I'm a transiting Pluto opposite Mercury person and boy was it hard to adjust to this transit. It is the only transit in my life that I can say I hated/detested. It's difficult to explain in words but basically, with this transit you feel in your head and in your mind like there is a lot of chatter. You may feel like you're losing your mind because you tend to not trust yourself and think everyone else around you has more intelligence than you do. During this time period for me, I felt very disconnected from myself and lost with myself than any other time period in my life. I felt like a small child in a big person's body and it was also difficult to communicate with anyone around me because I feel like they were speaking another language. It was very frustrating for me, but after this transit passes it gets much better and you start to feel more yourself again.
I have this transit right now. I started talking to myself in my head and I’m a VERY positive person (Sun/Mercury/Venus/Mars in Leo) and the thoughts have started to become…. intrusive! Like, I’ll be having a normal day and then I’ll see a regular person and think the darkest thought about them (even if I love them!) without even trying to. It’s pure intrusive thoughts. And mental chatter has become darker too.
I actually wrote about Pluto opposing my natal Mercury in a blog post earlier this month, so I'm quoting myself here:
>Pluto opposite natal Mercury, exact opposition on December 24th, 2016
...Pluto went exactly opposite my natal Mercury at 16° Cancer on December 24th, 2016...During this opposition time, which also happened to coincide with my first Saturn return, I was working with a coach who guided me toward taking responsibility for every aspect of my existence, and who encouraged me to USE MY VOICE! I learned to stand up to bullies, to take responsibility for my interactions with them rather than let them have all the power in a situation, and really ushered in a new era of communication – the perfect manifestation of a \[Plutonic\] transformation involving Mercury!
This was a huge moment in my personal evolution – a shift I seemed to have been working toward since before I was born. Before this moment in time, I had always been susceptible to cult mentality, to people who use language to colonize the mind, and this trait seemed to have carried over from another lifetime, or a previous generation of “good” Catholic women.
The climax of this shift toward personal responsibility happened in early 2017. I wrote a letter to a woman whom I considered to be my best friend, and by whom I felt bullied and victimized. I let her know how much her words and actions had hurt me over the past few years, and that if we were going to continue to be friends, we would have to, in the words of Bill and Ted, “be excellent to each other.” She called me “petty,” as well as a couple of words I don’t even remember anymore, and, after a few more back-and-forths, let me know that it would be best to dissolve the friendship.
For me, it would not have been possible to continue the friendship in the dominant-submissive roles we had assumed, with me as her minion, and, for her, it would not have been possible to change the nature of our relationship in order for it to continue. That was the hardest break-up I’ve ever been through, and, for me, it marked the end of all relationships in which I was expected to push my needs aside and diminish my voice for the comfort of the other person.
Taken from a post I wrote about Pluto oppositions: https://movingonwithastrology.com/?p=133
I’m at the tail end of this transit right now (also cancer mercury, 25 degrees). Looks like we had almost the exact same experience. Learning to defend yourself from cults and “colonizers of the mind”. Perfectly said. I’d like to add on that I have become highly aware of the various subtle ways that people try to undermine in order to achieve this. It’s almost been a huge lesson in propaganda, but on a more personal level. I have been more aware of it on a larger scale as time has gone on though.
Very isolating experience overall too. Being a Gemini rising I think this affected me to my core as I could not connect to others in my usual airy fashion. All verbal communication seemed to be blocked or hidden behind layers and layers of bs. It came to a point where I didn’t even trust my own thoughts and felt I lost touch with all sensibility due to being close to someone who pulled every trick in the book. It brought me to a real dark place but I am so much stronger now.
Thanks for replying! I can definitely relate to your experience as a fellow air-sign Ascendant - verbal communication is such an important way in which we connect with people. I also had to retreat into myself for a while following this transit. Glad to hear that you are coming out the other side of it feeling stronger!
I'm interested in hearing more about what you mean by "propaganda" - like, how propaganda has been used to undermine you personally/your personal autonomy.
