As astrologers are keenly aware, this planet presides over death, mortality and destruction. He is the power of Change that occurs with time, that which transforms the material world, and his underlying intention is regeneration, rebirth and resurrection. Following the breakdown and disintegration of any situation (whether abstract or material) there is the possibility of new life and restoration.
We can see this happen in Nature throughout the seasonal cycle, as regenerative powers do their thing. With Pluto in Mundane Astrology, however – and as we’ll see later – things are not necessarily that simple.
Aquarius is the sign of brotherhood par excellence and embodies the power of the collective and HUMANITY itself. In the zodiac cycle, the soul has passed through the personal and social ambitions of Capricorn to arrive at humanity itself – Life and Reality perceived through the group ego; ‘us’ and ‘we’, rather than ‘me and mine’. Aquarius isn’t just the dignity of the socialised individual (also an Aquarian concern) but the dignity of the human race itself, or what it ultimately means to be a Man or Woman. In Mundane Astrology, Aquarian themes are triggered when there is concern with
human rights and humanitarianism, co-operation and co-operatives, socialism and society at large. It’s the old Mr Spock principle: ‘the needs of the Many outweigh the needs of the One’. (For Leo, of course – the opposite sign to Aquarius – it is the other way around.)The Mundane Pluto
As mentioned, what Pluto seeks at an archetypal level is the breakdown and resurrection of outdated structures. On a mundane chart – often the hardest to make any reliable forecasts for – we need to look at the underlying themes connected to the planet and sign, so let’s first take a look at Pluto transits through previous signs and the main themes at work.
PLUTO IN VIRGO (1958-1970)
Pluto’s entry into Virgo coincided with a decimation of the workforce in the manufacturing sector. For one, in the UK, employment in manufacturing began a swift decline (c. 1966) from which it never recovered. One threat to the labour market is automation – machines taking the place of people. The term originated with the Ford Motor Company in 1948 but it wasn’t until 1961 that actual robots were introduced – on a General Motors assembly line – into the workplace. This ties in exactly with Pluto’s transit through Virgo (along with, it must be said, Uranus). Later developments were the invention of industrial computers (the PLC’s, or ‘programmable logic controllers’) in 1968 and the appearance of robotic “Stanford Arm” in 1969. From this period onwards, robots on assembly lines, and far less human workers, would proliferate.
PLUTO IN LIBRA (1971-1984)
This phase in human history saw a re-evaluation of personal relationships and gender politics. The term ‘permissive society’ had entered the parlance, and Pluto in Libra provided us with a threat to the institution of matrimony. Marriage break-ups in the West were on the increase in the early 1970’s; divorce rates had soared into six figures by 1972 in the UK, for example. In the US, divorces peaked in the 1970’s and early 1980’s (sitting nicely in the Pluto-Libra timeline). As the New York Times pointed out, this ‘occurred at the same time as a new feminist movement, which caused social and economic upheaval.’ (Germaine Greer’s polemical and angry, The Female Eunuch had been published in 1970.) Instead of marriage, we had ‘living in sin’ (Pluto quite likes sin) as a practical alternative to matrimony when older values underwent serious change. We also experienced the rise of Women’s Rights as a philosophy and the striving for gender equality (‘equality’ being a Libran keyword).
PLUTO IN SCORPIO (1984-1996))
When Pluto moved into Scorpio the world held its breath – nuclear conflagration seemed like a real possibility due to unresolved tensions between superpowers America and Russia. (Ronald Reagan was quoted as saying ‘we might be the generation that sees Armageddon’ and this type of scaremongering was filtered through popular culture (like TV’s Whoops Apocalypse!, and films such as War Games, When the Wind Blows, Threads, and The Day After). There were other Scorpio themes: practitioners of the occult were under threat as a wave of hysteria took off regarding the (unproven) ‘satanic ritual abuse’ of children, which had gone global by the late 80’s. Plus, according to some Christians, rock fans were unwittingly hearing devilish ‘backmasking’ (secret ‘satanic’ messages in the grooves or their LP’s.) Sex itself even became a dangerous pursuit in some quarters of society, with the emergence of the AIDS epidemic.
PLUTO IN SAGITTARIUS (1996-2008)
Sagittarius ‘rules’ religion on a mundane chart and this Pluto transit underpinned plenty of apocalyptic, millenarial thinking by two major Western powers – the US and the UK. The Bush administration was heavily influenced by the Christian Right and its ideas about the end of the world (for Evangelicals, Jesus was returning in 2000.) Pluto also exposes the dark underbelly wherever it exists: for example, cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic church received full scrutiny (and more robust action) from the mid 1990’s onwards – especially in the US and Ireland. Plus, religious-inspired terrorism reached a crescendo. In 1996, Osama bin Laden issued the first of two fatwās that declared a holy war against the US (whose results arrived in the Al Qaeda attacks of 9-11 in 2001).
