Mercury Square Pluto: What is Natural, Anyway?

Hi, everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Monday, everybody. We're going to start this week off by taking a look at Mercury entering the sign of Taurus and immediately making a square to Pluto and Aquarius. 

We're going to talk about three major archetypal themes to watch for and then one giant philosophical question we're going to pose, which could be categorized as a Pluto and Aquarius kind of question. I think because Mercury in Taurus is squaring Pluto in Aquarius, that the question comes up naturally between the two of them as well. 

I was thinking a lot about Mercury square to Pluto coming up. And I thought about this transit as pressing a question that I think is going to be asked now and for the next couple of decades as Pluto works its way through Aquarius, but maybe this transit is like a little trigger point, previewing one of the giant philosophical questions that's going to be asked over the next couple of decades. So that's the way that we'll look at it today. 

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Okay, well, Mercury and Pluto, let's take a look at the real-time clock and get a feel for this transit before we start talking about it. Here is Mercury on this Monday, April 3, and there's Pluto, and the two are squaring one another to open the day here in the afternoon of Monday, April 3. So that square opens this week's astrology. There are some other things going on this week that are interesting, but that's probably the biggest transit of the week. You look at the Sun coming into that conjunction with Jupiter. That's another major transit for this month of April. There's an eclipse later in the month. If you haven't watched the overview for the month of April, I suggest you do that just so you can familiarize yourself with some of the major transits that we'll be covering, but this is probably the big one for the week. 

I want to talk about it today from the standpoint of some of the basic archetypal themes to watch for and then one giant question Jen that I feel like it's really a Pluto and Aquarius question. But it's maybe being prompted or triggered at this early stage of Pluto being in Aquarius by Mercury square to Pluto. So anyway, we'll get to that too. So three things to watch for. When Mercury squares conjoins or opposes Pluto in general, you will get these three themes over and over again. 

The first one is Revelation. Now revelation can be where you understand something that has been unseen or hidden or in the unconscious. And it suddenly becomes revealed, as in the word revelation, something to be revealed or unconcealed. There's also the sense of what comes with this revelation is often a shift in consciousness, to see or understand something that you haven't within yourself through a dream, or synchronicity, or an event that happens and suddenly reveals something to you that has been buried in the unconscious, for most people is transformative and healing with Pluto, that would be the main benefit of coming in contact with something that you can't see is that it's illuminating, right, it feels good to understand something that you haven't been able to understand or to get just a glimpse of a pattern are some insight into a pattern in your life of behavior or a pattern or sequence of events that tends to play out in relationships or at work. 

Suddenly, it's like, a missing link, it comes into your awareness, and you're able to say, Okay, this is how these things are connected, or this is why or how something has been happening over and over again. With that understanding usually comes the power to make changes. And so the revelation, the ability to understand something that's been hidden or unseen, that would be probably one of the biggest things. The other thing, though, could be it's a little less psychological and a little bit more mundane that you literally find out that your boss has cancer. I mean, that's a terrible thing to say. But, like, you find out that you literally come in to, you hear some news or receive some information that literally reveals something that you didn't you're it's sort of shocking, or maybe even a little traumatizing at times, it's going to change things dramatically. 

To become aware of this is like, wow, that really shifts how I'm thinking or perceiving someone or something. So that would be number one is Revelation, the things becoming uncovered or things that were hidden becoming seen and what kind of effect that has. 

Number two would be a deep and probing mindset. If you're into, you know, detective novels, you know, this Mercury-Pluto has a kind of Sherlock Holmes feeling to it, where there's a sense of, or investigative journalism, you know, like, I remember there was, Oh, I'm gonna forget what it was called. There was a movie, and I think it won an Oscar was nominated for an Oscar some years ago. It was about the investigative journalists who dug into the story, the scandal with the clergy in the Catholic Church, and the long-standing pattern of sexual abuse. I can't remember; I think it was called Spotlight, maybe I don't remember what it was called. 

