Ceres has just passed its conjunction with Pluto but Dawn (the
unmanned spacecraft) is now orbiting the planet. Given this and our
previous experience with the correlation of physical insight into
planets coinciding with a similar shift in our collective psychological
insight into the planet, I have been thinking more about what Ceres
represents. At the same time, given it has been conjunct the planet
Pluto at a time when it is making a close square to Uranus, it is hard
to separate out the Pluto-Uranus issues from Ceres. Indeed, given the
Demeter myth (Demeter was the Greek name for Ceres) and the association
with Pluto, it seems difficult to separate the two. This prompted me
further to think about the way we interpret charts on a mundane level
versus individual birth charts. It occurred to me that when we look at a
birth chart we synthesise how all the planets are working together to
create the overall personality of the individual whereas with transits
we tend to look (or perhaps I do..!) at individual transits more. Thus
in considering the current world situation I am interested in the
interconnectedness of the outer planets and also Ceres and Chiron.
So let me explain my thinking on one point which I think the
Pluto-Uranus square is picking up. In terms of Ceres and interpretation
generally, I am wary of attributing planets (and asteroids) to either
men or women exclusively. I am more in line with Jung’s interpretation
(informed perhaps by his interest in astrology) that men and women
contain both masculine and feminine natures. Indeed one has only to
look at a chart to see that both men and women’s charts contain all
planets and all signs. There isn’t a greater preponderance of male
signs and planets in men’s charts or female planets or signs in women’s
charts; we cannot tell by looking at a chart whether it is a man’s or
woman’s chart. There are just as many women with strong or dominant
Jupiter or Mars as men with strong or dominant Moon or Ceres. Thus the
archetypes might express male or female energies but I do not think that
means that they “belong” or are “exclusive” to men or women. I think
for the world in general, without the benefit of Astrology, this is
causing significant confusion and is part of Chiron in Pisces and the
Pluto-Uranus square.
Back to Ceres/Demeter; I think that a key part of the Demeter myth is
that it provides a key to Pluto which echoes other myths such as the
Sumerian myth of Ereshkigal In this very Plutonic myth, Inana descends
to Ereshkigal’s realm where she usurps Ereshkigal’s throne. There are
multiple versions of the myth and in some Ereshkigal is in mourning
already for her husband whom Inana is partly responsible for sending to
his death. They also suggest that Inana went to ursurp Ereshkigal’s
throne through a lust for more power. However most versions are clear
that once the judges of the underworld have decided against Ereshkigal
she is hung up on a hook like a piece of meat to rot. The key to the
myth is that Inana has agreed in advance with her servant that, should
she be unsuccessful, he/she (depending on the version of the myth) is to
approach a number of gods for help. After a couple of unsuccessful
attempts to persuade other gods, Enki, the god of wisdom, agrees to help
and fashions two mourners to go down to the underworld to grieve with
Ereshkigal. Ereshkigal is so moved by the mourners willingness to mourn
with her that she grants them whatever they wish and they ask for Inana
and restore her body. There are also parallels in that the Descent of
Inana into the underworld links to the notion of fertility and the cycle
of the seasons as well as the movement of Venus (with whom Inana is
associated) from morning star to evening star.
There are strong parallels between this myth and the
Ceres/Demeter/Isis myths. In the Isis and Osiris myth Isis weeps and
mourns and eventually is able to heal and restore Osiris and in the
Demeter myth she weeps and mourns and eventually Persephone is allowed
to return from the underworld. Yet in each there is nevertheless a
price to pay; in the descent of Inana, her husband replaces her in the
underworld; in the Demeter myth, Persephone spends half her time in the
underworld and half above ground and in the Isis myth Osiris is restored
to life but not fully. What I am wondering is whether the asteroids in
general deal with the fact of being human in a world of powerful
transpersonal forces – Neptune, Uranus and Pluto. It is about our
ability as separate vulnerable individuals to come to terms with the
powerful forces that interact with us and render us at times powerless.
