Art by Willow Arlenea<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>I mean the title as a bit of a joke \u2013 an homage to the self-help book from the 1970s by Harold Kushner. \u00a0But it\u2019s no joke when tragic events happen in our own lives or to someone we love.<\/p>\n
Over the past five years of such intense planetary drama these stories seem to occur more frequently, at least in my life. \u00a0The bride-to-be whose fiance dies of a heart attack five days before the wedding. \u00a0The parents who lose two children in the space of a year. \u00a0The friend who waited over 40 years to find her soulmate and build their dream house, only to have him die of a brain tumor less than five years into their marriage. \u00a0Another friend in a difficult marriage who loses her husband and father within six months. \u00a0All of you have your own stories, perhaps from your own lives.<\/p>\n
This kind of event that turns our world upside down generally occurs under the auspices of Saturn or Pluto. \u00a0And sometimes both. \u00a0My sister was an astrology skeptic until I started my blog under her tutelage, and then she became curious. \u00a0I\u2019m still not sure she\u2019s convinced in its accuracy, but she is interested enough to want to know what the planets are doing when things get rough.<\/p>\n
Over the past few years she has had a ridiculous lineup of planetary transits and progressions including a big lineup of planets to Pluto in her progressed chart and her second Saturn return. \u00a0During that time she lost a job, found another one, her husband lost his job, couldn\u2019t find another one, our mother ended up in the hospital with a chronic illness and died, her husband was diagnosed with cancer, one of their cats (with no kids, their cats are their children) died, her husband was diagnosed with a rare brain disease and then died of that, and most recently her second cat died just as the Pluto lineup was finishing.<\/p>\n
We can\u2019t say that Pluto itself causes these events, and Pluto cycles don\u2019t always bring this sort of devastation. \u00a0Pluto is the principle of Shiva \u2013 the destroyer who wipes the decks clean so that a new beginning can occur. \u00a0Sometimes Pluto transits bring powerful new experiences without annihilating our former life. \u00a0But sometimes the annihilation occurs and all we can do is watch as the tsunami comes and our lives are swept away, never to return.<\/p>\n
Religions teach that if people are good and follow the rules of the religion, bad things won\u2019t happen to them. \u00a0Of course this is not the case \u2013 life happens and sometimes brings happiness and sometimes great pain. \u00a0So how are we to find faith and hope in the midst of our personal agony?<\/p>\n
Buddhism teaches that attachment is the root of suffering \u2013 if we can only let go of our attachment to things then we will achieve peace. \u00a0This is far easier said than done \u2013 we live in the world and we are of this world, and unless we renounce the world to meditate in a cave these attachments do inform our lives and everything in it. \u00a0We have children, husbands, family members, friends that we love. \u00a0We have homes that we live in and pets that give us joy. \u00a0We have jobs that we need to put food on the table. \u00a0The loss of any of these things leaves us feeling less than who we were, and not knowing who we are to become.<\/p>\n
During these times we experience a true \u201cdark night of the soul,\u201d when we find ourselves alone and not knowing where to turn. \u00a0Theologians advise turning to their god during these times, and for believers this can be a powerful time of faith. \u00a0But unless we are able to broaden our understanding of what our incarnation means \u00a0and who we are underneath the trappings and associations of our lives, any superficial faith serves as a lifeboat but does not lift us out of the ocean of pain. The sense of being stripped of anything that is outside of ourselves and being left alone and isolated with only our true and core self falls under the domain of Pluto.<\/p>\n
During these dark nights we find ourselves alone and crying out in the wilderness. Whether we or not we believe in the Judaeo-Christian idea of God, or the Islamic Allah, or the many Hindu gods and goddesses, or the Celtic or Nordic or Santeria pantheons, each of us is deeply connected to a spiritual source \u2013 a source of love and comfort that exists both within and outside of us. \u00a0Some of us call this god or goddess, some call it the \u201chigher self,\u201d some call it our guardian angel or spirit guides. \u00a0We have all heard this voice speaking within us although we sometimes confuse it with our own minds.<\/p>\n
When we find ourselves in darkness and great pain we are the most receptive to the voice of the soul which calls to us in its own language if we can let go of our story and listen. In the end, this is all that is real \u2013 it is all we can count on. \u00a0We love our family, our children \u2013 we find joy in our lifestyles and our pleasures. \u00a0But Pluto reminds us that at the core, beyond the story of our lives and beyond the story of our pain, lies the magnificence of life itself and the experience of absolute love that is hidden deep within our own hearts.<\/p>\n
[related_posts limit=\u201d5\u2033 image=\u201d50\u2033]<\/p>\n
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I mean the title as a bit of a joke \u2013 an homage to the self-help book from the 1970s by Harold Kushner. \u00a0But it\u2019s no joke when tragic events happen in our own lives or to someone we love. Over the past five years of such intense planetary drama these stories seem to occur […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":537,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2422,21],"tags":[2718,2719,2720],"class_list":["post-11952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-favorite-posts","category-inspiration","tag-bad-transits","tag-dark-night-of-the-soul","tag-pluto-astrology"],"yoast_head":"\n
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