Avoid Being Duped – Neptune and Charisma

Don't be this guy

In my last post, I talked about how heavily Neptunian people can use the confusion around them as a weapon, carefully crafting a persona to make the world love them. Now the question is how to avoid being duped.

The questions you want to ask are, “How does this person want me to see them?” and “Are they doing too much?”

Nearly everyone wants to be liked and to get along. But there are some people whose actions clearly go above and beyond any reasonable efforts.

When a man walks into a divorce proceeding in a great mood, genial and kind to everyone, and paints himself has incredibly generous and put-upon, willing to concede everything, why? Why is he doing that? That is not how divorces work. Watch until the end when he pulls out the one thing he really wants, and watch how everyone is falling all over themselves to give it to him because he’s been so easy to work with. And watch the blood drain out of his soon-to-be-ex-wife’s face, because the thing he is asking for is the one thing he knows she’s not willing to give.

I know a man who goes on vacation every year, and brings with him a list of gifts to give to everyone in his life. This is so generous! He spends hundreds if not thousands on everyone else, and never a penny on himself. It is vital to him to be seen as a good guy. But his obsession with controlling his image extends a bit too far, encompassing the people he’s around. Every year, the people who join him on that vacation come back hollow-eyed and silent, broken from the weight of his expectations.

See the formula at work? He wants to be seen as a generous man, he goes too far out of his way to appear as such, and this hides the horrible pressure he places on anyone who gets too close.

As for Taylor Swift? The best example is her 2020 documentary Miss Americana. User her Neptune, she plays up a vision of herself as an activist, trying hard to look like a person passionate about the greater good, but when she talks about it, she doesn’t discuss her compassion or the plight of the people she's supposed to be helping. She says, “I need to be on the right side of history.” She needs to be seen as good, and that’s more important than actually being good.

So when you meet someone who seems completely perfect, who you instinctively want to protect and even exalt, ask yourself why. Ask yourself what image they’re trying to project. And if it seems like they’re putting in just a little too much effort, step back and be wary. Truly good people don’t need to go out of their way to prove it. So just what exactly are they hiding?

Have you ever been fooled by someone who appeared too good to be true? What was the astrology?

Need strategies for dealing with a shady character in your own life? Consult with me!