The Sun Conjunct Pluto: Blinded By The Light

Transcript:

Hey everyone, this is Acyuta-bhava from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Friday everybody. Today we're going to take a look at the Sun's upcoming conjunction with Pluto and get everybody ready for it. So let's put up the real time clock and take a look. Here you can see, let me put this back a few days I've been looking at and forgot to reset. So here we go. Here's the sun conjoining with Pluto in the next two days. So if we move this clock forward to January 16, you will see the sun conjoining with Pluto and Capricorn on Sunday, January 16. By Monday we will be exploring the full moon in cancer which will be happening in and opposition to that sun Pluto conjunction which will just be fading. So today I want to get everybody ready for Sun Pluto by talking a little bit about the archetypal combination of the two planets, a little bit of a meditation prepared on the subject, I hope you guys will enjoy it. Don't forget, as this transit passes through, please use that hashtag grabbed and tell us which transit, maybe it's this one, maybe it's another one in the past week or two. And tell us a story. We're going to share some of those stories probably next week. So trying to reload the queue here full of good stories, we need your help if you ever want to email rather than than share in the chat box, just email us grabbed at nightlight astrology.com, we don't respond to those emails, we just aggregate them for storytelling hour. So we'd love to hear from you guys and see how the planets have been showing up in your lives.

Okay, so Sun Pluto, Sun was associated with spirit and spirit with the daimon. The daimon is like a soul guide that carries us along toward the ideal image that our life is conforming around. Right. And there's not just one. In marriage, there's an I mean, I remember a time in my life where one of my major visions for my life was marriage and children and a family. And okay, so I have that now. So the image isn't the same. There's different things that I'm looking at, for example, having good relationships with my kids or, you know, continuing to develop intimacy and love and maintaining a marriage over many years. So the images of what we want or what we desire, change in different areas of our life professionally. You want to get the job and then you get it and maybe you want a promotion. Or eventually maybe the goal is to work in a job that you like more, maybe it's to work for yourself or whatever. The changing field of images that attract us. And the energy and action needed to move along a plotline toward the image that attracts us that is properly the realm of the sun, and also the realm of the daimon, the guiding spirit, which is itself, you could think of it as a guiding spirit moving us toward the image, you could also think of the Spirit as the image itself. Images attract us and they're living in dynamic and they change. So certain spirits are like that, too. They live in our minds. And we think of them as my image, my desire, my ambition, it's actually a spirit that's visiting you you're very attracted to, it's one of the ways ancient philosophers thought about it. So at any rate, the most important thing to remember about the images that draw us along and we all have them. But the main thing is that they all cast themselves in gold.

How do they attract us? You know, it's like moths to the flame. How do they attract us along an image, a desire and ambition a plotline in any area of our life, multiple plot lines, changing plot lines, they all attract us because they appear as if in gold, surrounded by halos of light, they glow. Right? They have this aura, this effulgence around them. And that's what attracts us. That's why the sun is related to the ideal image. And it's always a sense of it being a noble pursuit. Or it's something that we go after, like, you know, gold fever, you know, is that what it was called? So we we go after it though, because it's alluring, it's attractive, there's something about it that we feel is noble. And but you know, I want to win, I want my team to win the Super Bowl, right? It's a trophy and it's radiating an aura around it. The confetti is falling, and there's this golden sense of achievement. So the sun, whatever ambitions we have, however subtle or however gross. They will be what they are in terms of an image and an actual objective. But they will also be cast in a certain kind of light. That is very important to properly understanding the sun especially when we start to consider what it means that the sun is going to come into a conjunction with Pluto.

