Pluto Retrograde: Digging Deep

At 11:21am on April 10, Pluto moves into retrograde motion. You may have already begun feeling its effects sometime last week, as it is our slowest moving planet. It is stationary now in the 10th degree of Capricorn. The Sabian Symbol for this degree is 'An albatross feeding from the hand of a sailor'. The keyword is 'nurturance'...and the timing for such a message is appropriately reflected in the ingress of Ceres in Taurus (which begins this afternoon and ends on June 23rd). Ceres is the asteroid of the nurturer archetype, while Taurus is the sign that (in its best expression) inclines a similar nurturing attitude.

During this transit (Pluto's retrograde period lasts until 9-18), we'll be taking a deeper look at what truly nurtures us...and at the same time, we'll be tested and (in more stubborn cases) forced to release our attachments to what we once clung to or fed that does not serve our higher purpose. And we hear such things all the time, it seems, right? I'm always writing about liberating ourselves from negative thought patterns and destructive addictions that sabotage our purest expression. Well, it's what I've learned about healing on the deepest level. And it's a lesson from my own natal Pluto Retrograde in Libra in my 6th House, the house of health. It is in this house where the Liberator archetype resides within my own psyche. And at this stage in my life, where I will soon be initiated into my thirties (on April 11th), the regenerative power of Pluto Retrograde proves to be my deepest strength rather than the tumult of drastic transformations it had seemed in younger years. So, you read about such themes as transformation and 'out with the old, in with the new' a lot from me, yes? Do you wonder when the constant, internal spring cleanings will be sufficient enough to finally get you to where you want to be? I wish I could tell you, just ONE more and then you're good to go...but it's not the case. We are meant to keep evolving. We are changers, shifters, creators...always transforming. We go through a series of initiations in our lives in order to realize our highest self. The final initiation in each lifetime is death, The Great Crossing.

This brings me to my next point about Pluto. One of its most notable themes is transformation...and one of the most recognizable of those transformations is death. There is, of course, physical death which may play an important role in your own understanding of the lessons of this transit. Or, more often, symbolic death will occur in your life as you transition into something new (whether it be a new job, new relationship, new house, or new way of life). Whatever it is that shakes you awake to observe and uncover the meaning of who you really are by unraveling the layers of identity you've accumulated in a dream-state...you will be stripped down to your essentials in order to recognize that all you really need is so profoundly simple, and that all of the excess must be discarded in order to emanate your light more brightly from within.

This can be an excruciatingly painful process for some. Especially if you've become resistant and fearful of change, Pluto Retrograde can be like someone shining a bright light of investigation into the closets and cubbyholes of your mind and discovering your skeletons, your deep dark secrets, and your hidden motives. Whatever you've buried in the past because you didn't want to or know how to deal with it...it is likely to resurface at some point during this transit. It's not to cause distress, though that is sometimes a side-effect, it is because it is dead weight holding you back from moving forward. Whatever is hidden will likely be revealed for the purpose of healing and regenerating. This is a time to cast a light into your own shadows, investigate them yourselves if you don't want someone else to poke and prod at them first. Recognize your shadows, integrate them into the light instead of keeping them in the dark. You have them, but you are not them.

Pluto Retrograde often incorporates very intense and deeply penetrating insights into your subconscious. Our powers of observation and investigation are heightened...which shows us the necessity of eliminating and releasing that which is outworn, outdated, old and obsolete in our lives. What recurring patterns in your life make you feel out of control? Pluto often deals with lessons of control...and in retrograde, it shows us if there are destructive parts of ourselves to which we are regularly relinquishing control. This is a time to get back into the driver's seat of your own life by kicking the bad habits that keep you going on a road to nowhere. It could be something as obvious as an addiction to drugs or alcohol that has you spinning out of control...or it could be something as widely accepted in our society as worry or fear that has you stuck on a loop. Whatever it is, it's time to take back control and activate your higher mind on this journey through life...because there are so many more amazing things to see and experience than that same old scenery that's just passing you by.

And now back to nurturance, as I am just hours away from Ceres entering Taurus to usher in this theme like a newly planted garden. Who or what nurtures you? How do you get your sustenance? Where does it come from and how does it grow? Is it healthy for you? Is it healthy for our planet? Is it sustainable and regenerative? Does it feed your light or your shadow? Are you consuming more than you need? Is there a balance of giving and receiving in your life? How do you nurture others? In what way do you display the attributes of the Caretaker in this life?

