Tag Archives: Pluto

Scorpio Full Moon: May 5, 2012

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Full Moon ScorpioIn the Full Moon is in Scorpio nothing is superficial – this Full Moon is all about delving deep into the Mysteries where the Truth lies unexposed in its raw and most real form.  The astrological Moon represents our emotions and feelings – it shows where we retreat to when we are under stress and our instinctive reactions that are unencumbered by any sense of what others expect.

Scorpio is a water sign and therefore involved with the emotional realm.  But Scorpio’s traditional ruler is Mars – a fire planet.  The emotion of Scorpio is nothing like the “go with the flow” emotional adaptability of Pisces, or the deeply sensitive and easily wounded nature of Cancer.  Scorpio is passionate and intense and can be aggressive in its need to defend and protect.  Scorpio’s modern ruler is Pluto, the planet of transformation and the ultimate Truth of Life and Death, which drives that need for intensity into a powerhouse of release and reconstruction.

In the Scorpio Full Moon the lunar instinct turns towards the fire of emotion in order to find our inner passions and face our emotions with courage and awareness. However, the Sun is opposite the Moon in Taurus, seeking peace and serenity in the midst of that Scorpionic emotional fire.  The Full Moon, like any opposition, requires balance.  The Scorpio Moon is in its ascendancy and is the stronger of the two during this lunar event, but the Taurus Sun is whispering to us, encouraging us to stay rooted into the Earth while we allow the fire of our passions and enthusiasm to engulf us in the flames of transcendence.

Scorpio as a rule demands our complete attention, and that will be emphasized as an opposition from Mercury to Saturn (discipline and material reality) culminates at the Full Moon and forces us to confront any areas of our psyche in which we carry a delusion that holds us back.

Meanwhile an awkward aspect  between Uranus (radical behavior) and Mars (aggressive instinct) suggests an inner restlessness and urge to flee the confrontation of this Full Moon and planning for some sort of outlet for this energy is advised. Mars is also exactly square (a conflicting aspect) to the lunar nodes which represent a sense of fate and inner direction, so this Full Moon marks a sort of turning point. Perhaps a decision will be necessary, or an event will occur that will affect our lives permanently.

Those of us with an emphasis in Scorpio, or with strong Mars and Pluto aspects, will find this Full Moon exhilarating in its power.  Those of us who are somewhat fearful of these influences may feel rather overwhelmed, but remember that this Full Moon is a beautiful opportunity to allow your own drive and motivation and deepest desires be known.

This Full Moon is a time of courage and raw power.  Let go of the superficial – let go of any illusions of who you think you are.  Be not afraid:  allow your delusions and confusions to be burned away in the fire of emotion, and allow yourself to emerge from the ashes renewed and with a new understanding of who you really are.  THAT is the lesson of this Scorpio Full Moon.

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The Plutocracy of Pluto in Capricorn 2010

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Thursday said the United States would be ceded to plutocrats and oligarchs if Republicans win next month’s election, referring to the flood of pro-GOP corporate election spending.

Peasants for Plutocracy by Michael Dal Cerro

The word “plutocracy” is being heard more and more these days, as in this article quoting Nancy Pelosi.   It’s an interesting word as it contains the word “Pluto” which is all about power and control.  Merriam-Webster defines “plutocracy” as government by the wealthy, which reminds us that in Roman mythology Pluto represented an amalgam of the Greek gods Hades (the Underworld) and Plouton (wealth) for whom he was named.  In ancient times wealth had nothing to do with paper currency or funds held in online institutions: the wealthy collected pots of gold and silver and precious metals, all valuable items that were found under the earth, Pluto’s realm.

When Pluto entered Capricorn, the sign of structures such as government and banking institutions, many astrologers predicted the consolidation of power in some of those institutions, and the destruction and regeneration of others.  Pluto rules the process of destroying that which no longer serves us and regenerating something new in its place.  The United States is particularly prone to confuse wealth with power due to the presence of Pluto in the US chart second house of money and finance.

