I hope you are enjoying today's Sun conjunct Pluto, as they both ingress into Aquarius. Our will power and our transformative power are on a journey together into new territory today, into our collective consciousness.
Pluto is our most well known dwarf planet, so we tend to overlook the family resemblance with the other dwarves and think of him simply as an outer planet like Neptune or Uranus. However, like all the dwarfs, Pluto orbits at an angle to the ecliptic, which is the plain of all the inner planets. This plain represents consensus reality and Pluto by his nature cuts through this consensus, revealing our shadowy underworld.
Pluto into Aquarius
Pluto's discovery brought us the psychological understanding of our lives, so he talks about what makes us tick at a deeper level. When we are at ego consciousness, he forces us to understand the limitations of that consciousness, to let go of our compulsions and unconscious constructs and accept that change is the only constant.
Because these outer planets talk of consciousness, how they manifest in our lives depends on our current level of consciousness. As we grow out of ego consciousness and start developing spiritually, Pluto gives us an adaptability and resilience which enables us to mediate the transitions occurring in our lives in each moment. And at the spiritually evolved level he enables us to transmute loneliness and separation into love and long term relationships and effect a rejuvenation in our lives.
For the past 15 years in Capricorn, he has been transforming our social structures and the dive into Aquarius is set to transform our collective consciousness. This will likely manifest initially through clashes of ideals. Aquarius is a rebellious sign and Pluto can talk of fanaticism so there will be pushes to expand or overthrow our consensus reality in these coming years. And we know that Aquarius is inflexible so there will be struggles between the old guard and the reformers in this process.
Pluto represents the collective unconscious and Aquarius is the sign of collective consciousness so Pluto in Aquarius will be blurring the boundary between these two and allowing the collective shadow into the light. This will not look pleasant, but the release of collective shadow will free humanity to live in a better world. Pluto understands the cycle of life and his sojourn in this innovative and technological sign is also likely to result in new methods and technologies to prolong life and become sensitive to the more ethereal levels of our existence.
In our personal lives, the Sun-Pluto conjunction is the start of a new cycle of change, and its occurrence on the cusp of Aquarius gives it a networking, lateral, intuitive energy and means that the collective consciousness is our field of operations in this next change-cycle.
Sesquiquadrate Orcus
Today's Sun-Pluto conjunction is also sesquiquadrate the planet of karmic consciousness, Orcus. So we are being challenged to deal with our karma as we start our new cycle of transformation. Orcus opens us to the awareness that each of our actions has a consequence and he gives us the ability to see and deal with the consequences of our past actions. This means that, at the highest level, we can learn to see the shadow world as raw material that can be turned into energy and we develop the power to transmute shadow into light.
Orcus can also teach us to align with a spiritual creed as we understand the karmic process of life. A creed expresses the shared beliefs of a religious community and summarises the core tenets. These tenants are simple and globally applicable, providing guide rails to help us navigate life. So the sesquiquadrate is challenging us to find a light-filled path through the current shadows, and we might find it helpful to align with, or to strengthen, our spiritual creed in this next cycle of growth.
As we develop spiritually, Orcus gives us a self-sufficiency that nourishes us through the long and difficult work that we sometimes find necessary for personal evolution. At this level, as we deal with the shadow side of our lives, we become accountable for our deeds and actions. And, at the highest level, we gain the shamanic ability to transmute shadow into light. Everything contains shadow and therefore presents us with an opportunity to transmute shadow, producing a new, more spiritual, whole.
The biggest challenge with shadow work is facing our fear but, frequently when we do, we find that what we were afraid of was just an illusion. Our fear was literally just a shadow without substance, and facing it, or shining a light on it caused it to disappear.
Sometimes when we face our fear we find a real problem. This is where Orcus is really valuable because he gives us a persistence and an integrity, which isn’t afraid to deal with the issue. When we embrace his energy we know that the pressure is best released, and that ‘the problem’ is actually a valuable resource for our growth. This karmic consciousness gives us self-sufficiency in the face of our encounter with our own and others shadow sides, and we gain the confidence that we have the reserves to survive and the endurance to succeed.
Orcus is working unconsciously in most of our lives, but when we engage with these new consciousness energies, we move them out of the unconscious area, so here are a couple of Orcus exercises to help with this from New Stars for a New Era, together with Karen La Puma's beautiful image.
Orcus Consciousness Challenges
1. Finding a spiritual creed. If you don’t have a spiritual creed that guides your life and you want one, you need to find your spiritual community. The way to do this is to try some out - they are all open to new members - and see what suits you.
2. Learning from broken oaths. Look at your last broken oath, to yourself or someone else, and ask: “What shadow side of me got in the way of honouring my word?” And when you find it, ask: “How can I transmute this blockage into energy and light?”
Orcus Early Scholarships
The courses are the best way to move these new consciousness energies from the unconscious area, because we engage with them through the assignments and see them directly manifesting in our lives. Students consistently report that simply by becoming conscious of these new energies, they become empowered and their lives are transformed.
So, to encourage you to embrace your karmic consciousness, we are continuing the Early Scholarship sale today with our Orcus 101 course. This course runs alongside Eris and starts at the beginning of May, so this proximity means that it is our best value Early Scholarship deal.
New Stars for a New Era
This is a consciousness workbook for our ten new planets, written without any jargon, in a way someone without any astrological knowledge can enjoy and benefit from. The book invites you to embark on the adventure of embracing these new aspects of consciousness in your life!
The Kindle edition is now on sale and a big thank you to those who have purchased a copy already! As a result, it has become the number one best selling book in New Age Astrology! You will receive an invitation to download a free copy as part of our launch promotion in a couple of weeks, so I really appreciate those who choose to pay upfront and support my work. It also means that you get this great book straight away!
The paperback is still threading it's way through the system, but within days you will be able to buy it though any bookshop. The print edition includes Karen La Puma's images in full for each planet, so it is the premium edition. I've just received my first copy and it is very beautiful.
Join us if you can on the Orcus course and thanks for your work onboarding these new aspects of consciousness.
Love and laughter
Alan
Alan Clay’s work has transformed my thinking—about my chart, about my practice—even about astrology itself. Alan is a born teacher. - Ariel Harper Nave, Canada
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