Intro

[00:00:00] This week I would like to talk to you about the final Mercury Pluto conjunction in the Zodiac sign of Capricorn that will be taking place on February 10th.

Mercury-Pluto Conjunction in Capricorn

[00:00:10] At least for us, because Mercury will not conjoin Pluto in the Zodiac sign of Capricorn for another 248 years

[00:00:19] Many times we think, oh, this should be an enormous event. Let’s let’s see what’s going to happen. I wonder if such and such a thing will materialize. That’s not the way that this conjunction is going to work.

[00:00:32]

[00:00:39] This podcast episode is sponsored by Astrology Hubs Academy. Wherever you are on your astrology journey, we have a class that will help you get to the next level.

[00:00:49] Hello, my name is Christopher Renstrom and I’m your weekly horoscope columnist here on Astrology Hub.

[00:00:56] This conjunction between Mercury and Pluto, a conjunction that’s been happening repeatedly.

[00:01:02] At least for once a year, since the year 2009. This is a conjunction that we’ve all gotten used to this conjunction of Mercury and Pluto. And so it’s something that’s, unfolded into our horoscopes. It’s unfolded into our lives, since the year 2009. So this conjunction isn’t going to bring a dramatic event or an extraordinary revelation.

[00:01:26] In fact, this conjunction might very well have. On site unseen, it’s not really one of those great astonishing planetary configurations that take place in the sky. However, for me, as an astrologer, I think it’s a very important conjunction and it’s a very profound one. So let me break it down for you.

Pluto & its Associations

[00:01:49] Pluto was named after the Roman God of the underworld, the third of the three modern planets, the one that was discovered in 1930. So it’s the one that’s really the most recent addition to the astrological pantheon Pluto. Pluto was named after the Roman God of the. Underworld. And his Greek counterpart was Hades and being the Roman god of the underworld, his, kingdom was the kingdom of the dead.

[00:02:17] He basically ruled over all departed souls. And Pluto, hence gets its reputation for being associated with the underworld. Death, this is where it comes from. But the underworld was also understood as a place where, we mine gold and silver and precious metals, diamonds, oil comes from the underworld.

[00:02:41] It comes from underneath the ground. It comes from inside the earth. And so all of those things are also associated to the planet Pluto. In fact, our idea of. , we have a term for it for what we call people who are extremely wealthy, the elite the, billionaires of the world. We refer to them as the plutocracy, because Pluto means wealth.

[00:03:09] That’s where it comes from, so plutocracy literally means the muddied class or the wealthy class. So these are the things that Pluto is associated with. Pluto is also a planet. Expiration dates. It’s the planet that tells us your time is up. Okay? Things have come to an end. Again, we associate that more with our mortality or, death and dying, but expiration dates are things that we have on, all sorts of packages on our refrigerator.

[00:03:41] A deadline. Think about that deadline. Okay? This is when it’s supposed to be done. This is when it’s wrapped up. This is when it’s finished. This is when you turn it in. Is all associated to the planet Pluto in astrology.

Tips for Working with the Transit

[00:03:55] So how I would advise you to work with the energy of this Mercury and Pluto conjunction in Capricorn that’s taking place with February 10th.

[00:04:07] Message to you for this week isn’t that, it’s a prediction, but actually an exercise. It’s, a way to work with the, this particular planetary conjunction and how I would advise you to work with this conjunction is almost to treat it is if you were going to your refrigerator and cleaning it out

[00:04:27] Looking for all the things in the back of the refrigerator, that have reached their expiration date, or they have mold, or it’s been a little while. Things that should be tossed out, things that should be thrown into the garbage. I almost I, want you to almost look at your own psyche as your own personal.

[00:04:45] Refrigerator and for you to go through this psychic refrigerator, your own personal psychic refrigerator beginning on February 10th, and to start looking at the objects that are in it and, determining. You know what has really overstated, its welcome. It’s no longer good. It’s gotten rotten, it’s got mold I can’t even believe it’s in here anymore, and to get rid of it.

