“Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”
–Joseph Campbell
Pluto transits are serious business. Pluto is serious business. Life contains suffering, just as it contains joy. To downplay a Pluto event is folly. However, to fear it is counterproductive. Fear sets up a condition that exacerbates suffering. It can make one resistant to walking forward on their own steam in order to face and surmount an issue, such as a deer in the headlights that freezes in the road and is broadsided.
I’ve written about Leo Buscaglia, the teacher, writer and speaker of LOVE. On the face of it he seems abundantly joyful, cheerful and optimistic, and he is. He does not, however, discount death, pain, fear or suffering. What he has done in his thinking is accept these things as a natural part of life, walk through them, and grow beyond them. You don’t need to fear pain (that makes the pain worse) or revere pain (then you never move beyond it, which is also unnatural), what works best is to accept pain. You accept that there is no course where pain will not be part of the bigger picture.
Childbirth is a great example of Pluto suffering. It’s painful, horrifically so in most cases. However, you can spend your months of pregnancy building up fear of the event or you can prepare for it, either medically or using a childbirth training system like Bradley or Lamaze. No matter which route you go it is still a powerful event, one where life and death hang in the balance. The more you are able to accept these things and move through them, the more bearable the event becomes. Some people, “bless their hearts,” tell of lovely, stress-free childbirth experiences. They’re either delusional or the exceptions that prove the rule.
In any case, no matter how it goes, it ends. Usually you get a baby at the end. In any case, life goes on and you are forever changed. Things are inherently different than they were before.
Pluto suffering, Pluto transformation, whatever you call it, is part of life. If you participate in the process without dragging your heels it tends to go better on a person. If you’re having trouble doing that? I’d suggest reading Buscaglia; that’s always a good place to start. It’s also like Joseph Campbell said, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” But in addition, you’re going to enter that cave; you can either enter it as a hero, ready to face the inevitable, or you can be dragged backwards kicking and screaming. The first option sounds less traumatic to me.
How do you feel about suffering?
Satori, this is wonderful. Love Leo the Hugging Doctor and every word was perfect! Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,,, and road weary. Does this mean a transit watch should have a Jaws music sound track playin’ in your head when the Pluto is coming your way?
Thanks very much, Satori. I needed this today.
Even though I am more than happy to bitch about Pluto’s transit through Sagittarius. I now have a great appreciation for the beauty of life.
I am now moved to joy, and sometimes tears, at the sight of a tree with the sun hitting it a certain way. Shadows on the snow. A butterfly moving from flower to flower. A song played live with great feeling.
I guess what I’m trying to convey is that the years of suffering, that I didn’t know if I would live through, has really opened me up to being alive.
thanks, and you’re welcome. 🙂
“How do you feel about suffering?”
I like to avoid it. 🙂
Tam revealed the hidden secret of Pluto: it teaches you about the beauty of life, like the depth that gives a drawing its realism.
One of the most beautiful things I learned was to find the purpose in my own suffering. I still have trouble with the suffering of others, though. I held my dying cat a few weeks ago and was looking into his eyes at the moment he went, and it never occurred to me that this amazing and very sentient being would be as afraid of death as he was when it came. It was hard for me that I couldn’t save him from his fear at the end.
But learning that life isn’t fair and that it is what it’s supposed to be, I felt, was worth the learning. Although, as everyone says, I’d never want to do it over.
In 27 years I’ve had Pluto conjunct my Neptune and Jupiter which are both natally conjunct my Sun, Pluto just went over my Sun for the last time starting this week, and I’ll have Saturn conjunct my Pluto and then Saturn return in Scorpio as Pluto conjuncts my Cap Mercury. If I live a full life, I’ll also experience Pluto square Moon and Mars, Pluto opp Ascendant, my Pluto square, Pluto square Saturn and Venus… I’m tired of writing it all down. 😛
Elsa looked at my chart recently and said, “This is just how your chart is set up.”
