Neptune in Capricorn: The Dream of Order
It’s a rare English major who hasn’t thought seriously about writing a novel. I was a sophomore in college when the bug hit. At first, I had no idea what I was dreaming about. I didn’t have an idea for a book. I didn’t even know I was thinking about writing one yet. I just found myself at Barnes and Noble perusing the books on writing when I stumbled on the book No Plot? No Problem! A Low-Stress, High Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days by Chris Baty. Chris Baty was the founder of National Novel Writing Month. I didn’t know about National Novel Writing Month then. I just knew that I didn’t have a plot, and I liked the idea of working for a month and having a novel at the end of it. I bought the book.
In retrospect, the idea of writing a real novel in 30 days shouldn’t have been able to draw me in. Full-time, professional fiction writers rarely write more than a book or two a year. The idea that you can start with no idea what you’re doing and end up with a novel at the end of a month is nonsense. There are people who win NaNoWriMo. They sit down dutifully every day and end National Novel Writing Month with a manuscript of 50,000 words or more, but few can claim to have a novel. The group that runs National Novel Writing Month knows this, which is why there is a (much less popular) National Novel Editing Month. And, really, having a finished, publishable novel isn’t the point of National Novel Writing Month. The point is to produce words, put in a solid 30 days of practice, and get over the hump of not being able to imagine yourself as a writer by doing the work of writing. I believe that everyone who wants to write a novel will have enough interesting material from their own lives to fill a novel, and I admire National Novel Writing Month for getting people started on the path to putting their lives into words.
For me, though, No Plot? No Problem! and National Novel Writing Month were like the perfect drug. It wasn’t the obvious con (writing a novel in 30 days) that got me high. It was the dream of a system that could hold my hand and take me through the entire process of writing a novel from no idea to publishable manuscript.
This is one of the faces of Neptune in Capricorn: the dream of order.
Neptune in the 5th and 6th House: The Dream of an Orderly Creative Practice
Over the course of my life, the fantasy of a creative process that can be orderly and efficient is the con that has snagged me every time. Creativity is messy. Most creatives start dozens or hundreds of projects for every project they finish. You can spend years emotionally invested in a project only to see it fail. It is in the light of these seemingly insurmountable odds that creatives return and return to their work.
Capricorn is ruled by Saturn, the planet of order, so the dreams I have for daily, creative practices have a saturnine quality. They are ordered. I find the idea of doing the same thing every day appealing. I fantasize about creating a meaningful body of work.
For me, the particular shape my dream of order takes reflects Neptune’s place in my natal chart. Depending on the house system, I either have Neptune in the 5th house where it describes my relationship with creative self-expression, or I have Neptune in the 6th house where it describes my relationship with daily routines.
In my experience, I find Neptune describes areas of my life represented by both the 5th and 6th houses, which is why No Plot? No Problem! was so appealing to me. It presented a dream of easy, creative self-expression in the form of a low-stress daily routine.
Many Sides of Neptune in Capricorn
My dreams are, of course, not everyone’s dreams. When I polled the members of the Narrative Astrology Lab who have Neptune in Capricorn about their relationship with the dreams of order, I got a wide range of responses.
People with Neptune in Capricorn have different relationships with Capricorn’s order and Neptune’s dreaming. Some dream less about having order and more about transcending the need for order. It’s as if their blend of Neptune and Capricorn has a little more Neptune and a little less Capricorn than mine. For others, the balance between Neptune and Capricorn was the other way around. For them, order was the reality of their lives, but the quest for a perfectly ordered life was a vehicle through which they hoped to achieve some other dream.
There were also different interpretations of the word “order.” Some saw “order” as a life without the stress or the need to attend to a day job full time. “Order” for them was more in the sense of “everything being in order” as opposed to work methodically done and neatly arranged, like it is for me.
Neptune in Capricorn in the Houses
If you have Neptune in Capricorn, the house of your natal Neptune holds clues to your relationship with dreams and order.
1st House: Body and personality. Your dreams might involve personal discipline, particularly around fitness or your interactions with others. You might wrestle with beauty standards, feel the drive to meet an ideal, or despair of feeling attractive.
2nd House: Money. Well-ordered finances might be aspirational for you. You might want to be wealthy. Get rich quick schemes might have particular appeal.
3rd House: Communication. You might have dreams of being a great communicator or despair of being able to express yourself in an orderly or eloquent way. You might dream of having a writing routine or feel imprisoned by one.
4th House: Home and family. You might wrestle with unrealistic expectations for how a family should behave. You might dream of connecting more deeply with your roots. “Home” might feel like an unattainable goal or a prison.
5th House: Creative self-expression. You might dream of having a disciplined, productive creative life, or you may be trapped in the illusory assumption that a creative life without discipline is unworthy.
6th House: Routine. You might strive to have a disciplined routine or feel trapped in an oppressive schedule. Developing daily habits might be difficult for you, or you may feel drawn to them.
7th House: Relationships. You might draw partners to you who are very orderly or disciplined or who struggle with discipline. Dating apps or social media sites that encourage you to consistently participate might have a particular pull for you.
8th House: The 8th house covers a wide variety of topics, which compounds the problem of trying to figure out what Neptune in Capricorn is like for you. Look for areas of life that are dark, secret, and have something to do with the topic of control, like, sex, death, the occult, and other people's money.
9th House: Like the 8th house, the 9th house is a big house with topics that don't seem to have much to do with each other. Look for issues around power and control involving foreigners, religion, and higher education.
10th House: Career. Society's old belief that everyone should have a life-long career may be a challenge for you, either because you feel like you can't live up or because you feel trapped. You might struggle with discipline at work or tend toward workaholism.
11th House: Professional groups and goals. With Neptune in the 11th house, you may struggle with a relationship with other people in your field, either feeling pressure to be like them or despairing of ever reaching their level.
12th House: Like the 8th and 9th houses, the 12th house covers a range of topics. In general, 12th house topics are things that we struggle to see about ourselves, addictions, and the need for spiritual self-care. Look out for your dreams and relationship with order in those areas of life.
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