Sun, Mars and Pluto About to Meet — Zen and the Art of a T-Square

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/]. Today we are going to take a look at the upcoming te square that is going to be created between the Sun, Mars, and Pluto. Now that te square isn't going to be exact, exact, but it's close enough, and we will be feeling it, so it makes sense to take a look at it and talk about it.

One of my favorite books of all time is called *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*. I read this a long time ago now, but I'm going to play with several really memorable quotes from that text as a way of talking about how we can handle something like a te square, especially one this powerful, involving Sun, Mars, and Pluto. So I think you'll find it interesting. If you've never read the book, you might want to check it out, but I'll talk about that a little bit and read you some really memorable quotes as we go for kind of points of jumping into the archetypal expression of these planets.

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So here we are on Thursday, April 17. If we move forward just one day, we're going to see that Mars enters Leo between today and tomorrow, leaving Cancer at long last. Immediately, this places Mars into the opposition with Pluto, which we have been talking about this week. And then if we just take this forward another couple of days, we're going to see that the Sun around April 20 enters the sign of Taurus. And here is where we get our te square.

The Sun is square to Mars. The Sun is square to Pluto. Mars is also opposing Pluto. And so we get what is sometimes referred to as a te square. We'll see how this perfects now, if we take it forward a little bit. So if I go forward just a day, we'll see the Mars-Sun square perfects. Take it forward another couple of days, the Sun-Pluto square perfects. Take it forward just a few more days, and the Mars-Pluto opposition perfects.

So when you take that all together, between April 18 and approximately the 25th, we're in about a week-long period in which this te square energy is expressing itself. Now, te squares are not all the same. If we had these three planets all squaring simultaneously, it probably would be more powerful. But I'm not going to second-guess the power of this either, because it's very close to perfect. They all happen really close together.

So that window between April 18 and the 25th, which technically starts tomorrow and runs through next Friday, is one of the most potent astrological windows of 2025. For that reason, we're spending—we've spent numerous episodes talking about Mars-Pluto. This is going to be an opportunity to talk about how to work with a te square.

Now, when I'm thinking about that, I want to first qualify that. What I mean by that is, what do you do with three planets like this coming into a very heated and intense conversation? Energetically, some people will feel that more than others. As you know, and I always say this, a lot depends on your birth chart, but this arguably is one of the biggest trends of the year, and you'll be feeling it, if not in your own life, you'll probably see it in the life of someone close to you.

So on that level, I think there are some basic spiritual principles that we who study and live by the stars can remember, not just for this transit, but really all transits, but especially the intense ones, because it's during the most intense transits that we need those basic spiritual truths the most, you know. I guess we need them every day, you know. But it's during the stressful times that it's easy to lose our center or to just lose the plot.

So these are five things to watch for given all of this, but I want to preface these five things by saying just a little bit about Mars, Pluto, and the Sun. So with the Sun, we have a planet that represents something like the archetypal ideal. Remember that the Sun—and I've said this in the past couple of months on numerous occasions and other in-depth videos that we've done on the Sun—that the Sun represents that which is eternal, divine.

When we think of the Sun, we think of the Light of Consciousness being illuminated as in the process of enlightenment. The Sun can be related to many mundane things, like fathers, kings, leaders, fame, ambition, and pride. But it can also—on a philosophical level, it's important to understand that ancient astrologers associated the Sun with that which is eternal and transcendental. By that, it means something beyond the material world.

Everything in the material world is thus thought to be a reflection of something archetypal. This is seen, for example, by the fact that the Moon represents the material world, and the Moon, by its astronomical nature and symbolism, is a reflection of the Sun. And so the soul incarnates in a body. Not surprisingly, the soul, the spirit, the eternal part of our nature—Sun; the body that we inhabit, equally as sacred—Moon; the world reflecting the forms of the Divine—Moon; the forms themselves—Sun.

So on a philosophical level, this is the basic metaphysics of Sun and Moon. Anytime the Sun comes into contact with other planets, especially through a te square, there's something about the ideal that is coming into dialog or conflict or creative tension in our lives, meaning we're starting to be more actively concerned with what is ideal. Now that could be very mundane. What is ideal in my work? What is ideal in my body? What is ideal in my relationship?

