Having reflected on the meaning of Pluto through Sagittarius, (1) its recent re-classification, and the constellational mythology of its current alignment with the Galactic Centre, we look to Pluto’s transit through Capricorn.
From 2008 until 2023, Pluto will travel through the zodiac sign of Capricorn, an earth sign, ruled by Saturn, Lord of Manifestation. The twelve signs of the Zodiac are like stages in the hero’s journey, where we encounter experiences, lessons, tests and trials, paralleling the Earth’s annual journey around the Sun.
The different qualities of the signs are like prismatic colourations of the One Light which the Sun symbolises, and the structure of the zodiac is created by the relationship of the Sun and the Earth, our Home.
The Sun enters Capricorn at the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, just before Christmas.
Although this is the darkest time of year, light begins to increase.
In the sign of Capricorn, we learn not to fear experiences of darkness and contraction, in the reassurance that the beginnings of increase are found there too.
William Holman Hunt: 'Light of the World'
The Way of the Mountain Goat
In Capricorn, we learn to move steadily towards a goal, to accept difficulties and to persist against the odds. Here are the challenges of the material plane, where we encounter character-building experiences in the form of the delays, blocks, and obstacles which can occur in the process of manifesting our intentions. Like the mountain-goat, who can live with little sustenance at high altitude, we learn to stay focused, and meet with integrity our duties and responsibilities in the world as we climb. We are stringent, disciplined and dedicated, returning from fantasy and the realm of possibility into actuality and the present. We learn to work with Time, rather than against it. Indeed, Saturn sometimes called ‘Father Time’.
Through experience of how astrology works, we understand that there are many other kinds of time. Our familiar ‘clock time’ which synchronises activities all over the world, is not the only one. Each planet has its own cycle, and relates in turn to every other planet in an exquisite tapestry of meaning, which can also be ‘tracked’ in Time. The Capricornian skill of manifesting things and making them real is intimately connected with the sense of timing.
The spiritual path also winds ‘down’ the mountain (2) and brings contact with the world, society and its ways, the body, the realm of time, form and substance, and the inevitability of mortality. This profound recognition underpins the activity of Capricorn. The mountain goat depicts with poignant accuracy the solo-ness of personal effort required for attaining excellence in our chosen field. We humans need to create and achieve, and can do so more wisely with this awareness supporting our endeavours.
The Way of the Sea-Goat
The earlier Capricorn symbol, that of the sea-goat, reveals this underlying vulnerability which itself can be a major stimulus to achievement. Here, we feel it safer to be in control than to be controlled! Making positive use of this protective impulse, without succumbing to isolation and defensiveness, is a high art in Capricorn. Here, then, the ‘soul-work’ includes this vulnerability, even as the world presents its harshness. We retain connection with Source, our ‘fish tail’ still immersed in the waters of our origins. We crawl tentatively on to dry land, not in the manner of a returning hero, but rather as a vulnerable creature, albeit one with a potent sense of direction. We sense ourselves as a link in the chain of evolution.
In Capricorn, there is a recognition that all material belongings and endeavours, indeed our very bodies, are ‘on loan’. Whatever we own, or have accumulated in the form of money, property, belongings, achievements, status and power ….. will not go with us when we die. We recognise that ultimately we depend on the earth for our material existence, and that all forms have a beginning, middle and end in their allotted life span.
We are invited in Capricorn to take another ‘Giant Step’ in growing up spiritually. Naiveté is lost, but innocence is gained as this vulnerability is exposed, along with the maturity to ‘hold’ it without projecting it. In this way we avoid some of the pitfalls of the negative hierarchical ways, to which Capricorn can be prone. We look for the unity in the apparent separateness of phenomena, and surrender into acceptance of the uniqueness of our own destiny within this multiplicity.
Pluto in Capricorn
Vulnerable like the sea-goat, we perceive that we are not separate from the ocean of creation, and see just how precarious is our ecological situation. With Pluto in Sagittarius, we saw the world accelerate into a mania of wastefulness, greed, expansionism and denial. Questioning who is really pulling the strings that control the puppets familiar on the world stage will yield some very uncomfortable insights for more and more people.
The notion of ‘Conspiracy Theory’ needs to include recognising the major conspiracy that we are all part of … to give power without challenge to those who take it, to our own detriment and that of the planet as a whole. There are many ways in which ‘reality’ is manipulated by those who stand to benefit from creating fear, despair, disaster and deprivation. This is one meaning of the word ‘Terrorism’ – a belief in the power of fear.
Who will define your reality?
With Pluto in Capricorn, we must honour our own inner experience, lest someone else define it for us, namely The State, The Corporation, The Bank, The Health System, The Educational System, not to mention the Radio, Television, Internet and so on. In this world of ideological conflict, political ‘correctness’ and the proliferation of subtle tyrannies in the form of standardisation, labelling and numbering, we can stand firm in our sense of inner authority, thus empowered to discern, choose and act accordingly.
The pressure to conform with ‘The Great They’ will increase. However, Pluto in Capricorn will help us to question everything, believe nothing, and also, most importantly, to stay clear of the trap of cynicism … like Hades with his helmet of invisibility, we can move unseen amidst the world of consensus lies, making a difference in ways big and small, depending on our unique individual calling in this regard. Essence is more important than form .....
