My will is simply that which comes to pass. For I esteem what God wills better than what I will. To Him will I cleave as His minister and attendant; having the same movements, the same desires, in a word the same will as He.
— Epictetus
I have this posted on my refrigerator door. On it I wrote, “Love and kisses, Hades”. The full moon coming on the 13th of October is square to Pluto as he goes direct. Pluto has been opposite my sun in both charts for some time now, 2008 to 2022. This motion is most welcome. Everything interacts with me in conformity with my beliefs about myself. Understanding myself is paramount if this is capital ‘t’ True. Especially with Pluto dredging up my shadow.
I have identified with my limitation. I will prove I am free. You probably won’t like it.
The possibility of advance depends solely upon getting out of the identified state. Full gestalt shift required. If Persephone went willingly into the Underworld for love of Hades (Pluto) it was because she knew herself to be more than life with her mommy had allowed. She looked into the abyss and thought, “I could rule this realm and I kinda dig this guy. Let’s see how it goes.”
What if her separate self/ego and her larger Self were in accord? What if she made a balanced choice? Psychic integration is possible here and in the story. Consciousness realizes itself as a separate personality, an incomplete and manufactured identity then yearns for the return to it’s unknown, unknowable Self. It becomes a conscious, unstoppable striving for Self realization or knowing intimately what one is meant to be beyond the binding ego identity.
The realm of the transcendent being cannot exclude suffering. It includes everything AND nothing. Being that big requires capacity and developing capacity HURTS. It reveals the unspeakable which cannot be told or rationally apprehended because it is alive. It is the very foundation of life and existence and EVERYTHING so it cannot be identified by concepts. And you and I are that very something (when we are not creating stories).
We spend our whole lives creating strategies to keep what we want and get rid of what we don’t. It doesn’t work. What is disowned comes back to haunt us and what we want leaves. The disillusionment gives us the possibility to examine the truth (both Ts). There is nothing going on in the world that is not a reflection of mind and there is nothing in the mind that is not happening in the world.
What if it’s all one self? What if I am willing to see all the horror and beauty that happens here and see what remains untouched by it. What is eternal? What if the forms and the faces change, but my perception remains? What if I see myself in all of it and none of it too? Like Persephone did when she took Hades hand . . .
My internal script of identity may be holding me back but there’s an opportunity for freedom in Virgo’s precision (not perfection) and Pluto’s core of power to innerstand the transformation. Is there an “other” out there? Can I liberate my ideas about myself and the world in the stillness and silence of my open heart? Can I stand more?
Can I become this silent awareness and realize that the thoughts I have about myself and this ‘real’ world itself appear within me? Can I resolve the duality and end the war by ending my addiction to mind and to the outside world? What if I don’t believe anything for just a minute and simply realize I am the language that is the world? It may be as simple as expanding out of contraction, relaxing constriction, inhaling and exhaling.
Sidereal Chart
In the Vedic chart all of the personal planets are in Virgo. Pluto is opposite the sun in this chart. It represents issues like intimacy, trust, boundaries and letting go into total personal transformation. Virgo says it might be good to ask if we are getting good results in self-purification, rituals, habits and attitude toward work. What should change in our daily grind? Imana go ahead and say a personal review of everyday habits regarding relationships could be timely. They could be more effectively dealt with for the next month.
Saturn squares Chiron in this chart (the Vedics don’t do asteroids, but I do because this one is a healer (see all the previous posts on Chiron)). Saturn rewards hard work, achievement and commitment with regard to health. It’s complicated by its 12th house placement, the house of collective unconsciousness, self transcendence and sacrifice, seclusion and introspection. This is not even part of the conversation in our world. That is one reason why I write this blog. We are being lived by forces we pretend to understand, maybe these planetary influences are part of this. Could be complicating or slowing down healing. Dunno. Trying to see.
Mars squares Jupiter in the 8th house which is ruled by Pluto and is concerned with crisis, emotional and sexual union, regeneration, mystery and spirit. These things are often not part of the conversation of our world either (is there a conversation? Dunno. Trying to start one). I think this will expand the screaming match around the planetary crisis and climate understanding exponentially. That’s already happening, but it might get personal, mysterious and we may come together over it. Or get further apart.
Mercury is square the sun and the MC, opposite the Ascendant (zero Aries) and trine Mars. Eeep. It might be prudent to be very careful with personal communication just now. Mercury represents the mind — the link between spirit and matter, between soul and personality. It’s interpretation, intelligence, pattern recognition and fact gathering. Let’s hope it’s positive qualities; being adaptable, intellectual, attentive, clever and versatile win the day here. We want to be aware of becoming hypercritical, cynical, argumentative and sarcastic if we can and catch it before utterance. Small chance this will happen on the world stage before the winged messenger enters Libra.
Tropical Chart
In the tropical chart all of the personal planets are in Libra (except for Mars–who dallies with the virgin–don’t worry he’ll catch up before we remember Epstien) the sign of the iron hand in the velvet glove, it’s aggressiveness is not usually obvious. Libra is a lot like Aries, but with the passage of time the “me first” energy seeks balance and idolizes harmony. Often without opinion, Libra can see the value of all points of view but cannot choose. This is a real consideration going forward. We all seek and need satiation, but we have to know what that means. Many of us don’t. Many of us do, but can’t attain it for many psychosocialindustrialpharmaceuticalmilitary complex reasons.
