Pluto in Gate 54 – The Marrying Maiden

On 8th March 2015 we begin a new cycle of soul transformation.  Pluto brings an end to survival of the fittest.  We are shifting from the idea of us against them, into a time of mystical relationships uniting heaven on earth.  Ahhhhhhh I hear you say!  That’s a relief!

As Pluto moves out of the Gate of Opposition (38) and into the Marrying Maiden (54) we are moving beyond struggling to survive and into a time of manifestation as a pleasurable experience.  This means we have to move out of all our conceptions of linear time and into a more liminal space where physical density is only one aspect of our reality and creation means more than making widgets on a production line.  It’s time for the human race, or at least a certain critical mass, to begin creating at higher levels of intention and love.

Like me, you may have tired of the terrorism and adrenalised struggle to survive that has accompanied Pluto in the Gate of Opposition (38) since January 2013.  While Pluto will spend some time back in the Gate of Opposition during 2015, the tide has turned.

The new Plutonian themes, which will be with us between now and October 2019, are:

• stepping into a new capacity to keep pace with sudden and complete change
• opening to our spirit dropping deeply into our physical bodies and our mundane reality
• discovering our higher purpose hidden within the seed of our personal ambition
• consciously moving into relationships that are based on love, caring and affection rather than being compelled to play out our old relationship stories
• a rising aspiration to move up the ladder of the spiritual hierarchy
• learning obedience to higher laws
• finding the support and connections we need to step out of survival based relationships like jobs and old world marriages
• staying within ourselves and allowing the universe to co-create with us, rather than going outside ourselves and pushing to make things happen

The most interesting thing to me about this long term transit is there are almost no connections between Pluto and other planets during the entire 5 year period.  The most significant event is when Jupiter transits in Gate 32 between December 2016 and March 2017.  Other than that, pretty much nada!  Compare that to Pluto in Gate 38, with it’s ongoing relationship with Neptune in the same circuit in Gate 55, which brought us some very intense upgrades.  It may indicate that the focus is off Pluto for a while, that this may be quite a gentle transit.

Pluto in the Root Centre

Pluto moved into the Root Centre in November 2010, beginning a period of transformation of our adrenal system. Terror, fear, depression, it’s been a wild ride both personally and globally.  We have certainly seen terrorism come to the fore, particularly since Pluto moved into the Gate of Opposition (38) in January 2013.  And our own inner terror has been getting a run for it’s money as well, being brought into consciousness and exposed for what it is – simply a set of inner beliefs that conflict with each other.

The Root Centre will not open to physical manifestation until we achieve coherence between our conscious and subconscious frequencies. I’m not talking in strictly Human Design terms here, this is not about the Design and Personality activations.  Rather, it’s all the suppressed material that has us creating an abundance of what we don’t want in our lives, rather than an abundance of what we do want.

As we move more and more into that kind of conscious coherence of thought and being, all the other Centres are activated and full manifestation is birthed. Pluto in Gate 38 has been re-coding our dna for a post-survivalist world and supporting coherence in our capacity for both relationship and physical manifestation.

Beyond Thriving

What happens when we have learnt the skills of thriving? Who and what do we become?  Can you feel your own capacity to be beyond any idea of surviving and naturally flourishing in each moment?  The effort of Pluto in Gate 54 is in learning to let go of efforting, to surrender to the greater forces at work in your life, and to discipline yourself to the new skills of creation.

As we create from each moment of what is, each one of us becomes something unique and wonderful.  Without needing to plan for it other than through our desires and intentions, we become indispensible to the evolution of life.

The Essence of The Marrying Maiden

The Gates in Human Design are based on the I Ching.  These I Ching metaphors tell us so much about the essential meaning of any Gate in Human Design.

Hexagram 54 in the I Ching tells the story of a younger woman in a marriage with an older man.  She’s the second wife and must find her way without much in her favour.

This Gate informs us about coming second.  Where are we not making ourselves primary in our own lives?  In what ways must we adapt when circustances seem not to be in our favour? It’s not just about marriage, but any new undertaking or phase.

The are two threads here, and they seem contradictory at first.

