posted January 29, 2006 02:14 AM            

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PLUTO AND URANUS
Social order and social freedom: the eternal tension. Emphasize order, and we risk inviting rigidity and stultification, maybe fascism. Emphasize freedom, and the thin fabric of the social contract may unravel, and we can so easily descend into anarchy and chaos. Sanity seems to lie at a delicate, liminal point of balance between the extremes.
Uranus represents one of those extremes: the radical, total affirmation of human individuality and freedom.

URANUS ITSELF
True individuality, insofar as it can be observed through astrological symbolism, could never be the domain of a single planet. Your true individuality is the totality of your birth chart in all its subtleties, paradoxes and contradictions. But formidable forces are arrayed against the expression of that individuality: the forces of acculturation and socialization, with all their cookie-cutter sameness. It is the Uranian force in us all that is tuned to recognize those threats.
Parents have dreams for us; when we are growing up we are rewarded and punished according to our symmetry and contrast with those dreams. Then peer pressures takes over, shaping us according to the whimsies of pop culture when we are young and "normalcy" as we get older.
These pressures are part of the mechanism whereby culture is transmitted down through the ages. It would be naive to imagine them all to be destructive or negative; that's the kind of thinking that would have us return to some mythical, spontaneous Eden that probably never actually existed. But for there to be life and change in the world, another force must be introduced: wildness, unpredictability. And that is the Uranian domain. This planet does not represent your true individuality — exactly. More accurately, what we encounter here is the guardian of your true individuality. Here is your ability to say, "No!" Here is your capacity to quit a job, to stand up to tyrannical, controlling relatives, to wear purple shoes and carry a parrot on your shoulder, if that pleases you.
When Uranus goes sour, instead of guarding your right to live your own life in your own way, it settles for symbolic rebellions. Instead of quitting the oppressive job, one steals pencils from the office. Instead of telling Uncle Bob to get over himself, one gets glumly, manifestly drunk at the family reunion.
This dark Uranian path is invariably characterized by emotions of defiance and self-righteousness. So, typically, is the higher Uranian path! The difference is that in the healthy expression of Uranian energy, the ego-pumping serves a high purpose: the defense of our inalienable spiritual right to live a life that expresses who we really are, what we really see, and what path through life promises truly to feed us.

URANUS-PLUTO ASPECTS IN THE BIRTH CHART
The Uranian-Plutonian world is an explosive one, poised to spin wildly out of control at any moment. Pluto represents vast stores of passionate energy; Uranus is a detonator by nature, given to sudden, unexpected action.
Image: three shots of tequila followed by an unpremeditated marriage proposal.
Image: waking up with a tattoo.
Image: frying the boss and walking out of the career.
Let's enter this unstable ground cautiously, conservatively. Being human is difficult. Throughout history, it has baffled a lot of bright people. We have two precious resources: our ancestors and the stories they tell. We are the inheritors of a invaluable but flawed gift: human culture. We have ethical systems. We have mythologies to help us make them alive and intelligible. We have art and technology. We have spiritual traditions. These are priceless inheritances. If one were to live an unexamined and unimaginative life in accord with those inherited patterns, his or her biography would unfold as smoothly as can ever be expected in this world.
As soon as we take the Uranian step of breaking out of the established patterns, we are on our own, cut off from the stabilizing wisdom of the tried-and-true pathways and roles. Freedom, for all the rah-rah hype connected with the word, is terrifying. Legitimately so. It can get us into a lot of trouble.
That doesn't mean you shouldn't break out! All it means, in the context of Plutonian realities, is that if you are going to break rank with the norms, you benefit from having your eyes open. Pluto is hard on naivetι. When we release the umbilical cord that ties us to the ancestral safe-ground, we have challenged the gods of chaos. We had better know our own weaknesses and something of life's eternal pitfalls.
Born with a Pluto-Uranus aspect in the natal chart, a person has made a bid for freedom. The trick is to balance that bid with wisdom, discipline, and some kind of personal moral clarity.

