Thanks to ind5.com, for the idea for this post.
As an astrologer, I view the meanings of planets in terms of the amount of space/time each carves out in one cycle. The longer its cycle, the more difficult for us to understand and recognize how that particular planet operates. The space/time cycle for Pluto is 248 years, very very long. The effects of Pluto penetrate slowly and powerfully into the zeitgeist, transforming both our unconscious assumptions and the ground that lies under our feet. Especially now, when as a civilization, we literally stand on depleted soil.
The last time Pluto went into Capricorn, 250 years ago, 95% of the American population still farmed, each farmer producing enough to feed and clothe three people. Though it wasn’t obvious then, within 50 years various inventions would begin to mechanize the process of agriculture, and it was only a matter of time before farms got larger and larger and the vast majority of people knew less and less, not only about farming, but about the natural world which sustains all life. By the time I was in high school, in the late ’50s, my boy friend’s father, who farmed three giant tracts in the irrigated Magic Valley of Idaho, told me that he was, “not a farmer, but an agriculturist.”
Pluto rules the life force, as it cycles through conception, birth, growth, decay, death and rebirth of forms. Whatever it touches, Pluto must first destroy in order to rebuild. Pluto crossed into the traditional, structural sign of Capricorn for the first time in 250 years in 2008, and will remain there until 2024.
As usual, first Pluto destroys. . .
As Pluto again transits through Capricorn, the traditions of industrial agriculture built up during the last 250 years have become infected with a terminal disease we call “Monsanto” and other giant corporations that have proven to be highly inefficient, resource-depleting, polluting, and downright toxic to human and planetary health. Only four years into Pluto’s sign change, this knowledge of our increasingly unsustainable methods of growing and distributing food and of the astounding toxicity of that “food” has already worked its way into the mainstream media.
Not until I took a permaculture design course, did I even begin to think that we could reverse the descent of our civilization into mass starvation — if resource wars didn’t do us us in first. Within two hours of hearing Peter Bane, publisher of permacultureactivst.com (and author of an about to be released book), first talk on the subject, I knew we could. Here is a way of thinking and acting that helps us realize that we can actually return to abundance, heal the Earth, and create an opportunity for our children and grandchildren to live rich, full lives. Permaculture, for the first time, gave me hope.
We can all take our part, not just in reversing the damage, but by reconnecting to the power of the life force as it cycles through the natural world.
Think permaculture. Not just for others, but for yourself, your family, your neighbors and community. The paths to abundance are available, on every scale. Here’s one of America’s foremost permaculturists, Penny Livingston, on the subject. For more, see ind5.com.
