The Task
…On Mercury descending into Pluto’s domain
Carl Jung once said, “We have not yet understood the implications of the discovery of the unconscious and the enormous spiritual task which must be accomplished if we wish to preserve our civilization.” It’s impossible to pin down the origin of the concept of the unconscious. Often, we think of Freud and Jung as the origin point, but that is wrong. Many psychologists before them were using the term. Paracelsus is often credited to giving the first mention, yet still, there are Vedic texts going back thousands of years that point directly at this hidden sea of influence of our consciousness. Regardless of when the dawning of this abyss came into our awareness, its implications were just as relevant as they were then, as they are now. It’s our job to make the unconscious conscious. If we fail at this task, we meet the fate of what Jung so presciently points out.
A debate could rage on for days about which planet specifically relates to the unconscious. My stance is that there is an unconscious part of every planet which can express in a multitude of ways, one such way is when a planet is not visible; another is when it visits Pluto. At the moment, both factors are in play for the wanderer who dares to travel closest to the Sun (Mercury). Currently retrograde, Mercury recently had its cazimi in early Aquarius and has now reentered Capricorn, and will soon exchange meaningful words with Pluto on the 29th of Jan (26º). One way of deciphering these movements is in a mundane sense, asking: What is the world talking about? And what are we afraid of? To choose just a few themes, we could say Covid, WW3, and the beginning of yet another market meltdown. All legitimate concerns, which are forcibly shouldering themselves into our personal lives. Now, how we respond to them is another matter, one which entirely depends on the symbiosis of our unconscious and conscious minds.
Often, when someone is unaware of how their unconscious is affecting their lives, they will have irrational fears, copious stress, and enough shadowy projections to keep a good therapist in business for years. When we act from the unconscious, it appears not to be us. Something else takes over. In the old days-or for those who still believe-it was sometimes called demonic possession. The forces of the underneath are powerful indeed and are often so tricky that we can’t even see them at work. They take the wheel and ride fast on the well-trodden trails of our deepest fears. This is where the magician comes into play.
Mercury is what the Romans called him. Hermes to the Greeks. Thoth for the Egyptians. The gods have many faces and syncretize over time, mutating to fit the vessel of the culture connecting to them. For us, we have forgotten the gods for the most part. One could argue that Hermes has taken shape in these machines and the codes that run them. If true, we must become conscious of how this modern god both helps and hinders. The algorithms at play are without a doubt working against us, selling us what we don’t need, feeding us information to strengthen our chambers and sculpting our minds according to those who programmed the code in the first place. In a way, becoming aware of this trick is like becoming aware of the unconscious side of Mercury. And the actions we can take are simple: stop using Google, use Brave; stop consuming corporate media, consume a variety of independent ones instead, and think for ourselves. The way in which Mercury and Pluto express themselves today is dramatically different than even twenty years ago, but their essence remains constant; their conversations always circulate around understanding power, and to take the power back, we must make the unconscious conscious. This is the task.
There is nothing easy about our moment in history. Being on the brink of economic collapse and another war with a virus mutating moment by moment all around the world is definitely a recipe to keep us up at night. But again, that is their news cycle. It’s not to say it’s not real, but it is to say we have the power to control where we place our attention, what we do with the information given to us, and how deep we choose to go internally. In the end, we don’t know enough to worry. Hopefully, we know just enough to live our lives magically, with great meaning and love at the center.
Be safe out there friends.
Eudaimonia,
Adam
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