The interesting and challenging thing about this moment is that we know the
old forms aren't working. But we can't yet see what the new forms will be.
~Krista Tippett
I feel we are in an evolutionary process with its fits and starts.
~Jack Kornfield
When I studied and practiced astrology many years ago, I had a deep and abiding love/hate relationship with Pluto, god of the underworld; which represents the archetypal energies of death, rebirth, and transformation. I loved the profound changes that the energies of this planet wrought; real, lasting, all the way to the bones shifts; caterpillar to butterfly evolutions. But I didn't love what led there; the chaos and confusion, the resistance, the painful dying away of the old, the wrenching letting go, then sitting, knowing not for how long, in the barrenness, the penetrating discomfort, the terror at times, of the unknown. Pluto does so love to take his time, his fire is the long, unbearably slow burning one, leaving you despairing if there would ever be light at the end of the tunnel, and not only light, but regeneration, renewal, and, finally, the coveted, promised, long hoped for rebirth.
Nothing is ever sure when languishing in the dark, except maybe assurances born of ancient wisdom traditions and myths, the writings of mystics and Jung, plus trust accrued watching nature year after year renew itself, though even those are lost for long stretches of time when one is engulfed by stormy seas. I was reminded yesterday that the darkest time comes just before dawn. The thing is, at least with actual dawn, we know the sun will rise, we are even privy these days to exactly when it will arrive. We have no such timing assurances otherwise. It's like what I've heard about walking the labyrinth. You have no idea where you are, how far you have traveled from the beginning, or how close or how far you might be from the completion.
If ever a god personified the great Mystery, it is Pluto. In the first years of therapy so many years ago now it seems like another lifetime, my nights were filled regularly with dreams of being thrown overboard into the deep night sea, slipping and falling down watery black abysses, being capsized, cascading deep into the ocean or deep into the bowels of the earth. Again and again nocturnal plunges, always into darkness, always into water, always descending, while intense and raw emotions like rage, greed, jealousy, revenge, and guilt plagued me in the daylight hours, insisting on being recognized as part of the human experience.
It taught me that when visiting the underworld, we are really visiting the unconscious, and also, so importantly, that the Plutonic journey, though so challenging, is a benevolent one. It invites us to look into the deepest and darkest parts of ourselves, to let go of all that keeps us from wholeness, to find the treasure buried there and claim it as our own; and to find one's deepest meaning of life. Though I often went kicking and screaming, I did learn through the many experiences to honor and even appreciate the death-rebirth cycle, the process that is at the very heart of all life; for it is necessary that what does not serve our highest good be allowed to pass away so that we can evolve, which all of life longs for and is created for, so that our untapped potentials and our truest natures can be born.
The same is true collectively. When I am in fear or despair about what is happening in our country, I take comfort knowing that nothing new can be born without the old dying away. Not that understanding that eases the primal emotions that I and so many others experience because it doesn't. But it adds context and it provides meaning; a container to hold it all. Yes the election turned out for good, and yes, I was moved beyond words by the beauty, the humanity, the joy even of Inauguration Day. Still, there is much in the unconscious of our country that needs to rise to the light of day and be dealt with so that something completely new can be born. Biden and the goodness, the empathy, the compassion, the knowledge and ability he embodies aside, we are deep in it; in for the long haul slow burn; we as a nation, a world, really, are in the middle of the archetypal descent, we are walking the labyrinth, burning in the crucible. The old is dying away, it is intense and will likely remain so for quite some time, the new as yet unknown.
As an aside, though possibly more important than we can know, it is interesting to note that while Pluto~and others from different mythologies around the world~is god of the underworld, the archetypal journey itself, the sacred descent, has long been the province of goddesses and the divine feminine. The best known is Persephone, from Greece, who saved the world from much suffering with her compassion, by agreeing to spend half of the year in Hades after she was kidnapped by Pluto in order to help those who die to make the transition. I think of the Dalai Lama saying that it is women who will save the world. I think of Kamala Harris, and what an incredible gift she is to us. I think of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, I think of Ayanna Pressley, I think of Stacey Abrams and Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren and LaTosha Brown. I think of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. I think of Krista Tippett, Joanna Macy, Greta Thunberg. I think of Amanda Gordon. Wow. Brave, stunning, passionate, creative, wise, beyond capable women. And so many, many more.
One morning, also in that other lifetime, I woke and wrote the following dream in my journal that until then had been filled with all of those other dreams: I am in a large building made of some kind of light-colored, smooth stone. There is a high domed ceiling, and the whole space is radiant with light. In the middle of the space is a grand staircase made completely of white marble. I wear a long white dress trimmed in gold and am walking up the stairs, at my side, my companion, a beautiful large, golden bear.
