When Uranus and Pluto are Beating You Up
Parts One and Two
Part One - The Uranian Side

During the recent and on-going Uranus square Pluto configuration, anyone with Uranus or Pluto aspecting a natal planet--particularly an inner planet or key point and particularly by conjunction, square or opposition--may have experienced some rough waters.  Even those who have done considerable inner work are not immune to the psychological forces unleashed in synchronicity with this Uranus-Pluto transit.  Even when we intellectually know that our karmas are destined and that the world is illusion, under the pressure and stress brought on by these forces, one may still find oneself asking, "why is this happening to me?" and "how do I handle this energy that feels like one body blow after another?" 

At these times, we may need to be reminded that events--both mundane and psychological--associated with the Uranus-Pluto energies are generally signals from the unconscious for us to pay attention to areas of our lives/psyches that need to be transformed.  [See "The Current Uranus and Pluto Square" at Aries-Gemini in Archives.]  A great mystic once said, "Please remember that this world is a furnace through the fires of which the soul is purified."  Until we have reached that state, which very few attain, of being permanently and eternally merged with the Divine, we will always have inner work to do. 

So, the first task is to decode the signal from the unconscious.  If Uranus is the planet most closely aspecting your natal planet, your issue is likely to be one of attachment.  Attachment enslaves you to that to which you are attached.  The Uranian energy is one of liberation and freedom.  Whatever the status quo which the Uranus transit is signaling you to leave, you would not be stuck there if you were not attached to it.  And, leaving it would not be painful unless the attachment was deep.  You may look to the planet(s) involved, as well as to the house of both the planet aspected and of Uranus for clues to from what it is you need to detach.  Look to Pluto for the source of the deep emotional energy that is holding you to your attachment. It is, in large part, because of your deep emotional investment in that to which/to whom you are attached that makes it so difficult for you to become detached from what the Universe/your unconscious is pulling you away.  As the unconscious pull to detach becomes stronger and more insistent, the urge and struggle for control over the object of attachment or over the situation that is forcing you to detach is only likely to become stronger if the pull to detach is resisted.  As the tension and conflict between these two forces intensifies, so will your emotional pain unless, of course, you find some way to block, deaden or distract yourself from that pain.  Meanwhile, the Uranian energy that wants to liberate you from your attachment(s) is only likely to continue to shake your world.

Having identified the issue(s) that Uranus-Pluto symbolizes, the task at hand, then, is to work consciously to free yourself from the attachment(s) that the Universe has determined you must give up.  Of course, you may ignore this task, suffer through the remainder of the Uranus-Pluto transit and bear the consequences of remaining stuck in your attachment(s).  Better, of course, to address the issues and try to resolve them.  This may (or may not) require you to identify the source of your emotional attachment and consciously realize that it is no longer useful or valuable to retain those emotions.  Perhaps those emotions are rooted in pain and fear, especially of losing control.  Those roots may need to be addressed.

It is also likely that you may need to engage in a conscious process of letting go your attachment.  An aid to this letting go may be to focus on the freedom that letting this attachment go will give to you (and, if a person is the object of attachment, to that person, as well).  It may also be valuable to realize the appropriateness of you letting go of this attachment at this time.  It may be that you need to accept that the person or situation to which you are attached does not need you to be in control.  Freeing the object of your attachment may be difficult but, if it is seen as an act of love, you may receive consolation from your own Higher Self that you have made this loving choice. 

You may, of course, be conscious of and welcome the change that is coinciding with the Uranus transit but find that there are obstacles that are blocking the change from taking effect or are firmly resisting the Uranian transformation that you desire.  These obstacles may be within you in the form of fears (particularly of losing control or of being exposed) or other emotional barriers.  They may also be external in the form of powerful people or interests who are trying to preserve the status quo in order to maintain their own power or who are trying to exercise personal control over you.  Internal obstacles, of course, are easily identifiable as undealt with forces and complexes within your own subconscious that are holding you back.  You generally need to bring these to the surface so that their unreality can be exposed to the light of consciousness. 

External obstacles are usually more difficult for people to identify for what they really are--projections of your own subconscious fears and desires.  It will generally be necessary for you to identify the inner obstacles that these outer obstacles represent and deal with those energies.  You can also realize that no one or no system has power over you unless you allow this.  Probably the most frequent way in which someone allows themselves to be controlled by another is that they are attached to that person or system and/or to the rewards (or fear of punishment) associated with the person or system.  Freeing yourself of that attachment can go a long way to reducing the power that is held over you.  Remember, that even if the power blocking change seems to be directing its controlling energy impersonally, it is your attachment to the results that you wish to happen that is the issue. 

Also, keep in mind that it is an internal freedom and change in which you are being called upon to engage.  Even after freeing yourself from your attachments connected with the obstacle, the obstacle may still persist in an external form.  Reactionary forces will still be operating in the world and that megalomaniac may still be your boss.  Even though these obstacles may be projections of your subconscious, the subconscious is more deeply rooted than you can imagine.  These forces are likely set in motion by karmas that may have been produced lifetimes ago and they must be gone through.  However, you can go through them in bondage or you can go through them freely with their effect just touching you lightly.

