Oct 2020
The Makings of a Hero
There are two planetary stations this month. One of them features frequently in astro conversations; the other is an eminence gris.
The more familiar one is Mercury retrograde (Oct 13th). This is a transit that gets a lot of press, possibly because of its frequency, immediacy and apparent relevance to everyday affairs.
But it is the station of Pluto that has the deeper impact. The great god of the Underworld, governor of death and rebirth, shifts direction on the fourth.
While Mercury scurries around disturbing traffic and delaying communications, Pluto quietly turns our lives inside out.
Death comes out of the closet
Since late April of this year, Pluto has been retrograde, subtly shifting the terrain of our collective existence. Consciousnesses have been raised that cannot be un-raised.
On an existential level, mortality – a.k.a. the Natural Law of decay — has come out of hiding. Many of us have been coaxed out of denial about death, dying and renewal. Complacent homes have been disturbed by rustlings beneath the floorboards. Across the globe, fractures have rent asunder institutions (Capricorn) that long seemed immutable.
During the first week of October, Pluto stations direct at 22 Capricorn: the exact degree Pluto occupied at the beginning of this remarkable year. It was in January that the historic Cardinal stellium (starring the Pluto-Saturn conjunction) inaugurated what people all over the world have come to think of as the new reality.
Over the months since then, Pluto moved a few degrees forward, giving us time to let the depth of its changes sink in. Now, it has arrived back at that fateful stellium degree.
Wherever 22 Capricorn falls in your chart (check your house cusps) is where the effects of the 
makeover have been slowly, gradually at work.
The sacred and the profane
The other two transpersonal planets are also active this month.
An opposition between Venus and Neptune (Oct 17-18) will be most obvious in relationships and creative work. We may find mundane life sorely lacking. The key distinction that needs to be made here: Are we rising above ordinary consciousness (inspiration) or sinking below it (escapism)?
During the last third of the month, Mercury and the Sun oppose Uranus, the planet of unforeseeable twists and turns. The lesson here is to accept appropriate changes, no matter how unsettling, as gracefully as we can.
Playing with matches
If you’ve been following the Mars dramas of this astounding year, you know that a series of Aries squares have been igniting the cardinal trio (Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto) since August. We’re now in the retrograde phase of this riff, which began to peak at the Saturn station on September 28th 
(see last month’s SkyWatch).
A classic expression of Mars (ego assertion) square Pluto is bald power plays (peaking Oct. 8-9th). Maximally volatile and impulsive in cardinal fire, Mars will still be squaring the Capricorn planets from Aries (10/8-19) when the Sun begins to square them from Libra (Oct 10-18).
The involvement in this series of Saturn (regulations, limitation) signifies clashes between headstrong individuals (Mars) and authorities (Saturn). The involvement of Jupiter (legal, ethical issues) suggests conflicts between unqualified self-expression (Aries) and social justice.
As without, so within
How these tensions play out in personal terms is up to each of us. The dominance-submission 
dynamic may have shown up in your life when the Pluto squares were last upon us, in August. Watch for a repetition of the theme in October. This time, see if you can turn angry reactivity into courageous initiative.
These transits suggest strategic bursts of initiative, the kind that emergencies inspire. They are notorious for unleashing a rush of fuel into inflammable situations.
But their higher expression is to confer uncommon courage in common people. Each of us has the makings of a hero.
These are the times that show us what we’re made of.