[00:05:11] Now, this isn’t some sort of, purging of, your, psychological apparatus that I’m talking about. I’m, not saying that you need to go do some shadow work with, great, force and focus and route out all those you. Off of parts of yourself, that negative self thinking and, replace it with more positive or constructive mantras.

[00:05:34] No, this is not what I am, suggesting at all. I’m actually suggesting a kinder approach, a gentler approach and more importantly, a reflective approach, to different parts of your psyche that have perhaps. Overstayed, they’re welcome or you don’t need them, like you once needed them before.

[00:05:54] Now, what are these different parts of the psyche that I’m talking about? Is it bad habits or, personal indulgences? No, what I’m talking about are defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms inside of you that no longer serve an active purpose. Now defense mechanisms are a good thing.

[00:06:21] Okay. Defense mechanisms are patterns of behavior that we enlist, in service to defend and to protect our psyche. Okay? So, many of the defense mechanisms that we. In our lives are good things. They might not be the best, they might not be, particularly, positive or empowering, but they are defense mechanisms and their job is to protect, okay?

[00:06:47] And it’s to protect the psyche. And it does it in a number of different ways. I’m talking about defense mechanisms that are no longer. Actively, or should I say, consciously employed defense mechanisms that perhaps are no longer necessary? Yes, there is such a thing. Think of it as, the way that your computer does backup files and it keeps doing backup file after backup file off the backup file.

[00:07:17] Repetitively. You don’t need all of those backup files. Maybe perhaps you need the latest backup file or something like that. There’s all sorts of systems that run in the background in a computer that, accumulate information. It’s of referred to as the ghost in the machine.

[00:07:36] It, accumulates information and keeps this information and. Takes up room in the computer or takes up room in the hard drive, and it’s not really all that useful. These are the sorts of defense mechanisms that I’m talking to you about. So how do we identify them? What are they about? What is Christopher talking about?

3 Soldier Stories from World War 2

[00:07:58] I want to tell you a little story. I want to give you a couple of examples. And the example that came to mind when I was reflecting on this week’s, talk with y’all is, this idea of, mercury. Mercury we know is the plan of communication. It’s the planet of messages. All those sorts of things.

[00:08:19] But Mercury is also the planet of the mind. It’s the planet of the way that we think. All right? And so the way that we think is described by Mercury, and Mercury can be in one of 12 signs of the Zodiac. So that means there are 12 different ways to describe the way that we think. So, in looking at, this week’s example of a Mercury Pluto conjunction in Capricorn, what I wanted to take on was the idea of mercury in Capricorn.

[00:08:49] A Capricorn mindset and how it would be connected to the planet of Pluto and what came to mind when I was thinking of defense mechanisms and Capricorn and Pluto, and things that perhaps might have overstayed their welcome or outlived their useful. What came to mind were stories that I remember, hearing about in the 1970s, and these stories.

[00:09:16] Were about Japanese soldiers who had been stationed on different islands in the Pacific, who had not, heard in 1945. They, didn’t know in 1945 or didn’t believe, rather, in 1945 that the war was over. Okay. They, believed very much that the war that Japan was fighting in the Pacific Theater was still going on, and they were manning their posts and they were not going to give up these posts no matter what.

[00:09:49] And so this was, Sort of thing that some soldiers would come in over the years, in the later forties or fifties and things like this. Because Japan did an active campaign, as did the allied forces of getting the word out that the war was over and, things like that.

[00:10:05] But there were these holdouts, there were Japanese soldiers who stayed on these islands for decades after the war had. there were three of them that I remember. The first one was chichi. Yokoi, who was rediscovered on Guam in the year 1972. He was an ex tailor and a conscript, meaning that he had been drafted into the Japanese army and, he was a sergeant.

[00:10:33] And Sergeant Yokoi was perfectly aware by the way that the war had ended, at least by the year 1952, according to his own, . Admission. But the reason that he didn’t give himself. Is because of his Army’s boto code. And that code, was a code that you, enjoy you, participate in self-sacrifice.

