Today is the 15-year anniversary of the Willow's Web Astrology blog. I made it! We made it!
I
started the WWA blog on February 25, 2008 with Pluto newly in
Capricorn, and this has very much been a Pluto in Capricorn-era blog. Along with the astrological interpretations, I've
worked to expose corruption (Pluto) in multiple industries and
institutions (Capricorn) and to educate people
on how to protect themselves and their loved ones through increased
Plutonic awareness.
Now,
Pluto is poised to enter Aquarius on March 23, 2023 for a transit that
will stretch until 2044, and things start to shift. Willow's Web Astrology transforms
from a vehicle for Pluto in Capricorn work into a vehicle for Pluto
in Aquarius work. (Though Pluto doesn't leave Capricorn entirely
until late 2024...) I'm not sure what this transition will look like
exactly, but I'm ready for the next chapter, whatever it brings. This year will be a light duty year on the blog - the first light duty year I've taken in 15 years. The past three years on Planet Earth have taken a lot out of us. I've done a tremendous amount of unpaid and energy-intensive work during this time, including ongoing research, writing, activism, protest, public education, and lobbying of City Halls on more than one issue. All this has left me at an energy deficit, so this year, I'll be rebuilding my reserves on that front.
My priority and focus moving forward will be on paid work - the patron articles and astrology readings, tutoring, and lessons. I'll post new articles to the public blog if energy allows, but I don't imagine I'll be moving back into doing extensive unpaid work from this point on.
You can also find me through my website: Willow's Web Astrology
This is an excerpt from my second-ever post on the blog, published on February 26, 2008. Not to toot my own horn, but I would say I nailed it right out of the Pluto in Capricorn gate!
"PLUTO IN CAPRICORN: January 26, 2008 - November 20, 2024
Pluto fuels a
process of intense examination and scrutiny of the aspects of life we
would often rather not look at. All the dark creepy crawlies we’d prefer
would just stay hidden under the rug - the dark undercurrents of life,
ourselves and other people; denied emotional realities; abusive, unequal
relationship dynamics; things we repress that then come out in our
lives and selves in a multitude of unpleasant ways; power struggles;
control issues; hidden motivations; betrayals; emotional suppression and
poisoning; oppression; domination and subjugation; lack of personal
integrity; behaviours and circumstances that result from disconnection
to the core, soul-level reality; etc. All that fun stuff that we all
love dealing with!
Pluto knows that these things go on under the
surface and it also knows that until we recognize these aspects and
bring them up to conscious awareness, we’re doomed to repeat unpleasant
karmic cycles and patterns. Pluto gets us to do this by making life so
uncomfortable and hellish and oppressing us so horribly that we’re
forced to look at this stuff, examine it, release the old and make
changes because we would literally rather die than continue the way
things are. Or, rather, Pluto knows we WILL die (at least, on a
soul-level) if we continue the way things are - hence the “evolve or
die” thing.
Pluto’s location indicates the area that needs most
desperately to transition and be reborn into something new. So while
Pluto is in Capricorn, we’re going to be forced to look at our concepts
of material progress and success and all the structures that have grown
out of those concepts, transforming those things to better fit our
continued life on the planet.
As far as the transpersonal view
goes, Pluto in Capricorn will be a time when the Plutonic process is
applied to things such as: business and corporations and the
hierarchical structures within them; “bosses;” owners; management; time;
money; economics; material goals and progress; patriarchy; use of power by those at the top; the aspects of control and power that money and
position afford; public image; what our societies respect, recognize and
deem worthy; leadership and the legitimacy of that leadership; concepts
of success; climbing the corporate ladder and where that ladder is
leading us; etc.
In my view, the masculine and feminine energies
on the planet are currently unbalanced and unequal to the point of
collapse. And nowhere is this more apparent than in our business
structures, with the prevailing ideology of growth and achievement at
all cost and a seeming lack of concern about negative effects on the
environment, the populace and the basic overall soul of things. To me,
we’ve gone as far as we can go with the current system of unfettered
growth (to the point of almost destroying our planet), and now we
desperately need some balance. We need to inject some soul into our
structures. We need to balance outward achievement with inner reflection
and guidance. We need to care about how our actions and “progress”
affect other people and the planet. We need to make sure that the ways
we’re striving to be recognized and respected in the public world feel
right to us in our inner world. This relates to the balance of Cancer
and Capricorn. During a Pluto transit through a sign, development of the
sign opposite Pluto is crucial to sort of pull us out of the muck and
mire that Pluto kicks up and create some balance. Capricorn rules the
Father figure energy (masculine) and Cancer rules the Mother figure
energy (feminine). Capricorn rules the outwardly visible public self and
Cancer rules the inner, soul self. So to me, Pluto in Capricorn is very
clearly a time when the disconnect between these things must be
addressed. Masculine and feminine must come into balance. They must
learn to work together as equally important forces, each playing a
complementary role and becoming one force of creation, instead of two
separate forces resisting each other and fighting for dominance.