Oligarchy is defined as the consolidation of power into a small group that exercises this power through tyranny and servitude.  Certainly the growing influence of corporations (ruled by Capricorn) in the American political system lends credence to the idea that we are fast becoming a plutocracy.  However, the planetary alignments of 2010 have brought a new influence into play: the political rebel is in its ascendancy.  The revolution of the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of the 1960s occurred on the left; the Uranus/Pluto square of the 2010s is occurring on the right.  We saw the very beginnings of this revolution this year when Jupiter and Uranus tiptoed into Aries and faced off against Saturn and Pluto, and by next year the rebellion against the status quo will be in full force.

I would argue that the United States has been heading into a Plutocracy since Ronald Reagan was in office; since the early 1980s the concentration of wealth in the higher echelons has continued to grow to the point where today the top one percent of Americans own 40% of the nation’s wealth.

When Uranus returns to Aries next spring, the revolutionary fervor that we saw this year will continue to make waves, and while it’s clear that most of the dissatisfied Americans aren’t really sure what it is that they want or who can give it to them, the dissatisfaction will continue.  So I say, bring on the Plutocracy – once it is firmly in place as the Establishment, Uranus in Aries will have a very clear target for the next three years as it battles in a square against Capricorn Pluto.

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The planet of transformation is always transforming

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Fans of the planet Pluto will find this pretty interesting:

Pluto is not simply a ball of ice and rock but a dynamic world that undergoes dramatic atmospheric changes. While they believe the changes are driven by the seasons, it may mostly come from how quickly things can change on Pluto. The seasons are propelled as much by the planet’s 248-year elliptical orbit as its axial tilt — unlike Earth where the tilt alone drives seasons. On Pluto spring transitions to polar summer quickly in the northern hemisphere because Pluto is moving faster along its orbit when it is closer to the Sun.

“If Earth had such an extreme orbit, and we were experiencing a nice springtime day with 60-70 degree F temperatures, as the orbit changed it could suddenly drop to -90 degrees F,” said [Mike] Brown.

Here’s a NASA video of Pluto taken from the Hubble images.

One of the more fascinating things about astrology is the synchronicity between the physical characteristics of the planets, the names assigned to them by astronomers, and the astrological correlations.  Mars, the planet named for the God of War, appears reddish in color and as we now know, shows signs of ancient devastation.  The astrological Mars rules aggression and warfare.  Uranus, the planet with the most eccentric orbit (it orbits laterally rather than vertically) is associated with eccentric behavior.  Now we discover that Pluto, the planet that rules endings and new beginnings, is itself always transforming itself.

What an amazing Universe we live in!

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The Nature of Grief and Astrological Cycles

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Throughout this year, with Chiron and Neptune traveling together, many of my clients have called megrief.jpg with overwhelming feelings of grief.  Often there is an event that appears to have caused these intense emotions, but sometimes the feelings appear to stem from events that occurred long ago.  A client who had mourned the loss of her mother that happened nine years ago.  Another who grieved the loss of her first marriage many years ago.  Suddenly, after many years, the emotions welled up seemingly from nowhere to take over their lives.

When Chiron and Neptune are working together, they combine to assist with the work of the soul. The body, the mind, and the ego are all most interested in living a life well-grounded in the material world that offers the maximum of pleasure and the minimum of pain. The soul does not pursue pleasure and avoid pain; instead, there is an embrace of experiences that will assist us at the deepest level to completely learn the lessons that are presented to us so that we can release the past and move forward with greater wisdom.

Chiron facilitates this aspect of soul work by uncovering any wounded places that have been left unresolved so that we can be freed of the blocked energy that our unreleased wounds hold within the body/mind/spirit system. Neptune assists by reminding us that there is a world of experience that lies beyond the boundaries of the material world. Under the influence of Neptune we either open up to experiences of a powerful mystical nature, or else we become confused and deluded as the nature of our personal reality is blurred and we have nothing to replace it with. Neptune bestows creative genius and a spiritual connection to our Divine self as the physical world is transcended, or it can cause us to indulge in escapist and addictive behavior in an effort to escape the prison of our own mind.

