What to Do as Pluto Enters Aquarius

Pluto, the mythical Lord of the Underworld is an amazing transformation artist. But with clients, I never discuss his transits through the houses of their charts.  Pluto is too slow. It’s like discussing hair growth—only after hair’s gotten too long do you notice. It’s not something you see (let alone direct) as it’s happening.

Slow-rolling Pluto goes like a great wave through the cultural sea, transforming the dynamics of power in whatever sign he touches. He alters history. He defines generations. But most of the time, individually, you and I are just corks, bobbing along in the great ocean of his transforming collective.

So, as an astrologer, I usually find other, more interesting things going on in anyone’s chart at any one time. Sometimes it’s an actual Pluto transit to a planet, which is very noticeable. But what he’s doing in a house … I don’t look at that until moments like this one, when Pluto changes signs. That’s when his footprints through the chart become fascinating.  That’s when you can look in the mirror and see how much you’ve changed.

Transition is always a two-step.

Pluto enters Aquarius this week, on March 23, after spending 15 years in Capricorn. But he’ll leave again soon, retrograding back into Capricorn on June 11. It’s not until next January that he’ll be in Aquarius for good. This is a teaching: as change approaches—we go back and forth a little bit.

The shift from one sign to the next—from 29 degrees of the previous sign to zero degrees of the next one—this is always a two-step. But most of us get it wrong. Typically, we skip the culminating work of the 29^th degree. We neglect to appreciate how an archetype has changed us. That’s like receiving a gift, tossing it aside and never sending a thank you card.

Instead—we knit our brows and try to conjure the future. We try to analyze and predict what will happen. But zero degrees of anything needs to be a spacious mystery, not something we box up and package before we get there. At zero, we open ourselves to the new winds that are blowing. We sniff and sense and receive.

Aquarius is a future-oriented, humanistic sign that oversees technology, scientific breakthroughs, and social revolutions. We can already see how dramatically (Aquarian) Artificial Intelligence will alter our world.  Aquarius also rules social contracts. It forces the questions, “Who gets the power? People or politicians?” The sharply divided society Pluto-in-Capricorn has bequeathed us will need to be addressed. Both democracy and fascism are Aquarian vibrations—society will have to choose.

But for now… take this exquisite moment to develop some awe for your own journey. Look back. What has Pluto’s transit through the Capricorn house(s) of your chart done for you? What has transformed?

Where were you?

The last time Pluto hit zero degrees was November 27, 2008. It was Thanksgiving when he entered Capricorn. Cap areas of life like leadership, authority, tradition, institutions, and governments would all be tested and transformed.

That fall, the stock market crashed. Bank failures were on the rise, propelled by the 29^th degree of Sagittarius, a sign with such reckless optimism, its risky lending practices met the Great Recession and the Real Estate Bubble burst.

Under a hopeful chant of “Yes we can!” Barack Obama had just been elected president. At the box office, a 17-year-old Bella Swan fell in love with a hot, 104-year-old vampire she met in biology class, our first Twilight movie. Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” and “If I Were a Boy” were topping the charts.

Now draw a line—connect the dots between that moment and this one. That’s how long Pluto has been shaking up Capricorn. What have we learned collectively? For one, that without accountability, leaders, governments, institutions and traditions aren’t as reliable as we thought. All of that can break and much of it has.

Bank failures are in the news again. The measures that Congress took in 2008 to ensure they wouldn’t recur were rescinded in 2018. We can’t blame Pluto—just ourselves.

But what about you?

Find the arc of Pluto’s journey through Capricorn in your chart, from zero to 29 degrees. This could span one or two houses (possibly three), depending on your chart.

In my chart, Pluto stirred the final degrees of my 4th house of home & family and then went through most of my 5^th house of children & creativity.  The Dark Lord’s Cap transit began with my son’s teenage years.  Perhaps one of the greatest metamorphoses of my adult life came from that time–learning how to grow through the raging anger and testosterone of a teenage boy in the organic but turbulent process of separating from mom. Ouch!  If I had a dollar for every time he glared and rolled his eyes at me or threw his controller against the wall.  But now, at this transition, my Aquarian son is well-launched. He also thinks I’m swell. And I learned how to develop the quiet smile and patience of a Buddha.

Perhaps I’m most delighted about my creative growth. I wrote my Venus report at the beginning of this transit. I used the steady focus and ambition of Capricorn to study the ways of Venusian joy. Today I’m working on a book–for which my Buddha patience has come in handy.  I’ve been working for over seven years.  And in that time, as a writer, I’ve had to utterly transform. I can’t wait to finish this book and share it with you!  But for the moment, I’ll just say a thankful prayer to Pluto, who even when I’m approaching my 70th year of life still visits–and still rocks–my world.

What about you?  How did the Dark Lord transform you?