Of course, it is always a good thing to be receptive to those flashes of intuition that can come to you from the Higher Mind and from the more elevated levels of your own consciousness.  Making Uranus your friend in this way can point you in fruitful directions for turning difficult times into opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.  And, don't forget to make Pluto your friend, as well.  Do not be afraid to shine the light of awareness into the dark places of your psyche.  For, that boogieman in the closet might just turn out to be nothing but a shadow and disappear when the lights are turned on.  The forces associated with Pluto generate their own insights, these coming from your source-depths rather than from "above."  Be receptive to these insights and uncoverings as well and you may be shown avenues leading toward transformation.  Both Pluto and Uranus symbolize transformative energies at their highest manifestations so reach through the darkness and transform!

Part Two - The Plutonian Side

When it is Pluto that is the strongest aspector to your planets during this time of Uranus-Pluto square, the issues that you are facing are likely to be associated, in one way or another, with power and control.  Change, the energy symbolized by Uranus, is likely to be challenging to your feeling of being in control, of having power over your life (or over others) or to your emotional equilibrium (which may be being disrupted by your fear of losing control, power or your seemingly in-control life as you formerly knew it).  You may feel that sudden changes in your life have left you powerless or that things have suddenly and inexplicably spun out of control.  The Uranian challenges you are facing may even have taken the form of greater avenues of freedom that have opened up to you--avenues of freedom that, perhaps, you do not necessarily want or that you may feel ambivalent toward because along with greater freedom comes the risk of becoming exposed, of having your old, comfortable situation ripped away from you or of losing old patterns that allowed you to control your world (or at least feel that you were in control).

One dynamic associated with this transit may be that as you are called to greater freedom and detachment (Uranus), your instinct is to cling more tightly to your present (or past, if inevitable change has already occurred) situation, trying desperately to remain in control.  Like a swimmer caught by a rip tide, the more you fight change and the forces symbolized by Uranus, the deeper you are likely to be dragged down into Plutonian turmoil.  Like the swimmer, the secret to surviving this transit is to let go and surrender to the undertow, having faith that the Ocean of Existence will pop you up safely in calmer waters.  This, of course, is apt to be all counter-intuitive and counter-emotional for you and will probably demand a huge leap of faith on your part.  It is not easy to surrender to the Plutonian forces in your subconscious for this may mean squarely facing (and freeing yourself from) your shadow content.  It may mean letting go of your support systems instead of grabbing onto them.  It may mean recognizing that old patterns and attachments are no longer relevant and have turned destructive.  Like a thrashing companion swimmer who will only pull you down, these attachments and your attempts to hold onto them will only drown you in a sea of pain and sorrow. 

The Uranus-Pluto square may also express itself in a feeling that you can only move toward greater freedom and personal liberation at the cost of the power you have accumulated and through which you "control" your life and your surroundings.  This may be an unacceptable trade off for you but Uranus will not relent in its challenge to your Plutonian constructs.  Again, your response to these Uranian challenges may very well be to even more fiercely try to exert your power and control.  It is likely, though, that levers of power and control that formerly worked well for you are, suddenly, no longer functioning.  When this occurs, your emotional response may be one of panic or a feeling of sudden dis-empowerment.  You may find yourself being caught up in fear that you are now at the mercy of others and their power agendas, unable any longer to defend and protect yourself.  That can send you into a paranoid spiral, resulting in you trusting no one, especially those whom you perceive as wanting to change your world.

The only real solution to the challenge that the Uranian energy is imposing on you may very well be to let go of your impulse to hold on and control and embrace the Uranian freedom that is being offered to you.  This is likely to require you to realize certain perennial Truths born of those flashes of insight from the Higher Mind (or, perhaps, you are already well aware of those Truths but need to shift your perspective to be guided by them).  Realization implies not only an intellectual acknowledgement but an incorporation of these Truths into your attitude toward your current situation (to which the old adage, “easier said than done” is particularly relevant considering that we are here facing a powerful square).  It is also possible that before you can truly integrate the Uranian vision, you must confront your Plutonian depths and allow the sharp Uranian light to shine into those depths to expose and cleanse them—hard Plutonian inner work. 

It may be useful to explore the relationship between power and attachment.  In a real sense, attachment is about having power over and attempting to control that to which we are attached.  For, somewhere in our subconscious, we know that we can never really possess those people, situations or things to which we are attached.  Our ego-mind, of course, will always try to protect itself from this knowledge so that we can continue to function in the illusion of a separate existence.  Secretly knowing that the objects of our attachment are not really ours, under the illusion of ego, we nevertheless are driven to control and possess them.  The compulsion to have power over the objects of attachment is a reaction to our well-grounded subconscious fear that we will ultimately be separated from them.  Of course, if we were bathed in the Truth of essential Oneness, we would not have this fear for we would truly realize that there never is any separation. 

As with any transit, of course, the manner in which you experience the Uranus-Pluto square will be colored by the planets which are being aspected, their house placements, and the role of Uranus and Pluto in your natal chart.

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