PLUTO IN SAGITTARIUS
29th March 2005
Dear All,
Without going
in great detail, years ago, when Pluto entered Sagittarius, certain patterns
became obvious, which I have been documenting over the past few years. One
observation, that became very clear, was that Pluto would have a very
profound effect on Religion in particular. Or to be more precise, the
Plutonic, or Underground, or unconscious aspects of Religion would be
brought to the surface of both individual and collective consciousness. This
has become very clear in the awareness of religious fundamentalism. Fanatics
are not new. History is full of the activities of religious bigotry. But the
dynamics of the phenomena have not been so apparent as they are today.
Firstly, much has been presented by the work of the depth psychology
movement, in the last century, and in particular by the work of C.G. Jung
and the Jungians. These researches have opened up to view the archetypal
underpinnings of religious fanaticism.
As we know,the
events flowing from September 11th and the Twin Towers . . . have affected
us all. Religious intolerance between various factions of the major world
religions has been on the increase, whatever the permutation. At the same
time, there has never been a greater opportunity for religious understanding
. . . between different faiths.
But to
return to the operations of Pluto. The recent mass interest in Dan Brown's
thriller, The da Vinci Code, is a case in point. A few weeks ago,
SKY NEWS ran a short insert on the book, noting that 35 million copies had
been sold in a wide variety of languages. In the same programme they had a
short response from OPUS DEI, the conservative Catholic organization that
was blamed for liquidating the opposition. Dan Brown based his novel very
strongly on the work of Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry
Lincoln, The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail. I have now
just read The Inquisition, by Michael Baigent & Richard
Leigh, which continues the direction along which research into the effects
of Pluto in Sagittarius can be discerned.
It is a vitally
important book to read, and contains ideas that are of seminal importance to
the emergence of an enlightened society, once we have dealt with the
reactionary religious forces that seem to be so powerful today.
These few ideas
are designed to continue in a larger discourse and research project which is
in motion at the moment.
Yours sincerely
Samten
In a notebook, many years ago, I wrote this quotation:
Pluto kills or destroys but builds out of the elements of
the destroyed out of the old, something new..."
Fritz Brunhubner.
How, may one ask, does a planet, in this case, Pluto, kill?
Or destroy? Or build?
Or in a more specific context, how would these killings,
destructions and rebuildings, affect Sagittarius, the Zodiacal Sign where
Pluto is presenting resident?
I think that Brunhubner has made a serious mistake with the
word 'kill', until I read the Michael Baigent book on The Inquisition.
Sagittarius rules Religion, Churches, Hierophants, Priests and so on . . . .
and during the Crusades, killing was certainly sanctified by the Church. And
especially the genocidal destruction of the Cathars in the 13th Century. A
great deal of killing has been done in the name of so-called Religion.
But if we place the conceptual Planet Pluto, to one side for
the moment, and attend to Pluto as a code, cipher, archetypa, energy, symbolic
activity etc., we can amplify the operations of Pluto in the present context.
But before doing so, I wish to pay attention to the word
'destroy'. The prefix: de- is followed by the root of the word, which is the
same as the word STRUCTURE. The words: DESTRUCTION AND DESTROY, tell us
that the STRUCTURE has been removed . . and that it would be more
correct to say that Pluto DE-STRUCTURES - not kills, or anhilates, in
the nihilistic, finalistic sense.
For example: we can take the structure away from a building,
but we can preserve the material from which it was originally built.
Many buildings, in ancient Rome, were quaried for their marble over the
thousand years that followed the collapse of the Empire. This is known today
as re-cycling. And Brunhubner says that Pluto " . . . builds out of
the elements of the destroyed out of the old, something new..."
This
simultaneity of the underworld with the daily world is imaged by Hades
coinciding indistinguishably with Zeus, or identical with Zeus chthonios.
The brotherhood of Zeus and Hades says that upper and lower worlds are the
same; only the perspectives differ. There is only one and the same universe,
coexistent and synchronous, but one brother's view sees it from above and
through the light, the other from below and into its darkness. Hades' realm
is contiguous with life, touching it at all points, just below it, its
shadow brother (Doppelgänger) giving to life its depth and its
psyche.
James
Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld, Haper & Row,
New York, 1979, P.30.
The Significations of
Pluto Philip Graves
General Principle:
Sometimes considered a 'higher octave' of Mars, Pluto is
similarly powerful and penetrating, but on an unconscious and psychological
level. It gradually permeates the subconscious with its drives, leaving the
conscious unaware until suddenly and explosively it emerges in an
instinctive response that brings sweeping and often devastating change in
the psyche and way of living. It can thus be a force for great personal good
or ill. It evokes the principles of resurrection and determination, which
when positively expressed bring resolution; when negatively expressed,
coercion.
Pluto governs the conversion of apparent lost causes into successful
projects, but at times the receding of objectives when their point of
realisation seems imminent; cycles of death and rebirth; disregard for
vested interests; extremes of good and bad (including luck); the frustration
and annihilation of plans; idealistic socially motivated organisations;
ideas ahead of their time; the inspiration to put an end to failing
conditions; involvement in organised groups and movements desirous of social
reconstruction, which may include altruistic interest groups, political
parties and think tanks, professional associations and trade unions, and
also gangs and underground organisations; the negation and transformation of
conditions; non-recognition of the legitimacy or impositions of officially
established authorities; righteous indignation on behalf of social causes;
and the voluntary relinquishment of worldly interests in order to advance
spiritual development, or of home, country or fortune for marriage. It
manifests in writers and dramatists who seek to inculcate reformist
doctrines into their literary works. It is compulsive, intense, and
sometimes manipulative.
Star Lore of the
Constellations Canis Major - the Greater Dog
Deborah Houlding