There’s a lot of “fake news” about astrology. Daily horoscopes have tickled the imagination of many, but they skim the surface. They’re sort of like make-up – it can enhance an image, or at least call attention to itself, but it’s superficial. Astrology is the science of Mystery and one can only know its value by moving into its depths.
For thousands of years humanity has sought knowledge, evolving from a tribal into a feudal/agricultural society, on through a scientific/industrial phase to our current information age. Science has gradually replaced Faith as our paradigm. (A paradigm is a system of beliefs that explains reality.) Faith, of course, didn’t die out, it just was no longer our primary focus.
Science is wonderful, but it has consequences. We’ve become so fascinated with shiny objects that we’ve lost our connection to Soul and Spirit. We have lost our sense of wonder, our awareness of the sacredness of life. We’ve lost our depth. We are separate from our source. That brings us to Astrology – it can lead us back into our own depths where meaning exists, where we can apprehend the bigger picture, where we are amazed at the workings of Great Mystery, where we know who we really are and what we came here to do.
How does Astrology work? First of all Astrology doesn’t work. We do. It’s like asking how does a book work? It works by stimulating your mind to think, to question, to wonder. It helps you learn something.
How do we know what it means? Again, we don’t. It means different things to different people. Astrology is not a science of facts. It’s an Art of perception.
How do we know it’s true? Through experience.
Astrologers have an inherited vocabulary built up over millennia. It arose from astronomy, was clarified with observation, enhanced by myth and “proved” by experience. Astrologers have gathered data, watched the heavens, noted the synchronicities with earthly events.
Anyone can do it. You get out of it what you put in. I’ve studied Astrology since 1977. The more time I spend with it, the more there is to learn. It’s a thread we can follow into the depths of our psyches where our divinity lies.
So let’s dive in. I’m going to introduce you to some archetypes at work in our solar system that mirror and inform what is going on here on Earth, beginning with the “leading man,” Pluto.
Pluto was discovered on February 18, 1930 at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona by astronomer Clyde W. Tombaugh.
Think of the 1930’s. America was in the Great Depression. While millionaires were leaping out of windows, the poor were standing in bread lines for a scrap of sustenance. Unemployment was up to 25% by 1933. Our fertile soil had dried up and was blowing away. People were abandoning the land and heading for the cities. We were recovering from the most devastating war in our history. 37 million people dead! Followed by the worst flu epidemic which killed between 50 and 100 million more! While we didn’t know it, we were headed for a second holocaust. Scientists were already developing nuclear energy which would bring WWII to an explosive end.
You can see how astrologers began to associate Pluto with catastrophe. On the surface, things were looking pretty grim back when Pluto came on the scene. But a second current was flowing, unseen, beneath the surface. Freud was digging deeper into human consciousness, discovering the subconscious, questioning human behavior and motivation. Jung was looking further, into the unconscious, following the crumbs of mystery and developing theories of symbolism, archetypes and synchronicity, which is similar to coincidence – events, ideas, experiences happening concurrently – but linked to one another in a new way, not by cause and effect, but by symbolic significance. This is how Astrology informs us.
While the nightmare was unfolding, the solution was welling up from the depths of consciousness. Yes, the solution to all our problems lies in consciousness. We can’t look outside ourselves for someone to save us, although it is evident we hope for that. Think of the explosion of Superhero movies in recent years. We can’t legislate it, especially since we can’t agree. We can’t rely on anyone outside ourselves to do the work because the problem lies within, not “out there.”
Pluto has many faces and functions in both the personal and collective realms, but the overall theme is transformation. Pluto is an agent of change. I don’t mean that Pluto causes change. Evolution is the source of that. Pluto provides the fuel.
Think of planets as energy conductors. Each has its own specific energy. Mars is aggressive. Mercury is mental. As they circle our solar system, planets move through the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which is the group of constellations that lie within the apparent path of the sun. I say apparent, because it’s the heavens from our point of view on Earth.
The signs modify and qualify the energy of the planets. Center stage on the Zodiac right now is Capricorn. Pluto, Chariklo and Saturn, the south nodes of the moon as well as the south nodes of Pluto and Saturn, are all converging on one point. In December, Jupiter joins the party. We are building toward a climax of conjunctions next year, the first of which happens when Saturn joins Pluto on January 12, 2020. It would be good to get our house in order before then.
I will explain all those terms in upcoming chapters. First let’s take a closer look at Pluto, the smallest, and yet the most powerful of energetic influences. Please understand that energy bathes our planet from every object in the universe. Scientists have determined that 95% of the universe is invisible and comprised of energy.
Planetary energy is available to us, just like radio waves. We can turn on the receiver and tune in to the frequency. We do it with attention and intention.
Pluto shows us what is dying and what is being born, what needs to change, what needs to evolve. Pluto is delivering the energy of transformation. Think of the metamorphosis of a butterfly. It lays its eggs. They hatch into caterpillars which eat their way to plumpness and at some unseen chemical prompt, build a cocoon and hibernate for 6 months. When they emerge the following spring, they are butterflies. They can fly! What happens in that cocoon to cause such a miraculous transformation? First the old form dissolves. The caterpillar becomes green goo. The rest is a great mystery. Notice that it is a cyclical process.
America, and the rest of the world, is entering a green goo stage. The old forms, structures and institutions are dissolving to make way for new form. We don’t know what the future will bring. We can’t see the finished product. We can’t control it. We just have to go through it. How can we affect the outcome? With our consciousness – each of us, individually, allowing the transformation to take place within us – consciously. We’ll explore this thoroughly in future posts.
Next time we’ll look at the mythology of Pluto and how he operates in our lives. And we’ll discuss the qualities of Capricorn energy. It’s about mastery – another gift from the heavens.
[…] where Pluto comes in. Here’s an excerpt from a previous post. (You might want to learn more about Pluto from the original post, Chapter One of my series “What’s Going […]