[00:10:57] You even would. Commit suicide or give up your life. And this would be an honor to Japan, but what you are not to do, what you are not to do is, opt for self-preservation. And so that he was afraid that because he had been stationed, on this island and, didn’t find out about the end of the war later, he was afraid that if he turned himself.

[00:11:24] That he would be considered a deserter, and that he would be summarily, court marshaled and then executed. So his fear, all right, and I want you to think about this as we go forward into what we’re talking about today, his fear that he would be court marshaled and executed his fear of that happening.

[00:11:46] Made him not want to turn himself in. And so he lived for decades in a hole in the ground, where he lived off the land and, fish and ate insects and things like this. And basically, lived like a wild man in, in the jungle. He was that afraid that he would be executed if he turned himself in, that he had not given his life for his country, as was proof of him still being alive and that he would be executed.

[00:12:16] And it was that fear. I want you to hear the Capricorn here. It was that fear that kept him hidden and, Turning himself in. There was another fellow, he’s actually much more famous of the three. And his name was Hi NoDa. And Hi NoDa was very different from Yokoi.

[00:12:37] He was an elite officer. He was an intelligence officer in the Japanese army in World War ii. And he had been given strict orders. By his commander and group of men had been gi given strict orders by the commander, when Japan was falling to march into the jungle, as far as you could go.

[00:12:59] And then, and to remain hidden, but unlike. Yokoi who, hit himself in a hole out of fear. Okay. They were to remain hidden and then do gorilla maneuvers to take out or kill different people. And, they were to do this until they were given orders, by the, by the commanding officer to.

[00:13:23] To, desist, and this is exactly what and his fellow compatriots did. And they did this for a number of years where and I think they succeeded in maybe killing 30. Filipinos. This was on the island of Luang. They succeeded in killing 30 Luang islanders and wounded about a hundred more in a sporadic gorilla campaign that was fought since 1945 on going into the fifties. Even the sixties. So. what happened is that in 1974 it was down to AODA and one other officer who had finally been killed.

[00:14:07] And so AODA was completely on his own. Now, This wasn’t a Casper Hauser story where they’re locked up in the basement and they didn’t know that World War I had happened and they stumble on the street and meet other people who say, you didn’t know. No, this wasn’t the Al Leonardo knew full well that that, the, that things had moved forward.

[00:14:29] There were airplanes that were flying over him and, for a number of years they would drop leaflets. But when they dropped these, Flits, he and his compatriots were convinced that it was American propaganda. That it was a trick that it was to fool them. And, these leaflet flits would have letters from loved ones or Japanese people saying surrender the war’s over, whatever.

[00:14:52] And they’ve refused to believe it. They absolutely refused to believe it. So in the case of the first fellow where it was fear, In the case of Onoda, it was a refusal to believe not necessarily that the war was over, but that perhaps they might have lost the war, but they still had this mission, which was to conduct gorilla warfare, and he was going to do exactly that.

[00:15:16] So in his case, it’s to To continue to fight because those were the last orders he had been given to go into the jungle and conduct the gorilla warfare.

[00:15:27] So if you think of our defense mechanisms, we can have defense mechanisms that perpetrate themselves. They continue themselves out of fear.

[00:15:36] Okay. Fear that if they yield the field that they will be destroyed. And so we can have in our psyche defense mechanisms that, do this. We can also have in our psyche defense mechanisms that refuse to be convinced. Otherwise. They’ve been given orders. They’ve been given orders by our psyche to To.

[00:15:59] protect and to maybe even maintain gorilla warfare to, serve the interests of the psyche. And so it doesn’t matter how much information our defense mechanisms get to give up the war, that things have changed or something like that, they will persist. They will persist because these are the orders that have been given.

[00:16:18] And this was, very much the story of Onoda Onoda eventually. Was greeted by a 24 year old Japanese kid in 1974 named NIO Suzuki. Nio Suzuki had heard of an NoDa and n Rio. Suzuki was a bit of an eccentric himself. He had a kind of like little a. Bucket list things he was going to do that he wanted to do great searches that he was going to conduct.

