Pluto and Saturn have caught a Human Being and put him in a vise.  Saturn is pushing from one side and Pluto the other.  The Human is in torment.
Human Being:  When will this pressure let up?
Saturn:  I won’t let up until you succeed in the way you’re supposed to.  I have high standards for you.
Pluto:  I won’t let up until you face your demons.  There’s a ton of repressed, buried, hidden psychological garbage deep inside you that I demand you look at.
Human Being:  I give up.
Saturn:  You’re not even allowed to do that.  Every day you have to get up out of bed, drag yourself to work and at least show your face.  If you can do more, more will be demanded of you.  You must become excellent under pressure.
Pluto:  Meanwhile, your darkness beckons.  How about a drink?  Are you craving something sugary and fatty?  How about some pot?  Or perhaps you’re ready for something harder and more illegal. . .
Saturn:  Don’t take that stuff.  No matter how it feels.
Human Being:  Why not?
Saturn:  It relieves the stress for only a short time and then you feel worse.
Human Being:  I’d do anything to feel better right now.
Pluto:  I’ve got the stuff for you!  How about sex?  Mmm, yummy hormones?
Saturn:  Believe me, you don’t want it.  You’re barely holding it together.
Human Being:  Hey wait a minute, guys.  I saw an astrologer the other day.  She told me that if I give you what you really want, you’ll let up on me.
Saturn (taken aback):  That’s true.
Pluto:  But you have to figure out what it is.
Human Being:  I’ve been studying up on this.  Saturn, you want me to take responsibility.
Saturn:  Yes.  Then I’ll stop the endless stream of self-judging messages I’ve put in your head.
Human Being:  And Pluto, you want me to go through a metamorphosis, right?  A kind of death-and-rebirth process?
Pluto:  Yes.  It has to involve an emotional purge.  And until you do it, your demons will nip at your heels.
Human Being:  This is a dilemma—how do I surrender to both processes at once?  How do I let go of attachments and face my uncomfortable cravings for Pluto’s sake and also hold to my promises for Saturn’s sake?
A light bulb goes off over Human Being’s head.  It glows brightly.
Human Being:  Hey, I’ve got it!  Saturn, I want you to build me a structure.  Make it extremely strong, strong enough to withstand even the worst Pluto can deal out.
Saturn:  Huh.  Ok.  How’s this?
He waves his hand and a giant cauldron appears.  It’s made of iron and has thick walls.
Human Being:  That’s perfect.  Now, Pluto, put your strongest phoenix-solvent into the cauldron.
Pluto cackles with glee and waves his hand.  A molten, fiery liquid pours itself into the cauldron from thin air.  The Human Being gulps in fear.  He takes off all his clothes and folds them carefully until he is standing, shivering and buck naked, before the cauldron.
Human Being:  Ok, here goes!
He jumps into the cauldron.
Human Being:  Oh God that hurts!
Pluto:  You did this to yourself, you idiot!
Human Being (sweating buckets):  Self-sabotage is the flip side of transformation.  I’m changing into a finer form of myself.
Saturn:  Honor your promises!
Human Being (weeping uncontrollably):  I’m doing that, even though it takes everything I’ve got.
Pluto:  Life isn’t fair—you deserve better than this!
Human Being (raging and flailing):  That may be so, but it doesn’t mean I get to act out in my friendships, my family, my marriage or my career.
Saturn:  When are you going to finally be recognized for how hard you work?
Human Being (laughing hysterically):  I don’t know, but I do know that if I respect myself, then others will respect me too.
His body is being cooked down, burnt to a crisp.  But something else is happening too—something miraculous.  He is beginning to glow with a preternatural light.  He is beginning to look angelic.
Human Being:  Now I understand!  Being the best me possible is worth the effort.  Not just for what the things it will get me, but for the power of knowing who I really am.  I finally feel like the real me for the first time in my whole life.  Now I truly have peace.
By now, the weird fiery liquid has subsided.  What remains is an ashy dust.  He steps out of the cauldron, a shining being.
Human Being:  Thank you.  Both of you.  That experience was exactly what I needed.
Saturn (to Pluto):  Do you think we succeeded in scaring him?
Pluto:  No, damn it.  In fact, I think he’s one of us now.  He’s a god.
Human Being (looking at the glow of his own hands):  Woah.

