Jupiter square Pluto

It is difficult for the average Astrologer to extricate one square from the multiple T-square pile-up these days, but this coming Sunday’s Jupiter square Pluto seems to me to highlight light and dark, and faith and belief in our society.

Many of us are feeling exhaustion (from the Saturn square Pluto) at the same time as high energies (from Jupiter square Pluto) pulling both ways at us now.  Unlikely, but true.  The focus this Sunday (25th July) is on the rip-roaring energy of Jupiter square Pluto.

Most of the world was horrified by the exploits of Osama bin Laden, but a significant proportion saw him as a hero.  In the U.K. recently, Raoul Moat’s killing spree shocked most people, but sufficient members of the population sympathized with him to launch him as a hero on various websites.

The cosmos and the psyche are a hologram which we explore while we are in incarnation.  We all have a starting point at the beginning of each incarnation which is based on what has gone before.  We also have an agenda of what we want to explore in our experience for this lifetime.  Sometimes that involves a different extreme than before, for example a Jew can be re-born as an Arab, and vice versa.

Jupiter (planet of religion) and Pluto (planet of elimination) are important forces in our society, now as ever.

In our Western society there is a strong contingent of atheism and pride in human potential, which has an Aries flavour.  Aries scientist Richard Dawkins has popularity, intellect and charisma, and a huge following. I have close friends who base their life philosophy on his writings, notably “The Selfish Gene” and “The God Delusion”.  Hard on his heels is fellow Arien Christopher Hitchens, author of “God is not Great”, who according to the Observer “is a familiar presence on American cable politics shows.  He is a formidable participant in public debates, a regular on the lecture circuit.”  His religion planet Jupiter natally is beset by 5 squares and is unsupported in his chart.  Maybe it wasn’t always thus: somewhere in his incarnational history he could have been a crusader who became disillusioned when God failed to back him.  His pious Anglican Christian sibling rival Peter Hitchens started out as an atheist. No doubt they have travelled together many lifetimes.  They share a Venus-Mars conjunction, and Chiron (the “wounded healer”) in Sagittarius, the sign of religion.  Peter also has a difficult Jupiter natally, opposed by Saturn and the Moon.

Bush and Blair believed themselves to be the good guys in their religious crusade.  Many have turned against religion because of its promotion of war throughout history.  Both Atheists and the fundamental religious have at times turned against Astrology (it’s a funny old world…).  Those new agers working exclusively with the light are sometimes criticized by those who feel it important to embrace the darkness.  If you start out with the light sooner or later you meet the darkness.  The psychotherapist will meet the shadow self.  Incarnation has a positionality, which can dissolve into unity in the between-life perspective, or in meditation.  One man’s meat is another man’s poison, and we all have a starting point and a repertoire of experiences.  Our faiths (Neptune and Jupiter) often determine our path in life, and the wider our outlook the more choices we may have.

Before the discovery of the planet Uranus, the dualism of spirituality and materialism were seen as the struggle between Jupiter and Saturn respectively.  But with the discovery of the outer planets, the world is seen through deeper lenses.  Pluto has X-ray vision and sees through the material world.  Now in the scientifically advanced era of quantum physics and the contemplation of black holes, even Astrologers are on new thresholds of awareness: witness the travels to the Galactic Centre, the Super-Galactic Centre and the awareness of asteroids in the blog of Human Design expert Kim Gould (link on my Contact page).  Our horizons are wider, our choices more mind-boggling, and our responsibilities greater now..

If you have Jupiter square Pluto in your natal chart, this aspect is about power, and about power struggles within yourself and with other people.  It is about will, self-will, will power and divine will.   When you are locked into personality needs, this can be quite difficult, but it can become easier as you come into your higher consciousness.  At that level you are able more easily to see others’ needs and how they interact with your own, the needs of society, the needs of a group, the needs of the whole, and the Divine Plan.  It is a process where you might start with your own personality needs, but if they are blocked you work your way out in an expanded way, and if there is a complete block you may end up surrendering to the divine, or offering the problem to the divine because you just can’t work out or understand what the divine will is within the situation.  You’ve had a lifetime (this one!) of practice with this, and can more easily help those who will be struggling with it.

The Jupiter square Pluto experience  will challenge us to define our faiths, beliefs and choices.  We are likely to meet extremes, and choose between the light, the dark or the middle way.  All roads will eventually lead home, but some routes are more circuitous than others, and some consequences take more than one lifetime to undo.  Whether we use the prop of the Divine, or go it alone, that is the question.