That was such a Mercury-Pluto film. I couldn't help but notice that when I saw it, Mercury and Pluto were configured to one another. And so I always remembered, oh, wow, this is interesting. Not so much. It's just paying attention to what you're taking in, what kind of film or art that you're taking in, under what transits that always, always stuck with me that that deep investigative journalism, where you're uncovering things that have been hidden or, you know, maybe not seen, or things that you suspect, but you have to dig around to confirm, well, this is why this transit couldn't have to do with spying or you know, what I would say is generally not like not a good idea in relationships, but I will occasionally hear with like Pluto to Mercury transits and birth charts is that, well, I dug through, you know, my spouse's laptop or something like that. And, you know, then what you find there reveals, Oh, okay, they've been, you know, I don't know what they've been connecting with someone or something. And I had no idea, you know, or whatever, finding but, you know, generally speaking.

I would be careful against the urge to try to dig up dirt on enemies, or suspicion or paranoia is another theme here. So, you know, sometimes things are disclosed or revealed or you have to do some digging or some investigation, but there's also maybe a theme of distrust, paranoia, jealousy, and the potential to violate people's privacy, which is why I would also say that this is not a good one for say computer hacking or people like data mining or spying on you or something. Just pretty common nowadays. But Mercury-Pluto could be cybercrimes, or Mercury-Pluto could be about trying to what is the thing they do. I forget what it's called. They basically like hack you and then blackmail you. Do you know what I mean? They'll say, Oh, we've hacked your site, and something like that would be very Mercury, Pluto. 

So a deep and probing mindset, though, could be philosophical. Let me get to the bottom of something. Why are we here? What is the meaning of reality? Deep probing philosophical questions would also be for people who just don't want to have a conversation that isn't deep and sort of, not on the surface, that's a Mercury-Pluto dynamic as well. 

Number three would be speaking the truth. Speaking the truth would be similar to some of the things we've said already. But this would be I've been holding something in, and now like a volcano, I'm ready to erupt and share something that I've been holding in. So that could be a very Mercury Pluto don't like, like dynamic to reveal or share something that has been hidden or, and for the moment of truth, telling a big announcement, we're ready to expand the company, or we're going to make this change or, you know, anything that's been in the works, but behind the scenes that suddenly ready to be revealed or shared. And it's time to tell people what's going on. 

Or it's even a moment where you're like, I've reached a breaking point, and I need to speak my truth to my kids or my spouse or you know, my in-laws or you know, whatever, just, it's time, to tell the truth about something or it's time to share how I really feel something that I've been holding back or holding in. These are all Mercury-Pluto themes. So you got to watch for those today because today is the day. But you may have noticed them sort of developing over the weekend as well. 

Now, I couldn't help but notice that Mercury in an earthy Venusian feminine sign, exultation of the moon, squaring Pluto could trigger what I think is one of the deeper Pluto and Aquarius questions that we'll be looking at for the next couple of decades. But it's interesting that it's happening right as Pluto enters Aquarius. 

That one giant question I have phrased as what is natural anyway? What is natural versus what is artificial? One of the things that I was really surprised by, I guess, was I started hearing about this AI chat program. And I can't remember; this just shows how much attention to these details I pay. I couldn't remember the name of it, but it's very popular. Everyone's talking about it. And I used it, and I started talking to it. It was funny. I said Who is Adam Elenbaas? And it gave a nice response. It's very flattering in terms of, like, he's a well-known astrologer. I was like, Oh, it was like, oh, that's exciting. It also attributed a book to me and attributed one book that I did not write. A second book is attributed to me that another astrologer named Elizabeth Spring wrote, and I was like, that's weird. That's really bizarre that it would attribute a book to me that I didn't write. 

So glitches, I guess, but here, here's where I thought it was really interesting. I asked it. I said, you know, I can't remember what I asked something. And it was a philosophical question. And its response was I'm an AI program, and I don't have any beliefs. I just provide information. And I responded back, and I said, doesn't the position that one ought not to have beliefs still constitute a kind of belief? I mean, I don't remember how I phrased it. But I said something like, wouldn't the assumption that not having any beliefs for an AI program is better than having beliefs? Wouldn't that itself be a kind of belief that you've been programmed by? And it was amazing, the thing answered? Well, actually, yes, you're right. It is the kind of belief that I suppose people could debate or have different opinions about. I was like, wow, that was really creepy. I wasn't expecting it to be like, well, actually, yeah, you're right. Like, wow. 