What is the ideal I hold out for myself, ethically or morally, or, you know, as a person, as a character with psychological traits? What is my ideal? So it can become very basic, but still questions about an ideal standard of some sort are being explored. The other thing that often comes up with the Sun is our sense of ambition or purpose, which is tied to an ideal.

Our sense of ambition or purpose is as good as the ideal we have in mind, toward which we move—like, I aim toward the ideal becoming a really good astrologer, or I aim toward becoming a really good parent or husband, or whatever the case might be. And we have ideas in our head, ideals that shape the arc of that path, like, oh, that's an image I hold out of what, you know, these values, these virtues. That's what a good dad is like, you know. And then, how do I embody that—Moon? How do I embody it?

So insofar as our ideals are coming into question, and also things like our ambitions, our sense of purpose connected to ideal images, all of those things are a part of the Sun in this conversation of the te square. Mars is a God of action, a God of courage, a God of taking a stand, a God of facing fears, a God of conflict, a God of hostility and aggression.

Then Pluto, the lord of the underworld, of transformation, of death, of the exploration of shadow and the transmutation of the soul that happens as it explores and processes experience, and by means of those experiences, evolves and becomes illuminated. But it is through the valley of life, through the shadow, through the process of death, through the process of attachments and impermanence, that we learn and grow and become illuminated.

So Pluto is very much about the darker part of that process, where we have to face shadows, or we have to deal with death and impermanence, and also the regenerative process of going through all of that is that when we do, there's usually new life and new creative energy that floods through after we have visited those shadows. So put that all together, and you have quite a powerful te square—our ambitions, our will, our courage, process of facing shadow all coming together in an intense way. That's a big deal, right?

So then you could also think about it in terms of confrontations, hostility, conflict, facing fears as a part of the reconciliation of shadowy aspects of your own character, your own soul, that are meant to be explored right now. This could also be about developing courage, standing up, taking action, holding true to an ideal in the face of opposition. So there's a lot of different ways you can read these three planets together.

See, the AI follows me around. It's weird. I have to learn there's a setting on the camera that I haven't learned how to turn off yet. I will. I'm just lazy. Okay, so five things to watch for given the kinds of themes present with these three planets.

One is that with such tension between these three planets, if you look at this from an evolutionary spiritual perspective, there's an incredible opportunity right now to double down on the importance of our peace of mind when struggles, heroic, idealistic conflicts arise, when we have to face shadows or opposition within ourselves or from other people, or there's conflicts arising in those places.

There comes a choice: am I going to be the version of myself that is peaceful and maintains equanimity while going through this? Can I tap into that? Even if I can only tap into that at 20%, it's better than nothing. And I will have developed some fortitude of spirit. I will have grown in my spiritual character because I made a choice to walk through a period of this with peace of mind as a priority in front of the actual dealing with the drama.

I'm not putting the cart before the horse, like, I'll get to peace of mind later, after the conflict and drama goes away. No, I'm going to try to establish peace of mind, some degree of serenity, and that is going to lead me through this process—an amazing opportunity to do something like that when such intense energies come about.

Number two—oh, wait, almost forgot—I go on. There's a quote from *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance* for each of these. So I'm really excited. If you never read the book, it's a fantastic—I think it was written in the 60s, maybe the 70s—but it's a wonderful, flowing meditation on life, Zen, all kinds of spiritual values in relation to someone, a man's love for motorcycles and a kind of cross-country journey that he takes.

He says, "Peace of mind produces right values. Right values produce right thoughts. Right thoughts produce right actions, and right actions produce work which will be a material reflection for others to see of the serenity at the center of it all." That's beautiful. That's an ideal. That's an ideal that we can also hold for ourselves during conflict. I'm going to keep my peace of mind, and then whatever happens, peace of mind will glow through the results and the process of what's unfolding right now.

He might have been saying that when he broke down on the road at one point. I don't remember. But anyhow, number two is an opportunity to be about it rather than just talking about it. I think that many of us know what our values are. If someone said, "What do you value?" you would probably say, peace, patience, compassion, tolerance, kindness, mercy. You would probably reach for—I think we would all probably reach for some similar things.

