Soul, Form and Fear: New Moon square Pluto

Medillin, Colombia. Photo by Nicole Hanhan. www.facebook.com/NicoleHanhanPhotos

Today is Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011. Today the Moon is new in Libra at about 7:09 am EDT. This conjunction of the Sun and Moon has some serious company. Not only are there four other planets in Libra, but the Sun and Moon plus Mercury are making a square to Pluto in Capricorn.

This aspect indicates a potent turning point of some kind; you could say it’s got an ominous feeling, though there is also a sense of clarity about this chart, something focused and with clear intention. This could manifest many ways, personally and as a collective event. Remember, it’s sitting right opposite the Aries Point, where there is currently a planet — Uranus, which is about surprises and inventions. So there’s some psychic tension in this aspect, and it would be fair enough to get the feeling that something big is brewing. If you’ve noticed a more-pervasive-than-usual sense of anxiety or doom in the air, this aspect structure illustrates the feeling. If you’ve noticed that you’re feeling like you can actually make decisions, it’s the same picture.

Yes, fear is pervasive in our cultural messages anyway. Pluto in Capricorn has been shaking our social, cultural and institutional foundations for a couple years now. And Pluto in general, for many people, carries a feeling of what they think of as imminent death: the fear of change, of surrender, of anything compelling.

So why is this heightened now?

For one thing, having the Sun and Moon together in a perfect square to Pluto is shining the light of the solar system onto the planet known as ‘the irresistible force’. Irresistible force has a ring of inevitability to it; and that feels like one is powerless to do anything about it — that is, except dance with the idea and ultimately the experience. Culturally, we’re not trained to see powerlessness as a comfortable place. We struggle with surrender and tell ourselves stories about how in control we are, how decisive and independent and goal-oriented we are. But ultimately we are powerless against death, despite all the ways we can put it off, make it nicer or mold our conceptions of it.

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