So anyway, I was on a little spring break family trip; when our kids go on spring break, we try to get out of the winter here in Minnesota. So we were on a little spring break trip. And this led to a conversation for the rest of the evening that my wife and I had, you know, after the kids were in bed, we sat there, and we were talking about like artificial intelligence, and we were talking about the question of what is natural versus what is artificial.

I started writing down some notes because, you know, I was like, this would make for an interest posting YouTube video, and I was considering the fact that Mercury was moving into Taurus and squaring Pluto and Aquarius, and you have this feminine earthy sign paired with Pluto in this very airy sign. I thought, well, you know, the question about what is natural versus what is artificial is itself an archetypal dynamic. So there are I broke down three ways in which I feel that this question can be approached and that we'll likely see it approached in our lives in the next couple of decades. 

Number one is the myth of nature, so the myth of nature, I'm just going to paint a picture for you; I'm not trying to present an answer to any of these things. You know, I promise you, I have no, I have not made up my mind. Like I have some position on any of these things. I just think that they're interesting and archetypal. So I remember, you know, when I became a vegan, and I was vegan for a couple of years, when I lived in New York City, and I've been a vegetarian and different versions of vegetarian, and, you know, and so forth. So I've explored different lifestyles, you know, diets and things like that. And probably some of you have to, and I'm not here to tell you which one I think is right or wrong or anything like that. But I remember when I was, especially when I was a vegan, the community of people that I was with a lot of them are like raw food, people, vegan people, whatever.

I remember that there was a lot of talk about natural; I want to eat natural, healthy, whole, and organic, but everything was like eating naturally. And I thought that was really interesting. I remember, you know, one time, I had it anyway; I won't go into so much detail. But what I will say is that I remember one time when I was ready to revert for me; this is just for me; I was ready to revert back to having meat in my diet again. And I remember someone who is a vegan friend of mine being like, really, really upset with me, and being like, I just feel like, you know, the natural way of eating, you know, that's part of the sort of raw vegan lifestyle is so much healthier, so much more natural. 

And I just paused, and I was like, that's a nuanced conversation; believe me, I know it is because you get into all sorts of things about how meat is made, how animals are killed, how, you know, the whole factory farming. I mean, it's like a whole big thing. But one of the things that I said was I said, and just philosophically, I said, what, what do you see is unnatural about animals eating other animals? And I thought it was really interesting because his response was, Well, we're better than animals. And I told him, I said, I don't think we are, I think we're animals too. And I think we're different. We're like a different kind of animal. But I don't see this huge distinction between, you know, us as biological beings as one type of biological being and, you know, animals as another. 

I think some animals eat plants, and some animals eat meat. And I think there's room for variation in like diets, and to call one natural or one like pure and another, like impure, unnatural, just doesn't seem right to me. Now, again, I'm not trying to start a debate with anyone about this because the point to me is not who's right or who's wrong in that kind of conversation. The point is, isn't it interesting that these conversations tend to constellate around questions about what is natural, for like, philosophically? And what is like, like, unnatural, or artificial in some ways, and this is not just like a question for like vegans and meat eaters or something like that, who will debate about what is natural, or, you know, or what is unnatural?

Because I remember, even in that conversation, my friend was like, Well, you know, it's unnatural for humans to be building these elaborate means of harvesting and killing animals. And I was like, Well, other animals certainly aren't doing what we're doing. But, you know, we're also not doing what a lot of animals are doing. And so, just one of the questions that I've had over time in I've had these debates with, you know, like, like friends of mine, so I'm not trying to like die on a hill over this or hurt anyone's feelings or anything? Or, you know, prove someone wrong. 

