PLUTO

Pluto Transits - Global and Personal Perspectives

Pluto Astrology

​Our discovery of Pluto expanded our sense of the mysteriously profound, the unknown and unknowable reach and depth of reality. This realisation applies as much to astronomy, and the physical sense we have of the universe, as it does to astrology and its insights into human psychology.

We have come to comprehend that life is very much more complex, hidden and undecipherable than we had ever thought. So this is the essence of what Pluto’s astrology points to in a horoscope – how do we experience transcendence? How do we cope with the fact that we are both powerful and powerless, light and dark, saintly and satanic? Pluto’s domain is beyond the beyond – as far out as it gets, at least within our current reach of comprehension; it goes beyond duality.

Pluto Transits in Recent History

Each generation faces existential threats. The Pluto in Leo age had to deal with megalomaniacs like Hitler, Stalin and Mao; in Virgo Pluto brought us electronics – a truly dangerous development in consciousness; in Libra, oil was the feature that divided the world into haves and have nots, producers and consumers; in Scorpio there were shocking exposures of long-held secrets to do with sexual misconduct and abuse of political, religious and corporate power; in Sagittarius religious wars were in high profile again; and now in Capricorn, corporate power has become quite awesome, and governments are losing their grip.

Pluto in your Horoscope

If you study Pluto Astrology in a horoscope you can see by house position and aspects in which areas of life a person will experience the greatest degree of power – as the bully or the victim – and typically in fact experience both roles.

So 10th house Pluto is boss or slave; 1st house Pluto can be the constantly fearful but nevertheless the most influential in their set; 4th shows a very powerful, all-consuming  relationship with the mothering principle, whereas 8th house Pluto is the mysterious master who submits to the higher dimensions found in sex, prayer and magick.

If Pluto aspects a planet, then that planetary influence is profoundly intensified. With Mars there is ruthlessness, whether tyrant or surgeon, with Venus the mysterious, seductive charm of a sex goddess, with Mercury the ability and tragic compulsion to discover and express truth at all costs, with Moon a lifelong restlessness drives us to find our deepest sense of Nature, the only place we feel safe.

Pluto and Higher Aspects of Consciousness

Pluto is beyond our control, yet we can surf its turbulent waves if we open up our higher aspects of consciousness. Its function is to connect us to non-ordinary realities even if that requires us to let go of all aspects of life – and die. It is the seed of the future and therefore the death of the past. Like Scorpio it composts the useless and outdated into dark regenerative regions that support rebirth and renewal.

Pluto transits to planets in our horoscope bring these global and cosmic matters to our door; we cannot escape them. They approach slowly and ominously year by year until what was denied and hidden, rotting away in unconscious realms of the psyche, is brought into the light of consciousness, and accepted truthfully as being the truth of the matter in hand.

Personal Pluto Transits

Whether it is to do with our approach to relationships, how we project ourselves into the world, how we get our needs met, or how we sort out how to think, whatever issues we have not yet dealt with are forced forward into our circumstances as insurmountable obstacles. An irresistible force meets what we had previously thought was an immovable object. If, instead of Venus, Mars, Moon or Mercury it is the Sun experiencing a Pluto transit,  then it feels like the death of self itself; potentially it is totally overwhelming.

A crisis occurs, a watershed is crossed, something dies and there is a resurrection. Then a slow process of recovery gets underway until the years have passed and we can look back proudly at our ability to have withstood such a challenge and still managed to have bounced back. These are life-defining times.

Pluto at Perihelion

During the period 1978 – 1999 it was at perihelion, the closest it gets in 250 years to both Sun and Earth, even closer than Neptune. Its power is extremely concentrated during such periods and, especially at these times, only those with a committed innocent spirituality are safe to handle its power. 

As we have seen, the effects of trying to use that power for personal gain can lead to catastrophe. The greed of the rich has brought our species to the brink of self-annihilation. We have the power now; will we use it collectively for the good of all, or for selfish purposes? The astrology of Pluto’s position on this point is quite clear – there is only one right answer to this question and the penalty for a wrong answer is dire and permanent.

Pluto in Capricorn

We don't really know what's happening nowadays, but it feels like we've been cut loose and are awash on a great river of change. This is the feeling of Pluto in Capricorn – a bedrock shudder. ​Whenever Pluto went through Capricorn in days gone by there was a large scale shift of political power.

​We think of the birth and death of Rome, the rise of the Pope’s role in politics, and the challenge against this by Henry 8th, we think of the Boston Tea Party more recently, which sets in motion the end of the extraordinary influence of the British Empire as the USA claims world dominance. These events took place when Pluto transited Capricorn. This transit is reoccurring now in our current era, between 2008 and 2023. During this 16 year period we can confidently expect global political power to be entirely reoriented.

It may be that another country becomes able to challenge US supremacy, perhaps following USA’s internal degeneration, but it could equally be that a new paradigm emerges and the corporation not the state becomes the dominant force. And then our allegiances to locations will be replaced by corporate loyalty. This type of thing is seen in a different form in today's world – where loyalty of faith exceeds loyalty of country of residence. `

During Pluto's passage through Capricorn we are likely to want to look at geopolitical shifts on an historical scale. Since Capricorn is to do with form and structure (Saturn's keywords) we expect our governments and societies to be transformed. We expect to see the dominant ruling bodies to lose their firmness of grip, despite extremes in their efforts to hold on.
​

Corridors of Power

It is very difficult to see beneath the veils of deceit to know what is actually going on behind closed doors within secret corridors of power. Such is Pluto. We must therefore read and study events and responses to get a sense of where Pluto is taking us next. It does seem that the USA has lost traction in the world during the last few years, and that the American Dream has had its day. But what is coming along to replace the failing model of capitalism and military might?

The major players in the world of corporations have become influential in world politics, as was the case recently in a somewhat similar way when oligarchs rose up to fill the power vacuum created when Gorbachev and Yeltsin supervised the total collapse of USSR influence. Today the corporate influence of Big Oil is being challenged by IT companies, such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Amazon. It is hard to imagine what will occur as these stupendously rich companies wield more and more influence over more and more aspects of our less-and-less-private lives. ​

We see now how nuclear war is more of a threat, how racism is on the rise along with firming up boundaries and accentuating national identity, and we also see growing stronger the corporate independence and supremacy that is arising out of this surge of the right-wing, the would-be fascists. Pluto is in evidence in all of this. It is a power-play at the highest level of statehood, nationality, religion and social structuring: it is in Capricorn. ​

Pluto Astrology and Trump

Is Trump a Capricorn figure? Yes. He is a businessman billionaire and he wants to sit on the highest seat and be recognised as the best. Is he Pluto too? Assuredly so, he is ruthless, effective and entirely indifferent to human suffering.​

The process of his removal from office has been too slow, he has done irreparable damage to many lives and even perhaps the world itself . This is a profound indictment of our system of democracy.

A New Democracy

Perhaps it is time for a new over-arching governance principle; in its current form Democracy is outdated. It certainly was a good idea when compared to what it replaced, which was the tyranny of kings and such like, but now we have insufficient power to resist being taken over by the Corporate Dragon. ​

We need to transform what we think of as Democracy; it has so far proven itself unable to prevent a truly defective person like Trump being allowed to sit on the world throne, it must be replaced by something better – something that protects us better from the lies of power-possessors and the greed of corporations and, most importantly, defends the principle of Justice.​