If you frequent a lot of astrology blogs you've undoubtedly read a lot of hubbub about the recently initiated Uranus-Pluto square. A square is a condition that arises when two planets reach a 90 degree angle to each other on the Zodiac. It is representative of tension where two planetary archetypes are at "crossed purposes," and this often results in an urgent need for resolution.

What issues are up for resolution during any square aspect depends on the planets, signs and houses involved as well as the issues that were prevalent during the previous conjunction of the two planets. Now that two of the big outer planetary heavies, Uranus and Pluto, are engaged in battle, what does this mean for us?

The initiation of the Uranus/Pluto cycle began in the late 60s, with their conjunction in Virgo. This occurred in the 9th house of the U.S. natal chart, symbolizing a spark of revolution around traditional roles (civil rights), expectations of service (women, labor) and how we manage our power (Pluto) on the world stage (9th house, Vietnam). A counter culture (Uranus) arose ostensibly in service (Virgo) to the collective (Uranus), although it too was fraught with power struggles (Pluto). New forms of poetry and philosophy (9th house) emerged. It was indeed a time of seed planting that is now just beginning to flower. The full effect of the conjunction, the full bloom of this re-evolutionary flower, ought to be fully visible by the time Uranus opposes Pluto around 2048.

The Uranian impulse is towards deconditioning, to break free from worn out and outdated structures of consciousness (Saturn). Uranus looks at patterns of behavior that do not serve and blasts them away like a bolt of lightning shattering a tree. Think of a guerrilla rebel fighting for freedom in his homeland, or an antiwar activist blocking traffic on a sweltering Manhattan street, or a punk rocker flipping the bird at a TV camera. You think you know me? You think you can control me? Think again!

Uranus in Aries? "I'm mad as hell and I ain't gonna take it anymore!" Pluto in Capricorn? Death presses on its grim unrelenting course across fields of purification, consuming decrepit forms and shitting them out as fertilizer for a newly emergent spark of Life. Combine the two and you get what amounts to a wildfire blazing across the infrastructures of society.

The challenge is to stand in our own power, against all negative opposition and fear, while devoted in our service to society. As always with Uranus, we must discover that we serve the collective the most when we are at our highest uniqueness.

Pluto demands truth. Not the Sagittarian kind of intuitive philosophical truth where God speaks through us to teach us  the inherent goodness of all things, but the kind of truth that pulls no punches, that uproots the hidden motivations and ugly power struggles that keep people clinging to their baser attachments to sex, money, and dominance over others. In its current passage through the first house of the United States birth chart Pluto is demanding that we as a nation get real about how our self image creates our motivations. Hate foreigners? Think socialism is the greatest threat to our nation? Maybe you're too uncomfortable with your own accountability to society. Think Republicans are all baby eating freaks who want to control the world's corporate and military power? Well, you'd be right of course. No seriously, hey, maybe you're too afraid of utilizing your own power to stand for Light and in your fear you need a scapegoat to blame for it. The point is, we as a nation are bubbling up all of our insecurities as we try to figure out what is really resulting out of our use of power. Is the world better or worse for it? How can we take responsibility for our national power and use it wisely?

Pluto will enter the U.S.'s second house around 2015. The nation will then be required to look at its insecurities around survival. We will likely be tested in many ways relating to how we perceive ourselves threatened by the outer world as well as our inner enemies (saboteurs and subversives). How we use our existing resources will be up for examination as well, and we will need to face how we've been spending the gobs of money our country controls and come up with better ways to spend it. Don't expect the housing market to make any great upturns during this time, unless of course we are all diligently working to transform it. It will be time for the nation to redefine its values, to decide what really matters for us. Are we strong enough to put liberty above all else? Can we finally see that obsession over wealth is a false form of power that leaves everyone poorer?

Then in 2022 we have the big Pluto Return. The child that has been given massive toys and a relatively safe playground to explore now must give it all up for personal responsibility. Acting like a spoiled, entitled brat will no longer be tolerated.

It's time to grow up, America.

Uranus and Pluto, continuing their dance of deconstruction and renewal. This energy is wild but not untamable. It is up to us to ground and focus the powerful energies swirling around our world, to use our intentions and actions to manifest a higher outcome. It speaks to me of the reason there are so many souls on the planet today — we all want to play our part to receive and work with the power the gods are imbuing the planet with at this pivotal time. It is, and must be, a collective effort (Uranus). The challenge is to stand in our own power (Aries), against all negative opposition and fear, while devoted in our service to society. As always with Uranus, especially in Aries, we must discover that we serve the collective the most when we are at our highest uniqueness. That means that in order to heal the world, you must also heal yourself. No small task, if you've noticed.

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