“ROMANCE,” within a larger perspective

Yesterday’s post bothers me. Especially this phrase:

“what strikes me especially, is how each of my “romantic” (I put the word in quotes because what it evokes seems so silly now!) relationships with men was a huge teacher.”

 

What bothers me was the cynical attitude evoked by putting the word “romantic” in quotes, as if it isn’t real. And yes, on some level, romance isn’t real. Rather, it’s a (usually temporary) spell, wherein the would-be life partner is seen and felt within a soft glow. This glow usually dissolves within two years or so (a Mars cycle). Does that make it unreal? No. Where would the human race be without sexual/romantic desire? It wouldn’t be. It would have died off before it even got started.

That soft glow is built into our biology, as a necessity, if the human race is to continue.

These days, of course, in fact ever since chemical birth control (i.e., “the pill”) began to be marketed — in 1960! — this soft glow can be — and usually is! — divorced (and I use this word advisedly) from reproduction. One might add that my generation’s ’60s feminism was inextricably yoked to the possibility of easily observed birth control; control that didn’t depend on either abstinence or the man “pulling out” before ejaculating. Control that was put in the hands of the woman!

Okay.

For me, the spell of “romance” is, possibly, particularly strong, because I have the dreamy, visionary, idealistic planet Neptune in relationship oriented Libra at the Midheaven of my astro chart. In other words, Neptune in Libra is my path.

Complicating my situation: Neptune is also geometrically configured with nearly every other planet in my chart.

 

 

On a generational level, Neptune in Libra (mostly late 1942 through mid-1957) signified “the hippies,” i.e., the peace, love, dope crowd.

Yep. That’s us. Not many left alive at this point.

 

 

I’ve written and published many essays that feature the Neptune in Libra signature. Here’s one of them; it begins with a relevant personal story, the memory of which I still, all these decades later, marvel over. Peace on Earth, in our little corner of earth, neighborhood children in Twin Falls Idaho flowing as one to build a snow castle.

Building the Snow Castle

Excerpt:

These days, I do my best to keep the spirit of Neptune in Libra peace alive within myself. And to move around our troubled world with shining eyes that invisibly envelop and caress “the other”—

no matter who,

no matter when,

no matter where,

always.