The inner child in us rages against the unfairness of these events.
Yet, these black holes (cf. One Way of Looking at Man by Chrissy Philp)
where the universe refuses to conform to our picture of how we think it
should be are also the engines for our growth and development and for
the evolution of our individual and collective consciousness.
On this level, I think the asteroids are a collective – a planet that
did not form – and I also think with their sense of vulnerability,
woundedness etc. they are linked to Virgo. Think of trying to keep a
house clean – it is a never ending wound. It is the same with the
body. All our efforts at good health cannot hold back the process of
decay. It is the same with our neuroses; however much we try to work on
ourselves our inner-child remains perpetually insecure because it has
the consciousness that we are mortal. Yet this constant wounded quality
is also the prompt for us to evolve. We work and work to stay alive
and to maintain our survival in the face of a world which is in a
process of entropy. Yet the product of entropy according to Tom Stonier
(Information Theory and the Internal Structure of the Universe) is
information. My friend Chrissy’s model of the brain has on the left
brain side Scorpio, followed by Taurus, followed by Virgo as you work
forward towards the front of the brain. This is a pattern of evolution
as it follows our evolutionary consciousness discovering Pluto in the
1930s then Taurus (ruled by the Earth according to Chrissy’s model) when
we first ventured into space in the 1960s and then Chiron in 1979.
Again according to this pattern the signs link to I-Ching hexagrams and
Taurus and Scorpio create the hexagram 18 – Work on what has been
Spoiled in the I-Ching. Work on what has been spoiled is about
consciousness and the next evolutionary step leads back to Leo or the
Sun. In the myth of Chiron, Chiron was the trainer of heroes (Leo). I
think we are in the midst of a transition where work is changing from
being a means of survival to meaning work on ourselves, on our own
development and evolution. Certainly in the formal work context it is
now seen less as a job which provides the monetary means for survival
and much more as a creative expression and being about the development
of our potential.
All the Ceres myths have the ideas of life and death plus mourning
and the cycle of the seasons and fertility woven together in them.
Taurus and Scorpio bookend the seasons in terms of being the centre of
Spring in all its beauty and life and Autumn in all its death and
decay. So I think a recognition of the cycles of young life being
overtaken by decay and then regeneration to be the fertilisation of new
life is central to Ceres. For all of us, these cycles of nature are
disturbing and anxiety provoking. For we humans with our
self-consciousness which involves knowledge of our own mortality and the
mortality of everything in the world it is a painful place to live. We
live surrounded by the knowledge of the inevitability of decay and
death. Yet also at a subtler level, we have to acquiesce to the pain of
life and our inability to prevent suffering since it is the fertiliser
of our development and growth. We do not necessarily like this
experience – we are like Persephone being led down into the underworld
and Demeter grieving her loss. It all seems so unfair and so
unnecessary. We are appalled at the current level of death and
destruction of the planet yet it seems to be necessary for us to
evolve. Darwin, in very Virgoan style, went around the world, studying
and cataloguing animals. His discovery was the evolution of the species
but it was as much about constant death of species and physical
adaptation (Virgo again?).
So how does this apply to our current situation and the Pluto-Uranus
cycle? The last major aspect between Pluto and Uranus was the 1960s
conjunction with all the upheaval and change that that brought about.
The Pluto-Uranus generation are now in their mid 40s to mid 50s and
therefore quite dominant in society. The Pluto-Uranus in Virgo
conjunction brought a revolution in attitudes towards sex with the
stigma of birth outside marriage eradicated and class, gender and race
boundaries being brought down. Interestingly Chiron was also in Pisces
in the middle of this as well as it is now and so for many of those
with the Pluto-Uranus conjunction, they also have Chiron in Pisces. The
question of the morality of war was also challenged with protests over
the Vietnam war and the first shocking footage of the reality of war
(Chiron in Pisces).
