This is because the 12th house sets the tone for mental illness to occur (isolation, lack of awareness, lack of discipline, victimization, and access to the astral/spiritual realm). When a person has a 12th house stellium, or even luminaries in the 12th, the native does not have the ability to fully understand their own motivations in life. This person is an absolute mystery to themselves and happens to disassociate from reality much of the time due to chronic confusion. Mental illness is the act of losing touch with reality, and this is exactly what 12th house is great at! Unless the native has a strong saturn/earth presence in their chart to help keep them grounded, they are likely to suffer in silence to the miserable end. On the other hand, 12th house natives are often the kindest of neptunians as they have often dedicate most of their time to helping/serving others.They are often selfless as turning inward can be uncomfortable process. So often times, helping others can serve as a valuable escape from the self.
Lastly, I would like to talk about mars in harsh aspect to neptune. Mars is our ego drive. Because of mars, we have the will to live. We need our mars to motivate us to get up in the morning, go to work, and survive. When we think of fight or flight, we are thinking of mars. A debilitated mars will more often than not choose flight over fight. An exalted mars will always be ready for battle. However, when neptune (the planet of the illusion of self and others) aspects mars (especially in harsh aspect) the individual becomes confused about their path. They will struggle to know what they truly want out of life and will often depend on others for direction. This placement causes the most confusion as it distorts direction. Imagine walking in the woods and suddenly being surrounded by thick fog. The road is no longer clear to you and you are forced to become dependent on others to ensure your own survival. The problem is, when you are dependent on others, you are susceptible to become used, abused, and manipulated. Unfortunately, due to this dependency, mars-neptune individuals are susceptible to a life time of abuse starting from childhood. This often creates a cycle that neptune-mars individuals must learn to break free of. Sadly, this placement can be a heavy indicator of suicide as it often leads to suicidal attempts and ideation, especially if the native no longer has the will (mars) to survive (affliction).
