In the first two articles of this series, I looked at what happens when Pluto and Jupiter get together in the sky and form a stressful square:
Jupiter Squares Pluto: Going To Extremes
Jupiter And Pluto Go On A Binge
This month’s square is their final pass, so their influence will be fading quickly after February of 2011 ends.
Today’s story finds them sitting on Mount Olympus, contemplating the landscape.
Jupiter: I love a view from a lofty height like this. I can see forever and I can really get the big picture this way.
Pluto: This is not my favorite view—I prefer to look underneath things.
Jupiter: You always get so dark when you do that. You like to find the darkest, grittiest, ugliest thing at the bottom of something and point it out.
Pluto: And you have a way of overlooking what matters. I put human beings through their own dark places. It’s my job and I’m very good at it.
Jupiter: Yeah, but I’m the king of the gods. I help people see the heights they’re capable of. That’s more important.
Pluto: Not in my world. In the underworld, I’M king. You can’t even get in unless I let you.
Jupiter: Oh, I can get into the underworld anytime. I just don’t usually want to. It’s not the best vacation spot.
Pluto: But important things are going on there!
Jupiter: Stop pleading, Pluto. It doesn’t look good on you. Make your point.
Pluto: I will. People need a place to go when they die. They need a concept of hell to sober them up while they’re alive. They need a way to work off bad behavior. They need a well of souls to rejoin after death and to be reborn out of.
Jupiter: I just don’t get why this stuff matters.
Pluto: It may not matter to you, but it matters to human beings. You’re a god. You live forever. You don’t die, can never be reborn. A human being can become a little bit more like a god by going through death and rebirth. That’s why I’m here. To make it possible for a human being to burn away his mortality and become his finest, greatest self.
Jupiter: Who’s making himself sound important now?
Pluto: Here, I’ll show you what I mean.
Pluto grabs Jupiter’s arm and whisks them both away to the underworld. It is a dark, dreary place. They stand in an empty landscape where everything is in shades of gray. A Human Being trudges along, unaware of the presence of the gods.
Pluto: This human is experiencing what they call a “long, dark night of the soul.” Eventually, he will come out the other side of it and find that he has changed in a very fundamental way. He will be a new person.
Jupiter strikes a light. It flares up brilliantly. The Human Being perks up.
Pluto: (putting the light out) Hey, don’t do that!
Jupiter: Why not?
Pluto: This human hasn’t gotten to the end of his journey yet.
Jupiter: But you just said the journey through the darkness has to end sometime.
Pluto: He has to suffer some more first. Then he will get to the light at the end of the tunnel. It will happen naturally in the time that’s right for him.
Jupiter: Who are you to say that I didn’t just provide the light at the end of the tunnel?
Pluto: I’m the Lord of the Underworld, that’s who!
Jupiter strikes another light and illuminates it even more.
Pluto: Cut that out!
Jupiter: (moving away from Pluto and turning the light up. The Human Being reaches for the light with a look of hope on his face.) No, I won’t.
Pluto (roaring) You’re RUINING IT! This is supposed to be scary!
Jupiter laughs and runs around with the light, totally confusing the Human Being and keeping just ahead of Pluto.
Jupiter: Thought I’d shed a little light on the subject.
Pluto: You bring humor into the most inappropriate places. This is a serious matter. This Human is experiencing real tragedy and you’re making fun of it. False hope only adds to the anguish.
Jupiter: Can’t take a joke, can you? There’s nothing so serious in life that a little lightening-up won’t help. Humor is the best way.
Pluto: You’re going to leave this Human with the idea that the gods are laughing at his troubles.
Jupiter: Aren’t they?
Pluto: No!
Jupiter: Maybe this Human will learn to laugh at his own pain and not take himself so seriously. Laughter and tears are sometimes very close to each other. You should take yourself less seriously too. Oh, and the joke’s on you—told you I could get into the underworld whenever I wanted to. Nah-nahhhhh!
Pluto: You’re insufferable!
Jupiter: I’ve been called that before.
Pluto: You’re nothing but a giant gas—oops, I mean gas giant.
Jupiter: Caught you making a joke!
This is getting ugly, so we’ll draw a curtain over the scene here, Gentle Reader.
Suffice it to say that when Jupiter and Pluto get into conflict, sometimes we find ourselves making fun of a bleak situation, just to find some light—any light at all—in the darkness.
This month is the final pass of the Pluto-Jupiter square. If you have anything at all in 7 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, you’re probably feeling it. And if you have Jupiter and Pluto together in your birth chart (in any aspect at all—conjunction, sextile, square, trine, quincunx or opposition), most likely you tend toward extremes and a dark (sometimes inappropriately) sense of humor.
Part 1 of this post-thread: Jupiter and Pluto Go To Extremes
Part 2 of this post-thread: Jupiter And Pluto Go On A Binge
Part 3 of this post-thread: Seeking Light In The Darkness
