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Over the course of the last 15 years, we have experienced Pluto’s transformational qualities in Capricorn, deconstructing our fiscal, material, and institutional structures. The full impact of these changes won’t be known for a while, but with its entry into Aquarius, we will start experiencing it in a different flavor. Uniquely, this transit remains in Saturn-ruled signs, so themes of maturity, responsibility and boundaries will continue. However, Aquarius will offer more hope, inspiration, and progress. As Pluto dips back and forth for the next 2 years, we’ll be seeing a match-up of tradition and modernity duke it out for power and control, setting up the key events for themes that will cover the next 20 years.
While many see this passage as the emergence of a new revolutionary period, the way it unravels can be very different from what we have seen in the past. Not only have our consciousnesses, institutions, habits and challenges all evolved considerably since the end of the eighteenth century. , this sign can be eccentric and deliberately act out in a rebellious nature from what it’s expected to do. Aquarius is inventive, quirky, as well as ahead of its time. It’s likely many of the events, ideologies and proposals won’t have physical manifestation or garner support until Pluto dips into Pisces 20+ years from now.
We will nevertheless see a strong push for power from governments and organizations over the people at large. As Pluto moves back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius, expect the shift of power and control to swing like a pendulum. And it is a coin toss as to where this lands at first – do we remain apathetic, creating a harder path of social progress and environmental justice by handing all power and control to authorities and corporations? Or do we begin challenging it stronger now?
Many are using the American and French revolution as a signal of hope from Pluto’s last dalliance in Aquarius. But this is to overlook the enormous toll it took on the population in the form of famine, unemployment, poverty, and impediments to progress. Today, we can only see the considerable limitations of the early “human rights” documents created for these new nations. It’s been revealed how corporations empowered governments to strengthen their own power and control over the people hiding behind the tenets of these democratic nations. Can we create a powerful revolution with more integrity and sustainability and do less harm in this iteration?
Let’s take a look at the challenges and opportunity available to us for the next phase of our transformation.
Despite its demotion to dwarf planet, Pluto packs an enormous punch with its impact on the world as a whole. Named after the mythological god of the underworld, ruling all that is below the surface, routinely outing the subconscious in the name of transformation. Death, kidnapping, waste, virus, coercion, destruction and obsession are inherent to the planet and its eighth house residency in a chart. But this eradication has a purpose–just as you clear brush to allow the healthier plants to grow, Pluto annihilates in order to give space for rebirth.
Pluto’s association with the underworld and the dead made him a feared and respected figure in Roman mythology. He was often depicted as a stern and emotionless god, ruling over the souls of the dead with an iron fist. But despite his fearsome reputation, Pluto was also associated with riches and wealth, as the god of the earth’s resources. It was believed that the riches of the earth were buried deep beneath the ground, under Pluto’s watchful eye.
Pluto can also be seen in the embodiment of Shiva as creator and destroyer. Plutonian energy is not subtle and energy that leads to inexorable change. It is a necessary stage in our evolutionary process as an individual and as a collective. It plays with power and control and appears to reward those most spiritually oriented, mostly for their ability to let go in the energy of spiritual evolution and healing it offers.
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So how did the energy reveal itself in Capricorn? The truth is, we are not quite in the space and time to acknowledge just how transformative this 15-year period has been. Not only is Pluto’s impact difficult to surmise without at least a decade passing to reveal its impact, but Capricorn and Aquarius are both traditionally ruled by Saturn–the planet of restriction, boundaries, time, and karma. While the focus may shift from the structures, institutions, work and ambition to the collective, science, rebellion and progress, we will still be in a rather rigid Saturnian container, giving us, the people, strength and discipline.
Pluto’s transit through Capricorn, which began in 2008 and will continue until 2024, has brought about significant changes in the areas of government, business, and the economy. Capricorn is associated with structures, rules, and authority, and Pluto’s transformative energy has been breaking down old systems and structures to make way for new ones (Aquarius).