We’re now seeing Pluto in Capricorn (2008-2024), the sign which represents the Father archetype. In mundane astrology this means traditional, ‘patriarchal’ power structures and authorities like governments, political elites, dictatorships, police forces, armies, financial institutions, Big Business and corporations. In short, it is the Establishment. The System. In some cases, the Father principle is being undermined by Pluto, for the time-honoured, patriarchal approach by the powers-that-be can only work if the values Capricorn embodies are accepted by society as a whole. These days, we’re no longer prepared be accept the word of Authority and power elites on their own terms. More and more people are disenchanted with political leaders, especially when they see the System as being basically rotten. Hence the rise of many protest movements, like Occupy Wall Street, about perceived corruption and privilege within the System.
If Pluto was just about exposing darkness and corruption in high places and we could all simply revolt and bring governments down, we would have our Utopia. But Pluto empowers, too, and it empowers and even exaggerates the archetypes of the sign it is transiting. Hence we’ve see the rise of demagoguery, far-right politics and the unforgiving hand of Authority. On another tack, we also had the Financial Collapse of 2008 when Pluto was just getting started in Capricorn. Capricorn on a mundane chart is also about the power wielded by banking systems, for here is the Establishment yet again with its control over our lives. Pluto’s entrance into Capricorn thus coincided with an undermining of the System, as the issue of toxic loans and the so-called sub-prime market wreaked havoc and led to the Crash. Also, by late December 2010, people were ready to take to the streets – and thus began the so-called Arab Spring, arising from a catalogue of grievances about authoritarian repression, another effect of Pluto in Capricorn.
Pluto in Aquarius- The Last Time
If we look at the last time we saw Pluto in Aquarius (1777 to 1797) there is the humanitarian activist and politician William Wilberforce busily campaigning to abolish the slave trade. (The first country to actually do so was Denmark, in 1792.) As Wikipedia tells us, 1787 saw Wilberforce work with other campaigners who ‘persuaded him to take on the cause of abolition, and he soon became the leading English abolitionist. He headed the parliamentary campaign against the British slave trade for 20 years until the passage of the Slave Trade Act of 1807.1 We can thus see Pluto’s reforming energies (via Aquarius) all too well in Wilberforce’s ‘causes and campaigns such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice, British missionary work in India, the creation of a free colony in Sierra Leone, the foundation of the Church Mission Society and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.’2 This is Pluto in Aquarius, humanitarian zeal with a vengeance, though of course, he wasn’t alone in this. (Incidentally, when Pluto moved into Pisces – empathy for all of God’s creations, not just humans – the RSPCA was formed in 1824 at the tail end of the Pluto transit, 1797-1823.)
Aquarius is concerned chiefly with groups and collectives, of course, hence the idea of getting together with fellow workers for mutual benefit. In the United Kingdom in 1777, a co-operative of tailors appeared in Birmingham whilst, prior to this, a consumer cooperative was formed in 1769 in East Ayrshire, Scotland, when ‘local weavers manhandled a sack of oatmeal into John Walker’s whitewashed front room and began selling the contents at a discount, forming the Fenwick Weavers’ Society.’3 Plus, according to the Guardian, in 1795, there was the ‘anti-mill’ flour mill in Hull, UK, ‘one of several early English co-operative ventures … set up by local people angry at the high prices charged by commercial millers.’
On the same theme, another example of Pluto in Aquarius is the birth of the Labor Movement in the US after the first recorded strike (of New York journeymen tailors) in 1768 (when Pluto was in Capricorn). Thus, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainer (shoemakers) signalled the
start of active trade unions in 1794 (with Pluto now in Aquarius). Hence, strength in numbers, a typical Aquarian theme. Here is how the History website describes the origins of the Labor Movement:
‘The labor movement in the United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. For those in the industrial sector, organized labor unions fought for better wages, reasonable hours and safer working conditions. The labor movement led efforts to stop child labor, give health benefits and provide aid to workers who were injured or retired.’
It would be an understatement to say that the so-called Rights of Man were very much an issue during this phase of history. One major legacy from this Pluto in Aquarius phase are the two famous Declarations of Human Rights created in the wake of the American and French Revolutions. In fact, it is possible to speak of an actual ‘humanitarian spirit’ at large in the late eighteenth century when the planet of reform and renewal was in the sign of brotherhood and humanity.
