How Astrology Works – Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto Transits - Aquarius Papers

by Robert Wilkinson

Many have commented over the years that they were freaked out about the transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto over their natal and progressed planets. Today we take a brief look at why getting freaked out is not useful and is ultimately an illusion to be busted.

Over the years, my consistent position has been that we cannot take these personally, since they are large scale influences that we usually have little or no control over, except how we are to respond to those things that we didn’t create and which we have relatively little ability to change. That's why I maintain that we do not "create our reality," but we do create our responses to the reality in which we find ourselves.

There are many things in life we did not create, from the price of oil to the pollution in our environment to the racial and religious civil wars inflaming our world. Much in our world has been created by previous generations, and how they regarded life and the environment. While we may agree to participate or not participate in these things to the degree we are able, we usually did not create the circumstances that led us to those choices.

Transiting Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto show large scale influences. They define generations and sub-generations, and broad based collective movements that revolutionize and innovate (Uranus), dissolve and/or unify large groups of people within collective ideals (Neptune), or sprout long wave seeds of radical transformation, whether through purification or economy of energy, which often involve the annihilation of old forms and the introduction of the seeds of future global trends (Pluto).

Transiting Uranus awakens all it touches, regardless of the aspect. A Uranian square or opposition can challenge our comfortable assumptions, and introduce revolutionary new conditions. It can also mark the beginning of individualization.

A Uranian trine or sextile may also do these things, but in a way that we can understand and work with that seems easier to us than the square or other octile series aspects. It always offers its quality of individualization, whether we see it or not, or are responding consciously or not.

Neptune shows broad based collective forces. They may be in the collective unconscious, or the collective consciousness. They show broad tides of what falls out of favor, and what comes into favor.

A transiting Neptune square or opposition to one of our planets indicates a turning point in our awareness of our position within collective consciousness. It may lead us to reinforce our ideals in the face of collective approval or disapproval, or it may lead us to an entirely different set of ideals, which may or may not be in alignment with what’s going on in the collective.

Transiting Pluto brings a purifying fire to all it touches. It represents the appearance and disappearance of global trends, as well as core issues of the human condition. Whether splitting the atom, or bringing a holocaust, or introducing seeds of radical spiritual transformation, Pluto always works impersonally.

An octile aspect from Pluto may or may not bring upheaval, but it always brings pressure to get very clear and focused. It often requires us to eliminate old patterns, whether through frictional or harmonious conditions. Just because a Pluto trine brings us a clear understanding of what needs to be stripped down to the core does not necessarily mean it will be easy!

All of the outermost planets show large scale conditions that bring us to points of choice. All of the transits of these, regardless of the aspect made, show us the need to turn away from an old expression, and find a newer, more effective way of dealing with the issues these planets represent.

Again, a Neptune square can turn us away from an old ideal, or indicate conditions where we maintain an old ideal in the face of a collective consciousness that doesn’t value that ideal. A Plutonic square may force us to abandon an old way of living, but doesn’t that also introduce a new way that may be more appropriate given the shift in collective conditions?

Here’s where a crucial theme in human life must be offered. These three planets are outside of the orbit of Saturn, the planet that defines our personal reality. All the inner planets show us parts of that reality, from our innermost experience (the Moon) to the limits of where our fear rubs up against our freedom (Saturn). While we often have little or no ability to create or change the reality in which we find ourselves, we always have the power of choosing how we will respond to those shifts in the apparent reality in which we live and breathe and have our Being.

This is one of many themes I explore in my coming book on Saturn, which I hope to publish sometime this Spring. We can only live the life we are able to create. The limits of our creative self-expression are defined by our Saturn. And of course, these limits are not static, but completely defined by our personal biases forged within our social and cultural matrix. That’s why we always have the ability to choose to step outside our biases and limitations, and embrace the journey of self-reinvention by not assuming that the limits of our past need be the limits of our present or our future.

While the outer planets show us forces that are “beyond our control,” we always have the power to choose our responses to those forces. Saturn shows us the boundary where our fear meets our mastery, the grinding zone where our ego assumptions and biases collide with our eternal quest for freedom and conscious spiritual individuation. Once we master Saturn, we have the ability to be conscious in our choices of how we want to respond to larger forces of change in our world.

Also, of some critical importance are the positions of our natal Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, and what angles they make with other planets in our charts. If we have some familiarity with how we respond to these invisible spiritual forces, then we will have clues as to how to respond to the transits of these as they occur.

In other words, if you have a healthy Uranian function in your natal chart, then you will probably have a healthy response to the changes represented by transiting Uranus contacts to your planets. If you have a healthy Neptunian function, then you will not fall into confusion simply because transiting Neptune makes a hard angle to one or more of your natal planets.

I have Pluto rising, with both harmonious and challenging aspects made by planets in my natal chart. I have learned to make Pluto my friend, and though the transits have often stripped me down to the core, I’ve also made some of the best decisions in my life under hard transiting Pluto aspects. And yes, it really does work that way. Even a monstrously difficult experience can be turned to a greater spiritual awareness and effectiveness.

There is no external thing that can prevent us from taking command of how we choose to respond to life changes, nor strip us of our ability to choose to further the Great Work of perfecting our personality vehicles to manifest our Higher Self and our Soul/Spirit. We are the Way, Truth, and Life/Light that we seek. Finding that within, there is no external thing that can prevent us from living these eternal verities.

So be of good cheer, and do not fear the hard aspects of transiting Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto to your natal or progressed planets. They are showing you the way beyond fear, and opening doors to a greater life than you knew before that time.

Comments

thankyou after reading your missive cannot say it has changed my life but after losing my daughter a year ago it has given me hope that I can stop crying, thankyou very much love Claire

Posted by: Claire Daring | January 29, 2016 at 07:36 AM