Survival Tips for the Pluto Transits

Pluto transits occur when one is about to make a great new leap forward, to leave the past behind and embrace a new beginning. This is what Pluto wants us to do— empower ourselves by letting go of the past and taking a transformative leap forward in our lives. 

- Lynn Koiner "Survival Tips for the Pluto Transits"

Yesterday my husband Pete and I went on our yearly adventure into Seattle to visit and gather with the group of MCS friends we first met in 2008. Among them is the woman who helped us cope psychologically with the severe challenges of adapting to life with a condition most medical systems did not (and still don't easily) recognize. Another of these friends offered us long distance emotional support; and then real and practical support when we needed a person to explore the possibility of renting a living space. We were living in a car at the time thousands of miles from the potential rental. With guidance from her mother who lives with MCS, a young realtor went through the basement apartment with and a whole body sort of radar and determined the space doable. With that assessment we made the choices necessary to travel from O'ahu to Seattle and began building a small, moveable safe space. We named that space Vardo For Two. Astrologically Pluto had changed signs from Sagittarius to Capricorn in 2008, and was now half-way into my 12th House.

 Lynn Koiner writes: "In 2008, Pluto was transiting late degrees of Sagittarius. Planets transiting the late degrees of a sign always indicates an ending cycle. It is a time in our lives wherein we must draw some life situation to a conclusion. In 2009-10, Pluto will be in the early degrees of Capricorn. This always brings something new into our lives when Pluto aspects an early degree planet. With a conjunction, square or opposition, the stress does not mean that the situation is bad but it is the stress of doing something that we have never done before. It is a totally new cycle for us!" 

Though I have been interested in astrology for most of my adult life, the deeper meaning of this navigational tool was never more important than at this time. I would need the ancient methods to make sense of the powerlessness I felt. Pluto is a small and slow moving source of energy; a planet, a dwarf. Scientists fiddle with naming his/her affects but without doubt Pluto is meant to bring deep change. For us, Pluto was forcing transformation, ridding all the unnecessary from us internally and externally. Yesterday our drive from Whidbey Island in a torrential rain was a kind of check-point. Had we taken care of ourselves in the period since we first met this group to venture out of the woods? Was it important enough to make the effort? 

Together we decided it was important to make the trek. One of our dear friends celebrated her 80th birthday, has been through a major surgery, and was recuperating from an unexpected physical ailment to top it all off. She would be unable to attend this once a year gathering. That was a crossroad: we could decide it was not meant for us to make the trek. Instead, I offered an option. We could stop by her home, and spend a few minutes, share some stories, a face-to-face gift of magic and appreciate the most important thing of all: love for one another. 

It worked that way last night. For the first time since our first long distance phone conversations in 2007, I was standing in our friends's home and did indeed share stories, tea and magic. With an hour to spare we continued our Seattle adventure. We shopped for a few things at the Green Lake PCC before wending our way through the wet and dark Phinney Ridge neighborhoods into Ballard to finally climb the steps to the party.

This rather winding tale is meant to tell the experience of surviving the challenges of a Pluto Transit. These transits through the space between Pluto and Earth are slow, as is our approach to becoming a more of the best-possible-human with the spirit of stardust. Journeying the way we do from the woods of Whidbey, the once-a-year December gatherings give us all a chance to see each other. We bring food to share, pack up things we no longer need and put them into a pile to offer others. We also spend time listening to the Highlights of the Year. Every one who comes tells the stories that are true for us now. With more positive than challenging, or with progress and change over time we share and listen. One among us has married for the first time at 60 plus. Others did not come because of illness or a stay in the hospital; another can't drive because of the weather and changes to her capacity to navigate her van. 

When I sat to compose this tale I wanted to include some of the tips I had found on Medical Astrologer Lynn Koiner's website. The extensive article can be read in its entirety. I have included the key points that seem so helpful. Pluto continues to move slowly through Capricorn, and for me, the energy moves crosses my Ascendent and moves from the 12th House to the 1st House* in April, 2016. I need to pace myself, make the most of this deeply transforming time, deal with the intense emotions and deep-water dreams that immerse me. 

I hope these tips, all or one or some of them might help. Visiting our friends who provide a new level of history for Pete and me during this Pluto Transit of undoing and redoing, I do look for ways to care for myself and my relationship with Pete now. Here is a brief look at "Survival Tips for the Pluto Transits" from Lynn Koiner's website. The specific tips and recommendations are on Lynn Koiner's site.

• Physical Activity— Exercise is a great release for Plutonian energy

• In this “out-of-control” mode, my work makes me feel out of control. I have also discovered another key to working with Pluto— KEEP YOUR LIFE SIMPLE. Avoid all complications. Learn to say NO to everything that is not absolutely essential. Your psychological survival depends upon it!

• I have observed that the transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto affect us through hormonal imbalances.

• Anxiety, especially at night, can cause night binging and insomnia. Around 7 PM, I make a big cup of a “Extra Strength Sleepy Time” tea. 

• The adrenals are severely stressed under the Pluto transit.

• Having to deal with the surfacing long-repressed emotions, the fears and especially the anger, can be very difficult! Give yourself permission to feel angry!

• Some Pluto transits can compromise our immune system, leaving us vulnerable to viruses and infections.

• Pluto can make you feel like the situation will last forever but it does not. You can easily lose your vision and hope for the future. It is essential to expand your consciousness in order to rise above the darkness. I found reading spiritual and consciousness expanding books and meditation to provide incredible relief! “The higher you go (in consciousness) the smaller things look below!”

• EMPOWERMENT— this is the most important lesson that you will learn under the Pluto transit but it does not come immediately or easily. When Pluto made its retrograde square to my Sun, I realized that I had given my power away to a powerless person who could only criticize and find fault with everything that I did; I had given my power away to negative thinking, to absorbing the criticisms of others and to the tyranny of self-recrimination!

* The post "Transiting Pluto crosses the Ascendent ... " is something I discovered. If you read this post earlier in the day today, please note, the link above was added later in the afternoon. If you have transiting Pluto in the 12th House this article might prove worth your time.