It’s Monday morning, a winter morning in northern Germany. Outside, light flakes swirl around, settling down on the crunchy old snow of the last few weeks. In my study, it seems like the heater has stopped working. I fiddle around with the knobs, wondering what’s wrong. I bundle up in a knit vest, a sweatshirt, a shawl, a serape, and three pairs of socks.

The stressful and paralyzing Saturn/Pluto square was exact just yesterday, the last day of January. And what that means is that these two heavyweight planets, locked in a tense aspect, will now begin to move apart. They will separate slowly, deliberately, painstakingly, until July. Then in July, Saturn turns direct again, and heads back towards this aspect one more time. Maybe the aspect will be easier next time, when it’s summer?

I wonder if I should go downstairs and make another cup of tea. Or should I go find a space heater? My hands are so cold. This Saturn/Pluto square has been a hard one. I know a lot of people who have been dealing with way too much reality for the last month or so.

Saturn is the planet of structure, and Pluto the planet of transformation. Taken together, Saturn could lend its structural abilities to some deep-level changes. But a square aspect is tense, and so these planets have been at odds with each other. Pluto keeps burrowing down under the Saturnine structures, and exposing their shaky roots. Saturn retaliates by holding its position, one way or another.

For many people, Pluto has exposed all kinds of deep structural flaws. This is the first step in the process of transformation. First you identify what’s wrong, and then you do a deep healing, or a major revamping, or an intense restructuring. But for many, Saturn has gotten in the way of that process. It is the planet of fear, and so it can mean clinging to all the old habits and patterns that need to be tossed.

And Saturn always sounds so reasonable, so pragmatic. “Keep this, it may come in handy someday,” it tells us, as we’re cleaning out the attic. And we end up with all the same crap we had before. But Pluto keeps sending us up to the attic, down to the cellar, looking for ways to get rid of that deadwood. And so Saturn is forced to constantly confront whatever is buried, and whatever is buried is often what is feared most.

The health care bill in the US is a case in point. This is a wonderful opportunity for codifying (a Saturn function) a radical social transformation (a Pluto goal). Instead, we come up against Saturn’s fear-based resistance to change, in the form of a phalanx of non-cooperative Republicans. They talk about “totalitarian health care systems” and “socialized medicine”, ignoring the fact that countries with health care are generally more prosperous than those without.

Meanwhile, the bill becomes more and more watered down. It may end up doing nothing more than scolding a few insurance companies for bad behavior, and this should keep the status quo nicely in place for a few decades more. And everyone will be able to take credit for passing “a health care bill” which doesn’t threaten any established interests.

I wrap my serape more tightly around me. Then I go get the space heater from the guest room, but when I turn it on, it doesn’t work. I think about the warm places in the world. I think about Haiti, flattened by the January 12 earthquake.

No astrologer has ever been able to predict earthquakes, but looking at the birthchart of Haiti, some heavy challenges related to the Saturn/Pluto square are clear.

Haiti has a notable birthchart, as the first country in which African slaves achieved independence. As with the United States, the new nation was formed after a bloody war against its colonial masters. But in many ways, the birthchart of Haiti and that of the US are in conflict. There are oppositions between the two suns, the two moons, and the two Mercuries. And most telling, the nodes are also opposite, showing an important karmic link between the two countries.

At the time of the earthquake, and still now, Pluto conjuncts Haiti’s Mars, and Saturn squares it. Mars has to do with the body and the will, with wounds and cuts, and with violent accidents, and this earthquake certainly was that.

And in typical Pluto fashion, the flawed infrastructure was revealed. This is a country with great mineral wealth and perfect weather, and it would be paradise if the people owned any of their own natural resources. Instead, like so many small tropical countries, it has become a place where wealthy local people have sold everything worthwhile to even wealthier outside interests, leaving the people with almost nothing. And then the land shakes, and even that is gone.

Haiti has been crippled with enormous debts ever since its birth as a nation. And now there are calls for debt relief, with some good responses in this area. At the same time, not all the earthquake help offered is free. Some of it came in the form of grants which will have to be repaid. So it remains to be seen whether Haiti will remain an indentured servant of a country, once the rubble is cleared away.

When the nation of Haiti was born, there was an exact square between Mars and Saturn, between action and resistance. This aspect connected the 9th house (of international interests) and the 12th house (of secrets), so it’s clear that a pattern of invisible international meddling was set. At the time of its rebellion, Mars was stronger, and so there was enough energy then to fight for freedom. But Haiti has paid a high price over the years, and it’s always harder to fight what is invisible.

But Haiti does not have an inauspicious birthchart, in spite of this Mars/Saturn square. With Jupiter at the midheaven trine Pluto, I can see the energy of the phoenix here, and I think Haiti will rise again, and in a new way. And I think the international community will be part of the solution this time. Natural disasters make everything visible, and secret strengths – such as Haiti’s old and powerful spiritual traditions – can emerge at these times too.

And naturally, Saturn fights this process, and this is the time when Saturn’s static nature seems most evident. But stasis is an illusion. We seem to be deep in winter now, but all that will shift. Even when the cold is strongest, there are always forces pushing, pushing for another season, another day.

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