Challenging Forces In 2015: Pluto Square Uranus Again

PLEASE NOTE KATHY ROSE’S FEBRUARY FORECAST IN THE SIDEBAR!

Planets represent forces of energy in astrology. The zodiacal signs they move through represent the qualities the energies will take on as they move around the Sun. Since all the planets move at different rates of speed they weave a tapestry of inter-relationships with each other as well. These geometrical relationships we astrologers call aspects between one or more planetary energies.

The ninety-degree aspects are generally considered challenging and in 2015 we have two major pairs squaring off with each other: Pluto square Uranus, and Neptune square Saturn. Remember, challenging forces = challenging times = challenges in the lives of natives born with those aspects. That’s how it all seems to work. Think about all the new little beings coming in to bodies on this planet during these highly charged times. What will their lives be like living with such aspects? Undoubtedly some will rise to the challenge and be the stronger souls for it, while others will perhaps feel themselves to be the victim of forces they either cannot comprehend or project outwardly rather than owning as a part of themselves.

I said in my last article on Saturn in Sagittarius that I will write later about Saturn in aspect with Neptune, and it is definitely time to address that challenge in the follow-up article to this one. Saturn will also begin to square Chiron, but this won’t be a tight aspect until 2016. Pluto square Uranus has been with us now since at least 2012 and these two make their final exact square aspect from March 15th through the 17th.

Pluto square Uranus. These two transpersonal energies are so highly different that it is no wonder they’ve been clashing. Pluto has come to symbolize hidden power that is often secretive and underground yet incredibly formidable when threatened. Uranus has come to symbolize uprisings, awakenings, and sudden explosions of change that tend to break with the past and institute revolutionary processes that occur with lightening speed. Uranus is the great awakener, while Pluto is the dark lord of the underworld.

Looking back on the tumultuous past three years we see evidence of these clashes in many of the uprisings and power grabs going on in various parts of the global socio-political-economic spheres. Certain parts of the world are hot seed-beds for radical changes that clash with powerful, yet often, secretive organizations of power. We can flesh this out further by noting the signs each planet is traveling through (using the Western Zodiac here). Pluto is stealthily traveling through Capricorn, the sign of organized collective structures of statehood and governmental power. Uranus is swiftly reaching the apex of the sign of Aries, which represents the onward, impulsive rush of new and youthful energies seeking selfhood. The clashes occurring may represent collisions between the old and the new, the radical and the conservative, the impulsive and the strategic. Squares express a conflict of forces, especially when the two planets are obviously different in quality to begin with. It seems that open conflict is now the order of the day.

You can look at these dynamics in a multitude of ways; collectively, socially, and personally. You can see these dynamics at work in the lives of even one group or one individual. I do, however, want to emphasize that neither energy is good or bad in and of itself. It’s really the level of consciousness with which these energies are used that determines whether they are positive forces or negative forces.  Nature may use Pluto to destroy so that new forms may evolve it could be argued.  This is called natural selection and evolution, a Plutonian process.  Pluto in an individual’s chart, for example, can indicate a person who goes the distance with persistence and fortitude, who never gives up.  Uranus in an individual’s chart could indicate a rebellious soul who has no regard for any law other then their own.  With group energy we might also see similar patterns between a group which holds to tradition (Pluto in Capricorn) and a group which wants to radicalize all tradition (Uranus in Aries).  Which is correct?  That type of judgement takes discernment.  Modern technology, for example, could be likened to Uranus energies while Pluto might be a natural flow of evolution.  Has Uranian technology improved modern life or taken us to the brink of extinction?  These are issues to ponder as we look at the energies now manifesting.

But for the sake of brevity, let’s take one example: Racism in the United Sates. I will deal with just one race here; African Americans. We can see many levels playing out.  The United States began with a lot of colonization and slavery as its basis for establishing political and economic power for those who might be considered the ruling class. African-Americans today are still dealing with that historic past and the bias of racism which plagues this nation even today. So there is the clash between hard-core bigotry and those who appear to have ingrained power represented by Pluto in Capricorn, and the rising push of all African-Americans to have equal rights as represented by Uranus in Aries. Within the African-American culture, however, we can see these same dynamics playing out as a struggle to overcome the age-old position of powerlessness (Pluto also in Capricorn) with an inner crisis of action to assert a change in consciousness and become more self-determined and free (Uranus in Aries).

We can witness this dynamic at work in the lives of individual African-Americans such as the parents of the slain Jordan Davis in Florida. Each parent took the tragedy of their son’s death at the hands of a bigoted white man and chose not to succumb to powerlessness. Rather, each chose to rise with strength and enlighten others to the plight of their people in a country still filled with the poisons of racism. They joined forces with a filmmaker to create 3 ½ Minutes, a revealing documentary now showing at the Sundance Film Festival. This is the active square of Pluto/Uranus at work in a strengthening, rather than weakening modality.

Liberation from suppression and control is a theme here in this Pluto/Uranus square whether you look at it as taking place between two collective groups, or within one collective group, between two individuals, or within one individual. It’s a challenging force at work actively playing out in various forms all over the planet.

If you have strong Cardinal energies, which means if you have planets in the Cardinal signs of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn then this dynamic has been and continues to be strong in your life. Where is the conflict between control and freedom going on in your life? Where are you seeking liberation from long-held suppressed energies? Continue to peer more deeply into your own mysteries and take action on the awakenings that are rising to the surface now.

Finally, it seems to me that this square is bringing to light more information on Pluto as the NASA probe New Horizons (Uranus in Aries!) gets ready to start sending back to earth close-up images of this mysterious outer planet.

I want to share some added information on Pluto as written up by NASA. It has been said by astrologers that we are more ready to bring into full consciousness the meaning of a planet’s energies once we connect more physically with it. It looks like the Pluto/Uranus square may also be symbolic of bringing to light greater awareness of this small, but potent outer planet.

Hal Weaver of APL states, “For decades, we thought Pluto was this odd little body on the planetary outskirts; now we know it’s really a gateway to an entire region of new worlds in the Kuiper Belt, and New Horizons is going to provide the first close-up look at them.”

Yes! Pluto may just be symbolic of a gateway into other regions and even new worlds of consciousness! Many astrologers consider Pluto to be representative of evolutionary forces at work.

Here are the rest of the compiled data on Pluto shared by NASA:

Pluto and its Five Moons

It has five known Moons: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Kerberos, and Styx. (Note how many of these moon names factor into the myths on Pluto.)

Pluto is two-thirds the diameter of the Earth’s Moon.

Pluto probably has a rocky core surrounded by ice. (Ice is frozen water. Pluto has come to be known as the ruler of Scorpio which often suffers from ‘frozen water’ in the emotional sense.)

Pluto is one of a group of objects that orbit beyond Neptune in the Kuiper Belt.

Pluto is about twenty times more massive than Ceres, the dwarf planet between Mars and Jupiter that will be explored by the Dawn spacecraft by March 6, 2015. (Remember that in the myth of Persephone and Pluto, Ceres/Demeter was her mother who grieved the loss and abduction of her beloved Persephone once she was taken into the underworld. Are we now ready to understand more fully the grip that myth has had on our collective unconscious all these years?)

Pluto has a 248-year-long elliptical orbit around the Sun.

From 1979 to 1999 Pluto was actually closer to the Sun than Neptune. (This was when Pluto was moving quickly through the sign of Scorpio hastening the evolutionary thrust of its energies.)

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.

It was named by an 11-year-old girl, Venetia Burney, of Oxford, England. (Wow! I actually didn’t know that particular fact.)

This is enough to digest for now.  My next challenging force article will cover Neptune square Saturn.