Pluto in Aquarius
Pluto is a process-oriented planet, which means wherever it is, it slowly tills the soil, turning it over and over, transforming the landscape, and leaving behind deep, extracted jewels for those treasure seekers.
The Winter Solstice, a point in the year where the darkness hits its highest point and the Sun travels its shortest path. It is from here where the Sun returns after its metaphorical death. The Solstice represents the death and rebirth of the Sun, and slowly returns life and light back to the world.
The Solstice takes place in the sign of Capricorn, an earth sign ruled by Saturn and exalted by Mars. Saturn the time-keeper, the grim reaper. Mars the warrior, out to sever and capture. Together these two watch over the Solstice. This is the time of year when gardens are shuddered in the Northern Hemisphere for most, nature is fueled just enough for survival. Spring is still far away, but there is hope, even just a sliver as each minute of each day the Sun stays just a little longer.
It is this story of death and rebirth that I want to focus on here today. For in the sign of Capricorn, we have had the planet Pluto, traversing for the last fourteen years in this sign. This is the sign where the Winter Solstice takes place in the Northern Hemisphere, and represents the darkest of the darkness in the zodiacal seasons
Capricorn a cold, dry earth sign, ruled by the two malefics Saturn and Mars. Pluto, also known as the Giver of Wealth, the planet of power, death/rebirth, secrets, upheaval and transformation, full of deep riches in exchange for shadow work.
Pluto entered Capricorn first in January of 2008. The movement of Pluto is slow, it can stay in any of the zodiac signs for one to three decades depending on the ecliptic which is highly erratic. It will start its entrance into Aquarius on March 23, 2023 and will then go through a period of forward and backward motion, dipping back into Capricorn before it officially leaves in November of 2024. It will stay in the sign of Aquarius until 2043.
Pluto is a process-oriented planet, which means wherever it is, it slowly tills the soil, turning it over and over, transforming the landscape, and leaving behind deep, extracted jewels for those treasure seekers. It is a planet that the collective experiences together, bringing societal transformation, unveiling of secrets and leveling of power, and it can also be a personally deep transformative time for individuals who have it activating natal planet placements as well.
The United States has been undergoing its own Pluto return, based on where it was during the signing and ratifying of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. As a collective, we all are witnessing the first Pluto return for our country, approximately 248 years. Pluto in Capricorn at 27 degrees was an inception point for the United States, breaking the people from British rule and it was its entrance into Aquarius further establishing the voice of the people and moving the nation towards democracy with the ratifying of the constitution.
Pluto’s return to 27 degrees first began in Feb of 2022, and with the retrograde motion of Pluto, it has made another hit in July and Dec 28 2022. Through retrograde it will near the exact degree in in October 2023. As a nation, we are already feeling this critical degree activated in the collective, even before it hit 27 deg, we have been feeling it. There is no doubt that our nation, how we govern and organize is undergoing a collective transformation. From pandemics, to social upheavals and protests, to the emergence of cryptocurrency and collapsing of financial institutions-times are a changing. Old ancestral wounds are re-emerging and asking us, the people, to tend to them. Again this a process-oriented transit, a slow burn that will take years to unveil and heal.
This seems to signal a major transformation of where the US is headed and the next 20 years in airy Aquarius, a sign that focuses around the collective.
Capricorn was a sign to be associated with kings and queens, and Aquarius equates the people and the collective. “We the People” is the first 3 words of the American Constitution, written and ratified when Pluto was in Aquarius. It is presupposed this coming era will move many governments and economies around the globe into a reorienting process, centered around technology ( which Aquarius is prone to do) some have coined it the Aquarian Technocalypse. There could be new currencies popping up, in addition to the digital currencies already underway. Monetary systems turning digital in the air of Aquarius seems right on the money. Monetary systems loosing value, bubbles popping or currency resets is a possible theme going into this 2023 shift, this is the talk amongst those who follow trends and transits.
Major shifts and upheavals in the systems, these include, marketplaces, infrastructure, governments, collectives. Aquarius rules the air and sky-related topics, internet, energy and electricity, air transport, astronomy and astrology, artificial intelligence.
Aquarian energy challenges status quo, bucks convention, here you may see these themes related to major innovations and inventions. This may be an era more associated with cold realities vs abstractions, a time where systems undergo a reform based on more secular grounds. Last time Pluto was in Aquarius, the global metric system was formed, the US constitution was ratified, we had the age of the enlightenment.
When I think of Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius I think of system upgrades. Personal and collective, I believe many of us will undergo a major reboot.
Pluto in Capricorn, and where it falls in your chart has been seeking to order the chaos, regenerating a new structure where disorder existed. Where Pluto has traveled in your chart, there was a slow and winding process of creating chaos, flipping the game board, and repositioning the pieces. Where Pluto has been in your chart, it has unearthed deeper wounds that you may have pushed into the subterranean shadow lands. Pluto doesn’t seek to destroy without providing help in rebuilding. Pluto seeks out what is no longer nourishing and looks to shed it.
I likened this planet to the sequence of the tower and star card in tarot. The Tower card is ruled by Mars and Scorpio, and the modern ruler of Scorpio is Pluto. There are themes of revolution, destruction and collapse of set structures. The Star card comes after the Tower in order, and its the wisdom of the Star that helps to rebuild after the fire, once the ashes settle, the phoenix rises and new life can be found in the most unlikely of places, black gold derived from the sludge.
To me this is Pluto moving through earthy Capricorn, turning and tilling the soil, unveiling deep secrets, exposing injustices. It is in Aquarius that redemptive Star begins to pour its wisdom out of the vessel and onto the people, nourishing the collective. Pluto in Aquarius is about the collective will, not so much the individual.
We have been going through a time of airing out our grievances, personally and collectively, and we will soon move into early stages of seeking change and sustainable solutions. Aquarius is also the sign of invention and innovation, so how can we be creative, think outside the box, to address new solutions to old problems. Aquarius likes to think towards the future and not look back, buck status quo. It can be ideological, our own ideologies may be challenged and shift. And that is ok too. The next year asks us to be open to what is coming through, where does Pluto want to take a shovel and dig? This seems to be a slow moving process transit related to the mind, the collective, technology, perhaps intentionally setting ourselves as an outsider (Aquarius is the black sheep) in order to really feel into who we want to become, where we want our life to be redirected in the next coming years.
This may be a very aspirational period, it can also be a point of great setbacks and deflation, and these are the learning periods.
We may get too caught up as well in the moving up and forward, that we may misplace our own humanity. It is during this time where the collective is gaining more speed and power, that we still remember ourselves as individuals and our neighbors as persons. The danger of getting swept up into the collective, is we can forget the human in humanity. The danger of removing humanity from the technology can isolate whole communities. There is a real danger of the technology superseding humanity as well, or great errors made at the expense of personal sovereignty.
These next few months, while Pluto dips into Aquarius, lend hints to where ground-shaking change may appear in your own life. Pay attention to what is coming up, what old wounds are beginning to whisper, what in your subterranean wells is bubbling. This just may very well be the area where Hades traverses, commands change in exchange for precious truth stones.
It is during the next year, as we get ingresses of Pluto in Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces, Jupiter into Aries and then quickly into Taurus, that we hold tight to the things we value. Surround yourself with the people, the activities, the communities that bring you joy and value. Nurture and protect that, and this will keep you grounded as the landscape begins to shift, gets lifted and in some places crack. Find and define value, beyond what society collectively agrees upon. Expand on that.