And finally, when are you going to pull the weeds from the garden? The time is always now.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

ADDENDUM (4-10-12): Pluto's Shift on a Global Scale

As retrogrades turn the energy represented by the planet inward, we often reflect upon ourselves and the drastic changes we need to make in our own lives during a Pluto Retrograde. However, consider that these transits are inclining everyone around you to realize the same thing...that in order to regenerate our environment beyond the destruction our addictions and ignorance have exacerbated, we need to change ourselves. These retrogrades are important transits that can assist us in being the change.

While Pluto (transformation) moves in direct motion through Capricorn (the sign of structure, achievement, and recognition)...we've been seeing the inevitable crumbling of old ways that have now proven destructive. Yes, such things still seem to hold most of the power in our societies...but, regardless, they are breaking down and their hidden agendas are being revealed to the public at an alarming rate. Power structures that once appeared to be fail-safe (at least to the people using them) or appeared to have our best interests in mind (at least to the people who blindly trust and consume like spoiled children)...greed and misuse of that power has begun to disintegrate it beyond repair. 'Out with the old, in with the new' is the difficult but necessary solution on many people's minds...but what of those that cling to a past that has already failed us?

Now, as Pluto is just hours away from turning retrograde and focusing that investigative light on an internal level, people who have misused power and clung to obsolete structures will have nowhere to hide from the effects of their shadows, skeletons, and secrets. They will be plagued with the consequences of destructive actions and soulless ideals. Problems that they've tried to keep hidden will start flooding into the light, disturbing secrets they've kept will likely be revealed, and the more they try to keep it all hidden...the weaker they will become. Perhaps more of us will realize then...they are not power, money is not power, stuff is not power.

Power is in the balance of giving and receiving...the symbiotic relationship between all life. Consider that something we may have never seen, may have never even heard of, such as phytoplankton in our seas can be a powerful regenerator of our Earth by taking in carbon for its own nurturance. But the balance is off now...our carbon footprints are so giant that the temperature of our waters has increased and less phytoplankton can grow. This is just one example, but a pretty important one. Power quickly becomes powerless without balance, moderation, and temperance. We are not the only beings on this planet...and though we may think we are the most intelligent, you wouldn't be able to deduce that as fact if you take a look at the destruction we alone have caused.

That's the point. We are not alone. That phrase you keep hearing everywhere, 'we are one'...it's not just about the human race. We are one with all life around us, there is no dominion over this and that. We are one with the whole of the earth...and as the earth is part of the universe, we are one with the universe as well.

Pluto in retrograde this year will keep us focused on discarding the old notions of me vs. you, us vs. them, all of those separating beliefs of a passing age...so that we can finally work together on what's truly important: caretaking in a world of co-creation.

Strong Sun Full Moon and Total Lunar Eclipse: The Aperture

The Full Moon Eclipse at 3:12pm CDT on Wednesday, June 15^th opens a portal of cosmic energy from the Galactic Center. This opening is an opportunity to consciously connect to the shadows within. During a Lunar Eclipse, the Earth passes between the two luminaries and the Earth’s shadow falls on the face of the Moon…so while it evokes experiences that confront your own shadow nature, it also evokes the collective shadow of the Earth itself.

This energy is an emotionally intense transformation of death and rebirth…where the shadow conceals the light of the self (Sun) from being reflected in the emotional body (Moon) for a brief time before the light returns. Eclipse energy is a quickening of time, healing opportunities, and confrontation with who we really are and what no longer resonates at the vibration of our highest frequency. We often come across times that are astrologically sound for ‘out with the old, in with the new’ cleansings of our lives…but this particular eclipse would be the once in a lifetime chance to have the universe act as a cosmic converter for everything that no longer serves us on our planet. Most of this process will not happen easily…crumbling foundations will leave a mess and people facing drastic confrontations of self may react with kicking and screaming victimization. However, there is a wide open door for those who wish to do the work required and get right with themselves for their own sake, and the sake of those they love.

Eclipse energy often highlights accelerated changes, clearing, eliminating, releasing, and transforming so new energies have room to manifest and grow. This can be like opening up a dark storage closet that hasn’t been opened for years, and thinning out the excess by determining what can be kept and what can be thrown out. Most of the things you find here will bring up shadows of your past, and you’ll have to let go of those attachments so that your new, more true to you, life has room to breathe.

The Sabian Symbol for this Full Moon Eclipse is “a chubby boy on a hobbyhorse”. This is a symbol that connotes adolescence, coming of age, practicing manhood, asserting bravado, egotism, and threats in order to assume the role of alpha male. The projection of macho attitude swings back and forth like the gait of a galloping horse…full swing confrontation, and then retreat, and back and forth again…worked to a frenzy then released. Much effort will be put in to getting everyone involved or at least watching this display of assertiveness. It is mostly show, but something may also come to a head. Be careful not to feed the dramatic behavior that may be asserted during this time. You have better, more important things to do…no matter how important these types of people may want to appear. Keep in mind they aren’t even riding a real horse in this act. ;) Go do the good things for yourself that will better serve you at this time…and let others beat a dead horse if they will.

