Not at all, since they represent gateways to transcending old patterns into newer ones which help us express our spiritual purpose! While many I’ve known worried about Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto conjunctions, squares, and oppositions to their natal planets, these are great times of spiritual transformation. In any case, being afraid of any transit is an unhelpful illusion to be busted.

I gave this to you a few years ago. Uranus, Neptune, Pluto (and TransPluto) symbolize broad based spiritual energies which awaken us, dissolve us, purify us, and redeem us. They are part of the vast spiritual field over which we have no personal control, and show us the way to train in using spiritual power according to our choices related to our purpose. They are transpersonal energies, affecting entire generations and sub-generations. So how to they work out in the lives of individuals?

How We Are Affected by the Transpersonal Planets

Let’s first explore how our personality is related to our eternal Self. We have two “triads,” a lower triad and a Higher Triad. Our “lower triad” is three-fold, made up of our body, feelings, and mind. These three together are the components of our personality. We also have a “Higher Triad,” composed of Higher Mind, Soul, and Spirit. We are both of these at the same time, and the interplay between the two serves to bring our awareness of the material, emotion, and mental parts of life to a higher integrated understanding.

As we master our lower triad through helping our body, feelings, and rational mind evolve so they are working together in our best interests, we never have to fear transits of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto making any aspect in our charts. As we integrated our personality, we naturally become human vehicles attuned to the larger planetary energies of transformation. Then we are literally the “grounding agents” for Divine Force in the world. As we move in harmony with Nature and Her processes, we become the agents of “the corrective force of Nature Herself” and are the means to ground Spirit in actuality.

In over 50 years of study and practice, one thing I’ve learned is we cannot take outer planet transits personally, since they are large scale influences that we have little or no control over. However, as I make clear in Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend, the one thing we always have control over is how we choose to respond to things we didn’t create and have relatively little ability to change. Life itself is a continual reminder of the fact that we do not "create our reality," but we do create our responses to the reality in which we find ourselves.

There are many things in life we did not create, from the price of oil to the inadequate health care systems to the rampant pollution in our environment to the racial and religious civil wars inflaming our world. Every generation inherits a lot from previous generations which we had no control over but must deal with. While we have some ability to choose to participate or not participate in these things to the degree we are able, we did not create the circumstances that led us to those choices. That’s all part of the larger transpersonal field affecting all of us together.

What Changes Do Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto Transits Bring?

Transiting Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto show large scale global influences (I’ll address TransPluto specifically later in this article.) Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are markers defining generations and sub-generations, and broad based collective movements that revolutionize and innovate (Uranus), dissolve and/or unify large groups of people within collective ideals (Neptune), or sprout long wave seeds of radical transformation, whether through purification or economy of energy, often involving the annihilation of old forms and the introduction of the seeds of future global trends (Pluto).

When any of these transiting planets makes a conjunction to one of our natal planets, it brings that transpersonal influence to that part of us. The squares are challenges of “right action,” whether to release potential energy, change direction, block, blunt, or break destructive behavior, or break free into a new realm. The oppositions can bring us profound realizations about the meaning of that tension in our evolutionary process, but whether we act on them or allow them to polarize us is a different matter. Some choose to withdraw; others choose to engage. And opposition always brings us face to face with something, whether to be refused or accepted as we bring cycles to a culmination.

Transiting Uranus awakens all it touches, regardless of the aspect. Uranus is “transpersonal individualizing.” A Uranian conjunction, square or opposition will challenge our comfortable assumptions, shake us loose from old routines, and introduce revolutionary new conditions. Any of the above aspects can mark the beginning of individualization. Uranus is always associated with the need to "break on through to the other side," finding our uniqueness as a Spirit in the material world.

A Uranian trine or sextile may also do these things, but in a way that we can understand and work with that seems easier to us than the square or other 8th harmonic octile series aspects. Uranus always offers its quality of individualization, whether we see it or not, or are responding consciously or not.

Neptune shows broad based collective forces. They may be in the collective unconscious, or the collective consciousness. They show broad tides of what falls out of favor, and what comes into favor. Neptune is “transpersonal collectivizing,” and is the gatekeeper to universal consciousness beyond individual, social, or cultural differences.

A transiting Neptune conjunction brings “collective consciousness” to that part of our personality. A square or opposition to one of our planets indicates a turning point in our awareness of our position within collective consciousness, where we see that either we are in conflict with the collective and must go our own way, or must adapt to the collective reality in which we find ourselves. It may lead us to reinforce our ideals in the face of collective approval or disapproval, or it may lead us to an entirely different set of ideals, which may or may not be in alignment with what’s going on in the collective.

Transiting Pluto brings a purifying fire to all it touches. It represents the appearance and disappearance of global trends, as well as core issues of the human condition. Pluto is “transpersonal transformative,” and always eliminates old conditions and introduces far reaching changes and core energies.

Whether splitting the atom, or bringing a holocaust, or introducing seeds of radical spiritual transformation, Pluto always works impersonally. Pluto experiences usually annihilate some old assumption or way of life due to forces beyond our control, and guide us through "the underworld of life" for a period so we may return to the world purified by fire when it's time to come up from the depths.

