Under Pressure, Have Heart: Pluto in Capricorn and the North Node’s Passage in Leo

We are in the era of Pluto in Capricorn and the lunar nodes shift into Aquarius and Leo May 9. While Pluto in Capricorn has been and is an ongoing massive transformation of authority in the world and in ourselves, the position of the Nodes of the moon will reflect how we emotionally and egoically perceive the situation. The South Node in Aquarius can signify the collective remembrance of trauma and group trauma; such as persecution, othering, ostracization and alienation. It also signifies an evolutionary need to break from repetitive cycles of such, which can be assisted by the lessons of the North Node in Leo. North Node in Leo signifies the importance of heart, of understanding the soul’s true nobility; the nature that the Soul itself, unfettered is a radiant and generous being. We naturally are capable of sharing our greatness and encouraging the greatness of others just by being ourselves and validating the specialness of others. Without a radical understanding of one’s true nobility, false forms of nobility (which has at the root, insecurity) may take the form of shadow-king under Pluto in Capricorn. When true nobility is present, generosity comes naturally and an entire group at large (Aquarius) may thrive from a multiplicity of individual’s actualized contributions.

Positively we may also remember certain qualities of detachment from the South Node in Aquarius, which can inform of us how to view situations from outside of our known preconceptions or personal attachments. This allows a cool, decisive type of wisdom to come through. Moving into the North Node in Leo is the choice to engage with reality in a heart-centered, loving way, even if we may have the ability to radically detach from it. If we are here… why not play? Is that not an extension of the intelligence of the design of having an embodied life? Sometimes that play is fun, and other times like with Pluto in Capricorn, we experience some of the most committed/entrenched roleplays of all and our task is to become increasingly self-aware about the nature of the various roles that we play and perceive others playing, and whether we perceive ourselves on the side of power or on the other side from it.

I saw a friend on my newsfeed post a video of praying mantis hatchlings that accidentally found themselves in her car. She is a lover of insects and was not upset by the situation. While she was figuring out how to help relocate them, people commented with advice. I was struck by how simply and naturally it comes to people to be kind toward other beings on this planet, and that we all may become invested in kindness where we are in a situation of power (my friend had the choice to tend to these beings or not). Despite the vast confusion, upheaval and despair even of these times, I think this simple but heart-filled attitude of caring for reality is where the magic is. This is part of the nobility of Leo’s position, is to understand that life itself is an art and that when acting from the heart, we will be just – in a way that pure-detachment or disassociation would miss the point.

For most, small animals or vulnerable beings open or touch the heart. For whatever reason, we are not always able to see all of reality with the same tenderness, but what if we did?

There are extremes of projections that form on either side of a class war – either that the wealthy are senseless and unaware of social issues or somehow only reached their position from corruption or chance they didn’t deserve, or that the poor are weak of mind or have bad karma and are just too “negative” to break their cycles. This issue seems to me a lot more complex than what it is reduced down to in terms of judging the character of people who have or have not, when these characters are in larger interactions with group consciousness and social systems which have the power to make life easier or to oppress. In playing with the idea that we are all one organism inextricably connected, it doesn’t really make sense to invalidate the suffering of some as though it does not affect the all. It would seem silly for the body to prioritize certain systems to pay attention to and others to grossly neglect; it should seem just as egregious for the human organism to do this to itself.

Herein lies a problem in which the authority or position of social power is informed by various separation-mind pathology. Each cell of the human organism can assist this problem during Pluto in Capricorn by becoming increasingly self-aware about the inner-authority of their own Soul; rather than to project it onto an external figure. The boiling point of this evolutionary juncture is mirrored by the circus of grotesque politic. It just so happens that what should symbolically hold a certain value of grace, power, benevolence, safety, generosity, etc… whatever one imagines good governance or leadership should have – may be starkly lacking. Yet by this very nature anything we can see that is externally lacking, may be an impetus to develop it within. The Soul tends to project itself. If one follows that the true power of any individual lies within their soul, this internal alchemy has the power to also change the outer world (Capricorn).