We still have another eclipse to finish this sequence at the next new moon (July 1st). Here we are at the midpoint...what we do in this energy will determine what will come in a few weeks.

Love and Gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi

Strong Sun New Moon and Solar Eclipse: The Initiation

On June 1^st at 4:01pm, the moon starts a new phase as the Strong Sun Moon. At 4:15pm, there is a partial solar eclipse in the 12^th degree of Gemini. The Sabian Symbol for the New Moon is “Newly opened lands offer the pioneer new opportunities”, while the Sabian Symbol for the eclipse is “A slave girl demands her rights.”

Let’s begin with the New Moon. With the Sun-Moon illuminating as conjoined twins in Gemini, our luminaries form a harmonious trine with Saturn in Libra. Saturn in this position reminds us of others…cooperation, peacekeeping, and balance are the important lessons of this taskmaster in the sign of relationships. The trine promotes understanding, teamwork, and creative flow between the three. A new phase is opening up for us, and opportunities to succeed are conveniently there for the taking (as long as you make the effort…the natural tendency with a trine is to simply coast in the ease of it, but you’ll find more benefit from accomplishing something worthwhile now that you have this opportunity).

Each New Moon phase brings a new start with new opportunities, but this one even more so. We’re being initiated into a very intense few months (as a very powerful lunar eclipse and another powerful solar eclipse will all happen this summer in alignments that, in one way or another, will demand or command your attention). Here’s where we prepare for what’s to come by shedding old skin and identifying more with the completeness of who we are, as these are the changes we’ll be faced with this summer.

After those new opportunities from the New Moon present themselves, a first glimpse at our collective shadow appears. This first eclipse, though less intense than the two that follow, is a wake up call. After identifying what it is we need to do, and what it is we need to leave behind, in order to be the change we wish to see in the world…we may be backed into a corner by that which has held power over us for so long now. It’s important not to give in and go the easy route that takes little effort but has far-reaching drawbacks and debilitating limitations. Here, we will be called upon to demand our rights in the face of what we have allowed to limit our truly limitless selves. This may show up in the world view as more power-struggles, more signs of revolution, or more calls for change in our failing societal structures. But even more important is what is going on within each of us.

There is light and shadow within each of us. Many of us hide from our shadows by playing the victim and pointing fingers outside of us…whether it be at parents, relationships, or the evils of the world around us. We have these experiences, though, to teach us the whole truth about ourselves and our interconnectedness to what we experience. Those people, those situations, those struggles…they are mirrors reflecting what we refuse to acknowledge about ourselves.

The shadow side of our personalities are the parts of us we don’t want to identify with…the aspects of ourselves that we hide, repress, or dissociate after society teaches us various things that aim to correct what is ‘wrong’ or wild about us. We’re conditioned to watch our tempers, hold back our tears, look presentable, concern ourselves with money, keep our heads out of the clouds, not say something stupid or crazy, or any other variation on what blocks our self-expression. This is not to say that letting children run wild is the way to raise them. My parents laid down ‘the law’ for us, just as I find myself doing with my daughter now. But discipline is about teaching right from wrong and guiding along a morally sound path. Those are not the limitations to which I am referring. I’m talking about what makes us feel worthless, unloved, misunderstood, maladjusted, less than, wounded, afraid, disconnected or wrong. Harsh judgments stay with us, whether they come from outside or within. It’s those ideas that keep us from our highest potential. That is the shadow side at work…phantom pains from old wounds that demand that we heal them in order to discover our gifts.

No one can heal your own wounds but you. The Age of Pisces has been swimming in a martyr’s wounds for so long that we’ve grown disconnected to the collective undercurrent we share as living beings facing a new age. In terms of salvation, you have all you need to save, redeem, and reclaim yourself. In terms of damnation, you’ve handmade the shackles you wear…and only you have the key to free yourself from this story you’ve created with beliefs you’ve accepted until now. Looking outside of yourself for answers, for cues, for acceptance or reassurance…you’ll only be drowning yourself in the Piscean dream of the past. In the Age of Aquarius, you either identify with the Water Bearer who determines the flow…or you can be the victim who washes away with the past. Taking responsibility for who we are and what kind of world we co-create is key to the changes we are learning to make now.

This eclipse hastens us to begin or resume our healing process. Step out of self-defeating cycles and forge a new path filled with new discoveries. Identify your wounds, integrate your shadows in your healing and loving light, and identify yourself as whole in the process. Shed the limiting skin of the past and welcome the new you, unwounded.

Love and gratitude,

Felina Lune Kavi