Because what is Pluto? Well, Pluto, one of the things that Pluto is going to do is put us in touch with the shadow. Right so every light casts a shadow and in the shadow of every image that we are attracted to is some darkness. Let me talk a little bit about the hexagram I drew this morning for the sun Pluto, which is so quintessentially Sun Pluto, summer 55. It's called Abundance. I'm just going to read you a little excerpt from this hexagram. The king attains it because large and amount and scale is what he advocates. So this is a picture of the Sun at midday and the attainment of an ideal state, governmentally or in terms of wealth or some kind of goal that's been reached the sun at midday. However, the hexagram says the sun will descend after midday and the moon will wane after it reaches fullness, fullness and descent between the heavens and earth vary over time to say nothing of humans ghosts and gods. It's a beautiful teaching. So don't be as my friend of mine, my buddy Vincent once recently wrote, he said you can be blinded by the light as well. And I thought that's a good quote. I threw in the rest of the lyrics to blinded by the light. He was like you can be blinded by the light and I typed to him privately on IG as like you can be revved up like a deuce. Anyway, so we got a laugh at that. But he you know, he's right. And I like that quote from him that he shared on his Instagram. Because this is a quintessential teaching in Taoism, in ancient astrology, in the i ching. In the Bhagavad Gita, in many places, we see that don't forget, like, half our lives is casted in the fool's gold of nobility. How many things and I'm not I'm just joking, because I'm thinking of myself. How many things in our lives are we like, this is good that I'm doing this, this is noble, you know, this is virtuous, that I'm doing this, this thing that I'm doing is giving me some good sense of myself. You know, I'm casting light because I'm ennobled by the things that I do, or the things that I'm pursuing. They're right there. It's my calling. I haven't found my calling yet is the most popular phrase that I have in of my astrology clients, probably in 12 years now of doing readings going on 12 years. The most popular thing I've heard literally my client be 78 years old, and they will be like, I just don't feel like I found my calling. Why? Why is it so hard to find our calling, aside from the fact that when you're little, at least in the modern West, it's like, we're taught, you know, here's your happy meal. And then, you know, just select your special calling, and just go believe in it and go do it. You know, and it rarely works out that way. Right? Because our karma qualifies us for things as it turns out, and sometimes it qualifies us, most of the time. It qualifies us for realising some dreams and goals and ambitions and being frustrated, after we have a lot of them also, and also never getting a lot of them so.

But nonetheless, let's read that one more time. It's just so beautiful. The sun will descend after midday and the moon will wane after it reaches fullness, fullness and descent between the heavens and earth vary over time to say nothing of humans, ghosts and gods. So one of the things we have to be very careful of because Pluto, like Hades exposes the shadow, what is the shadow of the sun? Its death. It's the death of whatever we cast in light in this world, in this world, remember, you have to remember that the ancients believed that the this dimension of reality that we're in the earthly plane, it's not well, it's bad in the other realm is good or something. This is one of innumerable realms of consciousness and experience in reality.

And the ultimate spiritual goal is not to stay here and perfect something here. Because the idea is that you learn things but you move on you're traveller you, you keep moving on. There's different realms of experience. And it as it turns out, it's very difficult place to realise the perfection that the soul seeks the ultimate light you could see the ultimate image cast in light all the ultimate goals happiness love beauty, truth, all these things that the soul seeks cannot be found or held in anything material, because in this realm, this particular dimension of experience, everything is coming to be in passing away coming to be in passing away. Everything that's full is empty again. So be careful that you don't cast the goal in a material light, which is to say, Okay, let's say, you know, for example, these are the things that I've learned so far, I don't know about you. But when I was a little bit younger, I thought, well, you know, marriage, a family, I'll be like I'll be resting with my feet up by a fireplace, hopefully, in all will be well. And then kids hit you like a bomb. And then you find out that, you know, marriage takes a lot of work once you're like, post 10 years or post 20 years, or whatever the case might be. And then you realise that not that those don't continue to be sources of joy, but you realise this thing never ends. Right? We're just gonna die eventually, too. So and then, you know, no one's going to me most of the human beings on this planet, this is the hard truth. Most of the human beings on this planet that have lived and died already, will never be remembered, again, are not being remembered currently, have no one remembering them? For what some great thing that they did or accomplished. So isn't it safe to say that at least part of the cosmic scheme has to be that your dignity, your sanctity, your beauty as a soul is not dependent upon you doing something really heroic that makes people remember you forever? I don't know. I'm just putting it out there. The reason I'm putting it out there is to get into the Sun Pluto territory, the Pluto exposes what's in the shadow of our noble ambition, which is in a sense, if it's anything material, that the material is fool's gold, that the things that we're doing, however noble, are phoney, that there's, like, you know, and again, is it bad to want a family? No, it's not about saying our desires are bad or evil, or, you know, just sit in a hot sauna and think about God, it's not like that. But it is to understand that a lot of what we pursue in our lives, it will deceive us because it will be cast in a kind of light.

