Francis X Caulfield

Pluto in Capricorn Pt 2: 2008 ~ 2024
Soul Making on Mother Earth

My Body is My Earth.
As I Heal My Body, I Heal My Earth

The contents of Part Two contain more specific planetary alignments and processes that relate to Pluto’s transit of Capricorn. Part 1 is available at franciscaulfield.com/articles.html

Let’s begin with a look at Saturn, the ruling planet of Capricorn. Saturn rules the life long process of becoming conscious and is the planet of reality. It represents structures, routines, discipline, and social roles (parents, authorities), everyday reality, your overall status in life. Saturn, known as Chronos in Roman myth, is karma, fate, destiny, and rules the process of time.

If Saturn is in bad shape in a natal chart then one is prone to fear, inhibitions, and unconscious behaviors that are tied to the past. Life is hard, depressing, burdensome and wearying. If you don’t handle Saturn issues well in your life, you get the booby prize. Ignorance reigns. Unfortunately this is the Saturn that the world mind and the majority of people are acquainted with. A good Saturn however is capable, highly functional, reliable, ages well, is the giver of a long and fruitful life. With conscious discipline we become disciples of life. In alchemy, Saturn transmutes the lead of ignorance into the gold of consciousness. Saturn then represents liberation. This is the Saturn as a valued teacher, well worth attaining.

Another appellation of Saturn is that of the dweller on the threshold. The first visible planet the soul encounters in its incarnational journey onto the earth is Saturn and the last visible planet the soul encounters when its sheds its mortal body is Saturn. It is a planet of supreme and utmost importance! Saturn rules over the earth plane and, along with the Moon, oversees the soul’s incarnational journey. Remember that the Capricorn/Cancer axis represents our ancestral inheritance. Cancer is the personal mother and Capricorn the impersonal or earth mother. Saturn as ruler of Capricorn is the ruler of the earth’s mysteries, a very important planet indeed!

With Pluto’s entry into Capricorn, Pluto comes under the aegis of Saturn. The rulers of a sign like the rulers of a country, kingdom, corporations, or households always determine outcomes of the affairs of that country. For instance, Bush and his cronies are according to most polls taking the country in the wrong direction. Many would prefer Al Gore as a leader as he is more in touch the reality of people’s lives and would lead them in a direction they would like to go. Bush is under the sway of a negative or debilitated Saturn while Gore has a prominent Saturn that is receiving a lot of valuable help. Bush, like his Saturn, is unconscious, alienated and tied to the past. Gore, as his Saturn indicates, is conscious, building a promising future with the help of others.

It would be constructive to understand Saturn so we can welcome and prepare for the coming earth changes in realistic way. As we have seen in the previous article with the sign of Capricorn and its having associations with Mother Earth and the oceanic mysteries of life, Saturn too has a deeper meaning. “The Roman feast of Saturnalia derived from the Egyptian and Persian traditions merged in ancient Rome, in a festival to the ancient god of seed-time, Saturn. <http://www.candlegrove.com/myth1.html> The people gave themselves up to wild joy. They feasted, they gave gifts, they decorated their homes with greenery. The usual order of the year was suspended: grudges and quarrels forgotten; wars interrupted or postponed. Businesses, courts, schools closed. Rich and poor were equal, slaves were served by their masters; children headed the family. Cross-dressing and masquerades, merriment of all kinds prevailed. A mock king -- the Lord of Misrule -- was crowned. Candles and lamps chased away the spirits of darkness.” http://www.candlegrove.com/sacaea.html

The Saturnalia then is a time-honored way for fun, frolic, and sacred theatre, a perfect antidote to being overly identified with our roles in life. For those of you who are familiar with indigenous teachings, the role reversal practices of the Saturnalia are reminiscent of the Heyoka teachings. Heyoka means sacred clown. Here we find the Divine Fools who embody the contradictions of life, reminding us that life is hard and easy, humorous and serious, black and white, dark and light. Heyoka medicine and practices embrace and embody duality and thereby lift us out of our polarizing beliefs and into the Great Mystery, thereby restoring the balance of life, the Tao.

Saturn and Pluto are the two planets associated with death. Celebrating life in the manner of Saturnalia and practicing Heyoka medicine is a light-hearted counterbalance to the task making activities of Capricorn and Saturn, as well as the immense death/rebirth themes innate to both Pluto and Saturn. The celebration of life in the manner so described is to be welcomed as is the embracing of the inner and outer Trickster. This is good medicine and necessary preparation for all of us who are aligned with the coming earth changes.

First rule (Saturn) is to CELEBRATE YOUR LIFE. WAKE UP! GO FOR THE GOLD. The world needs conscious people (Saturn) who are able and willing to:
1) complete the tasks of life namely liberation (Saturn)
2) embody the intelligence of Gaia (Capricorn) by becoming a steward of the earth and her teachings
3) offer humanity a new vision of the future as indicated by Aquarius, the water bearer, also ruled by Saturn, (wherein two other outer, generational planets currently dwell, namely Chiron and Neptune). The symbol of Aquarius is the Water Bearer, she who resides in the heavens pouring forth new ideas that will nurture humanity and build a conscious future.

Pluto will be contacting 0 degrees, 00 minutes of Capricorn, the Saturnalia and winter Solstice degree exactly on
1/25: the initiation date for seeding (Saturn) a new identity
4/26: the beginning of a review process,
6/14: the renewal of our intention for manifestation
11/26: the culmination date for manifestation and embodiment
with the latter date as the most important date, though all these dates and the time periods below are useful for aligning with the new energies coming onto the planet.

