Mind Control or Mental Awakening — Mercury-Pluto in Aquarius Explained

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Today we're going to take a look at Mercury conjoining Pluto in the sign of Aquarius. This is part of a week in which we've been looking at many of the conjunctions that are happening sequentially from planets traveling through early Aquarius and that placement of Pluto. So we're going to continue that today by focusing in on the archetypal dynamics of Mercury conjunct Pluto, the sign of Aquarius, will, of course, tone all of our interpretations today, but I'm going to give you a list of five things to watch for.

Hopefully this will help you identify Mercury's signal within the potential mind static that can come up pretty powerful and sometimes overwhelming when Mercury and Pluto get together. So that's our goal for the day.

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Alright, let's put up the real time clock. And I just want to briefly emphasize you can see up here in the 11th house, depicted today, January Thursday, January 22 is the conjunction of mercury and Pluto in the sign of Aquarius.

Now the sun is coming through that conjunction tomorrow, as Mars also enters Aquarius, and by early to mid part of next week, Mars will be conjoined, Pluto and Aquarius, and we have spent most of our time this week looking at these dynamics. So we're going to continue that today with with a list of five things to watch for.

It's a rare cameo from both Thor and Hilda in our in our filming today too. So that is Thor. He's almost exactly a year old now. He's an Italian Mastiff, and you can see Hilda back there. She's an English Mastiff. And they're sweet as can be, unless you're the mailman.

Okay. Anyway, let's give a list of five things to watch for. This is specifically for all of you today, so that you don't go completely crazy when mercury gets together with Pluto.

We're talking about a planet that often represents the mind, the voices, streams, static and signals of the mind. The rational mind is a tool. It's a part of who we are. But if you've ever done any meditation, you know that part of what meditation provides us with is some distance. I am not my thoughts, but I have thoughts.

Thinking is a tool, but it doesn't have to be. I don't have to get identified with the thoughts flowing through my mind, creating a little bit of that space is a part of, I think, most spiritual paths on planet Earth. However, it's something we may need to be reminded of, especially at certain times in life, and a Mercury Pluto conjunction is probably one such time.

The reason for that is the power and intensity and depth and compulsions that come up mentally in our minds when Mercury and Pluto get together. But that's just one of a number of things we're going to say today. So let me get into my list of five things to watch for.

The first one on my list is static or signal. We will often, when mercury gets together with Pluto, have an overwhelm of mental noise and stimulation, and mercury and Pluto can point to healthier mental habits. For example, a very simple Mercury Pluto realization is the kind of realization that says I probably shouldn't scroll and have my face in a screen scrolling too close to bedtime.

A lot of studies have shown that that's actually going to mess up or interfere with maybe some of the early stages of our sleep cycle. Now, I'm not trying to, you know, I don't mean to be preachy. I'm not perfect. I look at my phone before bed sometimes, right? But when it comes to Mercury, Pluto, we're talking about the mental nervous system level of our existence and as a symbol, Mercury often represents that.

When it goes through a conjunction of Pluto, it'll tell us what's the right stream of mental awareness to be in versus what creates static and interference and eventually disease, that static versus signal, that what's a good line of thinking or planning or organizing, or what's good mental stimulation versus what's static and noise, what doesn't really matter.

Sorting through the differences between static and signal can be a huge part of a Mercury conjunction with Pluto.

I would also say that when we start getting interested in what's going on behind ideas, behind headlines, behind stories, behind narratives, and the way that information is controlled or presented in our own head or elsewhere. It's a really good time when mercury gets together with Pluto to say, okay, these are ideas, these are stories, these are narratives.

But who's in control of them? Why are they telling these to me? And this could be the media taking a moment to go like, Wait, is there a vested interest in my being stressed out and having a rage reaction, then maybe I'll take some control back and step away from that kind of narrative that's trying to trigger me.

That's something I find myself having to do pretty regularly, right? So it's not even unique to Mercury Pluto to think about these kinds of things, but the need to do so if you haven't been already, can be pronounced when Mercury and Pluto get together.

What's going on behind the stories, the streams, the voices, the ideas, the thoughts. Why are they there? What? Who is invested in me getting on board or identifying with certain thoughts or ideas? This can be very useful when it comes to Mercury Pluto.

Let's get into when we're conversing with other people. Let's get into core motives. Let's look at power dynamics or hidden assumptions. Once something seen is understood, it can be It can't be, excuse me, it cannot be unseen. And so there's also these point of no return moments where you understand something that's existing behind something that's presenting itself to your mind or in speech or communication, and that can shift or change everything.

So the first one on my list is static versus Signal Number Number two, I've called Radical rewrites, whether it's a mental framework, a conceptual framework, an ideological framework, whether it's identity categories or group identity categories.

When Mercury and Pluto get together, we can find ourselves questioning these kinds of mental, ideological and social frameworks in the sign of Aquarius, and shifting our sense of which ones are the right ones, which ones are the right fits and which are not any kind of shift in how we relate to communities, movements or collectives, in terms of the ideas they represent.

Do I still believe this? Do I still think in this way? Do I still belong here? The intellect and how it participates in structuring social narratives and realities in our life can go through some pretty significant changes, and so I just call these radical rewrites.

That the same thing could happen in a creative process. Mercury Pluto could be like, I'm doing a whole creative rewrite of this book, so or a conceptual or organizational reworking of a strategy. All right, you get the idea number three, words as weapons, or words as keys that unlock.