But I just said, like, the question of what is natural is enigmatic. It's not easily answered to say that humans in the bad things that we've done are any less devastating than viruses or bacteria or, you know, destructive weather patterns. In other words, I'm just not sure that destructiveness is unnatural. And that sounds like a big question. You're right. It's like, oh, jeez, that's, that's not fun to think about. But I'm not sure that the destructive, chaotic carnivorous elements of human nature are unnatural. 

So now, just set that aside, no, I'm sure for a lot of people hearing that it's like, it's kind of its sort of provocative, right. But my point is that, you know, how many of us are driven at different points in our lives by this idea, that things, that the reason that we're not feeling right, or that we're not happy is because something about our lives is very unnatural. And we never stop to consider that maybe it's impossible for anything to be artificial. Like, because it's real, right? Because everything that exists, in reality, is in some ways real, then the way that we categorize things in terms of natural or unnatural is sort of subjective, it can be at least there's a kind of a gray space, and it's, it's pretty relative, how we end up deciding what is natural or not, I can't tell you how many times I have heard people for example, when I was in the Amazon drinking Ayahuasca, I remember people being like, we, you know, if we just after drinking Ayahuasca, they'd be kind of like, in a haze being like, we all just need to live in the jungle, man, you know, we all just need to live next to nature. And I'll never forget, you know, one of the shamans, really not liking that. And being like, look, if you were to go and sit out in the jungle, you know, in the night, without, you know, protection, you'd be dead, you know, this idea that nature is like this pristine, clean, pure, harmonious place, that isn't, you know, dangerous and chaotic and destructive, is sort of delusional. And that was his point to this woman who was in the sort of post-Ayahuasca bliss and, like, the assumption that nature is just like this pristine thing. And we all just need to go and be one with it. And, you know, this, this was a person who is, you know, like, girls growing up in the Amazon, as an indigenous curandero. And he's like, that's, that's not, that's not intelligent or like, healthy view of nature. 

So it doesn't mean that you think of nature as evil and carnivorous either. It just means that you're, you know, these kinds of like very romantic, idealistic views of nature as this pristine, beautiful, unblemished, perfect thing is not quite. There's a sort of myth of nature as perfect and ideal. That's just complicated. It's not really the case. So we have to be really careful about that. So the myth of nature, I believe, is these kinds of questions anyway, that I'm proposing. And I feel really like, Oh, tentative, even talking about this stuff, because I can just I can feel how complicated it is to try to address these things. 

For example, I'm someone who does not like drinking soda. I don't drink soda; I drink water. I drink it because I think it's more natural than soda. Right? So I'm not, like, I'm not trying to dismiss the distinction between things that are natural and artificial. What I am trying to do is introduce the idea that it's complicated. The myth of nature and of things being natural and pure and everything in nature being ideal is not altogether true. 

I also remember the shaman one time telling someone who was like, Oh, the plants are just benevolent, you know, the plants, or they're like all angelic beings or whatever. And I remember this curandero being like, know that there are plants out there that are carnivorous and like, like dark, and there's many that are really good and wise and like, you know, genuine teachers, but like, don't be naive. Like, it's not like, just because you've had a plant medicine and connected with these plant medicines at all. All plants everywhere are benevolent. 

Just because you have a nice walk in nature and get out of your house in the city doesn't mean that nature is more sort of pure and benevolent and just better than the city you live in, because the city you live in, from a certain point of view is also itself just an outcrop of nature. You know, it's just an expression of human nature. And that's natural. There are also many things about it that we grapple with every day that feel intensely unnatural, like being on your phone all the time and needing to take some breaks to just like breathe and be with people because it feels artificial after a while, and something about that doesn't feel right. So there's like, there's, it's, but do you see what I mean, though, it's like, it's, it's really sort of heavy and tricky to work your way through questions about what is natural, and what is artificial. 

Similarly, you know, questions like this go all the way back to some of our oldest religious mythology; the myth of Eden is very close to the myth of nature, that there is a pure state that we fell from that we need to get back to or reverse that the Eden is in the future, that there is a pure state in the future that we need to get to that idea of purity. And that what is pure is also what is natural, and that when we get to our pure and natural state, then we're enlightened or we're happy. And the great enemy of that pure natural state is all of the things that we do that are artificial. Right. 