One
of the things a birth chart illustrates beautifully is the fact that we
all have masculine energy and feminine energy within us. There are six
yin signs and six yang signs that we all, men and women, contain. A
mistake that we make in our society is to equate feminine with women and
masculine with men. So adding women to a corporate boardroom is often
considered enough to address the imbalance of masculine and feminine.
This is, of course, not true because women can behave in a very
masculine way, especially when they’re trying to fit in and succeed in
an excessively masculine structure.
So we need to transform
(Pluto) the way we understand the interplay of masculine and feminine,
outer and inner (Capricorn - Cancer). And see how denying the existence
or the importance of the feminine or yin energy in our work and business
structures is creating a problematic imbalance in our society.
Addressing
and rebalancing these issues through Pluto in Capricorn will,
hopefully, change the lifestyle track that people are running on of go,
go, go!, "I'm so busy," tossing down three Starbucks a day to keep
going, cocaine sniffing (yes, business people have resorted to that,
apparently), body in a constant state of alert/panic, constant growth,
constant focus on outward results, goals!, achievements!, recognition!,
outpacing the other guy/gal, etc.
Along with that, the way all
this is artificially supported by a controlled and invisible form of
feminine, which exists only to support this mad machine, will also
transform. An example of this is the receptionist or admin assistants in
the business structure, who support what other people are doing but
usually have no real independent roles of their own.
This
Plutonic transformation will also renew our respect for and
understanding of growth cycles - the fact that creation involves outward
growth, but also rest, dormancy and connection to the inner for
guidance. The fact that the human body is not a machine, and it cannot
just produce, produce, produce. Energy levels fluctuate. There is a
timing of things.
These are some of the things which will come up
during Pluto in Capricorn and not in a superficial way! Pluto asks for
nothing less than complete transformation from the core. No stone is
left unturned. So Pluto will be demanding complete institutional change.
Pluto
will help us to see what power is legitimate in our business structures
and what isn’t, who is rightfully a leader and who does not have the
personal integrity or character to truly lead humanity into a new era,
who is a dinosaur clinging to power using the old methods of coercion,
manipulation and control and who has rightfully earned the position of
leader.
I think during the next 16 years, (within the context of
the Aquarian era shift), equality will be chosen more often than not
over hierarchy. Even the concept of a “boss” will come under scrutiny
within many organizations. As will the owner-worker paradigm and the
right to dominate, manipulate and control “underlings” that sometimes
goes along with being in charge of the purse strings. Any inequalities
in the dynamics between people on different levels of the hierarchy will
come up. The way people are bullied into putting up with abusive
conditions out of fear of losing their employment. And the personality
issues that people at the top of the hierarchy are allowed to
have…things that would not be tolerated in workers lower on the totem
pole. Top-down decision-making where people who are completely
disconnected from the reality of the workers are creating policies that
don’t make practical sense. The lack of access many workers have to the
decision-making process, despite the fact that it affects their
livelihoods. Corporate policy that is sometimes impractical and
inhumane. All this excitement and much more!!!
As far as the
timing of Pluto in Capricorn, I think a lot of people are now starting
to see that there are problems associated with unfettered corporate consumer
capitalism. We understand now that seeing human beings strictly as
consumers, gobbling up corporate products, is an unbalanced view of things. We see
that translating the Earth’s resources into dollars and cents, grabbing
them up and consuming them as quickly as possible is not a sustainable
way to live. And the access corporate heads have to our government’s
decision-making is becoming just a little too much for a lot of us to
bear. (North American Union, anyone?) For me, personally, I’ve never
been able to participate in corporate structures for too long because
they always felt so horrible. The imbalance and the disconnect from the
inner, soul-guided level of things was something I could never stomach.
So I’m quite biased on this subject. But for me, I can see quite clearly
that Pluto in Capricorn is going to involve a transformation of
business structures and all unbalanced hierarchical structures in our
world. We’re going to start seeing through any of these structures that
are propped up with coercion, fear, control and domination.
Anyway,
that’s my take on things. These are issues that are really deeply
ingrained in our society and they’re not at the level of conscious
awareness for most people. So I’m sure it’s going to take all of Pluto’s
might over these next 16 years to get people to take a look at this
stuff. I just hope the planet can hold out that long…"
Thanks very much for reading. Happy, Happy 15th Birthday, Willow's Web Astrology blog!
