Your Pets and the Current Astrological Weather

When you read about the astrological weather in the paper or online, remember that your animal companions are feeling the effects, too. Everyone and everything has a birth chart, and everyone and everything down here responds in some way to what's going on above. Right now the skies are beaming down some intense and powerful energies, and it's helpful to keep in mind that they are influencing pets as well.

The primary stress is coming from Pluto, which strips down and transforms everything it touches. When Pluto is at work, it's like a gardener preparing his crops for winter. Diseased, withering and dead leaves and branches are cut away; plants are pruned back to increase their ability to flourish come spring. Because he is the ruler of the underworld, Pluto also stirs deep and intense emotions, heavy on the fears, as well as an awareness of mortality. He can make you want to crawl back under the covers and hide, but there's no escaping. When he is at work in a chart, his influence is relentless and unavoidable. And ultimately extremely beneficial.

Pluto has moved into the sign of Capricorn, the first time he has done this in our lifetimes. (He was there briefly from the end of January to the beginning of June, and he moved back in the day before Thanksgiving, for a 15-year stay.) He has been sitting at the first degree of the sign and will be moving from it to the next few degrees and back over the next year. This means that Pluto's influence is at its rawest, most unrefined and, in some ways, most brutal.

One of the things that Capricorn rules is physical structures, such as the skeletons that support our bodies. (Also financial institutions -- big surprise?) Everyone is feeling the stress from this, even -- especially -- animals. Bodies that are already weakened are having a very hard time lately. People have been bringing a lot of sad news from the vet to me lately -- sudden and unexpected deaths of beloved longtime companions, a few-month-old kitten being diagnosed with feline AIDS and given less than two months to live.

Even those of us in relatively decent shape are being worn down by this influence, too. Do not underestimate the psychic and emotional stress everyone in your household is under. It has the power to lower everyone's resistance. It's more important than usual to take care of ourselves and the animals around us. As we all adjust to the stripped-down regime of Pluto in Capricorn, wellness and preventative health measures are imperative: rest, proper nutrition, exercise and relaxation for you and your animals. Pay particular attention to bones, joints and ligaments. They are easy targets now and may experience an upsurged in aches, pains and problems.

There's an emotional component as well. The past year has rewired our experience of reality and it has shifted, forever. Our world is different; we are different. Our animals have changed, too, in two ways. The first is their response to us. They respond to us instinctively. They are often a reliable emotional barometer of what's going on with us. Since we're different, animals are reacting to us differently. The second is that animals are undergoing their own transformation now, too.

Breaks in behavior patterns are common now. Your animal may be disoriented, because you aren't sending out the same type of vibe that you always have before. Your animal may also be changing in personality and body as well. In the past few weeks Sasha, the cat who lives with me, has abandoned years of quiet and self-sufficiency for unprecedented assertiveness. She has been following me around the house, positioning herself in ways that demand attention (jumping on the computer keyboard, sitting on the cards during a Tarot reading) and vocalizing, frequently, to signal needs. My schedule has been different and made my times of accessibility to her erratic. i have responded to Sasha's new behaviors by explaining that my changes benefit her (I have to go away sometimes to earn the money for us to have shelter and food), telling her when I will be available to her that day and reminding her that she has important jobs in the home and can live with me for as long as she wants.

Look at your pets with this in mind now. Take better care than ever of their physical needs. Watch for behavior changes. Be aware that they may be undergoing emotional and psychic stress and experiencing primal emotions themselves. (Flower essences may be helpful; I have been putting Rescue Remedy in Sasha's water bowl.) They are adjusting to the new astrological era, too, as well as to the new you.