But when it comes to testing those values, we don't often—I mean, it's a daring prayer to say, "God, please give me—or Universe, Goddess—please give me an opportunity to be about my values in a time where I could easily discard them because things are very stressful." An opportunity to establish peace of mind and an opportunity to be about it.

Now, the other thing that I think goes along with this is that sometimes people around us are going to provide opposition. They're going to criticize or they're going to try to intimidate or bully. And you know, sometimes people do that in a mean way. Other times people do that in a really self-righteous way. They'll be trying to bully or shame you for something they perceive as bad behavior with zero recognition of the fact that they are accosting you, self-righteously bullying you and trying to, you know, make you a better person by submitting you somehow.

And you know, when people act like this, it's actually a profound opportunity for us to be strong without being mean, to be honest and direct without being, you know, insulting, right? So an opportunity to stand in the face of some kind of opposition and be about your values—that's pretty profound.

There's a quote from *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*. He says, "If someone's ungrateful, and you tell him he's ungrateful, you've really just called him a name. You haven't solved anything." And that's the other thing. Is that sometimes we face people who are doing things or saying things that we don't like or we feel opposed to, or we resist. It's very tempting in a moment like this, with self-righteousness behind us—like, especially when someone really is maybe doing or saying something that's not totally lovable—that we feel like because they did something that we see as wrong, that we're entitled to, you know, attack them somehow.

So I would also, as a general warning for all of us, say this is an opportunity, even if you're in the right, to be kinder, and kindness and compassion is more important than your rightness. You know, I don't know many times in my life where that hasn't been the case. Is there a loving, kind way to say something? You know, these are interesting questions that come up with such oppositional tension and hostility to Mars-Pluto dynamic.

Number three, an opportunity to face fear. The Mars-Pluto dynamic, with the Sun in the mix, says to us, you have a real opportunity to face fear and grow because you did. There's really nothing—I remember in an Ayahuasca ceremony one time, a shaman said—someone said, very bravely in the middle of the ceremony, just announced something that they were afraid of, and the shaman said something to the effect of, "Saying that you are afraid of something means that you are now in an inevitable process of overcoming your fear as soon as you can honestly, boldly, kind of without fear—ironically—say that something scares me."

You know, there's a process at work now, and that fear will be overcome. So even if it's nothing more than just getting clear and standing strong in our honesty about what scares us, you know, the process has begun. Also an opportunity to face fear in terms of limiting voices of self-doubt or inadequacy. Mars-Sun-Pluto says, you know, fire up inside. You've got this, you can do this. You're capable of more than you think you are.

It's a very empowering transit for people who maybe don't believe in themselves. And I don't mean, you know, in that like, you know, kind of new-age, egotistical way—"I just don't believe in myself enough to manifest billions of dollars and be better than everyone. I just, I'll, but I'll find it. I'll dig down deep." You know, we're talking about, you know, real self-doubt. Real self-doubt, where you have a moment and you can overcome it—"I am stronger, more capable, more beautiful. I'm worth more than I thought I was, or that some voices inside of me said that I was."

You know, doesn't make me better than other people. You know, doesn't give me an excuse to turn around and act a fool, you know. So, and this is from *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*: "Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong, you're afraid to do anything at all. Often, this, rather than laziness, is the real reason you find it hard to get started."

And I love that because I've met a lot of people that talk a lot about wanting to start an astrology practice or start studying or whatever. And honestly, you know, there was a certain point early in my career—and I was a little less patient, and I would just say—not that I just hadn't seen as much yet and wasn't as mature, I guess—where I thought, "Oh, it's just like this. Letting stagnation or laziness overcome you—just do it, you know," kind of like.

But over time, what I've realized talking to more and more souls, and I guess just growing up and becoming a parent, and, you know, just evolving myself, is that sometimes people are lazy, you know, but often—often—it's not laziness, it's fear or it's self-doubt. And this is a great opportunity to face fear and to start something, to start something and just see what happens, even just committing to see what happens, is a gift you're giving yourself in a process you didn't think you could do that will pay dividends, even if it's not in exactly the way you think it will.

Failure in the process of courageously taking risks is a huge reward, because it's never—the real victory is that you tried. And I know that sounds really cheesy, very Mr. Rogers, but it is true, so let's not forget the true things, all right.

