I remember when Michael Brown was murdered by police in August 2014, almost two years ago. I’m not a big fan of paying attention to the news, normally. While I know it can be important to understand what is going on around you, sometimes the state of the world is too depressing for me. I paid attention to the aftermath of Michael Brown though. It made me angry and sad, but I was shocked at the responses from the people.

Social media was what was so alarming to me. Overnight my tumblr dashboard was flooded with articles and videos with perspectives I didn’t normally see from big media outlets. Entire blogs were formed in order to keep people updated about the events in Ferguson or to report similar cases in recent history of the cover-up of police brutality and the targeting of black individuals. The #blacklivesmatter movement formed, drawing attention to the problems at large. People who were normally painted as criminals in the media became humans who were victims.

After Michael Brown we had Eric Garner, John Crawford III, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, and Sandra Bland to name a few. Sadly, it didn’t take long before I got desensitized to what was happening. The anger I felt during the wake of Michael Brown moved to the back burner as seeing these articles had become the norm.

I don’t know if it’s just because I’m not in the path of as many news sources as I used to be, but things have been pretty quiet in cases similar to Michael Brown lately. That is until yesterday, when I woke up and my Tumblr was flooded with posts about two different black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, both killed unlawfully by police.

It was weird, right before I went to bed I was drawn to look at the current astrological placements. Pluto retrograde was opposite the Sun and Mercury. Pluto is notorious for its rulership of death and I felt like something bad may happen, I just didn’t know on what scale.

Pluto doesn’t just rule death. It rules secrets, psychological hidden motive. It rules abuse. It rules the repercussions of abuse. It brings destruction, so we can rebuild. Being retrograde, what Pluto is bringing up is not something that is new to us. It’s something that we have dealt with before, something that needs revisiting. Something that needs more healing. It brought us death so we could focus on what is the cause of the killing, death is only a symptom.

Pluto is a generational planet. It takes anywhere from fourteen to twenty eight years to move through a sign. It takes it’s time going through everything underneath that signs energy, purging what needs to be purged.

Currently it’s in Capricorn. Capricorn rules the public image. It rules society, structure, authority, government, and future planning. Pluto sits at 16 degrees Capricorn right now, so we are about half way through our purging of structures and authority systems. The secrecy behind our structural systems in this country has been coming to light a lot recently in many different ways. Systematic abuse is being revealed in every arena it is occurring, not just with racism towards black people.

Pluto can invoke people’s need to control. It’s where people get attached to things, but also where we may face a lot of destruction or loss. Obviously attachment and loss don’t mix well. With Pluto in Capricorn, some people may be attached to particular systems of structure, ways of societal organization. If those structures are threatened, people may do drastic things to try to retain the established balance, to retain the established structures. Recently we’ve seen the resurgence of the KKK and the creation of #alllivesmatter in response to the change being brought on society. People are trying to pull the focus back.

By placing more emphasis on the importance of black lives we are changing the system from what it used to be. The black lives matter movement started because as a society, we do not value black lives. Statistically speaking it’s a lot more dangerous to be black in today’s society than to be white. Statistically speaking, it’s a lot harder to be successful and black than to be successful and white in this society. It’s easier to get a job as a convicted white felon then as a black man with a clean record. The movement is meant to draw attention to the struggles that are race specific so that we can work as a society to correct them. We are only as strong as our weakest link, so why wouldn’t we want everyone to be on equal footing? Keeping other’s down just keeps us down as whole.

This is change though, something Pluto forces us to face, but we often fight. If we have limited resources collectively and we used to devote the majority of those resources towards the privileged, shifting some of those resources to the underprivileged would feel like a loss to the privileged. Even though they can afford to share the resources, they don’t want to change the system that benefits them. They want to hold on tight. Pluto in Capricorn is here to say that the system is going to change, whether they like it or not.

The Sun and Mercury are in Cancer, at 15 and 16 degrees respectively. The Sun represents the spot light of focus, it represents the heart. It moves through one sign every month, so it doesn’t have such a heavy and lasting impact as Pluto, but it does show a collective shift in energy. Mercury represents communication, anything we can do to get ideas to others.

Cancer rules history, home, family, and emotions. With the Sun and Mercury in Cancer, our hearts and our minds may be focused on the past. We all may be more emotionally sensitive right now. There can be an emphasis on family and what it means to be a family, to be connected to others in a familiar way.

With these two planets opposite Pluto, we can see death that challenges our emotional security, our perception of history. The KKK is a group we read about in history books, black lynching was something we read about in history books, the civil rights era and protests were something we read about in history books, why are these things resurfacing? Perhaps we are still stuck in some of our historical attitudes.

The Sun and Mercury are also currently conjunct the United States’ Sun. As a country we are directed towards our security, especially security of our home and our people. We also have a knack for getting stuck in the idealized version of the past.

