- Symbol
- ♆︎ (U+2646)
- Orbit
- 164.8 years
- Found
- 23 September 1846
- Rules
- Pisces (modern)
A planet found on paper first
Neptune is the only planet located by mathematics before anyone saw it. Astronomers noticed that Uranus was drifting from its predicted path, and two astronomers, the Frenchman Urbain Le Verrier and the Englishman John Couch Adams, calculated separately where an unseen body must be pulling on it. Le Verrier sent his result to the Berlin Observatory, and on 23 September 1846 the astronomer Johann Galle found the planet within about one degree of the predicted place on his first night of looking.
The name was chosen from the Roman sea god. The trident, the god's emblem, was the obvious glyph, and it was taken up soon after the discovery in the form now printed in every ephemeris.
One lap since the discovery
Neptune takes 164.8 years to go once round the Sun, and it was found only in 1846, so it did not complete a full orbit after its discovery until 2011. Astronomers marked the occasion. Because its sign changes come about every 14 years, a person alive today has seen it cross only a few signs, and nobody has lived through its whole circuit. That is the reason Neptune is read as a generational planet: its sign belongs to an age group, not to an individual.
What the three prongs are said to stand for
The glyph is a trident set on a cross, and as with all the planetary glyphs there are several readings in circulation.
- A weapon: the trident of Neptune, the god of the sea.
- A fork: a path that divides into three, a picture of the dissolving of one thing into several.
- A base: the short cross under the prongs is the same cross of matter that anchors the Venus and Saturn glyphs.
- A wave: modern handbooks sometimes read the curved prongs as water, which fits the planet's tie to Pisces. This reading is recent and does not appear in the older sources.
Neptune facts that go with the glyph
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Orbit | 164.8 years, about 14 years in each sign |
| Visibility | Needs binoculars or a telescope, so it was unknown before 1846 |
| Modern rulership | Pisces, which in the older scheme belonged to Jupiter |
| Traditional metal and day | None, since the classical scheme only covers the seven planets known to the ancients |
| Signs it has crossed recently | Capricorn 1984 to 1998, Aquarius 1998 to 2012, Pisces 2012 to 2025 |
Where the dreamy planet shows up
Neptune is retrograde for about five months of every year, which makes its apparent motion even slower than its orbit suggests. Astrologers connect Neptune with whatever is hard to put a line around: dreams, music, spiritual longing, compassion, and also fog, delusion and escape. It is the planet most often tied to idealism, and a good deal of astrological writing about it concerns the gap between the ideal and the real. The pages on Neptune square Venus and on Saturn conjunct Neptune show two ways the tradition works with that theme.
Using the glyph correctly
1. Typing
Unicode's entry is NEPTUNE, U+2646 (♆︎). In HTML, ♆ produces it.
2. Telling it from Pluto
Neptune is a trident on a cross with prongs that curve outward. Pluto's glyph is a different design, and the common forms are the letters PL or a circle over a bident.
3. In charts
Neptune appears in the outer ring of a chart's planet list, after Uranus and before Pluto.
Find it in your own chart
A symbol or an aspect only means something against a whole chart. Look up your placements, then read the planets in their signs and the houses they fall in.
Frequently asked questions
Which weapon does the Neptune symbol show?
A trident, ♆︎, at Unicode U+2646. It is the emblem of the sea god.
What does Neptune symbolise in astrology?
Imagination, idealism and dissolving boundaries, together with the confusion that can come with them.
How was Neptune discovered?
By calculation. Le Verrier and Adams worked out where it must be from its pull on Uranus, and Galle found it in Berlin on 23 September 1846.
How many years does Neptune spend in each sign?
About 14 years, since it takes 164.8 years to circle the zodiac.
Is the Neptune glyph the same as the Poseidon trident?
It is the same weapon. Poseidon is the Greek name of the god the Romans called Neptune, and both carry a three-pronged spear, so one emblem serves for both.
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This describes what the symbol generally means. If you want another perspective on your situation, describe it to a human reader. Your first question and answer carry no reading charge, once per person. Paid messages draw from a balance you add only if you choose to continue.