Pluto’s Rx Labyrinth
This still from 'Pan's Labyrinth' still one of my favourite fairytales from a modern king of them Guillermo del Toro
Unless you have been trapped under a small planet sized rock, it could not have escaped your attention that Uncle Pluto has just turned retrograde. Next week he is joined by his partner in Capricorn crime Saturn as he also backs the truck up. Each offers us yet another opportunity to stop dicking around when it comes to our shadow, unarguably the greatest work of our life.
I remain devoted to my one woman quest to champion retrogrades - any and all of 'em - for the way they relentlessly force us into our shadow. Our job is not to reach higher so much as to dig down deeper into ourselves. Beyond the terroir and into the strata that comprises our foundations. Below that via everything we hide away where we think it cannot bother us, nor offend or hurt, terrify or repulse anyone else. And down even further beyond to the place where our daemons work and play about in our lives.
These forces of nature are not your devils inside, though sometimes they resemble it. They were not created by anyone else. They do not work for or against anyone, not you and not fingerpointing them. The glorious sum of their many parts comprise your shadow. They are you. You are them. The dark playground is our life and the work is understanding and learning how to love them, without condition.
Our shadow is many headed and multi bodied, a thrown together creation made from the parts you have shamed or blamed or disowned but cannot kill. No matter how hard you try or how much you learn. It singularly holds the keys to your destiny, all your many fortunes and most crucial of all, your power. These are the only creatures Uncle Pluto is interested in dancing with and he'll push you right over to get to them. His retrograde happens once a year for half a year every year so quit thy rx bitching. Head below deck.
The shadow is where all our light lives. Where our vast reserves of power crackle coiled and aching to arc up. We must go a-hunting, darklings. Back down through our story-so-far to befriend these abandoned angels we've dressed as devils and renounced. This is a reclamation and a rebirth and done properly it will see you remade, whole and holy. Pluto guarantees it.
Words c. Kerrie Basha 2019