Alcohol? Transformation?

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Back in 2007, waybread wrote a lovely commentary involving alcohol and astrology. This is a subject that has been on my mind a lot lately. I got a DUI two years ago and recently have been trying (and succeeding, mostly!) in getting things together. One day I got this sudden need to create material security for myself, and I stopped with all my early-twenties ********.

I know part of it is just growing up, but I'm curious, because I see a lot of weird things in my natal chart: Pisces ascendant. Sun-moon-pluto grand trine. Neptune opposition sun.

And I'm seeing a LOT of weird things in my chart, recently with the Malefics, though I'm having a wonderful time full of change and personal revolution. I see so many things breaking down and I can feel myself really getting somewhere, for the first time in years. Lots of chiron-Saturn-Uranus-Pluto things.

Anyhow, I included natal, transit, AND progression, if anyone would care to take a stab.

Where does the alcohol fit in? Am I bound to struggle with it? Is it disguising a different problem? Why the hell was my January such a horrendous and wonderful shithow?

I feel like my Saturn return came a few years early lmao

Thanks for your kind words. Can you post your chart, as well?

I don't think astrology has any signatures that work 100%, but oftentimes people with drinking problems have a personal planet in a hard aspect to Neptune.

Astrologer Liz Greene wrote an interesting book on Neptune, where she said that Neptunians actually have a longing to merge with the divine. Such a process would involve a kind of self-annihilation, as the ego dissipates and the soul merges with divine consciousness. I don't know if this feels true to you or not (!), but in any case, sometimes this process is short-circuited. Without the kind of spiritual or mystical experience the Neptunian longs for, alcohol provides that kind of self-erasure.

There are certainly other reasons why people drink that would show up in a horoscope. Sometimes people really need to get to the sub-basement of life, and Neptune provides a quick way to get there. Some people have really difficult charts, with alcohol (in the short term) providing some temporary release. Or maybe it's a Jupiterian feel-good thought that if a little of something is good, a lot is better. Can you say more about your drinking, if you feel it's a problem?

A sun-moon-Pluto grand trine seems very positive, with one exception. Sometimes life goes well enough for grand trine people that they don't work so hard to improve their lot in life. Maybe they'd like to get that degree or job skills qualification. On the other hand, life goes well enough if they don't get off the couch.

Oops! Forgot the chart! Sorry!

What you're saying about the Neptunian ego-shucking really resonates with me. I remember studying critical theory in college and coming to the point of learning about how people thought of Divine Inspiration, as in terms of either Apollonian or Dionysian, the concept being that the Apollonian inspiration caused people to build and create things in order to attain divinity through external means; the other type, Dionysian, was focused more on the dissolution of the "self" to attain the divinity within.

So yes, definitely not a foreign concept and something I've thought a lot about. Wow.

moonmoney,

I also note that you've got two T-squares that nearly form a grand cross (it's a bit wide in places but you'd know it if you feel it.) This can generate a whole lot of internal stress and pressure. For such people, sometimes alcohol is a kind of safety valve to take some of that stress away-- momentarily.

Also, you've got some quintiles involving your AC and MC. You probably feel a lot of pressure to make something of yourself.

I wonder if you feel that you are comfortable expressing your inner power (Pluto trine sun) and creativity (moon trine Venus, Neptune trine Jupiter.)

Congratulations on your sobriety-- and when those big stressors hit, see if you can express what you have within you-- if only for yourself-- via music, journaling, writing, or an artistic medium like sketching.

Neptune transiting your ascendant will probably make you doubt a lot of things about how you've construed your identity-- and committed relationships. But it can give you the freedom to create a new sense of identity, if that is what you want. Jupiter hitting natal Pluto should allow you to go very deeply into a journey of self-awareness.