Mercury and Pluto carry through much of the astrology this week. Today, Mercury crossed the point where its retrograde began 40 days ago. Now direct on Aries ground untrod, the innermost planet is speeding towards a Wednesday square with Pluto. For its part, Pluto is grinding slowly backwards from its own retrograde station in Capricorn on April 10. Look around at your life and it’s probable that you will see the same contrasts that Mercury and Pluto represent; fast and slow, back and forth, new and old, all on course to both test and motivate your resolve.
Resolutions form in the mind, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. Among its many manifestations, Mercury appears in your life as mind and its expression. Right now, only the Moon, archetype of unconscious thought, is moving faster than Mercury. Also right about now, the Moon is entering Gemini where it will be under Mercury’s rulership for nearly three days.
The symbolism of the two speediest objects in the sky working together, with the Moon ruled by Mercury, is your mind, consciously and unconsciously, running on ahead of everything else. Thinking ahead can be very good or not so good, depending on what form your thoughts take.
Ahead, of course, is Pluto. For Mercury, it will be a square aspect from cardinal Aries to Pluto in cardinal Capricorn, yet another preview of 2012’s main attraction, the premiere square of Uranus to Pluto. With Mercury as the proxy for Uranus, your thoughts could even now be taking you in the direction of unconscious fear, getting you ahead of opportunities to explore and discover with awareness. Thinking ahead with fear limits and confines your perceptions and responses to familiar patterns from the past. That’s no way to meet the future. Old patterns can only be overcome if you use your noggin to recognize and resolve not to repeat them, and beyond that, by acting in new and untried ways. Action is the first and most indispensable protocol for dealing with a square aspect.
Square aspects take place between planets in different signs that share the same quality; cardinal, fixed or mutable. Thus, objects in a square have a means to understand each other through what they have in common. Planets in a cardinal square have in common the initiative that cardinal energy represents. Initiative means starting a new pattern, just as the Sun initiates a new season when it enters cardinal territory. The best way for you to work with Mercury in Aries is, therefore, to look ahead to new solutions, not old fears. Pluto, for some, is a reason to fear.
Pluto, like the square aspect itself, has a reputation as something to be feared. Surrendering to that reputation without thinking is like surrendering to fear without allowing your mind to examine whether there is actually anything to be afraid of. Consciously refusing to surrender to unexamined fear, and actively initiating a new way of thinking about Pluto is how to work with the astrology and step onto ground untrod, getting ahead of your past instead of getting ahead of yourself. The new way of thinking begins with realizing that Pluto is itself still very new to our awareness.
Before 1930, no human knew about the dwarf planet we call Pluto. The name, however, goes back to antiquity, evoking an unconscious fear associated with death, dark places and the unknowable. Projecting that fear onto the object is like being afraid of a baby with a scary name, of which there seem to be many as of late. Instead of judging a baby by its name, an astrologer would look at its natal chart. So happens Pluto has one.
According to the detective work of research astrologer Robert van Heeren, Pluto was discovered on a photographic plate by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930 at 4 pm in Flagstaff, Arizona. Using that data to make a natal chart reveals a lot to think about and very little to fear.
Pluto was born to human consciousness while retrograde, moving slowly through cardinal Cancer. Pluto’s natal Mercury was direct, conjoined to both Mars (the action planet) and the asteroid Photographica while square to the lunar nodes from Aquarius, where the collective is conscious. The Moon at that moment of discovery was midway through Scorpio, where Pluto is now considered to rule. In sum, its discovery chart indicates Pluto is best revealed through cardinal energy and is resolved in the collective mind through an image created by human action, while simultaneously carrying an unconscious association with the mid-point of a transformative fixed sign. The mid-point of any fixed sign is, in turn, halfway between the points where cardinal energy begins, where together we approach and initiate new patterns and cycles, all at the same time.