Uranus as a planet seems to involve inevitable separation – a
splitting. If it is the Creative in I-Ching terms then it can only
manifest through the Receptive which creates a binary pair. It allows
us to become less identified with things – particular the material
(Saturn) – to dissociate. It also allows us to create the duality
between subject and object. Uranus is also about enlightenment and the
cosmic mind. It is collective awareness. It is no surprise that with
the square to Pluto being exact recently the results of a study at
Southampton University were published
http://www.southampton.ac.uk/mediacentre/news/2014/oct/14_181.shtml#.VOe6eHbexWY
This study’s implications are that awareness is not localised within
the body. If this is true and judging by the experiences of those who
have experienced Near Death Experiences (NDEs) then awareness is a
shared and collective phenomenon which is separate from our physical
existence (
http://www.slideshare.net/chrissyphilp/time-part-one-35490207?qid=fd14171b-b0f2-464a-8718-08a945fac1c0&v=qf1&b=&from_search=1).
So what is the relevance of all of this? Since Uranus separates us
from things it has a rather nasty shadow or side-effect. When Uranus
was first discovered in 1781 revolutionary energy exploded into the
collective consciousness. There was the French Revolution, the American
war of Independence, the declaration of independence, the Industrial
revolution and many more. However, since Uranus separates it also has
the danger of polarising. It rules Aquarius and it is very
uncomfortable with water (emotion) because it is messy and subjective.
Uranus dissociates but in doing so it is unable to recognise its own
subjectivity. Hence the Sun is in detriment in Aquarius because
Aquarius struggles to see itself as individual and subjective (the
essence of the Sun). This is a paradox since it is the fact that we all
feel like individuals that makes us the same. Uranus instead
identifies with the group. This is fine as long as we identify with the
whole of humanity or with consciousness itself, then we are part of
everyone. But if we identify with part of consciousness then there are
huge dangers. Thus the mob in Paris identified with being the
proletariat and it wasn’t interested in how individual aristocrats (or
later anyone opposing the revolution) had behaved, anyone it disliked
was condemned by the mob and their head was chopped off. At its worst
Uranus is this mob mentality, quick to judge and condemn others on
principle and concerned with equality above all. Communism was
concerned with this notion of equality and human rights and principles
yet it became stiflingly grey and repressive of individuals, whilst at
the same time covertly creating huge differences between people.
Beauty, freedom of individual expression and any questioning of the
party was quickly punished. Talking openly and questioning the ideology
was dangerous in the extreme.
Many of the things which came to prominence under the Pluto-Uranus
square are now reaching a point of crisis. In the 1960s, there was the
rise of feminism, greater social mobility, sexual freedom, a move away
from the stigma of birth out of marriage, the human rights movement
under Martin Luther King, challenging of the Vietnam war etc. It was a
like moment of adolescent freedom when the rules laid down by parents
were there to be challenged and the dominant models demolished. Yet
where are we now with all these issues?
In myth Ouranos fathered children with Gaia the Earth, yet he found
these children abhorrently ugly and imprisoned them in Tartarus deep
within the earth where they could not be seen. At the prompting of
Gaia, Kronos (Saturn) finally castrated Ouranos and ended his reign.
