Through a Chute of Time: Eclipse Season and Pluto Direct
Though writing about how devastating the world is right now feels like an impossible task, I've dropped some reflections on this past eclipse season. And this wrenching Plutonic threshold.
“I turned back to the sun. It was going. The sun was going, and the world was wrong. The grasses were wrong; they were now platinum. Their every detail of stem, head, and blade shone lightless and artificially distinct as an art photographer’s platinum print. This color has never been seen on earth. The hues were metallic; their finish was matte. The hillside was a nineteenth-century tinted photograph from which the tints had faded. All the people you see in the photograph, distinct and detailed as their faces look, are now dead. The sky was navy blue. My hands were silver. All the distant hills’ grasses were fine-spun metal which the wind laid down. I was watching a faded color print of a movie filmed in the Middle Ages; I was standing in it, by some mistake. I was standing in a movie of hillside grasses filmed in the Middle Ages. I missed my own century, the people I knew, and the real light of day.”
— Annie Dillard (from The Abundance)
This past Saturday, the last lunar eclipse in Taurus dawned — a swan song of the Taurus/Scorpio eclipse series that started in November of 2021. Eclipses are fate accelerators. Scrying mirrors. Chances to flip the cosmic breaker switch before the dragon swallows its own tail again. They spawn the “un-sunlike sun”, as Maria Mitchell writes, and send us careening “down a chute of time”, as Annie Dillard described in her book of narrative essays, The Abundance.
The Moon’s silver is transformed into sloes of obsidian. The Sun is transfigured into a wheel of fire. The ancients called them “baleful rays” for a reason, as the snuffing out of either luminary represented a temporary rip in the natural cosmic order. Or perhaps a grinding forward again of some primordial axis, from which war, conquest, crusades, and cycles of violence seem to endlessly spin. Humanity’s rags torn again on dark spindles and fiery wheels.
Eclipses have long inspired fear and awe. And not only among humans. Orb weaver spiders will suddenly dismantle their webs at totality, only to weave them again after the eclipse passes. Cows will suddenly return to their evening pasture. The buzzing of bees subsides, while the dawn chorus of frogs will swell as the eclipse’s cloak is thrown across the land.
I’ve been struck by the fact that our eclipses will continue to be ruled by Venus and Mars (until 2025), though cardinal air and fire are a lot more combustible than the subterranean networks of power we’ve confronted with Taurus/Scorpio. As the incomprehensible gyres of eclipse time intermix with the Venusian and Martian affairs of humans — connection and conflict, love and war — there’s a feeling in the air of “one last chance”, though the North Node often overshoots its mark. The desire for material conquest can blind those who have been dragon holed. Occurring in Taurus, this eclipse is concerned with territory, the land, and everything needed to support life in the physical body. The stakes are survival itself.
And though I’d normally delineate Jupiter’s co-presence with the eclipse as benevolent — a soft landing after the eclipse dust settles — given everything that’s happening, I can only see the inexorable spread of further violence. Jupiter has a tendency to inflate anything it touches after all and the North Node is already Jupiterian in nature. North Node eclipses unleash appetites that cannot be satiated: including that of a deranged vengeance masquerading as holy war.
And we can’t forget about Saturn and Neptune’s co-presence in Pisces: a true test of our collective faith. Perhaps we’re entering into a new age of those who larp as true believers for political convenience — and those are actually willing to die for their beliefs.
Though this past eclipse happened in Taurus, the lunar nodes are now squarely in Aries and Libra (since July of 2023). As a place of increase, the North Node in Aries’ war drums have all but drowned out the diplomatic and humanitarian efforts of Libra. The South Node, on the other hand, is a place of shedding, depletion, and diminishing returns. And the ruler of both eclipses this season, Venus, finds herself further restricted to peacekeep the sign of her fall — Virgo. A planet in its fall is said to be exiled from its home, without the resources it needs to fulfill its planetary duties.
And the past Taurus/Scorpio eclipses have dug their chthonic tunnels of power deep. The lessons of this axis are some of the hardest to integrate, in my opinion: a surrender into the Scorpionic mysteries of death, decay, and regeneration. With this nodal axis, I also see a dragon hoarding its gold. Of course, the tighter it clings to its Plutonic bounty, the more it becomes a mark for dragon slayers. The opiate of Taurean material acquisition is often an escape from our own mortality. Writing on the first decan of Taurus, where the lunar eclipse takes place, Austin Coppock describes its agricultural bent: the survey of land and territory at our disposal and how it will be divided, cultivated (or conquered).
