“Henry! Henry! I can’t find Dorothy! She’s somewhere out in the storm!” from the Wizard of Oz

Pluto shows us the underbelly of life. The deep, shadowy places that we can’t see clearly, the reality that is hidden from plain sight. Though this realm can be hard to understand, the power of Pluto’s depth and the call of his murmuring voice draw us closer. There is an authenticity and raw energy to this intense planet that is hard to resist, even if we try to cover our ears and look away, towards some more acceptable, “nicer” version of the truth.

Saturday’s Full Moon Eclipse in Capricorn makes several important aspects to other planets, but Pluto is the star of the show. We’ve seen the signs of this eclipse coming over the recent months, most dramatically and tragically in the Gulf Oil Spill. As Pluto comes round to conjunct the Moon in Capricorn this weekend, the spotlight shines on the underside of the bureaucracy, the “system”, the structure. The hard Capricornian stone crumbles and we watch the bricks fall.

Painful? You bet. Powerful? Yes, that too, for Pluto symbolizes the strength and intensity that we gain through suffering and letting go. This god of the underworld demands change and release as the price of entry into his realm, but Pluto doesn’t want to keep you down there, flat like a scorpion at the bottom of the earth. For the other part of this magnetic planet’s intention is birth and regeneration. The price of exit from the land of the dead is new life and growth. If you can keep from getting stuck in the first half of the cycle, transitioning out of the land of the dead when the time is right, you can then rise like an eagle, powerful, free and strong.

Since we’re now at the beginning of Pluto’s thirteen year transit of Capricorn, collectively we’ve just began an initiation. This is the time of letting go, release, and paying witness to the secrets hidden deep underground.
Pluto rules over all things that arise from the depths of the earth: oil, metals, coal.

So it’s a magical, comi-tragic twist that oil is the star of the biggest show on stage these days as we head towards this Full Moon eclipse. Pluto’s got something we need to hear now, a message that there’s no way of avoiding. We’re asked to pay attention to what it is that is dying, take note of what is being released and to listen to the undercurrents of life.


Mercury’s joins this eclipse line-up, as do Uranus and Jupiter. Mercury in Cancer allows us to grasp the magnitude of what is happening in an emotional way, going beyond the “just the facts ma’am” practicality of Capricorn. Mercury in the sign of the Crab is intuitive, and imaginative, gently opening us to the secrets of our dreams: the oceanic nocturnal waves in the sea of life. Uranus’s influence brings us these sleeping and waking messages from strange and surprising places, making us speak the truth , no matter how shocking it might be. This planetary trickster, like Bugs Bunny, is hard to catch and good at creating chaos. Jupiter expands the desire to forge ahead, joining Uranus in a wild two-step, that urges onwards, towards new adventures and experiences.

So what’s our role in all of this?Some of us might want to hide under the bed during the passing storm, waiting for the trouble to pass, for Pluto’s heavy gaze to move away from our direction. Others may need to confront transformation directly, moving boldly towards the next round in the spiral of life. This eclipse brings topsy-turvy change like Dorothy swirling in the eye of the hurricane, in between two lands and two realities. Our work may just be to spend a little time in Oz before we find our way home.

So, how have I spent my eclipse season so far? Well, interestingly enough, the day of the New Moon eclipse in Leo, I found myself headed up to Sonoma to plan the Fool’s Journey retreat and restorative, which I will be teaching at this September (25-28th to be exact).

I had some small feelings of trepidation because the eclipse was falling on my 11th /5th house axis, spotlighting the polarity between groups and community and individual expression. The same themes as the Leo/Aquarius eclipse season theme, only opposite, since I have Libra rising. I was nervous because I was going to be planning a group activity with a group. Would this great team of teachers suddenly and surprisingly devolve into a band of raving lunatics? Would I become an ego-filled maniac, demanding that my creative dreams shape the structure of our Fool’s Journey camp? How would the surprising and unexpected nature of this eclipse play out on our weekend away to plan, play and connect?

So, as you might have gathered by now, I was in fact caught quite by surprise. This wasn’t the kind of knock your socks off, leave your job, partner, home, mind kind of surprise, rather it was that more sweetly, slowly, dawning pleasure kind of surprise that snuck up just at the edge of my awareness, until suddenly it was there.
As we planned the evening rituals, I put in a bid for an astrological theme to help shape our Saturday night plan. This idea was met with an outpouring of such enthusiasm and co-creating pleasure by my fellow fools, that the resulting ritual plan left me reeling with the understanding that this was a part of my eclipse lesson.
The ritual plan we came up with provided me with a way to offer up my own unique talents and abilities (Aquarius Moon in the 5th house), and helped me to offer them in service to the community and group in a form that would involve expression and sacred drama (Leo house cusp in the 11th house).

What a neat and non-scary way to live out the eclipse energies. Now if only I can navigate the upcoming Aquarius eclipse on August 16th (which is happening smack-on conjunct my moon), with similar style and pizzazz. How I love the strange and beautiful way the stars tell the story of our lives…..