R4ven -
Thank you for responding. This conjunction is occurring in my 8th house currently, at same time of my Chiron return. I can really relate to what you said, "The Neptune-problem seemed to be that I had no clear insight at the time about the abuse and control of others over me. I genuinely believed that I was somehow to blame for my situation," except I might add in my case, I am very aware of it. I have been aware of others' attempts at controlling me. It all appears very subtle and yes, I too, am asking myself what I did or have done to yield this response from others.
Natal Chiron is also conj. my south node in 8th, though still 6' away from exact.
It has seemed like a lonely time for me, as well. My take on it is that I'm in some kind of self-imposed exile.
Similar to your story about the woman and her question to you - I have come up against those type of judgements, or pointed misdirections, consitently in past several months, to the point of people with a chip for me casting outright lies and misrepresentations, or twisting the truth of a situation that ultimately makes me look bad or wrong. It's horrible, really, not something a straight shooter like myself has been accustomed to. It feels, now, that when I defend myself, or try to set the situation straight, I'm boxing in the fog. So the feeling of "exile" I mentioned seems to be the only way to address it.
Examples -
I was publically called an Anti-Semite and a Drunk by the administrator of a forum I participated in. When I responded to those claims, with the truth that I am Jewish born and indeed Sober, the information was quickly deleted and I was swept under the rug along with it.
Recently, I walked out on a job, along with two other co-workers, each of us having had the final straw with the abusive and critical new owner of the business. I had worked for the business for 3 years, the other two for 6 and 5 years. Over the last year, under his new ownership, I had become miserable at the job I once loved. I'd finally had enough and chose to leave on the spot after a tirade of his where he became so angry, he was practically spitting at me, accusing me of a problem that he knew I hadn't been responsible for! I'd heard enough and got up and walked out. Now, I've found out he says I was fired for inciting my co-workers to quit, which simply was not true. I had walked out on my own accord, as they did at his base behavior.
Of course my take on both of these issues was "did they believe I have that much power that they would need to twist the truth?" and when I tried to defend myself to the accusations, I was gotten rid of. Of course, the resultant Neptunian response, "Is this really happening?" and in terms of what you said earlier about not being aware, maybe I'm missing something as well, however my attempts to set things straight for myself, in essence, to stand up for myself, were met with a heavy hand.
Also - I have found myself being "stalked" of sorts, for lack of a better word - at least that's what it feels like - having people whom I barely know being overly attentive to my actions and goings on and recounting them to friends or acquaintances in a way that makes me look bad. Example - a casual friend of mine has a girlfriend whom I've barely ever met. The first and only time I met her, she was immediately rude to me, so I kept my distance. Anyway - I had mentioned one day to my friend, over the phone, that I was going to dinner with friends at my favorite place that night. When we arrived, I saw his girlfriend sitting at the wine bar across the room, I acknowledged her with a quick wave, but she didn't acknowledge me, acted as if she didn't see me. Even turned away quickly. We were never within 50 feet of one another, yet her story to her boyfriend, which I was informed of by a mutual friend of both ours, was that I was "really rude" to her and that I was "giving the waitress ****" when in fact, the waitress had botched my order and then tried to convince me that I had ordered what she brought, which was not what I ordered, so I had to let her know I was annoyed when she kept insisting it was what I ordered. His girlfriend had seemingly twisted the truth of the situation in a way that made me look bad. Not representing the situations truthfully or factually
Long story, but you get my drift. Strangely, there are a couple of others like it, but I won't bore you with the details.
Neptune transiting 8th - vague power issues - conj. Chiron - old wounds re-opened -
conj - SNode and opposing natal Pluto/NNode in 2nd - personal power perceived by others?
Overall, it's a time of strange power trips from others - feels like they assert power over me by making me look bad - besmirching. (and believe me, i can do that fine on my own, i don't need help usually!) My natural experiences are that when someone comes at me directly, I respond in kind, but this kind of stuff, with the strange 8th house and Neptune twists, is out of my league.
Ultimate result, a real sense of powerless right now against this kind of thing.
Anyway - obviously hope to find out more from you and others about this very uncomfortable transit. Thanks for bearing with the stories.