During a recent trip to the theater to see the exquisitely inspiring This Is It, I was a subjected to a promo for the upcoming destruction-porn flick 2012. (I am intentionally not linking to it, because I don’t want to promote this meme in the collective unconscious.) This film, opening within days of the exact Saturn/Pluto square on November 15th, stars John Cusack as an action hero in the midst of massive chaos and upheaval on planet earth. Imagine constant tsunamis, earthquakes, collapsing bridges, exploding ships, and other hysterical sequences of doom. I sometimes wonder if film studios hire astrologers, because they seem to have timed this to tap directly into the fear that is rising in all of us as a consequence of Saturn and Pluto’s upcoming clash.
In 2001, Saturn and Pluto were locked in an oppositional aspect just as 9/11 shook our world to its core. We’re in a similar energetic pattern now, but this time Pluto is in Saturn’s sign — Capricorn. Saturn/Capricorn embrace and understand the nature of fear better than any other planet/sign. And the reaction to fear in Capricorn land is usually military. The fear of failure is the great motivator here, that’s why the big guns come out when there is a threat. Pluto is the ruler of the underworld and has its closest relationship to the energy of Scorpio. Death, rebirth, and annihilation are just a few of Pluto’s favorite themes. The makers of 2012 discovered the concept of the “end” of the Mayan calendar (when in reality it’s really the end of one phase and the start of another) and ran with it, all the way to the bank. I predict that this movie will be huge and infect the unconscious of all of us, just when we should be embracing Santa Claus and drinking eggnog.
We live in interesting (and scary) times. It’s true that the energy of the Saturn/Pluto square could bring some bad things into the real world. It could be pandemic flu, it could be another economic meltdown, and although it’s impossible to predict, it could be another natural disaster. But if we feed into our fear and nourish it with images of massive destruction, are we serving our highest potential? You know the answer to that. I’m not saying we should bury our head in the sand and make like ostriches, I’m just saying that sometimes “death” just means “change”. Maybe it’s that our way of life is going to transform, and considering where we find ourselves now — wouldn’t that be a delightful event?
The Saturn/Uranus opposition was exact a year ago, when we had our historic election and ushered in the era of the first Black president of the United States. Uranus came to symbolize the hope and change of the Obama era, and Saturn showed us the old, bad habits we were leaving in the dust. Now the Cosmic Taskmaster is tangoing with Pluto, a much more intimidating planetary force. There is no winning a duel with Pluto — the energy of this planet plays to win, and it will change you no matter the power of your fight. Ask anyone who has experienced a Pluto transit to one of their personal planets. They know what’s up. (Right now, this would be people with planets in early degrees of Capricorn, Cancer, Aries and Libra.) Think of a tank rolling in and then over you — that’s Pluto coming to town to change your life forever.
The entire world is caught in this crucible of evisceration right now, and the aspect is just applying at this moment. After November 15th, it’ll dissipate a bit, only to kick back up again on and off between now and 2011. Mark your calendar for February, April and August 2010, and again for April through August of 2011. This is a long and dire transit, and by the end of it, planet Earth could be quite a different neighborhood. But if we invest in a positive vision of the upcoming change rather than a dark, destructive, obsessive and terrifying nightmare, maybe it won’t be so bad. So next time your friend, lover, or the clerk at the store suggests that he or she is feeling quite frightened by the unfolding events, offer your compassion. Our thoughts matter, and when they’re all negative, they glom together and create a soup of doom that we all have no choice but to swim in. Why not choose to create a tranquil, blue, fish-filled tropical sea instead?
(And at the movies, please choose Michael Jackson over John Cusack.)
