Today, we will go straight into redefining Pluto, followed by a breakdown of the Full Moon Eclipse. The following section on Pluto is an excerpt from my book, Astrology as a Spiritual Path, slightly condensed.

Redefining Pluto with a Fresh Perspective

When one begins to seek to understand the astrological meaning of Pluto, one will immediately discover keywords such as Lord of the Underworld, the process of transformation, endings and beginnings, spiritual growth, renewal and rebirth, an obsessive need for power and control, obsession with death, and tendencies toward self-destruction.

Beyond that, I have come to regard all the outer planets as representing a particular type of transformational process in one’s consciousness. This requires that I understand in what way Pluto’s process is distinct from that of Uranus and Neptune.

It takes 248 years for Pluto to make just one orbit around our Sun. This means Pluto moves very slowly and does not transit all the signs and houses of an individual’s natal chart during one’s lifetime. Thus, one cannot get a good personal sample of Pluto’s effects until a major transit occurs in their life. In many respects, each person experiences some level of change every day, so the nature of Pluto must be tremendously different from that type of change.

Inner Motivations and the Unconscious

There is a question I would ask to open the door to revealing the nature of Pluto. How much do you know about your deepest inner motivations, drives, desires, needs, etc.?

Further, how much time do you spend wondering about the question I just asked? The next question one might ponder is how much of one’s personal motivations and needs are just one’s own, as distinct from those drives that are simply part of the human experience.

Consider that the nature of our real consciousness is analogous to an iceberg, where one can only see a very small portion of the whole at the tip, while hiding below is a huge, mysterious mass that supports the entire system. The word “system” suggests there are principles that control how and when the submerged aspects of our consciousness emerge.

Oftentimes in society, these forces rise from the depths in uncontrolled ways due to the degree to which the real forces controlling it are ignored, denied, and avoided. Of course, the same is true for the individual, though it is the individual who may have some degree of control, not over these forces, but over one’s willingness to confront them, if one is willing to make a conscious effort.

Pluto’s Process of Amplification and Intensity

How does the process of moving the unconscious into consciousness actually work? The answer is our first helpful concept for understanding how Pluto operates. It is the principle of amplification and/or intensification. That is Pluto’s way.

When a person is conscious of a tendency within themselves, and especially if this is integrated into one’s awareness, no pressure builds up. Life goes on, and this aspect is used as part of how one handles their life. But if an aspect of one’s psyche is repressed, denied, and avoided, something entirely different occurs.

Energy, psychic or otherwise, does not go away just because one wants it to. In fact, the opposite is true. The greater the repression, the greater the subliminal pressures build up until finally, a point of explosion, and even destruction, becomes inevitable. Pluto represents the process of moving the unconscious contents of one’s psyche into consciousness, whether peacefully or violently.

Pluto seems to be quite neutral about this.

Facing Pluto’s Depths

Astrologers associate dreams with Neptune, but I wonder if their use by us may be considered Plutonic in that as we understand the relationship between the nature of the particular dream and our conscious psyche, we can become conscious of the buried parts of ourselves, allowing us to begin to integrate them.

This relieves the pressure and reduces the tendency for this content to come out in negative ways, such as war, insurrection, uncontrollable rage, murder, abuse, or forms of depression, addictions, or anxiety. This is why depth psychology is often associated with the Plutonic process.

Strength of a certain kind must be developed if one is to face the depths within one’s psyche. It must be real, honest, and humble. It is not compensatory, nor reactive. However, this type of strength can only be built by making the effort to be willing to see those very responses.

In other words, one must be willing to observe, as impartially as possible, all that one sees and experiences, especially one’s reactivity, bravado, and defensiveness, and keep pursuing the truth of what is emerging. This generates the heat that can create an integrated self. Living with that heat—not trying to control it, when possible—amplifies the heat, and while it asks us to be strong, it also shows the way to gaining true strength.

I mention strength because we must understand why Pluto’s negative manifestations are associated with authoritarianism, tyranny, dictatorship, organized crime, large powerful systems, and the oligarchy. These very destructive sides of Pluto reflect weakness, not strength. Only a small, insecure ego would want this kind of power, as it reflects the need to be propped up by external notions of control and power. One is constantly needing to prove oneself and gain control over others.

Might we conclude that people who are not in touch with their soul will be power-hungry because they are not tapping into the divine source of power? The ego cannot recognize genuine power when it is not perceived as being one’s own.

From Pluto’s perspective, real power is not determined from without and certainly does not need validation from others. In fact, it can show us that power is not ours at all. It isn’t personal in the small ego sense. It can never be that. Power that is truly creative is a function of being in alignment with our own soul, which we are here to birth.

Thus, Plutonic processes push us toward recognizing the nature of the small ego so that it can be released and begin to disappear. Only then can the alignment with soul begin to develop. We must learn for ourselves that true power is never one’s own power… but if we are aligned with it, Power is.

