An antidote to fear
Fear is the imagination killer. It may serve to shake us awake, but it depletes our ability to be creative as we venture into the thick of these liminal times.
Courage, Anxiety & Despair Watching the Battle by James Sant (1820-1916)
““I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.””
Liminal times start with death and loss.
Something ends while the new is being born. It’s a time in between with its particular geography and psychological landscape. It requires us to surrender to the unknown, bringing up a lot of anxiety. It’s part and parcel of this landscape, but it doesn’t make it any easier.
I have thought about fear a lot these past several years, especially since the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn, two months before the start of the lockdowns. Something about that seeding moment in the sign that speaks to governance of our lives - personal and societal - had a tendril to the discovery of Pluto in Cancer back in the 1930s for me. Cancer and Capricorn - the unconscious fears of our clannish bonds to family and nation, and the apparatus of governance on a larger scale.
All this, along with a sense that as more and more folks talked about a new paradigm rising, and the desire for the sickened and old system of expressing power to die, I felt this union of Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn would also be expressed through the white-knuckling of death - those who refuse to die and hold on to the bony end.
That’s one side of the coin. The other side is a restructuring of power and sovereignty. Power feeds on fear - been there, done that for centuries. Power with is nourished by joyous sovereignty.
Let’s break it down:
Power - Saturn & Pluto are expressions of power.
Saturn brings structure, incarnating idea/vision into form. It’s both the birth canal and the midwife. Pluto is power that rises from the depths of the unconscious, which may be small but unleashes incredible creation and/or destruction.
As the last earth sign, Capricorn represents mastery and sovereignty in form and the ‘spirit of gravity’ in Nietzsche’s phrase. As a realm, Capricorn has been co-opted as the ‘man in the suit’, the so-called ‘reality principle’ of the structural system that has governed our world for centuries. But it’s more than that.
Remember that it’s a Cardinal Earth sign—it initiates a new relationship with the physicality of this world. The other side of the union of Saturn and Pluto and their 30-plus-year synodic cycle is that we get to face the unconscious shadow (compliments of Pluto) of our personal and collective relationship with power and sovereignty.
Capricorn invites us to master our fears (Saturn/Pluto) and reimagine how we express our power as incarnating souls in this life. What was seeded back in January 2020 is still in its crescent phase, and now we’re seeing the first shoots showing up, as Saturn moves towards early Aries in late May, and in sextile to Pluto in early Aquarius.
Crescent phases are digging and bricklaying phases.
We dig the earth to set up the foundation of what we’re building while laying down the bricks for the structure we’re bringing forth. It can feel like nothing is happening, and the insecurities and anxieties that we’re doing the right thing can asphyxiate us. Fear and insecurity can overwhelm us and cause us to abandon our projects.
In short, Saturn and Pluto alignments bring forth an apocalyptic stance, a sense that the end of the world is upon us. We can see this in all spheres of our lives: government, climate, nature, and thus how we’ve structured our lives thus far. That’s why I think it’s vital that we don’t forget the seeding planetary alignments. In contrast, we try to make sense of the ones forming right now - Neptune’s recent entry in Aries while being chased by Saturn right behind it, and then in the Summer, Uranus’ first entry into Gemini. This is why I started my story of these transits with the deal brokered by Lord Saturn and Lord Pluto in the bowels of the castle in the realm of Capricorn.*
But what about the antidote to fear?
Courage and Joy - being in right relationship with our inner Mars and Venus. Mars without Venus runs rampant. It needs Venus’s directive towards acting towards what it values, loves, and the joys that make life worth living.
Much like Mercury, Venus is a liminal deity, familiar with this in-between place, cultivating what is on the edges. Mercury and Venus are transgressive edge-dwellers and, as such, are the first to be hunted down when power over is fearful of losing ground. They go after what makes us laugh—humor, pleasure, our sexual fantasies and expression, in sum, our joys. Hunting and silencing our desires, which belong under Venus’s blessings, is an old tactic applied throughout history.
So along with courage, which falls under the purview of Mars, joy is the other side of the antidote to fear. Because it’s our loves and joys that make life worth living, and thus allow our Mars to get up (in more ways than one) to go after what our Venus values.
As personal planets, Mars, Venus, Mercury, and the Moon help us stay close to how we have agency to venture into these liminal times. It’s not trite or small potatoes to take a stand for our joys - big or small. A disrespected Venus is just as maddening (James Hillman called the “Pink Madness”) as dishonoring Neptune (ruling the realm of imagination and spirit), which brings another kind of madness, one that often leaves us wide open to mass delusions and mob psychology.
Can you see how collectively we’ve been wide open to being victims of a mass psychosis?
So, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and fearful, acknowledge that but know that there’s something you can do right now: Honor the desires and small pleasures of your inner Venus and let that direct your Martian actions.
Also, don’t forget to embrace humor and break away from the tainted trance of how words are being misused (Mercury), so that you can use your Mars to act courageously in alignment with what is yours to bring forth.
Remember - it’s all hands on deck.
What you must bring is worth as much as the next person's. This is a collective potluck, so bring your casserole, your bag of chips, or homemade apple pie. All are welcome.
The age of Air Dragons and New Excalibur
If you enjoyed my last post exploring the planetary transits as a fantasy story, there’s more coming. Right now, I’m considering intercalating it between posts and serializing it. So if you haven’t read it yet, check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.
I’m letting the planetary characters take room in my mind, while calling on the Muses to help me out. Stay tuned!
Enjoy & Thrive!
Vanessa Couto
