Prolifically Raw: Did Notice Things are Getting Hard?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Did Notice Things are Getting Hard?

It might not be the four horsemen of the apocalypse, but it's feeling pretty scary.

Without a doubt, this is the time of transformation.

Here is insight from my favorite astrologer, located in Portland. She has provided perspective for several years now and I find her teaching to be most helpful, especially at the critical moments.

This is a letter she, and her colleague Gayle, sent today. I found it very helpful. I hope you might as well.

Hi Friends, Clients, Colleagues, and Students,

Recent world events -- lost portfolios, lifestyles forced to change,
dreams put on hold, even Obama's election -- might seem to have come
"out of the blue." Carol has had desperate calls from clients and
friends wondering, "What the HELL is happening?!" Gayle has had
conversations with massage colleagues who recount lost clients and
businesses slipping away. Their fear is palpable and all-encompassing.

But: these events didn't come out of the blue; they've been brewing
for a long time, and, astrology, the language of time and its meaning,
has perspective and solutions. While there are plenty of astrology
websites to describe the daily planetary motion and their
representative energies, we have found no site that offers suggestions
about how to work with these energies. Being the busy Virgo servants
we are, we propose an occasional email, which not only gives some
perspective on major planetary transits, but also gives practical ways
to engage this energy. Please think of them as lessons in how to set
your sail to catch the planetary winds.

For some of us, being armed with knowledge is enough. For some, we
need to understand the information not only through the mind, but
through the heart and the body. We will try to suggest ways to process
these events through different modes.

So, for a start, we'd like to discuss Pluto in Capricorn.

First, some definitions. Pluto (whether it�s a planet, a �planetoid� or an asteroid) symbolizes transformation. To the Greeks, he was Hades, the Lord of the Underworld, and his domain was an unpalatable place. To the Romans, he began as Plautus, the Lord of Unseen Riches: he ruled not only gold, silver and gems, but rudimentary human psychology, the beginning understanding of the unseen source of human behaviors. Discovered through the telescope in early 1920, Pluto in modern thinking symbolically presides over the riches of the underworld (oil), and depth psychology, specifically the radical and often shocking transformation that occurs when insight forces us from the unconscious to the aware.

Capricorn: the 10th constellation in the western zodiac, Capricorn is both a spatial and temporal place in the cycle of the constant creativity of our world in its universe. Symbolized by the aspiring, disciplined goat, it is a setting where large, complex ideas about systems that will govern large numbers of people begin to rise towards realization. It�s a place for plans, budgets, assignments, structures of organization and government (these plans came out of almost 14 years of Pluto traveling through Sagittarius in analytical mode, and will be realized � or not � in Aquarius.) It can represent the status quo, the place where we are dutiful to the past and to our responsibilities to it.

So, when Pluto visits Capricorn, we experience powerful transformation from the unconscious to the conscious in the places of large organizations and governments, to wit, our government, its leadership, our economic structures. Pluto entered Capricorn briefly, from January 27, 2008, to June 15, 2008; it then briefly retrograded back into Sagittarius until November 28, 2008, and will remain in the constellation Capricorn until March 23, 2023.

Everyone, and we mean everyone, is affected by this transit, some of us more than others, depending on the individual settings of our horoscopes. (If you have your astrology chart, notice if you have anything in the first 8-10 degrees of any of the four cardinal signs -- Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn. Those of you with planetary placements in the early degrees of these signs will experience these transformations first; those with planets in the middle to later degrees can watch the early-birds to see what things might look like for you in a few years.)

Pluto�s transformative power comes as a release of the old in order to survive. It often forces us to surrender that which we have most valued. And, Pluto doesn�t take �NO� for an answer. Pluto is working to transform and evolve us, not just personally, but collectively; and, because of the long periods of its transit, it works slowly and thoroughly. When the god of the underworld is finished with us, we will be closer to our potential and in greater alignment with the universe. Pluto shows us where we are out of integrity within the structures of our lives, especially our community life. Wherever integrity is missing, Pluto � bombs� it to force a restructuring. Often it feels like annihilation.

In his remarkable book, The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million, the author, Daniel Mendelsohn, discusses the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and, in particular the story of Lot's wife, a point in a larger meditation about the nature of time and loss. He suggests it is important to think about Sodom as a sophisticated, if decadent, metropolis, beautiful in its own way, in order to understand the angel's command not to look back, and what happens to Lot's wife. He writes: "...it seems clear that Lot and his family are commanded not to look back at [Sodom] not as a punishment, but for a practical reason: because regret for what we have lost, for the pasts we have to abandon, often poisons any attempts to make a new life, which is what Lot and his family now must do, as Noah and his family once had to do, as indeed all those who survive awful annihilations must somehow do.�

Pluto in Capricorn is a BIG energy, but it can be worked with in a way that helps us to look forward rather than back. This doesn�t have to be a time where we get sucked into the fear swirling around us or give up and be a victim. It is possible to be calm, understanding the opportunity that this seemingly cataclysmic time brings us.

Pluto is at work on the foundation that our lives are built on. The foundation of our global financial life was increasingly built on bubbles (Sagittarian aspiration negatively turned into greed). Now Pluto is demanding that we rebuild a new, solid foundation. But before the rebuilding, the old rubble must be taken down. It won�t happen overnight. It will require years. Pluto transforms slowly and deeply. When the restructuring is finished, we will be more free and secure.

