Uranus and Pluto are involved in a momentous, years-long square in the sky right now. This is a really big deal and I want to tell you why.
Every pair of planets in the sky has a cycle they go through together, like the cycle of the Sun and Moon that makes the Moon phases we are familiar with. When the Sun and Moon are conjunct, the Moon appears dark. We call this a new Moon and it’s the beginning of a month-long cycle. As the Moon travels on through the zodiac, the Sun also moves forward a bit, and after about a week, they form a 90-degree angle in the sky. That’s called a square and the Moon appears half-full because the Sun’s light is illuminating it from that 90-degree angle, so we see the half of it that’s nearest the Sun. Have you ever wondered why a “first quarter” Moon appears half-full? This is why.
The Sun and Moon then continue travelling until they are exactly opposite each other in the sky (an ‘opposition’). This is when the Moon appears full, because it’s on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun and we see the sunlight coming from behind us to illuminate its whole face. After the Full Moon comes the Third Quarter Moon, which again appears half-full and is another 90-degree angle between Sun and Moon, a square. Finally, yet another week later (for a total of 4 weeks or about a month), the Moon catches up with the Sun and is again new, ending the old cycle and starting another.
Uranus and Pluto are doing this dance also, except their time-frame is much, much larger. This square is the first time they’ve met up again in the sky since their conjunction (or ‘new’ phase) in the middle of the 1960’s. That conjunction of Uranus and Pluto was the 1960’s—it defined the times. It brought the previous, hundreds-of-years-long cycle to a close and ushered in a new era. Uranus rules revolution and Pluto rules psychological change—these two principles were blended throughout the sixties. There was tremendous social change, racial integration, draft evasion, encounter groups were invented, hemlines went up, and young people listened to music that terrified their elders. And I haven’t even mentioned the sexual revolution. That’s Sexual (Pluto) Revolution (Uranus).
So right now, Uranus and Pluto are in their First Quarter square. This stressful square lasts from 2012 to March of 2015. During these several years it will peak in its intensity several times. When the peaks happen, I’ll try to write blogposts that may give you a feel for this thing and it’s enormity. Unless I’m too busy experiencing it in my own life, of course. The following script shows how it might feel to us here on Earth.
Human Being has wandered from his sleeping body and is roaming the great astral plain. There he spots a sort of dark block, far away at the horizon. He turns towards it and, as often happens in dreams, suddenly he is standing next to it. The edifice is black, shiny, massive, monumental, a tower as huge as an Egyptian pyramid. Human cranes his neck but cannot see the top, which reaches into the sky and blots out the stars. On its face climbs a small figure, hanging from a cord. The figure quickly rappels down the face and greets Human. It is Pluto, dressed in black and masked, like a ninja. He is almost impossible to see against the dark, deep black of the structure behind him.
Pluto: What are you doing here?
Human (shrugs): I’m one of those who can see things others can’t. (points at the edifice) What is it?
Pluto: I don’t know, because I only see the archetypal. What we’re looking at is the dream-world image of the thing. The thing behind the thing. It’s an edifice, a great big one. I don’t know how it actually manifests in the physical world. Maybe it’s a government. Maybe it’s a corporation. It’s an institution of some kind, that’s for sure.
Human: Why are you climbing on it?
Pluto: I’m looking for fault lines.
Human: What will you do when you find them?
Pluto: I’ll press on them until they break open. Then this structure will have to change.
Human: That makes me nervous. And why are you dressed up like a ninja?
Pluto (proudly): I look like a character from Mission Impossible. No—I look like James Bond!
Human: But you’re a god! Aren’t you beyond that?
Pluto: Yeah, sure I’m a god. But I still like looking like James Bond.
Another figure appears at the bottom of the building.
Human: Who’s that?
Pluto cranes his neck to see.
Pluto: Oh that’s Uranus. Who invited him to the party?
Uranus is wearing a fiery orange coat. He’s concealing something inside of it.
Pluto: Hey, Captain Obvious! Go away. Can’t you see that if this tower is to come down, it has to be done by stealth?
Uranus: Ridiculous. If true change is to occur, everyone has to see it happen, or else it won’t stick. Things will just go back to the way they were.
Pluto: Absurd. I’m going for nothing less than a full-on, cellular-level metamorphosis. That can only happen in darkness. Going to transform this puppy into something really useful.
Human: Uh, do you know what that useful thing is yet?
Pluto: Heck no!
Uranus: I have a plan too.
Pluto: Of course. What is it?
Uranus: I plan to break this thing down into its tiniest pieces, then reform them into something better, something bigger, something more all-inclusive.
Pluto: Perhaps we should work together then.
Uranus: Sounds good—how about you find the fault-lines and I’ll plug them with the explosives I brought. Then we’ll blow the thing open and search the rubble for whatever meaningful endures.
Human: Um, guys—have you thought about what this structure is?
Pluto: All I care about is that it’s decrepit, decaying, dying and I must destroy it.
Uranus: All I care about is that it’s forgotten how to remain flexible and I must replace it with something more progressive.
Human: Have you thought about what humans will do without this structure while it finds its new shape?
Uranus and Pluto look at each other in delight.
Uranus: Probably lots of chaos, don’t you figure?
Pluto: Disorder, change, disruption.
Uranus: Sounds good to me!
And back to work they go.
If you think this story bears some resemblance to the events of September 11, 2001, you would be right. But that’s not why I wrote it this way. It’s just a metaphor, not a prediction. The edifice represents institutions of all kinds, and the social structures behind the physical buildings.
What changes will occur as Uranus and Pluto do their work? I don’t know, but chances are good we will look back at this period as interesting times.
The story continues here.
