Saturn-Pluto Sesquiquadrate

(Transit Saturn → Natal Pluto)

Avelom Podvodny. Aspects

Saturn’s sesquiquadrate: If the wheel of fortune has gotten stuck in a ditch, the cross of fate can be carried on one’s back. This aspect brings obstacles in the areas of the Planet similar to shackles: walking is possible, but difficult. The person, however, does not always feel them (as with Saturn’s square), and sometimes, additionally, develops a peculiarly awkward manner of moving—neither elegant nor graceful, yet generally acceptable. If this becomes habitual, it grows highly stable, and the individual tends to view others endowed with unnecessary and even harmful freedom with skepticism: a steam hammer has only one degree of freedom (up and down), yet works so effectively that it’s a joy to behold, flattening even a ram’s horn into a pancake. Subconsciously, though, the person feels strong constraints in the Planet’s spheres, forcing them onto an extremely narrow track in their interaction with the external world, and may develop deep-seated feelings of inferiority, which they strive to repress into the subconscious. In inner life, they seek but long fail to find a path toward deep mastery of the Planet’s spheres, since the initially rigid framework allows movement only along very coarse, predetermined routes, as if blocking access to subtleties. Here, conscious work transforms the dog’s harsh leash into the flexible mind of a wise sage who perceives the course and branches of karma even in seemingly hopeless situations; but this requires overcoming internal constraints in the Planet’s spheres and realizing that in the external world, tribute is far more effective than forced labor. Pluto’s sesquiquadrate: The flour that spills from the millstones of history is usually raw—with blood. At a low level, this aspect produces an overly schematic perception of flaws and vices in the Planet’s spheres, overly direct methods and harsh tools for their destruction, which, under strong energetic activation, can turn the person into a merciless tyrant, relentlessly driving a people who desperately resist toward a bright future. Yet the same harsh tools will eventually be felt by the person themselves, and here they will confront one of the most unpleasant variants of fate—a mechanical one—where the true causes of irreversible losses remain far beyond the person’s perception, and they are powerless to oppose destiny. The karmic tasks of this aspect are to recognize the imperfection of one’s cleansing tools in the Planet’s spheres and the crudeness of one’s perception of flaws within these spheres, and above all, to illuminate one’s evolutionary remnants in the Planet’s sphere and destroy or transform them; only after this does the person discover subtle instruments and perception in the Planet’s spheres, enabling them to separate wheat from chaff without crushing a single cow from the collective herd with their winnowing fan.