Mercury Opposes Pluto — A Message Arriving from the Underworld

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

Today we're going to take a look at Mercury in the sign of Leo, opposing Pluto in the sign of Aquarius. This is coming on the eve of our solar eclipse in Leo, and so there's a lot of significance packed into this opposition. We're going to take a look at it today. I'm going to give you a list of things to watch for and consider: the archetypal dynamics of Mercury and Pluto, with some of the specifics of Leo and Aquarius involved, and also treating it as a prelude to the eclipse that's coming up. So that's our agenda for the day.

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Well, today what we're looking at as the dark moon in Leo is coming through, ready to form a solar eclipse, is we are looking at Mercury in Leo opposite Pluto in Aquarius. Now this is kind of bringing back up that Jupiter-Pluto opposition that we recently had, and so this is already bringing up echoes of some of the things we've been through in the past month. And then if we go forward just a day from now, tomorrow, Wednesday, August 12, is our solar eclipse in Leo. We'll be doing some horoscopes for that tomorrow.

Today I want to talk about Mercury's opposition to Pluto, both in a kind of archetypal vacuum, but also in terms of this particular opposition and what it might be involving us with. So I've got my typical five things to watch for list. Let's get into it. Whenever Mercury and Pluto get together in their hard aspects—squares, oppositions, conjunctions—we often have forms of communication that expose things that have been hidden. This is Mercury Hermes, who is able to go into the underworld and come back out unscathed.

There's no other god that travels into and out of the underworld more regularly; Mercury has a passport to Hades, and this is due to the fact, astronomically and mythologically, that Hermes Mercury constantly retrogrades and dives into invisibility and then reemerges. And so it is quite natural for Mercury, the questioning mind, to go asking questions. You know, what are questions? Questions are unknowns, and the unknown or the invisible that Hermes dives into, that's Hades in a sense. Frequently Mercury will come back with interesting answers or insights or observations, sometimes more questions.

But the point is that when these two planets get together, we often have words or forms of communication or thought that delve into unconscious, private, unseen, or invisible territory, and then bring things back to be seen, uncovered, understood, exposed, and so forth. So Mercury opposite Pluto, you can anticipate today as a prelude to the eclipse, perhaps bringing up some buried information, showing you motives that have been hidden, even your own motives. It can bring up resentments that you've been maybe not even able to articulate.

You know, sometimes you are walking along and you've gone along with certain things, but you don't like that you've had to go along with them, and so all of a sudden you realize I don't really like this. You know, and so a resentment can come to the surface. Sometimes conversations that we have will reveal long-standing issues or issues that are behind the surface of the relationship. Also, when it comes to mundane news, this is the aspect of confessions and leaks and whistleblowing in investigative journalism, and its discoveries often coincide with Mercury Pluto dynamics.

Also, saying things that are very powerful but also can't be easily retracted. They can't be taken back. It's like you can't put the toothpaste back into the tube. That whole thing. I'm sure your mom said that to you at some point. Now, with Mercury in Leo in particular, we have maybe revelations coming up around leadership or reputation or authority or what you take pride in or what your ego hangs its hat on. The eclipse coming right after this could suggest that whatever information is coming to light right now is contributing to the ending, via this solar eclipse in Leo, of an old authority or ego identity.

Now, the second thing on my list is which narrative wins out. So we all have narratives that are in our head about why we're doing things, why we're living things a certain way, why things have happened, what we want, where we're going. We are storytelling, story-living creatures. Mercury in Leo is speaking from that personal, heart-centered sense of why I'm living, what I live for. What do I know to be true? What do I stand for? And Pluto in Aquarius, on the other hand, is emphasizing that that individual voice is always standing in relationship to groups or systems or technology or public opinion or collectives and ideologies.

And so naturally, as we've been talking about all along with the Aquarius Leo axis, power struggles between individual self-expression or individual authority or unique individual nature and the demands of communities or collectives could also come into the picture right now. Obviously, the shadow expression can be propaganda, or feeling coerced, or public shaming, or censorship, or attempts to dominate a conversation through some kind of pressure or control that you're placing on yourself or someone else. It's a question right now: which story is winning out, and why? And really looking at that carefully.