This sun is also square Pluto, the psychic bilge-pump of the zodiac. It’s making soil for a new phase of life and it’s alerting us to toxic, polluting thoughts and repressed shadow material so that they can be repurposed. It’s doing so in the 9th house of aspiration, the search for meaning, religious views and god image. This could get messy, but it’s all composting. It won’t make it smell better or look good, but some of this shit’s just got to go.
We are moving out of the Piscean age, where we needed an intermediary between us and god to the Aquarian age where we contact the divine within. It’s a good road, but a hard, red one. Keep going. Do the best you can. Meet your life every day doing your best. The whole discourse on every level has to change. No one knows how to do this. We are in a mindset of cultural denial. Pluto will teach us to transform or we will die. Mars conjuncts Pluto and sextiles Jupiter in this chart so I am justified in a little drama. A little saber-rattling.
Adding to the excitement, the sun and the moon are both conjunct Lilith the unfettered, sexual feminine demon asteroid. Both luminaries are focused on conscience, emancipation, independence and freedom of choice. She is karma and she is soul. She is not about language, she’s about acting out. She does what she does not have words for. She leaves Adam, she is an enemy to children, she is darkness. She is not well understood because she is not a symbol of a concept. She is more an unnamed fear, hinted at in the Torah and the bible. Wonder how that might show up?
Tonight (last night–sorry, have the flu) begins Navratri or the nine nights of the goddess. In this Hindu festival the waxing moon’s protection and empowering influence are celebrated in the nine forms of her Shakti or supreme universal energy that slay the buffalo god, Mahishasura. He defeated all of the gods in the pantheon. Every one. The gods were forced to combine their powers to defeat him. The one force they created .became the liberator Durga, her name means “impossible to overcome”. Whenever an overwhelming demonic force appears the goddess must be summoned because her “Shakti” is unsurpassable. See if it’s not.
The first three nights are devoted to the form of the goddess called Kali, the destroyer. She will end ignorance, disease, ego and selfishness when invoked.
The next three nights honor Lakshmi, the bestower of wealth. She gives abundance, good health and opens the heart to receive. She brings us to clarity, generosity and gratitude.
The last three nights celebrate the goddess Saraswati the divine embodiment of knowledge, wisdom and art. She inspires and expands the ability to understand and create beauty. She dispels ignorance and grants wisdom.
I bring this up because there are cultures older than ours that provide guidance in their myth that can help us at these junctures and bottlenecks on the way to peace (even if they don’t live the wisdom–it’s easy to know what to do, it’s just hard to do it). If you want to know a more detailed version try this: https://www.anandastrology.com/blog/nine-ways-to-call-in-the-goddess-for-navaratri-the-nine-nights-of-shakti Kari Field is an inspired and inspiring woman. Highly recommend following her.
So back to the beginning. Ethics and politics and the world and the Equinox and balance. As long as we are coming from chronic overwhelm, we cannot know what to do. As long as we play with cause and effect as our only toys 90/10 is going to look like balance, micro and macro ethics are going to seem unrelated and polarization and fascism are going to be the new normal.
Pluto, Saturn and the South Node of the moon in Capricorn are ruthlessly revealing the shadow of greed. Mahishasura (the buffalo-headed demon of above) believed that no woman in the world could cause him any harm. It was true, no one woman could, but the Shakti, the mother energy, the Yin, the Receptive could and did.
Also, the proper use of time is important to remember when defeating demons. All the gods went after Mahishasura and all of them were defeated. Cause and effect weren’t working there. An observed, unitive response, not a reaction, that honors and receives all aspirants is what effected an end. Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva all combined to create Durga. There are some clues for us in this.
In the Vedic chart Pluto, Saturn and Ketu (S.Node) are all in Sagittarius the sign of study, the search for meaning, aspiration and our ideas about spirit. The native people in all cultures tell us that we have lost our connection to spirit. From here we cannot move forward. The concept of “citizen”, the idea of “personality” and the notion of “identity” keep us reacting to whatever the latest “issue” (demon) is.
We are all too caught up in concepts and ideas. Including me. Especially me.
What if the mind is shared? What if that voice in your head that makes you feel victimized is not yours but all of ours? What if thoughts are received not transmitted? What if we always choose the worst possible scenario automatically and it is not a choice? What if this is the presence of trauma in our lives and it has been going on and running the planet since before Mahishasura?
Transformation is possible, but only if we fully get that we are each fully deserving of respect and care. We are disconnected from our own essence, from the value, worth and connection that we each are. With the super-over population and pollution disaster we have going it’s gonna be a lot more work than we now know. Do you think it’s worth it?
In an infantile way we all want the good to go on forever and the bad excluded. It’s fascist and that sort of immaturity lives only in the suffering mind of constriction. Invite the mind to the peace of bare awareness and the ceremony of wholeness the avatars of the goddess represent. You are all things. The long garden party at the end of history is over. Are you ready?
Mind your heart,
~L
dogmoonyoga 