In fact a little more detail about the Aeonic conjunction we are currently going through may be very useful. As has been said earlier Pluto is the signifactor of power, tension and eruptions from beneath the surface or from within. Its function is to transform all that it touches. In mundane terms it symbolises power relations, conflict, explosions, orgasm, sex, death, harvest, and a sudden profit from investment. Its grander significance is often political and cultural and involves the destruction of old forms and their replacement with something new.
The galactic centre ‘in Sagittarius’ is physically the blackhole now known to be at the centre of our galaxy. Modern western astrologers regard it as signifying world historical change. The Mayans refered to the ‘centre of the cosmos’ as the home of the androgynous Hunab Ku, the ‘god of the gods’, who created the world and ordered the great cycles of the ages. He gave birth to a son at the beginning of each age, the last being Itzamna, the serpentine moon god and lord of knowledge, who brought a new culture to the Maya. New Agers combined the two and this has defused into popular astrology. For Lovecraftians it is variously the seat of Azathoth, or at least the primary gate of the Great Old Ones, whose emmisary is Nyarlathotep.
We can expect to see sudden leadership change and perhaps administrations collapsing in 2007, if not whole political systems. Culturally it will be intensely Plutonic, perhaps even Scorpionic. Which on a positive note is rather good for sex and investments. If Heraclitus was right, and he usually was, this period will be intensely Dionysian, for good and ill.
Astronomically Pluto reached exact conjunction with the Galactic Centre last year on December 29th 2006, a rare event occuring only every 248 years, the closeness of this to New Years Day (when it was fractionally seperating) means it will effect the entirity of 2007. Pluto was within one degree of the Centre all last year, foreshadowing coming events, but became effectively conjunct (within a fraction of a degree) on Dec 3rd. This was further empowered by a rare planetary conjunction on Dec 10th, when the closest visible conjunction of the three bright planets from 1971 through 2029 occured. Mars was about 1 degree from Mercury and Jupiter, which were about one third degree from each other, and all nearly conjunct the bright star Graffias in the head of the Scorpion, astrologically, around the 4th degree of Sagittarius (the sign of the Galactic Centre). Previously on the evening of the 9th Dec Venus had risen in opposition on the exact opposite side of the sky, also in Sagittarius (those who remember the Pleasure Lab rite carried out on the 9th Dec by the Dionysian Underground - and who realise that the androgynous Dionysos is associated with Scorpio, its head in particular, as well as know the connection of Mercury with trickster-clowns, Jupiter with directors/ringmasters, and perhaps Mars with horned gods, all flavoured with the Dionysian-Hunab Ku of the Plutonic conjunction – may find this little event interesting!).
But the real activation came on Dec 19th when the Sun also conjuct Pluto on the Galactic Centre, an event that only happens once every 26,000 years!
Pluto is now moving away from the Centre, but will remain effectively conjunct until Jan 29th and will remain within 1 degree until March 29th (just before this on March 18 near the Equinox we have a partial Solar Eclipse after a total Lunar Eclipse on March 3rd which are also regarded as gates). At this point it will go retrograde and move back towards the Centre, reachieving effective conjunction on June 10th and exact conjunction on July 16th. It will then go direct and move away again, remaining effectively conjunct till mid August and within 1 degree till Sept 7th. At which point it moves forward again achieving a final exact conjunction on Oct 28th near Samhain (having been in effective conjunction from about late Sept). It will then move away again, staying in effective conjunction till late November and within 1 degree well into 2008. However near the Solstice on 20th Dec an extremely rare conjunction of Jupiter with Pluto and the Galactic Centre, while also conjunct Mercury and the Sun (in near conjunction to the Centre) will occur, magnifying the effect again, with one last burst of energy. All of this commenced on a year which saw the 19 yearly Lunar Standstill last Sept.
It is no wonder some people are shitting themselves.
So what does it all mean? Looking at history may help.
The first known conjunction of Pluto to the Centre took place in 470-468 BC at 23 degrees Scorpio and witnessed the violent end of the Persian Empire in the West and the beginning of the Golden Age of Pericles that witnessed the introduction of democracy and a court system. Many of the new ideas adopted were of course Persian. No surprise that Pluto in its own sign of Scorpio would bring about endings and the death of the old order, both Greek and Persian, and historians speculate that if the Greeks had not prevailed against the Persians western civilization as we know it may never have occurred.
The next conjunction occurred at 26 Scorpio at 223-220 BC, at which time of great strife the Qin dynasty united seven waring kingdoms in China for the first time, and established the first Imperial Dynasty in Chinese history.
The conjunction at 30 Scorpio in 25-28 AD may have coincided with the death of Jesus of Nazareth (the exact date of his death is highly debated, but many astronomers believe that Jesus was actually born 4 BC when a comet may have appeared as the Star of Bethlehem or in 7 BC during an unusual stellar conjunction and that he lived 33 years (a ‘fact’ embeded in Masonic lore). A period that also saw an increasingly violent struggle between the Jewish Zealots and the Roman Empire. In which some claim the historical Christ was the would-be synthesiser of these opposites
The next conjunction of 271-273 AD corresponded to the increasing fragmentation of the Roman Empire and its schismatic struggles, as well as the birth of Emperor Constantine, who would reunite it with his introduction of the Sol Invictus Cult and finally Christianity.
