Something Else – Sun Conjoins Pluto

Reminder: The Daily Astrology feature is off for the holiday today. It will be back at 12:01 am EST tomorrow, Tuesday Dec. 27. – amanda

Pluto is now becoming something else.
— Juan Revilla (in 1999)

After renewing its cycle with a New Moon over the holiday weekend, Luna enters Aquarius today, hinting that we have recently embarked upon something more than just a new season. Later this week, Sun will function to broaden that hint by conjoining Pluto in Capricorn. The solar conjunction with Pluto is a very nearly annual event, its date slowly advancing through the years. As such, it symbolizes the growing discrepancy between the slow advance of human consciousness and the rapid pace of human events.

We are on the threshold of a new year that will reveal the depth of that incongruity and compel us to catch up. We can start by allowing the light of awareness to shine where Pluto lives in each of us, and realize that we, like Pluto, are now in the process of becoming something else.

Our knowledge of Pluto’s existence was made possible because astronomy became something else. It was discovered in 1930 by indirect observation. Nearly everyone at the time envisioned astronomers squinting through an eyepiece. Some still do. In fact, the process had transformed. By the early 20h century, scientists were comparing photographs, lots of them, detecting new objects in the solar system by their motion against a field of distant stars. The idea that Pluto’s discovery symbolized the creative potential of transformation was lost on most people, however. Maybe it was the fear.

Long before the 20th Century, the quest for knowledge had encountered the fear of change. From Galileo to Darwin, that fear obscured the fact that science changes nothing except awareness. Thus a great divide developed between consciousness as a value and pre-conception as a cause. Somehow, the perception of planet Pluto got caught up in that divide. Maybe it was the name.

In mythology, Pluto was ruler of the underworld, realm of the dead. Living as we are in what Eric Francis has called “the Era of the 8th House” is characterized by an aversion to and avoidance of death, and, not incidentally, sex. Politicians exploit the aversion by provoking fear. Pharmaceutical companies leverage the avoidance by selling pills. In the meantime, our social structures strain to keep actual sex and death out of sight, whisking it away or making it a commodity. All of that machination tends to keep us out of contact with how we all got here and how we all leave. Maybe astrology can help.

Actually, it took decades for astrology to avail itself of Pluto. Its ephemeris was not included with that of other planets until the late 1970s. By that time, the commodified and mythically influenced version of the archetype had overwhelmed any perception based on the actual discovery of the actual planet. If there is one thing that every astrologer’s interpretation of Pluto can agree on, however, it is the fact that its energy will not be deterred. In spite, or perhaps because of every effort to make Pluto go away, it is continuously being discovered.

Beginning in the 1980s, intrepid and visionary astrologers such as Jeff Green and Steven Forrest devoted entire tomes to divest Pluto as a symbol from trivial contrivance, lending additional depth and validity to our own existence in the bargain. On the other side of the fence, every effort of astronomy’s established order to demote or ‘kill’ Pluto is inevitably followed by a discovery or observation that reveals something else we didn’t know. Next year begins the long series of cardinal point squares from Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn, what Eric has referred to as “the defining aspect of our era in history.” We are part of that history, and included among that being defined. That’s because Pluto lives in each one of us.

The living Pluto in each of us is the sure and certain knowledge of our purpose for being here, on this planet, in this body, at this time. It is also the understanding of how we must inevitably depart. Concealed but not destroyed by shame, fear, attachment and distraction, that knowledge and understanding remains within, waiting to be discovered. As was the case with the distant object we call Pluto, the inner discovery will require a new way of seeing. That is where the transformation begins. This week, let the Sun shine in and allow yourself to find something else.

Offered In Service

8 thoughts on “Something Else – Sun Conjoins Pluto”

  1. Hugging, KathyC, Burning and aword: Thank you for your kind words.

    Kelly: Yes, anything less than a book is skimming the surface as regards to Pluto. Because the discoveries keep rolling in (see today’s latest discovery link in the post below) even a book soon becomes obsolete. Hopefully, there is enough in today’s blog for you to make your own discovery of the Pluto within.

    be: Thank you once again for helping us connect the dots to a wider, deeper vista of perspective.

  3. Twenty months ago the Sun was trining Pluto as we watched in disbelief while the oil gushed from under the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Talk about “an adversion to and avoidence of”, nobody wanted to think of or see the death of animals and birds, not to mention the lost incomes of the families living along the coast. Back then the bogey man was the Uranus opposed Saturn aspect. Chiron had just entered Pisces, the Sun was just into Taurus and Ceres was almost conjunct Pluto. Uranus was at 28 Pisces and Neptune was at 29 Aquarius.

