So… What is a Retrograde?
As a Holistic Therapist and Astrologer, here in Dublin (and Online), I am often asked – What is a Retrograde? People seem especially worried about Pluto Retrogrades! So, to learn how to survive a Pluto Retrograde, you first need to understand what a Retrograde is. Retrogrades are a time where a planet ‘appears’ to go backwards. They appear to go back over their path for a period of time, before moving forward again. Of course, a planet doesn’t actually go backward, but from Earths perspective they appear to.
The theme of Retrogrades are about ‘going back over’ things, to review the themes according to that planet and the sign it is in. In this blog we will look at Pluto Retrograde, what they are about and How to Survive a Pluto Retrograde!
Many people make a big hulla-baloo over retrogrades like they are a scary thing. The truth is, we are only fearful over what we don’t understand!
So… because ALL the planets go retrograde at various times in the year we feel these energies, get on with our lives, and are often non-the-wiser. However, they do and will affect some people more intensely than others and they do and will effect change.
How does it effect Change?
As a Holistic Therapist and Astrologer, here in Dublin (and online) most of my clients come to me seeking change. They want coaching and mentoring around health, relationships, life and career issues. Working with Retrogrades during these times can be potent and incredibly beneficial. From a Therapeutic standpoint, its all about going back over, something unique and powerfully connected to these planetary movements.
Depending how we view it, change can be seen as positive or negative, in itself it is neither. Humans often need ‘pain’ in order to move toward ‘pleasure’. As we experience the challenges according to our astrology or the transits, what’s really happening is we are being offered the opportunity to come back into alignment. Often, we are being offered the energetic hoosh we need to push past our blocks, through our fears, amend our actions and improve the quality of our overall life journey.
Change comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Change can be amazing. It can feel liberating and great at the time, it can even be playful and fun.
However, change can also come in the form of tragedy, trauma, loss, pain etc. At the time this can feel terrible but usually in hindsight (with an awakened and conscious mind) can be seen as a catalyst for better things which were to come.
Sometimes we don’t understand the pain and it can take a level of perspective and maturity to see why certain events happen.
Therefore, if you are in alignment already and doing the work; the challenges and difficulty associated with retrogrades, and any other planetary aspect for that matter, becomes less intense. The moral of the story… do the work, as and when it arises… become more conscious as a Human… and the challenges become less intense.
“As we head into a Pluto retrograde, there is no need to panic or feel fear. Instead embrace this as the ideal opportunity to go deep..”
So… What’s with this Pluto Retrograde?
I am a Scorpio Rising, so personally I love Pluto (Pluto is the modern ruler of Scorpio). It’s themes can be transformative and offer us HUGE energetic shifts toward following our path.
Pluto is the planet of Life, Death, Rebirth, Transformation, and rules things that are hidden, the subconscious realm, and secrets. When Pluto goes retrograde people can experience the re-surfacing of old wounds, old emotions and things that have been repressed or hidden. As humans we often find it easier to shove down and away our emotions. The truth is, these emotions don’t go away, they just get buried and are still actively running your life. They operate at a sub-conscious level. This means we experience these sub-conscious emotions through others, as a reflection of what’s happening inside.
We may meet people who trigger us, who frustrate, irritate us or we may feel grief from an experience or event. Often we may feel rejected or misunderstood, embarrassed, ashamed, erratic or dysfunctional in some areas of life.
How to use the Retrograde…
The trick with your retrogrades it to have a look at what Astrological House, (Download your FREE copy of the Astrological Houses HERE) in your birth chart ( click here to download a copy of your birthchart – scroll down the page) they fall in. This will give you an idea of the themes associated with that particular retrograde.
Pluto loves to dig deep, do shadow-work, bring light into the darkness and expose fears and trauma for what it is. It likes to make conscious that which is hidden and gives us the opportunity to clear out the cobwebs. Pluto rules professions that dig deep and unearth, such as therapy, counseling, shadow-work, parts-work, shamanism, and anything analytical process where the truth is exposed and brought to light.
During the Pluto retrograde its an ideal time to work on yourself. It’s time to go deep within, to excavate the truth, work on old wounds and see the Monster in the closet for what it is, a Sock Puppet!
As we head into a Pluto retrograde, there is no need to panic or feel fear. Instead embrace this as the ideal opportunity to go deep. To finally break past some of your blockages and things that have been holding you back. The energy of Pluto is transformative and regenerating. It focuses on empowering the dis empowered and taking back control, autonomy and sovereignty.
What can I do to ease these Retrogrades?
