Neptune, Sea and Faith: two astrologers reflect…

Victor Olliver edits the UK’s Astrological Journal: I’ve had a column there – “Not the Astrology Column” since 2015, and Victor also edited my recent collection of 60 published essays, articles and columns ‘Postcards to the Future’. I recently read a piece of his shared on social media, reflecting on the links between sea, faith and his church connections (i), and was so struck by the similarities with a piece on a similar Neptunian theme I’d written some years previously (ii) that I sent it to him.

Photo : Anne Whitaker

Here are brief quotes from Victor’s piece, titled ‘The sea, the sea’:

From a young age I was drawn to symbols and spirituality, and have passed through many different religions, including Spiritualism. During Anglican church services one hears the phrase “the mystery of faith” and I like this a lot…  

…And I have always obsessed about sea waves – how each is unique and dramatic. I mean to read Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, the Sea one day. The sea is “forever restarting,” as the poet Paul Valéry put it, and this idea makes me feel optimistic. I don’t know whether God speaks to me, but the sea does. It’s a language of the senses…

Here is a brief quote from my piece, titled ‘Sea as Church’:

The mind-calming, meditative facets of sea, and centuries-old church ritual, can lull us into peace, calming the heart and uplifting the spirit. Both sea and Church in their differing ways can restore a sense of the balance and interweaving of matter and spirit – “spirit is a lighter form of matter, matter is a denser form of spirit” – and provide a reminder that the small, limited, mundane world which we inhabit is set to the compass of eternity.

Victor liked the complementary tone of both our essays so much that they now feature in the July/August 2023 issue of The Astrological Journal. Here is the feature, titled

Faith and Neptune

Thanks, Victor!

Endnotes:

(i) First published in The Net in 2023, published by St Michael and All Angels, Lancing.

(ii) First published in Magnificat magazine (UK) in 2006.

350 words © Anne Whitaker 2023