THE NATAL CONJUNCTION
The passionate heat of total emotional engagement: that is a basic human need, symbolized by Pluto. As we have seen, such engagement is characterized by single-minded intensity. Even when the behavior is apparently idealistic, there is still inherent in Pluto a certain spirit of self-interest, once the real truth is out. "I'm going to save the whales because it gets me high to do it and if it inconveniences you, well, you can just go somewhere and deal with it!"
This edgy, defiant energy suits Uranus as well as it suits Pluto, and in conjunction, the two planets potentiate each other dramatically. The effect can be a glorious flowering of inventive genius, empowered by a Uranian willingness to face misunderstanding and ridicule, and propelled by a Plutonian openness to ask "forbidden" questions. This capacity to doubt authority and then to act on the doubt is the quintessence of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.
But there is another side to the picture. Have you ever sinned? Fun, huh? The word "sin" is one of those ambiguous gifts from our ancestors. Churches have been far too quick to apply it to harmless, even loving, human activities. I want to use the word sin in a more narrow sense here. In essence, I am spotlighting the notion of consciously doing harm to ourselves or others. At the low-wattage end of the scale, we might have marginal "sins" such as hurting ourselves by eating too much candy — or offering candy to a friend whom we know is concerned about losing weight. The candy tastes good, and sharing the experience might increase our pleasure. Our friend may enjoy it too. But some small degree of harm is part of the picture, and we enter a morally marginal area. Sin? Up to you.
Sleeping with someone in a way that leads to the breakup of a family. That's a clearer example...and a solidly Uranian-Plutonian expression in that it "breaks the rules" (Uranus) and pertains to fundamental appetites (Pluto).
Let's get even darker. Demonstrably, there are human beings who derive pleasure from hitting people, or from committing rape or torture. There are people who like to hurt animals, people who derive pleasure from violating children, people who put cyanide in the aspirin or hallucinogens in strangers' soft drinks. There are people who knowingly, intentionally, spread AIDS or herpes. Not everyone derives joy from such destructiveness, thank God. But all of us, if we are in touch with our Plutonian faculty for self-scrutiny, can recognize something deep inside us that resonates on those wavelengths.
What keeps the "demon" in check? Part of the answer is mysteriously beautiful: inborn decency, compassion, warmhearted kindness. These precious qualities are not rare in the world.
Another part of the answer is less heavenly. Dark destructiveness is kept in check partly by society itself. We have prisons and police officers. We have preachers warning us animatedly of a strange God who excels at devising horrible, eternal tortures for anyone drawn to a list of proscribed pleasures. And we train children to be "good," using systems of punishment and reward. Such "operant conditioning" works splendidly with pigeons in lab experiments, and it works with humans too. All this raises uncomfortable questions regarding how much of our "good" behavior stems from a thin veneer of threats and social training.
When Uranus conjuncts Pluto, the full range of Plutonian hedonism, from the basest of sadistic joys to the heights of ecstatic creativity, are set free from their customary moorings in the social contract. The house where the conjunction falls is danger zone — and a zone of genius. A kind of wild, inventive amorality reigns there. That energy may manifest as a liberating freedom from pointless restrictions, or as the satanic glee of the pain-giver.
Uranus and Pluto were aligned in the sky from roughly 1962 through 1968 — I say "roughly" because there is argument among astrologers about how close two planets must be to constitute a conjunction. Hardly anyone could argue against the notion that those were years characterized by a high degree of experimentation beyond the edges of traditional versions of morality, and that the results ran the gamut we've just explored, high to low.
Even more markedly, the children born in those years, some of whom are just coming into their full adulthood as I write, carry in them a Uranian-Plutonian mix of penetrating honesty, genius, and creative freedom in shaping their relationships, their world and their lives. They also carry the germs of a wild free-fall into endless dark.

THE NATAL HARD ASPECTS
With Uranus in square aspect to Pluto or with an opposition between them, one's Plutonian energies can be subject to unexpected, extreme outbursts. One implication is that it is therefore beneficial to oneself and the local population to remain in close touch with one's hungers and desires! In conventional moralistic terms, this seems like a dubious assertion, hunger and desire often being viewed askance. But Plutonian forces fester if they are left unexpressed. When that kind of fermented Plutonian energy bursts out of its cocoon, the results can be painful for everyone.
An Afro-American woman with Uranus and Pluto square in her birth chart may have an unprocessed Plutonian wound about being watched mistrustfully by the Korean greengrocer when she was a little girl. Back then, she felt a taboo desire to shriek her rage at the suspicious merchant. She may have grown to maturity as a loving, nonracist human being committed to the great work of racial reconciliation in her community. But that angry Plutonian hunger is still there — sitting on the Uranian razor's edge.
It is easy to imagine this woman blowing up in unaccustomed fury periodically — and not necessarily at Korean greengrocers! Then she might feel ashamed and confused by her own behavior, make amends — and unconsciously reset the inner time-bomb.
The moral of the tale is that with hard aspects between Uranus and Pluto, whatever extremities of emotion we carry inside us tend toward unpredictable hair-trigger expressions. The more we contain them, the greater the power of the eventual detonation. The only answer lies in doing the deep Plutonian delving, ferreting out the wounds, and thereby freeing the higher expression of this planetary combination: radical, culture-changing creativity in the face of the eternal human issues of hunger, truth, and the dark.