If hierarchical reality is to transform such that there is not a small class of uber-wealthy and rather we equalized and shared resource, wealth, wisdom and power: it would require the maturity of authority within all cells of the greater network. So as much as the hierarchy could be destroyed on an external level, it is only a vast interior transformation of humanity that would make hierarchy irrelevant. I am gathering some thoughts on how/why this is the case.

During this time there may be abundant examples of positive authority as well, authority being used to empower and uplift masses of people in a more enlightened sense. But for the purpose of this writing I am speaking of the psychic edge that occurs when an authority figure is pathological or not really doing the job according to the inner-needs of the Soul perceiving that authority figure.

To reiterate in a different way, the solution is not to punish the punisher. Pluto in Capricorn speaks of alchemy under pressure, the Soul in a pressure cooker if you will. Some will feel this more than others depending on where they are at. Within the era of Pluto in Capricorn, the shadow and pathology of authority tends to grip and/or repel people. While much time and energy can be spent on trying to alter something externally, these archetypal symbols can also serve as a catalyst to develop one’s inner-authority (another opportunity of Pluto in Capricorn). While that is lacking, the authority figures of the world appear that much more ominous. We might be asking ourselves what the wisdom of our repulsion to such images is, and how we may transmute that into our own evolution such that we can meet what we are actually attracted to, within and without.

Defeating the shadow-father is an archetypal rite of passage – think along the lines of Darth Vader. In some instances some may be compelled to do this in the world of form and direct combat: these are visible or tangible actions of resistance such as war, the legal system, protest. On the interior level, it is the maturation of the inner-child that is on some level hopefully dependent on this now-failing symbol of a protector/guide/parent to be something that it is not. Those who want to resist the energy of Darth Vader in the world can become overly polarized when they neglect the inner side of self-development that compliments it. Typically though, an outer encounter with the shadow-father will illicit such development.

The rite of passage that may occur on the inner-level is a deepening of one’s own understanding of their power and its consequences, especially wheresoever an external figure appears to block or limit that on the theater level of life, aka our circumstances. The inner game that plays out now is the ability to generate one’s own self-identity and emotional reality regardless of external triggers which mean, “You should feel unsafe”, “you should be scared.” When this inner-being develops and experiences authority for itself and the symbolic accoutrements of such authority (the power to make decisions for a group, the power and choice of how to manage) the polarization it once felt toward authority begins to create an inner-conflict: “Will I become the shadow father? Will I oppress, brutalize, etc… like he did?” These fears serve two purposes, once alchemically metabolized: 1) to create a more liberated, just sense of authority by not making the same mistakes, to reimagine authority and 2) to develop compassion and dissolve the sense of separation between self and the shadow father, when one find themselves tempted to do as the shadow-father did and realizes that what always seemed evil was also inside of them the whole time (just not developed by time or circumstance). This is one of the most poignant expressions of a parent saying, “You’ll understand when you’re older.” But will you? Or will you, like every succeeding generation, alter the story a little bit according to your own wisdom which your predecessors didn’t have?

Culturally, it is often normal for the older to hoard authority/wisdom, etc. rather than there to be an acknowledgement of different generations of Souls having different natural authorities and strengths. Rather than make future generations “do things like we did”, what if we were conditioned to be excited about the new humans coming to Earth and what they are here to help us discover? It would therefore then be the job of those who have already matured/reached a state of social power to create infrastructure and systems (Saturn) which nourish the development of new and developing beings (Cancer polarity). Again, consider the absurdity of old cells within a body trying to stop the growth of freshly created new cells by not sharing resource or circulation – it is a form of self-harm. So is the new trying to destroy the old in a defensive maneuver when it feels disempowered. In both cases, they are the same being; judging and trying to restrict a part of its very own self.

