The Oobleck Phase

...On Mercury conjunct Pluto and his plans for the world below

art by Will Whitehurst

“We live entirely in the past, nourished by dead thoughts, dead creeds, dead sciences. And it is the past that is engulfing us, not the future. The future always has and always will belong to—the poet.”

― Henry Miller

At times, our minds can seem like a non-Newtonian fluid.  They may seem solid one second, totally liquid, and strange the next.  Even the viscosity of them is malleable.  We think we know what it is or what we are focused on, but it's often elusive.  When stretched into the past or future they quickly change shape, leaving any semblance of solidly behind. Our minds are like oobleck.

If there were to be a planet to relate to this elusive human experience, it would be Mercury.  Its metal shares similar properties and its correlations match well.  At the moment, Mercury is nearly at the end of its long sojourn in Capricorn (because of the retrograde) and moves into Aquarius soon to encounter Pluto (Feb 5th).  And in the synodic sense, Mercury is also gearing up for another trip behind the Sun (under worlds) later in the month.  It's the part of the cycle where some of the Ideas we have gathered since the cazimi (solstice) will change shape and for some, be liquidated completely; it's a maturation in our thinking about a subject.  When we include Pluto, we invite in ideas that orbit tightly around power.

There are many ideas with great power in the past.  In our past and the collective's past, a lot has happened, and it has shaped us all.  Some of the ideas are helpful, but most are just dead weight—no longer relevant.  Yet, as students of astrology, there is always something in the past, within a similar cycle, that is ready to teach us about the present and to point "poetically" to the future.  And so, when it comes to Pluto in Aquarius, when we look back we clearly can see the revolutions and the smoke rising at the beginning of the industrial age, but what we often miss are the ten thousand other stories adjacent—the ones that didn't make the cut for our history books.

If we were to distill Aquarius into two primary themes, they might be: innovation and human affairs.  A lot has changed in these two areas in the past 248 years since Pluto was last here.  It may not seem like it, but we are light years from where we were at then in regards to them both.  The Church of Progress has spread its gospel to every corner of this Earth and lots of good has come from it, yet there have been tragic trade-offs as well.  When Pluto is here, it seems the work is to ultimately—by the end of his time here—bring more power back to the people.  The fact we have traded the marriage of Church and State for that of Corporation and State, and it feels as if we have no chance, if we focus our oobleck-like minds just long enough on the lessons from last time, we can actually see glimpses into the hearts of those who stormed the Bastille or traveled treacherous seas to promised lands to build new worlds or how liberty and constitutional protections were all the rage in the political spheres at the time.  With all change, there will be trade-offs. We must not miss the benefits of these transits by allowing bad ideas to occult the truth of the matter.

And so, Monday the 5th of February, Mercury will visit this first degree with Pluto.  It's some true detective work we have in front of us.  We will be given a clue to follow into our past.  There may be a leak as a headline.  Someone will learn the truth about Julian Assange.  A few folks will be red-pilled; a few more black-pilled, sadly.  The smart ones will start taking white and orange ones.  Whenever Mercury and Pluto are together they drink absinthe and waste no time getting to the heart of the matter.   One universal issue I'm sure we can all relate to is how hard it is to focus these days.  They've perfected it—the distractions, that is. Keeping us entertained to death, at each other’s throats over near-meaningless topics.  It has not only turned us into distracted monkeys but it has turned our minds into oobleck.  As storytellers and magicians, we have the power to reverse this process.  It just takes focus.  This is the power of the mind (Mercury/Pluto).

In the Dr. Seuss story Bartholomew and the Oobleck we find a king pissed at the sky for creating too much rain, a group of magicians he employs to fix the situation, and the creation of this bizarre substance that nearly destroys his entire kingdom called oobleck.  It's not until the king apologizes for his selfish moment with the dark arts is the spell reversed.  He has to say, "I'm sorry." Mercury with Pluto reminds us to tell the truth and to know when to apologize.  Being there are no leaders left who do this, we must become leaders by doing it ourselves.  Use this transit wisely in this regard, remembering that there isn't much we need to remember if we never tell a lie.  This is true power.

…Who would have thought that a little cornstarch and some water could be such a powerful metaphor for Pluto/Mercury?

*Find it in your chart to spot the opportunity to revolutionize your speech and relationship to the past and future.  Remembering: "The future always has and always will belong to—the poet"—as Henry says.

Facts:

Feb 5th: Mercury conjunct Pluto (00º30' Aquarius)

...Mercury also leaves the morning sky by the end of the month

**If you'd like to learn more about Mercury cycles, I have an entire series of classes to teach you about them; I also offer a reading called the Mercury journey which extends throughout a cycle.  It's tremendous.  You can find them on my site below.

Eudaimonia,

Adam

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