Describing the 1st decan of Scorpio, where the Sun opposed the eclipsed Moon on Saturday, Coppock further evokes image of portals and primordial wheels I’ve been unable to drive out of my mind since this eclipse season began:
“Here a mouth yawns wide, though whether this is to speak or to swallow us whole is unclear. These are the jaws of the underworld, the mouth of a forgotten temple, the Gates of Midian.
As you stare into the cavernous mouth, you see that it is no way empty, but holds a tremendous wheel. Fantastic and rainbow-hued, it is the mighty wheel of living and dying, upon which all are bound.
Drawing back from the maw, you see the face in which it resides, and the tremendous body which supports it. This figure, who holds all of creation in but its mouth, is the mighty Yama Dharmaraja, whose midnight skin is wreathed with a halo of flame which rises and falls with his breathing.
With each outbreath, the Word is spoken and universes springs into being, their pattern the nature of the utterance. With each inbreath, a billion universes contract, winking out into candle-flame singularities.
Inside the cavernous mouth, you see the wheel again, reflecting the pattern of the world you live within. Around its edges, thousands of beings chase one another, their pursuit a great ring which keeps the periphery of the wheel in motion. They pursue each other through heavens and hells, mountains and oceans and graveyards, becoming animals, gods, demons, ghosts, and plants in the process…”
It’s impossible to delineate this eclipse without speaking to the horrors unfolding in Israel and Palestine. I’ve wrestled with the ethics of even offering an archetypal analysis of this humanitarian catastrophe, as it continues to deteriorate rapidly in real time — but ignoring it doesn’t feel right either.
The evening before this weekend’s lunar eclipse, Israel’s bombardment of Gaza greatly intensified, the IDF indiscriminately firing on civilian areas. It’s now been confirmed as the bloodiest night since the siege began, just as Gaza was plunged into apocalyptic darkness. The internet and telephone lines to Gaza were cut over the eclipse, which Human Rights Watch has described as a deliberate cover for the further mass atrocities unleashed that night. The loud speakers of mosques were the only remaining system of communication in the besieged enclave, with the wounded unable to even call for medical aid. Symbolically, eclipses swallow life-giving light and the latest developments in Palestine continue to offer an unsettling mirror.
This total communciation’s blackout came just a day after Palestine released documents listing the names, ages, and identity numbers of the thousands of civilians already massacred by Israel — among them 3,000 children. We cannot forget the North Node’s co-presence with Chiron — our wounded healer, all but overwhelmed — as hospitals are bombed, medical supplies are blocked, and the power is cut in cancer wards. Aries is the blade of grass piercing through frozen soil and also the triumphal howl of the newborn crowning into the world. 70 percent of Gaza’s population are under the age of 30 and 50 percent are below the age of 18. 5,000 Palestinian women will give birth this week in dangerously unhygienic conditions, amidst the smell of rotting flesh. For the majority of Palestinians, war and violent occupation by the Israeli settlers is all they’ve known.
Mars and Mercury formed a conjunction over the eclipse too, though the God of War is empowered in the sign of Scorpio and has the upper hand. Not only is the North Node in a sign associated with war, but it’s answering to a Mars spoiling for a fight in its watery domicile. Mars in Scorpio, in my opinion, is more dangerous than Mars in its diurnal home base of Aries. There’s a deeply emotional — even irrational — component steering the violence it unleashes in Scorpio. A primordial wounding and fear of vulnerability that leads the Scorpion to poleaxe itself even as it delivers the death strike on its enemy. The shadow side of Mars in Scorpio is the abuser hissing, “look at what you made me do”.
New York astrologer and playwright Nick Civitello further delineates Mars in Scorpio: “Unlike other Mars archetypes who might smash through a boulder in one powerful go, Mars in Scorpio might avoid it by moving around it, going underneath it, or even by slow erosion of any obstructions. This translates into lying, cheating, stealing, scamming, manipulating, and most importantly, terrorizing people into lifting obstacles from Mars’ path.”
On a mundane level, Mars is also the act of cutting. The severing of Mercurial communication lines in Gaza over the ellipse was a manifestation of these energies, as well as the rising global chorus for a ceasefire. The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly called for an immediate and sustainable humanitarian truce, but Israel has chosen the insatiable bloodlust of the Aries North Node. And Biden continues to pledge his support for his ally, Netanyahu, including his unwavering commitment to indefinitely arm and fund their allies as they drop bombs on the 1 million children that live in Gaza. Biden’s also experiencing his Mars return, as cosmos’ warrior presses through his house of hidden enemies and self-undoing in the coming weeks.