[00:16:51] The first item on his list was to find onoda. He had heard about him. The second item on his list was to find a lost herd of pandas, and the third one was to find the Obama Bowl snowman. So, the onoda. First item on his list this, rumor that there was a, an elite Japanese soldier that was somewhere in the jungles of Luang.

[00:17:15] He went on out to find him and did actually, aoda found the kid first and was about to shoot him as the kid was calling out to him in Japanese. But he noticed that the kid was wearing thick woon socks tucked inside sandals, and he knew that there was no way that a Filipino was going to dress like that

[00:17:38] So he trusted that it was a Japanese kid and he came out and introduced himself. And, so he re. Turned hesitantly. And and indeed it was only when his commanding officer was contacted by the Japanese embassy to come to the island to tele NoDa. To Tell him to surrender.

[00:18:03] His commanding officer at this time, I think was a book seller in Japan. So he came to the island to tell AODA to surrender, and that’s finally when AODA did surrender. And then President Marcos at that time gave him a full pardon. So we have how our, defense mechanisms can, continue on under the radar of our conscious mind, out of fear out of fear of being discovered or found.

[00:18:28] We can see how our defense mechanisms can continue without our knowing or are our approval because they’ve been given a mission by our psyche. The mission that they’ve been given by our psyche is to protect and to defend. With the third story. The third story is the story of tier NA Camara, who was the last of the forgotten soldiers, Japanese soldiers to surrender himself.

[00:18:57] In 1974, rumors had reached the Japanese embassy and Jakarta. That there was a soldier hiding out in the jungle, and 11 soldiers were dispatched into the jungle to retrieve him. Now, I think he had been spotted from the air several times, but reaching him, where he had stationed himself, was so remote that it was like a three day climb and travel through treacherous mountain terrain and, jungles.

[00:19:26] They did reach him. They figured out he was somewhere in this jungle area, and what they did is that they had memoriz. The words of it, of the Japanese national anthem from the forties, which they sang aloud to Nakamura, and they also held up pictures of. Okay. I, guess it was here are women and you haven’t seen a woman in a long time, so come look at this beautiful woman.

[00:19:58] Anyway naira could have cared less. He was terrified. He was half starred. He, was was very frightened. And he came out very, sheepishly. And, they greeted him. But like yokoi, he had to be convinced and it took them a number of days that if he went with them that he would not be executed.

[00:20:23] And, eventually they did prevail and eventually they brought him back to Japan, where he was indeed repatriated. When asked at the time by one journalist how he felt about wasting three decades of his life on Morai, which was the island he was on.

[00:20:43] He angrily replied that the years had not been wasted and that he had been serving his country. Okay. So there’s also when we approach. These, defense mechanisms in our own psyche, these defense mechanisms that have been stationed in outposts to defend who we are. When we approach these defense mechanisms, we can’t just turn them off like, a remote or a computer or a light switch or something like that.

[00:21:13] We have to approach them with reassurance. Because they’ve been fighting the good fight as far as they’re concerned. These defense mechanisms of ours, they’ve been fighting the good fight. And so we must approach them with reassurance. And then we also must approach them with respect. These aspects of ourselves have taken great pride.

[00:21:37] and protecting. Think about it. If, there’s a defense mechanism that is retaliatory within you it, always fights back. There’s great pride in doing that. It, it’s believed that was the only way to defend and protect you. Okay? So we have to show, we have to be reassuring in the way that we convince these aspects of ourselves that we don’t need them in the way that we needed them before.

[00:22:06] We need to be reassuring. We need to be respectful. They’ve given up years of their lives. To protect us, and then we need to repatriate in some way. We need to redirect or reassign. Like the Furies at the end of the arisa. If you’re familiar with the Arisa, where they have the trial of arrestees and the furies are like the anger and the vengeance spirits of Kleo, Nestra KLEO.

[00:22:33] Nestra is the mother of arrestees. Arrestees has killed her because she killed. Her husband Aga, who’s also arrestees father. So, arrestees is given this mission to avenge his father, but the only way he can avenge his father is to murder his mother, which is as bad, if not worse, a crime. And the moment that she is murdered by arrestees from her blood spring, the Furies, which are these spirits that the, spirits of the murdered, of the spirits of, people who have been Murdered or slain without justification.

