Pluto in Aquarius 2023-2044: Power to the People
One of the most anticipated transits of the decade is Pluto in Aquarius.
Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23rd, 2023, retrogrades back into Capricorn on June 11th, 2023, and then back in Aquarius on January 21s, 2024. Pluto leaves Aquarius on January 19th, 2044.
Yes, you read that right – that’s 20 years of Pluto in Aquarius! Some of us might even be thinking “20 years! Will I even be alive in 2044?”. And as gloomy as this may sound, this is exactly the type of question a Pluto transit usually triggers.
When Pluto enters a new sign (and this only happens once every 20 years on average), our lives, and society as a whole changes in unprecedented ways.
Pluto is still in Capricorn for a while, and some might say it’s too early to talk about Pluto in Aquarius. But perhaps now is the best time to talk about Pluto in Aquarius.
Saturn and Jupiter’s recent transit through Aquarius (2020-2023), have given us a good taste of Aquarius and the themes that are relevant in today’s world.
Pluto in Aquarius – We, The People
Pluto takes 248 years to go around the Sun. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius was between 1778 and 1798, a period of massive change all over the world.
The American constitution, still considered the pinnacle of democracy, was written when Pluto was in Aquarius.
The Constitution’s first three words – We the People – are perhaps the first modern expression of the “Aquarius entity”. This entity is not a king, a ruler, nor the government. This is exactly what the European settlers were running away from.
“We the people” is the people – an entity without a leader, an entity that self-governs and self-regulates according to the interests and well being of everyone.
In Aquarius, it is this plural entity that takes priority over the individual.
“We the People” is also a reminder that people’s representatives – rulers, governors, politicians, and policy makers – are here to represent and serve their citizens (an important principle that we will come back to later in this article).
Pluto in Aquarius
To understand Pluto in Aquarius, let’s remind ourselves what Pluto and Aquarius stand for.
Pluto is the last planet in our solar system, the ‘final frontier’ of reality as we know it. Pluto is perhaps the most mysterious planet, because it holds the key to the unknown, to what’s on “the other side”.
Common keywords associated with Pluto are: power, depth, transformation, crisis, surrender, resilience, the big natural cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.
Pluto is the higher octave of Mars. Mars is the planet of personal will; when we take action and assert ourselves, that’s Mars. When you go to the grocery store, you act from your Mars. No one can tell you not to go to the grocery store. You go there when you want to.
But if the council decides to close down the grocery store and build a warehouse for Amazon, there’s not much you can do. Of course, you can try to fight the council or sign petitions, but the council is a force greater than yourself, it is the sum of personal interests of multiple individuals.
Similarly, Pluto is the collective dimension of Mars, so it is the sum of all the wills of all the individuals, it is the life force itself.
Pluto is the power of nature. When our personal will (Mars) is aligned with the collective will (Pluto) all is fine… but when it’s not, this ‘collective will’ will simply crush our personal will.
Indeed, when Pluto strikes, we often feel we have no say and that we are at the mercy of powers greater than ourselves.
With Pluto, the secret is not to put up a stronger fight, since this is a battle we cannot win – but to surrender, and trust in the workings of the universe.
At the same time, Pluto doesn’t like wimps. So if you think that doing nothing and ‘going with the flow’ is a good way to keep Pluto happy, think again. Pluto wants you to get stronger and to put up a fight if necessary… but Pluto also wants you to know when to call it quits.
Pluto is a Mars that is more strategic, thinks long term, and understands how society works. Politicians, businesspeople, strategists, psychologists oftentimes have a strong Pluto in their chart, and it is exactly their ability to channel the raw force of Mars into long-term, complex projects that makes them successful.
Pluto’s role is to keep the engine of the universe going, by eliminating what can no longer sustain life. If something is rotten, Pluto will eliminate it, to leave space for healthy growth.
Knowing what’s rotten is a good thing. If your tooth rots, you go to the dentist and fix the problem… and save your other teeth. If you want your tree to grow healthy, you trim the dead branches.
At a personal level, Pluto helps you eliminate what’s no longer working in your life, helping you build resilience and true personal power – a personal power based on a deep understanding of yourself and the world around you.
At a society level, Pluto will eliminate what’s corrupted and rotten, so that society can grow stronger and be more equipped to withstand difficult conditions.
What about Aquarius?
