When we find ourselves facing someone who is hungry, we have a choice:
- either give them a fish
- or teach them how to fish
In the first case, admittedly, the person will no longer be hungry for a certain time in the immediate term.
We may save their life in the short term, but the unfortunate individual remains in a form of dependency; they have not in any way extricated themselves from the condition of hardship that led to their hunger. They remain at risk of becoming dependent on others…
Should they become hungry again, they must wait for another person to give them a fish, or even risk eventually doing nothing but expecting to receive fish from others as an entitlement, without concern for who will catch it for them, or the effort and cost (in physical energy, time, money) this imposes on others.
They become a “beneficiary” who loses confidence in their own worth, lives in bitterness, and ultimately believes themselves good for nothing but begging, for receiving, without ever conceiving of any reciprocity they themselves might offer…
In the second case, the person may initially struggle to familiarize themselves with these new techniques; they may need some help purchasing equipment and more prolonged accompaniment in their learning. This may be more demanding than simply handing over a fish…
But behind it lies the prospect of freedom and autonomy !
The individual will have acquired knowledge they can put into practice to derive benefit; they can also transmit it to others (to their children, to members of their community) so that they, in turn, may help those who, like them before, are now hungry.
They become a genuine asset to society: no longer something “passive”, but on the contrary something “active”, dynamic, positive, enterprising…
Not only will they never go hungry again, but they individuate; they become a Human being master of their destiny, an asset to their own, and even a bridge toward the future…
This may evoke the scene of “The Miraculous Catch” in the Bible, where the act of fishing is central… Jesus does not “give” fish to everyone, but encourages fishing, instilling faith and hope in the presence of fish in the net !
This is vastly more important than making free fish rain down from the sky…
Of these two alternatives, which one truly helps the person more ?
I am thinking of a current issue stating that one in four homeless individuals is a former child placed in foster care.
One may legitimately wonder whether the State truly taught them to fish first, and what sense there is in releasing a person into the wild at age 18 with virtually no further support if that foundational learning never took place ? And if the outcome is simply to find them on the street afterward ?
Strength and self-confidence, whether personal or collective, arise from learning to fish for oneself… Anything else one might try to make people believe is a lie, which merely sustains them in dependency and weakness (and often, first and foremost, dependency and weakness to the government).
The proper use of the planet Neptune in our Birth Chart, as in our Transits, should truly draw inspiration from this proverb.
Too often, the planet tends to drift preferentially toward the first example, where, in a well-meaning impulse, the immediate solution is to give a fish, without always concerning oneself much with whether other fish will be found tomorrow…
That said, these two solutions need not necessarily be opposed. This does not mean one should never give a fish to anyone; rather, such giving must be something transitory, and what must be prioritized above all else is indeed the fishing itself.
I believe this is the profound meaning of a well-understood Neptune: a deep mutual aid that does not stop at giving a fish and then nothing more, but rather something that inscribes itself in sustainability and efficacy (in sharing, sacrifice, devotion) where one offers of oneself, of one’s knowledge, to the other, not merely material goods…
So let us learn to fish ! 😉 It is the best way to counter the untamed liberalism of today and tomorrow…