©11-11-09 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth. – Umberto Eco

In trying to understand and counteract the growing climate of fear in the world around us as the Pluto-Saturn square peaks, I first turn to the technique of mixing and matching keywords. Though in no way comprehensive, it’s useful as a starting place for grasping the meaning of an astrological aspect. Let’s see what pairing phrases for these two planets can teach us.

• Some keywords for Saturn: fear, anxiety, constriction, authority
• Some keywords for Pluto: control, power, wealth
• Now try the formula: Saturn + Pluto = _____________

Here are some truths I see reflected in that formula:

• Fear disempowers us.
• Anyone who frightens us badly enough can control us.
• When someone frightens you, ask yourself their motive.
• Money, control and power are the three biggest motives for fearmongers.
• To regain your power, let go of fear.

Whenever a controlling individual–or a social institution–plays on your fears, remember that fear is a potent tool for disempowerment. At some level, whether conscious or not, people who try to intimidate us want to control us. They want us to give over to them something we value—money, possessions, our will, or even some part of our free will.

What Kinds of People  Might Be Using Scare Tactics on Us?

If we’re alert to it, we can see these time-honored tactics used at every level from the schoolyard bully to the battering spouse to the absolute dictators of history.

Politicians play on our fears in order to get us to vote for them. The media continually play up threats to security of one kind or another with sensationalized news items and blaring commercials. They want to keep you riveted in front of the television set, watching their newscasts and buying their sponsors’ products.  FEAR SELLS.

We even see fear-mongering, sorry to say, in those in the New Age movement who make dire predictions around the Mayan Calendar and 2012. FEAR SELLS.

Might there by any wild stretch of the imagination be a certain number of astrologers who use the widespread fears about current and coming astrological conditions to build up their importance to clients? Could be. FEAR SELLS. 

When you encounter anyone of any religious, spiritual, professional, or political persuasion whatsoever who is peddling fear, recall the earlier formula:

• Fear disempowers us.
•  Anyone who frightens us badly enough can control us.
• When someone frightens you, ask yourself their motive.
•  Money, control and power are the three biggest motives for fearmongers.
•  To regain your power, let go of fear.

Ways of Fighting Fear that DON’T  Work

The climate of fear that is so pervasive just now causes too many of us to freeze up and be ineffective in handling the very real challenges we all face. As more and more people are paralyzed with anxiety, the main solution promoted by physicians and billions of dollars in advertising is to lull ourselves with anti-anxiety medications, antidepressants, and sleeping pills. Multitudes of others self-medicate to handle the overwhelming stresses of our times by drinking, smoking, toking, or a vast variety of addictive pursuits.

While prescription medications and addictions do lessen the emotional upset and relieve stress temporarily, they don’t change the fundamental fact that the system isn’t working any longer.

Overused, they can cause the general public to ignore the need to make some deep level changes that, at the very least, will be inconvenient and at most will require great sacrifices from all of us. For far too many, pills just make it easier to ignore the crisis we’re in rather than to take productive action.

So What Can We Do?

Productive action is the only way out of this complex situation. NO magic bullets—we’re fresh out of them. I, for sure, don’t have any and I wouldn’t trust anyone who claimed they did.

This series—the Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—is in no way, shape or form a magic bullet,  just a suggested method for arriving at actions that may prove useful and a collection of tools that might help achieve them. You’ re invited to use any parts of it that speak to you at the moment and leave the rest behind. Come back to it at any point during this year-long aspect when it seems relevant. If you think of others who might find it helpful, feel free to pass the link along.

All we can realistically do is to pursue wise, well-planned endeavors that entail plenty of sweat equity and a long, long view of consequences. Actions like that over time can transform individual lives. If enough individual lives are altered for the better, it can make a difference in our world. Does that sound like Pluto in Capricorn, with maybe a tinge of Saturn squaring it? That’s what it sounds like to me.

Does it feel like a miracle is what it would take to get through this? Whenever I am deeply upset, I dust off my dog-eared copy of A Course in Miracles. It’s the text for a life path, a discipline in which I am but a dilettante, but it’s the only thing that stops my tumultuous emotional storms at times like that. I open it at random, and the exact answer I need is right there at my fingertips.

Often, however, all I really need to do is to recite to myself a verse from the first chapter that I’ve held to myself as a talisman for a couple of decades. Maybe it will help you, too:

“Nothing real can be threatened.

“Nothing unreal exists.

“Therein lies the peace of God.”

Note: If that verse intrigues you, a place to start looking for more information is A Course In Miracles – Foundation for Inner Peace.

 More Posts for your Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit:

• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—an Overview of the Series
• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 1 (Houses and Areas of Life Affected)
• The Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit—Part 2  (Best Case/Worst Case Scenarios)
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #3 — Taking Concrete Action to Change your Life
• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #4: Key Players in your Drama
• What Makes a Person Controlling? How Can It Stop?
• How the Pluto-Saturn Square may Affect People born with that Aspect
• From Clutter to Closure–Using the Pluto-Saturn Square
• Internet Find of the Week: New Resources for Healing Grief and Loss

 Related Posts for Using the Transit to Change Unwanted Patterns:

• Cash in on the Hidden Gold Beneath Your Fears
• Saturn Transits—What do They Mean to your Career?
• Healing Tools For Plutonians: Transforming The Self And Others
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
• Stuck For What Seems Like Forever? Maybe Areas of Unforgiveness are the Cause
• In a Crisis? Rescue Remedy Can Help You through It
• Hope for Those in the Dark Night of the Soul

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