Challenging astrological cycles do often coincide with painful events in our life, but whether the grief we feel is over a current loss or an old one, the feelings are the same.  Psychiatrists know that grief and emotional pain are stored in the psyche with the same intensity that they held during the original event.
Chiron has been a great teacher and guide for astrologers’ understanding about the nature of grief, but Saturn and Pluto play a role as well.
Under Saturn transits we are painfully aware of our faults, our loneliness, and the blocks that keep us from our happiness.  Saturn is associated with depression which has a different tonal quality than grief.
Under Pluto transits we often find ourselves facing unpleasant truths and frightening memories from our past, and Pluto can bring up deep and dark emotions that unlock doors to emotional pain.  But it’s Chiron that opens the doorways for the emotional pain that we store in our psyche to spring forth into the conscious mind where it can, with conscious focus and attention, be processed and released.
Often a client will ask me, “When will this be over?  Will I ever be happy again?”  They will say “I don’t want to ever feel this again.”  We spend our lives running from our pain, but the problem with that is as long as we run, the pain remains stored in our psyche and our bodies.  Later it may erupt in physical pain and nondiagnosable illness.
What is required is the courage to look into our own soul and open the doorway to the feelings, to see what they have to tell us and to teach us.  It’s not an easy path, but it’s the only way to wholeness.
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This was not David Carradine’s first time

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See my original article here, and the first update here. David Carradine’s third wife, Gail Jensen, has revealed to the National Enquirer that she rescued Carradine in 1984 from an autoerotic asphyxiation episode after finding him “hanging unconscious from a beam with a belt around his neck.”  Another interview with Ms. Jensen revealed that Carradine had experimented with drowning himself in their pool.

In my earlier articles I connected Carradine’s evident fascination with the darker side of sexuality to an opposition from Pluto (death and compulsive behavior) to Venus (relating to others) in his astrological chart.   Looking back to this 1984 period, transiting Pluto was in a challenging square formation to that natal dynamic, creating a tendency for more extreme behavior and a desire to explore these darker undercurrents and experiences.

Not everyone with Pluto/Venus contacts in their chart (I myself have something similar) go to this kind of extreme or react with this kind of compulsion.   There is, though, a fascination with death and perhaps this became a kind of a game for Carradine in which he outwitted Death over and over.  After this kind of extreme life-or-death sexual experience, ordinary human relationships would have paled by comparison driving Carradine to take greater and greater risks.

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More on the death of David Carradine

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You read it here first: When I put up the post on Thursday afternoon about Carradine’s death, speculating that the likely cause of Carradine’s death was autoerotic asphyxiation, a Google search turned up no other articles on this topic.  Now the details of Carradine’s tragic death have come out and there is no doubt that this was indeed the cause of his death.

When there is a fascination with the dark side of sexuality, we usually find a strong Pluto component to the chart.  Pluto is the planet of death, rebirth and transformation, but it also has to do with intensity and compulsion and a fascination with the dark side of life.  Carradine had a nearly exact opposition of Pluto to Venus in his birthchart, linking that compulsive nature (Pluto) to his relationships and patterns of relating to others. Venus/Pluto combinations can be problematic for relationships, and Carradine was married five times.

While Venus/Pluto combinations are nearly always difficult to some degree, they do NOT manifest the same way for everyone.  The variables in human behavior makes astrology a less-than-exact science, and there are plenty of people with these combinations who go on to lead a healthy and happy life.  I myself have Venus in Scorpio square Pluto, as I told someone in the comments section, and I have never been at all interested in this kind of darkness.  It’s always easier to go back and demonstrate correspondences between the chart and behavior than to predict exactly how a planetary system will operate.  So if your loved one has this in their chart, do NOT worry that they will die in a closet in Bangkok.