So, for example, most religious traditions talk about the fact that if you just try to fill your life with meaningless material possessions, you'll lose track of the natural wealth of the heart, see how that distinction goes. And so there's this there's just this age-old dichotomy between nature, natural, pure, innocent, clean, and artificial, or false or phony, or, you know, in even in Platonism, you have the world of forms that are true and pure, in some absolute sense. And then you have the relative world where the forms play out and come to be and pass away. And they are representative but not original. And there's something about that world that the prisoner in the cave needs to escape from the grips of in order to understand the absolute pure forms, in their essence. 

So it's old, and all different schools of philosophy around the world, this distinction between pure and original, and sort of representative and fallen, artificial and natural. And I think I suspect that one of the reasons that these kinds of questions will become really important is because when you think about the sign of Aquarius, whether we're talking about artificial intelligence versus natural human intelligence, well, it's hard to totally distinguish the two things when the artificial intelligence comes directly out of human intelligence, right? It's like, and then there's, there's so there's some connection, in the same way, that, you know, many different religious traditions have speculated about, you know, the connection between the world of forms and beings like you and I, and God. 

Well, God is original, and we're somehow image-like images of God. Right? And, but the images are sort of, are they the same as God? Are they one with God? Are they, in some ways, less than, you know, dissociated from separate from fallen? So the same questions about natural versus artificial, you could say that people would people could, someone could easily ask.

I remember these kinds of conversations a lot when the Matrix films came out; do you guys remember those movies? People say, Well, if God, you know, if God creates humans in his own image and endows them with sentience and consciousness and so forth, then in what way? Are they the same as God? And what were they different? In that same question about how same or how different are things between God and God's creation in this line of thinking is very similar to the questions we're asking about, like AI programs and whether they can become conscious or not. And if their consciousness comes as a direct result of being imbued with the consciousness of their creators, or do you see what I mean? So it's just so interesting to get to me that these things are opening up. 

The final thing that I want to say is just that whether you're, you know, having an argument with your vegan friend and you're a meat eater, you're talking about what's natural and unnatural. And what is nature not or whether you're talking about the romantic qualities that we attribute to the natural world versus the civilized world, cities versus, you know, forests, or whether we're thinking about getting off your phones and being with people or not, and what's real and what's more artificial or not. The question about what is artificial versus what is natural is a distinction that is itself archetypal, and humans have been grappling with it for 1000s of years. And the evidence for this is all over religious history, philosophical history, you know, cultural history. 

So today, I'm not trying to tell anyone how to think about anything or tell vegans they're wrong and meat eaters they're right, or it's nothing like that. I hope that I haven't been misunderstood on that level. But instead that what you've been hearing is just, there's this giant question in front of us right now for the next 20 years, I think, as Pluto is in Aquarius, which has to do with questions about ideals, perfection, purity, cleanliness, and what is natural versus what is artificial. And there's nothing that we like less than being told that you're not good enough, exactly as you are. And there's something about nature and reality itself that seems to just say, Look, everything is natural, and everything is real, and start there. And then, from that starting point, you have then start working with the distinctions between things that are superficial or artificial versus real or authentic. It's almost like you have to have that conversation within the larger backdrop that the conversation itself is an archetypal part of a reality that is always real and always natural, if that makes sense. 

Wow, I have no idea if this hit or miss today, if people are going to be like screaming at me, or what I hope that it was interesting. I think we'll just, you know, just consider this as like the starting of a conversation about this topic that we can have over, you know, the next decades to come. And I suspect that you know, you're gonna see this conversation not just like on astrology channels, you know, talking about Pluto in Aquarius, but I think you're gonna see it pretty soon, especially in the level of, you know, these AI programs and things like that. And it'll be really interesting. And all I can say is that I know for myself I'm going to remember questions about artificial versus natural are themselves archetypal. I'll just keep that in my back pocket. Alright, that's what I've got for today. I hope this was useful for you, and we'll see you more for see you for more tomorrow. All right, bye.