[00:23:09] And so it’s vengeance. And so they haunt the mind. They haunt the mind of arrestees and Hestan trial. And at the end of the trial when arrestees is acquitted by Athena Athena also makes a point of reassigning. The Furies. The Furies are like you’ve robbed us of this. How can you deny us Ven?

[00:23:32] This, boy killed his mother how could you? And so she gives this argument to the Furies, and then she reassigns them as protecting spirits of Athens. Okay? So they go from haunting and, running down the guilty, murderers to becoming spirits of protection and benevolence.

[00:23:53] In fact, they’re renamed the kindly ones at the end of the play. And in a way, we need to do that with. Defense mechanisms. Okay? they’ve, served us well, they’ve done the time in the trenches they’ve followed orders and now we’re saying the war’s over or the need for you is done.

[00:24:12] And so we need to assure them, we need to convince them, and we need to find new places in our psyche for them. Not just unplug them.

Capricorn Defense Mechanisms

[00:24:25] What are these defense mechanisms? Okay. That, that we’re talking about. What are these modes, behavior modes that that are trying to protect us that believe that the job that they’re doing is right, okay?

[00:24:43] They come in different guises, but. The gues that I really wanted to explore with you and for you to think about in the privacy of your own home. These, gues come from a passage that was written by Abu Ashhar, who was an astrologer and, he gives a very lengthy description of Saturn.

[00:25:07] It’s. More lengthy than I could go into here. But there are certain qualities, there are certain characteristics that are assigned to Saturn, which of course is the ruling planet of Capricorn. And, I chose the ones that sounded very capricornian to me. So remember, why am I citing these?

[00:25:24] Things reflect and see if they resonate or make any sense to you. Because what I’m intoning here is Mercury, which is the planet of the way that we think. Okay? In the Zodiac sign of Capricorn. So that describes the temperament. Okay? And then Pluto, things that are underground. Things that are hidden. Pluto could be the avenging spirit of the of the Furies.

[00:25:47] Pluto could be the soldiers protecting. You know what Pluto and Capricorn also does here is protect and defend. Pluto talks about that. Inner most part of ourselves that will struggle to survive no matter what. We ourselves might be like, oh, I wanna give in or I can’t do it or, I’m very ill.

[00:26:10] Why can’t I just die? Pluto is that energy in the body that still keeps going on. No matter what, no matter how much health deteriorates or pain is being suffered, Pluto insists on surviving and going on. It’s that embedded in the astrological. So I wanted you to think of these psychological defense mechanisms.

[00:26:36] And the first one that came to mind thinking of Capricorn of course and, Pluto and Capricorn, is money. Now one might be like how can money be defense mechanism? An obsession with money or focus on money can be a defense mechanism. Okay. What is it defending? It’s defending being disenfranchised.

[00:27:03] It’s defending, being ripped off. It’s defending having been given the short end of the stick. So it, it’s more than a grievance. Okay. It’s more than a I was robbed and I’m going to be angry. This is like a focus on money, on making sure that it never happens to you again. Maybe you went through some sort of financial disgrace, maybe your family went through some financial disgrace some very, difficult time, this kind of like Scarlet O’Hara vow before the intermission of Gone with the Wind, where she says, with the burnt plantation, I will never go hungry again. Okay? This can become a defense mechanism imbued in a psyche. I will never go hungry again. I will never be at the bottom of the wheel.

[00:27:56] And so this can turn into an obsession or a drive with money. Okay? That’s there to defend. It’s there to protect, it’s there to ensure you will never go angry again. And so what I want you to ask about or, to reflect upon, Was there an earlier place in your life event in your life? Was there something that happened historically in your family that started off this obsession with money?