If you are experiencing some challenges during this Pluto retrograde…. Breathe! This too shall pass. Learn how to survive this Pluto Retrograde and Be open to ‘allowing’ old emotions to re-surface in the knowing they are asking for you to heal them. You may treat these old wounds as the Little You, inside, who is asking to be seen, heard and understood. Treat these old wounds as old friends who just want to help, but need you to guide them.
Find a Therapist, Counsellor, or even a Detective!!! I offer 1:1 and group Hoilstic Therapy sessions; using Reiki, Reflexology, Astrology Life Path Mentoring and much much more. If you are ready to uncover more of who you are, reconnect with your inner wisdom and learn how to interpret your world – the time is now! Drop me an email and book a session.
Do some journaling, use EFT, try some herbal medicine and use some essential oils to ease symptoms. Learn to ground your energy, come back into your body, and try meditation. There are endless ways to work with these challenges. Now is the time to do the work!
The beauty about Pluto is, if you do the work when you are being given the opportunity it can quite literally be transformative.
To understand the ‘themes’ associated with the current retrograde you will need to look at the sign it is sitting in and this will tell you what the focus is on.
2022 Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn….
In 2022, Pluto is retrograding in Capricorn. Capricorn is all about structure, responsibility, rules, regulation, restriction, boundaries, life lessons, karma, restraint, practicality, hard work, tradition, government, policies, finances, authority, institutions, control, business, career, status, and achievement.
It is a Cardinal Earth sign; cardinal signs are pioneers and change makers, earth signs are practical and materialistic, pragmatic and resourceful. It is a feminine sign and therefore the energy is more receptive and inward, cautious and receiving.
Pluto, in Capricorn may feel like you are transforming the limitations which have been holding you back. This isn’t always easy but with the right tools you can glide more easily through this process (check out my Intrepid Soul Navigation Astrology & Coaching sessions).
In this retrograde perhaps its time to review your own structure, your own rules, how you are playing the game of life and to review what it is that’s been holding you back.
It might be time to ask yourself; What fears have been keeping you from achieving the status or recognition for the best you can be? Or What fears have been in the way of reaching your true potential? Are there secrets you have been keeping buried, which are creating boundaries that are keeping you prisoner instead of keeping you safe? Is there any karmic lessons are you willing to shed and transform, by shining the light of conscious thinking onto them?
Don’t take it so personally, or do!
What we also need to become aware of is; these effects are happening both on a micro and macro level.
Because Pluto is further out from the sun, it is therefore less personal. This does not mean it is less intense, by any stretch of the imagination, just that we feel it less as a personal energy. This means these shifts and changes are happening more so at a collective than personal level.
While we will have the opportunity to work on these energies personally, it will be much more evident in the collective at large. We will see the generational changes. Because each of us make up the collective, whatever we work on personally has a rippling effect on those around us, thus on the collective.
The work you do at this time has the opportunity of making great change in the world. The more conscious we become and more pain we transform into love, the greater our collective experiences. We become empowered and therefore have more flow in our lives.
As a Holistic Therapist and Astrologer I use Coaching and Mentoring with my clients. Pluto can often offer incredible insight into a clients deepest transformation. As well as using Reiki for my clients as a healing modality, I also teach Reiki Level I and II. Empowerment is a major theme of Pluto. Teaching and sharing practical and effective tools on how to heal and navigate your own life, is transformative. When you change the way you experience life, your experience of life changes.
The bigger picture of Pluto in Capricorn?
If we look around today at our earthly experience, we will see that a new world is being birthed. There is a kind of breaking away from old ideas, old structures and ways of doing things and a move toward a new way of life.
I personally feel we need to be VERY conscious in choosing what that looks like. Be careful not to allow the shiny world of marketing TELL you what your future looks like…. It is YOU who chooses your reality.
You can move into a world that is fully automated and marketed to you as ‘whats best for you’, or you can become a more conscious being of Love and Light, retain your Soul essence and choose to reconnect with what’s real. (That’s a whole other blog and rabbit hole which I won’t go into here!)
I feel what we are currently experiencing in the world, is a collective dark night of the soul. The world is awakening. More people are becoming conscious and are seeing behind the veil of illusion, the lies, deceit, control and so on. As Pluto moves toward and enters the last critical degree of Capricorn (the anorectic degree at 29’) we will more clearly see the transformation of these structures.
When we reach the final degrees of a planet in any sign, specifically when it is a slow moving planet like Pluto, it MUST do the work it was meant to, in that sign, by the time it leaves. Therefore, Pluto being the planet of transformation, and Capricorn being heavily connected to our Government, Financial structures, Control and Status, will most likely experience a complete make over by 2025/26 when Pluto moves into Aquarius. Boy oh Boy we have some…. Erm… interesting times ahead!! But that’s for a whole other blog…
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Deborah J xx