Mercury square Pluto is first approached as all squares are. To start with, by being aware that the tension you feel originates and manifests from inside your very being, then by consciously acting on that tension rather than unconsciously allowing it to act on you. Wednesday’s particular case of Mercury square Pluto is an opportunity for you to begin a new cycle in relationship to what both objects represent, consciously refusing to fear, and grasping the moment as your own to be resolved in an image of your creation, rather than somebody else’s idea of the past. You can begin by rapidly getting ahead of what you would be better off putting behind you. Then, you can follow through by learning from that experience and resolving to be slowly transformed from what you no longer need to be.
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Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
“Wednesday’s particular case of Mercury square Pluto is an opportunity for you to begin a new cycle in relationship to what both objects represent, consciously refusing to fear”. Think I need to allow that fear to be, dear Len, to give it space. Once fear is fully acknowledged, it transforms into what it fundamentally is: energy. Easier said than done though!
A voice
reading into the dark
of someone else’s
night.
Light.
Gentle
though the words
are
true
is the
hope in
them and
again the sound
the sound the
sound of dancing light and dreams
envoiced.
deep bow\gratitude
for sound
and light
and service
from this
one to the other.
a veil is lifted
one
has always
been
going
on
and
it
shall
become.
Good.
dear len,
I am feeling this one, especially as PLuto sits on my natal Venus (conj NN) and as I go from hyperventillating to extreme surity, I remind myself that this is about deepest darkest desire and, as you suggest here, the answers are lurking underneath. As I sit at Pluto’s knee, so to speak, I feel this calm — finally getting to the stuff I’ve always wanted but too afraid to “go there” and beyond that I’m flailing around like a madwoman.
So interesting to me that Pluto discovery chart is birthed at our grand canyon — seems appropriately awesome and unknowable … imagine wandering around that at night!!
I was born with all kinds of eye problems and was simply terrified of the dark — perhaps from having patches for such a long time … at the spot, this place of panic and hyperventillation is the real desire nature that I’ve run from all these years. Good news is, I made it here. Extra good news is: all kinds of folk are in “it” with me!!
Thank you, Len — this is like my very own gps to help me navigate the dark. bless you, truly.
mm.
“Pluto was discovered on a photographic plate by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh on February 18, 1930 at 4 pm in Flagstaff, Arizona.”
Yes! I live here in Flagstaff and Lowell Observatory is here. It is a beautiful place to live (though very expensive).
http://famouswonders.com/lowell-observatory/
Thanks Len. I think like most of yours I’m going to have to do this one in layers. Something comes up and blocks for me everytime I read you. :\
Thanks so much, Len ‘specially the Lesson in Pluto.
Me’n’Pluto. We’re ‘like this’..
Ooooh, good one Len. Yep, I’m working off an old script. My friend and I are actually having a great time tonight. Thanks for helping to keep me accountable. xo
Ooh, and thanks to the readers below who pointed out the notion of the richest treasures forming, and laying, in the deepest dark. Gooood stuff all around, up and down on this post.
I heart Pluto! (As a Sadge with ascendant/moon/merc/mars/venus in Scorpio, I kind of have to…)
Len, this is *so* rich, and *so* dense, I literally had to digest it one word at a time at some points, and will continue savoring this soul nourishment through the adventure of the unfolding week. What a gift you have. Thank you for sharing it, and encouraging us to do the same with our multifarious unique, quirky gifts by your example. (Now to get out the treasure map and remember where I’ve buried mine.). 😉 jessica
Huffy, Lyd, paola, Chief Niwots Son, KathyC, and Katie Vee: Thank you for your kind words.
susyc: Thank you for your poem. My heart lends out to your healing.
MandyM: May your residential transition be healing for you as well. The weather you describe appears to match the intensity you feel. May you have a more peaceful and free May.