So I have to learn to be at peace with the Plutonian lessons and experiences as I’ll be visiting that cave many times over this life. Natally, I’m equipped for it, but sometimes I wonder what I was thinking to take on such a lifetime. Most of all I hate how isolating it can be. Both you and Elsa do the Scorpio types a great boon by bringing these kinds of experience into the light and validating them, Satori.
sheesh I am picking up super Pluto vibes everywhere and I am not afraid. when you spin the wheel of life you go up and down and it is fate that decides where you land…
how do i feel about suffering?
I’d like to be prepared if possible. If not, then at least I know I’m in for one hell of a ride!
TY for this Satori. Very kismet for me right now 😉
Pain is mandatory but suffering is optional…
Cowboy up.
Sometimes I forget about the joy part…Though I try to hide it, I’m very much a waiting-for-the-other-shoe-to-drop kind of person.
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” Powerful words…..worth remembering for a lifetime!
We all suffer. Every last one of us. That’s where compassion comes in. Suffering, I think, is part of the double edged sword, the joy and the suffering. I think there is no avoiding it, so the best you can do is prepare yourself. A little bit of healthy detachment.
Transiting Pluto is opposing my natal Moon/Jupiter conjunction. With the retrograde it feels so back and forth but I think as Pluto opposes my M/J and progresses, this next go around will be more about the healing aspect and less about the destruction. It’s all good. Pluto is formidable and I totally respect it.
I don’t care too much for suffering….But when it is past I see things I didn’t see before…
Pluto is supposedly supporting my ascendant being at 5 degrees Cap-it is an exact sextile–but I feel it–and there is definite energy there, and doesn’t feel uplifting…but part of this may be Saturn touching off my T-square and exactly squaring my n.sun, opposing n.Mars…
…maybe Pluto is supporting me, being my ruler and all…hard to decipher at the moment.
I’m working on the lemonade… 😉
When I found out I was pregnant, I accepted it. I couldn’t be bothered going to the classes. Why should I, there will be doctors, nurses and my partner there, supporting me.
I’ve always accepted suffering as part of life, I always allow myself to feel the pain, because I know there is always a balance. I will feel great happiness and light!
Pluto is my Chart Ruler. This post is so awesome Satori! I love the birth analogy.
I never thought of it before reading this, but I had my son at a young age (18), which was quite a challenge, but now with this perspective, I can see where it was excellent training.
I experienced Pluto going through my 1st house from the time I was 22-33. I wouldn’t want to repeat those years, but I wouldn’t trade the deep sense of strength that I’m sure I wouldn’t have without them.
One word that keeps popping up in my consciousness, which you used in your post is ‘inevitable’. It might have something to do with Pluto now being square my Sun. I know I’ll survive it, might have scars on the other side to prove it, but there’s no sense in trying to stop the process, and I’m not afraid.
I used to feel to want to fight suffering but now I feel to accept suffering. I can’t explain what that feels like to fight or accept it; but it is something you eventually accept to do — just be present with IT!!! 🙂
No more resistance!!!
[grunt]
Thanks for this Satori. I accept that pain and suffering are a part of life but I do my best to accept it and use it to transform.
I keep wondering lately: What is my lesson supposed to be? Surrender to what is happening around me and accept it, even if I’m not happy with the changes being made? Or act and take some of my power back?
Maybe it’s both?
Pluto transiting 1st, opposing 7th house Jupiter and squaring 10th house sun.
I don’t like suffering much.
I have a good amount of Neptune squares and Pisces placement so playing victim is something I’m not totally a stranger to (which including a kind of suffering). However Plutonian suffering is quickly dealt with. I want to get to the root of the problem and find a solution. I have Saturn in Scorpio that conjuncts Pluto and an Aquarius 8th house Sun so the faster I can get to the bottom of the problem, the faster I’ll get out of this.
If not, I feel like I can suffocate!