We don’t know the exact position of the Moon because we don’t know Carradine’s time of birth, but it was definitely in range to form a challenging square to both Venus and Pluto which would have exacerbated this challenge and enhance the desire for intensity in his private life.

The husband of a friend of mine was going through a difficult Pluto transit and she started finding links to BDSM websites on the computer, something she had never seen before.  When the Pluto transit was over, so was the bizarre web history.  Carradine wasn’t having a Pluto transit when all of this was happening, but transiting Mars (desire and aggression) began a challenging square to the Moon/Venus/Pluto combination in his chart beginning around May 22 that would have stimulated a powerful sexual desire and more urgent need for release.

We have already seen that Carradine had a challenging system in his chart that likely caused depression and a damaged sense of self.  (Visit my earlier article for more details on this and the transit of Saturn at the time of death.)  Evidently Carradine had considered suicide at various times in his life, and although this does not appear to be a case of intentional suicide there is certainly an element of tempting one’s fate in this kind of practice.

We don’t see any of the usual signatures in a death chart here; not the most obvious presence of Pluto, god of death; not Jupiter, often found in death charts where there is a liberation from a difficult life; not Uranus, found in charts where death is of a shocking nature.  Unlike some astrologers who enjoy testing their predictive skills, I believe that the events of our life are not set in stone and therefore cannot be predicted.  I think it’s likely that some deaths are truly accidental and were not part of the life path of the individual and that is very likely the case here.

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NASA and Mercury Retrograde

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NASA seems to really like Mercury retrograde.  NASA first launched the Discovery space shuttle on August 30, 1984 when Mercury was retrograde.  The Discovery launched the Hubble telescope on April 24 1990 when Mercury was retrograde.

After the initial launch of the Hubble scientists discovered that the optical mirror was flawed.  Because the Hubble was supposed to be shooting photographs of deep space, this was a real problem.

Often Mercury Retrograde periods can be used to repair problems from previous Mercury Retrograde events.  For example, in July of 2006 problems during Mercury Rx kept the Discovery from a successful launch, and the December launch, also during Mercury Rx was successful.

Yesterday, with Mercury Retrograde,  the Atlantis space shuttle was launched with a crew to repair the Hubble telescope.  Immediately after its launch scientists discovered some damage to the exterior of the shuttle but it was termed “minor.”

This is a good illustration that Mercury Retrograde periods do not necessarily need to be feared.  Yes, problems occur but they are rarely fatal.

Joseph Mina adds in the comments:

NASA was created by an act of Congress on July 29, 1958. At that time, Mercury at 2 Virgo conjuncted Pluto at 1 Virgo, both sextile Neptune at 2 Scorpio. Just prior, on July 20th, Mercury entered its retrograde shadow at 24 Leo with the retrograde station occurring on August 9 at 7 Virgo. So Mercury Retrograde would be a natural rhythm for NASA. Add the Scorpion juice of the Pluto conjunction to the mix and you have some high octane rocket propellant. One other interesting astrological point – Chiron in the July 29 chart is 21 Aquarius. As transiting Chiron is now moving back and forth over that degree with Jupiter, a renewed energy is building to take NASA in a different direction. Very happy the Hubble Telescope repair is underway. The images coming from that device over the past 19 years have redefined our understanding of the Universe in extraordinary ways.

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Thoughts on Pluto as it retrogrades today

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Willow ArleneaArt by Willow Arlenea. Pluto has been slowing down for the past month or so in preparation for making its station, and we have seen a dramatic increase of violent acts including several mass murders during that period, particularly around the time of the New Moon in Aries.  Planets don’t actually move backwards, but because in astrology we look at the movement of the planets from car it is not astronomically correct.  Astrology places the human being at the center of the universe and analyzes planetary motion from that perspective.

