"A Cauldron of Stars at the Galaxy's Center," Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech* (full credit below)
December 9, 2007
On Tuesday, December 11, Jupiter and Pluto will align in the sky near the Galactic Center (the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, and a point that many astrologers have come to understand as a powerful place in the zodiac). This configuration has not occurred for approximately 250 years, and it is the first time in human history that it has taken place since Pluto was discovered in 1930 and the vast energies associated with the Galactic Center were identified in 1932. When we become consciously aware of planets and points in space, we gain the capacity to work with them with consciousness.
There is much to say about this configuration, so I'll begin with a bit about the key players in order to set up the discussion of what it might mean for us personally:
Jupiter is associated with expansion, optimism, opportunity, freedom, and the hope of the future. Jupiter in Sagittarius is the Seeker, the quest for meaning, wisdom, and truth on the spiritual or philosophical path, and is therefore associated with our belief system or world view. At this time, we are asked to expand what we believe and hope is possible for the future, and to reflect on how our current beliefs and personal truths inform the expression of our daily lives in the here and now.
Jupiter in Sagittarius speaks to the part of us that wants us to see our lives as the greatest adventure possible, aligned with inner truth and the optimism that naturally derives from a life of meaningful purpose.
Pluto is the most distant planet from the Sun, and represents both the furthest we can go with human consciousness (at this point), and the deepest we can go within ourselves. It is the planet of transformation and empowerment that comes through a process of symbolic death and rebirth. Release and renaissance.
With Jupiter and Pluto together, we have an profound opportunity to free ourselves from some old belief, false "truth," worn out philosophy, archaic perspective, or empty way of trying to derive meaning in our lives. Something is dying and needs to be transformed. If we allow for that, we have a chance to ignite a more passionate engagement with our own life.
Pluto is intensely psychological energy, so in order to free ourselves, we must be willing to look at why we have continued to participate in the old viewpoint up until now--looking for that truth is what sets us free.
Jupiter is the largest planet in solar system, so it magnifies whatever it touches. It's shadow expression is the tendency to do "too much" of something. If we focus too much on Pluto, we can be overwhelmed by the dark. If we focus too much on Jupiter, we may stay only in the realm of "possibilities" without using Pluto to look at the underlying motivations that keep us from realizing those possibilities. If we work with both planets, this will not be just a moment that will come and go; we can render a healing that will become a permanent fixture of our souls.
Jupiter and Pluto meet every 12-13 years, but they have not aligned with the Galactic Center (GC) since 1758.
In a physical, astronomical sense, the GC is the geographic center of our galaxy, and is believed to contain a supermassive black hole that both attracts and emits vast amounts of energy. It was discovered in 1932 by a young researcher at Bell Labs named Karl Jansky, whose job was to track down the source of static and disruption on long distance telephone transmissions. After months of observation with a makeshift device he created, he found what he was looking for at the heart of the Milky Way, and launched the new science of radio astronomy in the process.
Astrologers who have studied the Galactic Center in recent decades describe it as a means of accessing intuitive information that is beyond the ordinary. While there is much we don't know about the Galactic Center, my sense is that the story of its discovery is allegorical, just as the mythological names of planets like Mercury and Neptune tell us a lot about the planets' natures. Jansky identified energy whose source was deep in space, well beyond our solar system, and yet it had a distinct impact on activities here on Earth.
Symbolically, I believe the Galactic Center reflects a higher, wiser, more intuitive part of ourselves, and that the Bell phone lines serve as a metaphor for the chatter of the mind and the limitations of purely "earthly" or rational communication and thinking.
Jansky discovered that when earthly telephone cables aligned with that deep space source of energy, the celestial signals overpowered the terrestrial ones. When both were trying to "talk" at once, the result was static, disruption, and interference. When he adjusted the phone cables (mind) in a different way, the static cleared.
Jansky's discovery connected our awareness with the center of our galactic home, which is symbolic of a heightened human capacity to connect and be centered more deeply both within our own inner space, and with something beyond ourselves.
Jupiter, the planet of mind expansion, and Pluto, the planet of empowerment, are coming together now at the center of our galaxy, and I believe they are bringing us an opportunity to access deeper wisdom than we have known before. To get there, we need to let go of the chatter of the mind and be willing to receive from a higher source. To symbolically move past the limits of earthbound "telecommunications" further into the realm of "telepathy." This is not a new idea, of course, but we have entered a time when it is becoming more possible, and when we need it more than ever.
I have known the facts about Jansky's discovery for years, but it wasn't until I began writing about it that I really sensed that that there was more to the story. Jupiter/Pluto alignments are like that--if we work with them, even familiar ideas can take on deeper meaning and resonate with higher truth.
With that in mind, wherever we're experiencing the "static" of an old view that distorts our hope for the future, or the "interference" of old beliefs that limit our sense of possibility, we are asked to find a new way, a higher way of approaching those issues. We may not feel equipped to do so at this moment, but we're reminded that Robert Jansky didn't have a radio telescope when he received his assignment--it didn't exist. So he invented and built one. He was only an amateur astronomer, and he didn't have much experience in radio engineering, but he created what he needed to solve the problem, and he opened our ability to perceive to a wider universe in the process.
These astrological symbols suggest that we need new eyes and new ears so that we can see and hear in a more evolved way. In the language of Jupiter/Pluto in Sagittarius, we can build the tools we need through avenues that challenge us to perceive things differently: travel, cross-cultural experience, scholarly study, spiritual study, contemplation, spiritual practices like meditation, and any other means through which we might set out on a new search for meaning and truth. All are ways of broadening our perspective and challenging limited thinking or a "too local" mentality.
We are being asked to turn our vision outward, upward, away from the problem so we can listen inwardly to the answer.
Not "outward" in terms of depending on others or upon something outside ourselves for the "truth." Instead, looking outward by peering beyond the limitations of what we think we know for sure, what we have long believed, or how we currently define possibility. Upward in the sense of connecting with wisdom beyond our own. And inward in the sense of using our minds as receivers of that wisdom, rather than as our sole source of knowledge.
Sagittarius is the Seeker; the energy of the Galactic Center requires listening. By inhabiting both components, we are expectant without expectation, and we present ourselves to this moment, open to the touch of the Infinite within.
We have just entered the New Moon phase, also in Sagittarius. New Moons have long been known in agriculture as a time for planting seeds, and they are an opportunity for initiating seeds of intention as well. Intentions made and actions taken now will be "born" under these energies, and will therefore carry the Jupiter/Pluto signature within them as they unfold.
I expect to say more about this in the days ahead, but for now, may this be a season of great hope, and one that is rich in meaning.
peace,
Patricia
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* Image Credit: Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/Susan Stolovy (Spitzer Science Center/ Caltech).
NASA images are in the public domain.
The Jupiter Pluto Conjunction with the Galactic Center:
A Doorway to Future Consciousness
