Have No Fear, Pluto Is Here: Spiritual Astrology for the Recession By Craig Howell Writer, Spiritual Astrologer and Sacred Sound Musician Change is hard for people. We like to know what's coming down the line if possible and prepare for it. But this time period now is not about holding back and waiting for things to clear so we can move ahead, no, this time we must let go of old concepts about the way things are supposed to work. Because this time will be like no other that we have experienced. We are birthing a new set of rules to live by. As we struggle to move through difficult economic times, many people are feeling the pinch. There is real anxiety about the future, mainly because the future is uncertain. But the future has always been unknown. What they really are saying is that they are afraid to move into new ways of living. The stars are out there to give us signs of the energetic changes that are occurring. It's up to us to choose how to respond. We can dig our heels in and continue doing things like we have been (with pretty much the same result) or try something new. At this time we are being asked to embrace the new. This means birth, and that means some pain usually. And along with change, people don’t like pain, so there is resistance, which brings even more pain until the change is complete. Although this cycle will last longer than people would like it to, the end will come, and with it a new beginning. Slow moving planets (the ones farther out) have always shown us deep and long term influences. Pluto moves very slowly, and we can track this heavenly steamroller as it pushes around the zodiac, leaving the charred remnants of change behind. When Pluto comes through and touches sensitive planets in a chart, it is as if breakdowns in the established way of living occur. What is happening is that the stagnant energies that do not serve us any longer are preparing to be flushed out of our lives. Pluto, plodding inch by inch, has a way of making the old path so unbearable that we ultimately choose the new. The object is to not let it get that far and to go with the flow—without fear. This Plutonian movement is true for the whole earth, but right now the USA is having a really difficult time with this as it is a Cancer nation, and Pluto in Capricorn will be coming up to a hard aspect with the US sun in the 2012 time frame. (Everyone has heard a bit about 2012.) Pluto in a cardinal sign like Capricorn always will have more direct and visible effects. Things get messy under cardinal energy. Emergencies occur, but problems get solved as well. It can be exhilarating and exciting, promoting wild emotions and reactions unless we maintain our center. This may be especially hard as Neptune is hovering over our moon, tending to artificially inflate our feelings, making things seem worse than they are and promoting escapism. Whatever changes occur are in line with the new rising energy. We must put aside longings for the way it used to be and go forward. Right now Pluto is aspecting Venus and Jupiter, close to the US sun, which is having an effect on rethinking the way we buy and why we buy a product. It also has an effect on the restructuring of international relationships and the push for reformation of the nation’s financial network—how the money is taken in, how it’s spent and who’s responsible. This last part has to do with Pluto’s involvement with the transiting and natal Saturn square in this configuration, but the fireworks started right on schedule earlier when Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008/09 with the bailout of institutions deemed “too big to fail”. After years of wheeling and dealing under deregulation, now we want accountability. When Pluto hits the sun of the US chart in 2011-2015, along with a hard aspect from another major planet, Uranus (with a bump in March 2011 from Jupiter), that’s when a lot of the big changes will be happening, some in the blink of eye. We will be utterly transformed. The last time this happened was—drum roll—in 1762-1777, when America was born of revolution after grievances about authority, taxation and representation. Sound familiar? This is happening again now, fanned by a seemingly unending recession. Our whole government structure (Pluto in the sign Capricorn) will be changed. We are rebirthing our country. There may be those in power who resist these changes or try to manipulate it back to the old way, but there can only be forward motion. Pluto does not look back. Even though the US chart shows a rough time, so goes the rest of the world, as everything is connected—spiritually and commercially. It's just that we will undergo much more of a forced housecleaning than some other countries. Pluto and Uranus will force it and Saturn will en-force it. Through Saturn, we are being asked now to have more self-responsibility for our past actions and choices. Saturn is another slow mover, but acts more like a cosmic second hand, staying in one sign for about 2 ½ years. The US chart has always had Saturn in a hard angle to a group of planets that creates a sort of defensive or protective posture where we take in and even hoard resources out of fear of not having them around. This creates a lot of waste, which has not been a huge issue...until now. There is a feeling of scarcity. Now Saturn in the sky is coming over our Saturn in the chart. When this happens to a person, it is a mile marker in personal development and a testing period. They are asked to take on more self-responsibility and essentially "grow up" more; become more mature. The message now is: take care of what you have and use it (or reuse it) well. In addition to this we have the Pluto influence pushing, pushing, collapsing the old, making way for the new. Many times people are complacent when things are pretty good economically. They let a lot of corruption and financial shenanigans pass. Now we are starting to see that we need to pay more attention to how we manage our lives, because if you let someone (like a government or a company) take over certain aspects of it, you essentially hand over your power to them, instead of taking your power and independence for yourself through self-responsibility. You will find that people will be falling back on their own resources now that the usual support systems are drying up. Because of the lack of work, it is forcing people into major decisions. Many are moving out of their career fields or starting their own business after being forced (there’s that word again) out of a company. This happened to my brother, a real estate appraiser. He was rolling along with a big bank out of California when the crash happened. It got sold to Wachovia, and then he got let go. This all in the time frame of months. Now he works for himself and is doing all right, but he has to work just a little harder than he had to previously to create the income that he was accustomed to. He has to make a choice—work harder to cover your old lifestyle, or scale down to meet the new income. A lot of us are making this choice, too. You just have to have trust that everything will work out. The Universe is supporting your contribution to the world in whatever way you want to do it. Find your love and turn it into a vocation. Now is the time. The way of the future is as the entrepreneur or subcontractor, not the employee. Even though we have a glut of houses in various states of abandonment and disrepair, there are new opportunities to discover how to put it all back together again. This is part of the Pluto way. In the wake of the destruction of an old set of values, we have the chance to reinvent a better way, one that is more in alignment with what the Universe is asking of us now. Those who have lost their jobs are wondering whether they really were happy to begin with and are searching for something closer to their true heart’s desire. These are being supported by grassroots funding from organizations like kickstarter.com that let you retain your control over your project, not venture capitalists who want large percentages of everything you do. Neighbors and communities are getting more connected, helping the needy out, as the government tries one thing after the other to put a plug in the recession drain. More people are growing their own food or going to the local farmers market, with a consciousness toward organics and getting closer to the earth after scares in the consumer food industry. Barter is making a return, bringing us back to a way of trading energy more meaningfully on a smaller scale. It’s not all bad news. It just depends on how you look at it. The recession is not as bad as the fear that it produces, or more metaphysically, it is the product of our fear. One feeds the other. The recession is only a symptom of an underlying problem. We are all being asked to rise above the fear and move with the Universe into an elevation of consciousness where the positive energy and desires actually produce physical changes that can be seen and felt. But it is up to us individually to shift, not to force a shift from others or depend on the government for the answers to our problems. “New”, “change”, “accept”—these are the words we need to put in to our minds and hearts, without fear. The US and the world are in a great transition, and we are all a part of it. Craig Howell is a writer, spiritual astrologer and sacred sound musician. His latest work is a simple guide booklet for pre-teens titled "Spiritual Teachings for Young Souls". For more information on this book and about the great shift occurring now on the planet, free downloads and other offerings, please go to 2012vision.us RETURN TO OMPLACE HOME