Let your integrity force you to do what is right during these trying times.  They are times of testing for us all.  Allow the pain of it to burn away everything that isn’t truly you.  You don’t have to destroy your whole life to make it through this process.  Your essence will emerge unscathed.

Are you feeling the pressure?  If you want to know more
about exactly how this challenging transit affects you personally,
you can find out in a reading with Jamie.
Contact her to find out more.

Other posts in this thread:
Saturn and Pluto Square Off: Discipline Meets Death

Jupiter:  Pass me the pipe.
Pluto passes the pipe, after stuffing it with high-grade but indeterminate stuff that could have come from any country or century on Earth.  Jupiter takes a big puff, then emits giant, deity-sized smoke rings.
Jupiter:  Ah, this is the life.
Pluto:  But how about the death?
He’s closely examining some harder drugs that are lying around on the coffee table, along with several baggies of miscellaneous pills and some half-finished bottles of the hardest liquor available.
Pluto:  What do you think would happen if we took all these at once?
Jupiter:  We’d die.
Pluto:  I could swear we’ve already established that we can’t do that.  We’re gods.  So, really—what do you think would happen?
Jupiter:  Dude, you always ask me questions like that.  You know I’m not the guy to stop you.
Pluto (smirking):  Yeah, leave that to Saturn, the old prude.
Jupiter:  But he’s not here!
They give each other the high-five and go back to the drugs and drug-taking paraphernalia.
Pluto:  Hey, how about we take all these, then go find a bunch of nymphs—
Jupiter:  How about a LOT of nymphs?
Pluto: —and then try to jump out a building?
Jupiter:  Been there, done that.
Pluto:  Then what’s left?
Jupiter:  I really don’t know.
Pluto:  It’s a good thing we don’t have mortal bodies.
Jupiter:  Yeah, because we sure know how to abuse them.  What makes us do it?
Pluto:  I’m drawn to intense, edgy experiences and you love adventure for its own sake.
Jupiter:  Yeah, but why do you have to be so extremely dark?
Pluto:  Can’t help it.  I’m the Lord of the Underworld.  Don’t really like the sunlight.
Jupiter:  I think I’ll find my limit before you do, and that’s saying something.
Pluto (with an evil grin):  Race you!
Jupiter:  You know I can’t resist a challenge like that!  On 3!
Pluto:  One. . .
Jupiter:  Two. . .
Pluto:  Three!
They quickly stuff everything edible into their mouths, chasing it with the alcohol, then smoke everything smokable and snort everything snortable.
Pluto (reeling dizzily):Oh wow!
Jupiter:  Wow-de-wow!
Pluto:  And double-wow!
Eyes rolling up in their heads, both collapse on the floor.  Several centuries later, Jupiter begins to stir.
Jupiter (rolling over and smacking Pluto on the face): Hey, Pluto, wake up!
Pluto:  Hunh?
Jupiter:  What just happened?
Pluto:  Unh.  Dunno.
Jupiter:  Wake up, Pluto, I’m bored!  What can we do next?
Pluto:  When my headache goes away, I’ll think of something.

This is part 2 of what will become a 3-part thread about the current Jupiter-square-Pluto.
Part One is here:  Jupiter and Pluto Go To Extremes

These two obviously have a lot of potential for stirring up trouble when they get together.  But while Pluto’s addictive and self-destructive tendencies tend to be accelerated by the presence of Jupiter, it’s well to remember that Pluto rules not only the lowest lows, but also the highest highs—and Jupiter is capable of accelerating those as well.  The final installment of this thread (which will be posted in February of 2011) will look more closely at those highest highs.

That’s Billy Joel talking (see link below).  He may not know why he goes to extremes but I know—it’s because he’s got Pluto square his Sun in his chart.  That combination tends to make a person intense and attracted to edgy experiences.  He’s also got Jupiter in trine to his Moon, making him a large personality, generally benevolent and adventuresome, but also likely to have a bigger emotional reaction than events around him call for.  I mention it because these lyrics are a great illustration of what happens when Jupiter and Pluto hang out together.