It’s important to mention that Pluto has retrograded back to that crucial 27th degree of Capricorn, where the US has been experiencing its Pluto return. This degree was activated when war broke out in Ukraine too, a conflict the USA continues to fuel with its top of the line weapon’s technology and over 1 billion in military spending to date. Pluto is the planet that rules over precious metals, buried wealth, and shadowy channels of power and influence. Pluto also rules over oil. As Israel’s relentless bombardment continues, attention has turned to the nation’s plans to realize the Ben Gurion Canal, a 260 kilometre corridor connecting the Red Sea from the Gaza-Ashkelon region, which would rival the Suez Canal itself. Syrian-British independent journalist Richard Medhurst believes that the longer game of this war is all about controlling the world’s most geostrategic shipping lane. Though some see these plans as a fantastical pipe-dream, the Gaza Strip’s position right in the path of the canal is another potential angle into Israel’s motivations.
With the Pluto return occurring in the USA’s second house of finance itself, it feels likely that the pandemic-weakened US will become more dependent than ever on the war machine to drum up business — especially as Uranus and Jupiter continue to accelerate inflation and market volatility.
Looking back to October 7th, Mars in Libra squared Pluto in Capricorn from that crucial 27th degree the morning after the attack in Israel time, about as brutal and violent of an aspect you can get, reflecting the utter depravity of the attacks unleashed by Hamas at the Supernova music festival and in Israeli border towns. Pluto’s presence in this story cannot be emphasized enough, as it was back in June of 2007, when Pluto was last transitioning into a new sign — Capricorn — that Hamas took control of the Gaza strip, after the Battle of Gaza. For all of June, Pluto was hovering at 27 degrees of Sagittarius, preparing to ingress into Capricorn in 2008 (the year of the banking crash, of course). As Saturn crossed 27 degrees of Capricorn in February of 2020, the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan began. Finally, the three-week Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, was launched on December 27th of 2008, just a few weeks after Pluto had completed its ingress into Capricorn. Known in the Muslim world as the Gaza Massacre, it resulted in more than 1000 Palestinians dead. Palestine’s massive oil reserves were also taken under Israeli control as a result of this war, without regard for international law.
On October 10th, just a few days after Hamas launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, Pluto stationed direct on 27 degrees of Capricorn, saturating our skies with Plutonic will-to-power. It was over the past South Node eclipse in Libra, on October 14th, that Palestinian civilians were given a meagre 24 hours to evacuate the North of Gaza to the south: a death sentence for many. In the meantime, Israel sealed off Gaza, cutting off water, food, electricity, and medicine, in violation of international law. Three days after the eclipse, on October 17th, an airstrike targeted the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza, killing 471 and injuring more than 300.
On October 20th, during the Mercury cazimi in Libra (a fleeting moment of breakthroughs and revelation won by diplomatic efforts) the first hostages were released by Hamas, US mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Rannan. Happening at 27 degrees of Libra, Pluto was once again aspected in a tense square, further underscoring the USA’s intimate entanglement in this conflict.
The last cycle of South Node eclipses in Libra occurred in 2004 and 2005. Days before the South Node eclipse near the South Node on October 3rd, 2005 — on September 22nd — Israel completed its withdrawal from the Gaza strip. The difference between that eclipse and the most recent one is that Jupiter was in Libra at the time, lending its temperance and support. With this latest eclipse in 2023, neither benefic planet (Venus nor Jupiter) could behold the sign of Libra, which means they’ve been unable to offer their help. As mentioned, Venus was in its sign of fall, Virgo. Though Palestinians are being urged to move away from the north — toward that Venus ruled South node itself — you don’t need to be an astrologer to know that the Gazans have nowhere safe to turn.
It should come as no surprise to see both the 1948 chart for Israel and Netanyahu’s chart itself heavily aspected over this eclipse season. Uncannily, Netanyahu’s Sun falls on that pivotal 27th degree, in Libra — forming a tense square to US’s Pluto return degree in Capricorn. A faustian pact between the two nations, as they continue to isolate themselves from the international community. Venus also stationed direct on Netanyahu’s Mars in Leo, which is co-present with Pluto in the house of dealings with foreigners and other countries. The ancients saw Venus’ rebirth as a morning star, after her retrograde journey through the fiery heart of the Sun, as her remerging into her strident, martial, and even war-like phase. His Mars is just a couple degrees off the Mars of Israel (also co-present with Pluto), echoing his embodiment of Israel’s aggression.
As if his chart wasn’t activated enough, Netanyahu is also on the threshold of his nodal return. His North and South Node are in Aries and Libra respectively, highlighting just how potent the new eclipse story is for him. Some have also speculated that Netanyahu’s desire for a long and protracted conflict is to provide a smokescreen for corruption charges he faces and a way to potentially wriggle out of prison time. Indeed, his Scorpio 12th house — a place associated with confinement and prisons — has recently been activated by the Sun, Mars, and Mercury, as well as past eclipses.