Pluto will be at 0 degrees and varying minutes of Capricorn from
1/25 through 3/28
4/26 through 6/14 in retrogradation (moving backwards)
11/26 through 12/24

Zero degrees symbolizes new beginnings, the beginners mind of Buddhism, and the Divine Fool of the Tarot deck. Why is this important you may ask? In ancient astrology every degree is a fate. The early Greeks called it Moira. Robert Schmidt explains to us: "Moira is a principle of apportionment in that it counts out, divides, or distributes. From all the possible events that can befall human beings, Moira selects and distributes to each individual his or her "due portion”

When Pluto conjoins O degrees of Capricorn, it will also contact O degrees of all the signs of the zodiac. The signs of the Zodiac or Zoidion in the Greek literally means a living temple in the sky. Just as the earth is a living sentient creature, i.e. the goddess Gaia, so too are the signs of the Zodiac, the Zoidions, alive with intelligence and influence.Any planet occupying a degree vibrates all the degrees, much like one string plucked on a guitar resonates all the strings.

Along with Capricorn, the signs of Aries, Cancer and Libra, or the solstice and equinoctial degrees, will be especially effected. These are the major seasonal points in the tropical zodiac. One could argue that the 0 degrees of the four major seasons are the most powerful fates and they would not be wrong. These degrees are major celebratory and transitional degrees in many calendar systems. They form the Grand Cardinal Cross and align our individual actions with the actions of the planet (the seasons).

The ceremonies of the Grand Cardinal Cross involve balancing all the directions, North, East, West, and South and all the elements of life Fire (Aries), Water (Cancer), Libra (Air) and Earth (Capricorn).

Fire is movement, action, and intuition
Water is emotion, feeling, and connectivity
Air is intellect, ideas, and communication
Earth is matter, practical, building, sensations

Directions vary in meaning depending on the tradition. The ones presented below are from the astrological tradition.

The East is new beginnings, the Self, your health and personal expression
The South is action in the world, your purpose, success, the day world
The West is endings, relationships with others, endings,
The North is the underworld, home, your internal structures, and foundations.

Any ceremony involving the four directions and the four elements that resonates with you is applicable here. The ceremony doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. As long as your heart is in it and your intentions are clear, simplicity will suffice. You could stand facing the four directions and offer an appropriate prayer to each. You could light a candle (fire) take a bath (water), breathe deeply (air) and send your prayer into a crystal (earth). Or you could make the sign of the cross, initially a pagan custom honoring the four directions. In a more specific sense it would be useful to know what these directions are in your natal chart and also the locations of the rulers. (More on this in an upcoming email.)

The key idea to remember here is that there is nothing outside of you. The World Tree, the Axis Mundi is within you as part of your human inheritance. It is an innate body wisdom given to all by the Creator, by the Great Mystery. Everything that exists, including past and future, exists within you always. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a liar or a fool or both. The trick is to align yourself with the World Tree, and through ceremony, prayer, and initiation come to embody the energies and intelligences of the elements and the directions and thereby become a master of your fate, a fully awakened individual. This is the promise and the soul making tasks set before us by Saturn and Pluto at this crucial time of history.

The more people who embody these deep wisdoms the more the world’s consciousness will be raised. You can run around like a chicken without a head believing the sky is falling and all manner of disasters are upon us. Or you can align with the coming earth changes and literally and figuratively embody the energies, and intelligence of Gaia and learn from her mysteries and become a True Human is service to the earth and her people. We are all members of the human family. Separateness is an illusion and part of an old, dying paradigm, one that has been in place for centuries. Together however we can and will build a New Earth and a New Humanity.

For the next two years Saturn will be transiting Virgo, another earth sign most associated with service and healing. In the first article, I mentioned that with Pluto’s entry into Capricorn it was necessary to clear and heal our ancestral lineage (the Cancer/Capricorn axis) of unconsciousness and begin the process of reclaiming or acquiring the Original Body of Life, that is a body liberated from wounds, injuries, insults, deficiencies, and tensions that keep our life energies imprisoned in survival and protective modes. It is time to live in bodies that are alive, awake, aware and aligned with the Soul Essence.

Virgo is concerned with somatic education, bodywork, yoga, Tai Chi, diet, health routines, the Zen of work or dharma, and all body centered approaches to well being. Engaging yourself in these activities would be another highly recommended strategy. Divination, education, traveling to remote locations new or afar that are power spots, ley lines, sacred energies are all highlighted.

Saturn will be retrograde (in review) until May. From late September of 08 to Sept of 09 Saturn will be in close relationship with Uranus. Saturn and Uranus are the two planets most associated with science. Uranus is the planet of radical transformation, breakthroughs in consciousness, originality, genius, telepathy, invention, multi-dimensional realities (UFO’s, time travel), and of new technologies such as computers, lasers, energy medicine, solar energy and farming the earth. Uranus also rules the quickening of the nervous systems and thus has associations with the Christ Consciousness, a field of limitless love and light. These too will be increasingly structured on the earth plane.

Expect all these and more to emerge into the mainstream world, as the multi-dimensional realities symbolized by Uranus become more accepted by the status quo (Saturn). This would include as mentioned in the first article, sweeping changes to all financial, economic, agricultural and political institutions.

As a final thought and gentle reminder, in the Carlos Castaneda books, Carlos laments and complains (negative Saturn) to his teacher, the Toltec sorcerer Don Juan Matus, that he cannot accomplish the tasks (Saturn) that Don Juan (Saturn as teacher) has set for him as Carlos recognizes that he too much fear (negative Saturn). Don Juan replies that he too has fear, but unlike Carlos he uses his fear to wake himself up (Saturn as liberation), not put himself to sleep (Saturn as unconsciousness)! This is the time and we are the people.