April 28th ~ May 5th
“Firebird”
For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction. ~ Cynthia Occelli
On May 1st Pluto stations for its annual retrograde phase at 0º Aquarius 22, which lasts until October 10th. It just entered Aquarius on March 23rd, and now it will appear to turn back and return to Capricorn once again for some unfinished business. This was like a trial run of Pluto in Aquarius. We are being gradually accustomed to a new era, a new paradigm, even as we are not quite through with the last. This is made all the more relevant when we see that Pluto is also at the bending of the Nodes, betwixt and between the North and South Nodes of the Moon, we find ourselves at a crossroads between one phase of life and the next.
It is at these crucial turning points in time, that we are being asked to slough off the vestiges of a past that will no longer suffice. The stuff that is holding us back, keeping us from evolving, from growing, from becoming. With Pluto that process can often be painful. Like excising a boil, we are needing to cut out the parts of ourselves, our lives, our society, that like a poisonous infection weakens and prevents us from thriving. And so it must be removed. Pluto can represent all that is base and corrupt in society. All the old guard that wants to further control and cannot let go. But it also brings us the tools to purify all those old decrepit wounds, the outworn beliefs, our prejudices, our fears, our resistance to change.
Planets are strengthened at their stations. Digging in deeply Pluto dares us to look beneath the surface, to get to the very truth. In the process it exposes the dark underbelly of society, and even in our own lives. Like a not so skillful surgeon, it aims to remove that which is undermining our progress, but takes a whole bunch of other stuff with it. Even some things which were once so dear to us. Things that we don’t want to see go. But they must. Because we have outgrown our previous circumstances. We are more than this.
We can expect political and societal changes when Pluto comes to the nodes. This is also when we all can have an even greater impact on society and the world. A world that is currently giving birth to itself. And there have been some great beings born when Pluto is in aspect to the nodes. The late great Harry Belafonte was one of those. A bright light for humanitarian justice and civil rights, he was born when Pluto was conjunct the North Node, and left when it was at the bending of both Nodes. A man who used his wealth and power to make this world a better place than the way he found it. A man who used his power for the greater good.
We can use the Pluto tide to make transformative changes in our own lives as well. The wheels of fate and fortune are turning with the dark lord of destiny, carrying us along for the ride. And so we are being asked to slough off the old skins, and allow ourselves to be reborn. And with the intention of becoming a much better version of our once former selves. When planets are at the bending of the Nodes we can see our old world coming up against the new one. This is when we do all the sorting out, bringing the essence of what was with us to inform the new stuff that is coming in. Some old things may be discarded, but others will come in to take their place. And so our homework for the next 5 months of the retrograde phase of Pluto can be seen as a time of releasing as well as rebuilding.
Pluto has domain over those things that corrupt and weaken us. The things that we don’t like to look at and would much rather ignore. Pluto asks us to face our worst fears, to confront all of our inner demons. Because if we don’t do this important work, it will only make these things even stronger, more insidious, more destructive. We have to face our own darkness, and walk through it, in order to find the light of renewal and strength. Know also that there are other things hidden deep down in Pluto’s lair. Treasures of unequal beauty and resilience, honed by external pressures and the breadth of time. For Pluto is also the alchemist capable of converting lead into gold, carbon into diamonds and experience into revelation. Pluto is the phoenix fire mystery revealed.
Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea! ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
For this week’s horoscopes, click below: