Pluto the Lord of the Underworld

I pointed out in my previous blog on the Aries Ingress, that two of the issues affecting the nation this quarter, and probably for a good part of the year, involves the collapse of the infrastructure, which could indeed lead to casualties; and moral outrage.

The planet Pluto was named after the Greek god of wealth. He is also often associated with Hades, the lord of the underworld. After the fall of the Titans, Pluto and his brother Zeus (Jupiter) and Poseidon (Neptune) divided the universe between them, giving Pluto everything under the ground. It would be easy to understand in this context, how Pluto would be associated with mines, and tunnels. And on Tuesday, April 6th, Pluto stationed Retrograde in Capricorn, the sign of rocks, minerals, mountains and the earth beneath our feet, which has been trembling and rocking as Pluto has come up against Saturn. Saturn, on his part, has been also retrograde and heading back to Virgo, the sign of the Worker.

As Pluto stations Retrograde he compels us to explore our relationship with power, and the responsibility inherent in having power, as opposed to those in the forsaken position of finding themselves 'powerless', and overwhelmed by insurmountable conditions. On Monday morning, the Moon in Capricorn passed over Pluto, and later that afternoon, as Neptune (toxic gasses) was setting in the West, a huge gas explosion rocked the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, West Virginia, killing at least 25 people.

Pluto has this way of revealing the dark underbelly. Massey Energy Co., the owners of the mine, were cited for numerous violations, including those concerning the necessary air filtration units, that were either missing, or malfunctioning. If Massey Energy Co. had been at all compliant with federal laws, this explosion would have been prevented. In the past 2 months, miners were evacuated 3 times because of dangerously high methane levels. We need to ask, how come if stricter federal laws were supposedly put into effect in 2006 (due to a previous mine explosion) to protect miners, why didn't they prevent this tragedy? How many corrupt politicians (Pluto in Capricorn) turned a blind eye as they had their palms crossed with silver?

At 2 Am Tuesday, when Massey CEO Don Blankenship (escorted by at least a dozen police officers) arrived at the mine to announce the death toll to the families, people become enraged, yelling at him for caring more about profits than lives. In this scenario, Blankenship and Massey represent Pluto in Capricorn at his worst, the wealthy Lord of the Underworld, while the miners are represented by Saturn, returning to Virgo for some unfinished business. And the workers, are not taking this one lying down.