The ninth house refers to science and religion. This house being exalted in the heavens, Neptune has a more proper influence than in houses not placed so highly. Unless badly afflicted, therefore, it may be considered as almost entirely benefic. The native will have an extraordinarily pure and lofty conception of God and nature. His aspirations will be strong, so strong that they may carry him away completely from this earth, and induce him to devote the whole of his life to the most arduous and subtle researches into the glories by which he is surrounded. It may be, to some extent, a defect that he misses the sense of actuality; the enthusiasm which fills him may lead him to think far in advance of his period; he may fail entirely to realise that the human race, as a whole, is not in line with him. A striking instance of this is the poet Shelley, who had this position. His ideal of the human race not only has not been realised, but is generally recognised as being unrealisable. For this reason he is pre-eminently the poet of the adolescent, in whose beautiful virginal mind, the whole world appears tinctured with the light of the divine creative force with which the recent development of s*x has endowed it.
‘A beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain’ is a perfect description not only of Shelley, but of almost all persons in whose horoscope Neptune in the ninth house is the dominant influence.
Of course, in affliction these indications may take an undesirable turn. The detachment from the facts of life may lead to superstition, psychism, faddism, crankiness and all such abominations.
The intuition will probably be very highly developed – it may be almost uncanny. At the same time it may be untrustworthy in this way – that the intellectual stability of the native may not be adequate to enable him to discriminate between the true intuition which arises spontaneously and unbidden, and the false intuition which is false or invoked and which nearly always deceives.
The influence of Neptune may also show itself in dreams of a semi-sacred or mystical character. The native may have strange presentiments and queer ideas. It is to be hoped that he will not allow these to lead him away from the realm o f commonsense; he may be tempted to act too readily upon belief, and visions, and he may become the prey of malicious and interfering entities who may drag him to his destruction.
In a well-behaved horoscope, this position is admirable for mystical and spiritual progress. There is no height to which the nativec may not expect to attain. ~or will it be necessary to force his inclinations. He is a natural seer; and, by the operation of good judgment, he may make the most extraordinary spiritual progress.
In the domain of science, the native is nearly as fortunate. He will have a pure understanding of the truths which lie hidden in nature; and if he has the ability to work them out properly, he should not merely make his mark on humanity, but add substantially to the world’s knowledge, and assist its progress in a notable degree. His danger will be that he is so sure of these truths that he will fail to understand the necessity of bringing them down to the level of the intelligence of common people, of proving to the world at large, by arduous investigation, what he knows intuitively to be the truth.
The ninth house also refers to long journeys, particularly those which involve a sea voyage. Here the influence of Neptune is by no means so favorable._ Strange adventures are certain to occur, many of these of a trivial yet annoying type. There is a decided danger of accidents – it will be remembered that Shelley himself was drowned, while upon just such a voyage. It is also possible that long journeys may be disappointing for another reason – the native may be induced to make a journey on false pretences, and when he arrives at the end of the passage he may discover that it had been undertaken in vain.
The ninth house refers also to the family of the partner in life, and to the mental equipment of the partner in business. The outlook on these points is not particularly favourable. One need not enter in any detail into these matters – it will be sufficient if the student refers to what was said about brothers and sisters and mentality, in the third house.