This year Pluto and Jupiter will meet in the sky three times, beginning in July and finishing in February.  During this period, their conversation might go something like this:

Jupiter and Pluto have met on the top of Mount Olympus.  Pluto is dressed for scuba diving and carries a large bottle of vodka.  Jupiter is dressed for skydiving and gear is hanging off him in a haphazard way.
Jupiter:  Why are you wearing scuba gear on a mountaintop?
Pluto:  I figure if I start all the way up here, it will be longer before I hit bottom.
Pluto takes a swig of vodka.
Jupiter:  You do realize that you’re not supposed to drop from very high above sea level to very far below sea level, right?  Decompression sickness can kill you.
Pluto:  That rule’s just for people.  I’m an immortal, everlasting deity.  Nothing kills me!
Jupiter:  You’re also not supposed to drink and dive.
Pluto:  I can’t believe you’re telling me this.  I may be bleary, but even I can tell your safety gear is not in place.  Now why would that be?
Jupiter:  Well I’m a god too, obviously.  If I hit the ground it hurts—for a little while.  Then I just get up again, completely good to go.
Pluto:  Exactly.  And you know what I’ve noticed. . .
He leans toward Jupiter conspiratorially.
Pluto:  . . . even the pain part is kind of nice.  Sometimes I get so hardened that it’s hard to shock me.  I like feeling intense things every once in awhile.
Jupiter:  Hey, let me have one of those fins.  Maybe we could share air as we go down.
Pluto:  If you tie me into your parachute.  No doubt we’ll still plummet pretty fast, with
two of us on one chute.
Jupiter:  This is hella fun, why didn’t we think of this before?
Pluto:  Not your usual suicide pact, but I’m Lord of the Underworld so death is not new to me.
They proceed to make all the adjustments, then grab each other, run to the edge and jump.
Jupiter & Pluto:  WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!
This is followed by a huge crash.  Somewhere on Earth there is an earthquake, a tsunami and a volcano also erupts.
Jupiter & Pluto:  Ugh.  Umph.  Urgh.
They peel themselves off the ground.
Jupiter (eyes gleaming):  Let’s do that again!
Pluto:  You betcha!

This insane combo may have us feeling like a little risk-taking is in order, because Pluto’s tendency to extremes is only made bigger by the presence of Jupiter.  Watch yourself over the upcoming period, through Feburary of 2011, because nobody’s making these two follow safety rules.

* Here’s Billy Joel singing “I Go To Extremes” on youtube.

Curious about how this transit affects you?
A reading can help you find out—and find out what to do about it too!
Contact Jamie to schedule or find out more.

Today Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Pluto.  It’s as if Pluto is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Pluto is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is being melted down to its essence.  After this period, that part of you will be fundamentally changed.  Today is the peak of Pluto’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between now and the end of last November Pluto showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the profound metamorphosis to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a place in our life that would benefit from letting go of control and accepting that the old way of being must go so that a new way may be born from its ashes.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  During the winter we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Pluto turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That metamorphosis you’re going through?” he says, “You’d better get with the program.”  Today, Pluto’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our journey inward to discover what part of us needs to be allowed to die and how we can accept that death and grieve its loss.  Only after we grieve can new life spring from the old.  The upcoming few months of Pluto retrograde will demand that we trust our own process and allow things to unfold as they must.  Pluto’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is September 13, 2010.

Where Must We Face Death, Loss And Change?
The sign Pluto is in tells us how it will affect us.  Right now Pluto is in Capricorn, a practical, ambitious Earth sign.  While traveling through Capricorn, Pluto will transform our relationship to structure, discipline, order and career.  Pluto asks, “How do you handle structure?  Are you self-disciplined?  Do you have good, healthy order in your life?  Are you on a meaningful and purposeful career track?  Are you building something real, concrete and useful to leave behind when you die?”

Pluto says, “There are things you need to let go of.  Things that aren’t serving you.  Places where you stop yourself from having the discipline, integrity and ambition you really want to have.  I’m taking those things away from you now.  You don’t need them anymore.  You won’t know that at first–in fact, at first it will feel like you yourself are dying.  But you’re not.  You’re just changing.  Let go of those things you don’t need.  Grieve them.  Then watch new life spring from the old.  This is always my promise to you:  new life comes from the passing of the old.”  Pluto says, “This is me helping you get out of your own way.”

