He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

 

Are you ready? „The big P moves tomorrow?“ Lol, this is how my astro buddy commented on Pluto moving into a new sign of Aquarius last week. I immediately thought of my favorite Harry Potter series and „He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named“, „You-Know-Who“ or if we´re brave enough then „Voldemort, the Dark Lord“.

When using indirect references, it is obvious who we have in mind, yet it sounds a lot less scary. 

We often assume that if we avoid calling things by their real name when we avoid the uncomfortable spaces and they stay undefined that they will be somehow diminished. We fear that if we give them our attention and make them concrete, they will become more real and have more power over us.   

From my experience, the opposite is true. Our taboo, Plutonian spaces won’t disappear from our lives when they are ignored. If we pretend like the darkness does not exist, if we try to dilute it, it slowly starts gaining more power over us. It turns into an insatiable beast that slowly consumes us within. It’s like a slow Dementor’s kiss sucking our soul away.

We´re becoming more and more uncomfortable and the darkness is waiting for the right moment to strike. Pluto, the Dark Lord, won’t let us sweep the dirt under the rug forever.

Every morning when taking my cold showers, I think about Pluto. The moment I feel the icy grip of the water on my body. My mind goes blank for a moment. It feels like someone sucked out all the joy from my life like Dementors are coming to feast on my fear. My body gets tense, my mind gets into panicky mode, my heart is racing. I need to consciously relax and take a deep breath, telling myself it is ok, it is just a shock to the system.

Extreme experiences have this effect. They challenge you, they strike fear into you. Living in fear is draining. If it feeds on you long enough, you might lose something of yourself. You might become disengaged with life itself wandering anxiously, feeling like an empty shell that lost its soul.

Pluto makes us face our dark vulnerable spaces. It’s the constant itch we have to scratch, the wound we can’t seem to heal, the traumatic experiences that leave a dark stain within our soul.

As the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto has a kingdom of its own. The place where Sun never shines.When we’re in Hades’s land, the Sun is obscured to us. It feels like the light is removed from our environment like we're stuck under a dark heavy blanket.

The sign of Aquarius, that Pluto is going to transit for the next twenty years is highlighting this dichotomy between light and darkness even further. Ruled by Saturn, opposing the sign of Leo, the Sun’s domicile, it will direct us further and further from the luminous centre to the shadows of the edges. It will make us explore parts of ourselves that we wish to stay hidden and concealed, that we locked in the dark closet hoping they will always stay there.

We will always wonder what’s lurking in that darkness though, it won’t get any better if we won’t consciously face our fears. Until we open that dark closet and see what concrete shape our fear takes. Until we experience our worst nightmares, until we go through that extreme experience. Then there is nothing left to be afraid of, you’ve seen it all. Fear cannot feed on you any longer when you are actively confronting it. 

Meeting the Dark Lord will transform your life and believe it or not, he will paradoxically escort you back to the light once you complete your lesson. 

Keep hope alive, keep dreaming.

Petra