Pluto Enters Aquarius…
I want to write a bit about the impending sign change of Pluto as we are literally within days of it finally moving into the sign of Aquarius for good (November 19th is the day!). Pluto, being the farthest away from us among all planets has the longest orbital time of 248 years and therefore is the slowest moving. And because it is the slowest moving, its transits can be very drawn out and its “astrological” significance huge!
When an important and slow moving planet like Pluto changes sign, it usually happens over a course of few years instead of at just one point in time because planets move forward and backward - Pluto’s first tiptoe into Aquarius occurred in March 2023 only to retrograde back into Capricorn in June 2023, its second try happened again this year between January and September and is now spending its final days in Capricorn before its final push into Aquarius on 11 November 2024 (when I mean final push I mean this will be the last time we see Pluto in Capricorn in our lifetime as the next time Pluto enters Capricorn will not be in another 200+ years from now!!).
During this back and forth motion between the two different signs is often when we see a lot of upheaval for many and the human race. The last time Pluto changed sign (from Sagittarius to Capricorn) was in 2007-2008 which was the time of the Global Financial Crisis that saw the crumbling of major traditional institutions like investment bank Lehman Brothers and Bear Sterns and the imploding of subprime mortgages in the US which led to a major property and stock market downturn. The past few years saw the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war and the war in Israel, as well as the explosive rise in the adoption of AI (Aquarius being a mental air sign is specifically also associated with technology - mind and tech = AI!).
The zodiacal sign Pluto crosses shows us where sweeping changes, crises and reforms can occur for humanity. For example, when Pluto was in Libra during the 1970s we saw the advancement of gender equality or specifically womens’ rights (Libra is the sign of equality and being ruled by Venus is a sign associated with the female gender), while Pluto in Scorpio during the 1980s saw the emergence of the AIDS crisis (Scorpio is associated with sex and taboo). Reforms often follow crises as crises help to reveal sources of weak links.
Pluto’s last days in Capricorn and What to Expect for Pluto in Aquarius?
One thing the Capricorn sign is associated with is the father and Pluto in Capricorn can symbolize the “dark father”. After watching the recent new drama series “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story” and its related documentary on Netflix about how two young men who are siblings, Erik and Lyle (age 18 & 21 at the time of their crime in the year 1989) killed their parents after years of sexual and mental abuse by their “dark father”, I couldn’t stop thinking how timely it is for this story to once again make headline after all these years. Interestingly, the Netflix series came out on the 17th of September, roughly two weeks after Pluto went back into Capricorn one last time on the 2nd of September. I’m hopeful that these two abused victims will get released from prison soon with Pluto moving into a new sign - new energy new beginning (this probably deserves another entire separate blog so I’ll keep it to this for now).
Aquarius, on the other hand, is a mental sign and it has to do with community, humanitarianism, technology and innovation, ideals and progressive ideas. Artificial Intelligence or “AI” couldn’t be better represented by a zodiac sign than Aquarius, and interestingly we did see AI dominate headlines since ChatGPT came to everyone’s attention in 2023. It is likely that we shall witness many life transforming technological advancements in the coming years while very possibly also to be confronted with the “dark” side of such advancements.
Pluto is very much associated with the underworld, or “dark” side, or as astrologer Steven Forrest very well puts it, “Pluto represents the power within us to deal with the dark side. It brings the shadows to light, everything we don’t want to look at to the surface, to make the unconscious conscious. We work on our stuff or our stuff works on us, we deal with it or we’re driven around by it”.
What are the shadows of the Aquarius sign? Could it be the backfiring of excessive expansion and reliance on technology? Pluto tends towards extremes. What is the dark side of being overly attached to ideals and progressive thinking (Aquarian themes)? Will traditional values (Capricorn) that aren’t necessarily bad at all get chucked away for the sake of progressionism?
In Chinese, there is a saying “物極必反” which is translated as all things going to extremes swing back the other way. I find that to be very Pluto!
What does this all mean on the personal level?
On a personal level, if we want to examine how planetary movements impact us, I always look at whether that planet hits an important part of your chart specifically like your Sun, Moon or the four “axes” of a natal birth chart, as well as which house the planet crosses. With Pluto spending 15-20 years in one natal chart house, you can expect a whirlwind of changes and events in that area of life.
While Pluto crossed my sixth house of health and work for the past 15 years, I experienced a health crisis and worked in places with very domineering bosses, some of which honestly were toxic beyond words. The health crisis shifted my perspective on life on so many levels and specifically with regards to my attitude towards work (sixth house matters). Again, without crisis there is no reform… every Pluto transit gifts us the opportunity to transform ourselves in deep and meaningful ways, the old must go in order for the new to arise.
Pluto moving into Aquarius is only the first inning among a bunch of other planets also changing signs in the next 12-24 months, which includes Neptune moving into Aries from Pisces, Uranus entering Gemini from Taurus etc., so lots of shifts are underway!
More changes are indeed ahead, but for now, I”ll let you digest this Pluto transition first!
