The Grist Mill Fire – Uranus Square Pluto

The Grist Mill is a local landmark that has been around since 1745. As the name suggests in the early days it was a grist mill where the local farmers brought grain for grinding. In my memory it has always been a restaurant.  Early Sunday morning, June 24, 2012 around 5:30 AM a trailer truck loaded with bananas smashed into the Grist Mill Restaurant in Seekonk, Mass.  The time comes from a Providence Journal report that states the owner said he received a call from a neighbor about the crash at 5:30 AM.

At 4:14 AM EDT the first of seven squares between Uranus and Pluto reached exactness.  A little over an hour later the accident occurred kicking off this series of squares with a bang.  This event embodies the symbolism of the Uranus/Pluto square. Uranus is all about shaking up the status quo, rattling the cages of the establishment. Uranus despises rigid ruts and hidebound attitudes. Uranus also rules the sudden, unexpected and the shocking. In Aries, fire is always a possibility and a connection to Pluto signals explosion.

Pluto is the great transformer, destroys in order to build something new and better. In Capricorn Pluto is digging deep into established institutions, like government, banks, and corporate entities.

The Grist Mill is an institution here in Rhode Island and Southeast Massachusetts, folks wept as they watched it being torn down. A friend having talked with the owner relayed the information that he planned to rebuild. If this is the case, true to Pluto’s connection to Scorpio, the New Grist Mill shall rise triumphantly from the ashes.

Like the cycle of the Sun and Moon, from New Moon to First Quarter to Full Moon then waning down to the Last Quarter, the planets have similar cycles. While the Sun/Moon cycle is a monthly one the Uranus/Pluto cycle is a long 126 years. The previous closing square or Last Quarter happened in the early 1930’s.  They moved into conjunction, together in the sky in the mid 1960’s.  And beginning now, through March 2015, they will be moving back and forth in the opening First Quarter square aspect. The slower moving planets and the aspects they make to one another signal broad social movements. The Depression of the 1930’s brought some reform, the creation of Social Security and the Security Exchange Commission. The explosive 1960’s triggered broad social change and the establishment of Medicare. The issues and movements associated with Uranus and Pluto reverberate today as they make their waxing square. The thread continues with the Occupy movement, health care issues and the economy.

If this Sunday morning accident is symbolic of the energy and events generated by the Uranus/Pluto square we can expect trailer trucks smashing into our beloved institutions. Uranus and Pluto can be very selective often targeting those institutions that have become hidebound and outlived their usefulness. They need to go, they need to be reorganized and rebuilt in a new and better way. The destruction and rebuilding of the Grist Mill illustrates this principle.  In the process of rebuilding the owner will incorporate the latest and the greatest equipment and design while retaining the historical charm and flavor that has been the mainstay of the Grist Mill Restaurant.

So don’t despair when over the coming years events shake the foundation, rattle the doors and crack the walls; if the edifice collapses something new and better will replace it.