Is This Story Your Story?
If this resonates for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Pluto may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Pluto is covering the space between 2 and 5 degrees Capricorn.  If there is anything in your chart in 2, 3, 4 or 5 degrees of Capricorn, Cancer, Libra or Aries, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling like you’re melting down and like you want to hide under the covers and you’re generally more sensitive this year than usual.  Pluto may be trying to tell you something important, and if you listen, your discomfort will ease and the change you’re in can begin to flow instead of paining you.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Pluto.  If it’s Mercury, Pluto is metamorphosing your mind and killing off old ways of thinking.  If it’s Venus or Juno, Pluto is metamorphosing your relationships, giving you the possibility of a whole new way of being in relationship in the future.  If it’s your Sun, the very core of you is being melted down and reshaped into a whole new person you will not even recognize.  But whatever it is, you’ll have that feeling of emotional intensity, grief and loss and a powerful need to assert control as everything around you melts down.  That’s Pluto.  He’s a Big Scary Monster to meet in a dark alley, but his gifts are great.  Because he lives in each of us, we all have the ability to leave behind our caterpillar ways and become the butterfly we always meant to be.

Want to know more about how this Pluto transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Saturn is the archetype of the Wise Old Man, the Mentor, the Father Figure, the Authority.  When Saturn comes along, he reminds us of our duties, our obligations and the seriousness of the situation.  Saturn brings a reality check, sometimes a harsh one.

Pluto is the Phoenix.  He transforms everything he touches, putting it through a metamorphosis, a long dark night of the soul.  He brings a symbolic death-and-rebirth experience.  He also represents our instincts, that part of us that ferrets out the underlying truths.

These are both heavy archetypes and they are in a square to each other, which astrologers traditionally view as a stressful relationship.  A square feels frustrating and obstructive to both parties.  They are not coming to the table ready to negotiate, but ready to ‘square off.’  They’re in a fighting mood.

Here’s a snippet of conversation between the two:
Saturn: I’m the ultimate authority figure.  I’m strong and solid and I have respect for the wisdom of the elders.  I represent the continuity of culture and its rules.
Pluto: I doubt you.  I think there’s something fishy behind everything you say and do.  I think you have an interest in maintaining your position and you don’t really care about the people you have charge of.
Saturn: I’ve been in charge for a very long time.  The people put me here.  I do what I do to take care of them.  I hold communities together.  I provide the rules people live by and the punishments that keep them in line.
Pluto: You have ulterior motives.  I won’t be happy until I uncover every last slimy thing you’ve ever done and hold it up to the light of day.
Saturn: Don’t even think about crossing me.
Pluto: You know you can’t win.  You have a trail of slime behind you a mile wide.  I can smell it.
Saturn: No way—I’ve kept my past clean.  I am a person of integrity.
Pluto: I think you’re corrupt.  I’ll be watching you.  One false move and you’re out.

That was a view of Pluto obstructing Saturn.  But one can just as easily see Saturn obstructing Pluto:
Saturn: Pluto, I’ve noticed that you love intense experience.
Pluto: Yes, I do.  I like life on the edge.  I like passion.
Saturn: You can get pretty compulsive sometimes.
Pluto: I like the sensation of falling.  I like life pulling at me and I like pulling at others.
Saturn: You become addicted to things too easily.  You get lost in your compulsions and lose your good judgment.
Pluto: Did I ever have good judgment in the first place?  I have only my instincts to guide me.
Saturn: But you muddy your instincts when you involve yourself in addictions.  How can they guide you when you’re continually pulled back towards a substance or habit that makes the pain go away?
Pluto: I refuse to live in pain.  What do you suggest?
Saturn: Discipline.  Because addiction, while it promises to relieve pain in the short term, only amplifies it in the long term.  Eliminate your addictions.  Then we’ll talk.
Pluto: Not till I’m good and ready.
Saturn: You’ll probably have to hit bottom first, maybe alienate everyone around you and ruin your life.
Pluto: If the people around me don’t love me through this, maybe they were worth losing.
Saturn: I see—people are supposed to love you while you are free to abuse them because your life is so hard?  You’re such a baby.  And a victim.
Pluto: And you’re a hardass.  You only pretended to care about me.  Go away.

You see?  Both archetypes have their weak spots and this transit could well bring those weak spots out.