All right, I'll leave it there. I think that's a good one. Number three. Leo is the performer, not fake either. Leo sees life in a way as a method acting experiment. How deeply can I live into the life that I'm meant to live, the destiny that I'm meant to live, and can I do it with all of my heart? That's a bit for Leo, like method acting. I'm going to fully embody the destiny that I feel I'm meant to embody. Well, we have a South Node solar eclipse in Leo that can remove or diminish things like visibility, status, certainty, recognition, or some kind of familiar position of leadership or notoriety or applause.

And so this is a really powerful time to realize that some old role or ambition or branding or notoriety or some kind of hero's self-image just no longer works. You're exhausted with the performance of some kind of role or story, and so if a story and a performer is not compelling anymore—I'm not this actor. I'm not this method act. I'm not this story—then is it time to just let it go? And I think we're looking at what stories fill us with life versus which stories and which stages and which acts are not feeling genuine any longer.

Number four would be obsessive thinking and psychological pressure. The reason I add psychological pressure is the feeling that your mind is under the constraints of necessity or fate right now to make a decision or to say something or to make a tough choice, but also what you can't get off your mind, what you feel sort of obsessed with thinking about. So Mercury Pluto contacts can intensify the mind state that you're in, and on the dark side, Mercury Pluto can be suspicious, sort of fixated, compulsive, obsessive, sometimes dwelling on dark things.

You see, I've got Eeyore on my couch behind me. My girls gave me this big stuffed Eeyore for my birthday. We're on an Eeyore theme the past year in my house. Anyway, it's a bit like Eeyore. Mercury Pluto can have you doom scrolling and thinking about the worst case scenarios, or sort of obsessive and a little paranoid. Like you can be reading into things where maybe there's nothing there, or maybe there is, right? Which is why this is a tricky transit because sometimes it highlights obsessive, dark, suspicious, paranoid thoughts, and other times it reveals things that truly are hidden beneath the surface that you may actually be sensing.

What's the difference? Well, the difference usually requires discernment and a non-reactive, spacious, curious, open-mindedness for depth and honesty, right? And so, this also coming on the eve of an eclipse may amplify the sense that there's something a little ominous happening beneath the surface, but letting things play out, trusting the flow of things, not trying to force them. In Taoism, there's a concept called Wu Wei. We were just talking about on the channel, and it basically means letting the nature of things unfold without forcing them. Well, all of this is just looking at what is gripping our minds and is it healthy or not.

The last thing on my list today is figures of central authority, or what I like to call solar figures. We have Mercury in the sign of the sun, and Leo itself as the seat of the sun has a concern with rulership: who rules, who leads, who governs, who's on center stage. That also, for most of us, involves things like what is my purpose, where am I being called to be courageous? Where is there a sense of creative life-giving force in me? That's the solar quality. What is the legacy that I stand for or am responsible for?

And the sense of what life I'm being asked to lead could change. That's issues of purpose, issues of leadership. What leads my life? There's also the literal changing of the guard of leaders or CEOs or solar central figures that can shift or change along these lines. Now, with Pluto in Aquarius, there are questions like who benefits or who's in and who's out, and what happens when power changes place or position somehow. Mercury opposite Pluto can bring up things, for example, like impersonal systems or institutions versus charismatic central figures within them, or opposed to them.

I think it's interesting that we have the South Node eclipse coming through on the heels of this dynamic because any old model of leadership, purpose, anything that has been on center stage previously as the most important thing, the thing we've exalted, may be decentralizing. When something is in the center, like the sun, it's like a monotheism in our lives. You know, we don't think we're monotheists, but anytime we put something at the center and constantly worship it, it is a form of monotheism. Monotheism and polytheism are natural modes of life, as much as the one and the many are both thought to be aspects of reality or divinity itself.

Models of monotheism psychically are shifting. The central thing is shifting. Also, any place where you are a leader and you are being purified, cleansed, changed, renewed, because you're recognizing that there is another step to take in the development of your role as a leader. That could be within a very small sphere of influence. It doesn't have to be a princess or a prince of some kingdom to be thinking about how your role as a leader within your sphere of influence is being asked to change or grow right now.

It is a privilege to talk about any of these subjects in a meaningful way with a group of people out there in this audience who I think really care, and their hearts, all of your hearts, I know, are in good places. So anyway, I'll leave it there for the day. I hope you're having a good one. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.