The next conjunction was in 519-522 at 6 Sagittarius, coinciding with the end of a schism in the Roman church between the Eastern and Western branches over whether or not Christ had a dual nature (human/divine) or was purely divine, a theological argument (Sagittarius) and a brief unity. This period also witnessed the founding of an independent Jewish state in Babylon. Shortly after the conjunction Justinian compiled the Corpus Jurus Civilis, a fundamental text in jurisprudence (Sagittarius rules bodies of shared ideas, encompassing law as well as theology).
767-770., at 11 Sagittarius, witnessed the founding of Baghdad by King Khalif Abbasid Al Mansoor who established a center for learning there (Sagittarius rules higher education). The Caliphate rises and dominates the Middle East uniting fueding factions. This also marked the beginning of the Charlemagne period. Charlemagne was King of the Franks who conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III. His rule defined the Middle Ages and marked the first rule of a united Europe since the fall of the Roman Empire.
Next came the conjunction in 1015-1017 at 15 Sag, at which time the Muslim caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah destroyed Constantine's Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The reaction to this event in Europe was extreme, and likely was a precipitating cause for the Crusades.
In 1262-1264 Pluto was conjunct the Centre at about 19 Sagittarius. This period saw the first parliament in England after the Baron's War captured the then King Henry III. The Knights Templars, who emerged from the Crusades, had carefully played off the Royalists against the Barons to get this result.
In 1510-1512, Pluto conjunct the Centre. at 23 Sag, marked the acceleration of the Spanish gold trade in the new world (Sag rules exploration and adventure). Machiavelli wrote his landmark work The Prince, a treatise on gaining and maintaining power. Copernicus discovered that the earth revolved around the Sun. Martin Luther preached against papal indulgences that offered salvation for a cost in gold, beginning what was to become the Protestant Reformation.
The last conjunction before the present day occurred in 1758-1760 at 24 Sagittarius. Copernicus's treatise on his discovery was removed from the papal list of forbidden books where it was placed in 1610. The Seven Years War, arguably the first World War, began. This war marked the end of France's power in the New World and the emergence of Britain as the great Colonial power, changing the course of history. Also, 1758 saw the publication of the first treatise on the Atomic Theory, termed one of the most important theories in the history of science.
The general trend appears to be the emergence of two or more conflicted factions or forces from which a ‘higher unity’ emerges, and in the process culture as a whole becomes invigorated and new discoveries occur. An apparent dialectical progression seems present too. The effects seem mainly geopolitical and focused on the West (though this maybe a feature of the historical record rather than history itself).
Fortunately there is little sign of natural disasters associated with this conjunction by some astrologers, none of the world’s major volcanic eruption or earthquakes fit this cycle.
My own favoured perspective that the evolution of sexual culture and sexual revolution is linked to this conjunction is also partly born out. With in reverse order the revolution inspired by the Marquis de Sade having its origins around the mid 18th century as did Sexual Utopianism; the early 16th century seeing the emergence of the sexual aspects of the Rennaissance, on which we read, 'Renaissance culture was obsessively taken up with the kalidescopic aspects of transgressive sexuality, most specifically the insistent pull of family relationships and the counterweight of desire', it is also the first time we read of extra-marital sex, and soon after this the concept of ‘bundling’ is recorded, the early modern practice of courting couples laying in bed together half-naked ; the mid 13th century being speculatively associated with the full manifestation of the Troubadour cult of ‘courtly love’ within mainstream society (described by scholars such as Mosché Lazar as an adulterous sexual love with physical possession of the lady the desired end, rebelling against the earlier norm of arranged marriage); the Dark Age dates of 1015 and 767 have little going for them; 520AD is a probable last date for the writing of the Kama Sutra and the emergence of the culture it engendered; but 270 and 25AD are dates in a time widely associated with a reaction against pagan excesses, though brakes as well as accelerators are needed in any functioning movement; things are more interesting again in 220BC, being the period when Roman women were rebelling against the Oppian laws restricting their freedom, with an affirmation of their liberty, including its sexual form; and 470BC was a time of the flowering of Greek Sexual Culture with its pederasty and sacred prostitution. These dates thus roughly fit a pattern of sexual evolution, however some appear blank while other obvious areas (such as the ‘60s) are not included. This may be correctable by better research however (for instance squares, oppositions and trines between Pluto and the Galactic Centre may also be important) . We may thus expect coming times to become more sexually radical, perhaps in todays context in terms of Pansexuality and Polyamory, the only two areas with any controversy attached these days.
How the Conjunction effects particular indviduals will depend on how Pluto is placed in their chart, those who have it prominent, such those with Scorpio Sun signs, Moon signs or Rising signs, or with Pluto well placed will generally benefit from it, though perhaps in way not free of pain and loss, those lacking this may find the Conjunction is not so kind to them (perhaps at best missing them) though for most people Pluto is a malefic. Its area activity will depend on its position in their natal chart, for instance Taurus and Leo ascendents will benefit from the sexual aspects more than any other, in the long run, while Pisces ascendents will benefit more from the political aspects (the same applies to the Sun signs, but not as strongly). Those with Pluto in the Second House may find the Conjunction either emotionally draining or rewarding depended on how its aspected etc etc. How the energies are actually consciously worked with will also make a difference. A general rule of thumb is that those attached to old institutions and ways will suffer while those attached to progressive movements and new modes of life will generally prosper.
One final puzzle is how the retrograde Pluto will change its significance, this is a controversial issue in astrology some regard it as internalising an influence psychologically instead of in the outside world, while others see it as purely malefic. Both should perhaps be anticipated.
It looks like the year ahead will be an exciting time.
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