This transit of Pluto square Saturn lasts from November of 2009 through August of 2010.  Today’s post is just a taste of what Saturn and Pluto have in store for us.  I’ll write more about it as this transit goes on, but for now I’d like to leave you with a few interesting questions to ponder:

• In what areas of your life have you been using your role as an authority figure to avoid changing?
• In what ways have you become rigid, adhering to rules instead of flexibly responding to life’s challenges on a case-by-case basis?
• In what areas of your life does an addiction rule you and cause you to violate your own integrity—whether with yourself or with others?
• When’s the last time you lied to someone—or to yourself?  What were you protecting?

These are heavy questions.  But if you’re ready for the very foundation of your life to shift in order to change in truly deep ways for the better, this transit is perfect for you.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Pluto transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around April 4, you came to realize you were facing a big life-change and since then, you’ve been re-evaluating some the area of your life that’s changing.  You’ve been examining it and mulling it over.  Perhaps you’ve been researching it.  Basically, you’ve been asking yourself, “What is this part of me that wants to transform right now?  How have I lived this part of me in the past and what is it turning into for the future?”

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve come to clarity.  You’ve recognized the change that needs to occur and you’re ready to implement what you’ve learned.  You can now gear up to act on that recognition, sometime in the next few months (between now and January of 2010).

“What is a Pluto transit like . . .”
A Pluto transit is distinct, because it feels like dying.  You may feel at times as if you are in meltdown and you don’t know what you are doing in the area of life (i.e. planet in your chart) that’s being affected.  Pluto is asking you to let go in this area, to let something die so that it can be reborn.  Pluto is asking you to search underneath the surface for the essence of this part of you.  And Pluto is demanding that you let go of the old ways, so the new ways can emerge, regardless of how uncomfortable (sometimes very uncomfortable!) that might be.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
First of all, you know by feel.  If what I’ve described resonates for you, it’s likely you are having a Pluto transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Pluto.)  Transits are almost always accompanied by real-world events, which are woven into your experience of the change.  Transits feel distinct when they are happening, and the sensation distinctly fades as they end.  When a transit is over, your preoccupation with its themes quickly fades as your attention becomes grabbed by a different transit.  Occasionally a person will have no major transits at all for a time period (weeks, say, or months), but that’s pretty rare.

If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details in English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see if you have anything at all in 0, 1, 2, or 3 degrees of Capricorn, Cancer, Aries or Libra.  If you do, you are definitely having a Pluto transit this year.  This would account for the feelings of meltdown.

“What do I do now?”
You can ponder on it and get into alignment with the change that’s happening.  This way you can take advantage of it while it’s happening, and not feel like a victim of it.  Transits are not fatalistic events that happen to us—they are our greater Selves reaching out into life and drawing toward us the events and experiences that will help (or force) us to grow beyond our old selves.  These changes are always the next thing you wanted to experience at the time and the more you regard them with appreciation, awe and a willingness to take them on, the better your experience will be.  Even at the 11th hour, you can turn around even the harshest transit into something that leaves you in a better place.

For more insight on a transit, you can schedule a reading of it, which will help you get very clear about what this change is that’s happening in your life, how to handle it and make it turn out well, how long it will last, how various phases of it will feel and (not least!) when it will be over.  You might have several changes going on at once and if you do, this could help distinguish one from another.  The best thing you can get out of a reading is how to align with the deeper meaning behind the surface of your changes and accept the gift Pluto is bringing you.

Pluto’s Gift
Pluto’s gift changes according to the planet it is transiting of course, but one theme always remains the same.  Pluto offers the knowledge of essence—the heart, the center of this piece of you, its essential nature.  Pluto does this by stripping away all that is not essential and shows you that you will be ok without all that stuff.  Pluto says, “you don’t need that garbage!” and takes it away before you are ready because, left to our own devices, we’re never ready.  That’s ok—Pluto will always show up eventually, to take out the garbage.

Art by Betelgeux.

Every entity that comes into existence has a chart and the Fed is no exception.  I’m no expert in mundane astrology (that’s the branch devoted to world events, politics and the charts of leaders and nations) but the Fed fascinates me, so I thought I’d apply what I do know—which is the astrology of individual personality—to the Fed.  So what happens when I read the chart of the Fed as if it were a person?  It might go something like this:

Me:  Hello, Fed, how ya doing?
Fed:  Not so good in the last few years.  In fact, I feel like I’m in meltdown.
Me:  Yeah, I can understand why.  You are experiencing an opposition of Pluto to your natal Pluto.  And because your natal Pluto was already opposite your Sun, that means the transiting Pluto is conjuncting your Sun.  See?

