Pluto moves into Aquarius, 2024

Do you feel the achy reverberations of a world in pain? Do you feel confused about what to say or do? Does it squeeze your throat closed when you go to speak on it? As above, so below; as below, so above. So, here is a perspective on what’s happening in the cosmos in relation to our currently turbulent, earthly experience… 

We’re in the last throes of Pluto in Capricorn, and war is waging all around us. War is rarely two well-matched forces up against each other… It is often a terrible mismatch with one side seeking to bend the other to its will. The current wars are no exception; they are terrible mismatches with lethal consequences. You might wonder, what does astrology and spirituality have to do with wars and current events? Well, astrology and spirituality have always grappled with current events; they are tools for us to process individual and societal evolution. Pluto will soon move into Aquarius(1.20.2024), and then, in September, retrograde back into Capricorn for 2.5 months before it returns to Aquarius and stays there for the next 20 years. So, let’s dive into the details.

Meet Pluto: the planet of power, control, death, destruction, loss, transformation, and rebirth. It represents the seed planted in the dark - it comes at the beginning and end of all life cycles. Pluto is a sloth in the cosmos, it moves so slowly that each sign it travels through marks a generation. It takes ~250 years to transit around the Sun. Until science extends our lifespans beyond that, we will never see Pluto transit through the same sign twice. As it travels through each zodiac sign, it gives us unique opportunities to evolve, packed with the potency of that specific sign. Pluto guarantees transformation, but it does not promise safety.

As a whole, society tends to resist the changes that Pluto brings, understandably so; change is hard. On a good day, Pluto’s themes make it an intense planet to grapple and work with. On a bad day, well, you might just come face-to-face with something far worse than your inevitable end. Change and death are inevitable, but the structures of power that surround us morph to their environment and the resistance of the population. Crooked power structures are designed to create population wide apathy through wide-reaching propaganda campaigns and economic systems designed to keep the average citizen exhausted. Our current power structures that disproportionately favor the 1% are, by design, crooked. Humanity needs Pluto’s power of destruction and transformation to truly shake free of this system.

Pluto is the higher octave of Mars - the planet of action, desire, drive, and war - and as such it views war, not as an extension of human desires, but as an expression of power and control that will inevitably lead to the death and rebirth cycle of societies and empires. While Pluto is a relatively small planet, Pluto doesn’t play small; its depths are unfathomable. Pluto rules the Underworld within and without. Our darkest desires for power and control and our greatest potential for transformation and rebirth are rooted in our relationship with Pluto. 

For many, Pluto’s themes are scary… Our society has a tense relationship with the beginning and end of life cycles. We hide our signs of aging, afraid that we’ll lose our value if anyone finds out we’ve traveled around the Sun more than 25 times. We fail to have conversations around caring for each other because society callously regards the experiences of the disabled and elderly (even if you break a limb and heal, you have experienced a temporary disability; all of us will eventually need care - for many it happens when they least expect it). Even the way society treats grief is tense - like a stain that should be hidden from view. We say, “We’re so sorry for your loss,” even while many think, “Please don’t talk to me about it… I wouldn’t begin to know how to handle your grief.” If someone grieves for too long, society labels them mentally unstable, but holding our grief inside, to appease others, only makes it more suffocating. These are all the symptoms of a society wounded by its own pride. Pluto is here to destroy our ideas of weakness and rebuild systems that can grapple with and see the transformative power of grief, loss, and aging.

When our society refuses to discuss what is a natural end to one form and beginning of another – death, decay, inevitable cellular transformation – it alienates us from our true selves. When we work with Pluto, we come to terms with our relationships with death, grief, power, and control. Pluto destroys for the sake of rebirth. It pushes our society to travel through the underworld, so that we may understand how to create harmonious life on Earth. Pluto is Hades and Persephone; it is the darkest, coldest winter that holds the seeds of the brightest, warmest spring deep underground. Duality is an inherent part of our existence. As violence rages through our home planet, Pluto is busy at work digging up society’s rotting roots. Pluto’s excavation prepares us for the necessary incineration of toxic structures, so that new growth will have more fertile soil for its foundations. The flames illuminate possible pathways forward, and the best all start with commUnity. 

Pluto is finalizing its work in the last degrees of Capricorn, a sign that gets a bad rap for being patriarchal & capitalistic, but these are not the actual attributes of Capricorn… The patriarchy and capitalism are distortions of Capricorn; this sign represents systemic success, the crystallization of our earthly experience, and reaping the fruit of our labor. Capricorn is the sign that best depicts the view from the top of the mountain AND all of the work it took to get there. Capricorns can come across as stern and pessimistic, but no other sign carries as much optimism in their dogged belief that they will reach any summit they set their eyes on. Heavy Capricorn placements believe sweat equity compounds at a rate equally proportionate to the pace of their determination. 

Pluto in Capricorn painfully highlights society’s abusive hierarchies; it brings the death and transformation of structures and authority as we know it, especially those structures built on oppressive foundations and the distortions of Capricorn. While the Earth struggles under extractive practices, the planet’s struggles are all of ours. These struggles are rooted in the pain of separation from reality and each other; the more we other each other the weaker we become. The symptoms speak louder than any words. Your body clogs up overburdened pathways with mucus. Your solar plexus aches. Your skin is so dry it cracks. Your body aches for the balm of union that only commUnity can provide.The final gasps of Pluto in Capricorn are building up the pressure required to change and build something we can be proud of, from the ground up. It is time to dismantle oppressive hierarchies and rebuild. No more trickle down bullshit.

The classism, racism, and extractive practices of distorted Capricorn energy have caused massive discord, and violence is coming to a boiling point. We see this in Palestine, the United States, the Amazon rainforest, Ukraine, the Congo, and in countless other places around the world. While many of these struggles are only recently getting the attention they deserve, we can thank the countless activists, scholars, protestors, and guardians of our planet (and of our collective humanity) for the work they’ve put in. Their work has allowed us to more easily identify propaganda and catch up to speed.

At the core of Pluto in Capricorn’s transit, is the abuse of resources, places, and people. The horrible decades of these abuses have come into the general public’s consciousness with increasing speed thanks to the speed of communication the internet provides. Those in power, who have benefited the most from gluttonous, extractive practices have fought to keep it hidden. When the veil has been pulled back and the horrors revealed, those in power have paid obscene sums to make it seem like we’re all complicit - we’re all in it together. Their sinister narratives would have us believe that the ease and convenience of our current lives would be erased without such extractive practices. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth; Pluto in Capricorn destroys the false sense of security we’ve received by claiming we are separate from nature. The reality? We’re safest when we act with all of our community in mind, and that necessitates acknowledgement and respect of planetary boundaries.

Hierarchy is born of the ego, not of humanity. Capricorn, led by Saturn, knows in its core that the well-being of society depends on our interconnected work - it rules our skeletal system, bones, teeth, and joints - the structural stuff that keeps our bodies together. When we embrace that we cannot possibly do all of the work ourselves, we realize how much we need each other, and how detrimental it is to our collective well-being to value some of our work over others. The priestesses and mailworkers; the garbage collectors and judges; the servers and the chefs; all laborers perform necessary work for the execution of a functioning and thriving society. Capricorn does not shy away from hard work, but views it as a form of prestige. For the goat, hard work is holy work; your work not only brings you closer to the top of the mountain, it brings you closer to divinity. Specifically, the work we are meant to rise to in this lifetime, as defined by our midheaven (MC) or 10th house.

In the last bits of Pluto in Capricorn, we’re witnessing the destruction of what we were told success looks  like; the narrative illusion that success is using others’ backs to climb on is shattering. Empires that were built on others are starting to split at the seams. Capricorn is willing to do the hard work, but for decades our society has fallen under the narrative illusion of “good” capitalism - that your hard work will eventually get you exactly where you want to be; and that resources are scarce, so there’s only space for abundance of the few. Pluto in Capricorn has destroyed the average citizen’s idea of the “American Dream” and revealed its toxic roots - that the “American Dream” lifts up the few, and privileged, at the cost of the majority. Pluto in Capricorn’s rebirth cycle comes when our society at large reclaims our collective power. We must recommit to the hard work required; one of building a community willing to scale new mountains together; a future where we’re willing to reach down and help each other on the hike up. This supportive future is overflowing with gratitude for the guideposts, guides, communities, and resources that support us along the way.

As Pluto slides into Aquarius, our linked arms will help us reframe what progressive movements mean, we’ll explore what collective wellness looks like, and what it means to use science and technology to create a more just world. However, the previous cycles of Pluto in Aquarius have proven that we must remain vigilant. We must be cautious of prioritizing idealism and glorifying technology at the cost of progress and collective well-being. Progress is not, and has never been, perfection; it gets us closer to where we want to be, but it is hardly the end game. 

Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the Change Agent, the innovator, the scientist, humanitarian, and philanthropist. We can expect to see the death and rebirth of what it means to create meaningful change for humanity; seeds planted for the rebirth of innovation and philanthropy; and the morphing and restructuring of science and innovation, as we know it. The focus with Pluto in Capricorn was on the gluttony of the wealthy that led to an extractive and unsustainable relationship with our home planet. The focus with Pluto in Aquarius will be on building the collective power and influence of the 99% to address the ramifications of extractive practices and build interconnected, equitable, and sustainable systems.

Advances in technology are bound to happen during the Pluto in Aquarius generation, and these advances can be incredibly exciting when they help reduce the amount of labor required to thrive. However, we must make sure that the reduction in labor happens throughout the system. Otherwise, it will result in even greater wealth inequality. As artificial intelligence (AI) expands its capabilities, we must build systems of care and inclusion into our algorithms (a word that surfaced in a previous Pluto in Aquarius generation) and codes. Our algorithms and codes contain the inherent biases of their creators, so we must ensure that the design and production of any advances in technology include diverse creators, producers, and product testers. Inclusion and diversity is not negotiable, lest we repeat the mistakes of our past.

We must, also, be wary of advances in technology that increase our capacity for detached violence. In past Pluto in Aquarius cycles, innovations in gunpowder and accompanying technology increased our capacity for detached violence. Pluto, also, rules BIG power structures, including nuclear energy and weapons. During this transit, we are likely to see a push for increased use of nuclear energy along with innovations in that space. It is up to us to insist on safety precautions and measures and to keep the health and well-being of the planet always in our plans.

The last Pluto in Aquarius generation expanded what was known of our current solar system and, with the help of a telescope, led to the confirmation of Uranus’ existence. Earlier last year (2023), we heard congressional hearings on UFOs and this was perhaps brought on by the force of the wave of the oncoming Pluto in Aquarius transit. So, we can expect to see our current understanding of the solar system expand once again. As the Pluto in Aquarius generation unfolds, I expect even greater conversations around extraterrestrial lifeforms.

Because of Aquarius’ acute focus on humanity, we can anticipate increased conversations, frustrations, and expansions of, and around, women and LGBTQ+ rights. Women’s rights (or lack thereof) came closely under focus in the last Pluto in Aquarius cycle, including the courageous efforts of Elizabeth Freeman who would sue and win her case for freedom (setting the groundwork for the abolition of slavery in Massachusetts) in 1781 and in Mary Wollstonecraft’s seminal publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Women in 1792. In order to achieve the right to an equitable and thriving life, we must keep a pulse on our community’s needs. The humanitarian side of Aquarius requires innovative giving of our time and energy to causes we care about. Pluto in Aquarius will expose those who claim to have humanity in mind, but act otherwise, so keep an eye out for news on those who claim to be philanthropic.

All of this and more is coming, and I am incredibly excited for this upcoming Pluto in Aquarius transit. I am hopeful because I believe in the power of community and collaboration, but also because I track the cosmos. On January 20th at 3:44 AM (HST), the Sun joins Pluto in the very last degree (the anaretic degree) and arc minute of Capricorn at 29º59’ forming the last Pluto Cazimi (when a planet is in the heart of the Sun) in Capricorn for nearly 250 years. When a planet is Cazimi, it infuses it with the vital life force energy of the Sun enhancing its abilities. Then, at 4:07 AM the Sun will waltz into Aquarius lighting the way for Pluto to enter into Aquarius later that afternoon at 2:56 PM. The Sun catches up to Pluto to hold its metaphorical hand, giving it a squeeze for extra strength, and then dances ahead as it lights the path forward into a new generation.  What could be more hopeful than combining the power inherent in the seed with vital, life-force energy? It is the narrative formed at the beginning of all life cycles; it is the simplicity and profundity of life.

Now, could I focus on the spooky timing of Pluto’s regression into Capricorn during the United States’ presidential election? Sure, but I’ll leave that for another day. For now, I’ll focus on welcoming in this new generation of Pluto and I hope you will too. As we welcome in this new generation of Pluto, we must lead with the courageousness it takes to overcome the inaction of our fears. We must lead with boldness and seek guidance from each other and the communities that surround us. We must commune with each other and the Earth to build an interconnected and abundant future... There’s no better day than today to start, so let’s get to it.