Psychic pollution and how to avoid it

I'm back again with another example of an active transit:

Me: how was your birthday?
Them: Ehhh.
Me: What did you do?
Them: I took my sister to her cataract surgery. Then I went home and thought about going for a bike ride but decided I didn't want to do it. People keep texting me. I have 140 texts I have to respond to!
Me: Oh wow. I'm glad so many people reached out.
Them: [grumbles about having to return texts]
Me: well I'm sorry that it sounds like you had a lame birthday but I'm happy you have so many supportive people around you.
Them: [pivots to grumbling about the real problem bringing her down]
Me: [starts moving as fast as possible so I can get away from negativity]

Our friend, Them, has an active Neptune transit going, and let me tell you a typical calling card of a harsh Neptune transit: the one thing you want is something you can't have. You usually get fixated on something or a category of somethings that are not working for you at all, "series of unfortunate events"-style. The key to surviving Neptune is to learn to wait patiently and that things tend to even themselves out on their own without you pushing too hard to try to change them. The human factor plays in big time, especially if your ego gets involved, because the people who fare poorly with Neptune transits push like crazy while the people who have easier time accept that the cards are not currently dealt in their favor and wait for a better hand.

Them's real problem is that she's highly physically active and had a surgery this summer that's limiting her ability to do what she wants to do. Additionally, she probably has to have a second surgery and I don't think she's being realistic about that fact (forgivable given her current major influence is Neptune, because realism in the area of "something you can't have" is honestly too much to hope for with this energy going). She's impatient to heal, she's getting yelled at by her doctors because she's doing more activity than they said is okay, and she is miserable with her present limitations. The misery is infecting the rest of her waking life. I'd asked her prior to the birthday what she had planned and she said "sister's cataract surgery designated driver." Really? She comes from a big family, so I think there were probably other options, but sometimes when you're sad, you look for opportunities to play the martyr and it helps justify further sadness, because you know you'll get more pity. I'm aware of this game.

It's important to note a key to handling these marathons of malaise, best encapsulated in a quote from The Sound of Music: "when god closes a door, somewhere he opens a window." I promise you, shitty Neptune transit-havers, that this is the case. Them has other options, as evidenced in 140 people who want to wish her well and hang out with her (she is very friendly) and if she could let go of the focus on what she can't have, she could probably see some options for things she could have right now. It's never the window you want, and sometime's it's a really weird window, but unless you land yourself in literal jail, there are probably other things you could do with yourself besides focusing on the stuff that's very obviously wrong.

This is going to sound weird, but stick with me: another Neptune calling card is what I'll call psychic pollution, which often seems to manifest as a bad attitude. Neptune opens your psyche to ethereal realms whether you want it or not and whether you're ready for it or not, and that openness presents a spectrum of energies you can choose to align with, if you know what you're doing (and most people do not, which of course they should be forgiven for, as Neptune times are notoriously weird as hell). Many people get stuck on an emotional channel that runs through our shared ether called Bad News Only, especially the particularly non-spiritual amongst us, as they tend to be the most strongly resistant to understanding that there's more to our lives than we can literally see, so of course they have no experience dealing with a sudden influx of inexplicable emotional energies, and no idea how to change the channel. (Good methods include prayer, meditation, spending time in nature, choosing to surround yourself with positivity, and everything in the entire I've written about previously. Bad methods are usually substance abuse or finding religion in the fanatical sense). You guys know what confirmation bias is: if you think everything is wrong all the time, all you're going to find is evidence that everything is wrong all the time.

Over the course of my own growth, I've experienced this psychic pollution personally, and I have also developed an aversion to people currently under the influence of psychic pollution (said another way: people responding poorly to Neptune's influence). I get the sensation of wanting to jump out of my own skin and needing to get away from them ASAP before they can pull me into their doom cloud. I know I am highly suggestible, and I also know I get plenty of psychic pollution on the daily (given my existing Neptune setup) and I don't need extra. I know it'll pass, but when I see Them coming, I currently think "oh no" because I am about to be emotionally dumped on. Additionally, Them keeps asking me questions about things I've told her aren't going well for me, so she is seeking Bad News Only, though I don't think she realizes. Misery loves company.

Since life is life, there happens to be another individual in my shared midst with Them with almost the exact same ego-denying medical situation going as Them, who also happens to have a very similar Neptune transit (he has a square, she has an opposition). He definitely has a bruised ego and has definitely complained about his limitations, but he realizes he's facing a closed door and has sought other options instead of devoting himself to pounding on the one thing that he knows isn't working. He is sad, but he is staying away from Bad News Only. I don't shudder when I see him coming.

Now: this energy levels us all from time to time. You cannot expect to suddenly be egoless and get a perfect 10/10 and nail a transit like this. You use it as quiet time, reorganize yourself, and when the energy starts to even out and the closed door opens again, or you get an adjacent door open, you pick yourself up, move on, and usually don't speak of it much, because you'd prefer to forget it. Neptune is my least favorite energy because it humbles the shit out of you, and as a working psychic, I am also Neptune's spokesperson, so how's that for irony?

While I can't explain the inexplicable to you, I can help you accept it, and I can prepare you to face such times without succumbing to the Bad News Only channel. What do you think the Vibe Check Challenge has been about? It's a skill you practice so you have it when you need it.