During Pluto’s transit in Capricorn, we have seen major shifts in the global economy, with the rise of new industries and the decline of old ones. We have also seen significant changes in government and politics, with the rise of new leaders and the fall of old ones. The old ways of doing things are being dismantled, and new systems are emerging. But we are still at a point of dismantling and seeing a death grip of the old ways, which may have us feeling dominated and hopeless of a new way emerging. Aquarius is here to help us with that hope, though it will be a battle to get there.
One thing that is observable is the bookend of failing banks, beginning in 2008, with the housing bubble and collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers causing another Great Depression. Today, we see the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank, a slight nod to its Aquarius entry as the bank funded the tech sector, crypto and venture debt. But at the core, Pluto unveiled the instability of core structures in our society, with these examples going after our money sector, one of the pillars of capitalism for control and power.
Additionally, exposed scandals, strategies and pandemic politics brought out the “repressed” alt-right and neo-liberalism agenda in society and governments–exposing what is ready to be eliminated and destroyed. The government, particularly in the U.S., are saying the quiet parts out loud now. Pluto has done their work, exposing the “secret” underbelly of institutions that lead to the policies proposed enabling continued slavery. The anti-POC, homophobic, anti-women laws running throughout the Republican states exposed a decades-long strategy being put in place by conservatives through the infiltration of government at the federal, state and local levels to amplify an alt-right minority viewpoint to dominate and control the country.
On the other hand, the Russian and Chinese dictatorships have only strengthened their despotic power under the guise of opening up to capitalism, while half of Europe has fallen under the thumb of retrograde populist parties following the massive erosion of confidence in any public institution as a consequence of the mismanagement of the crisis of the beginning of the decade.
In a similar timeframe, the democracy in France was paralyzed and undermined by spontaneous popular protests that broke out in 2018 in reaction to an increase in the cost of living and an overly broad austerity policy. It is now facing a united trade union front that opposes the final touch of an unpopular employment reform, namely the raising of the retirement age, which will only have contributed to worsening working conditions, and now provokes the anger of the street in the way it is imposed rather than voted.
The shift of Capricorn to Aquarius isn’t a final move into the sign, just a brief look around a new location to imagine how it’s going to set up in this new locale. Pluto will be moving back and forth, indicating an important year-and-a-half-long lesson for everyone, with its final move-in date into Aquarius in Nov. 2024.
This will not just be about shifting the power to the people. Just as Pluto in Capricorn exposed the corrupt nature of institutions and structures, it’s move into Aquarius will now hold society accountable–for its support of the systems, our fear and complacency empowering inequalities, and confronting many of the things we hide away in society.
The Silicon Valley Bank failure was not just a consequence to the tech industry, but also a warning to individual small business creators. Their dependency on structures that are unsustainable was exposed with this bank backing the likes of Etsy, LendingClub, etc that allow them to receive money.
You may ask, how could entrepreneurs and family-owned businesses accept payments online and facilitate running an organization without it? That’s exactly where Pluto in Aquarius will step in. We, as the people, understand how to build and know the details involved for these services, but can we join together to build for ourselves and the collective while usurping the failed nature of the most current systems?
As long as we depend on these infrastructures that aren’t sustainable and actually are detrimental to us, we will remain comfortable. This sign shift will continue to have things fail, until we are put into a space to be innovative. Our choice in these beginning stages is whether we innovate from a space absent of drama or from a fearful space when we get backed into a corner later on. Perhaps the biggest opportunity that passed many of us by was redesigning our realities for peace and extricating our codependent nature with our governments and their ideologies. As they lure us back with comforts of normalcy and gently shoo pandemic protocols away, how quick were we to go “back to normal”? While Pluto is in Aquarius, it will remind us of the impacts on society, particularly on those most fragile and exiled and rectify it.