In her book, Making the Gods Work for You, Caroline Casey lists Pluto�s three phases. The first is �disruption of the outer world, which starts our descent into the Underworld.� (Banking and mortgage crises would qualify as disruption of the outer world).

Phase two is �not-knowing.� (For example, will the �bail-out� work? We don�t know.) ?

The last phase is the �surge of authenticity that occurs as the soul rededicates itself to its remembered mission�. (For example, at the global scale, this would mean a plan that thoughtfully includes realistic governance and economic structures that fairly allocate resources to all).

THREE IDEAS FOR WORKING WITH PLUTO

1. Go with the Flow and Invite Pluto In

In martial arts, one of the prime concepts is to �go with� the opponent�s attack. If we apply this to Pluto in Capricorn, what would it look like to go with Pluto rather than against it? When we fight against something, there is a huge clash that results in battering and bruising, but it isn�t particularly effective. And with Pluto, RESISTANCE IS FUTILE, as they used to say on Star Trek! What would it feel like in, your body, to let in Pluto in Capricorn sensations? What Gayle is noticing in her body is an inability to hold on. �I have lost the sense of being able to push my way up the mountain. My body feels flaccid and fatigued. It took me awhile to surrender to these physical sensations; I am slowly getting there, but it is still frightening.� By letting go into the physical sensations, Pluto�s transformative energy is able to work its slow magic.

In his book, Healing Into Life and Death, Stephen Levine presents a concept from Tibetan Buddhism: sitting down with your monsters and having a cup of tea. (Is tea Pluto�s particular beverage -- Red Bull is probably more up his alley!) The point is, invite Pluto in, be hospitable. Ignoring him will drive him deeper underground, and create bigger surprises that rise out of the unconscious.

Each of us will need to go with the Pluto flow in our own way. Your chart has help to offer. For example, if you have planets in the early degrees of Libra, Pluto in Capricorn will form a square, or difficult relationship to the Libra placement. Libra is trying to remain harmonious and balanced, while Pluto in Capricorn is saying: YOU WILL RESTRUCTURE! (Pluto always wins.) If you have these aspects in your chart, notice whether you are getting enough in-depth talking with a kindred spirit. If you have planets in the early degrees of Aries, you may need to process this energy �on the hoof�, in motion, perhaps even movement that possesses some sort of ballistic quality. And if you have a planet in Cancer opposite Pluto, are you able to express your feelings enough in a safe space? Do you need more water in any way, from bathing to walking on the beach? ?

2. Allow things to be exactly as they are.

What would it be like to allow things to be just as they are, not wishing they were any different? Not wishing that your retirement date has been postponed, or that you aren�t able to buy the furniture you want, or that you don�t have a secure job. This is hard to do!! We aren�t trying to minimize any of this, because Pluto change runs bone deep. But the more you can go WITH Pluto, the more powerful and happy you will be.

If you have studied meditation, these suggestions will not sound new, so: just a reminder to apply what you already know to this amazing global circumstance.

Allow your body to open to the prevailing winds just as they are. The more you can do this, the more comfortable you will be. Yes, opening to chaos takes some skill and devotion. But if you don�t work on opening to things exactly as they are, the planetary energies will collide with the energy patterns already in your body. This collision will result in fatigue, depressed immunity, inflammation, the inability to concentrate, and poor decision-making, to name just some.
One way to work with this is to hold an image in your mind that is disturbing to you, such as a loss in your financial status, whatever that means to you. As you hold this image, breathe into it for several minutes if you can.

3. List the opportunities this restructuring might bring. (We know, it sounds like Oprah!)

We�ll get you started by sharing one of our own opportunities already realized from this transit:

For Carol (the author), Pluto is beginning a 15-year journey through the 11th House of community, which has meant saying goodbye to familiar groups and identities in those groups, and hello to a new set of institutions and practices that are foreign and daunting. As Pluto in Capricorn squares Neptune/Venus/Mars in Libra in the 8th House, it is requiring serious changes in spiritual practices, and a very real confrontation with mortality.

For Gayle (the co-author), Pluto has forced the issue�What MUST be released? Pluto is almost exactly square her Saturn and trine her sun. Holding structure has become impossible! The professional obligations that are no longer energizing, that no longer work, are being released. Something is dying so that the new energy can be born. This is Pluto at work.

Final Thoughts

When all is said and done, it is important to remember how difficult it is to imagine the future. In 1995, Carol sat in a lecture to the British Astrological Association, held in Cirencester, England. The keynote speaker was the notable astrologer, Liz Greene, and her topic was "Pluto in Sagittarius: The Changing Face of God." Even listening to history's cycles of religious wars, not one member of the audience could have imagined 9/11 as a new religious war, nor the rise of fundamentalism in the western and eastern worlds that were shaped in the years of the Pluto in Sagittarius transit (and, indeed, we have not seen the end of that!) The healthy and pathological extremes of vision -- whether the fundamentalism of religion, the reaches of medical science, or the new global economic and social organizations � will all come to fruition as Pluto leaves Sagittarius for Capricorn.

As Caroline Casey puts it,� When Pluto is our travel agent, our ticket to heaven includes a stopover in hell. And because the journey is arduous, we don�t usually book in advance. Mark Twain reminds us that a real journey is one where, �halfway through you wish you were home.� Only by diving into unfamiliar depths can we tap inner resources that are connected to a large Will.