I will cover this subject in the part two, together with a comprehensive look at what to expect this time as Pluto enters Aquarius in the Digital Age. A new ‘human revolution’ is underway, but what will that mean? Will it be as moral and ethically based as what happened in Wilberforce’s day? The Aquarian themes of co-operative power, humanitarianism, brotherhood and teamwork all sound wonderful, but won’t there be a dark side, too, with Pluto in Aquarius?
1.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce2. ibid.
3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_cooperative_movementThis article was first published in the Summer 2022 edition of Diamond Fire magazine
Images (CC License) credits and sources: European Southern Observatory (ESO) –
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0602a/Plus: MumblerJamie –
https://www.flickr.com/photos/184393744@N06/49356551127/ Ideally, as you will read on most internet blogs, this transit will be about the power of the collective, interconnectedness, networking, sharing and co-operatives, where everyone (potentially) has a say and benefits equally. These are the supposed themes for the coming years. However, the reality may be rather different, as we will see later on.
Aquarian triumphs always sound lovely and liberating — at first. But the water-bearer, as embodied by the overeager Aquarius Laura Dern on Enlightened, will pursue righteousness and revolution at all costs, unaware of the collateral damage. The French Revolution toppled a bloated monarchy, but its values of rigid nationalism now fail to integrate religious and ethnic differences. The Former Soviet Union is ruled by Aquarius, and in the rise and fall of communism we see how a vision for perfect equality can become an iron menace.
– David Odyssey1
The last time Pluto was in Aquarius social reform was in the air; the following quote is from Frank J. Klingberg’s essay, the Evolution of the Humanitarian Spirit in Eighteenth-Century England:
All the humanitarian currents and forces of the [eighteenth] century may be thought of as the struggle for the organization of a civilized social life, with the economist, the churchman, the reformer, the poet, the satirist, and the legislator each working in many related “causes” for the change of social conditions… The fact that the mood of England was changing, decade by decade, is seen in the voice of these important societies … The first of the revolutionary leaders [of this time] was Granville Sharp. His interests included activity against dueling, the press gang, prison abuse, Parliamentary corruption, war, drink, flogging, and unemployment.’2
Klingberg’s text above beautifully captures the spirit of the previous transit of Pluto through Aquarius (1777 to 1797) – the zeal for reform and the sincere attempts to improve the lot of ordinary people. There can be no better example, however, of this drastic Plutonian sweep through society (like a scythe through a wheat crop) than the concurrent Revolution occurring in France from 1789-1799. As Wikipedia puts it: ‘Many of its ideas are considered fundamental principles of liberal democracy, while phrases like liberté, égalité, fraternité reappeared in other revolts …. and inspired campaigns for the abolition of slavery and universal suffrage.’3
Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality and fraternity) can be seen as a direct result of the discovery of revolutionary-minded Uranus, even though the equality and fraternity parts are not – in themselves – Uranian principles (Uranus’ function is to inspire Man and Woman, infuse them with Divine Spirit and to tear down the old oppressive order – ‘brotherhood’ doesn’t quite enter the picture. Instead, what we saw in revolutionary France in the late eighteenth century was Pluto in Aquarius’s urge towards a fairer, more equal society.)And if any one individual personified the zeitgeist it had to be Maximilien Robespierre (1758 –1794) the French lawyer who was ‘one of the best-known, influential and controversial figures of the French Revolution. He campaigned for universal manhood suffrage and the abolition of both clerical celibacy and [like William Wilberforce in the UK] the Atlantic slave trade [becoming] an outspoken advocate for male citizens without a political voice … To some, Robespierre was the Revolution’s principal ideologist and embodied the country’s first democratic experience.’4
This is one of the more noble effects of Pluto in Aquarius, but there is another side to it …
THE DARK SIDE
We know that, as humans, individually or collectively, we can misuse planetary energies. One way of misusing Pluto is to try and hang on to the old ways to retain one’s power base. This is what certain long standing institutions will be doing with Pluto in Aquarius, especially governments and businesses (who often have vested interests in things remaining as they are). As the astrologer Paula Lustemberg put it: ‘Pluto in Aquarius describes the removal of what stands in the way of moving towards a future with greater social equality. How this is done depends very much on the collective reality of the moment.’5 If Pluto in Capricorn exposed corruption in business and politics with authoritarian, self-serving leaders (yet simultaneously empowering them), Pluto in Aquarius will focus less on the individual leaders than it does groups. Instead of the powers of the megalomaniacs it will be about the institutions and corporations themselves – and the power they wield may not all be positive.
As any astrologer knows, Pluto can bring a ‘heavy’ and authoritative hand to a situation, one of its principal themes is power, after all.
