Dependencies Vs. Emotional Freedom
The retrograde spree of Mercury through the sign of Pisces seems like the right time to talk about substances that taint our vision and anesthetize the pain we aren’t ready to deal with in the real world. Each dependency we turn to, no matter if it is our craving for food, cigarettes, alcohol or heroine, is a tie that we never broke loose and the commitment to long lost memories that need to be let go of. Emotional storms will come and go, but our physiology won’t really enjoy our efforts to hold feelings bottled up inside, and while we seem to need a glass of wine to release the tension, it will only shove the problem deeper into the physical plane where it gets harder and harder to see its true purpose in our life.
Astrology of Dependencies
All dependencies can be found in the twelfth house, with its ruler, challenging Neptune or in the sign of Pisces. Each of these significations has their own way of manifesting, the twelfth house speaking of one’s psychological troubles or past life issues, Neptune posing for a relationship that ties us down, and the sign of Pisces speaking of debts that ancestors left for us to resolve. Whatever the case, there is an unconscious need to blur the image, shove our talents aside to resolve a debt to the past, and quench the finest, most intimate communication due to painful experiences that left us broken once upon a time. Each of the substances we impose on our physiology is a matter of ghosts we try to summon, defeating emotion, love, death, or life itself, depending on the primal fear we carry within.
Such strong Neptunian elements of the wide subconscious world and dreams that drowned us instead of opening doors for us to reach for the ideal, are always combined with Mars, Mercury and the Moon in different ways to cause firm addictions that seem impossible to shake off. The Moon, being the emotional core and our Soul’s need that got quenched, tells the tale of emotions we try to shove aside. Some will be pushed down our throat instead of speaking about them (Mercury) and others won’t be seen realistically in ways that allow us to move on (Mars). There is a strong connection between all these entities, since Mars represents the material world, fear, and the level of the body we intoxicate, and Mercury stands for our ways of self-expression that we try to quench, typically by quite literally putting something down the throat.
Jupiter is involved in the ordeal as well, for its desire to run from reality and see things in a prettier light than the actual, colors our world with lack of faith when challenged. Led by its symbolism, we will see that the greatest desire for self-delusion and “induced” happiness lives in those who sniff toxic substances such as cocaine or glue. Mercury will speak of swallowed agents and smoke in our throat, while Mars and Saturn signify the strongest unconscious ties through needles that penetrate the skin. Smoking will move directly to the lungs where emotions are quenched (Moon), while swallowed medication and alcohol threaten the solar plexus (Sun), our center of will and show our need to stop feeling powerless when facing the real world.
Calling of the Heart
The important thing to remember is that each dependency calls on us to give ourselves more freedom as we take responsibility for our own actions and our own body. Neptune exalts in Aquarius, where we are free to be authentic as a part of a unified and liberated collective. Each struggle with substance abuse provokes and calls on us to give our emotions more room to show and allow them to lead the way. Our approach to physiology and our self-destructive choices represent the underlining state of emotional freedom to show anger, protect ourselves, cry our eyes out, or feel fear, despair and fall into depression. Out of mistrust in our own abilities to get out of negative emotions and loops of sadness and anger, we lose faith in ourselves and decide to give up on our inner guidance instead of supporting ourselves to scream, run, and cry as much as it needs to in order for our hearts to cleanse.
If we believed in our heart and its fine tuning with ways of the Universe, we would see that letting any emotion out, shows us the right path to follow by natural order of things. With the right guidance and people to talk to along the way, there is no dependency that won’t be untangled, no matter how many times we repeat the same loop of tying ourselves to that instinctive emotional holdback. Giving ourselves permission to feel, to get mad, angry or inexplicably sad is what makes us human and gives us room to deal with painful realities. Only when we are truly aware of the discontent in our heart, however dark and burdening it might be, will we find the motivation to make a change that will constructively move us forwards step by step in time.