Fed:  Not really, but go on.  What does it mean?
Me:  It’s a time for you to metamorphose into something better, from the core outward.  During this time you’re likely to feel a sense of uncertainty about who you are and why you’re here.  You’ll feel lost in the dark, out of control, a ship at sea without a compass.  During a time like this, your secrets are likely to come to the surface and be seen by everyone.  You’ll feel exposed and vulnerable.  You’ll be forced to let go of things that seemed essential but really are not.  It’s a time of death and rebirth, a time of shedding your skin.  The caterpillar you were is becoming the butterfly you could be.
Fed:  But what if I turn into something completely different?
Me:  You’d best be open to that possibility.  Your past ways of maintaining control are up for change and this is a time of testing for you.  What can you let go of and how gracefully can you do it?
Fed:  That sounds like a lot of work.  I’m pretty complex and change is hard.  What happens if I don’t want to change?
Me:  If you’re not willing to let go of the old ways and trust what you are becoming, this could be a pretty painful process.  Your natal Pluto is in Cancer, which is about emotional ties and the ways they can be used to control and manipulate.  Pluto in the sky today is in Capricorn, and he has a message for you.  He’s asking you to let go of inappropriate codependency and to instead embrace independence.
Fed:  What does that mean?
Me:  I’m saying that your dependence on the government to bail out the banks is not going to fly anymore.  You’re getting the whole nation deeper in debt—to ourselves and other nations—with your monetary policies which were created in the first place by wealthy people who wanted to stay wealthy at the expense of the common man.  It’s just not sustainable.
Fed:  But it’s worked this long.  And I resent your implication that I exist to prop up the rich!  This is America and wealth is available to anyone who wants to work for it.
Me:  Has it really worked?  Are these boom-and-bust cycles symptomatic of a healthy monetary system?  You keep overextending yourself in ways my financial advisor would tell me not to.  The FDIC has propped you up, but how much longer can that continue?
Fed:  But the nation’s economic structures depend on my health.  I need those periodic  infusions of money to keep going.
Me:  Exactly my point.  This Pluto thing you’re experiencing is showing you the ways you’ve become codependent and unable to stand on your own two feet.  Many of your banks have failed this year.  You need restructuring at least, perhaps even replacing.
Fed:  But I don’t want to die!
Me:  Maybe, if you’re willing to be flexible and start serving the actual needs of the people, instead of the comfort of a few, you can change instead of dying.
Fed:  This is scary.
Me:  Fortunately for you, your transition is mostly over.  What’s happening this month is just a small aftershock of events associated with your Pluto transit, which happened from January through November of 2008.
Fed:  Whew!  So, no worries?
Me:  Actually, yes-worries.  Pluto will make one more pass conjunct your Sun.  That will peak around November 10th or 11th this year.  October and November will likely be very challenging for you.  Sometimes illumination of a current transit comes when we look at the previous milestone in its larger cycle.  The last time Pluto transited your Sun and Pluto was in 1971.  You remember what happened then, don’t you?
Fed:  Um, what?
Me:  Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard.  Without gold as an anchor, inflation went through the roof.  You’ve been trying to keep your balance ever since, without an anchor.
Fed:  What can I do?
Me:  Learn from it.  Actually change.  From now through November is the chance to make it better, not worse.  Are you up for that?  Are you willing to see the truth of it if your monetary policies are just not standing the test of time?  Are you willing to try what does work, instead of making adjustments to keep bad policies in place?
Fed:  I honestly don’t know.
Me:  I guess we’ll see, won’t we?

The Fed didn’t like this news very much.  Somehow I get the idea that the Fed is not very personal-growth oriented.  The good news is that when things get bad enough to grab attention, that’s when change can begin.  The Fed is unwell—perhaps the events of 2008 and 2009 are exactly what is needed to bring this country back to financial health.

For interesting background on this, see:
Financial Reform to Address Systemic Risk
(speech by Ben Bernanke, March 2009)
Friedman Scandal Illustrates Need For Federal Reserve Reform
(article in NY Libertarian Examiner, May 2009)
Obama’s Regulatory Reform Removes The Punchbowl From The Fed
(financial astrology blogpost on wallstreetweather.com, June 2009)
August 15, 1971: Inflation Unleashed
(explanation of the woes of fiat currency on www.financialsense.com)