Aquarius is an Air sign, and we know that Air signs are concerned with communication and the intellect. If Gemini is our internal communication, Libra, one-on-one communication, – Aquarius is a collective sign, so it rules one-to-many and many-to-many communication. That’s why the internet and social media are ruled by Aquarius! Aquarius wants to bring the light of knowledge to as many people as possible.
“Communication” is not only verbal communication, but in general, the “distribution” of thoughts, words, energy, people, resources. It’s interesting that in the human body, Aquarius rules the circulatory system. Aquarius makes sure that information, resources, energy get distributed and shared where they are needed.
We all know that Aquarius rules friends and groups of people. But not only that. Organizations, committees, infrastructure, and councils are all Aquarius. Marketplaces, from the small farmer markets to Amazon, the stock exchange – the largest marketplace in the world – are Aquarius as well.
Because Aquarius rules groups of people, and society is a large group of people, we say that Aquarius rules society as a whole. Society is a sum of all the individuals, plus all the multiple interactions between these people. Society is the most complex Aquarius system out there.
Aquarius has two ruling planets: Saturn (the traditional ruler) and Uranus (the modern ruler). Saturn gives Aquarius an interest in policy-making, and a focus on building solid foundations for the future.
If the cardinal sign of Capricorn, the other Saturn-ruled sign, represents the executive power – the president, the prime minister or the CEO – Aquarius is the Congress, the Supervisory boards, the Unions, and all other entities where people get elected to represent a large group of people, and quality-control the executive power.
Aquarius is also ruled by futuristic Uranus, which gives Aquarius the drive to continuously challenge the status quo, make changes, and innovate. Uranus is the planet of the sky, so Aquarius is also connected with sky-related topics like broadbands, air transportation, astronomy, astrology, electricity, reiki, intergalactic communication, and artificial intelligence.
Pluto in Aquarius will expose what is rotten (Pluto) in our society (Aquarius) so that we can build a better structure and infrastructure for everyone here on Earth.
Pluto in Aquarius will initially expose what is no longer working in our society, because this is how Pluto operates: it purges what’s toxic and no longer needed.
Like with any Pluto transit, it won’t be pretty at first.
But this process of a complete overhaul of the very fabric of society is very much needed – and it will be totally worth the intrusive workings of Plutonic transformation. The result? A more resilient, autonomous society that can self-regulate and quickly adapt to circumstances.
Pluto in Capricorn Vs. Pluto In Aquarius
Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008. 2008 is when we had the big economic crisis, so we had a Pluto in Capricorn experience pretty much straight away.
Oftentimes, Pluto’s ingress into a new sign comes to correct the flaws of the previous transit. Pluto’s transit in expansive Sagittarius has coincided with the housing and economic bubble, rising inflation and interest rates, production outsourcing, and over reliance on foreign trade.
Pluto in Capricorn has fixed the interest rates issues, but of course, has created different types of issues, like too much consolidation of power at the top.
When Pluto will ingress into Aquarius in 2023, it will most likely correct some of the excesses of Pluto in Capricorn.
The Capricorn Tower of Babel, the Capricorn house of cards, will most likely collapse, allowing for a reorganization and rescheduling of the centers of power, from the bottom up, rather than top-down.
If a country, or a business is ruled by a king, or an owner, all the decisions and everything that happens is pretty much one direction. From top to bottom. Aquarius is not just top down, but is also bottom up, left to right, right to left, and everything in between.
Pluto is the planet of power. With Pluto in Capricorn, the state/government/big institutions were ‘in charge’ and had all the power. Pluto in Capricorn is that Big Father that gives directives, but also looks after their children.
With Pluto in Aquarius there is no more Big Father. With Pluto in Aquarius, we will have to (by choice, or by force) stop relying on Capricorn, top-down systems or parent figures.
In Aquarius, we the people have the power, with the opportunities and obligations that come with it.
Pluto in Aquarius – Society, Systems, Infrastructure
Aquarius rules all the systems, routes, and multiple, complex networks and infrastructure.
Since we are in the process of migrating into the Age Of Aquarius, we have already noticed Aquarius’ archetype embedding itself into all of the aspects of our lives.
Our decisions are driven more and more from the bottom up. We are no longer sold vacation packages. Now we check Tripadvisor to learn other people’s experiences. We select our accommodation based on Airbnb’s feedback, and feedback systems used by companies like Airbnb and Uber discourage fraud and encourage ‘good behavior’.
