Hi everyone. It's been a while. Let's talk about how to handle the hard things in life. We've all got some tough transits that happen, whether that be a particularly harsh eighth house transit, a Saturn return, or, you know, maybe the Moon is kicking your ass this month. Whatever. It's not about the astrology, really, but how we handle the hard things in life.

It's been a month. Not as bad as it could have been, thank God, and I'm not trying to push it. But lately I've been experiencing transit Jupiter opposite my natal Pluto. Pluto resides on the border between my first and second house, and transit Jupiter is bordering my seventh and eighth houses. I've also been experiencing transit Uranus trine my natal Venus, being the the third and seventh houses respectively.

Now, I'm not a Pluto naysayer. Pluto will likely be conjunct all of my natal planets with the exception of one (maybe two) if I live long enough. I have my natal Pluto exactly square my birth Sun by the degree, and it's also square my natal stellium. We can't shy away from the difficult things in life, and to some extent, Pluto forces us to see this. Sometimes that vision isn't clear - Pluto has a tendency to obsess over the bad. But Plutonian people aren't ones to ignore problems, if anything, in true Aries and Scorpio energy, (yes, I suppose I'm part of the whack jobs that believe Pluto can also rule Aries) Plutonian people are actually the ones to tackle their problems head on.

Jupiter, however, is a different story. I'm a Jupiter naysayer. Though perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that I am a Jupiter critic. Jupiter is touted as all good things, luck, abundance, and more. But for all its good things, Jupiter can also just kind of expand what's already going on. And the planet's only saving grace, at least in my birth chart, is a four degree trine to my Ascendant. How a planet presents itself in your birth chart matters, and I've talked about this extensively with clients, but I'm not sure how much I've talked about it publically. A bad planet (a malefic or planet in detriment or fall, for example) could actually be your saving grace, while a good planet (a benefic, or a planet in exaltation) may not be the savior you thought it was. We learn to decipher how planets play out in our chart by retroactively going through events that have played out in our lives. Oftentimes you'll see Saturn pop up as perseverance, patience, or discipline. But for some people, Saturn is that old devil, come back again to spite you.

So how do we approach a tough transit? Let's ask Jupiter and Pluto. A crucial part of the opposition aspect, whether in natal or predictive work (transits, progressions, solar returns, etc) is meeting in the middle. Yes, the opposition represents conflict, tension, and two sides of the same coin. But sometimes productive things come out of conflict when it's worked through constructively. Like, this month someone accidentally scratched my car in a parking lot. No one was injured, my car has some other beauty marks anyways, and it really wasn't a big deal. But who loves to deal with insurance companies? No one, really. It's just a bunch of phone calls and hold music. The administrative part of it feels very eighth house to me. Actually, insurance companies as a whole feel very eighth house to me, but that's besides the point. I took some little pictures on their app, and they sent me a check. That's an example of things worked through constructively, even if no one really wants to do it.

But what happens if you can't meet in the middle? Sometimes it doesn't even have to be worked out in a practical way - occasionally things work out when everything is laid bare, and conflict is hashed out. So what hasn't been constructive? My natal Venus trine transit Uranus. I'm sure there's something to be said about the fact that's a trine rather than an opposition, but that's for a later post. Makes sense, because Uranus is pure chaos. So I'm just going to give you the bullet points of a few things that has happened with this transit.

  • Overspent my budget (in my defense, it was on cute kitchen things.)
  • Had a friend break up.
  • A company refunded my order unprompted. When I asked about it, they resent me an invoice, but it was more than I was originally charged.
  • I cut my hair (and it looks decent!)

Now, I'm sure a bunch of you are wondering what any of that has to do with each other. Venus (all things beauty and relationships) trine Uranus (chaos incarnate) has led to some interesting developments. I moved apartments, got a cute new kitchen set. I had a falling out with a friend. I cut my hair myself. Those are all things Venus. They're also erratic as hell. Nothing screams turmoil like cutting your hair yourself (I'm fine.)

Here's the thing: What ultimately matters isn't the conflict, but what you do moving forward. Jupiter expands situations, but Pluto helped me see them clearly. Venus showed me what to be grateful for throughout it all, but Uranus showed me what needed to go, and quick. As simple as it sounds, sometimes the best way to move forward is simply... Just moving forward. Perhaps that sounds a little too Uranian and a little too nonchalant of me. But I've got bigger things going on that need my attention more. All these things, while some impactful and some not (the hair definitely needed to go), may or may not be important in the long run. Sometimes when we reframe the little stuff into the bigger picture, it becomes easier to see things more clearly.

I wish I could give an outline, or a guidebook, or at the very least a bullet point list of what to do when the going gets rough. I feel like I should. I should, right? But then you get a bullet point listicle that doesn't actually like... help. And I want to help. So I'll say this: We all deal with hardship in different ways. It's okay to deal with it differently than someone else. Sometimes it's okay to listen to your soul, and not to someone else's opinion. And sometimes it's okay to scream and cry and drown yourself in chocolate chip cookies. Just make sure you don't stay there. And don't let yourself be trapped by the tyranny of should. We're all going through it, and sometimes it sucks more to have someone try to give you therapy than to just simply talk about it. I hope you all find someone you can just talk about it with. This time will pass, but you can also just choose to move on yourself, instead of waiting for it to settle into the dust.

Thanks for reading. Haha, I hope your month has been better than mine!

With love,

Abby