The Sun Squaring Pluto — Illumination from the Underworld

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [ https://nightlightastrology.com/ ]. Today we are going to take a look at the sun's square to Pluto, which is acting as the first part of a major sequence of events this week. We looked at that sequence in yesterday's video on all of the transits of the week. I will remind you. I'll remind you of all those transits today. We'll sort of refresh on them, but we're going to be focusing on the sun's square to Pluto, which comes through tomorrow in today's episode. And I'm going to give you five things to watch for. And then we're going to try to connect this transit to the arc of the week as well. Because, as we know, there's a Mars opposition to Pluto, a Venus conjunction to Saturn. Lot of stuff happening. So anyway, that's our agenda for today. Before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. And subscribe.

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Please do take advantage of that, if it'll help you to come study with us, and then I again, will have more info for you about the program after I sign off today, you'll see that additional info tagged on at the end. Okay, so on that note, let us take a look at what is happening today.

We're going to be focusing on the April 23 Sun square Pluto transit. Today is the 22nd so this transit comes through tomorrow. Let's take a look at it on the real time clock. This is all happening under a deeply waning moon, and so this, as I said in yesterday's weekly overview, this is a very consequential week.

Astrologically, the sun square to Pluto comes through tomorrow, April 23 but let's remind ourselves of what else is happening the very next day. On the 24th we will see Venus conjoining Saturn. And then on the 26th we're going to see Mars finish with the opposition to Pluto this opposition was happening at the outset of the Mars Retrograde.

So this is our third Mars Pluto opposition that has been part of the transformation of Mars in its cycle. I talked about this yesterday as the force of evolutionary necessity. I was talking about the 28th hexagram of the I Ching. And I'm going to come back to that today.

What I want to do is explore the sun square Pluto themes. Give you five things to watch for, and then I'll say a few things at the end about how I think all of these themes may be connected to the upcoming transits. So a big week, lots to look at. We're gonna try to take it one step at a time. Let's start by looking at Mars and Pluto, or, excuse me, sun and Pluto, sun and Pluto coming through tomorrow.

So remember that in ancient astrology, the sun was associated with everything that is ideal and archetypal. This world is thought to be informed by Sacred Divine forms, like triangles in the mind of God or the universe. So when you think of those geometric mandala like patterns that often come up for people in psychedelic experiences or deep meditations or altered states or dreams, there's a sense that there are interconnected, beautifully woven forms that are in everything, and that this world is, in a sense, a reflection, a manifested reflection, of those sort of abstract ideas or forms or images, and that for ancient astrologers, was a fundamental part of the philosophy that astrology itself was rooted in.

This is, in a sense, Platonism, although it has connections to many other it's sort of a melting pot of philosophical ideas. But Platonism, in this sense, is a part of it. So when we talk. About archetypes. We're talking about these forms. We track these forms as something like fields that we then see manifest in terms of our psychological experiences, our personal experiences, our everyday events around us.

Well, when the sun, which was the planet that most resembled the archetypes themselves, the thoughts in the mind of God, the study of which and the ability to see them. Like Plato's philosopher who moves out of the ignorance of seeing shadows on the cave wall and into the light of the sun is that we become illuminated from within.

So the sun is about illumination. Astrology is, in many ways, a solar art that has to do with seeing the light of eternity within the relative world of change and impermanence, because we see the forms reflected in everything we do.

So when that comes, when that the sun comes down into our everyday human experience, one of the ways that it most commonly translates, one of the most universal ways, is in terms of ambition, the ideals, the shapes, the forms that inform our inspiration, our actions, our ambitions, our desires, our intentions, all of those are very solar.

So when the sun, now thinking about the sun in this way, comes into contact with Pluto, the lord of the underworld, the process that takes place in the underworld for the sun is death. And then what does the sun do? It rises again from out of the underworld every single day.

So death and resurrection thoroughly Plutonian events that happen through the transformative process of the sun going into the underworld every single night when the sun hits Pluto, there's a way in which we will very visibly observe and see what it's like to go through an underworld and to come back up again.

