Sustenance

Pluto in Capricorn Opposite Venus in Cancer

"Taurus is generation, Scorpio is regeneration. The association of Scorpio with loss and death shows that the people are required to sacrifice personal desires in order to satisfy the demands of the society of which they are an integral part. Taurus represents food, possessions, and all that individuals incorporate in order to renew their bodies, while Scorpio represents the renunciation of pleasures, which enables an individual to become absorbed into a larger corporate body. Vegetables and animals must die before they are consumed by people. Analogously, people must slay their own greed and selfishness if they are to nourish the collective human organism. Pluto oversees this process of reduction to basic components in order for the pulverized material to be assimilated by the greater whole."
The Divine Astrologer: Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas

Pluto opposite Venus is the Taurus-Scorpio configuration, and as you can probably tell, in this country there is an imbalance. Unbalanced incorporation. If using the Sibly chart for the United States, the pattern is particularly prevalent. It's written in the nodal axis -- south node in the Taurean 2nd house, north node in the Plutonian 8th -- with Pluto repeating the pattern positioned in the 2nd, further emphasized by an opposition to Mercury, the planet of commerce, in the 8th. People are pirouetting on pins and needles awaiting the next few years as Pluto opposes Venus and Jupiter. Changes in economic behavior are anticipated and citizens are already responding.

On September 11, 2001, as you recall, the Trade Towers of America were destroyed and I took that to mean that her trade policies and economic habits were going down in some way eventually, and would have to be rebuilt. On that day, the north node was in Cancer at 3 degrees, on US Venus. Mars was conjunct the south in Capricorn, indicating the demolition of the structure by explosion and fire.

Now the nodes are returning to the 3rd degree along with Pluto and an experience looks to be in store. The nation's material security is taking centerstage and in November of 2010, the south node will be on Venus exactly opposite Pluto at 3 degrees. With transiting Venus on a long retrograde in Scorpio at the time, the Taurus-Scorpio theme will be emphasized even more.

"Taurus and Scorpio are the two money signs. The former stands for individual resources, privately owned property, and income, while the latter stands for collective resources, public property, taxes, and investments. Earthy Taurus rules real estate and land, while fluid Scorpio has suzerainty over the ever fluctuating stock market."

The country was founded on principles of successful business and perpetual expansion. The development of the colonies was sponsored by companies who demanded a profit, and the colonists did anything they could in the new inhospitable land. They formed treaties with the Native Americans, then broke the agreements, settling on the Indians' revered hunting grounds, claiming their food supply. When they discovered the work load was too big they imported slaves. These practices turned into a similar foreign policy advocating plunder around the world, and now the growth of financial conglomerates (Pluto), unnaturally fast and too consolidated, threatens the organism as it snuffs out necessary cells in the form of small enterprise (Taurus). Rapid growth becomes a worshipped and followed deity, virtually impossible to reject.

Things in nature grow bigger, but forces of decay complement the procedure and prune when needed, so the environment matches the organisms and they can sustain a balanced system. Uncontrolled growth now is overcoming the smaller aggregates and necessary divisions, so I'm expecting the whole organism to speak as the corporate mass, headed by giant banks, comes to the showdown. Both are likely to survive, but ideally in a semblance of balance. Some big businesses share markets with small ones successfully, both benefiting through the arrangement. 

It's pretty well established that the long period of expansion has now become one of contraction, and the excess is Pluto's job to remove. Unfortunately, some of the players in the game are reluctant to embrace the reality of "smaller" and are now growing yet larger in a wild overreaction. Government spending could also end up in this category. How they compromise with reality should prove interesting, especially with dry, controlling Saturn in Libra there at first between the two. Of course, Uranus in Aries is unpredictable, but it should provide the spark for action, both good and bad. Following Libra, Saturn goes into Scorpio forming a mutual reception with Pluto in Capricorn, which sounds interesting, and tense, with the thing turning in on itself. Some very serious business, I'd wager, with extremes meeting constraints head on. A real bind.

A concern is insurance companies (Pluto). How much will they dictate the way life is lived? How much constriction in general is required before the system adjusts? Where will the squeeze be? Who will apply the pressure? How tight will it get?
Taurus is "mine." Scorpio is "ours." What's yours is yours, what's mine is mine, and what we share is decided upon mutually with loyalty to the agreements. From the start, the country has broken trust. Taxation, with its creation of common shared resources, is like the devil magnified. Growth (Taurus) becomes excessive (Pluto), and destroys (Pluto) nature (Taurus). I find it interesting that the inauguration of the president is done on the Taurus-Scorpio axis. The cosmic entities are aligned with our education it seems. Or else they want our money.

