Pluto! Destructive god, king of death and Chaos. How we love this, even though we may say we don’t! For, chaos and death are intrinsic to our survival. Let me explain.
I am sure my reader realises that the world around them is formed of many chemical processes- that their digestion, their breathing, the construction of the various objects around them are all the results of various chemical processes. Which are, indeed, never in a state of total completion and rest. All created things are subject to change, as the Buddhists say. Everything we have here will, one day, be something else.
Chemistry of course derives from alchemy, which is a form of practical magick that was practiced in old times. These alchemists who sought to turn lead into gold made discoveries which led to modern chemistry. However, the turning lead into gold bit also had its symbolic, psychospiritual dimension. The alchemist wasn’t only trying to make material gold nuggets, he or she was attempting to understand the “Great Work” of refining the human soul from a leaden state into a golden one. So it is with the yogis who seek to refine tamas into sattva. So it is today with ceremonial magicians.
The alchemist, yogi and magician all seek to join the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine in the alchemical marriage of sacred union. He or she is making something new and amazing out of two opposite forces. Yet this process of psychological alchemy occurs with us all. We all have Pluto in our charts. We all have Scorpio in our charts. We all have an eighth house. We all go through death and rebirth. We all enter into sacred union in our lives- whether the marriage partner be a real life person, someone we actually marry, or simply a life event. Some of us do it consciously… many more of us do not.
So what is the connexion with Pluto?
Pluto rules those times in our lives where it all becomes out of control. This is the total, absolute, all-consuming and utter blackness that overwhelms us and burns us to ashes.
Put two things- you and someone/ something that has the right effect on you- into a bottle. Shake it. Put it under pressure. Burn it. Let the acids and the metals that are you and this other thing brew and enter tumult in this space. You melt and break apart. Everything changes. There is confusion and blackness. What do we have now?
This is the stage which is known in alchemy as “nigredo”- when all that is within the flask is burnt to total and utter blackness, where there is no way of recognising what these substances once were. These are events that make our lives unrecognisable, these are passions that destroy us psychologically- this does not seem survivable. Pluto brings those people, places and things that we feel will kill us.
For nigredo is the dark night of the soul, where in total blackness we are forced to confront our shadow self, the demon we must befriend in order to become who we are meant to be. It is not a comfortable process! The chemical process by which grape juice becomes wine cannot be terribly comfortable for the grape juice. Neither is it readily comprehended by the grape juice. So it is for us. But sooner or later, we do need to come to terms with the truth of what is taking place within us. We must accept these dark and painful feelings- these confronting obsessions- the sensation of grief and fear- the fact of our experience.
Yet the Divine Masculine and Divine Feminine are not alone in their flask. Always present in the alchemical process is Spirit, here shown in the form of a dove. Only through the intercession of the operator does peace come- eventually. The two must realise that what they are to be is not what they were before. Life will never be the same again. It is not under their control.
And this is our sacred union. When we reach that place of peace and acceptance through the mediation of Spirit, when all has come into equilibrium in divine timing. For only the operator knows how long these elements need to stay in their flask.
And then we rise. After nigredo, after this bardo state of darkness and pressure, a state of illumination is reached. You and this opposing force that has destroyed a part of your life have both created a new life between you. You might have a new awareness, a new business, a new wisdom, a new child- and the world awaits it with great joy and celebration! For life loves to beget more life.
For anyone reading this who is going through their Pluto transformation I have only this advice to offer: remember the presence of Spirit. You are going to become something bigger, better and brighter than you were before. What you are now cannot conceive of what you will be in the future. Nothing is certain- except the fact of your rebirth and resurrection.
Green Lady Astrology 