Remember, the natural opposite of the Sun in the astrological philosophy is Saturn, the ruler of feigned appearances and the ruler of the opposition. And so for every sun, the shadow is Saturn darkness. Before there's Pluto, in other words, there is Saturn. And what we have to understand is that to spiritualize our lives means that our goals become spiritual, they still have a light, but in that, but that light illuminates the different areas of our life in a completely different way than a material goal does it glitters differently. And that's a really subtle distinction to make sometimes, because it's possible to have even spiritual goals in our life that are actually subtly just material goals. And it's it you can and you can go into a space of doubting everything, we don't want to necessarily go down that path either. You know, it's easy to in other words, just doubt that, you know, I've met known people in my life, especially, you know, when I was younger, and I think I'll just more cynical and indie rock or whatever. I remember there's a phase where it's like, I just didn't try everything was bullshit. You know what I mean. And that's not necessarily where we want to go, either. We have to be able to differentiate between a spiritual purpose for our lives and the things that are cast in some kind of noble light. And that's not easy to do. And I'm not here today to tell you know exactly what it is and isn't. I'm just saying that the Pluto Sun experience just very similar to a sun Saturn experience, the Pluto Sun experience can be very much about showing us what lives in the shadow of our gilded ambitions of our gold plated sense of goodness or nobility.

And this is something that this specific hexagram in the eaching number 55 talks about at length. There are a number of lines in this hexagram that suggests that we can literally be blinded by the light of some noble intention that really is just about as worldly as anything else. Well, the Bhagavad Gita tells us the same thing In Chapter 14 verse nine, when Krishna is teaching our Juna about the modes or energies of material nature, now remember material nature Procrit de Maya, it's a divine nature, it's, it's, it's an energy of God, it's a realm that we come to learn and grow through. It's not evil, right? But you have to understand its nature so that you don't get lost in it. Because it's easy to get lost in the glittering stuff here that doesn't actually point you home. And this is part of how the soul learns, is in some ways by getting entangled and lost in it. And that's okay. There's that that's, that's why grace. That's why this same name for this world, Maya also means mercy, because it's merciful to learn in this way to allow us to get entangled and chasing all sorts of, you know, gold plated ideals, only to find out well, I guess it didn't make me ultimately happy. That's okay. It's okay that we do that. But here's what he says. He says, the mode of goodness, that's called sattva, sattva, Guna. These are called the gunas. The mode of goodness conditions. One, two, happiness, passion, the mode of passion conditions, people to the fruits of action. And ignorance conditions, people to madness. So goodness, passion, and ignorance are the three modes, passion, let's just talk about passion for a second, because passion is also related to the sun, you could say that the noble ideal is something that I strive for passionately, but specifically so that I can enjoy the fruits of that action and those ambitions. And unfortunately, the fruits are temporary. So they may satisfy for a little bit, but then we're back on the hamster wheel. So passion is like a hamster wheel, I'm chasing after things that take a lot of work and action and passion, then I'm enjoying the fruits and then kind of satiated, and then I'm bored or I'm full, and I need more. And then I have to go do more. So that's passion. Ignorance. Thomas is just not having any ideals.

