Pluto leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius on 11.19.24. This is a big deal because Pluto has been moving through Capricorn since 2008. Pluto spends about 15 - 20 years in a sign. Because the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) spend months in retrograde motion, it can take a while for them to fully move into a new sign. They go back and forth, in and out of the sign they are leaving and the sign they are moving into. This one step forward, two steps back dance gives us time to complete the business of the sign it has been in and prepare for the next phase of life as it moves into the new sign.
In March 2023, we got a taste of Pluto in Aquarius until it retrograded back into Capricorn in June 2023 where it stayed for six months. It dipped into Aquarius again in January 2024 and was there until September, when it retrograded back to the last degree of Capricorn. Again, another taste of what is to come.
The slow movement of the outer planets like Pluto cause deep changes in our lives. Pluto moving back and forth before finally entering the next sign to stay is the opportunity to complete any unfinished business; to tie up loose ends. This holds on both a macro and personal level.
Pluto comes with control issues. It shows our deepest fears and how we attempt to manage the discomfort they cause. It also shows the behavior patterns we have developed in order to feel safe or at least less vulnerable. Depending on the situation and the person, these patterns can border on the obsessive. Lower expressions of Pluto have a compulsive quality that can lead to manipulation and outright lies. Nothing is out of bounds when Pluto is off the rails. Fear can rationalize any behavior, no matter how extreme or inhumane.
Pluto identifies the unsustainable. It reveals the underbelly of what it is involved with. Pluto moving through Capricorn these last 16 years has shown the ugly side of Capricorn ruled things like government, business, large organizations and traditional approaches that we structure our lives around. Our attitudes towards ambitions, material rewards, status, and how we achieve our goals are some themes of Pluto in Capricorn.
How do we want to be seen in the world? What values do we demonstrate by our behaviors? Capricorn expects nothing less than our best self all the time.
Pluto, in its higher expression, is transformative. It reveals what is not working so that it can be transformed into something that reflects the finest we can offer.
There is a process that Pluto transits follow. Typically it starts by showing you your victim mentality. When you feel disempowered, like "they" are running things and you are getting the short end of the stick, that is Pluto. When you tell the story of how wronged you are, how hard you tried to no avail, how the deck is stacked against you, that is Pluto amplifying your victim story. The point is for you to notice what you are creating.
This awareness encourages the next step in the process - making some action to take back your power. In the lower Pluto expression, this looks like identifying a savior, someone who will protect you, right the wrong, stand up for you and give you your power back. Except that isn't the way it works. If you are waiting for some external authority figure (Capricorn deals with authority) to "fix" the situation, you're not empowered. It's just a different flavor of victim. Pluto's mission is self-empowerment.
If you are trying to control how other people act or to force a situation to be what you prefer, you are confusing power over with empowerment. Pluto brings up control dramas so you can recognize the futility of trying to manage external conditions in order to quell an internal sense of discomfort.
Ideally, the final stage in Pluto's script is fostering self awareness of the failing patterns we have acquired that then leads to a different mindset and new choices. Because Capricorn deals with structures, these choices result in an improvement in "business as usual."
Pluto has been at the final degree of Capricorn since September 2. The final degree of a sign is a critical point. It is a "now or never" placement. If you have been dragging your heels on making needed changes, Pluto will increase the pressure to change.
Pluto has been retrograding over this point, offering opportunity to review what the past 16 years have shown you about what you really want and how you want to be seen by the world. On October 12, it will resume direct motion. It's time to move forward and take the steps you have been considering that will lead to a more empowered life. Uncouple yourself from any victim-savior stories. The version of you that you show up as on your best days can be the version of you that shows up everyday if you so choose.
What are you being shown about how you wield and respond to power? How do you manage authority? Are your goals reflecting your priorities and ambitions? Are you proud of you? Do you trust yourself to handle life as it unfolds or do you try to make conditions be a certain way?
On November 19, Pluto will move into Aquarius and stay there until 2043! A new era will begin. We have had a taste of it but now it starts in earnest. The insights gained from Pluto in Capricorn and the changes those insights fostered are important elements in this next era. They have prepared each of us to step forward as part of a collective and contribute to revising what was shown to be unsustainable in the Pluto in Capricorn era. Aquarius expects each of us to show up, fully empowered and dedicated to using our unique capacities to contribute to a better world.
Over these next few weeks, pay attention to the words you use, the stories you tell about yourself, and any justifications you might use to resist making changes. What aspects of your life have been shown to be unsustainable? Are there things you are obsessing over? What are you giving your power to? It's time to take it back. Not angrily, not guiltily, not begrudgingly - but deliberately, calmly, and completely. It's time and you're the only one who can.
"The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any." ~ Alice Walker