[00:28:23] This, obsession with, I will never go hungry again. And is it still relevant? Do you still need it? Does it still need to rule over your life? Does it still need to color all of your financial decisions? The other thing that I want you to think about is bitterness bitterness of challenging circumstances that might have robbed you of something. Maybe there were challenging circumstances. In your teens or early adult life in which you had these dreams, these aspirations, these ambitions you were gonna be the best person at sports or art or hit single that was gonna be, that was gonna go platinum or film career, something like this and, you.

[00:29:14] You got a bad turn and, that didn’t happen. Circumstances went against you. Maybe heavy responsibilities were put on you, or you weren’t regarded as being talented enough, or you didn’t. See the right people who would recognize what you could do or knew how to work with you.

[00:29:35] Maybe you were ahead of your time in some sort of way, writing lyrics that nowadays would sell millions. And, so a bitterness can come on in. Now, a lot of people think bitterness is just a feeling, but bitterness can be a defense mechanism, all right?

[00:29:49] Because. it, hides the heart. If you remember Sleeping Beauty, When she pricks her finger on the spindle and she falls asleep, there’s this forest of roses of that grow up around the castle so that it’s surrounded by these heavy branches, these trees of thorns.

[00:30:11] It’s very, Foreboding and forbidden, and no one goes near this castle where it’s rumored that, this entire royal family in court has fallen asleep. No one can penetrate this thorny barrier. And so this is what bitterness can do. When it wraps around the heart or the soul, it becomes a defense

[00:30:31] it, it, fills you, perhaps with cynicism or, sarcasm and, it’s there to defend you from ever being vulnerable or open or, defend you from ever being aspiring or dreaming again. So that’s, that can be a defense mechanism, another defense and, it’s a trait that Abu Mahar goes on about in regards to Saturn and Capricorn is coveting.

[00:30:58] Okay, coveting. Coveting what someone else has that person I want what that person has and, it’s not that marvelous scene with Meg Ryan where, you know, she like basically shows Billy Crystal how women fake orgasms and someone eating at another table’s.

[00:31:17] I’ll have what she’s having. It’s not that. But it’s I covet someone’s fame, I covet their spouse, I covet their children, I covet their way of life and that, that covetousness can be a defense mechanism because it draws the attention away from your feeling of want and never having.

[00:31:39] And, the thing is, we can feel very vulnerable when we want something. We can feel very vulnerable when we need something. And so a defense mechanism can redirect that behavior, can turn it into I covet what that person has and then. , you focus on that person with great hostility. That person becomes an enemy or a menace or, someone who took something away from you or doesn’t deserve it and that kind of focus.

[00:32:07] Diverts the attention and it diverts the attention from the fact of wanting or needing something and, the pain of not having gotten it. Okay? So that, so coveting can become a form of a defense mechanism. The other defense mechanism associated with Capricorn is guilt. That, that’s an interesting one for, this one, I turn to Elaine PEs.

[00:32:33] I don’t know if any of you are familiar with her. She is most famous for having written tic gospels and, gospel according to Thomas. And she’s an extraordinary Religious scholar whose background is in Judaism, Christianity and Buddhism.

[00:32:51] And if you ever get a chance to read agnostic gospels, or particularly the gospel, according to Thomas, highly recommended it’s, beautiful, but in a book that she wrote called Why Religion? She writes about, . Okay. And I, first heard this story from her in an interview that she was doing and she told this story. She told this story about how she had Had a child who died when he was six. And he, had already had a very difficult birth and, difficult infancy. And then it was also diagnosed that he had this particular disease or failure or whatever physical ailment that he wasn’t going to live very long.

[00:33:39] So she lived continually knowing that he was going to die and that itself was a test. But. She, put all this love and she loves him. It’s her baby. And she’s going to enjoy and celebrate his life as long as he is alive. And they were very close, her husband and she and, her child.

[00:34:03] But her child dies at the age of six, and then a year later, her husband dies in a mountaineering accident. And so Moyers was talking to her about What could you turn to? What, could possibly give you spiritual comfort? Did, you find spiritual comfort? at this time. You, lose your child who you know is going to die young.