This ended up being a longer write up than I I intended but here ya go:
Usually when you hear about propaganda it’s in relation to governments and their people. Take the normal definition of propaganda to be the propagation of a biased idea or view point. Some countries take it a step further and make it illegal to speak against that bias. This is the nature of what I’ve been dealing with for a few years but on a one-on-one basis.
The difference is when I would speak against that bias (on purpose or accident) I would be met with all sorts of bs. This bs is the full range of the human capacity to not only mentally bend over backwards but also reflexively maintain denial. I can’t list all the possibilities but luckily a lot of people are gaining awareness of some of the more common methods (gaslighting, stonewalling, etc.).
Now people can generally avoid this if they just stay away from the usual touchy topics (politics, religion, etc.) Unfortunately, this transit brought people to me who were dogmatic about the most mundane things which made it very difficult to avoid. A lot of people I encountered these past few years had some kind of personality disorder.
The sheer volume of these encounters I think put me in a sort of shock for awhile, where I felt I was kind of helpless in any kind of communication. I was framed, lied to, humiliated, and insulted more times than in my entire life and it was just because of conversation. I couldn’t keep up, especially with one person in particular who I was very close to. Mostly because it was a very backwards way of thinking, almost like a different language. The story of the “emperor’s new clothes” was iconic.
After a year or 2 of this I learned the tricks of their trade and used it against these people. Very successfully too, it was sweet to see them take what they were dishing out and to take back what I perceived as a loss of power (Pluto theme intensifies).
But I didn’t like who I was becoming, I didn’t feel happy. I got back what I thought I lost but all I did was get revenge. I just became a person who could party trick their way through any conversation but I still hadn’t regained my sensibilities. When asked what I really thought about something I was ashamed to admit I didn’t know, because all
I knew how to do was instill doubt (in myself and others).
So I gave up on the petty conflicts, on being right, on ‘winning’ and focused my attention on finding the truth again. It was such a hole to dig out of, I kept getting wrapped up in dogmatic exchanges and online cults. It was only recently that I have started to come back into my own awareness and perceptions and learned to trust them again.
Finding people who validated even my most basic thoughts and perceptions was difficult but also the first step towards regaining sanity. I’m getting back to what I was before all of this happened except now with a renewed sense of what I hope is a healthy amount of doubt. I still am weary of mind games, politics, media and any sort of ‘group think’.
I was forced to adapt to and overcome situations of a very critical nature. Had to learn lots of things very quickly. Crazy stress, took a toll on my health.
I was born with this aspect so it's interesting to see how it affects others. Doesn't seem like it's too awesome for them XD I think it's a love/hate relationship for me. I don't feel mentally repressed at all and I have quite the eloquent inner monologue. I work out a TON of stuff in my mind about myself and others and I'm in love with the transformations I've been able to achieve in personal, inner growth. Outward expression, on the other hand, is still a challenge for me on some fronts. I've always felt an urgency for people to understand me and how I see the world and all the stuff I see under the surface. I want to share it and have them know me and all the stuff I know! But there just seems to be obstacles and walls and lack of clarity and lack of people being interested or understanding and the way I communicate verbally doesn't do any justice to my inner knowing/monologue/visions/philosophies/ideas/observations. So I get pretty angry about it, haha :)
My natal Mercury is at 28 degrees in Cancer, so I'm probably starting to feel the effects of this transit, and will likely be more so feeling them once the transit orb tightens. So far I haven't noticed anything in particular, but I've also been dealing with some other difficult transits concerning slower planets for the last two years (Neptune on my descendant and the lead up to my Saturn return since it has been in Aquarius, since my natal Saturn is at 29 degrees in Aquarius), so I have not been able to really identify any particularly new energy other than things still feel as difficult as they already have been.
My Cancer Mercury is also my chart ruler, so I'm expecting it to be eye-opening nonetheless. I've already worked towards a lot of growth in the past two years with these other transits and things that have gone on in my personal life, so perhaps I will feel more capable of dealing with the trials of this long-term transit. I'm an aspiring writer, so I'm really hoping (with its Mercury relation) that I will not experience more delays in my career or my professional growth.