You know, imagine if you had no, I mean, in a sense, it's better that we have some ideals, even if they're just gold plated delusions, than having none whatsoever, and sinking into, you know, a massive beanbag chair of Budweiser and Doritos or something, you know what I mean? So the, the mode of goodness, however, is still a mode that we can be conditioned by, and it's the subtlest and sometimes even the sneakiest. Now, you would prefer the mode of goodness, to the mode of passion, even. But the mode of goodness is like, well, I value peace and harmony, tranquillity and happiness, joy, right. But the thing is, is that in this world, even satvik, the subject mode of material nature, even that mode of happiness, waxes and wanes, it comes and goes, everything does all the energies, all the Gunas are constantly blending with one another, mixing and mingling in the same way that the Daoists describe. And so what does sun and Pluto do? It says, one of the things that it has the potential to do is show us in this area of your life right here, you are aimed passionately toward results that are only temporary and you keep getting attracted to it like a moth to the fire, because bright and shiny in your mind, try to see the shadow in it. Not so that you can feel foolish and dumb and become some kind of austere renunciate. No, so that you can start to refine what you're attracted to.

And you know what, one of the things that most spiritual traditions say is that the spiritualize version of a desire is one that desires a state of virtue in and of itself for itself and not for anything other. So for example, rather than saying, you know, like, right now, if I think to myself, well, I want to make sure my kids do well through school and get to a good college and write like this. One might have some of those goals or ambitions. But perhaps a simple way of reeling it back in for myself would be today to say, today, just today, maybe even in the next half of my day, I want to be a loving father. I want to be an attentive husband, not because it makes me good, but because it feels it just feels good to be in that space. Even temporarily. See, I'm starting to move up from passion rajas, like, got a hamster wheel, get the kids to college, do all this stuff, and then moving into what is just what's the tranquillity of the of the day. And as we continue to refine our sense of what we desire Eventually we get to the in, at least in bhakti philosophy, but it's very similar, very similar thinking and hermetic philosophy and platonic philosophy. And, and, and other schools to, you get to love and love is is changing from goal orientation to relational orientation, which means we are concerned with the fostering of the carrying of the deepening of and the ongoing nature of relating to people without any goal other than the fostering of love and connection. That as as a goal, you can't target that in the same light in a future in a futuristic way with certain objectives. Because as soon as you do, you start losing the connection with the other living being. So one of the things that bhakti tells us bhakti yoga and Sufism shares, many similar sentiments, mystical Christianity, I believe Buddhism at its at its heart in terms of how we relate to other human beings says the same thing. Stop thinking about goals all the time, stop thinking about the nobleness of your aspirations, and be simple, Be humble, Be kind and loving. Practice that today, and try to taste what it's like to be in that kind of relationship with other people. And of course, even that, even that it's possible for us to start slapping that on our vision board and putting, you know, golden, sparkly literary stuff, nail polish, what around it, you know, and we don't want to go into the space of saying, well, anything and everything that you ever want to do is just selfish, right? Because that's a trap, too. But the Sun Pluto can just put us in touch with the hidden or secret shadow or selfishness of the Golden desire or ambition that's lurking beneath the surface. So that's kind of the thing I wanted to focus on today. What is the eaching? Tell us hexagram 55 It says, conceal the brightness of your own good intentions. Conceal the brightness of your own good intentions. conceal your insights, conceal your achievements, your realisation, your success, your noble aspirations, conceal it from others, and conceal it even from yourself. That sounds that just sounds weird. I'll never forget. One time. I was it was in India, and my guru was giving a class and we were on pilgrimage. And he said, he said, as one of the things because a lot of people were sharing realisations, you know, because they, they tend to pour in when you're in a spiritual, you know, retreat or something. And he was listening very carefully and not at all. You know, in a condescending way. He said, one thing that a lot of the great spiritual teachers in the yogic tradition have said is, you have these insights or realisations and you become so excited by them. But then you can't enjoy them. Because you get blinded by the excitement, you get blinded by the realisation or the insight, you get blinded by the light, hide the light, so you can enjoy it. And he said, basically, that he said, hide your own insights and realisations that you're having hear even from yourself, so that your soul can deeply enjoy them. It's like, Thank you, I

