Mars enters Cancer tomorrow 3/4/08, making an immediate opposition to Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto fills out the leg of a cardinal t-square involving Sun, Mars and Pluto. With a Scorpio ruled 2nd house cusp, I figured I’d be hit up with a huge bill. And new resolve to become more viable – financially, and as a person. So when an unexpected pain shot from my tooth-nerve to my brain last week, I did my Aries Moon thing:

“Moon, get Dr. Austria on the phone, cancel all appointments, this is really going to set the schedule back (what does a root canal feel like?) We’re going in…”

On the way to the dentist, a girlfriend, who was experiencing a transit of Pluto to 2nd house Chiron in Capricorn (which as you can imagine cannibalized most of the conversation) explored the financial and self-esteem wounding and re-wounding she’s been fielding. Ever since Pluto entered Capricorn, everyone wants to know about money (the Cabaret song, “money, money makes the world go ’round” has been circulating through my mind quite often…). I invited her over for lunch, and when she inquired about the bridge toll en route I suggested she bring a few extra bucks – just in case the price went up by then. I didn’t want to facilitate a “money wounding transformational healing” that day.

Getting a word in edgewise, “So, I gotta go. I’m at the dentist’s. And I just want to be the first to tell you, I’m having this t-square transit to my Sun and this may be the beginning of the end.”

“Oooh, the Sun, she replied. The Moon was easier for me, because it’s internal. But the Sun, everyone can see it…”

Ouch, exposed. And you know how comfortable every water sign is with exposure. And speaking from the perspective of a Pisces recently ended a Pluto transit to Sun, she continued, we have the exceptionally difficult task of holding our identity together while being a functional person, ie leaving the house. Leaving the house (Is it not true that most of us water signs feel emotionally challenged, on a daily basis? Whenever I ask another water sign if they want to do a “fun activity” the standard response is, “maybe in a few weeks…I’m feeling overwhelmed, confused, like laying low _insert word here_ “).

In truth, it doesn’t really feel like the end. What is happening is this: I’m making financial and professional commitments, and I know that if I give my best effort (a combination of spiritual alignment and willingness to do the mundane and personal work) the same Universe that presented this opportunity to step up, will support the intention with respond-a-bility. I imagine, that by saying “yes” to an unexpected financial obligation, or an increased demand from what I’ve felt able to do in the past, to what I’m being asked to do now – I’m saying yes to my ability to do more. And that’s my spiritual self speaking.

Here’s my emotional self, my Aries Moon. “Pluto – that badass – he’s not so scary.”

“Bring it on.”

Okay, well I’m a little scared. Because when you start to embrace the big guy, he imbues one with the kind of smoldering intensification that takes your average teenager, discovering a new side of her self globs of eyeliner, mascara and ripped fishnets to communicate. You can do the whole dance of dark transformation and power in an energetic presence kind of way, unwittingly, or cooperatively (did I mention my next dance performance will be a lap dance?) So I’m (basically) amped up. After all I’m walking around all, like, “I’m falling apart, I need rest” with the emotional demands of your average Sun in Cancer and then I encounter something that draws on my courage- a toothache, a friend who needs help, a husband…and find a crazy powerful new reserve: say an opportunity to earn more money happens the same week I need it, or the friend I’m meant to help teaches me oodles. It’s like Clark Kent finding kryptonite -where did that come from?

Intensification, this viscerally energetic call to life, is the overall feel of Pluto so far. But. That’s just a few weeks or months in. I’ve got years to go. So if the next time you see me, my eyes are bulging out of my head, and I’m making crazy promises, I’m new to these powers. And tomorrow, is a new day. Bring it on.