[00:34:33] But a year after that, you lose your husband. What, where were You Not where were you in terms of presence, but where were you in your heart? Where were you in your soul? What was going through your mind, your heart and soul? That’s really what I wanna say. What was going through your mind, your heart and soul?

[00:34:50] And what she said is that, . What impressed her so powerfully was the feeling of guilt that that she felt so guilty about. her child dying. And, that’s this is before her husband had passed, and so, this prevalent feeling of guilt, and she did a lot of reflection on where that guilt was coming from.

[00:35:17] She didn’t, she’s not causing her child to die. She’s suffering the greatest tragedy of her life. She where’s this guilt coming from? And, people would say, don’t feel guilty or whatever, but she did. And, so where is it coming from? And she. That as she, there was a certain point in her son’s medical treatment in which she realized that guilt was only masking something that much, that was so much more deeper and so much more painful.

[00:35:51] So the guilt itself was a mask, it was a veneer, it was protecting something that was so much deeper and more painful. She realized as long as she could blame herself, feel guilty, as long as she could blame herself. Was it her body that had given this to her son? Was it was, had she done something wrong?

[00:36:15] Was she not a good enough mother? As long as she could blame herself, as long as she could put the guilt on he. She didn’t have to encounter or recognize the more painful thing and the more painful thing that she described is helplessness guilt at least gave her some kind of control over her body, over her life, over her son.

[00:36:47] It centered it back in her, but that guilt was a vene. A defense mechanism. And what it protected in her was this feeling of utter helplessness. That was the thing that that, she need protection from. And it was by working through the guilt and coming to an acceptance of that. I don’t know. I can’t speak for Elaine Pails, but I would imagine was at least some kind of spiritual journey of self-discovery down unto herself.

[00:37:27] Maybe it brought relief or release or, sort of self-forgiveness. I don’t know. I can’t speak for her, but I know that in what she impart, , it was her. It was a realization that the guilt was a defense mechanism and what it was protecting was an utter helplessness. And so I offer that to you. Do does, guilt.

[00:37:52] Has, guilt outlived its purpose in your life of, protecting you from a helplessness? Or is it still going through the . Rounds does it protect you from helplessness, from despair, from grief? Is it a more digestible state of being another form of self-defense, which would be very capricornian.

[00:38:15] Withholding. Okay. Withholding energy. Withholding love, more particularly withholding approval. Okay. And this can be a defense mechanism if someone needs your love or if someone needs your approval, you can withhold it, and that puts the other person into a place of subservient. They keep coming back to you looking for this, and you’re withholding of.

[00:38:42] Is empowering of You It’s it, gives you an authority, it gives you a power in the other person’s life. This withholding and what is it protecting? It’s protecting the fact that the person might. Regard you as dispensable or could live without you or doesn’t need you, or you’re no longer the parent that they need the approval or, the beloved that they need that love from so withholding of love or withholding of approval can be we, often talk about it as controlling, but I suspect that on a deeper level it is a.

[00:39:22] Mechanism. Another one is austerity or harshness in your response. Capricorn, of course, is famous for the discipline. The, measured response usually was something that’s more austere. And so that can also be that can also be a defense mechanism against any sort of softness. Or tenderness or intimacy.

[00:39:46] Maybe there was a reason for it earlier in your life, but ask yourself, do you still need it now? Is it still something you have to be doing now? Or is it something that you’re doing by rote out of habit? withdrawing into self. Abu Ashhar goes on about this quite a bit, but it’s the removal of yourself from the company of others, even if you’re in the company of others.

[00:40:10] Okay? And that’s a little bit like withholding of approval, but the withdrawing into yourself, and that’s a protection of self, but it’s also something that is a refusal to be moved. By other people their please or their friendship or their feeling for you, a refusal to be moved by others, by withdrawing into self and the walls and, the door coming down.

[00:40:37] That can be a self-protective mechanism. And finally one of the more famous of the capricornian defense mechanism is testing. Testing someone over and over to see if their feelings are really in the right place to see if they’re really true, to see if they’re really reliable. And of course, once that person passes that test to go and come up with a new series of tests.

