Late tonight or early tomorrow (depending on your time zone) the Sun will make its more-or-less annual conjunction with slow-but-sure Pluto. Notably, the Sun’s yearly merger with Pluto has been taking place in Capricorn since December of 2008. Further distinguishing the Sun’s impending meeting with Pluto, Mercury will end its retrograde motion a little more than 24 hours later, in the penultimate degree of Sagittarius.
Capricorn is distinguished by astrologers as a cardinal earth sign. When the Sun enters a cardinal sign, the season changes. When any other object enters a cardinal sign, it is thought to emulate the Sun. It essentially correlates with what you may call a new season for the qualities associated with the object in question.
Regardless of where you live, the seasonal change that goes with the Sun entering Capricorn is plain to see with your own eyes. After the Capricorn solstice, the Sun essentially turns around. After rising continuously farther south on the eastern horizon, and setting farther and farther south on the western horizon day after day for six months (following the Cancer solstice in June), the Sun begins rising and setting more and more towards the north — right after entering Capricorn in December. That is no small thing.
As a result of the Sun’s biannual turnaround, the trending length of daytime relative to night changes. As result, the weather changes, and your life with it. In the coming months, your wardrobe, diet and daily routine will most likely transition from one mode to another.
Being a cardinal sign, Capricorn therefore corresponds with new beginnings. Being an earth sign, Capricorn implicitly correlates with all that is substantial and lasting. The simple fact that Pluto takes nearly two-and-a-half centuries to make one orbit of the Sun (and a single circuit of the 12 zodiac signs) conveys a clear correspondence with the long rise and fall of nations and cultures that distinguishes entire eras in history.
Essentially, clothing Pluto in Capricorn’s motif implies that you are present to witness and participate in a turning point long in coming. To have the Sun’s merger with Pluto taking place in Capricorn indicates you would best be conscious that you are living in the midst of that turnaround.
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Finally, to have Mercury conduct one of its own turnarounds at nearly the same time (albeit in Sagittarius) emblematically serves to encourage your being mindful of what a turnaround is — and, in fact, what it is not.
A turnaround is not an end. It is a transition. Songs do it. With the repetition of a distinctive musical phrase, a song signals the end of one verse (or refrain) and the beginning of yet another chord progression.
Trains and trolleys do it also. A set of rails can’t keep going in the same direction forever. Yet, trains keep running so long as there is somebody to conduct them. Similarly, songs keep being heard so long as there is somebody to play and sing them.
That, if anything, is the message in the astrology this weekend. There is no evidence historical times are coming to an end. Rather, it is for you to participate in determining where history will turn from here.
Given that Pluto has been continuously in Capricorn for more than nine years (with nearly seven years to go) you don’t have to feel any rush. It is, however, clearly time that you become aware of where you are standing in the cosmically grand scheme of things, so as to eventually figure out what leverage you will want to apply.
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Wonderful clarity, Len! I am delighted to be alive to see/participate in this transition given my natal Sun 28 Capricorn (born in 1941). While we have become more aware now of what appears to be total disruption of “normal”, many sources indicate positive changes upcoming as we humans make new choices based on increased consciousness. The rebel or renovation side of Capricorn has been awakened.
“A turnaround is not an end, it is a transition.” Thank you, for such a poignant and meaningful discussion of Pluto and Mercury this weekend Len. Transition, written as you have described, elicited in me a rhythmic and necessary harmonious feeling, perhaps, in part, now that Mercury has turned direct. You call us to be attuned to transition, in fact, to not only be aware of the transition but to participate “in” transition’s calling, which is a normal part of living. All-too-often we resist transition, and by doing so, we resist the very gift that change of perspective can bring to our own maturing process. By embracing and even participating in the transition process, we become more engaged in our growth process, more responsible for our learning and awareness, and more alive because we are participating! Thank you for bringing awareness to this meaningful time!
If we can calm our selves with the rhythm of the transitions, we can take on our personal challenges ever-so-better! Better yet, we may see the challenges merely as transitions that might not need to be tackled and instead, be better understood by turning around our thinking about what we are perceiving and/or how we should respond thereto.
Nothing is permanent, all is transitory, we can’t control that which we have before us but we can control our perceptions and reactions.
In my opinion, these planets are playing a role in underscoring how we can value transition and our ability to alter our perceptions and play a more active vice passive role in our own lives. I love such reminders b/c it’s so easy (and lazy) to sit back and hope your dreams will come to you but if you don’t actively participate in the transition then you fail to reap the positive benefits of your energy. Transition is necessary and welcomed.
Namaste’