Is there a positive side to the Saturn/Pluto cycle? First, we can look at challenges and even suffering as forces which sculpt formidable strength within individuals. Such experiences catalyze growth, action, and change. There is no life without pain. Indeed, pain is a requirement of being alive. We can reframe our view of the Saturn/Pluto cycle from a victim's perspective to a courageous acceptance of difficulty to add dimension to our experiences, or to provide the incentive for action and thus change.

From an evolutionary astrological view, life isn't all the product of chaos or chance. There is an intelligence guiding the flow of life, a fate to which we are in some way meandering our way through. With that said, are there not periods when we need to step back, conserve, even question previous advances? Is contraction always a bad thing? Can excessive liberalism at times become a problem, or can things progress too soon and too fast? While yes, the world stage appears to depict a hyper-inflated, cartoon version of astrological archetypes, often disconnected from the more profound wisdom or teachings of the planets, there is still perhaps a greater purpose to any difficult moment of life, even a purpose to a collective backlash against progress.

It is to that greater purpose I would encourage us to seek to embrace or understand, if only just to hold that intention with a sense of humility, of surrender to what we don't yet know or understand. In our personal lives, as it is in the collective, we can, through the acquisition of expanded consciousness, align ourselves with the mysterious, cosmic agenda, whatever that is. While we cannot control what happens on the political or cultural stage, we can be inspired by it, motivated to action in our uniquely personal way.

With Saturn empowered in Capricorn by Pluto, and set to align Jupiter in air sign Aquarius, a new structural order is on the verge of its birth. Revolutionary, technological innovations, ideas, and realities will come forth at this time. What can you do to help shape it? How can you implement a new order in your own life? What will you construct from this foundation of solidity? Saturn's more positive face is construed by the virtues of tenacity, relentless commitment, accountability, and self-discipline. And perhaps, if we each embraced responsibility for not just our physical selves, but our darkness, the collective could resist the tempting hypnosis of authoritarian sway.

The peaks of the Saturn/Pluto cycle are indeed difficult times, but they can also reveal the deeper, unconscious underpinnings of our cultural, economic, and political structures. It seems a compelling phenomena that these periods bring to the surface quite literal manifestations of these archetypes, in the form of political leaders and external crises. But we can hold on to the hope that this cycle will pass, and new themes will emerge in the near future.

Let us hope that we've learned from history, that humanity has the wisdom to step back from the edge of the abyss when the signs emerge. Let us hope that we can transcend the dangerous pitfalls of fear, prejudice, the rapid breakdown of critical thought, and the external projection of self-hatred. With that said, Pluto empowering Saturn can correlate, on the individual level, with the empowerment of individual purpose or destiny, a time when we can rise to some daunting challenge and consistently forge our way to victory. Always, as above so below, and so within so without. The planets, an indeed life itself, always have something to say. May we be so blessed to receive the message.