PLUTO IN CAPRICORN AND 2012

Money, Sex and Power—the Cleansing?

The planet (or dwarf) Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008 and will stay until 2024. This hasn't happened in 248 years. At the same time we have been getting lots of speculation on the meaning of 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar. Whether you believe that Pluto is a planet or dwarf it has long been associated with drastic change both personally and historically. Capricorn is the sign of public institutions, authority, social accomplishment and tradition. On an individual level it is expressed as social ambition, responsibility, and love of tradition and is associated with the revered role of the father. On a social level it expresses as the patriarchal ideals and ambitions that have ruled western civilization for several thousand years. Lately the people and issues associated with Capricorn have been under siege. The economic and political arena is undergoing severe functional meltdown and public shame. Shame is the ultimate disaster for all that is ruled by the principles of Capricorn.

A recent example is the firing of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno. I sense that the Jerry Sandusky incident at Penn State is going to grow into something much larger. In fact “grow” may not be the correct term. It is more like the tip of a great stone long buried in the earth but recently tripped over. The timing of such discoveries is important. Pluto in Capricorn will eventually indicate the hidden sordidness underlying practically all of our institutions. Outwardly they claim to represent stability, sanity and truth but in reality it is a façade. Beneath the surface our most respected institutions are rotting and putrid.

Not only is the financial basis of our economies turning out to be a mismanaged sham but also the shadow side of all our respected institutions is being exposed again and again. One can only wonder where it will lead. I can think of two fairy tales that address our most pressing issues, “the Emperor’s New Clothes,” and “the Sorcerer’s Apprentice.” Of course both of these stories indicate that this isn’t a new problem but an ever-present aspect of the social facade of power.

Why are these issues coming out now? It isn’t new by any reckoning. But there is an emerging force at this time that wants to bring the closet doors off their hinges. The skeletons need some light. Politicians are also being swept off their shiny patent shoes to land up close and personal on a vengeful Mother Earth. But is it vengeance or an overriding need to sweep the bullshit off the stage of human drama. Could it be that 2012 is not about cosmic catastrophe as much as a cosmic shutdown on spin?

Losing the Box

We humans look through our cultural glasses in fearful expectation that the monsters of extraterrestrial invasion, natural disaster and out of control war and terrorism will rage on until all of our cultural structures are fatally besieged by some terrible cosmic force. Maybe it means that an asteroid will hit us, or all the fault lines around our planet will catastrophically act up. Or, perhaps the poles will turn us upside down and we will have a climactic catastrophe that will all but wipe us off the earth. But what about the familiar world we take for granted? What if we have been duped all along about the power and importance of human structures? What if they don’t need some cosmetic repairs as much as a total remake. Astrologically the planet Pluto represents destruction and reconstruction. Unfortunately you don’t get reconstruction without first getting destruction. Before we can get out of the box it has to be dismantled. Why? Because we don’t even know we are in it until it isn’t there anymore.

Before we humans are aware of the possibility of jumping out of our boxes, we first try to make them work better in any way we can. Capricorn concerns institutional boxes. It rules our social designs and systems of responsible authority. Modern scientific age humans attempt to find rational, legal and scientific ways to fix whatever is going wrong. This is inevitable. Simply put we first try to improve our box. But as Albert Einstein said, “it is impossible to solve a problem within the system of the problem,”

It seems to me that the greatest human mistake in times like these is to believe that our socially agreed on forms are a reality sanctified by God. Then we project any suspicion that this might not be entirely true onto foreign enemies or cosmic catastrophes. Even God will inevitably fail us because the word and concept is continuously created by we humans, a less than godlike species. God is a concept that must change from time to time to include a larger more high-definition image of the ultimate authority. Since we cannot but be less than our creator is it’s impossible to ever adequately define our “Ultimate Source.”

Pluto the Cleaner

Medieval Depiction of Pluto and Persephone

Pluto in mythology rules the underworld and protects earth’s treasures. Whatever Pluto fingers seem to turn first into shit and last into gold. It is about cleansing the form until its essence is revealed. Here are two quotes from astrologer/historian/mythologist Neil Giles:

Pluto in Capricorn will test the durability and regenerative resources of leaders and governments across the globe, as well as business and the corporate world. Old or staid structures will collapse or come apart at the seams if they cannot redefine their nature and cope with changing conditions and needs. The renewal or discarding of traditional practices or beliefs will play a part in this for Capricorn draws from inherited wisdom and practice. Those traditions that find new life will serve to guide modern leadership while those that are uprooted or outmoded will pass into oblivion. On the one hand, we will see the renewal of traditional power or thinking that can endure while on the other, we will see its displacement by the forces of the new, as leaders and systems find themselves under the pump. No doubt, Pluto in Capricorn will bring service where others will be ruthlessly ambitious and materialistic….

…In such a pressure-cooker as this coming cycle, it may eventually occur to us as a species that we cannot continue trying to solve our problems with a bullying thrust of violent intervention. Just as we will have to look to alternative energy sources, we must also realize that we cannot keep building roads to the future by blowing up everything that gets in the way of our intended path. Obstacles to our desires are there to teach us, not frustrate us. It is time we learned that salutary lesson from Pluto. The sign of Capricorn teaches the proper sense of organization and responsibility required for effective social contribution. With Pluto in Capricorn in the coming era, the imperative is to learn how to make one, how to put aside the power mongering and the drama and do something that works. The destiny that is written in the stars is also in our hands.

Mythologicaly, Pluto is also a caretaker of great treasures. What are the treasures that Pluto may have been protecting? Perhaps it is the cosmic power of evolution and deep healing. While we are getting a lot of attention focused on the meaning of 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar, I’m thinking how so often different sources of occult information support each other and these two seem to be synced. Death and birth continually follow each other in the reality we occupy. Generally we are more aware of what is dying than of what might be going through birth pangs. Energy never ceases to exist but the forms it takes do change.

Creation is continuous. Pluto and the astrological sign it rules, Scorpio is known for hidden power. In a sense they represent the shadow side of life. The part that is generally denied disowned and suppressed. With that suppressed power is the power of regeneration, historically and prehistorically the realm of the goddess. She is just beginning to rise from thousands of years of repression. When something of elemental significance is repressed it takes on an ugly, destructive humiliating form in society. Eventually it will bring us down. Only by recognizing in all humility that we are not gods and it is even more dangerous to pretend godliness will we ever hope to fulfill our divine purpose. Money, sex and power are all realms of Pluto but we must be willing to pay our due. The goddess energy symbolized as Mother Earth can turn it to gold if we don’t try to trick her or remove her from the creative process. It is now time for the God and Goddess to make peace with each other. That is the only way to move from destruction to reconstruction.