I was perusing through the different people who had Neptune in the 4th house, and I came across the natal chart of Colin Wilson. I read through some of his biography, and I thought he would be an interesting example. Colin Wilson is a professional writer, he first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. He wanted to apply for a University scholarship but his father wanted him to go to work and contribute to the family budget. His father worked in the boot and trade industry, and he worked as a barman at night to make ends meet. He became resentful because he had to support Colin for two more years. It was his son's ambition to become a Scientist at this time, but unable to train he started work in a factory to make ends meet. He found the work hard, dreary and repetitive, so when he returned home he would spend his evenings reading poetry for emotional release.
Astrologically Colin has Mars conjunct Neptune in Virgo in the 4th house, and this very potent conjunction expains why he often found himself in a state of discontent and why poetry provided his escape route and his solace. The need to stay in touch with the spiritual side of life is vitally important to him. He worked in a very repetitive job, and everyone knows this type of work can drag the spirit down. Although he didn't have to endure his factory work for too long and he found a laboratory job and felt a huge sense of release. He said that he had felt he had been let out of prison from the abyss of boredom in the factory job. Often natives with a Mars-Neptune contact can lose their sense of direction and they lose their sense of motivation.
And now my loss of interest in science meant I no longer had a future. It seemed that society had no place for people like me, people who had no desire to 'get on in life'. Sooner or later, the headmaster would find out that I had no interest in applied mathematics or analytical chemistry, and I would be without a job. And then I would go to the Labour Exchange and be offered a choice of a dozen or so jobs that I found equally repellent. As far as I could see, I was going to have to spend my whole life doing jobs I hated. I continued to find an escape in literature, spending my weekends soaking in poetry. But this only made it harder to go back to work on Monday morning. And the physics master who was my immediate boss was a weak and trivial-minded man, who soon realised that I was there under false pretenses, and took every opportunity to inflict petty humiliations.
He hated his routine work and felt angry at god for putting him there. He enjoyed writing and reading poetry and his journal writing was a powerful release for him. He felt angry because he had to do repetitive jobs day in and day out. He didn't want to play the game anymore, and decided to himself that he would take his own life. At this critical juncture in his life he said that he suddenly became two people.
I became two people. I was suddenly conscious of this teenage idiot called Colin Wilson, with his misery and frustration, and he seemed such a limited fool that I could not have cared less whether he killed himself or not. But if he killed himself, he would kill me too. For a moment I felt that I was standing beside him, and telling him that if he didn’t get rid of this habit of self-pity he would never amount to anything. It was also as if this ‘real me’ had said to the teenager: ‘Listen, you idiot, think how much you’d be losing’, and in that moment I glimpsed marvellous, immense richness of reality, extending to distant horizons. So I re-stoppered the bottle and went back to my analytical chemistry. I felt relaxed and light-hearted and totally in control of myself. This mood of strength lasted for two or three days, then gradually went away. But I no longer felt trapped and vulnerable.Forty years later, Maralyn Ferguson told me, as we walked by a lake in California, that she believed that everyone who achieves anything original in literature or philosophy has been at some point on the brink of suicide. I suspect that this is because anyone who has looked into this abyss achieves the separation of the real self from the inessential self, which is like being born.
It is surreal how Colin Wilson describes his fourth house conjunction with such accuracy. If you pick up any astrology book you will read that Mars-Neptune is on some kind of spiritual quest and that this contact often has a dislike for physical work. These are the spiritual warriors of the zodiac, and they are driven to seek the spiritual experience in life. Mars represents the independent act of separation from complete fusion and chaotic life (Neptune). Individuality or any act of self-affirmation does not exist in Neptune.
The Mars-Neptune aspect appears in the chart of a computer genius, he set up major companies involving technology (Uranus is at the apex of a t-square). Despite material success he felt there was still something missing, and he up and left his company and travelled abroad on his own spiritual quest, he did return, but it seems he needed a few months out of his executive business life to find his direction.
Colin Wilson has expressed this potent conjunction in writing and he has published works on the strength (Mars) to dream (Neptune). He has the intuitive ability to tap into collective expression, and he motivates others by inspiration. Often Mars-Neptune hates to live a dreary life and often expression can be found in art, dance, writing, and healing, or any activity that combines the energy and motivation of Mars and the need for fusion, spirituality and collective sensitivity (Neptune).
Liz Greene in her phenomenal work: Neptune and the Quest for Redemption has this to say about Mars-Neptune:
For Mars-Neptune, aggression and desire cannot easily be directed outward into life, because of the fear of separation this invokes; it may seem better not to desire at all. Sexual disinterest and general apathy are common accompaniments to alcoholism and drug addiction. The death wish is obvious in these expressions, and so is the element of masochism; if one merely want s to exit the stage, one can find less painful and drawn out means. Mars-Neptune is also linked with sexual masochism, as well as it's reverse. The desire to inflict pain. The confusing medley of inverted desires, guilt, longing for fusion, rage, and impotence, reflects a powerful but thwarted identification with the redeemer-victim. It arises not from any intrinsic Mars-Neptune "evil", but from a personality which is too infantile to meet the challenge of expressing the myth in creative and life enhancing ways.
Colin Wilson described his own Mars-Neptune contact rather too well. Being a writer he can explain his inner life with precision. He can be highly romantic and idealistic, but there is always the danger of being undiscriminating and unrealistic. He can have an active imagination, and like all Neptune contacts he will at times feel like the helpless victim. The aim is to join his strength, actions, and assertiveness (Mars) with his dream (Neptune).
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