THE NATAL SOFT ASPECTS
When Uranus and Pluto form trines or sextiles in the natal chart, there is an easy interplay between the mind and material that is typically threatening to it. Here we find the person who is "not easily shocked," who is willing — even eager — to hear stories or details that might make the majority of people feel squeamish. Similarly, unless the rest of the birth chart suggests a high degree of social grace, we find such individuals often disconcerting others with their candor.
Straightforwardness about human physiology, sexuality, incapacity, metabolism, psychology — it can be a precious breath of air in stifling circumstances of "propriety." It can also be hurtful to those who are less prepared to handle legitimately painful or simply embarrassing realities.
Two images reflecting the same soft Uranus-Pluto configuration: In the first image, grandma is lying on her deathbed. After conversing predictably with a long line of conventional well-wishers, the old woman is delighted to welcome her Uranian-Plutonian nephew who says, "I hear you're dying. What's it like?"
The second image: the woman dies, her answer to the nephew still on her lips. He emerges from the hospital room with a breezy, "She's gone!" And something inside the dead woman's husband feels as though it has been kicked. Diplomacy, in other words, does not come automatically through these soft Pluto-Uranus aspects. But it can be developed as a conscious intention.

PLUTO-URANUS EVENTS
Speed and surprise almost always figure in the events symbolized by interactions of Uranus and Pluto. When transits or solar arcs bring these planets into contact with each other, we rarely have much time to think. As a result, they tend to be extremely revealing of our character, our true psychospiritual condition, and our actual priorities and agendas.
The heart of the matter is to realize that much Plutonian truth is held in check simply by social programming. That programming takes two forms, each equally potent. The first is our internalized, often unconscious, training in "goodness" or "normalcy." The second is the present web of interpersonal or communal constraints that bind us. When Uranus enters the picture, the power of all that social programming diminishes. We are typically filled with emotions that are conveyed well by the words, "Why, for two cents I'd..."
The "Plutonian truth" that is liberated by Uranian contact also takes a couple of forms. The first has to do with unconscious, unprocessed material: old angers, humiliations, and violations. Those emotions tend to surface explosively and unpredictably under this kind of stimulus. They may emerge in ways that are aimed truly — "Dad, shut up." Or they may be wildly off the mark — we are suddenly assailed by the full magnitude of our anger toward a domineering father, but we don't understand the real source of the emotion, instead taking it out on other drivers, our co-workers, the family dog.
The second expression of Plutonian truth, as it is liberated by Uranian contact, pertains to sudden risings-to-consciousness of what we really want or need. This can be as shocking to ourselves as it is to those around us, but it is part of an inherently healthy process. "Jack, I'm tired of the city. Let's quit our jobs and move to New Hampshire." Or: "I just can't stomach going to Mass anymore." Or: "I don't care about the impracticality, I've got to have a quarter horse.”

