It’s likely your childhood or adolescence included at least one experience of having an adult remark on your growth. It probably happened upon meeting and greeting somebody you had not seen for a while. It was almost certainly gratifying to have somebody notice what you had gained in height or some other indication of development toward maturation.

It’s also probable you don’t get such affirmations as much anymore. The most positive corollary upon maturing into an adult is usually an inquiry as to whether you have been exercising.

It’s just as probable you have learned to do without the validations received in youth. Adults are expected not to need such props. Indeed, as we get older it’s often satisfying enough not be greeted with a barely suppressed gasp.

Even so, your growth continues. Every day you learn something. Each passing week leaves you with a greater storehouse of experience. Successive months are reliably marked by new insights, and as one year follows another, you evolve. You have to. We all have to. The world is too challenging to remain the same and still survive.

It’s important to be conscious of and acknowledge your own evolution. Even if nobody else notices. Especially if others don’t appreciate the awareness and effort with which you have applied yourself to do and be better.

For without giving yourself the gift of acknowledging your transformations, you can lose sight of what you want to be. And if you lose sight of what you want to be, you can lose control of what you become.

It’s not easy to recognize and advocate for what you want to be. It’s a trial to empower your intended becoming. The path of least resistance is to bemoan what you are not, wasting both your time and yourself in the depths of destructive deprecation. Yet, overcoming your tribulations (self-imposed and otherwise) is often simply a matter of taking the time to reflect on and appreciate yourself for your labors, and for how you have indeed grown because (not in spite) of them.

If astrology is any indication, this coming weekend (an extended “Labor Day” holiday weekend in the U.S.) would be a good time for compassionate contemplations of your personal evolution. At least in part, that’s because the Virgo Sun will form what astrologers would call a ‘trine’ aspect with Pluto in Capricorn just after 7:10 pm EDT (23:10:21 UTC) on Saturday. A trine is a separation of 120 degrees.

To see how the Sun’s trine to Pluto can work for you, consider each of the components (Sun, Pluto and the aspect itself) separately.

Perhaps foremost among all its other manifestations, the Sun represents consciousness. Just as the actual Sun brings day and light to the world, being conscious makes you able to see where you are and where you are going in your life. A holiday weekend, in turn, provides the opportunity for you to step back from the proverbial ‘rat race’, and to will yourself into being present and mindful long enough simply to be aware — so long as you have a point of reference.

Thanks to the unique perspectives offered by both astrology and information recently returned from a robotic spacecraft, Pluto is a good point of reference for you now.

Astrology, alone among oracular methods, allows you both to analyze the past and anticipate something of the future so as to evaluate your present. That’s because the objects that constitute the medium of astrology (the Sun, Moon and planets) are always moving — or, at least, apparently so from our perspective here on Earth. More importantly, those movements are orderly and predictable.

Were Pluto’s movements not predictable, it would have been impossible to launch the New Horizons spacecraft from Earth in 2006, and have it travel billions of miles to arrive precisely on schedule this year. On July 14, it revealed Pluto, its binary partner Charon and their moons (Styx, Nix, Kerberos and Hydra) in heretofore unimagined detail.

The collective consciousness of humanity (and to some extent your personal consciousness) has evolved as a result of the New Horizons space mission and your awareness of it. At the very least, nobody can now picture Pluto without a white, heart-shaped configuration on its surface. That awareness has in turn contributed to your evolution. Furthermore, you can look back and correlate with how things have come to be.

When New Horizons was launched in 2006, Pluto was considered a planet. Since then, some astronomers (not astrologers) changed their mind about that. Your being conscious of the resulting discussion and dispute have contributed to the evolution of how you see your own place in the universe.

Tellingly, the controversy also took place as Pluto was changing signs from Sagittarius (where it was in 2006) to Capricorn (where it is today). That change of sign for Pluto has symbolically represented a change in how Pluto is expressed in your life — a change that has manifested (albeit not predictably) in your personal experience and resulting evolution.

More recently, when the Sun (from Taurus) last formed a trine aspect to Pluto in Capricorn earlier this year, on May 6, New Horizons had not yet arrived at Pluto to reveal that white heart (and many other, less subjective details). In parallel, you can no doubt see some corresponding change in your world (and yourself) compared to four short months ago.

Now, as the Sun approaches its second trine aspect to Pluto this year, you might be able to become more present to those changes, and better flow with them. For flow and the ease implied are among the things that go with trine aspects.

So take some time this weekend. Even if for an hour or two, step away from the televised sports, the social occasions, and the hubbub of so-called recreation (which is often not much different from the hubbub of the rat race) and get into a flow with your own self.

Consider and appreciate how you define yourself now as compared to 2006. Reflect on what has been revealed to (and of) your own heart since May 6. Contemplate what you have done with the awareness you have acquired since July 14, and acknowledge yourself for how you have demonstrably and irrefutably grown. Oh my, how you have!

Offered In Service

Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.