When a planet is preparing to change direction it slows down, just as a car must slow down before it makes a U-turn.  At a certain point it is said to be “stationary”, and it is most stationary on the day that it changes direction, which in Pluto’s case is today.

Pluto, despite its small size, is dramatically powerful in astrological terms and it’s easy to become afraid of its usually intense effects.  But if we take a longer view of the planetary influence Pluto doesn’t have to be frightening.  Pluto seeks nothing less than total transformation and the elimination of anything that is no longer serving us, and the changes that occur under Pluto events, even though they may be very difficult, always change us for the better.  It was Pluto who wrote the old adage, “That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”

When Pluto is powerful in our life, either in our natal chart or when Pluto is affecting one of the planets in our chart by transit, we have lost control.  There is no solution but to let go.  I always tell the story (and forgive me if you’ve heard this one before) of the first time I went tubing when I lived in Colorado.  The guide said to keep all of your limbs inside the tube and let the water carry you, but I was too frightened so I kept trying to reach out for the rocks, trying to slow down my travels, which resulted in the tube being smashed against the rocks.  When I finally did let go, the tube was able to travel the path of least resistance through the water and I had a glorious ride.

But Pluto also requires that we become empowered.  It’s not enough just to let go if we allow ourselves to be weakened.  Pluto often pits us in circumstances where we must fight – for our money, for our job, for our family, for our life sometimes. There are often power struggles and battles for dominance.  We can’t control the circumstances, but we can control our choices and how we will react to those circumstances.  Pluto asks, where in your life have you allowed yourself to be diminished?  What in your life isn’t working for you?

Pluto also can bring out our compulsive and hidden behaviors, and dredge up old memories to be processed and released.  Unlike Chiron, which reveals the actual emotional experience, Pluto sometimes goes into the depth of the soul and forces us to confront the original source.  Repressed memories, sexual compulsions – during Pluto cycles we may find ourselves facing a dark side of ourselves that we prefer to keep safely in the basement.  Pluto demands nothing less than the absolute Truth.

When Pluto entered Capricorn last year it was a bit of a psychic shock after the glee of the Sagittarius cycle (1995-2008).  It has taken a while for the general population to get used to this new and more contracted experience, but gradually we are starting to see an adjustment.  The retrograde passage of Pluto will slow down this adjustment as Pluto completes its work through the early degrees of Capricorn.  Capricorn is the reality check – which structures in our life are solid, and which are based on whimsy?  Anything built on shifting sands will not survive the Pluto in Capricorn period.

Venus is tightly involved with Pluto this year as well as she squares Pluto three times during the retrograde cycles of both planets.  Venus presides over the way we relate to others as well as our personal values and how well we value ourselves.  Over the past few weeks since Venus began her retrograde cycle I’ve been seeing more clients dealing with relationship issues.  Some have been avoiding relationships – others have marriages that have been failing for years and need resuscitation.  Relationships are a critical part of our spiritual growth – they are often the crucible in which our spiritual evolution is processed. In the mirror of the Other, we see ourselves more clearly.  This kind of soul work does not require a husband or a wife; the intimate interaction between souls can occur between any humans on any level.

Venus made the first square to Pluto in early February at 2 degrees Aries/Capricorn.  The second square to Pluto occurred yesterday (Friday) at 3 degrees, and the final square in the cycle will take place in early May at 3 degrees.  There’s no question that this Venus/Pluto cycle will challenge relationships, but there is a purpose behind the challenge – anything that is not working in our relationships will be brought to the forefront.  There are likely to be power struggles, and the need to accept that which is behind us and that which is lost.

There is also the need to balance the needs of the Self relative to the needs of the Other, and this will be highlighted at the Full Moon in Libra on April 9th.  Over the next week this need for balance will become more obvious as we enter the shadow of the Full Moon.  It’s a delicate balancing act, but one worth mastering as we work with the shamanic process of Pluto to strengthen and empower our souls as they learn the dance of partnership.

