Pluto Retrograde

So anyways, I have a purge planned for this long weekend.

Partly it’s because I should be painting, but mostly because it feels as though our house just needs a good detox.

I’m fortunate to have plenty of storage in our house, but just lately things have felt cluttered and close…and stale. Something needs to be eliminated. It feels as though things need to be pared back, as though the shelves in the cupboards, the compartments, the filled corners, are reflective of my headspace.

As I’ve mentioned before, stuff is going on around me, and it’s stuff that’s not great. While I mightn’t be able to control what’s going on out there, I do have some say over what’s happening in here.

This deliberate elimination is very Plutonian- which is prefect timing given that Pluto has now stationed retrograde and will re-trace his steps through until 25 September (or thereabouts). As with all retrograde planets, the retrograde motion makes Pluto act, well, more Plutonian and Plutonian people even more susceptible to Pluto. How do you know if you’re Plutonian? Check out this fun quiz from Donna Cunningham.

When a planet is retrograde, the energy is directed inward rather than externally. In Pluto’s case, it acts sort of like a planetary detox where the crap (for want of a better term) in our lives is eliminated (a very Pluto word). This can be emotions we have been holding onto, attitudes or values which should have changed or evolved, vendettas we should have let go of, revenge fantasies we are just waiting for the right moment to act upon (ooops, that’s me!), secrets that you have been keeping under wraps.

Generally speaking, Pluto issues and events are the ones that we simply don’t want to have to face. It’s the intense stuff of life, it’s the death stuff of life, it’s the dark stuff of life…it’s endings, it’s beginnings, it’s also our own personal underworld.

This is why sometimes we need to access this another way- a more representational or metaphorical way…such as an overcrowded craft cupboard, a dusty bookshelf, a wardrobe full of clothes that are no longer fit for purpose. The physical purge often allows you to access your own hidden spaces and see what is waiting to emerge.

Even if you’re not receiving a Pluto transit right now, you might find that Pluto themes are being brought to the surface at the moment- and will be again in September when Pluto stations to go direct.

For those of you who are strongly influenced by Pluto or currently experiencing major Pluto transits (especially anyone with the Sun, Moon or ascendant at or around 14-17 Cancer, Capricorn, Libra or Aries), this will be a big thing. Now is the time to do some internal Pluto work on yourself- a physical detox, heavy meditation- anything that is regenerative and gets you back in touch with the innermost core of you.

As with all retrograde cycles, the critical points are the station degrees- in this case 17 Capricorn 29’ where he is stationing retrograde and 14 Capricorn 55’ where he will station to turn direct. These are points of pretty huge transformation and metamorphosis if they happen to fall on a sensitive point in your natal chart. I’m not talking orbs here- when it comes to station points I’m talking direct hits. To the degree.

Because Pluto moves so slowly, the orbs of influence are very narrow. If he turns retrograde even a degree before exacting an aspect, you may get just a passing glance…this time. The thing with Pluto though, is there’ll always be a next time…and usually a next, and a next.

Pluto retrogrades may bring expansion or loss of power, manipulation, obsession, ambition and power struggles. They can also raise issues of sex, life, death, rebirth…but Pluto does not necessarily equal bad. It might be truths that we’re not yet ready to handle, endings we’re not yet ready to accept, beginnings that seem way too far away.

Your Pluto transit might be crap. It might also be hard, challenging and all those other words we like to use to describe crap where it does hit your chart. It might also be empowering and bring with it the breakthrough you’ve been waiting for. Ultimately though, Pluto transits can also be healing and transforming.

That principle applies to the most random and shittiest of shitty Pluto transits- although you won’t be ready to hear this (or see this) until you’re a few or many years down the track- indeed, you might never be ready…and that’s ok.

Whatever happens there is no escaping the effect…Pluto is like that…but hanging onto whatever you’re hanging onto won’t help. Throw it out…if you can…with the trash. Who knows what treasures have been hidden?