• Who are we obeying if we find ourselves opposing our own will?
  • Are we choosing a subordinate position and giving up our responsibility to make our own life choices?  Why would we put ourselves in a position where we are secondary in our own lives?  What are we avoiding?  I often work with personal clients on giving themselves permission to want what they want.  There is a sort of pleading quality to much of our dialogue about our own desires … if only!  what if I could!  I wonder when!  Maybe not exactly what I want, but this lesser version may be acceptable!  (to whom?)

• How can we develop our skills to surrender to our own higher spiritual aspirations?
  • Pluto in Gate 54 is nothing if not a call to deep transformation of our own ambition, to put our life towards a greater goal. What new skills do we need to navigate this landscape?  What greater version of ourselves are we becoming?

And there is one more theme that is significant, and very intriguing.

• How can we develop our skills to deal with sudden and complete changes in our life circumstances?
  • This Gate activates sudden shifts that put us in a completely new and unknown circumstances ( as in the metaphor of marriage in the hexagram).  Life is moving faster and we need skills that support us to live in uncertainty and create from our hearts, especially when we are creating the road ahead rather than following it.

There is a very significant transit in 2015 that shows how important it is for us to develop the skills to find our own unique pathway through the uncertainty and chaos.

From 16 July 2015 till 13 August 2015 Jupiter combines with the North Node to form a channel connecting the Sacral to the G Centre.  (more on the Centres here) This channel is about going with the flow, no matter how scary that might be, as we sprout an entirely new and personally unique way of being in the world.

Also from that date – 16 July – till 29 November 2015 we get Uranus combining with the South Node to form a channel connecting the Will Centre to the G Centre.   (more on the Centres here)  This channel is about learning to transcend our conditioned responses to circumstances, to return quickly to our hearts and hold ourselves in a place of love and balance.  It is the only channel emanating from the G Centre that is purely about the evolvement of greater individuality.

These are powerful indicators that 2015 holds opportunities for us to leap into a whole new sense of who we are as individuals, create relationships with tremendous transformative power, and to redefine what we are here to create.

 Doing Relationships Now

Hexagram 54 is one of four hexagrams in the I Ching that relate directly to relationships.  The others are Hexagram 32 (permanent ongoing relationships), Hexagram 31 (mutual affection), Hexagram 53 (the proper arrangement of marriage).

Gate 54 is superficially about a young girl being taken into an older man’s household as a second wife.  Her aspirations to have her own household are subsumed under the need to adapt to her secondary place and her role is primarily to support the first wife and maintain harmony in the household. Her own needs are not of any account in the arrangement.  Usually she would have ended up as a second wife because her family couldn’t afford anything better for her.

You may see that there are parallels in your own life, places where your own needs have been put aside for the sake of tradition, harmony or financial security.  These kinds of compromises are woven so deeply into our cultural landscape that we barely notice them, or take them completely for granted.  I so often hear people saying things like – well, it’s what you have to do to make a living.  Or, she made a good match for herself there, she’ll always be looked after in that marriage.  Etc.

Pluto in Gate 54 is putting us on notice that these kinds of compromises are no longer going to be comfortable.  It’s time for us to strike out on our own journey where our own desires come first.  This is the new stream of harmony and security.

There are also parallels with the desire to grow spiritually, where we must surrender to a greater force even when we feel the risk of giving up our own plans at the ego level.

It’s interesting to me that the genders here are the feminine giving up their will to the needs of the patriarchal marriage arrangements that are designed purely to meet the man’s needs both sexual and domestic.  One of the most difficult aspects of coming into Human Design for me was the inherent sexism in the I Ching.  It helped when I got myself a copy of Carol Anthony’s book and I coulde translate to something that I was more at home with.

For hexagram 54 Anthony says: Each time we face a problem where we feel we have little influence three choics appear: we allow things to work out, force advance or abandon the problem all together. This hexagram advises us on how to allow things to work out by maintaining our inner truth and independence while under the pressure of adversity.  When we force our way or abandon the situation we may attain some kind of victory but it keeps us trapped in conformity rather than achieving the change of heart and willing adherence we really seek. 

Our relationships are key to our evolvement.  We are nearly done with the old projections and compulsions.  These new relationship fractals hold the energy of true creation.  It’s not necessarily easy, but the key is to stay with the process even when we feel we have little control or influence, not to force or abandon the situation.  It is this process that releases the deeper mystical relationship into the light of day as if through alchemy, and brings forth the transformation inherent in the coming together.

