Uranus Sextile Pluto
Transforming the Social Order
 ranus sextiles
Pluto in 1996 and 1997. (A sextile aspect means the planets are 60
degrees apart.) With orbits of 84 years for Uranus and 248
years for Pluto, aspects between these planets don't happen every
day! We get five passes in total: April 10/95, August 8/95,
March 8/96, October 20/96 and January 5/97. This is a rather
long contact period (often there are only three passes of an
aspect), suggesting that this evokes a longer term process.
Uranus conjoined Pluto three
times in 1965 and 1966, bringing enormous social upheaval and change
in the 1960s. The current sextile represents a time of
building resources through creative effort (waxing SXT) to support
the changes that began at that time.
Uranus and Pluto both
recently changed signs into Aquarius and Sagittarius, respectively.
Out of the five passes of the sextile, all of them take place in
these new signs except the second pass. This suggests the
Uranus-Pluto sextile is challenging us to build on the changes begun
in the 60s by answering a renewed call to freedom, truth and a
higher collective vision.
When Pluto changed signs in
1957, 1971 and 1984, Neptune changed too, being locked in a sextile
relationship since the 1940s. This period saw a gradual
evolution of social change (as compared to the social explosion when
Uranus conjoined Pluto.) However, Pluto and Neptune are
slightly out of sync now (until the early 2000s) and Uranus has
briefly taken Neptune's place in sextile with Pluto. Since
Pluto is changing signs with Uranus this time, a more unpredictable,
unstable and agitated energy prevails.
The Uranus-Pluto
Challenge
Uranus aspires to an
enlightened, humanitarian perspective, while Pluto demands that we
face the harder, darker realities of our times. How we combine
these energies at the sextile will fuel and direct our journey
toward our personal and collective spiritual evolution.
Every day the media shows us
fresh horror stories of the desperation with which we are attempting
to transform our economic structures, and the subsequent harsh
consequences for our unemployed and disadvantaged, as we try to
balance hard economic realities against compassionate ideals.
These issues illustrate our struggle to transform the social order
and manifest higher ideals since the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.
Although many of us strive to see the highest potential in those
around us, our collective opinions are becoming quite fragmented in
terms of HOW those potentials can best be cultivated.
Increasingly, it isn't enough
to tend our own little corner of the world and leave it to
government to meet the needs of the anonymous masses. Each of
us must, in some way, answer the challenge to take a personal stand
about our values, priorities and beliefs, be it through conscious
choice or resigned apathy. Do we, for example, give a "loonie"
to a panhandler when we can, or do we tell ourselves they are the
creators of their own struggle and therefore don't deserve our
compassion or help? Do we even dare make eye contact or say
hello, or do we hurry past pretending we don't see them?
Transpersonal
Implications
I'm not suggesting there is
only one optimal answer to these questions. However, Uranus
and Pluto tell us that these and other seemingly minor decisions
have far-reaching implications in the broader perspective. The
personal decisions and attitudes we embrace today become tomorrow's
composite reality and shape our personal integrity.
Collectively, they become the compass that determines our direction
into a foggy future.
Something was set into motion
at the Uranus-Pluto conjunction that cannot be undone or stopped.
It can and must, however, be shaped and directed. Each of us
can use the sextile energy to aspire to the highest vision of social
change we can imagine. What does YOUR ideal world look like?
What can you do to help create it? It will be different for
everyone.
Collectively, this can have a
cumulative effect of speaking to our highest common denominator.
We can build a foundation that will support and contain our highest
potential and the best future world we are presently capable of
creating.
© Wendy Guy, 1996. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission
from Transitions Canadian Astrology Magazine.
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