I think with Venus conjunct Jupiter and Pluto in Capricorn, the country has both an overindulgent nature and a frugal one. Circumstance determines and the people are moving surprisingly fast by spending more sensibly and saving for the first time in years. This presents a problem in the short term as consumer spending shrinks, but eventually markets and correct finances find each other. It looks like the populace is quick to react which is good for survival. Upheavals can be expected when Pluto is involved, but the intensity varies.
The question of war for profit is a thorny one...

"The Taurean avidity to accumulate material goods can lead to Scorpionic jealously and covetousness on the part of the have-nots of the world. Most wars, inquisitions, and persecutions have been thinly deprived efforts to deprive people of their property. War strips away possessions through taxes, bombing, and deliberate destruction of homes and belongings, even to the point of doing away with man's first and foremost possession -- his body."

Governments are in business, largely dealing in war supplies and drugs. This Plutonian arrangement leads to a world of high crime, creating fear among the people, but they'd be afraid anyway. In and around the sordid dealings are commodities exchanges that are relatively clean and equitable. You choose. Both are always available. Attacking the criminal and the crime achieves little without consulting the source in human nature. In the meantime, watering your crops works fairly well, along with discovering whom to trust.

I imagine that in order to go on to the next 250 year cycle, the US budget will have to be brought under control. It appears to be going further out right now, and when real contraction comes, things will change as promised, not necessarily in paradisiacal fashion. The stimulation and government programming could encounter difficulty, since restraint and severity are needed at this juncture in history. Elimination of financial waste.
Failure is good. It paves the way for success.

A further part of release is psychological and with the south node transiting Cancer along with the Pluto opposition, the attachment to the past (Cancer), and all its myriad resentments (Pluto) could influence the situation even more, if that's possible. The past is bobbing up again. The square to Libra is concerned with justice, Pluto with revenge, and some would like the previous leaders to be punished severely, and event unlikely to occur. Too many present leaders are implicated and too many business deals are still in operation. This links to the non-victim stance I always champion...

If you've been the victim of a crime, but the perpetrator won't be punished officially, then clutching to the hope is discouraging and stoking the resentment hurts yourself. The criminal has won again by retaining power over you as you spend energy, time, and money pushing for the impossible. You are in bondage. Pluto. You're doubly stripped, and imprisoned in sensations that effect your peace of mind, and probably your health. The best revenge is repairing the damage and learning how you got there in the first place and how to avoid it in the future. If things don't improve fast enough, the obsessive quality of the blame could increase, until the country realizes that the current administration is part of the problem and that's where any logical repair will take place.

You really can't do much about everyone you hate vehemently, be they the rulers, the wealthy, the evil people in charge, or whomever is perceived to be stealing your goods at the moment. They're always there. And justice has an uncanny way of working on its own. My favorite stroke of revenge is improvement of my character. Show them you've done well. Feeling fine without you.

Another aspect of Cancer-Capricorn is housing and urban environments. In the cities where Taurean nature is demolished, Plutonian underworld activities often dominate. In city planning the trend toward bringing back nature with parks, bike paths, and the like, probably increases the public's well-being. It's interesting to see how some natural preserves become havens for Plutonian dealing, and others become a cost-free way to enjoy an afternoon of paradise. One never knows.

At the same time, new housing communities are being designed and constructed outside cities with renewable energy, their own food production, and maybe even eventually their own manufacturing base to an extent. Small industry again. Small sustainable units, the ideal in the age of contraction. The tribal village of Cancer becomes the successful business venture of Capricorn easing the strain on society as a whole.

The real question comes when individuals ask, "How much am I willing to forego for the benefit of the whole?"
Until now, the collective decision was to satisfy desires unchecked, and thus, the corporate structure has flourished in order to feed human want. The avarice of the corporation mirrors that of the individual. Pluto oversees self-mastery concerning desires and Capricorn brings the discipline to achieve it. A stellar opportunity.

So as you can tell, the direct motion of Pluto coming soon is of great importance to the American people. The opportunity offered, considering Venus and Jupiter and their benefic characteristics, is worth considering, although everything comes with a price. Taurus-Scorpio. Pluto-Venus. Commodities, finance, and survival itself. But most of all, the key to a good life is being able to honestly experience pleasure and then the two main sensations of the body, pleasure and pain, operate in balance, with grasp and release in rhythmical order. Overstuffing only on very special occasions, divvying up if possible, and all the while "slaying greed and selfishness." Well, maybe just a trimming will do.