Transforming Money

In conventional Human Design, Gate 54 is part of the channel of Transformation which represents our ambition fueled by consistent effort and motivated by the desire to be recognised in order to better our position within the hierarchy of the ‘tribe’.

What happens when your value to others comes from being the most uniquely and amazingly you that you can be?  I feel like Dr Suess could write a book about that!  This is very different from the common belief in working for a living.  We no longer have to go outside ourselves to force life to provide for us.  In fact, in 2015 that old approach will begin to feel unbearable.

What does it mean to stay inside ourselves?  What does it mean not to breach our own natural shape and way of being out of fear that we won’t survive?  In the past few years of Pluto in Gate 38 we have learnt what being in survival mode does to our decision making – it takes on a blinkered short term nature.  As we have learnt to be more at ease, our decision making has opened into a more expansive and relaxed place, giving us more options that are inherently nurturing.  We will learn to come from that relaxed place more and more as Pluto moves through Gate 54.

There is a subtle interaction here between the individual and the tribe or community, where our efforts need to be of value to the greater good of those who we share our lives with.  There is a lot of old energy here, especially because money is such a strong symbol for our thriving, freedom, choice, and is so deeply woven into our dna survival stories. It’s a huge leap of faith to hold true to ourselves against prevailing beliefs, and allow life to bring to us all we desire, rather than going out (outside ourselves) and struggling to gather it to us manually.  Human Design brings such incredible tools to support us in this process.

We are on the cusp of releasing beliefs about money that create lack.  We are coming to the end of the time when huge amounts of community prosperity could be syphoned off to a few leaving the remainder of people on this planet feeling hungry and suppressing a desperate greed and need.

Uniting Heaven and Earth

Gate 54 talks about relationships as a way of uniting heaven and earth.  Of course most of us have experienced the opposite, but over the next few years the way we do relationships is shifting dramatically.

The last vestiges of marriage and relationship based on ownership, financial considerations and making futures secure are going out the window.  All our relationships are moving into the territory of soul.  Sometimes it might not feel that way, but remember the process of alchemy.  We can stay with the moment and allow the lead to be transformed to gold because of the growing and true affection between us.  They key is we are not relating from fear or a sense of compulsion, but a knowing of what it is possible for us to create.

Are you aware of times when you push outside of yourself?  When you do too much, say yes when you mean no, compromise what you truly want or accept less than you feel you deserve?  Do you feel a gap between who you know you are meant to be and who you seem to be today?  These are the places where lack has driven us in the past.

Pluto in Gate 54 is closing that gap. Between now and 2019 you will become more and more aligned with your inner knowing of yourself.  Your external and internal sense of self will become the same thing.  Life will show up in ways that make sense to you.  Because, during this period we will be learning how to create an external reality that matches our internal reality.  And when it doesn’t match, we’ll learn what to do to shift things for ourselves.  Give yourself permission to become aware when you feel that gap – when life isn’t reflecting back all you know yourself to be.  And make a conscious choice right now bring the two together. You might just take a moment to close your eyes and feel them step in and blend together.  This is you stepping into your higher spiritual purpose, your greater capacity for coherence.  Life is opening to us and it is time for us to respond.

Important Dates

8 March 2015  Pluto in Gate 54 

18 April 2015  – Pluto in retrograde : 54 line 1

3o May 2015 – Pluto in Gate 38

26 September 2015 – Pluto goes direct : 38 line 4

3 January 2016 – Pluto in Gate 54

19 April 2016 – Pluto in retrograde : 54 line 3

29 August 2016 – Pluto in Gate 38 

27 September 2016 – Pluto goes direct : 38 line 6

25 October 2016 – Pluto in Gate 54

21 April 2017 – Pluto goes retrograde : 54 line 5

30 September 2017 Pluto goes direct : 54 line 2

7 March 2018 – Pluto in Gate 61

11 June 2018 – Pluto in Gate 54

6 January 2019 – Pluto in Gate 61

11 September 2019 – Pluto in Gate 54

25 October 2019 – Pluto in Gate 61.

Image: http://www.tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2012/04/antoine-josse-1970-french-surrealist.html