STARFIRE

November 2008

November 2008 - It's Pluto Again
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It's Pluto Again

For days, I've been telling people "It's Pluto. This-whatever the this of the moment is-will pass by Thanksgiving." I can say that over and over because most of the "this" people are complaining about now is just Pluto cleanup from its years in Sagittarius.

The question is: Are we as ready for change as we think we are?

Or are we hoping our leaders will make the changes for us?

Voting matters. But it's the tip of the iceberg.

Changing paradigms and personal beliefs are the real Pluto story.

When I think about Pluto, I think of clenching a muscle until it hurts and forces release. Pluto intensifies a situation until it "blows out". The dramatic events are public and pervasive-and often ugly. The personal events are quieter but longer-lasting.

Second-guessing Pluto in advance is foolhardy. I haven't even predicted the outcome of the national election this year, let alone the world events foreshadowed by Pluto in Capricorn. I'm too busy taking my own advice from last February's Starfire column, taking baby steps and handling changes one moment at a time.

But when I look at the horizon, I do believe we'll all come to a different understanding of money and banking. Pluto in Cancer taught us the dangers of rampant nationalism, as Pluto in Leo taught the dangers of war. Pluto in Libra changed our family structures forever, and Pluto in Scorpio showed us the price for free love.

Pluto in Capricorn will show us the price of greed. And it may show us the cost of scale, of allowing institutions to become so large we no longer understand them.

Yesterday I got transferred four times when I called my HMO-and all I wanted to do was leave a voice message for the person in customer service who was working on a question for me. When it's easier to find my way through the federal bureaucracy than my HMO/insurance company over a billing question, something's wrong.

Maybe it's time to shed politically correct thinking-not polite behavior, but lazy thinking. The kind of thinking that "can't go there" on tough questions because someone might think we were being rude. Politically correct thinking shouldn't keep us from dealing with real issues.

The border between the United States and Mexico is a real issue. People die crossing that border. That's real. Drugs come across the border more easily than people looking for work. That's real. Our policies on the Canadian border and the Mexican border don't match. We need to deal with the disparity.

Public schools do not provide equal education district by district. If education were equal, school district lines wouldn't affect housing prices-and they do.

When the federal civil rights bill was proposed in 1965, as a measure opposing racial preference in employment, the congressional gentlemen who wanted the bill to fail tacked on equality for women. Even the League of Women Voters objected to the trivializing of such important legislation and had to backpedal quickly. Shades of 2008, when the first non-white presidential candidate was quickly countered by a woman on the opposing ticket.

If Pluto in Capricorn only teaches one lesson, it should be that we need to quit falling for the old shell game. In tarot, Capricorn is represented by the Devil or Old Pan, a false image that is blown out of proportion. The people enslaved before the Devil image could just release their chains. The image isn't real. Fear of false images is the ultimate trickster.

So the approach to Pluto in Capricorn should begin with a searching question in the face of universal wisdom. Anytime you hear a phrase that is all-inclusive ('We always', 'Everyone says', 'They say', 'It's just the way the world works'), ask for details. What would happen if we didn't follow that wisdom? Who specifically said that? False assumptions fall apart under questioning.

And questioning is what we're going to have to do. Not our leaders, but us. The changes in our world are too big, too pervasive, to be left in the hands of bureaucracies or people we only know from sound bytes.

The United States was founded on the idea that free people could make good decisions. The original patriots didn't just take King George's word for it that the tax on tea was good for the Empire so it must be good for them.

We don't need to take to the streets and dump tea in the harbor today. The internet and our public libraries make it possible for any of us to read every law and regulation the government enacts. We have more information available today than most of us know how to use.

The key to Pluto in Capricorn may well lie in that knowledge. First find the facts behind the sound bytes. If they affect you, run them down. If you need help, call a reference librarian. Question everything.

Question politely. But ask the "rude" questions in a quiet and polite manner. Model your questioning on a martial arts master who is confident enough not to need to display strength to get answers.

Take back the power to govern your own life. There was never a better moment than now, when Pluto is shifting into Capricorn and dispelling the myths and touching the core of the Universe (which is situated at 0 Capricorn).

I, of course, hope the candidate of my choice will win the election.

But above all, I want to see people around the world rise above fear and rise above lazy and politically correct thinking, and overcome fear of whatever overwhelms us. Step by step, question by question, I hope to see years ahead when individuals reclaim the power we've surrendered to nameless and faceless organizations.

Mary O’Gara, Ph.D.