Why You’re Never Truly Satisfied: What Astrology and Psychoanalysis Say About Your Deepest Desire
- Gonzalo Meza
- Dec 11, 2025
- 4 min read
Have you ever achieved a major goal—landed the dream job, found the perfect partner, bought the beautiful house—only to feel an empty click instead of profound satisfaction? If you’ve chased an ideal only to be disappointed when you finally catch it, you’ve encountered one of the most fundamental truths of the human psyche.
Your deepest desire, it turns out, is for something you can never have.
My recent scholarly paper, Neptune and the Object-Cause of Desire, proposes a revolutionary way for astrologers to understand this universal feeling by synthesizing the transcendent planet Neptune with a crucial concept from psychoanalysis: Jacques Lacan’s elusive Objet petit a.
Meet the Lacanian Objet petit a: The Ghost Driving Your Engine
In simple terms, the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan argued that when we enter the world of language and consciousness, we lose an original feeling of total, primordial unity—a sense of wholeness and seamless satisfaction.
This loss leaves behind a permanent, structural void. This void is the Objet petit a—not the object you desire (like money or a partner), but the object-cause of desire.
The Problem: The Objet petit a represents the lost wholeness, and because it is lost, it is perpetually unattainable.
The Result: Every worldly object we pursue is just a temporary placeholder , a doomed attempt to fill that structural hole. The true yearning is for the return of the lost unity, which is impossible.
The Bottom Line: The Objet petit a is the unfulfillable promise of completion that drives all human yearning and ensures we are always disappointed when we get what we thought we wanted.
Neptune: Astrological Signature of the Void
Astrologically, Neptune is the planet of dreams, spirituality, mystery, and transcendence. The paper argues that Neptune acts as the perfect archetypal container for this psychic drive to recover the lost Objet petit a.
Neptune's famous polarity reveals how you instinctively attempt to handle your fundamental lack:
High Neptune: The Spiritual Quest (Sublimation)
This is Neptune in its most evolved state: the universal ocean, unconditional love, and spiritual enlightenment.
You acknowledge the lack (consciously or unconsciously) and channel the yearning for wholeness into creative, compassionate, or mystical pursuits.
The yearning becomes a path toward the divine, rather than a demand on a human or worldly object.
Low Neptune: The Fantasy Fix (Illusion)
This is Neptune as the planet of confusion, addiction, and escapism.
Instead of accepting the lack, you create an Imaginary fantasy that promises to deliver the Objet petit a through an external source.
This manifests as addiction (substance, love, glamour), where the external object serves as a temporary, synthetic placeholder for wholeness.
The fantasy eventually collapses, leading to disappointment and confusion when the earthly object inevitably fails to deliver transcendent satisfaction.
How to Read Your Lack in the Natal Chart
The Objet petit a isn't a planet, but Neptune’s placement provides the archetype and context for the fantasy surrounding it. The chart becomes a map of how you filter the experience of your lack.
Neptune's Sign (The Archetype of the Fantasy): The sign describes the flavor of the fantasy.
Example: Neptune in Libra might chase the a through a fantasy of perfect harmony or symmetrical justice, leading to inevitable disillusionment in relationships.
Neptune's House (The Field of Projection): The house shows the area of life where you actively attempt to locate the lost object.
Example: Neptune in the 7th House will seek completeness by demanding it from a partner, projecting the void onto the "Other".
Hard Aspects (The Conflict): Squares or oppositions indicate where the fantasy crashes into reality.
Example: Neptune Square Saturn is a perpetual frustration, as you simultaneously idealize a non-concrete goal (Neptune) and attempt to solidify it (Saturn), which is a contradiction.
Harmonious Aspects (The Sublimation): Trine or sextile aspects suggest an easier integration of the Objet petit a fantasy into the personality. This often facilitates the High Neptune expression, allowing the individual to channel their yearning into genuine artistic talent or compassion. However, the lack of friction means the illusory qualities of a can become deeply ingrained and unconscious.
Quincunx / Inconjunct (The Alienation): As a dynamic of necessary adjustment (a 150-degree angle), the Quincunx to Neptune represents a state of chronic alienation from the fantasy. The desire/lack (Neptune/a) and the aspected planet are deeply connected but operate in radically different modes, making it difficult to find a comfortable fit or sublimate the desire easily. It often requires constant, conscious adjustment to align the illusory need with the reality of the aspected function.
Psychology and Astrology: From Confusion to Self-Knowledge
The power of this framework is not just diagnostic; it’s transformative. By using the chart, an astrologer can help the client shift from the chaotic mists of Neptune toward grounded self-knowledge.
By naming the fantasy—for example, "Your life is driven by the Fantasy of the Divine Other (S1)" for a difficult Neptune in the 7th—the astrologer gives symbolic shape to the Objet petit a.
This process helps you:
Externalize the Fantasy: The problem is pulled off your ego and placed onto the "chart" (The Neptune/Venus Fantasy), making it easier to examine.
Gain Symbolic Clarity: The archetype becomes a concise label that crystallizes your elusive drive, allowing you to organize your experience and articulate your truth.
Take Back the Projection: You realize that your dissatisfaction is not a failure to find the right object, but a successful preservation of an impossible ideal. The work then becomes channeling that intense yearning away from the worldly object and into the High Neptune path—creativity or spiritual discipline.
Ultimately, understanding Neptune through the Lacanian lens helps you realize your deepest longing is not for a material object, but for a lost, unattainable unity. The path to healing is not to fill the void, but to acknowledge it and use that boundless yearning for transcendent growth.
For those interested in the full theoretical synthesis, the scholarly paper is attached below.
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