Shadows, Masks, and COVID-19: What the Planet of Transformation Can Teach Us About Ourselves in 2020
Astrology’s influence over human life has been significant for centuries. Though most people don’t realize it, astrology has been at the heart of science, medicine, philosophy, magic, and even psychology for much of human history. Astrology is an ancient practice based on the study of cosmic movement reflective of—or synchronous with—events in human life and the natural world. Today, we can still revisit astrology in tandem with significant contributions to the field of psychology, to understand the human experience in the time of COVID-19. In 2020, one planet in particular is having a field day with us on Earth—Pluto.
Pluto represents creative destruction, transition, transformation, death, chaotic events, the inner world of the psyche, the collective unconscious, the abuse of power, and fear, among other things. For years, astrologers have been anticipating the major transits (movements) of Pluto in 2020 because of its potential to bring about major change for humanity. We’ve already seen the impact of the first two important Pluto transits with the emergence of COVID-19 and the subsequent destruction of our illusioned collective reality on the planet. This year’s Pluto retrograde cycle from April 25-October 4, when the energy of this planet is turned inwards, marks another significant moment as a key time for individual and collective human development.
Plutonian energy represents our ego’s shadow side; the parts of us that we would rather not see or, perhaps even attend to, because they bring us pain and challenge us to integrate both the light and dark parts within ourselves.The term shadow refers to a concept first coined by Carl Jung to refer to the parts of ourselves that we can’t quite admit to. Though our shadow has a significant effect over our lives, at first, the shadow is unconscious because we are not aware of what it hides from us. However, with effort to explore our inner world, we can come to recognize our shadow and integrate it into our Self through a process Jung called individuation. The process of integrating the shadow is an important part of healing trauma (another Plutonian theme). While many people infer that the shadow is somehow a negative part of ourselves, because of this association with trauma, our shadows hide more than just traumatic imprints from us. We can have a great number of ‘blind spots’ that, when integrated, become important assets in our journey of self-development. In this way, the exploration of our shadow side is an important part of understanding ourselves more fully.
Because Pluto represents the shadow, it also represents the masks that we use to hide our true selves from others, generally out of pain or fear of rejection. In psychology, the concept of the persona represents the masks that we present to the world. The word persona even means “mask” in Latin. Our personas are our public images—the impressions we want to present to others given in the various contexts of life. In fact, we can have different personas that we employ for different social groups and different situations to shield our egos (self-concepts) from harm. While our personas can protect us from psychological harm, they can also mask our true selves in place of presenting false selves.
It is synchronistic, but perhaps not surprising, that we are wearing physical masks to cover our faces from the dangers of the omnipresent threat of COVID-19. In a similar way that we employ our various personas to protect ourselves psychologically, we are using masks to protect ourselves physically. Masks can be an important tool for survival but there is a price to pay for using them. Consider the masks that many of us are currently wearing in the time of this pandemic. Are they protecting us from a virus? Are they protecting us from one another? Or, are our masks protecting us from the parts of ourselves we would rather not see?
It seems timely to consider the following poem titled The Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar:
“We wear the mask that grins and lies,
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,—
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!”
First published in 1896, the poem depicts the lives of African Americans after the Civil War. It describes how people had to hide their true selves in a deeply racist country. Wearing metaphorical masks was a survival mechanism for them, despite the turmoil going on inside. In many ways, the poem’s message is analogous to the experience of many currently on the planet who mask themselves to remain safe during COVID-19.
While the exploration of our personal shadow is important, it is not the whole story. In his theory of the psyche, Jung offers the concept of the collective unconscious to describe the reservoir of psychic experiences that we all inherit and are never fully aware of its influence over our lives. Pluto too, represents this part of the human experience. Our inner realities play out on a collective level whether we recognize it or not. What is the collective manifestation of mask-wearing telling us about our collective internal state?
Our response to power struggles, to fear, to death, and to paradigms that have vanished overnight, may indicate what is presently manifesting in the collective unconscious. In the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, humans are experiencing massive collective trauma as the world we once knew continues to crumble before our eyes. In the coming months, the contents of the collective unconscious will be made visible to us (as it already has) and will transform our understanding of ourselves as a whole. What we do with this experience will have a tremendous impact on the development of the human species.
During this Pluto retrograde, when the planet’s energy is driven more inward, it is the perfect time to own and heal the shadow self—individually and collectively. Issues from childhood, early development, and traumatic life experiences play out in various forms psychologically but they do not have to define you. Meditation, yoga, and creative pursuits are just some of many ways through which we can understand more fully our own personal unconscious and explore the contents of the collective unconscious. Being willing to do our deep inner work can bring us closer to our Being, our Higher Self; an expression of the One-God-Source.
In these upcoming months, prepare to do your required inner work. What are you holding onto that needs to be released? What patterns of behavior no longer serve you? What part of yourself do you not want to acknowledge? What part of yourself scares you? Where in your life do you overcompensate? What is that masking from your full experience of life?
Your journey won’t be comfortable. And it will take time. Let’s face it—these patterns of behavior that run your life were not created overnight. They won’t be rebuilt overnight. It takes courage. It takes patience and persistence. It requires space. But it is worth the effort to discover what’s behind the mask—to discover you.
“As I acknowledge my shadow, I prepare to let go of my old reality.
As I get to know my shadow, I catch a glimpse of my new reality.
As I embrace my shadow, I release my old reality.
As I become one with my shadow, I become my new reality.”