Collectively it seems like we push slavery and its lasting impact to the back burner. We abolished it so people feel like we should just be able to move on, but we often forget about the repercussions our history has on the future and the present. Those repercussions deserve to be acknowledged and addressed.

The transiting Cancer Sun conjunct our natal Cancer Sun is shining a light on our past. Mercury conjunct this point is also doing its best to communicate what we find to the world. Opposite transiting Pluto, it’s doing this through the relationship history has with the death and abuse we are presently experiencing from our structures and authority systems.

Racism is something that has been ingrained into the blood of this country for a long, long time. Slavery was abolished less than one hundred and fifty years ago. The KKK is still around and active. We aren’t done with our history yet. The Civil Rights era wasn’t the end all of be all for black issues, and #blacklivesmatters might not be the end either. Ultimately it’s going to take addressing our darker sides of history to pave a better future.

Uranus in Aries right now. Uranus is another generational planet, taking a little less than a decade to go through a sign. It rules rebellion, challenging the status quo, collective interest, and humanitarianism. Aries represents our anger or what we are passionate about. It’s our independence. It’s the force we use to assert ourselves.

With Uranus in Aries we see a collective need to assert ourselves for the good of society. Uranus is driven by the search for freedom. People are seeking freedom from systematic oppression causing them to assert their independence in whatever way they have to, challenging the system, but ultimately bringing the people what they need. Ideally, with every black individual killed by a police officer from here are on out we are one step closer to the last black individual killed by a police officer. People will no longer sit back and take the injustice. After Mike Brown, my Facebook feed was filled with people criminalizing him to justify his death. This time around, people are speaking up about how this tragedy against black people has got to stop.

Transiting Mars is in Scorpio. Mars is the ruler of Aries, so it also represents the way we assert ourselves, our anger, and our independent energy. Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, bringing back those themes of death, abuse, and purging. With Mars in Scorpio we can all be called to let go of some anger, perhaps by acting on that anger. The independence being sought out through Uranus is influenced by the darkness the Scorpio energy has picked up on. We are called to action because of death.

The United States has an Aquarius Moon. The Moon in a nation’s chart can represent the people. It rules Cancer, so it can also take on energy similar to what we are currently facing with the Sun’s current transit.

Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, taking on Uranus traits. Our country is very big on nationalism, doing what’s best for the country and the people. Aquarius is a fixed sign though. Even though it represents innovation, it can get stuck in its ways until something shakes things up bad enough. That’s why the innovation of Aquarius is needed in the first place.

As a country, we were established on the basis of freedom as defined by what we didn’t want from the mother country. We included freedom of religion, no housing of soldiers in our homes, and other things we didn’t get from our mother country. We have to seek out new freedoms now though. Freedoms we didn’t originally include. Look at our amendments, we’ve historically had to go back to add freedoms. What makes us think we won’t need to define new freedoms in the future?

Transiting Mars is currently square the Natal Moon. Squares can be harsh aspects to deal with. The death of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling and its impact on the people of this country challenges our collective status quo. It calls to attention the need for change. It’s forcing the hand of innovation in our Aquarius Moon. Things are changing, how are we going to adapt for the sake of our people?

Trine transiting Mars is transiting Chiron in Pisces. Chiron represents wounds that are healed through healing others. In Pisces, we are dealing with soul level wounds, wounds that may not just begin in this lifetime. We all carry energy with us from the past and past lives that may shape who we are today. We all may be feeling disconnected from the world on a physical sense, in search for a connection on a deeper level. Pisces is sympathetic energy. It feels what those around it feels. It asks us to recognize the spiritual connection we all have together and with this world. How we are all one. With Mars in Scorpio, we are experiencing death, but this death flows positively towards the healing of our soul wounds. People may bleed, but that blood doesn’t have to be in vain if we do something about it.

Collectively humans are hurting, everywhere. Collectively we need to heal. In order to heal though, we often have to address specific problems. One of the problems that needs addressing is the mistreatment of black individuals. The attitudes and perspectives we have of these members of society is damaging, fatal for some.

If you are someone with more traditional views, challenge your perspectives. Imagine being in these black men and women’s shoes, going back and tracing their history until it reaches the present moment for them. Imagine being the family of those being shot and killed. How would you feel if that was you? How would you feel if that injustice was happening to your family? Pisces Chiron is asking us to understand the human condition. Do you understand? The opposition between Cancer and Capricorn is asking us to look to see how our past has built our future. Have we built a future we are all comfortable living with? Are we prepared to change it if we aren’t? Uranus in Aries says we better be.

My thoughts are with all those effected by police brutality, especially the loved ones of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling.

Be kind.

Katie

 

 

Image: ROBYN BECK VIA GETTY IMAGES