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Pluto, the Bomb, Terrorism and Ceres

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Mercury retrograde periods are a great time for reposting!  I’m taking a few days off for some other creative projects so meanwhile please enjoy some of my favorite articles from the past.

With my Mercury (thoughts and communication) in Scorpio (ruled by Pluto), Pluto’s naturally been on my mind (Mercury) a lot in a moderately obsessive (Pluto/Scorpio) way. To me the interesting thing isn’t Pluto’s so-called “demotion” (because how can the Lord of Death be demoted?). It’s the addition of Ceres to the mix.

I’ll be writing more about the whole Virgo/Cancer debate later, but there are some interesting facts about Ceres/Demeter and her relationship to the underworld that may be significant. Of course Ceres/Demeter is best known for the tale in which her daughter Persephone/Kore was abducted by Hades/Pluto into the underworld, but Ceres/Demeter herself was instrumental in the concept of resurrection. (The Romans adopted the Greek gods and the names were changed but the myths remained virtually identical.)

Barbara Walker’s amazing book The Secrets of the Tarot reveals that Demeter’s principal temple, Eleusis, was the site of resurrection rituals that may have been the precursor to the Christian myths. Demeter was the Mistress of Earth and Sea, promising to multiply loaves and fishes; her savior-son of various names was called the “Liberator”. During the rituals of the Eleusinian mysteries the seed of Dionysus was killed (reaped), buried (planted) and resurrected (sprouted), with his flesh eaten as bread and his blood drunk as wine. (Sound familiar?) During the ritual, the priestess and hierophant perform the “Great Rite,” re-enacting the coupling between Demeter and Zeus which conceived the child Dionysus. This Great Rite was thought to bring about the regeneration of the earth and the forgiveness of sins.

During Christian times Demeter was informally canonized as St. Demetra who according to legend also had a daughter, kidnapped this time by a wicked Turkish wizard. When a young man tries to rescue Demetra’s daughter he is captured and dismembered, and Demetra resurrects him so that her daughter can be rescued.

Pluto’s discovery in 1930 brought with it the introduction of the atomic bomb and the fear of ultimate annhilation, the ultimate power. In these days of terrorism when a single individual with a toiletry bottle can potentially wipe out thousands of people, our concept of power is changing. In centuries past, whichever country had the biggest guns had the most power. When the US was the only nation with the bomb we were the only superpower. When Russia developed the bomb, they were the other superpower. At this time nine nations have nuclear weapons, with several more to attain that status soon (including Iran). The whole concept of power, as embodied in the archetype of Pluto, is changing and this will become very clear in the 2010-2013 square of Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn. The power of Pluto hasn’t lessened one iota, but it has become universalized rather than being owned by just a few countries and individuals. Perhaps this is symbolized by the reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet, a status shared by many others.

Perhaps too the introduction of Ceres/Demeter into the Plutonic archetype offers hope for resurrection and regeneration from Pluto’s threat of total destruction.

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Pluto: “The Seeds of What Could Be”

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Robert Wilkinson has a great article about Pluto in Capricorn today.  I particularly love this section:

Pluto is how we confront the seeds of what is and could be, and learn the willingness to do what it takes to get to the core patterns so that a better seed can sprout in our lives. If we consciously embrace a determined focus utilizing Pluto’s power of “Economy of Energy” we can find our greatest realizations of who we are, who we could be, and how we could become a “sprouter of Divine Seeds” in the lives of all we touch.

Pluto in Capricorn can lead us into purified structures of becoming, seed forms of transformational power that can change how we organize and author the forms in our lives forever. If you are glimpsing seeds of taking responsibility and moved to embrace new disciplines, of claiming Divine power based in Truths you’ve been living forever, then you’re on to the secret Pluto holds for all of us.

Pluto is powerful, but its influence is not to be feared. Whatever Pluto removes from our lives is stuff we no longer need – Pluto teaches surrender and transformation to that which is for our highest good.

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