Jupiter conjunct Pluto: No Going Back from Here

12.8.07


Attention, my mateys! We astro-forecasters are issuing a high drama alert, effective immediately and lasting through the middle of December.

We advise you to be prepared for epic gestures at every turn, as those recently accelerating urges to put it all out there, to tell 'em what you really think, to draw a line in the sand and dare 'em to cross at last hit their apex… and we just can't hold back anymore.

And if the spectacle of it all, whether outward gush or internal surge, becomes so much as to convince you, 'From here on out, my life will never be the same!'… well, folks, it's not an exaggeration. Not in the slightest.

Welcome to the next four years of earthly existence, people. They're tremendous, transformational, even potentially triumphant… and, let's be honest, turbulent as all hell. You think the 21st century has been zany so far? You ain't seen nothin' yet! And forget about crawling back into your pre-Y2K cave and reminiscing about 'those simple times'. There is literally no going back.

Now that I've gotten your attention…

A conjunction of Jupiter and Pluto (exact on Tue Dec 11), the official astrological reason for this bombastic briefing, occurs every 12 or 13 years. On his own, Jupiter is generally read as a good guy, mainly because he expands things past their previous limits (and we have a long-standing cultural habit of associating bigger with better). Pluto, meanwhile, has a darker notoriety: As 'Lord of the Underworld', he forces us to confront our shadowy underbellies, through whisking up the most challenging psychological urges hiding within us… those we've been taught are 'unpleasant' such as raging fury, quivering yearning, unseemly jealousy, and the desire to be uncompromisingly tyrannical or sacrificially submissive.

When observing these two come together, we could be hastily blinded by Jupiter's presence… and jump quickly to a half-complete conclusion this aspect is like a super-good-luck charm, propelling Jupiter's growth orientation even further to a Plutonian intensity. There are certainly astrologers who'd read a Jupiter-Pluto conjunction with this single-minded favorableness, and they wouldn't be wrong, per se. After all, Pluto adds his powerful will—spurred by unresolved feelings from past victories or disasters, internalized messages from unkind parents or formidable foes, or other similarly raw residue—to whatever enriching opportunities Jupiter may seek, virtually ensuring the desired goal will be secured, no matter the costs.

However, please take note of the menacing undertones in 'no matter the costs'. This phrase hints at the fuller interpretive possibilities in a Jupiter-Pluto union—the potent Pluto undercurrent of crazed longing, cutthroat rivalry and a proclivity for complicating passions only gets enhanced and enlarged, as a result of Jupiter's one-pill-makes-you-larger magnifying effect. Despite the promise of 'achieving transformational growth' in one fail swoop, there's also a price (in comfort, in cheer, in interpersonal reverence) to pay. Even if we're 'innocently' going about our inadvertently greedy business, with the earnest action of pursuing our own evolution, we're bound to hit up against other people, projects and institutions. And should they block our path (or merely seem to do so), we're liable to steamroll the obstruction, almost frighteningly determined, intoxicated by the profound high of 'the Journey'.

On the eve of this conjunction, then, we greet a punchy mix of heightened enthusiasm, beefed-up confidence, and potentially fanatical compulsion toward whatever our chosen ends. We might not know precisely what those 'ends' are, yet proceed by gut persuasion, according to our fired-up-ness. Or we might know exactly… and mobilize that focus for near-guaranteed success, especially when we find allies on our ideological highway to predominance.

Of course, in the process, we could find ourselves forced to contend with some pivotal end of the road (for Pluto rules the death-and-rebirth cycle)—and, as part of playing our role to the necessary extreme, bid a definitive farewell to someone or something that's entirely at odds with where we're going.

Whether this impressive coupling of Jupiter and Pluto delivers an easy-to-spot event of immense magnitude, or whether it passes unremarkably through our external existence (and you dare to thumb your nose at those boastful astrologers who promised 'something big')… I stick by my sentiment that, following this conjunction, life will never be the same. Not only is this aspect a commanding symbol of 'there's no going back' progress, it also ushers in a pungent new period of astrological hustle-and-bustle.

One week after its exact conjunction with Pluto, Jupiter moves out of Sagittarius and into Capricorn. Then, in January, Pluto follows suit—only, in his case, this is a much more monumental movement. While Jupiter spends only about a year in each sign, Pluto has been in Sagittarius since 1995. And he'll spend all of 2008 making the transition into Capricorn, where he'll stay through 2023-24. Needless to say, this is huge astrological news.

As if that weren't enough, the striking virility of this shift is further strengthened by the fact it's a movement into Capricorn, a cardinal sign… thus creating a square between both Jupiter and Pluto and the Aries point (or 0 degrees Aries), the single most supercharged degree of the zodiac circle. And within the next two to three years, transiting Uranus will leave Pisces and head straight for that Aries point—ultimately to form a colossally important square to Pluto (within orb from about 2009 to 2017), the defining astro-aspect of our times, slating this upcoming era to be as radically redefining and potentially turbulent as the 1960s. Yes, it's that huge.

But the personal is also always political (or transpersonal, as the case may be)… and whatever little nagging nuisances or pesky energetic imbalances you're currently experiencing, in fact, have everything to do with this epochal revolution. How poignant that, in the midst of this outer-planet drama, we still must contend with Mars retrograde and his odd gear-shifts. But it is no accident. In fact, over these coming weeks, Mars opposes first Jupiter and then Pluto, effectively linking these two levels of astro-consciousness together into one landmark realignment.

But that's another story, to be told in more detail soon…