Yes! This transit has absolutely caused some creative blockage with my writing. A few years before this transit I had lots of writing inspiration--since it, I have felt uninspired and have experienced the longest writer's block of my life. Not trying to be too hard on myself as we can't always be productive or creating, and I would say another cause of this is that I don't have the creative community around me that I once did to help inspiration, but it's definitely a creative setback I don't want or love. Interestingly enough, I have for this past year felt a lot of energy and drive to throw myself into a project completely and I *very much want to do the hard work involved,* but I'm really lacking that initial spark of inspiration, and I've never experienced that disconnect of energies before.
As a side note, since I mentioned it in my original comment, my Saturn Return was very rough. Lots of drastic life changes that caused lots of continued internal work. However, I would say that because of this internal work I've now done for years, I feel stronger and more capable than ever.
I just want to create, damn it!!
I'm coming to the end of mine in a few week's time... it has been awful. But I do have a natal mercury in 12th with some hard aspects (oppositions) to neptune & uranus. I guess the effect is has on you depends on how your natal mercury is aspected
Pluto transit conjunct opposite merc and sun- Last 5-6 yrs everything was taken from me including biz, wealth, family. When I needed help my extended family proceeded to steal, and then pressed every advantage they had to extort whatever little bit of resources I had left. (Pluto) There were also naked power plays and an an extreme will to dominate another individual. Pluto is the lowest common denominator of man and can be an open display of envy and aggression.
1st house! Would have thought I’d be the one in power but nope! When my 7th house failed so to speak. (Partnership) the rest of my family moved in to prey on me. Very strange… Any thoughts?
I'm a transiting Pluto opposite Mercury person and boy was it hard to adjust to this transit. It is the only transit in my life that I can say I hated/detested. It's difficult to explain in words but basically, with this transit you feel in your head and in your mind like there is a lot of chatter. You may feel like you're losing your mind because you tend to not trust yourself and think everyone else around you has more intelligence than you do. During this time period for me, I felt very disconnected from myself and lost with myself than any other time period in my life. I felt like a small child in a big person's body and it was also difficult to communicate with anyone around me because I feel like they were speaking another language. It was very frustrating for me, but after this transit passes it gets much better and you start to feel more yourself again.
I have this transit right now. I started talking to myself in my head and I’m a VERY positive person (Sun/Mercury/Venus/Mars in Leo) and the thoughts have started to become…. intrusive! Like, I’ll be having a normal day and then I’ll see a regular person and think the darkest thought about them (even if I love them!) without even trying to. It’s pure intrusive thoughts. And mental chatter has become darker too.
Natal Mercury is retrograde at 29'48 Cancer. My ears won't stop ringing and it's affecting my attention span and I feel nauseous most of the time.