The fact that Ouranos imprisoned his children deep within the Earth and
that they finally erupted to castrate him tells us something important
about Uranus. Uranus in its process of separation and its dislike of
the earthy or emotional side of nature holds the danger of repressing
those sides of ourselves and others it finds ugly or distasteful. It
condemns these sides and they become demonised, but above all it
distances itself from them. It creates “us” – good, untainted by
emotion and “them” – corrupt, bestial, inhuman, irrational. It is no
coincidence that Ouranos is castrated. The very violent and sexual
nature of this act tells us something about what Ouranos represses and
is undone by. Liz Greene associates Uranus more strongly with
perfectionism than Virgo. Uranus’s idealism and desire to live in the
nice clean world of ideals and concepts rather than the messy world of
biological nature gives us a clue about this perfectionism. With the
current Uranus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn we can see this
phenomenon at work. Rolf Harris, Jimmy Saville, Gary Glitter, Dave Lee
Travis, all these old plutonic “satyrs” have become representative of
Pluto. In the recent case of Ched Evans the footballer, the mob through
its new Uranian medium of the internet became prey to the mob. Anyone
who spoke against this mob reaction was trampled and scapegoated in its
wake. In this respect, one can see that it is difficult to separate out
the effects of the outer planets when talking about what is happening in
the world – Chiron in Pisces and Neptune in Pisces have the danger of
seeing the world in terms of victims and scapegoats. It is interesting
to note that since discovering Uranus in 1781 we have quickly cantered
through the discovery of Neptune, Pluto, Chiron etc. It seems like we
have reached adolescence as a collective and are now having to take
greater conscious responsibility for collective forces. Getting our
approach right to these collective forces seems to be the evolutionary
stage we are collectively involved with. Yet to handle these forces
wisely it seems it is important that we understand the implications of
these collective forces getting entangled with individual energies. In
themselves these transpersonal forces are collective – consciousness
(Uranus) , uninterrupted flow of the heart (Neptune) and our collective
inner child (Pluto) yet when we distort them to personal ends and forget
it is all us they become very dangerous. Currently with the square,
there is a danger that we play out Uranus tension with Pluto through a
desire to eradicate the bestial in human nature. Yet, in this division
and separation there is tremendous shadow at play. It is as if, through
these collective scapegoats, we can eradicate our own biological
natures, we can become pure, free, rational beings, who are separated
from our biology. It is also a war on horror and the reality of the
world. Can we really eradicate Pluto and Capricorn from the world?
Would we want to?
Looking at the issues we faced in the 1960s (and it is no coincidence
that this generation are now at their most influential in society), war
still haunts us in the form of Afghanistan, the Middle-East and
Ukraine. In these situations we have ready targets for scapegoats in
Putin, the Taliban, ISIS etc. Yet, have we learnt from the
conjunction? Do we see ISIS, Russia, Afghanistan as “us” or “them”?
The danger is that we are still caught in separating ourselves and
seeing “them” as “bad” rather than recognising the gift of Uranus – that
consciousness is a shared phenomenon; that it is all us. Alan Curtis’
brilliant documentary Bitter Lake was a fantastic example of the
Pluto-Uranus square and Neptune and Chiron in Pisces with Ceres mixed
in. It highlighted the dangers of failing to see our own Pluto in the
form of the inhuman brutality dished out by our own troops and drone
warfare; that, as the army captain pointed out, their simplistic view of
Taliban as “badies” and them as “goodies” meant that they could be
manipulated by local warlords into killing rivals simply by the warlords
labelling their rivals as “Taliban”. To see the world through the
Karpman Drama Triangle lens of victims and persecutors and get sucked
into a saviour role is to fall prey to Neptune at its worst. It is as
if under the current transits we are being given the chance to see the
dangers of responding like puppets caught in the Pluto-Uranus crossfire
and Neptune mob victim mode, reacting instinctively as if we want to
root out and destroy Pluto but in the process becoming the very thing we
are seeking to eradicate – our testicles are being castrated. Thus
programmes like Alan Curtis’ give us a chance to really
see ourselves
and our potential to be corrupted. It is the same with our greed and
social mobility. The dream was that society would become more equal if
we eradicated the older generation’s notions of hierarchy and class
privilege. However, there is greater polarisation of wealth than before
and greed runs rampant. It is easy to blame the bankers and to
separate ourselves from them but this misses the point of Pluto. Pluto
prompts us to look more deeply, to confront our deepest nature and
transform it. At this point I have to own up to the fact that I am not
describing the Pluto-Uranus opposing Chiron in Pisces generation from a
detached standpoint – I am the Pluto-Uranus opposite Chiron in Pisces
generation – indeed the aspect is very tight and closely square my Sun
on the ascendant in Sagittarius. Oh no – that means it is me too! It
is; I recognise the fear and greed in me that prompted the bankers and I
recognise the tendency to disgust at the manifestations of Pluto.