really needed that because, you know, I'm sitting there like, okay, all these insights, I'm journaling, I've got my next book, I've got blah, blah, blah. And, you know, I was like, Yeah, I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna set this journal down. I'm going to sit down and just try to let some of the, you know, the experience of being on pilgrimage and the shift that it can create that happens at yoga retreats all the time. I see it all the time. Over the years, we did so many yoga retreats with people, and insights come up, they do and callings in our life come up, they do. The sense of a noble calling professional, here's something I can do that matters. Here's something I can do to serve. Here's something that gives my life a sense of purpose. I'm attracted to an image and we're here to live out those like we mean it's a Choose Your Own Adventure book. And there's lots of choices and there's lots of beautiful images and twists and turns and all of that. It's all good. It's all okay. But here's the advice. Be like the sun at midday, know that the setting will come no matter at the outset. In other words, if there's an ideal in our lives, we're going to pursue it know that eventually, you know that that image that we're pursuing is it'll run out of steam, the image will flicker and vanish. And then they'll probably be a new image. If you keep that in mind.

In my experience, it doesn't defeat or deflate the different actions and journeys and adventures that we have in our lives. It keeps them in perspective, it keeps us humble. And it allows us to really taste and savour the experiences that we have. And they we allow something of eternal value to come through because we know that they're temporary. Isn't that a pair? Isn't that a giant paradox? That everyone says it everywhere? It's the journey, not the destination? How many times is that repeated? How simple it is to forget though, you know, okay, there's an image that's caught me golden sparkly. firelight noble, like a lion like a queen or king, you know, just No, I'm gonna do this thing. Just don't forget as you do it, that it will vanish someday. So enjoy every step of the way. You know, that's, in part what it means to start. Living with eternity in mind. Let's talk about just briefly the word enjoy. Conceal the brightness of your goodness, conceal the brightness of your good intentions, conceal your noblest insights and achievements, even if they are really noble. Right, not saying that they're not your realisations your bright success, your hope. It's not that you don't have hope, but conceal it even from yourself, so that you can enjoy it. The word enjoy, to give joy to take delight in, to take pleasure in to give pleasure. So we have to also know that the sun was related to joy. The sun is related to you know, I mean, isn't? Isn't that what motivates us to do something when we when we an image captures us? Isn't there an incense of enthusiasm? You know that etymology I've shared it many times, enthusiasm from en theose the God within to be we were breathed. There's no life that's breathed into us and we feel happy and joyful to pursue something to take off on some kind of journey we feel joy. But also the secret to joy is apparently according to the eaching that to know that the the joy you're you're getting from the image that's been given that you're pursuing will set it will fade, it will die. So conceal the brightness of your goodness, so that you can enjoy, give pleasure to your soul. These are Sun Pluto teachings one of many, there's so many different things to say about the sun and Pluto, for example, it can also mean that there's a major plot twist in your life generally, it can mean that your sense of ambition is going through some kind of death and rebirth, it can point to the death or downfall of solar figures, old men leaders, CEOs, kings or queens but you know, it can speak to fame and scandal it can speak to things coming to the surface that have been hidden so there's lots of things that can represent but today I thought we talked about those gold plated images and the potential to be blinded by the light.

And thanks to my thanks to my buddy Vincent for mentioning this this week, and also for tolerating my bad sense of humour. You can also be revved up like a deuce you know how long it took me to realise that those were the words of the song to I was always like Jim like something that I'm definitely that song among the biggest bloopers of my life in terms of not knowing the lyrics of the song for like most of my life but always singing it. Anyway, I hope you guys have a great weekend. I'd love to hear your sun Pluto stories as they come up so feel please feel free to come back and share them use the hashtag grab your email ascribed at nightlight astrology calm. Love you guys see all on Monday for the full moon.