A conjunction or an octile aspect from Pluto will always bring major changes in our lives. It may or may not bring upheaval, but it always brings pressure to get very clear and focused. It often requires us to eliminate old patterns, whether through frictional or harmonious conditions. Just because a Pluto trine brings us a clear understanding of what needs to be stripped down to the core does not necessarily mean it will be easy! Carbon under pressure becomes a diamond, and when we're done with a Pluto transit, if we've purified ourselves through eliminating what we can no longer bring on our life journey, we come out ready to live a transformed life, authentic to our core.

How We Can Master Life During Transpersonal Change

All of the planets beyond Mars show large scale conditions which open doors to us learning how to ground spiritual energy however we have trained to do that. All transits of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, and TransPluto, regardless of what aspects they make, show us times when we have to turn away from old ineffective responses and find newer, more effective ways of cooperating with the universe both within us and outside us.

Again, a Neptune square can turn us away from an old ideal to a new one, or indicate conditions where we maintain an old ideal in the face of a collective consciousness that doesn’t value that ideal. A Plutonic square may force us to abandon an old way of living, but doesn’t that also introduce a new way that may be more appropriate given the shift in collective conditions?

Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto are all outside of the orbit of Saturn, the planet that defines our personal reality. All the visible planets show us parts of that reality, from our innermost experience (the Moon) to the limits of where our fear rubs up against our freedom (Saturn). While we often have limited ability to create or change the reality in which we find ourselves, we always have the power of choosing how we will respond to those shifts as we dance down the road of life.

I explore these themes and more in Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. We can only live the life we are able to create. The limits of our creative self-expression are defined by our Saturn and its association with the mysterious binding force of the Universe called “the Ring Pass Not.” Our limitations are not static, as they are the result of our personal biases forged within our social and cultural matrix. We always have the ability to choose to step outside our biases and limitations, and embrace the journey of self-reinvention by not assuming that the limits of our past are the limits of our present or our future.

While the outer planets show us forces that are “beyond our control,” we always have the power to choose our responses to those forces which can help us transcend our inadequacies. Saturn shows us the boundary where our fear meets our mastery, the grinding zone where our ego assumptions and biases collide with our eternal quest for freedom and conscious spiritual individuation. Once we master Saturn, we have the ability to be conscious in our choices of how we want to respond to larger forces of change in our world.

Our inner Saturn gives us the power to take command of our lives and destiny. Saturn shows us those things we must master to become spiritually mature and fulfill our purpose for being alive. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.

I address these themes in greater detail in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Whether you know a lot, a little or nothing about astrology, this book will help you understand why you had to make certain choices at crucial times that shaped your life in profound ways.

Each time you read any section of this book you will find new insights about your journey of self-discovery and how to deal with “limitations ordained by duty,” as well as those that are no longer allowing you to fulfill your purpose. Once we make friends with Saturn, then we have a solid framework which allows us to cooperate with the larger transpersonal energies in play at any given time.

Our Natal Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto Show Us Our Attunement With Spirit

The natal positions of our Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto show our larger “Soul field,” and the aspects they make with other planets in our charts indicate how various parts of our personality relate to our spiritual Self. As we master how we can best respond to these transpersonal energies, then we’ll have no problem knowing how to respond to the transits of these planets as they occur.

Basically, if we have a healthy Uranian function in our natal chart, then we will probably have a healthy response to the changes represented by transiting Uranus contacts to your planets. If we have a healthy Neptunian response, then we won’t fall into confusion simply because transiting Neptune makes a hard angle to one or more of our natal planets.

I have Pluto rising, with both harmonious and challenging aspects made by my other planets. I have learned to make Pluto my friend, and though the transits have often stripped me down to the core, I’ve also made some of the best decisions in my life under hard transiting Pluto aspects. It seems that as we master our response to transformational events, even a monstrously difficult experience can be turned to a greater spiritual awareness and effectiveness.

As for TransPluto, even though it is a vast redemptive force beyond Pluto and the realms of life and death, I don’t include TransPluto in this group. Mainly, it’s because Her orbit is about 660 years, a far vaster cycle than any of the three we’re discussing. I believe Her quality is Divine Grace, and as such can have no negative or destructive manifestations. She does seem to be associated with the vast collective redemptive process, and all we can do is surrender to “Divine Mother” energy and bring forth as much compassion and forgiveness as possible. When we truly forgive, it creates the “psychic space” for Grace to enter and redeem the best of what’s possible.

In the final analysis, there is no external thing that can prevent us from taking command of how we choose to respond to life changes, nor block our ability to choose to evolve however we need to. We’re here to integrate our body, feelings, and minds so our personality easily and naturally expresses our Higher Self and Soul/Spirit. We are the Way, Truth, and Life/Light that we seek. Finding that within, there is no external thing that can prevent us from living as a conscious Spirit in the material world, the Soul/Spirit working and playing with Life to bring forth the greatest fulfillment possible.

So be of good cheer, and do not fear the hard aspects of transiting Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto to your natal or progressed planets. They are showing you the way beyond fear, and opening doors to a greater life than you knew before that time.

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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