In Aquarius, we see the blind quest and zeal to ‘improve’ things for the supposed ‘good of all’, the ‘good of the community’. If Aquarius is about human rights, for example, we may even see situations where citizens are prosecuted for violating them in only mild ways. For example, some aspects of so called political correctness – originally only about consideration towards minorities – could turn into actual legal proscriptions, and what we say to each other with mild insults could not only be against the law but may entail jail time for ‘offenders’. This sounds like one of those wild ‘it couldn’t happen here’ scenarios – but history shows that humankind is often complacent about things like this. (For much of the 1930’s, no one thought there could be another world War.)
And so Pluto in Aquarius may be about power and manipulation disguised as ‘trying to do the right thing’. I quote Paula Lustemberg once more:
‘Pluto also speaks of control and manipulation, especially when experienced from the lowest vibrations. And in Aquarius, we can talk about control and manipulation through the mind, through ideas … Be that as it may, in the past this transit has brought great progress in society. We see a new era coming where “knowledge” will be the star …’6And yet, ‘knowledge’ already is the star, as witnessed in the pre-eminence of Science, and its supposed authority – something we often turn to as a reference point for the ‘bigger issues’.
This is mainly because Religion (in the West) has lost most of its power to influence modern societies. The prevailing Paradigm, is determined now by science, not organised religion. And yet science is often treated, as if it were a religion. Certainly, it often constitutes a dogma which tries to lay down exactly what we should believe about the Universe. In Liz Greene’s assessment of the coming Age of Aquarius (whose seeds we now see germinating) she says that with its ‘group consciousness’ this sign will ‘wipe out the individual if it is allowed to run rampant’. That is, when the group mind, the consensus, is strong enough, individual differences of opinion are ignored, stamped out even. When there is enough peer pressure, one’s feels forced to agree and join in with what the group wants. This is how Aquarius gets its own way – and Science (through sheer numbers) has the upper hand.
Therefore, there’s a big danger that the dogma of Science – because it is has power through the Collective and the support of the Majority – will become even more like a tool with which to shut people up, especially those with ‘irrational’ spiritual beliefs or those who would take up arms against it, that is, other scientists who argue against the (often unfounded) dogmas. We already see some of this with the phenomenon of Intelligent Design, whose advocates have pointed out the failings of modern neo-Darwinism (gene theory plus evolution tells us all we need to know about Life). Scientists who argue for Intelligent Design are not only insulted by the orthodox scientific community (usually ridiculed as silly, Christian creationists) but livelihoods can be lost (in the US) if they dare even to mention ID to their students.
So, because Science is a collective power, dissenting voices in the minority will be even more difficult to hear. Individual dissenters are to be shunned. Then again, does Science always move in the direction of what’s good for everyone? Take Artificial Intelligence, that supposed miracle of modern science where machines can do the work humans used to do (whose advocates seem to forget certain obvious facts like: a) these machines put people out of work; and b) machines have a tendency to go wrong.) The Rise of AI is based on the erroneous idea that Human Consciousness is somehow synonymous with the intelligence of a computer program. In the coming era, there may be yet more extreme ideas for how AI robots can be put to use, and since Pluto is involved they will likely border on the vaguely sinister, too!
This Power of the Collective will also see some controversial manifestations in politics, in institutions like the EU, or the UN, when Pluto moves through Aquarius. Ideally, Pluto in Aquarius will shift the emphasis to shared power, shared capitalism and power structures that are more inclusive. (At the very least it should mean individual demagogues can no longer get away with things – that their powers are checked by other forces.) But it is also going to create many more tensions when sovereign countries (the ‘individual’) want to exert certain powers against the wishes of whatever collective or union they belong to.
BUSINESS, THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE FUTURE
As we saw in part one of this article, humanitarians like William Wilberforce (who campaigned in the eighteenth century against slavery) were ultimately driven by Christianity. That ‘do-good’ zeal will still be there with the next Pluto-Aquarius transit, but we will look towards ‘science’ to usher in and deliver the new changes. The obvious difference between now and Wilberforce’s time is one of new technology. We live (some of) our lives online, connected to part of a huge network, whose basic idea is about lateral power – each ‘node’ having some individual autonomy. The point is that it’s decentralised – there is essentially no top-down hierarchy.