THE MOVING CONJUNCTION
When Uranus and Pluto form a conjunction through solar arcs or transits, the previous paragraphs apply without modification. Truths are surfacing quickly. It is a season of rapid personal evolution and sudden circumstantial change, driven by rising realizations of one's actual desires and emotions. Fairly, it is a selfish time, and it is best simply to accept that, own it, and state it clearly to all who ask or challenge it.
One cautionary tale. A young woman who was raised in a repressive family experiences transiting Pluto crossing her natal Uranus. Throughout her life, her natural fascination with personal adornment and beauty has been characterized by her family as vanity. Her sexuality has been shamed and demonized as the "work of the devil." And she's bought into the whole poisonous package. But in truth, beneath the wounds engendered by that kind of family value system, she is a person with natural appetites. So what happens? When Pluto hits her Uranus, she falls into lusty love with a man who comes from a different kind of background. Her father reacts explosively toward the young couple; the event costs the woman her place in her family of origin. She begins to claim her authentic nature and her real human needs and passions.
That could be the whole story, but the cautionary note arises when we consider that, under the sense of urgency that characterizes these aspects, the woman might move precipitously into marriage or pregnancy. And it is possible that the man upon whom she has bestowed her affections reflects in his own character some of the darker, more twisted dynamics of the relationship she has with her puritanical, damning father. Overtly, her beau is not that way at all. But, in time, he begins manifesting a judgmental attitude toward her "flirtatious" behavior and her "provocative” clothing. He also becomes increasingly closed to physical intimacy with her, rejecting any advances she might make. And then it's the old drearily familiar Plutonian story: what we cannot think out, we must live out – again.

THE MOVING HARD ASPECTS
Pluto transiting or coming by solar arc into square or opposition aspect with the natal Uranus, or Uranus doing the same to the natal Pluto: either way, it portends a volatile situation.
Much of the logic and spirit of such a time has the tone of what we just described in terms of the moving conjunction — except that now very typically we observe compelling outward circumstances adding flaming matches to the gasoline. These outward circumstances tend to force the expression of whatever needs, passions, or desires we've been harboring, and they often do so through extremely odd or improbable events. The safe is left open — will you take the money?
The key to navigating such a period consciously lies in sorting out two distinct joys that feel almost identical. The first joy is driven by an emerging, clarifying sense of our true individuality. It derives from claiming what we actually want and deserve from life. The second joy is a false one, and while it can be quite convincing in the moment, the satisfaction it promises never lasts more than a few days, and is typically soon replaced by remorse. It is the pleasure that comes from acting out the expression of some long-contained anger or lust. The conceptual key here is the notion of displacement — our hot desire for the expensive sports car is really a displacement of our beaten-down hunger for a toy which was withheld from us long ago in an act of pure parental cruelty. Mom or Dad put a better face on our not getting the toy at the time, but at some gut-instinctual level we knew we were receiving their resentment. Thus, the natural attraction the toy held for us was augmented by its unconscious equation with the love that was being withheld. And the whole miserable bag of worms was repressed, only to surface under a hard Uranus-Pluto event.
In the sad version of this tale, we find ourselves deep in debt, driving a flashy car whose charm quickly wears off, to be replaced by embarrassment and confusion. If, on the other hand, we can recognize the emptiness of the acute desire — no mean feat — and just contain it for a while, naturally the mind tends to bring a deeper, truer desire to the surface. Our passion for the Schmoozmobile evaporates, and we realize that we need to go trekking in Nepal...a trip that proves truly pivotal in our personal journey.

THE MOVING SOFT ASPECTS
When Uranus and Pluto are linked by sextiles or trines through solar arcs or transits, opportunities exist first to know and then to attain what we really want. The order is important! The knowledge of what is truly going to satisfy us is not nearly so evident and obvious as we are often led to believe.
Under these soft aspects, the world abounds in messages and signs indicating the nature of your emerging passions. If, for example, you are destined to take up canoeing, you'll run into two or three friends in the same week who all mention canoes. You'll feel a more-than-polite interest in what they are saying, even though you've never thought twice about canoes.
Can you register that emotion and begin to draw the unexpected conclusion? Synchronicities — omens, really — such as the canoe-imagery will proliferate. The question is, do you pay them any attention? They are the gift of the moving Uranus-Pluto trines and sextiles, and what they offer is priceless: they point in the direction of joy.
Apart from a few biological basics, human desires and passions are extremely diverse. Some people love astrology; others find it boring — and prefer baseball...which may bore the astrologer to tears. There is no right or wrong in this, only individuality. Furthermore, these enlivening passions are subject to rapid change. Ten years ago I paid little attention to horticulture; now I am an avid gardener — but I am not driven by the hunger to hike about the local forests that I used to feel.
Keeping the Uranian individuality in our Plutonian passions is the ultimate point of any interaction between these two planets. Under the moving soft aspects, we can read the inner and outer signs and take advantage of the emerging, fluxing opportunities we recognize. That's the point. And if we sleep through the event? Then, as always, the shock of any subsequent hard Uranus-Pluto aspects is proportionally more nerve-wracking and perilous.

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