Pluto in Aquarius: Shadows of Transformation and the Echoes of Revolution
Plutocracy vs Freedom
I admit to inherent optimism; the Scorpio in me can deep dive to the darkest depths, but in time, I must seek the light. It’s been a long, hard night of late, and I don’t know that what I have to say will uplift and inspire. I do have a sense of the beyond now—even though I can’t see what it is, nor can I promise the when. The shift into the beyond depends on many factors, and we don’t get there without vision—and luck.
Before the last U.S. election, I was clear that it was headed for a governmental overhaul. With the U.S. horoscope on its Pluto Return (Pluto represents irrevocable transformation) and the reality that all countries and governments that last that long go through a reassessment of how they govern, it seemed plausible that policies most citizens wanted would come to pass: sensible gun control, accessible affordable healthcare, and equity. However, the revolution I foresaw failed to take into account the historic reality of Pluto in Aquarius. We the people, have not evolved away from colonization, uprisings, and destruction.
As I went back through the past three transits of Pluto in Aquarius, this is what I saw and what I now know: there is tremendous resistance to recognize and take responsibility for the Shadow. Human nature is comfortable with the devil we know, and we resist change. In a Tarot card spread, nothing can unnerve a person new to the cards more than the image of Death. Many years ago, when I did a promo event for the show “Psychic Detectives” in NYC, the producers told our group of 70+ readers, “Remove the Death card if you have one in your deck.” We were paid to do three-minute sessions for the public, so we complied. Yet we all knew that if a message about an unavoidable transformation was to come through, other cards would signal that. You can pretend it doesn’t exist, but sooner or later, we all deal with Death.
Pluto was the god of the Underworld, the name for the (dwarf) planet discovered in 1930 at the advent of nuclear power and the stirrings of the Second World War. The sign Pluto moves through lets us know what we have to unearth; jewels are deep within, but so are dangers. Just as we know fracking, drilling, and mining compromise the stability of our planet, to plumb the unconscious upsets the equilibrium of our existence.
With Pluto in Aquarius, education is often strengthened. Aquarius is community and humanitarian-focused; the idea is to grow and incubate innovative ideals. However, there’s a strong mandate for what that utopia looks like; it wants to control the narrative and there can be a religious fervor to it. This comes from the “fixed” quality of Aquarius, so sure of its direction.
There is discovery. However, much of the history shows colonization, using power to dominate, tax, and pillage. Pluto represents the Shadow, and for Aquarius, that can be an imperious sense of righteousness. Can we evolve beyond that shadow impulse?
1287 - 1307: Portugal created their first university. The Spanish rabbi Moses de León publicized the Zohar, the first foundation of the mystical book the Kabbalah. Although its origin has been questioned, the Zohar stimulated a great deal of discussion.
The Mongol Empire invaded Hungary and Poland. The Crusades finally began to recede at the Fall of Tripoli by the Mamluks. The Mamluks were knights from diverse backgrounds owned by Arab rulers. They were pivotal to end the Crusades and led the Siege of Acre, which drove out Henry II, the last crowned king of Jerusalem, to Cyprus. Struggles for dominance in Bengal led to the rise of the Khalji Dynasty; their legacy was a tax system that lasted into the 20th century (a tax in which the peasants' surplus benefited the ruling class).
Finally, in the early 1300s, at the end of Pluto’s cycle in Aquarius, the seeds of the Renaissance were planted in Tuscany to last into the 1500s.
1532 - 1553: The denouement of the Renaissance while Copernicus defined the Sun as the center of the Solar System. This was part of the rise of the Scientific Revolution. Meanwhile, the Spanish conquered the Incas in Peru, Colombia, and Chile. The Spaniards stretched through California to create a water route to Mexico. They strategically spread Catholicism by integrating indigenous rituals and symbols to engage their converts (having lost many adherents due to the Protestant Revolution in Europe). Depictions of these gods and goddesses metamorphized to Catholic saints. The Portuguese brought sugarcane production to South America and the islands, with empires built on slavery.
1777-1798: The freshest memories of Pluto’s last trip should also generate caution. The American Revolution drew support from France and Spain as it wrested freedom from King George and taxation. These noble ideals have long obscured darker reasons of the need to separate. A movement to abolish the slave trade throughout the British Empire had taken root, but the southern colonies depended on that system to run their plantations. In 1781, the United States ratified its Constitution, and a very short time after, the French Revolution began. The French government had helped the USA in its revolution, but the fledgling country stayed out of the French revolt. There were more wars and takeovers in Europe as Russia battled Poland, took Ukraine, and Napoleon expanded the French Empire. Christian movements focused on the New Testament swelled at the end of this period in the States, with the Restoration and Second Great Awakening.
2023-2043: The predictions I made about this twenty year cycle have ways to go… Based on what has emerged at this writing, we can be sure AI is a big catalyst. Even Elon Musk stated in 2023 that we should put the brakes on it, but by now he’s deep in its perceived benefits. The genie is out of the box, and our ability to know what is truth has never been so compromised. If a country like the USA still valued education to encourage critical thought, we might have a chance. But with a continued dismantling of the Department of Education and a campaign against “elite” higher education, it does look like a diversity of knowledge and intellectual exchange will be curtailed.
Individuals can work to expand information resources, but it takes effort. It requires discomfort. Most people prefer to read and hear thoughts they agree with; they don’t want to feel emotions that distress, threaten or challenge what they know. But remember the Shadow: we all are exposed to the dark side of Aquarius now, if we desire to have people do things our way… and cannot give an inch—ouch! that’s the colonization impulse. The ideal is to work together, give and take, but we have to know our Shadow self before we can see that.
The Shadow’s thrust began at the end of Pluto in Capricorn, with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the blow-up in Israel and Gaza. Now President-elect Trump wants to take Greenland, Panama, and to bend Canada and Mexico to his will. He might decide to annex the beleaguered Cuba as he renames the Gulf of Mexico. His billionaire cabinet is able to buy their way into what they want, and other wealthy donors flock to him in hope for favors (or to avoid backlash).
As you can see from the above timelines, history shows us successes for some conquerors, but nothing lasts. Because of the specific echoes to U.S. history, we do know that a revolution is afoot. Perhaps the billionaires will dismantle and create a new system as they plan to do; based on how long Pluto is in Aquarius, whatever their new version, we can expect ongoing shifts.
Big money and corporations are the ones who planned the coup—to be free of what they view as unfair taxes and to instill their vision of deregulation (remember, many of the founders did not want to abolish slavery or have their plantations “regulated”). At the onset of this transit, there is a new royal family with its court of the wealthy in the USA. It’s going to be a wild ride as the USA either matures into its potential or goes the way of other empires.
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*This image was AI generated in minutes: I asked for the god Pluto in a suit and futuristic city
I will continue to write about these events through an astrological lens… your thoughts are welcome.