The Mercury-Pluto Conjunction—Grievances, Gripes, Grudges, and Grinches

©12-10-2010 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

Do you find yourself brooding a lot lately?  Rehashing old grievances in the middle of the night? Rehearsing what you’re going to say to that bitchy aunt at the family holiday dinner? In major grinch mode about gift giving?  Going off on your spouse or kids for the same niggling annoyances you usually just sigh over? Griping about everything from the weather to the slob in the next cubicle at work?

Me, too—at least for a few days, once Mercury got within glaring distance of Pluto on its way to the station.  Let’s look at why this has been such a difficult period—and what you can do to overcome it.

 Why this Conjunction is Particularly Difficult

A Mercury-Pluto conjunction like the one in the sky right now is usually over in a few days. Since Mercury went stationary and then turned retrograde within a degree of Pluto, the conjunction’s within a 5° range for an exceptionally long time, from November 26^th to December 20^th–basically from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

It coulda picked a better time. The holiday season is hard enough this year with our economy in such terrible state and so many world problems to worry about. Many people can’t put food on the table or pay their mortgage, so buying gifts and special treats is out the question.

The conjunction is taking place at 4-5° Capricorn, activating the signs that were hit so hard earlier this year by the Cardinal T-square and Cross. (Specifically, it would affect people whose chart contains planets or chart angles–ASC, MC, IC, or DSC– in the first few degree of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn.)

That makes what would ordinarily be a minor event into a trigger for anger and grief for people who went through a rough time with that transit. If that’s you or people close to you, it’s a time when kindness and t.l.c. are much-needed.

 How the Conjunction Adds to Holiday Hassles

1) First of all, put your shields up whenever you’re out in the world. With all this worry and stress, the psychic pollution is intense—what I call the Cosmic Soup. For some suggestions on how to deal with it, see Neptune and the Cosmic Soup.

You may already have some shielding techniques that work for you. If not, just imagine a 5′ egg made of white light all around you, and reinforce it any time you start soaking up others’ emotions. The energies are likely to be especially toxic in stores, malls, and in traffic or on public transit.

 Office parties, with drinks flowing, are places where resentments are likely to run high, so be careful what you say.   

2) Family get-togethers this month are likely to be Mercury-Pluto minefields. People who are stressed out by the situation we’re in may be on a very short fuse, ready to take insult at a raised eyebrow, much less an unguarded remark.

Could you avoid creating feuds that last for years by keeping mum or finding a good excuse not to show up? Probably not, because then they’ll read something into your silence or your absence. The articles linked below can give you some new perspectives.

3) In all situations, do consider your words very carefully this month. As I mentioned in an earlier post, this conjunction can make your words powerfully healing OR seriously destructive.

Especially watch what you say in anger or vengefulness now, folks. These are the words that, once spoken, can never be taken back.

4) If, like me, you were born with a Mercury-Pluto aspect, you might find yourself especially affected by transiting aspects between the two planets in intervals like these.

A Mercury-Pluto First Aid Kit

I periodically fall off the forgiveness wagon into a complete relapse of obsessing over hurts and slights. It goes on for hours, usually in the middle of the night, pretty much ruining my peace of mind. This is no longer acceptable to me, so here’s what I do:

  1) I first drag out my battered copy of A Course in Miracles and open it at random—it always falls open on a long, meaty passage on forgiveness that begins to get me untangled. (http:/ www.acim.org/)

2) When that has started to calm me down, I ask cosmic forces for some lavender light for compassion and forgiveness, and may even take a bath with lavender shower gel.

 3) When I feel really open to Spirit once more, with all my heart and soul, I say this mighty prayer:

Dear God of All Creation:

Please help me not to hold anything against anyone,

Nor to pass judgment on anyone or anything. 

 I MEAN IT, LORD!

 Fair warning:  Do not add I MEAN IT LORD unless you are ready to change. Powerful things will begin happening within a few hours and you will find yourself forgiving people indiscriminately. But take consolation from this: you’re not doing it for THEM, you’re giving yourself a gift of freedom from brooding. I will say that praying that during the recent siege of brooding shifted it right away and brought me serenity, but then this prayer and I already have a history.

 Here are some other tools and insights from Skywriter that help:   

• How to Deal with Manipulative Behavior and Guilt Trips
•  Neptune and the Cosmic Soup (Psychic shielding in crowds)
• Feeling Drained by a Relationship? Cut those Psychic Cords!
• Bailing out the Water Signs–The Emotional Hangover Remedy

And from Vibration Magazine, the free flower essence journal and blog:

•  Essences for the Holidays
• Willow Flower Essence–Healing Resentment

( For more information about using essences, download the introductory chapter of my ebook, Flower Remedies: How Plants Can Heal Us here flower essence information-ch1  and order the book at
 moonmavenpublications.com..)

What about you, Readers? Have you been brooding lately or dwelling on past hurts? Have you canceled Christmas this year? What do you do to get yourself out of a funk or the holiday blues? Let us know about it in the comment section.

(Email subscribers: to get to the comment section, follow the link in the title or at the end of the email to get to the article itself, then scroll down to the comments.)

 More Ideas to help you through the holidays:

• If It Weren’t for that Mercury Conjunction to Pluto….
• Understanding Mercury-Pluto Combinations
• Pluto and Bullying: How to Recognize and Deal with It
• How to Recognize and Deal with an Abusive Person
• What Makes a Person Controlling? How Can It Stop?
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness
• Pluto, Saturn and the Blame Game
• Stuck For What Seems Like Forever? Maybe Areas of Unforgiveness are the Cause
• What your Astrology Chart Says about your Boundary Issues

INDEX OF SKYWRITER’S 580 POSTS by category.  Excellent resource for students. Save it to your hard drive rather than print it, and then all the links are live.  Download it here:  1-Articles Index Skywriter 1-2013.

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Art credits:  I got these old-fashioned etchings from clipart.com, a subscription service with over 10 million images.  I then tweaked them with captions created at flamingtext.com.