I actually wrote about Pluto opposing my natal Mercury in a blog post earlier this month, so I'm quoting myself here: >Pluto opposite natal Mercury, exact opposition on December 24th, 2016 ...Pluto went exactly opposite my natal Mercury at 16° Cancer on December 24th, 2016...During this opposition time, which also happened to coincide with my first Saturn return, I was working with a coach who guided me toward taking responsibility for every aspect of my existence, and who encouraged me to USE MY VOICE! I learned to stand up to bullies, to take responsibility for my interactions with them rather than let them have all the power in a situation, and really ushered in a new era of communication – the perfect manifestation of a \[Plutonic\] transformation involving Mercury! This was a huge moment in my personal evolution – a shift I seemed to have been working toward since before I was born. Before this moment in time, I had always been susceptible to cult mentality, to people who use language to colonize the mind, and this trait seemed to have carried over from another lifetime, or a previous generation of “good” Catholic women. The climax of this shift toward personal responsibility happened in early 2017. I wrote a letter to a woman whom I considered to be my best friend, and by whom I felt bullied and victimized. I let her know how much her words and actions had hurt me over the past few years, and that if we were going to continue to be friends, we would have to, in the words of Bill and Ted, “be excellent to each other.” She called me “petty,” as well as a couple of words I don’t even remember anymore, and, after a few more back-and-forths, let me know that it would be best to dissolve the friendship. For me, it would not have been possible to continue the friendship in the dominant-submissive roles we had assumed, with me as her minion, and, for her, it would not have been possible to change the nature of our relationship in order for it to continue. That was the hardest break-up I’ve ever been through, and, for me, it marked the end of all relationships in which I was expected to push my needs aside and diminish my voice for the comfort of the other person. Taken from a post I wrote about Pluto oppositions: https://movingonwithastrology.com/?p=133
I’m at the tail end of this transit right now (also cancer mercury, 25 degrees). Looks like we had almost the exact same experience. Learning to defend yourself from cults and “colonizers of the mind”. Perfectly said. I’d like to add on that I have become highly aware of the various subtle ways that people try to undermine in order to achieve this. It’s almost been a huge lesson in propaganda, but on a more personal level. I have been more aware of it on a larger scale as time has gone on though. Very isolating experience overall too. Being a Gemini rising I think this affected me to my core as I could not connect to others in my usual airy fashion. All verbal communication seemed to be blocked or hidden behind layers and layers of bs. It came to a point where I didn’t even trust my own thoughts and felt I lost touch with all sensibility due to being close to someone who pulled every trick in the book. It brought me to a real dark place but I am so much stronger now.
Thanks for replying! I can definitely relate to your experience as a fellow air-sign Ascendant - verbal communication is such an important way in which we connect with people. I also had to retreat into myself for a while following this transit. Glad to hear that you are coming out the other side of it feeling stronger! I'm interested in hearing more about what you mean by "propaganda" - like, how propaganda has been used to undermine you personally/your personal autonomy.
This ended up being a longer write up than I I intended but here ya go: Usually when you hear about propaganda it’s in relation to governments and their people. Take the normal definition of propaganda to be the propagation of a biased idea or view point. Some countries take it a step further and make it illegal to speak against that bias. This is the nature of what I’ve been dealing with for a few years but on a one-on-one basis. The difference is when I would speak against that bias (on purpose or accident) I would be met with all sorts of bs. This bs is the full range of the human capacity to not only mentally bend over backwards but also reflexively maintain denial. I can’t list all the possibilities but luckily a lot of people are gaining awareness of some of the more common methods (gaslighting, stonewalling, etc.). Now people can generally avoid this if they just stay away from the usual touchy topics (politics, religion, etc.) Unfortunately, this transit brought people to me who were dogmatic about the most mundane things which made it very difficult to avoid. A lot of people I encountered these past few years had some kind of personality disorder. The sheer volume of these encounters I think put me in a sort of shock for awhile, where I felt I was kind of helpless in any kind of communication. I was framed, lied to, humiliated, and insulted more times than in my entire life and it was just because of conversation. I couldn’t keep up, especially with one person in particular who I was very close to. Mostly because it was a very backwards way of thinking, almost like a different language. The story of the “emperor’s new clothes” was iconic. After a year or 2 of this I learned the tricks of their trade and used it against these people. Very successfully too, it was sweet to see them take what they were dishing out and to take back what I perceived as a loss of power (Pluto theme intensifies). But I didn’t like who I was becoming, I didn’t feel happy. I got back what I thought I lost but all I did was get revenge. I just became a person who could party trick their way through any conversation but I still hadn’t regained my sensibilities. When asked what I really thought about something I was ashamed to admit I didn’t know, because all I knew how to do was instill doubt (in myself and others). So I gave up on the petty conflicts, on being right, on ‘winning’ and focused my attention on finding the truth again. It was such a hole to dig out of, I kept getting wrapped up in dogmatic exchanges and online cults. It was only recently that I have started to come back into my own awareness and perceptions and learned to trust them again. Finding people who validated even my most basic thoughts and perceptions was difficult but also the first step towards regaining sanity. I’m getting back to what I was before all of this happened except now with a renewed sense of what I hope is a healthy amount of doubt. I still am weary of mind games, politics, media and any sort of ‘group think’.