Number four is: this problem is actually for you. So we run into te squares like this, and they present us with life problems. "Oh my god, there's an obstacle. Oh my god, there's a difficult person or, oh my god, there's, you know, someone's questioning or attacking my character or my integrity or I don't know what to do. I have to make a tough choice." You know, all the kinds of things that come up through te squares.

One thing that we haven't considered is not that this is something you have to get right. There's a pressure we place on ourselves when stuff like this happens—like, "I've got to make this right. I've got to get it right. I've got to act the right way. I've got to—I have to somehow make or guarantee that the right outcome occurs." And sometimes it helps to step back and recognize that this conundrum—not how you solve it, or what result comes of it, but this conundrum itself and anything that comes from it—is for you. It's a gift.

And no matter what you do, if you stay reflective, curious, and humble about it as something that was given to you, you will receive its blessing. It's true. It's kind of sucks that the universe offers us little riddles of the sphinx dressed up in existential experiences, and we feel like there's so much at stake. But if we rather see this and the choices and the outcomes all as a gift, and stay curious—we still have to play our role and try to figure it out, and there's a way in which it feels like a lot's at stake—but if we keep this other perspective, this Hermes perspective, this is a blessing, you will receive its blessing.

All right, the quote from *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*: "The real cycle you're working on is a cycle called yourself." He's talking about motorcycles. But the real te square you are working on is a te square called yourself. I love when people blame te squares because they don't even realize that they're subtly blaming themselves. All the astrology is just reflecting things that are happening as a part of our own psyche, right?

So in a way, it makes no sense to say, "Oh, screw the te square, man. I'm so sick of the astrology." It's like, well, what you're kind of saying is that you're so sick of yourself and might want to work on that. I'm, you know, mostly playing here. But okay, so number five: real power is found in real devotion. This is a transit that brings to mind power. How much power? Whose power? You know, power is power. Power is a tricky subject, and I'm not someone who likes to say, "Oh, power is evil."

I think power has to do with relationships—like, I can't think of one way of comprehending power, at least from the human perspective, without thinking about power as it exists in relationships—relationships between natural world and animals or beings, or between people, you know. And so one of the things I like that I learned from the bhakti tradition was that in the bhakti tradition, which is a devotional yoga—bhakti means devotion—is that the real way to channel power is in what you care and devote yourself to.

Could be your art, could be your paintbrush, could be your lover. It doesn't have to be boring. It doesn't have to be certain in the sense of some kind of menial work—"I'm just sweeping the floors of the universe in service, and I'm—oh, now I'm saintly." Or, you know, it doesn't have to be like demeaning to what brings—or it doesn't have to be apart from what brings some degree of pleasure or satisfaction or creative involvement or investment.

But when we feel power, get in touch with it, and channel it into caring, nurturing, fostering, relating to things with love—wow, then we're cooking. That is the kind of power whose manifestation is the, you know, the ever-blossoming flowers of peace and love. What do we—what are we looking for? You know, if it's not that?

Quote five is: "Care and quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees quality and feels it as she works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what she sees and does is a person who's bound to have some characteristic of quality." There's real power in those sentiments, I think, and I hope that you have found some real meaningful connection in these fun quotes.

If you've never read *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance*, I think you'd enjoy it, but he's kind of a motorcycle-riding hippie, you know, with Zen insights that are related to motorcycles and cross-country traveling and stuff like that. So it's not, maybe not for everyone, but it's a classic, and I thought I would draw on it today. It came up recently in a conversation I had with someone, and then I had with someone else, and then I couldn't stop thinking about it, and then I started looking at quotes, and I got the idea to marry some quotes from that book with some ideas for us on how to handle this upcoming te square.

So hope you enjoyed that. Stick around. After I sign off, I'm going to give you more insight and information about our upcoming program, *Ancient Astrology for the Modern Mystic*. It is a one-year course in ancient Hellenistic astrology. We place a lot of emphasis on the spirituality, the care of the soul, and counseling, live client work in class, and working through the historical and philosophical roots of our tradition.

Everything's always infused with a kind of modern archetypal sensibility as well. So it's really a blend between ancient and modern forms at Nightlight. This is one of four years of curriculum that we have, so come start your adventure with us. We would love to welcome you into our community, and I will see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone.