SOLAR SPOTLIGHTS
OCTOBER 19| Sun/Pluto Square at 26*09'
Today the sun will square Pluto, and any astrology cookbook will tell you that this aspect typically manifests through some type of power dynamic or outer/inner pressures needing rebalanced…
Further, there could be the need for a necessary breakdown—or there could be an extremely cleansing, validating, and empowering breakthrough. However this square emerges for you—it will likely feel forceful, overloaded, heavy, or challenging, though these could also be felt from within if you’re unwilling to cooperate through whatever it is, as this square can also require a letting go, release, or purging otherwise.
Whether it’s release or cooperation, confrontation, or an active avoidance—an action will be necessary, if not demanded.
To look at these energies within a broader horizon, this sun/Pluto square also marks the near-ending of the solar cycle with Pluto—one that began back on January 16th (through the same degree it will aspect now, in Capricorn), and was challenged on April 18th (from Aries), became opposed and then peaked on July 20th (in Cancer), and is now being challenged again, through Libra… this cycle will end and begin anew on January 18th, 2023, in Capricorn.
In other words, whatever manifests today, or re-emerges for you—it could ‘belong’ to something that’s been building over time… for better or worse, looking at whatever it is as an ‘overall concept’ that likely has a beginning and ending could provide much insight.
This square will occur though a degree that actually requires ‘a broad overview’ or horizon through which to take it all in, as these energies highlight “a time for looking at the whole picture rather than focusing on the details”… and may challenge you in ways which provoke you to flee, or avoid, or otherwise escape—particularly if you’re able to see that which you would rather not—though this is not the solution… consider that symbolically, this is the sun shining light upon the Underworld, upon the darkness—where would you hide?
Sure, some rest and respite might be nice (because this aspect can also show up as a simple case of extreme lethargy or outright exhaustion, and beyond that, there’s a ton of ‘heavy’ and ‘extreme’ nearly anywhere we look these days) …but not in avoidance.
In looking at the overall, are you able to identify any patterning? —perhaps the dates above could lend you an even deeper awareness toward whatever the sun has been trying to shine light upon within your personal reality throughout the year…
Tarot writer Jessica Dore (within the chapter on the 4 of swords—which is associated to the third decan of Libra, which the sun is currently moving through), writes that “though it can feel threatening, even terrifying, we have a choice to relate to [something which consumes us, like] loneliness as an ingredient that might do wonderful things to us, that can ‘ferment and season’ us like nothing else, if we can let it…” and quotes poet David Whyte, “through being equal to fierce circumstances, we make ourselves larger than the part of us that wants to flee while not losing its protective understandings about when it might be appropriate…”
Allow me to pinpoint the detail on fermentation—Pluto is the planet of fermentation.
The word ferment describes ‘agitation; unrest; excitement; commotion; tumult…’ and so the sun, symbolically, is highlighting these emotions—bringing this energy to the surface; the Middle English origin of the word fermentare meant ‘to cause to rise’.
Today’s sun/Pluto square influence may possibly be offering a reality-check in an effort to ground you to, well—the real and raw reality of your circumstances, in an effort to offer you the awareness it might require for you to make changes… as there may be “a need for calm objective observation… to bring new information to light—things that you weren’t able to see or know previously.”
Keep in mind that the essence of this sun/Pluto cycle is to provoke within you an inner trust and inner knowing that you yourself thoroughly trust—reminding you that you trust within yourself enough to lean into whatever it is… though whatever it is might happen to be something you would really prefer not to deal with or confront, navigate, or resolve.
Venus, on the sun’s tail, will follow later tonight and exact its square to Pluto—which I will regard its ‘broader perspective’ in a separate post.
Dore, J. ‘Tarot for Change.’ VIKING; 2021.
Hill, L. ‘360 Degrees of Wisdom.’ A Plume Book; 2004.
Roche, D. ‘The Sabian Symbols.’ Astrology Classics; 1998, 2010.