Pluto & Moon: Drawing Towards & Drifting Apart
by Ali Valdez
Snow days and hail storms aside, spring is soon upon us. March 20th is a very special date as it marks the vernal equinox (the start of spring) and signifies the end of the brooding water sign Pisces and the zodiac year. Sigh. So what? It’s time to bang some gongs and receive the benefits of being clear on your intentions during this time of rebirth and regeneration. This means we need to make some space to clear out the old patterns, losing gestalts and habits that no longer serve our higher purpose. I am looking forward to collaborating with Wayne Manto of Beneficial Sound to bring a healing workshop to Sattva Yoga (registration link at the end of the article).
Join us for an evening of Moon and Pluto Gong baths and candlelight Yin Saturday, March 18th.
The majority of humanity is heavily focused personality, clinging to one’s biological karma and emotional patterning. Most of these influences come deeply ingrained by our social conditioning and familial conditioning. We simply are not of our own minds.
It reminds me of this funny quote from Ram Dass: “think you’re enlightened? Spend a weekend with your family.”
Yoga lends itself to help aide us on our journey. Whether it is asana, or pranayama, mantra or gongs, the yogis pretty much thought of everything. During this workshop, we will be using the valued tools of static stretching and pranayama in slow moving, long held postures to simulate the slow and leisurely transit of Pluto and the cooling feminine aspects of the practice to simulate the energies from the Moon.
In Vedic astrology each of the planets, called grahas, have an inexorable influence over different aspects of our lives. Although they do not dictate, they have a pull that helps us to think beyond ourselves and grow. The closest graha is the Moon; the farthest is Pluto. They help us to travel to move through those facets of our lives that hold sway over our choices: those things both seen and known (ala the Moon) and cast out far, obscured like Pluto. Astrology is the science linking us to our astral bodies if you believe they exist.
If that’s a bit too woo woo for you, please consider this the first form of Machine Learning with Predictive Analytics that we had as a civilization.
Here is a bit more about what these two grahas and Vedic astrology can show us.
There’s something in the way she moves.
Moon is a feminine aspect, gentle and nurturing, working through the emotional body. Its magnetism can keep us bound to the past, tethered to our attachments. It can binds us from growing like when things get rough we may want to be back in our mother’s nurturing arms for safety and protection instead of facing challenges head on. Since the moon works in shadow, it can often obscure, perhaps protect, over protect. With Moon, we hold tight and sometimes refuse to release. We feel safety in the comforts of the familiar and that which we have always known to be.
Pluto is extremely important to those of us undergoing the process of letting go of our ego-defined, lower self and reaching towards our soul identity. Birthing is tough work but necessary to strip away all that we know of attachments, desire and conditioning. Somewhere therein lies a newer you. Pluto is the agent of death, representing a breaking down selfishness and separateness of the lesser ego/personality. It is an intense but purifying energy which enables us to commune more deeply with our soul and greater divine essence. With Pluto we release and let go, if we are ready to do so.
The two forces together greatly enable the spirit of Ha Tha and Yin Yang that we explore through the physical and energetic practice of yoga.
This is evolution in action. Please join us. Register here.