Blowing Hot and Cool

By Len Wallick

Today the Sun conjoins with Pluto, which will be the main subject of today’s blog. We will also take a look at what retrograde Mercury and the Moon are up to.

The Sun-Pluto conjunction has been taking place in Capricorn since December of 2008. That pattern will continue until January of 2024. Every year the surrounding context will be a bit different. Let’s break it down from the general and proceed to examine the specifics of today’s aspect.

Capricorn is not only a cardinal sign but the last in a solar cycle of four. This is a serious sort of energy: make something happen, get things done, bring ideas to form, all of it with a public and collective syntax. The ruler of Capricorn is Saturn, an inter-personal planet closely associated with social order as defined by practical principles of limitation determining structure and role.

The Sun represents the aware, conscious self and its vital, willful expression. As the center of our solar system and the dominant presence in our sky, it is associated with life energy and identifying principles. In Capricorn, Sol is not exalted, nor is it in detriment or fall. The greater luminary can, however, be said to find itself in sympathy with the sign because ingress there represents a defining limit in its annual cycle of apparent movement. It is this sympathy which in turn places the Capricorn Sun in a notable disposition to the influence of Saturn. That’s how the serious nature of the energy comes about.

With Pluto in the mix the synchronization can go either way. The imperative to get things done can lose sight of goals and become compulsive. The desire to make things happen can denigrate to the insidious need to control everything that happens. The public expression of a collective purpose can shift to an intense self-involvement focused on controlling others. Such is the problematic polarizing potential of Pluto’s merger with the Sun in Capricorn. Thankfully, there is also the possibility of more creative and productive outcomes.

The intense focus of Pluto can be harnessed towards reorienting how solar Capricorn’s serious objectives are attained. If we can steer away from magnified self-involvement and towards self-awareness, this may become a time to discover how less can indeed be more. New efficiencies are available for discovery. Cooperation can be successfully secured if others are encouraged by the potential for common gain. There can be a transformation of public relationships gone stale, and a recovery of common, organized and/or institutional purpose. This serves to make everyone feel refreshed and newly motivated regardless of role or position. This is where each of can make a difference.

Astrology can help by making us aware of the synchronicity we may expect to encounter any given day. Only we as individuals, however, can place that awareness into our own lives and be present to it. As we encounter the particulars we perceive we have a choice to either react reflexively or respond thoughtfully. Admittedly, dealing with a highly charged aspect right after a busy holiday weekend can be a challenge. There will be a temptation to yield to the flow rather than find the energy to influence it. We may find assistance in our perspective, and perhaps even in finding the necessary energy if we look back at two related astrological events.

Six months ago on June 26 we had a lunar eclipse that transformed the cardinal T-square into a cardinal grand cross. Remember? Jupiter and Uranus were, of course, in a powerful and close opposition to Saturn along the Aries-Libra axis, but it was the other cardinal alignment that we refer to today. At the time the Sun was opposed to the Moon, Luna was also very tightly conjoined with Pluto. In addition to being a Full Moon, the complex event also included what amounts to a Full Pluto.

Just as the monthly opposition of luminaries gradually wanes to become a New Moon, so today can be considered our New Pluto. We can therefore approach today’s Capricorn conjunction as the beginning a new cycle. We can avail ourselves of the opportunity to conclude what may have transpired in the previous six months since that cardinal grand cross and concurrent lunar eclipse. That would include the much more recent conjunction of Mars to Pluto. That should be easier to recall, having taken place just two weeks ago. Retrograde Mercury joined the conjunction by backing through as if to collide with both, and combined with the Moon in cardinal square aspect from Aries, gave us a taste of today’s more adverse potential.

It is therefore poetically auspicious that both Mercury and the Moon should have a role to play today as well. To understand that we need to look at some matters of timing. In most cases, a conjunction between Sol and any planet can be considered functional for at least a full day, perhaps two on either side of its precision. The apparent motion of the Moon, however, is much faster than the greater luminary or any of its satellites. That’s how it becomes important to mention that, for most of you reading this, the Sun-Pluto opposition was in fact exact sometime yesterday evening remaining to the same degree all day today.

At the time of that exactitude, the Virgo Moon was in a short-lived T-square of its own that left behind an artifact that will likewise be to the same degree as well. That T-square involved Luna’s opposition to its hypothetical counterpart, Black Moon Lilith — otherwise commonly known as the mean lunar apogee — in Pisces. The third object in the “T”, lending its square aspect to the other two, was retrograde Mercury, rapidly slowing down in Sagittarius as it prepares to station direct on Thursday.

As the day progresses and the Sun-Pluto conjunction continues in full force so does the separation between the mean lunar apogee and Mercury remain 90 to the degree. Meantime, the Moon gallivants on to other relationships, most of them awkward. All of this would seem to ramp up the challenge of the day just a bit by pulling the focus away from cooperation and innovation and back towards the perception that our egos are at stake in struggles for power.

While their opposition is functional, the emotionally charged nature of both the Moon and its darker, hypothetical counterpart can function as a distraction of a longer term trend. Your faithful correspondent has offered the observation that a long-term, big picture of our current astrology is the emerging eminence of the creative feminine. This creativity derives from and depends upon mutual reciprocation and respect between the two sides of the feminine principal. On one side there is the receptive nature so long associated with yin — an expression mistakenly taken as tamed from the male supremacist point of view. On the other side there is the less familiar and more often suppressed expression just as mistakenly taken as wild — perhaps because the increasingly obsolescent patriarchal tradition of human society finds itself in conflict with matrilinear societies — such as that of wolves.

In temporary tension with both sides of the feminine principal, the mind as represented by Mercury is seeking internal resolution. More than its mental qualities however, it is that planet’s direction and placement that can give us the best and most effective clue of how to approach today’s astrology. As much as a square aspect calls for action, retrograde implores reflection. When we consider that Old Fleet Foot is still retrograde in spiritual Sagittarius, neatly positioned between the humbling mysteries of our Galactic Core and the Great Attractor, a more reflective, less active approach may be more likely to carry the day.

This does not mean that we should be passive and surrender our power to the recklessly reactive and aggressively insecure who will no doubt confront us today. What it does mean is that we would not be favored by yielding to reflex and responding in kind. It would be more appropriate to divest ourselves of attachment to short-term outcome. Instead, we can recognizing that we can avail ourselves of the ambient energy to do the necessary work that does the most good and where we have the only real control — within ourselves. It is possible to tell ourselves that this too will pass without being passive. It is is indeed a viable alternative to let it be and still do good and powerful work.

It is humbly proposed we approach the day by standing firmly in our highest selves. Not seeking to correct or direct others, often against their will, we are liberated to step back for a wider view and step forward on our best foot, encountering one or many. When it comes right down to it, we can’t ethically do anything about the other fellow. What we can and must do is take responsibility for ourselves. Not as a burden, but as a source of affirmation and even joy.

For it is self affirmation that makes it possible to receive the same from others and it is in being the best we can be that delivers the only real source of lasting happiness. This will not be easy. All or most of us may err in one way or another. But do not allow any such error to provoke regret or deter you. The universe is created with every moment and you are a part of that continuity.

Think of it as a jazz solo. Even the most skilled musician in the most inspired improvisation may happen to play a note or phrase that is not a perfect fit in the group composition. Whether that happens or not is not an indication of that performer’s proficiency. The true measure of a musician’s greatness is the ability to accept and even utilize what just happened and go on in the rhythm uninterrupted and undeterred, allowing the incident to enhance the remaining measures for unexpected and surprising creative achievement. Sisters and brothers, let it go and just blow. You will be the cooler for it.

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