    This month the government auctioned off oil-drilling leases in New Orleans and the Bayou Companies was awarded a contract to “coat approximately 80 miles of 16 inch and 18 inch diameter oil and gas pipelines for the Shell Mars B deep water development. Environmental groups have challenged this action.

    Now Chiron is back to early Pisces where he was in late April, 2010, and this time he is with Vesta, representing investments. And this time it is Jupiter, just direct yesterday, who is at the beginning of Taurus and trine Pluto; where the Sun was at the time of the disaster. In January Ceres will be at 28 Pisces where Uranus was 20 months ago and Neptune will once again be at 29 Aquarius. This time the bogey man is Uranus square Pluto, and mid Janury Ceres will be leaving Pisces to conjunct Uranus.

    It’s not just that women can be fickle; there is a message Ceres is trying to get us to become conscious of. Fear of change is not an option. Perhaps Uranus will be the way we learn, if it’s not too late.
    be

  4. Len
    Have you skimmed the surface on this subject? I feel hungry for more. Or, perhaps it’s just my inner Pluto waking up…mmm.
    My best wishes

  5. Len,

    As always, you give me something marvel-ous to consider. Pluto’s calling to me has become quite loud and clear over the past 6 months or more. Thank you for another synchronous artlcle.

    Your discussion today has given new life to my recent attempts to discovery more about Pluto and Eris in my natal chart. (that is, my Eris/Moon conjunction and my Sun/Pluto opposition. The connection being the well-observed contemporary story about the naming of Eris and “demoting” Pluto) With Sun captive in intercepted 8th house, I’m One with your today’s article!

    (A bit of a wide orb, but I believe I’m within range to claim a Quincunx from Moon/Eris to Pluto. With Chaos at the Party in Aries along with Moon/Eris- why not? The more tension at the table, the more growth, right?!)

    I have pulled these two of your thoughts for immediate further contemplation:

    “Pluto’s discovery symbolized the creative potential of transformation” and
    “Thus a great divide developed between consciousness as a value and pre-conception as a cause”

    Thank you and thank you again with Love,
    Linda

  6. Dear Wordsmith Wallick–this “Pluto post” is a balm to my intense and weary soul. How well you open doors of thought and reality for us each to explore further the mystery of ourselves as we live with others on this beautiful beautiful planet. To obscure Pluto, sex and death is a losing battle is it not? How wonderful.
    An amazing Uranian jolt of a surprise occurred for me this past month. I was (with family menbers) clearing out the old, beloved family home, and my original birth cerrificate surfaced (I had been always been working from a “copy”.)
    My birth was one hour sooner than the one I have been using for my astrological chart. Pluto is not “just” in my 12th house. Instead it is ON my ascendent. 11 degrees Leo to my 12 degree ascendnt. It really explains to me my constant consciousness of death. Not in a fearful way, just as a fact of life. As “where I am headed” but without urgency, desire or fear. Just the facts, Ma’am.
    And oh yes, Sex. How real, how alive, how present Pluto has kept me to myself and this planet as I learned the maze for my particular challenges and pleasures. It also speaks of the violence toward me that I have experienced.
    Unchangingly and unchanged I admire and look forward to your posts. Thank you, respectfully and with love. (((Len)))

  8. Thanks Len! I love your words on this aspect and conjunction. I was thinking just yesterday as Jupiter was stationing, that I (or anyone doing deep psychological healing) have come so far in actualizing many dormant aspects of myself, and that I feel really good for the first time in many years. That has to count for something. Sure it’s my karma to work out, my path in using tools to fix and correct my life and bring awareness to it. But it’s like repairing a broken vehicle: we do it to go the next leg of the journey, to finally use our creative and compassionate abilities in some direct and tangible expression of our full (or fuller) potential. I have no idea what’s next or if I’ve made mistakes. I simply know that the direction I’m going feels good. I’m having to face a crap load of guilt and patterns which surface as a result, but I feel empowered nonetheless. That is perhaps the gift of Pluto. It is a key to a multidimensional aspect of ourselves, where we become energized by the activation of every aspect of our psyche. I’m a bit scared of that kind of self power, but not unworthy.

    And as you said, “Pluto lives in each of us”, it’s power goes a long way and checking in with it maybe in small doses but consistently will feel empowering rather than traumatizing. Your last paragraph is simply perfect Len! I love it.

    Happy Post Traumatic Christmas Overeating Day! 😛
    HS

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