It might be as as little as a few days, but it's powerful, and all the more powerful when it's connected to something like a subsequent Mars Pluto opposition. It means that this journey, this sojourn through the underworld that happens in this part of the week is connected to a very intense, cathartic moment for Mars and Pluto later in the week.

So we're sort of setting the stage Venus, Saturn. Will do the same thing. We'll look at that tomorrow.

So given this interaction of the ideal image, the archetypal, the a day, the archive, and the sense of what drives our life, from the standpoint of ambition, purpose, direction going through the underworld. This week, what does that mean? Give you five things to watch for.

Number one is revelation. When the sun goes into the underworld, we have something like the image of a person going into a dark, underworld, subterranean cave, but they have a torch, or they have a candle, or they have a flashlight, and you are going to be able to receive insight, Revelation, illumination, of things that are hidden, of things that are typically dark or invisible or relatively less conscious.

So one beautiful part of the Sun Pluto is I'm more aware than I was at the start of the week. As the week goes on, I got to see things now. Maybe some of those things are shadows within your own psyche. Maybe those are shadows within the workspace or relationships.

Some of what we see in the underworld transforms us because of the encounter, which requires courage and heroism, and we have to call on our integrity also. The sun going into the underworld can be very humbling. Well, I thought I knew something, but then we go into a place that obscures that certainty.

It's not like the upper day world, where everything's just lit and illuminated. In that underworld space, there's a lot of mystery. The unconscious has a voice and a wisdom of its own that sometimes needs to sort of muddy the proud certainty of the sun, and so the sun going into the underworld can be about revealing things to us that come because we're humbled in some way, or our sense of certainty is temporarily obscured.

That's not a bad thing all the time, especially if we just trust the process and live with a kind of subterranean faith. Anyhow, Revelation is about revealing things that are unseen, maybe hidden. And so there's a real way in which this week tomorrow, especially, may involve something like that.

Number two are the death and rebirth of our ideals. So if the sun represents our sense of direction, purpose, our sense of inspiration, what we want, what we desire, the images and ideals that we're seeking or we're ambitious about, then the subterranean descent and rebirth of the sun and Pluto can represent a transformation of purpose, a transformation of ideals, a transformation of where we think we're going or where we ought to Go.

What we thought we were doing might change, and we suddenly realized I'm not doing what I thought I was doing and I'm doing something else. Maybe I need to adjust so the death and rebirth of ideals, intentions and ambitions, sometimes that's going to hurt or be a little bit painful, especially when something doesn't work out that we wanted to work out, but I.

The failure is sometimes accompanied by a regenerative, creative energy that says, Okay, well, it's not that, but I can see it's this other thing. So Pluto can be greatly empowering. The word Pluto means rich. Is, of course, the Greek counterpart Hades little different connotation than the Roman Pluto, but the idea is still that there's a fertile energy in the underworld that is part of the regeneration and things that gestate the darkness of the womb is also the place of gestation.

So this is a place of gestation and rebirthing and midwifing of New Visions and ideals for our life that might seem dramatic, because, again, it's just a couple of it's just a couple of days, but it can be pretty profound, especially when it's connected to a Mars Pluto opposition.

One more thing, sorry, I almost forgot. There we go. Now number three, the death and rebirth of solar figures. How could I not mention it every time we have anything with the Sun and Saturn, sun and Pluto, we have the potential for the literal or figurative death of solar figures that can be leaders, fathers.

Anyone who has a strong central position of authority that holds things together, or that is at the head of something can go through a transition. Now this often is figurative and metaphorical, not literal, though sometimes you will see sun and Pluto configured when you know dad or a grandfather passes, or something like that.

But yeah, so consider that you may see this in the collective or you may see it around you, transitions in terms of how much power or responsibility you carry, the temptation to misuse power or authority, as well as the feeling of being empowered to do something. All can be all contract quite well with sun Pluto.

Now there are, because these are two planets in the signs of Taurus and Aquarius, we can have Taurus and Aquarius conflicts, or a kind of creative tension at play. So when I think, for example, about Taurus, very simple Venusian, lunar values, physical, embodied, sensual, feminine, relational with ease, pleasure, simplicity, enjoyment as sort of backbones of the archetype of the temple of the zodiac.

