I think when analysing with rulerships in such a way we must be cautious. When we are saying which planet or sign 'rules' something else we should do so with a particular theme in mind. So in the link with Culpeper the particular theme is medicine and herbs. In that capacity hemp is being compared to other herbs for nutritional value and the like. That is a completely separate sphere of discussion, and so the astrology will have a different tone. For instance there, as a herb, the physicality of the leaf itself is of more importance and so the discussion leads to Saturn.
The same object may be classified in astrology in different ways depending on what purpose or what circumstance it is being discussed. Horary is always a good example. A book is an object of the 2nd house when we are talking about its physicality, the 9th house when we discuss its ideas and the 3rd house when we discuss its reading.
So here, when describing different types of drugs, the unifying factor in comparing drugs is that they are drugs. So contrary to PTV I thought the definition of a drug was that which chemically alters the function or state of a person. And if we are discussing non-medical drugs then we enter the sphere of drugs which alter perception or mood or character.
So the question now becomes what rulership can we assign to these things for that function. And I think Neptune is still the most appropriate.
venusfriend said:
i felt that MDMA and ecstasy would belong to uranus because of the spiritual "awakening" feeling. i do believe that the opiates are the domain of pluto - death and destruction, but also transformation and evolution of the soul once the addiction is overcome. i've only tried acid once and am not sure if there is a planet to desricbe that experience.
I've bolded these terms to highlight what I mean. If Uranus rules spiritual awakening (and it might do in a genius intellectual way) then Neptune rules the
feeling of awakening. The feeling of awakening is not the same as an actual spiritual awakening. An actual spiritual awakening would be something that actually changed a person for good, or for a long time at least. No matter what it was it would be something Uranian. But a
feeling of enlightenment betrays the fact that it is only a perception, one step removed from the actual thing itself. If MDMA was enlightenment itself, society would be revolutionised. But it isn't, it is an imitation. It is like winning a trip to Disneyland and being dressed up in a Princess's clothes. And saying I
feel like a princess. Yet the experience is not a Leonine one, it is peculiarly Neptunian. It is pastiche, even if the clothes came from a real princess.
Even if the chemical state of the brain is exactly the same in the person wearing those clothes as in an actual princess, even then we could not say they are both the same, as the meaning is derived from the human context and not the chemical state.
So even if MDMA realised the trigger in the brain that we could show the Dalai Lama has, it would not mean that MDMA= Dalai Lama for astrological purposes as context is everything. And if we reduce it to chemical formulae then astrology, like most subjects (except math) would break down.
Death and
destruction was associated with opiates. Now actual death and destruction is Plutonian but a feeling of it, an induced one, is still Neptunian. Similarly an addiction is also Plutonian.
So in conclusion I think we might try and describe different experiences with different drugs using astrological language, but these can never really extend beyond MDMA as a Uranus-Neptune influence, and Opiates as a Pluto-Neptune influence. To omit the Neptune is to omit the very thing that unites them all together into the discussion in the first place, that they are drugs. And it is important not to forget that, as that would lead to a distinction between the real and artificial, between pastiche and authenticity, which this Kid thinks is already something Neptune in mundane astrology has been dissolving.