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Aquarian QualitiesAquarius can be perceived as enigmatic so it’s important to assess the nature of it, as it will seem foreign to many. Despite its notoriety for being cold, aloof, weird, unrelatable, and challenging, it is a sign that is hopeful at large for everyone, willingly giving up self-interests if something betters more people, and up levels the notion of friendship–blending and creating space other signs traditionally reserve for family or even lovers. The Aquarius objectiveness allows for inventiveness beyond what seems humanly possible, throwing off the restrictions of the present day, projecting the ideal and bending the laws to reach it versus giving up when a system doesn’t support the goal. Expect a period of absolutely breathtaking scientific developments, unbridled technological innovation, space conquest, massive street resistance, of much more ambitious and extreme citizen movements aiming at the incapacity of a corrupt political class to act in-depth and at the safeguarding of our future. Overthrowing of the last dictatorial regimes, which will undoubtedly go through periods of chaos quite anarchic but rich in creativity, ingenuity and liberation of all kinds, rebirth of the democratic and republican ideals, of social progress (until now unimaginable), of harmonization of the societal differences, of new mode of relation and access to the information. There will be a correction of the environmental imbalances, of greater justice. However, we will undoubtedly experience periods of great intolerance, in order to purge our societies and behaviors of unfair or toxic habits or traditions, so that the new behaviors necessary to our survival are well integrated. In our great fortune, Pluto and Uranus (Aquarius’ modern ruler) will not form a tense aspect during this period, which will postpone the greatest explosions of violence until the middle of this century [2044-50], when it will be a matter of eliminating our differences and uniting the different blocks that will have emerged in the meantime within a planetary confederation with Pluto in Pisces opposite Uranus in Virgo. |
Pluto is just taking a quick look around the Aquarius environment at this first dip into the sign. Returning to Capricorn June 11, 2023, we’ll see the back and forth two times before Pluto sets up camp permanently November 19, 2024. Its slow motion is indicative of its nature to unbury deep, unconscious beliefs, to address issues long overdue and bringing us to a more conscious state. A feat not quite attainable without time and some mental health issues.
Transiting Pluto brings to the surface hidden or subliminal conditions in order to release enduring energies from the old shell and transform them into a new source of consciously usable power. It will show how one’s karma or energy is released, not necessarily what is released. We’ll see the characteristic quality of the experience dovetail with the next.
A pattern of destined events that often seem completely unfathomable will be revealed with each change. We will be confronted with periods where we have to cope with the consequences of past actions and thoughts. The beauty of Pluto as it makes these important transitions, and even as each of the other planets aspect it, is that it opens up an avenue for us to experience spontaneous energy and abilities from our youth before they were altered to fit societal patterns and expectations.
We can see this play out in the demise of a formal workplace while Pluto is in Capricorn. A reckoning of the free labor created by forcing the people to take on the detrimental impacts of the workforce through commutes, removing lunch hour from 9-5 schedule, many employees having to pay for resources from their personal accounts, and a general infiltration of work requests and careers dominating our personal lives.
As it moves in Aquarius, the spontaneous energy and abilities will be heightened by a closer connection to our true hopes and dreams that we squashed for looking too weird. Just as TikTok has shown people’s “odd” traits are more common, just not fitting into status quo, we’ll find that the outliers of society, whether people or interests or hopes, will drive groups of people together in aspiration of strength in numbers and appreciation of our differences.
It’s no surprise, that the day Pluto enters Aquarius, U.S. Congress will be questioning TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew under the guise of public safety, bringing a clash of government oversight, free speech, and technological access Not only has the app exposed to news from the world hidden from news outlets headlines but also from within their border, like the recent Ohio train derailment. The true nature of the ban is hidden behind rumors of a lobbied government in bed with Facebook’s Zuckerberg in a bid to dominate social media, to a more likely scenario of a leverage point for the US to get some of its debt removed to China.
We have to say, given this transit, Biden instituting this ban against a high percentage of his voting demographic may just be a declaration of war, or minimally an unforeseen catalyst to a new revolution. What does it say to the world about a Western force who has prided themselves on the Right to Free Speech, moves from covertly to blatantly taking it away? And what does it say about us that the activism this move provokes supersedes our activism over police brutality, women’s bodily autonomy and the safety of any of the many demographics under fire right now? At the very least, this is a key event that will be highlighted through Pluto’s back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius until Nov. 2024–just as the results of the next U.S. Presidential Election is solidified.
And how fitting the app is named TikTok, with both Capricorn and Aquarius most intimately linked with the concept of time.
