In these tough times that seem to be getting tougher every moment, it’s hard to see the light peaking through the cracks of our dark Platonic/Plutonian cave. In an era marked by Pluto in Capricorn, the American Pluto Return, and its 8th Saturn Return, it feels like we’re living on a constant diet of fear, panic, and rage. Our corporate/religious monoliths are threatening to swallow us whole. We are finally figuring out that we’re humans, not merely consumers, and we’re all moving through this massive and chaotic birth canal together. No wonder we’re scared shitless.

The most recent indication that the Saturn/Pluto square is really here came yesterday, as attorney general Eric Holder announced that the terrorists who wrought our 9/11 nightmare are heading back to NYC — to finally be tried for their heinous crimes. On one hand it’s a brilliant move to make sure that these horrible men will have to face justice in our courts. It’s fitting that this will take place literally at the scene of the crime: only blocks away from where the towers burned and fell. (Although both families of 9/11 victims and other New Yorkers wonder if this will make us a target once again). Astrologically, it’s all disturbingly well-spun. This story started when the World Trade Center was attacked in 1993, as we experienced the first square of our current Saturn/Pluto cycle. When we were attacked in 2001, Saturn was opposite Pluto. Now we’re in a square once again, with Saturn sitting in early degrees of Libra, planet of justice. The American system of justice is actually on trial now — not just Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.

Richard Tarnas, author of Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, is a master of putting these historical events in the context of astrological cycles. He links Saturn/Pluto cycles to “eras of international crisis and conflict, empowerment of reactionary forces and totalitarian impulses, organised violence and oppression, all sometimes marked by lasting traumatic effects.” That about sums it up, doesn’t it?

But here’s where our daily work must transmute what seem to be indomitable forces of doom: we have to wake up each day and look ourselves in the eye, love ourselves with wild abandon, and love the ones we’re with just as much. We need to work on our compassion until our last button is pushed, and even beyond the pushing of that last button. We need to work through our fears and offer our hearts to the global crucible churning away. Yes, it is scary. Yes, filmmakers and others who want your money will try to scare you even more. Yes, the political climate will get heavier, and the black boots of oppression will march to what seems to be your door. Saturn in Libra, as evidenced by the works of great men like Cornel West, is an opportunity for us to understand the meaning of a Higher Love (cue the Steve Winwood.) We’re learning what it means to build real relationships with ourselves so that we can have authentic ones with other people. You can’t have one without the other.

While Pluto in Capricorn squares Saturn in Libra, we’re facing the Test of Tests. How can you love freely and openly when you’re scared for your very life? During the next weeks, months (and especially this coming spring, during the cardinal cross) every human being on the planet will have to face his and her deepest fears. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to turn this darkness into light. If each of us turn our inner lights on even while our instinct tells us to shut down, close up, and go into major bunker mentality, we’ll win this war. And the Saturn/Pluto square will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. Are you with me? Bring it on.