Our work is not to gain power, nor is it to submit to it either. It is to constantly release all the false narratives, triggers, excuses, and self-loathing that can cause us to seek power as compensation for perceived weaknesses, inadequacies, and victimhood. This process of discovery is what I am referring to as the pursuit of truth, which must be realized in order for the considerations and beliefs that interfere with our deepest soul nature to be destroyed.

There is something one can do to enhance one’s willingness to impartially observe whatever contents of one’s unconscious one discovers. It is simple to express, but there may be resistance to doing it. It is to recognize that the deeper one goes into the unconscious, the more one discovers humanity’s underworld. It is not nearly as personal as we tend to make it. It is not our personal psychological repressions per se.

To encounter one’s own underworld is to come into contact with what it is to be human, with its biological, psychological, sociological, and historical set of instincts and conditioning. In other words, this level of the unconscious is what binds us to the past and to time itself.

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The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse

Sun at 25° Virgo Opposing Moon at 25° Pisces on September 17, 2024

By Jim Sher

Every six months, there is both a Solar and Lunar eclipse, but the nature of these is different. The Solar eclipse is a New Moon and often produces new and sometimes significant shifts in our lives. I have thought of this type of eclipse as an “inertia buster,” forcing us to make changes in our lives that can be difficult.

By contrast, yesterday's Lunar eclipse was a Full Moon where the Earth passes between the Sun and Moon, causing the Moon to appear darkened and reddish. This particular Full Moon took place on Tuesday, September 17th, at 7:34 pm PDT. Additionally, this Lunar eclipse is a Supermoon, which occurs when the Moon is at or near its closest distance to Earth, thereby affecting us even more intensely than usual.

The best way to understand a Lunar eclipse is that the emotions we are feeling are much more amplified than usual, affecting the part of our chart where the eclipse takes place. This Lunar eclipse occurs with the Sun at 25° Virgo opposing the Moon at 25° Pisces, which is conjunct Neptune. Additionally, it is squaring Jupiter at 20° Gemini and trining Uranus at 27° Taurus.

This combination is quite complicated and is not easy to describe simply, but knowing that a Full Moon is an opposition can give us an idea of what it might bring up for us. With the Sun in Virgo, there is a tendency to focus on details, analysis, and logic. One seeks to break things down into logical order. However, with the Moon and Neptune in Pisces, feelings and emotions are amplified and can be diffuse and confusing. One absorbs one’s environment in such an unfiltered way that it can feel overwhelming. Feeling and logic are likely to be at odds with each other during this time, as both are intensified simultaneously.

How might we handle this period? The answer, of course, depends on one’s own natal chart and how we approach dealing with the internal conflicts between mind and heart. Oftentimes, it is best to take whatever time is needed to rest, contemplate, and allow the tension inherent in the opposition to be felt and processed. Logic alone will not work now. One must simply feel what one is feeling and let that tension produce a synthesis. This cannot be done by force or by trying to convince oneself not to feel a certain way. The best approach is to observe what we’re feeling as impartially as possible, without trying to change anything. Whatever we are feeling cannot be changed by the conscious mind, but the experience itself can be transforming—paradoxically, through its very intensity. Observing and feeling what we are going through can itself bring us out of conflict. We are changed by the experience. We might think this is not enough, that we should do more, but that is just the mind running its program. To observe and feel impartially is enough, as it is all we can do. When the Full Moon passes, we will be able to process what has happened more clearly and feel the relief caused by the experience itself.

Symbolism of Sagittarius – The Archer

By Kimberly Maxwell

Sagittarius, Latin for Archer, is symbolized by a half human and half horse Centaur aiming its bow and arrow towards the heart of the cosmos. The Sagittarius glyph represents the arrow poised in the bow’s string, aimed and ready. The Archer and the Centaur are powerful archetypes embedded in our consciousness since ancient days. The Centaur represents the potential unification of the animal and the divine in human nature, capable of reaching spiritual maturity. When egoless, the archer becomes one with its target, aided by unseen forces piercing space and time with perception, insight and love.

This dramatic tension, fundamental to the individuation process, strongly correlates with Sagittarius which seeks to expand consciousness through exploration, philosophy, intuition, advanced study all of which can lead to the attaining of wisdom. Its ruler, Jupiter, infuses the Sagittarian pursuit of truth with an underlying optimism. Sagittarius, a fire sign, burns with inspired attention on contemplating and transmitting knowledge to the world in direct and unwavering ways.

Yet there is an underlying challenge for Sagittarius in dealing with the world of abstract ideas. On one hand a culture must create laws in order to develop a society of fairness and justice, but on the other, it can enact too many laws at the expense of the individual. Sagittarius grows by learning how to balance these opposing forces.

Transpersonal Astrology teaches us that the impersonal nature of universal principles must always reach the core of an individual’s daily life if it is to be effective and spiritually relevant. The arrow’s unbroken path from the heart of the Archer to the heart of the cosmos suggests the unification of universal and individual needs. Dane Rudhyar considers the gift of the Sagittarius to be “the art of living together.” When mastered one might experience the Divine singing at the core of all human relationships.

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