When I have astrology appointment to prepare for I often go to a local cafe and do research there. People wander in and out and sometimes, looking at my books and charts spread out on the long table inquire,”Are you an astrologer?” I can have interesting encounters.
Yesterday was such a day. As I was working away a woman in friendly, intrigued tone said, “You must be an astrologer.” and we struck up a conversation. She is from a seaside town long known as an affluent, star studded summer resort area.
I grew up near there, I told her, and as a child had a friend whose mother had owned a house in that town. Once when I was visiting in the winter- when the town had an austere, abandoned and haunted feeling – we set off exploring the environs and the massive, foreboding Victorian mansions set up high on the windswept dunes overlooking the sea.
My friend’s family knew people who lived in one of those mansions and she wanted to show it to me. While exploring we found an open door and being lovers of ghost stories and haunted houses, decided to go in. It was dank and silent in the house and the thick, heavy velvet curtains blocked most of the light coming in from the massive windows. In the dim, dusty air you could make out the shapes of furniture- all covered with white sheets. It reminded us of horror movies we had seen and we went running out.
I told the woman in the cafe about it and said,” I suppose all those houses have alarms now and she said,”Yes. They are all armed.”
The woman in the cafe was involved with managing properties like that and told me that one of the old mansions near the country club has a door that looks like it leads into the basement. Surprisingly though the unobtrusive door leads into a totally intact and well stocked speakeasy- built during Prohibition.
This Neptunian idea of hidden doors and secret places reminded me of a dream I once had. It was about a massive, rambling Victorian sea captain’s house where I had been the caretaker for years. People often saw ghosts there – men in black tie and women in long flowing gowns. The house had been built as a summer house where people from NY and Boston would come to attend large and formal parties. The house was set up high on a ridge and lightning would often strike it or very close by. When my friends were trying to sell it, on a couple of occasions prospective buyers would flee during those thunderstorms when the house grew very dark and lightning strikes would made the phones ring. I often dreamed of that place after we moved out – it was a place of mystery for me.
In one dream of this house I had gone back and my friends no longer lived there. I was wandering through the halls and discovered a secret door that I had never seen before. The door opened to a beautiful room – a lady’s dressing room with a Victorian dressing table on which stood antique glass perfume bottles. Sparkling jewels lay there also and light filtered in through a small stained glass window. It was very warm and fragrant there. I have always thought of the house in that dream as representing my life and the secret door a reminder of ways I might not be considering or exploring because I was navigating from a place of the known rather than being open to mystery.
The woman in the cafe told me about her chart and I talked a little bit about it. When she left she said,”Wow! I didn’t expect the have a mini astrology reading today.”
I smiled – I liked them very much – and said, “The field of astrology is governed by the planet Uranus – the planet of the unexpected.”
Neptune is the planet of dreams, visions and hidden things. When Neptune is strong in the sky it bodes well to pay attention to your dreams. It is a very good time for the imagination – for creativity and musing as well as prayer and meditation.