Quite a few of you have been hesitating to make this journey because you've gotten some rather rotten reports about the roughness of the trip out here. The good news is that some people don't react to Pluto transits at all. They stop by, look it over, then head back to Earth wondering what the fuss was all about. Some folks might not even consider Pluto a planet and tell you it is a mere iceball too far away to make any difference in the scheme of life. They throw their tickets into the trash barrel and simply refuse to visit. For others the trip is so subtle and occurs over such a long period of time it isn't even noticed. Some of the less observant still believe this is a planet that only effects generations and is not pertinent to the individual, and even after a trip, don't believe they were here. Quite a few others make the trip but keep all the details a secret.

As always, much depends on the strength and aspects of natal Pluto, and whether there is a simultaneous progressed Pluto aspect. Whether the transit is difficult or easy depends much on the individual character and how you accept the flow of life.

There are good points and bad points to a visit way out here at the furthest reaches of our solar system. The good points include arriving at a location in space from which you can look back at all the other planets and remain "beyond it all." The movements of the Moon are a mere fleeting movement, hardly worth a thought. Martian tiffs and struggles hardly affect anything out here in deep space. ( Heck, if we ever had war on Pluto it would mean total annihilation. Mars is mere silliness from this perspective.) It's enlightening to sit here in the universal rocking chair and watch the cosmic comedies within the earthly solar system unfold. There is a superlative view of other galaxies outside the influence of our Sun, too. If you stay here long enough you even feel a little tug of attraction towards some important great unknown force *out there*. The skies are clear here. There is no atmosphere to clutter up the view. Sometimes it seems as though you have X-Ray vision because you can see every particle and it's essence spread out against the backdrop of the Sun. It is quiet and peaceful here, too. Not that many people come to stay for any length of time. The trip was time consuming and arduous, and even dangerous. But well worth the price of the ticket.

Of course getting here can be a bit of a challenge. It is a long journey far away from the familiar. Rumors abound of travelers having brushes with death, secret sexual molestation, and being chased by space monsters that creep up in the dark. The trip does have a few pitfalls.

Some visitors have a problem dealing with all the personal angst of living on earth and when handed a ticket for a Pluto transit that they dislike, moan and groan and holler, "Hey, life played a dirty trick on me!"

Pluto is not a trickster, that is Neptune's forte. Neptune fogs up our vision so we don't see things as they are. Sometimes the fog comes in the guise of drugs, or alcohol, or merely wallowing in our own feelings of guilt. When Neptune is operative we mix up *us* with *them* and accuse other people of exactly what we ourselves are doing. It is confusing and difficult to sift truth from fiction. Once Pluto goes back outside Neptune's orbit we won't see all this whining about the trip to Pluto. Poor dears mistakenly think they're heading for glamorous Neptune and get dropped off at Pluto's landing strip instead. They want to float in the compassionate seas of Neptunian dreams and sail off on voyages of imaginary splendor. They arrive with all their bags and baggage ready for a pleasure orgy.

Pluto, however, acts as a cosmic enema and removes all the *stuff* we don't need. The insides are in a turmoil while the process goes on. It's not pleasant of course. We have to face some really nasty things that emerge from within. However, the things we lose aren't essential anymore as their purpose has been served. It is sometimes painful to admit this. We want to hold on to these things and keep them, but if we do , we get terribly ill and poison our system. Then we're back in the realm of Neptune and becoming One with the universe, even if that universe happens to be our own squalid inner workings. Maybe we retain that poisonous excrement because we aren't ready to take that next step onto the last outpost of the known universe, and face the message of Pluto.

Yet we who survive Pluto transits are in some way better for it, because the truth is that all this gruesome, unpleasant cosmic "crap" is out of our systems, once and for all.

We eventually let it go. It's ours to begin with. We made it. It's ours. It's natural we want to keep something that we possess. It is a part of us, but we eventually relieve ourselves of this burden that makes us feel full. Maybe we hate parting with it because we're afraid of being empty, afraid there will be nothing there to replace it with.

We let go and perhaps are enriched by the fertilizer surrounding us.

Then again, maybe we drown in it because we don't have the sense to use it as nature intended, or because we are still under the impression we are in Neptune's realm.

Think about what you can grow in all the rich muck churned up by the Pluto transit, if you don't try to keep it all to yourself. Look what can happen if you spread it around your personal garden and till it into some soil. You can plant something lovely or do something beneficial and enriching for the earth and it's creatures. If you plant one good tree, it may give you pleasure and enjoyment and a sense of accomplishment, but it may also bear fruit to feed the hungry, give birds a place to roost, provide shade on a hot day, and give off oxygen so that all can breathe. The benefits are there for many to use. The universe can benefit from one tree that you nurture.

The pain of a Pluto transit comes not from the trip itself, but from not releasing the unneeded, and attempting to stave off inevitable endings. The anguish comes from letting unnecessary accumulations pile up where you can smell them constantly. (People will even avoid you due to the foul cosmic miasma surrounding you!) Try to keep it for yourself and you will end up a miserable, smelly, filthy creature. Plutonian offal is much more useful tilled back into the ground to enrich the earth, doing a service for the world around you, and much healthier for everyone that way.

Don't fling it at others and waste it in a fit of anger over how the universe treats you. (Anyway, it might get flung back. Then you are no better off than before, and smell even worse!) You're only experiencing turmoil because you are fighting a natural process.

Pluto rules a fixed sign. The natural reaction is to resist change. Some are more resistant and have more turmoil and upheaval than others because they have more to dispose of in their lives.

Bravely go forward with a new life and leave the old behind. Use the leftovers from the old life to build a better life.

Pluto happens.

However, good "fertilizer" itself doesn't *just* happen!! You have to make a compost heap and let things chemically alter into something more useful and safe for mother earth. Recycle your waste products! Those leftover egg shells, rotten apples, and used coffee grounds will never be edible again, just as *that* relationship, or *that* job, is no longer useful in your life, so why cry over them? Put them in your cosmic compost heap and let the transformation begin! Eventually the resultant broken down compounds will provide food for better plants, bigger crops, and growth of your own spirit. The next time around it is much easier, because the soil will be much richer. Start looking at constructive answers instead of destructive ones. Don't keep your Pluto excretions such a secret. Bring them out into the light. Dump them in a cosmic dung heap and let the next process begin. Share your bounty with the universe by giving back something to the world.

"The Mind has a Jockey, the Horse is NOT the Boss"

There is a core of energy within that every living person can tap into which makes external events, transits, progressions, and every journey but an insignificant part of the flow of life. Direct your energies towards a goal. The goal is the point, not the signposts. Pluto is only an outpost along the way.

Still hesitant to just jump right onto the transporter and come on out and enjoy Pluto? Scared to share your inner secrets? Afraid to learn some cosmic truths and see the underlying workings of the entire solar system with X-ray eyes? Are your dainty sensibilities offended by the thought of watching fermentation of putrid human droppings? Not ready to accept a little upheaval and unpleasantness in exchange for starting all over again with a whole new view on life? Then consider this, " Churning Creates Cream." Only the best, purest, and the sweetest is left after the churning. Without the churning all you have is plain ordinary milk.

If that doesn't speak to you, remember the immortal words of Erma Bombeck, "The grass is always greener over the septic tank."