Lunesoleil: Thank you. You raise some very good questions. It is interesting that Pluto is about to have its Uranus return. In addition, your idea of progression back in time takes us to very nearly the discovery of Neptune. Perhaps you are on to something given that the change of sign for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto has concluded for years to come. It is a very, very interesting connection between the three outer rulers. i am never sure about predictive astrology, but if we look at the chart for the IAU vote on Pluto (August 24, 2006, 2pm CED in Prague) it is very interesting to note that Pluto was at the southern nodal bending while on the cusp of the third house. It’s almost as if the male-dominated IAU could not bring itself to express the truth so, instead, attempted to take away Pluto’s Identity. In the meantime, Saturn opposed Neptune and Uranus was on the IC.
Len, just beautiful! Working on this right now: “grasping the moment as your own to be resolved in an image of your creation, rather than somebody else’s idea of the past.” So true, so pertinent. Thank you!
Thinking through me the mind by reading the article on Pluto to mercury/Uranus square. Taking reference on converses progressions can be reassembled in time. ES – what it is possible with as the discovery of a planet? Can we make predictions beyond the obtained time space? I give an example, Pluto discovered in 1930, we are today in 2012 = 82 what are passed. If using converses progressions 1930 82 years = 1848 today the year would limit back in time the awareness of Pluto. But es – what the tems was not arrested when in August 2006 Pluto was downgraded by astronomers in Prague?
This observation in the tems could be with Neptune and Uranus to their discovery, it could be the subject of one of your next articles when you think?
I was 7ans has abandon Pluto and I have again Pluto/Uranus with writing my article referring to the cycle and in the dust of these false beliefs …..
Thank you once again, Len <3
I bow humbly in your direction
“The name, however, goes back to antiquity, evoking an unconscious fear associated with death, dark places and the unknowable.”
The name Pluto in Latin means “Wealthy One.” Perhaps those wise folks of old understood that true wealth was found in the dark places, gold and oil for the materially inclined, the wisdom of claiming one’s shadow for those of a more spiritual nature.
Thanks for this great piece Len.
Thank you Len, your words go right to the heart of the matter, where the trasmutation takes place.
Len: you’re doing it again…magnificently, helping us navigate the jet stream out of fear to solutions.
I learned very early in life, (Pluto in Leo) that Pluto was the ruthless Zen master part of us that says, “whatever you think you need for a secure sense of identity, let’s take it away.” All of it…yeah, that too! But in return you are rewarded with a richer, more fuller life. As a Sun/Moon Scorp and Cap rising, our relationship has been, at the very least, up-close and personal. Pluto always let me know when my control issues were limiting my full expression. Talk about being brought to my knees…more than once…okay, a lot!
I think many forget that Pluto is really quite encouraging. When we offer ourselves to the greater good, no matter how small the step, he’s right there working with us. And are not all precious stones and metals that lie beneath the surface under his province?
Thanks again Len…I so look forward to your contributions.
What a beautiful, vivid picture Len. Thank you. My Gemini friend is ready to snap because she wants me (Scorpio) to leave. I am telling her tonight that I will be leaving at the end of next month. Problem solved, tension gone, preventative medicine.
We are having a really intense wind storm here right now. Huge dust clouds that I have never seen in this area before.
I wrote this poem possibly late 80’s as I was negotiating my way through a therapeutic process that included reclaiming the the memory I had repressed: abuse and sexual abuse from my father.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE
Ghostly, half-formed
thing,
Made of death and shit,
curling round my
being choking off its
light.
Shape unseen till
ripped off
shell of clay clunking
along after me formed
on my image.
Unable to live or die
How to say hello
goodbye to new
fledgling, sad deformity.
I think I was in the onset of my Saturn return at that time. One of the memories I reclaimed was of a near death experience, partial asphyxiation during a sex abuse incident as a toddler. This poem reflects the way I felt about myself during that therapeutic process, raw and bloody, but there is a hopeful aspect too, that the fledgling cracked the shell and finally, now had the chance to develop and grow strong. And reporting in 20 years later or so, I can say that my wings are strong and I have a gentle and steady tailwind.
Wow Len! This is just stunning. So much to take in all at once, will have to read and re-read it. Goes very deep – right to the spot, thank you so very much.