Buckle up, my babies; This week, we have a strong opposition between Pluto, the planet of death and destruction, and Mars, the planet of conflict, action, and aggression.
If it sounds yikes, that’s because it is.
The opposition is due on November 3rd, but we will feel the effects and effects of this event in the days before and after the main event – including but not limited to Election Day.
Meaning of Mars-Pluto opposition
In cahoots with each other, Mars and Pluto are combative, but they also invite us to find and stand in our power, overcome our basic instincts, and fight the proverbial good fight.
Mars in Cancer directly opposes Pluto in Capricorn at the fateful and anaretic 29 degrees. Both are only a few days away from the change of signs, and this gap increases the energy of antagonism.
Mars is the planet of war, while Cancer is the sign of maternal care and memory. In this way, this transit asks us to consider what memories and pains are constantly causing conflict in our consciousness, what triggers them – and what role they should play again.
Mars in Cancer craves stasis, the toxic familiar over the eerie unknown, and tends to react more than response. During this opposition, emotional resistance, outbursts, and hypersensitivity are predicted.
Conflicts may arise to test whether we are acting from a place of courageous empowerment or instigating shadows and patterns of victimhood. While nothing stops the machine of destiny, there are ways to observe and incorporate the lessons.
Power struggles and danger triggers
Pluto is the planet of karmic retribution, and Capricorn is the sign of power, authority, and paternal structure. Since Pluto began its tour of Capricorn in 2008, the dark authorities have been working to expose and destroy traditional structures and oppressive power dynamics. Look at the financial crisis, the #MeToo movement, and the takedown of accused predators and power-holders like Weinstein, Epstein, and Diddy.
Pluto finally came out of the mouth of hell to heal.
In its highest expression, Pluto in Cap shifts and overturns the old. On the other side and underbelly, can express itself as a dark need to control and oppressive father knows the best energy. In the final stages of this transit, it will be interesting to see what curtains will close on the planet of death.
Pluto = death, and Mars = vitality, so this opposition can manifest as a life-or-death scenario – or a power struggle that reaches a fever pitch and makes you feel that life can only be achieved through severance.
However, Pluto eventually came out of the mouth of hell to heal. Pluto is also the planet of karmic reckoning, and this opposition and the next presidential election happened a few days ago because Pluto entered Aquarius, the sign of the planet when the United States declared its independence.
Cultural catharsis
Additionally, this upcoming Pluto opposition and cycle promises to usher in a new era for our nation.
Some people will experience this transit as immediately explosive, while others will see the seeds sown in the coming days producing flowers of change and challenge over the next few months.
Whether the effect is fast and furious or slow to transform, this is a moment of profound catharsis.
Note that the etymology of catharsis is to make pure through purging. Usually, catharsis follows a crisis, because one must achieve a pivotal degree before one can play. We cannot be redeemed without failure, we cannot purify without poisoning, and we cannot rise without resistance.
In myth, the most obvious link between the god of the underworld, Pluto/Hades, and the god of war, Mars/Apollo, is Orpheus, the lyre-playing slayer of women.
According to some accounts, Apollo taught Orpheus how to play and/or gave him his first instrument. So wonderful was the playing of Orp`heus that all living and inanimate things moved in rhythm.
When a snakebite kills Orpheus’ wife, he descends to the underworld to bring her back from the dead. Sorrow and forgotten music so moving, Hades himself wept and obeyed Orpheus’ wishes, on the condition that he would not be seen again until he reached the world of the living.
In this sense, our guide to life and beyond this transit is the same – we must continue forward, and only when we are sent to the other side of the destruction, we can turn around and begin to understand the path that took us through.
Bottom line, if you’re going through hell, keep going. If you have a personal planet falling in the last degree (25 to 29 degrees) of a cardinal sign (Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn), you will feel the effects of this opposition most acutely.
Good luck out there. After the wreckage and rabble, I hope the road leads to better and brighter days.
Astrologer Reda Wigle investigates and reports unabashedly on planetary configurations and their influence on each zodiac sign. Her horoscope combines history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. To read it, visit his website.