The chart for Israel itself was under enormous tension on October 7th, and personal points will continue to be activated by conjunctions with the slower-moving outer planets in the coming months. Uranus rx is within 2 degrees of Israel’s Sun, the South Node is conjunct Israel’s AC, Mars crossed the AC over the attack (the “face” of Israel), Venus direct activated Israel’s Mars (alongside Netanyahu’s), and Pluto is still within 2 degrees of Israel’s IC, as questions of power and dominance hit the chart’s deepest taproot.
The actual chart of Palestine is contested, though the 1988 chart of Yasser Arafat’s declaration of Palenstine’s independence on November 15th has the Moon at 28 degrees of Capricorn, which Pluto will be grinding over in the coming months. With the Moon’s connection to mothers and families, this is yet another grim reminder of those actually crushed by history’s wheel and a foreshadowing of Palestine’s total transformation (in the most sickening of terms). The Palestine Sun, at 22 degrees of Scorpio (if this chart is to be trusted), opposes Iraels’ — echoing the decades’ long conflict. And both Suns are now being activated by Uranus, the planet of shocks, rebellion, and emancipation. The Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in April of 2024 — one of the most potent transits of the year, as the planets of faith and rebellion only meet every 14 years — will join on Israel’s Sun.
As we hurtle toward the next chapter of Pluto in Aquarius, early next year, the dying supernova that’s the United States has clawed open a vacuum on the world stage. And if the past Pluto in Aquarius epoch has taught us anything (ushering in the French and American revolutions) even the world’s most powerful monarchies and political concentrations of power are no match for Pluto’s wrecking ball and colossal seismic shifts. Pluto in Aquarius empowers the people to challenge their oppressors and this war will shape the decades to come.
But we’ll have to wait until January of 2024 for a release of this Plutonic pressure valve. Within the current dervishing of purgatorial eclipse energies, Aquarian visions and calls to “make it new” have been swallowed by the persistence of history returning — through an AI mirror darkly. The modern fog of war means propaganda spreads with lightning speed, like the deep fake of Bella Hadid falsely championing Israel’s siege. And within the massacre-porn flooding Twitter, AI images are competing with actual footage of war to game the algorithm. In my doom scrolling, I stumbled across an image of infant’s bloody fist, reaching through the rubble and cinematically lit. Though it felt like AI, I couldn’t be sure. What we do know is that the AI’s hive mind is gorging itself on an endless torrent of live-streamed war footage, as actual Palestinian body parts are further spliced and reshuffled into AI’s phantasmagoria. I don’t think a word exists yet for this kind of evil.
And yes, as an elder millennial, I watched the Twin Towers fall on a television wheeled into the library on a trolley — decades before near ubiquitous camera phones existed. Though I was pretty young when September 11th happened, I can remember the war fever and the evangelical pitch as weapons of mass destruction and axes of evil and were evoked. Pluto and Saturn were in opposition on September 11th and would close their loop, decades later, when they met in a conjunction in Capricorn at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic. Mike Johnson, the new House speaker, saying that “as a Christian, we believe the Bible teaches very clearly that we're to stand with Israel 2023” is giving some serious 2003 energy … as we’re plunged through that eclipse “chute of time”.
I’d like to end on these words from José María Gálvez Caballero, writing on the crisis in Gaza for Countere. His essay captures this feeling I’ve had about the emergent Aquarian age, as Pluto’s entropic gong of power and dominance is struck again. He evokes the rapid geo-political shifting and rush of new empires into the void of the US’s long obsolescence. New dragon slayers rising, who also want a chance to spin history’s wheel.
“The Wolfowitz Doctrine helps explain why Fukuyama posited the collapse of the Soviet Union as the End of History. It was less of a diagnosis and more of a wish: of course Western elites wanted history to end, so that they could preserve their special interests for all eternity. In the eyes of the Wolfowitz doctrine, the American empire stood upon the smoldering corpse of its enemy in the same way Rome did to Carthage in the Third Punic War—and now that it was comfortable at the top, it wanted no movement below it.
But it wasn’t as easy as that. Other civilizations did not accept the End of History. After so hard of an effort to have no competitors, crises of all types are now rising across the globe. All of what the hegemonic world order fought for—no competition—has turned into smoke…
Regardless of how the media portrays it, collapse is not a bang but a disappointingly slow decrease in civility. You will keep working. Your children will go to school. The grocery store will have food—but the prices will continue to rise, slowly.
We could call this age by any name whatsoever and pinpoint the time the ribbon changes anywhere, so I will decide. The End of History is over. Starting in the 2020s with the advent of über-fast Wi-Fi—which for the first time made publicly accessible both artificial intelligence and visceral first-person coverage of war—and now with the advent of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the current age begins.
An apocalypse isn’t the end of the world, but the end of a world order.”
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