Perhaps this is only my own realisation that I am projecting on to the
collective? No, no, I I am sure it is safe to assume that I am the only
one who is capable of Uranian, god like detachment from subjective
involvement in these issues! Sadly, my own journey has turned out to be
more about seeing my own flawed humanity on a grander and grander scale
than achieving the god like detachment that the Uranian side of my
personality might desire.
It seems futile to attempt to eradicate deep biological reality
(Pluto in Capricorn). By separating ourselves from it we only deepen it
and castrate our ability to be conscious of it. It has taken me until
this last square between Pluto-Uranus to fully understand what it is
going on but I often notice that this is often the case with transits. I
see a very similar theme with the issue of human rights and feminism.
The current focus on diversity with its emphasis on the biological
differences between people has increased the focus on our difference so
that individuals genuinely believe that others are alien but more
importantly it holds the danger of people identifying more strongly with
their sex, their ethnic background etc. If we are not careful in
trying to eradicate prejudice we define and identify people more
strongly with their gender, racial background, as if this was the sum of
who they were. It is a pernicious form of prejudice and it is Uranus
shadow at its worst, creating separate groups and a tribalistic
identification with that group. It is isolating and depressing to be
with men who talk about and treat women as if they were alien but it is
equally isolating and depressing to be among women who treat men as if
they are alien. That anyone should be dismissed simply because of their
biological features is a denial of our common humanity, yet I think the
solution to this is greater identification with our common humanity and
shared consciousness rather than greater focus on and identification
with our differences. This is the problem of the conscious mind
separating itself from nature. In trying to be “rational” we become
deeply “irrational”. Like Ouranos, banishing his ugly children to the
underworld, we will not rid ourselves of anything distasteful and
irrational, instead we hold the danger that we are castrated by it.
The idea that we will eradicate sexism or racism by getting everyone to
say the right words, or quotas or statistics is similarly “irrational”.
This is not the role of the conscious mind.
The current square is really challenging us to bring Uranian
awareness and insight to Plutonic issues rather than attempt to imprison
them deep in the earth. Uncomfortable as it always will be Pluto’s
role is to face us into deep truths and to transform our lives. This is
where I think Ceres is key. Ceres is the ability to mourn and grieve
with others about the pain and horror of life and it’s biological
imperatives. Who can grieve with and have deep compassion for the
paedophile – perhaps the legacy of this period will be the bravery of
programmes like The Paedophile Next Door with it’s protagonist Eddie’s
bravery in admitting to his tendencies and asking for help before acting
on them. This is Uranus and Pluto at their best. Uranus enlightening
and unorthodox seeing our shared consciousness and Pluto forcing us to
confront and transform our deeper natures. Neptune and Chiron in Pisces
is not easy identification with victims or one-sided compassion. It is
genuine compassion for us all without excluding any part of humanity.
How do you have compassion even for those who have murdered or committed
atrocities towards us or represent all that might disgust us? Yet our
most inspirational figures do just that – The Dalai Lama, Nelson
Mandela, Mother Theresa. A recent study on those who commit extreme
acts of heroism on behalf of people they do not know concluded that the
difference was that those who do not act see a “stranger” whereas the
individuals who act see a fellow human being.
Can we see everyone as us? Can we accept even the horror of death and
devastation, pain and grief as part of life and allow it to deepen us?
There are wonderful things coming out of the Pluto-Uranus cycle and
more still to come, we are only beginning to take our first steps
towards understanding ourselves collectively. I leave the last word to
Tich Nat Hahn because he expresses it so beautifully:
I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time
to eat the mayfly.
I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond,
and I am also the grass snake who, approaching in silence,
feeds itself on the frog.
I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks,
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to Uganda.
I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and loving.
I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my
hands, and I am the man who has to pay his “debt of blood” to, my people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.
My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all walks of life.
My pain if like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once,
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.
Please call me by my true names,
so I can wake up,
and so the door of my heart can be left open,
the door of compassion.
Thich Nhat Hanh