Networks are obviously another Aquarian theme (look at the massive rise of popular social media sites, for example, when fashion-conscious Neptune went through Aquarius). The Internet is is also changing the way entrepreneurs and ordinary people do business, in short, it has levelled the playing field, bringing people together (customers and sellers) instantly, without any so called middlemen or ‘mark up’ costs. In Jeremy Rifkin’s The Third Industrial Revolution the author has much to say about a future based more on the (Aquarian) principle of collaboration and sharing, in particular where Green issues are concerned:
‘The emerging Third Industrial Revolution … is organized around distributed renewable energies that are found everywhere and are, for the most part, free—sun, wind, hydro, geothermal heat, biomass, and ocean waves and tides. These dispersed energies will be collected at millions of local sites and then bundled and shared with others over intelligent power networks to achieve optimum energy levels and maintain a high-performing, sustainable economy. The distributed nature of renewable energies necessitates collaborative rather than hierarchical command and control mechanisms … This new lateral energy regime establishes the organizational model for the countless economic activities that multiply from it. A more distributed and collaborative industrial revolution, in turn, invariably leads to a more distributed sharing of the wealth generated.’7
He goes on to state that, in a network, ‘self-interest is subsumed by shared interest. Proprietary information is eclipsed by a new emphasis on openness and collective trust. The new focus on transparency over secrecy is based on the premise that adding value to the network doesn’t depreciate one’s own stock but, rather, appreciates everyone’s holdings as equal nodes in a common endeavor.’8 There are a number of Aquarian themes here that Rifkin (who I presume is not an astrologer) has picked up on – the theme of collective trust, collaboration and shared interest – which all adds up to ‘together is better’. And Rifkin seems certain that the new spirit of ‘shared energy’ resources will become a new economic model for the future. Let’s hope so.
Pluto is, of course, a transpersonal planet, concerned ultimately with the fate of generations rather than individuals. (Even with a natal Pluto on an angle, say, that person – we are told – is meant to be a mere vessel for the planet’s universal energy.) If Pluto in Aquarius can teach us anything it is that we’re all entirely dependent on Mother Nature (who, when she wears her Plutonian face can, nevertheless, seem quite cruel). In the old paradigm Nature was something to be conquered; in the new one, we must build a relationship with it. For example, the Covid virus (whose appearance in the West coincided with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction of January 2020) clearly exposed how we are destroying the planet. Satellite photos made soon after its first stages (when we were mostly in full lockdown) showed a decline in harmful greenhouse gases, and wildlife started to reappear where it had been absent. (There were even fish in Venice’s waterways.) In short, when we weren’t polluting it, the Earth began to heal. (The Covid virus even showed our innate capacity for coming together, for unselfish action.)
It should go without saying that new environmental initiatives will be near the top of any good government’s ‘to do’ list with Pluto in Aquarius – for this is ultimately about humanity itself. As Jeremy Rifkin suggests, Western governments and technology firms will work together better in the future – and better here means ‘greener’. Pluto in Aquarius (along with spiritually inclined Neptune in Pisces) will make it abundantly clear that we need to step back a little and think over our relationship with the planet. Again, we are all connected and inter-dependent; not only will Pluto in Aquarius demonstrate this, dramatically if necessary, we’ll have to adopt the slogan as a modus operandi during the so-called Third ‘Industrial Revolution’.
Back in 1793, not long after the first industrial revolution, Robespierre even urged the formation of a sans-culotte army to enforce revolutionary laws. As Wikipedia explains: ‘The sans-culottes were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France’, and they became the radical, militant end of the French Revolution, angry at their poor quality of life. Again, this is Pluto in Aquarius to a T – a very real ‘power of the people’. And if you haven’t spotted it yet, they look like a forerunner of the Gilets-Jaunes, the yellow-vest protestors in modern France who began calling for economic justice and institutional political reforms. The protests in France began on 17 November 2018, incidentally, ten days after transiting Uranus had conjoined natal Saturn on France’s 1792 chart (suggesting massive tensions ready to explode), and the same month that the progressed moon (the people) squared progressed Pluto (power).
With Pluto in Aquarius, I believe we’re going to see many more of these kinds of protests from ordinary people, even new movements (witness Extinction Rebellion) and that they’re going to have some real political power to influence the so-called Establishment. This we’ll likely see, as well, in the power of workers’ unions across the Western world. The last Pluto transit brought about the first unions and the Labor movement in the US, in keeping with the egalitarian spirit of Aquarius. Strikes, therefore, may become much more of a serious issue than of late as we move into 2024. So, in closing, to use an old slogan from another old radical: Power to the People!
1.
https://www.nylon.com/life/pluto-in-aquarius-2023-explained2. The Evolution of the Humanitarian Spirit in Eighteenth-Century England, Frank J. Klingberg,
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1942.
3.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution4.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maximilien_Robespierre5.
https://paulalustemberg.com/en/pluto-in-aquarius-2023-2044/6. Ibid.
7. The Third Industrial Revolution, Jeremy Rifkin, Griffin, 2013.
8. Ibid.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