So this temple loves peace, ease, stability, simplicity, a degree of measured control, not fanatical control, but like peaceful, ease and stability, kind of control, very, very embodied, right? And then you have Aquarius, a Fixed sign that also seeks security, but the kind of security that Aquarius seeks, or the stability is going to come through ideology, through thoughts, through structures of mind, through paradigms, through ideas or even technology.

And so when the two come into contact, you might have one person saying, This is what I think the best idea for the world is, or this is the best idea politically. And you might have the Taurus person who says feels kind of heady and abstract, dissociated and intense. Seems like you're trying to find your way to peace through ideas, but you're really charged up and stressed out.

And so I'm not going to get into any of that. I'd rather just, you know, be comfortable in a more physical, instinctual, like biological way. You can have your thoughts. You can have your big paradigms. Have fun with that. You know, I'm gonna lay out in the sun. I'm oversimplifying, of course, right? But you get the idea.

On the other hand, you can have Aquarius saying to Taurus that there's laziness and indulgence and hedonism, and you're ensconced in materiality and comfort to the point where you're losing sight of the best ideas by means of which we secure a good future, or that we ensure equitability and peace and comfort for the most amount of people, or something like that.

Right? You can feel the tension between the fixed air and the Saturnian nature of Aquarius, with its need for solid ideals and principles that will light the way into the future and the simple I'm interested in the present moment and my body, and a simple feeling of ease and comfort that Taurus evokes.

So the conflict between those could be coming up right now for you, in little ways or big ways, the creative tension between the two is interesting. Let me give you an example of how the two can work together.

Let's say that someone says, As a Taurus, that the value as someone influenced by Taurian energy, that the value they have is for peace, ease, comfort, embodiment, relaxation, simplicity, you know, a grounded, stable, enjoyable experience of Earth. Aquarius might come along and say, let me give you the technologies, the tools, the research that shows you that you ought to be living green, eating whole foods, drinking lots.

Water getting lots of rest. So when you think about advancements in terms of, like, health technology, or you think about people who they're like, Oh, I do a cold plunge every morning, because I did all this research, and then I found that it correlates to, like, doing good things for the nervous system, kind of like Taurus Aquarius, reminds me, like a med spa, you know, where there's like, a certain kind of techie science and and also an honoring or acknowledging of the need for for health and vitality and and a kind of pleasure or comfort in the body.

Okay, so I'm making this example is a little cheesy, but you get the idea the creative tension between the two can marry the kind of abstract intellectual technological qualities, and the focus on the body in ways that are really beautiful. So watch for that as well.

Finally, just power struggles look this week with Mars, Pluto Sun Pluto Sun Mars to start the week. It's a week where I think the power struggle may be within in terms of how capable am I of relaxing and working through things with not putting the cart before the horse, which means I'll get to my piece after I deal with drama and stress and traumatic reactivity, then I'll get back to my piece.

But instead, how can my peace and my thoughtfulness, my sensitivity, my care for myself and others lead the way through intense dynamics. I think that is the question in front of us in a week like this.

Now, some people are going to feel this, all these transits more than others, but they are big ones, and so I think it's worth reminding ourselves that it's weeks like this, because I was talking about in my Zen and the Art of a te square talk from last week.

It's transits like this that really test us to be about what we're about. Can we move through these kinds of passages, you know, as sensitively and with as much care and devotion as possible to the well being of our own soul and the others around us? I think that we might be tested a little bit this week.

On that note. Anyway, I hope that these five things to watch for are useful after I sign off right now, you're going to find an informational video about the upcoming year one program can't wait to study.

We're going to be entering that program as Uranus enters one of Hermes, two signs in Gemini, connecting with Pluto and Aquarius. We're entering a really special transit period with the Uranus Pluto Trine for studying astrology Pluto and Aquarius in general, just ingressing is a good one.

But this Trine is fantastic for diving deeper into the ancient philosophy of astrology, learning how to utilize those ancient techniques in a modern counseling setting. So I hope to stick around to learn more about it, and I hope to see you soon in the year one program.

Hope you're having a good week. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye, bye.