The Jupiter Pluto Conjunction of April 5th, 2020: Don't Hit it Just Because You Don't Understand It.

On April 5th, Jupiter and Pluto came together at 24 degrees Capricorn, along with asteroid Pallas (Athena) in square (challenging aspect) to asteroid Eris at 24 degrees Aries.  

There is an interesting myth featuring Heracles, Eris, and Athena.  (Hercules is the Roman version of the Greek Heracles/Herakles, just so there is no confusion.)

Heracles, the big strapping hero, son of Zeus, was strolling along one day and saw something of which he wasn't completely sure what to make.  He did not recognize this small object in his path - it was not familiar to him - and so he did not know whether it was dangerous to him or not.

Being the confident warrior he was, Heracles decided to haul off and smack it with his club.  To his surprise, the object promptly doubled in size right before his eyes.  Taken aback by this strange new phenomenon, Heracles hit the object again with his club, with twice the force as before.  To his dismay, the object doubled in size yet again.

Heracles was about to hit the defiant object a third time, even harder, when he heard a voice whispering in his ear.  It was Athena, goddess of wisdom.  Athena told Heracles that the object was the work of Eris, goddess of strife and discord, and that if he hit it again, it would only double in size once again.  

With her wise words, Athena brought light to the situation at hand.  The only danger, in this case, was Heracles being tempted to interact with the strange object before him along his path.   If the object was ignored, the encounter would be of no consequence; but if engaged with, the whole thing would "blow up", so to speak.

Heracles' nature, as a warrior and protector, a "hero", was to be on alert for possible danger and react defensively...even offensively.  However, in this case, it would only continue to make the situation worse - as Heracles was actually engaging not with an unfamiliar small object, but the powerful goddess of war and chaos herself, Eris. 

On April 5th, 2020, Jupiter, the god of amplification, and Pluto, Lord of the Underworld and the god of intensity, power, and transformation via death and rebirth, came together for the first of three conjunctions in Capricorn, sign of authority, rules, political and financial systems, traditions, responsibility, limits, and boundaries (and the patriarchy).  Athena was sitting with these two heavy hitters, while they all received applied pressure from Eris, in the sign of the warrior, Aries, no less. 

With this astrology, the myth of Heracles and Eris carries significance, especially in this time of uncertainty and fear we are experiencing.

Eris was counting on Heracles to be true to his nature and play the part of the hero.  And why wouldn't he?  He was an accomplished warrior and the son of Zeus.  But still, there were things out there that were absolutely bigger and more powerful than he - things that not only were truly not worth engaging with in the first place, but that were completely unnecessary to engage with at all. 

How often do we react to things when we would be better off not engaging at all?  How often do we lock in with some energy that comes up in our daily life, in work, in relationship, in traffic even, and it ends up being a huge deal, when if we had just ignored it, it would have been nothing?  

When we lock in with an energy - when there is a fear, a charge, a reaction - we engage with it and we give it power.  In the myth of Heracles and Eris, Heracles, although a powerful warrior, actually gave away power by engaging with and spending energy on this strange object he came upon in his path.  Furthermore, he most likely would have never noticed the object at all if he was not on that consciousness level of always being on the lookout for danger or a fight.  

In times of big energy, it is even more important to remember that our power comes from our center, our knowing, our truth, our wisdom and love.  We are unseated from the throne of our heart any time we allow anything in our exterior world to unseat us and draw us into a situation where our time and attention ends up feeding that thing that just keeps growing and draining our power.  

Don't hit it just because you don't understand it.