[00:41:04] Okay, so this is something where you’re testing testings, testing or inspecting or breaking down, or analyzing with. End to it. testing without the answers. Analyzing, without the summation. Investigating. Without the discovering. It’s just the investigating, the analyzing more particularly the testing.

[00:41:26] Is that something maybe you did it because out of having been hurt and you’re doing it to build trust, but are you building trust or are you just testing? If it’s gone on for years, you’re not building trust. You’re just testing. And so that’s why I, tell the story of these three soldiers I want you to think of their stories and I want you to think of them as.

[00:41:57] Standing in for your own psychological defense mechanism, how would you approach that defense mechanism? Obviously you want to begin with we should win. I, should have won this love, I should have won this approval. I should have gotten a, my big break or something like that.

[00:42:13] But like these soldiers, maybe you didn’t win. Okay. And maybe it didn’t turn out that way. Does that mean that you continue defending or fighting this battle that perhaps should have been given up years ago in your life?

Conclusions to Soldier Stories

[00:42:33] Chochi married on his return to Japan in 1972 and lived quietly in the city of na.

[00:42:41] In 1974, he stood unsuccessfully for a seat at Japan’s lower house. He died in 1997, sometime after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. It was widely believed that he had deliberately starved himself to death rather than become a burden to his wife. So that’s the end of the first soldier that that, we meet.

[00:43:05] I, Tell that ending because there’s this, if left unchecked, particularly when we talked about austerity and harshness of, the defense mechanism, if left uncheck a defense mechanism can choke off or starve, it can starve the psyche. So that’s again why I encourage you to examine these in your.

[00:43:30] In our second story, Hiu Onda became a celebrity. He’s still very famous, . At the airport on his return to Japan, his aged parents were thrust aside because the press wanted interviews and to take pictures, and they did. He he, was remarkable in his, appearance. he looked and acted, and his health was that of a man who was half his age.

[00:43:57] He had lived this very stoic life on the island. He had kept his gun polished and his dagger at hand, and so he he, remember he was the elite intelligence officer very, marsy. You get this idea. . And he published a book of ghostwritten Veirs. He tried to assimilate back into Japan in the seventies, which was a very different place than Japan in the forties.

[00:44:26] And he couldn’t do it. It just wasn’t. Computing and he actually went to Brazil for a while and he did some cattle ranching, but eventually he did return to Japan where he started a survival school. Like one of those survival schools that delinquent kids go to for rehabilitation.

[00:44:43] He started one of those. He was this drum setter in, Japan And he lived until the age of 91. So there’s someone who actually Comes back, he gets repatriated. He has some difficulty re assimilating, but then he eventually finds his niche and, rediscovers himself.

[00:45:03] The last one to return, who was Nakamura? He came back and he went off to live with his daughter. It’s very Odysseus. His, son, who was an infant when he had left, was a father with four kids. His wife who was devoted to him when he left, , after a number of years, had been declared dead.

[00:45:26] And she remarried. And he came back and she was like surprised to discover him. And she and her husband invited him to. Hang out with them and, he did. And after a while the husband, I think, renounced his vows and his wife returned to him. And they, lived together until he passed away in 1979.

Closing

[00:45:52] I tell you these stories, because it’s not just enough to tell your defense mechanisms after you’ve identified them to stand down, you have to repatriate them. re. Them in some way. So on one hand, it’s like you need to identify those self-defense mechanisms that aren’t working for you anymore.

[00:46:13] You have to approach them and give them understanding and give them a, different place of function in your life. As you can imagine, this takes a lot of reflection and identification. And, getting to know these parts of yourself.

[00:46:31] There may be parts of yourself that you just really have to get rid of and, just finally say, okay th this has reached its expiration date. You’re gone. But they’re, but they may also protect parts of yourself that have been kept in foxholes for too long and need to be release.

[00:46:47] And brought back into the rest of your psyche. And these are the things that I want you to think about beginning with this Mercury Pluto, conjunction in Capricorn, and continuing to the time when Pluto moves on into the Zodiac sign of Aquarius

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