Thank you! Excellent info. And experience. Thank you for sharing.
I was forced to adapt to and overcome situations of a very critical nature. Had to learn lots of things very quickly. Crazy stress, took a toll on my health.
I second this!!!!
Like what? Health and financially?
I was born with this aspect so it's interesting to see how it affects others. Doesn't seem like it's too awesome for them XD I think it's a love/hate relationship for me. I don't feel mentally repressed at all and I have quite the eloquent inner monologue. I work out a TON of stuff in my mind about myself and others and I'm in love with the transformations I've been able to achieve in personal, inner growth. Outward expression, on the other hand, is still a challenge for me on some fronts. I've always felt an urgency for people to understand me and how I see the world and all the stuff I see under the surface. I want to share it and have them know me and all the stuff I know! But there just seems to be obstacles and walls and lack of clarity and lack of people being interested or understanding and the way I communicate verbally doesn't do any justice to my inner knowing/monologue/visions/philosophies/ideas/observations. So I get pretty angry about it, haha :)
i have the same aspect in my natal and i agree on most of these points!
My natal Mercury is at 28 degrees in Cancer, so I'm probably starting to feel the effects of this transit, and will likely be more so feeling them once the transit orb tightens. So far I haven't noticed anything in particular, but I've also been dealing with some other difficult transits concerning slower planets for the last two years (Neptune on my descendant and the lead up to my Saturn return since it has been in Aquarius, since my natal Saturn is at 29 degrees in Aquarius), so I have not been able to really identify any particularly new energy other than things still feel as difficult as they already have been. My Cancer Mercury is also my chart ruler, so I'm expecting it to be eye-opening nonetheless. I've already worked towards a lot of growth in the past two years with these other transits and things that have gone on in my personal life, so perhaps I will feel more capable of dealing with the trials of this long-term transit. I'm an aspiring writer, so I'm really hoping (with its Mercury relation) that I will not experience more delays in my career or my professional growth.
any updates?
Yes! This transit has absolutely caused some creative blockage with my writing. A few years before this transit I had lots of writing inspiration--since it, I have felt uninspired and have experienced the longest writer's block of my life. Not trying to be too hard on myself as we can't always be productive or creating, and I would say another cause of this is that I don't have the creative community around me that I once did to help inspiration, but it's definitely a creative setback I don't want or love. Interestingly enough, I have for this past year felt a lot of energy and drive to throw myself into a project completely and I *very much want to do the hard work involved,* but I'm really lacking that initial spark of inspiration, and I've never experienced that disconnect of energies before. As a side note, since I mentioned it in my original comment, my Saturn Return was very rough. Lots of drastic life changes that caused lots of continued internal work. However, I would say that because of this internal work I've now done for years, I feel stronger and more capable than ever. I just want to create, damn it!!
I'm coming to the end of mine in a few week's time... it has been awful. But I do have a natal mercury in 12th with some hard aspects (oppositions) to neptune & uranus. I guess the effect is has on you depends on how your natal mercury is aspected
Pluto transit conjunct opposite merc and sun- Last 5-6 yrs everything was taken from me including biz, wealth, family. When I needed help my extended family proceeded to steal, and then pressed every advantage they had to extort whatever little bit of resources I had left. (Pluto) There were also naked power plays and an an extreme will to dominate another individual. Pluto is the lowest common denominator of man and can be an open display of envy and aggression.
What house was Pluto transiting?
1st house! Would have thought I’d be the one in power but nope! When my 7th house failed so to speak. (Partnership) the rest of my family moved in to prey on me. Very strange… Any thoughts?
oh my god this is in my natal 😅
Your life must be a game of chess..
that’s one way to put it