It is not wise or kind to judge the character of those who grow up in distorted systems and use this analysis of their character to justify further oppression or withdrawal of resource. This is totalitarianism. On a humanistic level, people are naturally good and if properly supported and loved, will thrive. Why would authority not be invested in the thrival of all? Is it character deficit on their part, or again maybe not and a cultural kind of wounding or philosophical misalignment which we can all be responsible for healing, no matter how harrowing the task seems? It is harrowing because it asks many to rise up and do their best, while only using their very last reserves of material and spiritual resource. (Pressure cooker of Pluto in Capricorn)

If those who are supposed to undertake this job betray that job, and instead try to hold the power for themselves, the mythic rite of passage is to grow up without that assistance. There may be an important disillusionment also with the projected innocence or virtue onto such figures who may be playing the role of leader yet are not actually in it to lead. Perhaps you can tell the difference between politicians who care, and those who don’t. Perhaps you could tell the difference in school between teachers who were passionate, and teachers who immaturely used their authority without doing any self-work or self-analysis.

It is to understand that those who were supposed to share the wealth won’t as long as they are still regarded with such a potent sense of mythic proportion and power. That very power, during Pluto in Capricorn, is on the inside, if we will listen to the intelligence of how the Soul wants to develop and trust that. This larger outer planet transit can ask of us to become the parent to ourselves; to be like the Dad raising his own kids who never had a Dad himself. How can you be responsible and “do the job” without hardening over the extreme vulnerability of it? How can the job be influenced by a deep psychic self-awareness rather than a contracted list of should’s?

Feeling into the recent policy headlines of pre-existing conditions and targeting people to deny health care who truly need and deserve that care from where I write in the US; it strikes me not just as a political divide but a cosmological one in which “another’s consequences are not mine”. Again, like a major trigger to consolidate and articulate a resistance, issues like these may solidify within consciousness what kind of world we want and which we don’t want, which on many levels we have the power to begin to shape the wanted world into existence by transforming on an interior level and then reimagining the archetype of authority.

Pluto in Capricorn can bring about some of the deepest contractions of the Soul (a dark night of the Soul perhaps, without a clear sense of whether there will be a light at the end of the tunnel). But don’t lose heart. This is the alchemy of Pluto in Capricorn and the nodes have adjusted now into Aquarius and Leo… the evolution now filters through the identity perception of Leo North Node: Have Heart. Remember your inner-nobility, which no external figure can determine or mar. Should you have to face with extreme limitations, you are also practicing an internal alchemy of which you may emerge more self-aware and responsible for more facets of your reality which used to be externally projected. It is the nobility of your heart that will get you through to the other side when faced with a situation in which the odds seem stacked against you. It is the nobility of your heart that will get you through to the other side when your emotional reaction to shadow-power would incriminate or disempower you under the way that the cards are stacked.

Not every soul will have the energy or resource to “save the world” at every moment of time, which can highlight the nature of the human organism reality once again: it is valuable for an individual cell of the larger network to light up and gain momentum and resource. While the shadow of politics looms, it is not meant to take away one’s radiance, creativity, or self-actualization. These are needed qualities. Narcissism and a lack of empathy for others is a different issue altogether (and may make up many of the pathologies of governance at this time) – but a healthy level of self-interest and self-actualization within individuals is what is going to help the situation at large. We may need to trust time (Pluto in Capricorn) to facilitate the arch of the journey we are on. How can we play our part, enact our dharma for the service of the greater world, if we don’t even know who we are? If fascism grips the inner-consciousness, one is not even allowed to be a person anymore, one is a reflection of constant resistance to the state. Remember that some resistance is direct and thematically engaged with the shadow-power, while other forms of “resistance” are just about waking up to the nobility and maturity of one’s Soul such that one can step into the world a responsible, benevolent being in a world that increasingly needs the participation of the All, and not just the powerful Some. Make your art, and make your life a work of art.

Thoughts? Please share in the comments.

~Sabrina Monarch

Sabrina Monarch is a soul-centered Evolutionary Astrologer who publishes weekly astrological forecasts. She has been collecting astrological experience for over a decade. She also enjoys kundalini and ashtanga yoga, hiking and creative writing. You can subscribe to receive her weekly forecasts by email here.