Pluto Transit Means Let Go! | ElsaElsa

In my last post, How to Handle Pluto Trauma, Kri had a fascinating comment:

“…My friend told me an anecdote about a man with his hand stuck in a door. Another man came up and said I can help you get your hand unstuck. The guy said it isn’t stuck, I’m holding an apple I want but it’s too big to get through the door. The guy said drop the apple, you don’t need it. That is a bad retelling, but I wonder what my apple is…”

And while the story is specific to trauma, I thought it was an excellent metaphor for a Pluto transit.

In my neck of the woods, that story is told about raccoons. Hunters of yore would set out a trap that consisted of a container with an opening just big enough for the raccoon’s hand to fit in, and there would be something shiny and enticing placed in the container. When the raccoon grabbed the object, it would find that it couldn’t pull its hand back out. Instead of simply letting go of the shiny object, it would stubbornly hold on to its prize, thereby ensuring it was a sitting duck when the hunters came back to check.

And isn’t that the perfect analogy? We have something in our lives, whether it be a job, a relationship, or simply an image or ideal, that we covet. We love it. We protect it. Just like the raccoon, we overestimate its value and absolutely refuse to give it up. But also like the raccoon, we fail to see that our shiny thing is just so much tin and plastic, and does not truly serve us.

But in the midst of our grasping, Pluto comes along. He, in the role of hunter, comes to us and says, “It’s that thing or you. You are coming with me by hook or by crook. You can either lose your shiny object, or you can lose your object and your hand. You choose.”

And what do most of us do? We grab on even tighter and refuse to move. And Pluto, true to his word, yanks us along, and off comes our hand as well.

But Pluto’s wisdom, like his power, is absolute. Our lives slowly improve, even without our shiny thing, even without our hand. And slowly we come to realize that our lives are better because of the loss. We wish we hadn’t fought so hard for so long. We wish we would have just given up our bauble and kept our hand.

When we work with Pluto, we learn to let go. And in letting go, we find our real treasure: knowing we are enough. We can survive all on our own, and we no longer have to cling to that which no longer serves. We are strong.

Have you tried to fight Pluto? How did you learn to let go?

Consult with Midara.