Embracing Polarity
As I write these words Pluto is opposing the Black Sun, the point at which the Sun is furthest from the Earth and its illuminating power is therefore at its weakest. This opposition defies all egoic attempts to be in control, to dictate progress, direction, outcome or reward, plunging us into a deep process of powerlessness which eventually reveals the true nature of power. It demands that we acknowledge both our lack of it at a mundane level and the inherent power which lives at the very heart of who we are: the power to identify not with the changing conditions of our internal and external worlds but with the unchanging presence that resides in all things, no matter what experiences may befall them.
We are talking about extremes here, polarities: Light and Dark, Power and Powerlessness. These extremes come into sharper relief as we progress towards the dawn of the Aquarian Age. It’s best we don’t over-look them, focusing our energy on one and ignoring the other for fear that our attention may cause it to grow. That’s just another polarity and if we do that we add to the polarised nature of consciousness which creates black and white thinking, right and wrong, even you and me.
As we step into a more unified state of being, these polarities sharpen commensurately. Many people have the experience in which life is suddenly perceived from a different perspective. Things make sense which didn’t before; feelings and experiences reveal meaning previously missed. Life begins to feel easier, as if entering a state of flow. We have this experience and we think we’ve arrived at something, a state that won’t change, replacing the old version of who we were. But this state is a polarity and the further we journey into it the deeper we come to recognise that it, too, is incomplete. There is more to be revealed, more to be experienced and embraced. The feeling of ease begins to shift. We find old habits and patterns returning, we may be frustrated, angry, feeling disillusioned that what we thought was ‘it’ has left us. We feel even worse than we did before because now we have something more tangible to compare it to. We feel we’ve failed, or it was all a ruse.
Pluto opposing the Black Sun reminds us that this, too, is part of awakening: digging deeper into the morass of darkness that we would rather avoid and deny. But we must do it to keep moving. We must embrace all that we are and experience it to the full. Because to truly awaken means to become fully alive and we are not fully alive if we honour only certain aspects of our being and view others as somehow failed or shameful. That’s creating polarity and polarity is the very thing which keeps us locked into egoic existence.
This year, as the Pluto/Black Sun opposition continues, many may find themselves undergoing experiences that challenge what they previously believed to be their ‘awakening’. There may be much disillusionment as a result, which is why I write these words now, because forewarned is forearmed and being clear on the fact that this journey is not over and we have a way to go into wholeness can help us all keep perspective when our stability is under threat, that peace we’ve been feeling is shattered, that belief we had about the way life really is begins to reveal flaws in the face of unfolding events. I guess the basic message is this: it’s okay to feel like the biggest barnacle on the backside of the planet! Sometimes that’s just how it is. When we’re in the process of transformation – as many are these days – we may feel ashamed, as if it shouldn’t be this way, but that very thought is precisely the kind of tyranny we need to overthrow right now. 2014 could be a year in which people fall by the wayside because things didn’t turn out as they’d hoped and the promised land never arrived, or it can be the year in which we all ride the waves of change together creating the space to acknowledge just how difficult awakening can be when it demands that we face and embrace everything that we are – everything – without guile or denial.
The Black Sun is black precisely because it contains everything: light and dark. Every colour exists in the colour black. It absorbs everything. Nothing is rejected. The full spectrum is there. Light, on the other hand, does not contain darkness, it can only define it. If we want to embrace everything we must go into the darkness, and in doing so we come out into the defining light. And in the darkness there is nothing to fear. It is only ourselves that we meet in there. The more people prepared to go there with eyes wide open and hearts full of courage, the more footsteps there will be for others to follow when the time is right.
The Pluto Black Sun opposition marks out 2014 as a water-shed year in which many will learn about the deeper and more challenging nature of the process of awakening, encountering the fullness of its demand for truth and authenticity. This is not to be avoided or denied. It is akin to returning home to all that we are, finding at last the place where we truly belong, no longer wandering this way and that to ensure that we only encounter the parts of ourselves and of life that we want to, on the path ahead. 2014 is the year in which we can meet ourselves in fullness, facing all that we are and all that it means to awaken. If we can do that with humility and grace we can continue onward into the light, knowing that the darkness which it defines is a threat to nothing. It is part of, not an obstacle to, awakening and it forms the soil in which the seeds of the Aquarian Age are sown.
Sarah Varcas 2013. All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to freely share this article in its entirety on the condition that full credit is given to the author, it is distributed freely and the URL https://www.astro-awakenings.co.uk is included.