And I doesn't have to be an either or necessarily, but this is a distinction that will often come about when Mercury is conjoined Pluto, our words, can carry an unusually deep and intense amount of power, transformative force.

Mercury Pluto is that moment where you say something honest, you just sort of confess or reveal, or you share an epiphany or realization, it just kind of comes out of you, and it's a lot more powerful than you thought it would be, even to yourself, but also to issue an ultimatum or to speak out, or to go to human resources and issue a complaint.

The power of speech can be pretty spectacular when these two planets get together. And you may also notice how speech, words, thoughts and ideas are being used to control, intimidate, liberate, innovate, destabilize, confront. The power dynamics are especially loud and dynamic when Mercury and Pluto get together.

Number four on my list for the day are tech revelations and digital shadows. I like this because we're in this era now, and it reminds me a lot, honestly, of the Neptune and Aquarius Uranus and Aquarius dynamics in the late 90s, early 2000s when the internet was first coming about and we were on the edge, or the let's call it, a threshold of a brand new paradigm technologically.

And think of like, how many ramifications the birth of the Internet had, not just right away, which were also very powerful, like I remember AOL, Instant Messenger and holy holy cow. Was that amazing and exciting, but people had similar reservations.

I remember the threshold of the year 2000 the Y, 2k hype slash scare. There can be an aura of apocalyptic and fear based rhetoric, as well as legitimate concerns over how technology may actually dehumanize us or separate us from each other or earth, or all of which were very well founded, you know, 30 years ago, and now they have a new way of coming about and being relevant at The Edge of you know, the rapid expansion of AI.

So right now, for there to be more profound, acute inflection points with respect to those technological developments and conversations for you personally or you may notice it. We may notice it collectively. I'm recording this a week out in advance, right? So we'll see.

But anything that has to do with data algorithms, like I as a YouTube creator have noticed like, oh, in the past year, if you want your viewership to stay the same or grow, I need to have certain colored thumbnails with me going, you know, like, oh the oh my god, Mercury and Pluto revelation, end of the world like and I need to take a picture of myself like that for my thumbnails to compete.

You know what? I mean, the way. And of course, I just don't do that. I've tried to make my titles a little bit, just slightly edgier without being sensational. There's a certain amount of adaptation that's sort of necessary for the sustaining and developing of a podcast and a platform and everything like that.

But questions around Mercury Pluto like this can be like, how do you keep in touch with the movement and direction of data and algorithms, and you know, things like that without compromising your soul. You know what becomes a deal with the devil on the level of technology and algorithms and data and the way that it informs your plans or strategies or goals.

You know, not easy to navigate. I will say myself, it's not been not easy to navigate certain parts of it, though, you know, are very clear, and others are like murkier, like, I'm not going to do the OH MY GOD thumbnail, I just can't.

But where are the margins around which I'm I'm more open, you know, to to change or adaptation. That question is at the heart of a Mercury Pluto transit whenever we're asking ourselves, How can my mind shift and adapt and be compromising with elements of the world that maybe I don't like or don't see eye to eye with while retaining my sense of individuality, that's such an Aquarian question, but at the same time, like, I'm not going to do a deal with with the devil, whatever that is, you know, and that's a very Mercury Pluto dynamic.

So anyway, I call it tech revelations and digital shadows, but you get there's net there's consequences and ethical fault lines to how we ship shape shift in the digital world right now, and that's maybe up for review in some way, finally, mental obsession or breakthrough.

So we have things like fixation and rumination and obsession that can come with mercury conjoined Pluto, I would say the hallmark of many brilliant creative people is obsessiveness, obsessiveness with a topic, obsessiveness with writing, obsessiveness with a practice or a skill.

And there's also, I believe this to be true in many creatives I admire, while there is an obsessiveness, there's also some need to not get possessed by something. So it's like, it's like creatives. And I think a lot of you can relate whatever. We're all like this as humans. Creatives wrestle, wrestle themselves free from the things they love, only to engage with it and lose themselves in it again.

And for many people, this is, like, daily, like, I would just reflect on writing my book and how engaged and just like, caught up in the creative process I would be, and sometimes I'd really have to, like, rip myself away from it, because I'm like, I'm not going to get anywhere.

I'm stuck. I have to go down to dinner. I need to be with my family, and I need to give this room to breathe, because once it does, I know I'll find a way in, and I'll find a solution to this problem. But I can't if I'm not letting go, and I'm not creating a little healthy distance, I'm getting too identified with this creative process.

This is a very Mercury Pluto dynamic, in terms of the things that we get fixated on mentally, that can reach pressure points where it's like it's it's going to possess you if you don't get some distance. But then there's also that moment where you have to sort of go into a fugue state to transmit something authentic.

So how do you hold that tension? That can be a very, you know, a very Mercury Pluto like situation to find ourselves in breakthroughs for Mercury Pluto often come while sitting with thoughts, ideas and conversations that are uncomfortable, and being in the discomfort long enough for something to experience transformation and also knowing how to engage and disengage from ideas that are polarizing or that tempt us into unnecessary power struggles or competitions and the pattern of dominance is something you have to be careful of, especially on the level of your mind, your mental Energy.

Okay, well, that's what I've got for you guys. Today, it's a Mercury Pluto day, so don't go don't go loco, don't go crazy. Much love to you guys. We will be back again tomorrow.

I think tomorrow, we'll probably break down the sun conjoined Pluto, since that's our next step in the process. But such a Plutonian week. All right, take it easy, everyone. Bye.