These platforms are not perfect, but they have definitely solved some of the problems of the previous systems, and now, most of us can’t imagine our lives without them.
All the big companies that have become successful in the last few decades have Aquarius qualities. Amazon, Google, Facebook, Airbnb, and Uber, are all platforms that facilitate the exchange of goods and information, that bring together demand and supply.
None of these companies produce anything palpable, yet they create value by offering an infrastructure to make information and services exchange more transparent, creating value in the process.
Of course, many of these companies are now also known for shady business practices, and this is something that Pluto in Aquarius will likely correct. Still, these are good examples to illustrate how society has, and will continue to shape under the new Aquarian operating model.
Pluto In Aquarius – The Circle Without The Dot
The good news is that Pluto should feel quite good in Aquarius.
Pluto has been assigned the rulership of Scorpio, and there is not much research on how Pluto ‘behaves’ in other signs.
Given that Pluto, the King of the Underworld, is pretty much the antithesis of the Sun, the light-giver, we can expect Pluto to express itself in a more dignified way when it is in signs where the Sun is NOT dignified: that is Libra (because the Sun is in fall in Libra), and Aquarius (because the Sun is in detriment in Aquarius).
Pluto’s role is to kill the ego (the Sun) so that it can find a power that goes beyond the superficial concerns of the Ego, to get to the bottom of consciousness itself. Scorpio, with its natural connection to the 8th house and planet Mars, has of course a natural affinity with the Plutonic process of transformation.
But so does Libra, and Aquarius. We can expect Pluto to feel quite good in a sign where the Sun doesn’t. This doesn’t mean we will not go through the trials and tribulations that Pluto always exposes us to.
Pluto in Aquarius will be as demanding and transformative as any other Pluto transit. It is just that Pluto behaves more naturally in the sign of Aquarius, and will put on less of a fight than Pluto in Leo, or Pluto in Cancer would.
Pluto In Aquarius – Power To The People
When you read the title of this write-up, “Pluto – Power to the people”, you perhaps rejoiced, thinking something along the lines of: “Great! no more power to the government, corrupt politicians, or greedy businesses … finally, power to ME”.
And the title is a bit ironic when we think of it this way, because “power to the people” doesn’t mean power to you, or to me, or to any other individual. It doesn’t mean that we get to do whatever we want.
It means exactly that: “power to the people”, to that autonomous entity where the majority decides. This means that on average, half of the time, this is not what YOU want – it is what the majority wants.
This concept is very difficult to grasp, because even when reading this, most of us still think “yes, of course, and what I want is what people want”. “I want equality, peace, justice etc, and of course this is what people want, too”.
The thought that power to the people is not necessarily a good thing for you, as an individual may be almost impossible to grasp. But it is something to keep in mind, as the Plutonian Aquarification begins to unfold.
Aquarius And The Fear Of Public Speaking
According to research, many people fear public speaking more than they fear death.
Researchers and historians have tried to explain why this happens. In the past, if you did something wrong, you were dragged in front of the tribe/village/small community, for the community to decide what to do with you.
In many cases, the community would decide to eliminate you, either by excluding you from it, which pretty much meant death, or by killing you straightaway.
Stoning is a good example of Aquarius “punishment”. It was not one individual that killed you, so the individual was exempt from personal responsibility. It was the people’s power, people coming together, that killed the ‘outcast’.
This may have been a practice that served its purpose back in the day, but we can see how “power to the people” can easily translate into “herd mentality”, and not something that we would look forward to now.
These examples may sound horrific, and of course, there is not all gloom and doom, but we’re talking about Pluto here, so we all need to toughen up a bit for our own sake. Pluto will eventually empower you, but at first, it will kill your ego.
The Aquarification process can be very humbling, and especially so when Pluto transits Aquarius. Aquarius is the opposite sign from Leo, so it is everything Leo is not. If Leo is about “Me”, Aquarius is about “We”.
Leo encourages us to express our individuality, while Aquarius asks us to conform to the group. This is another Aquarian paradox. We all know Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, and Uranus is all about being original, eccentric, and a genius. So what does this have to do with conforming?
Pluto In Aquarius – “Normal” Is The New Cool
People with Aquarius energy are indeed original and unique… but perhaps a better word to describe the Aquarius energy is “liberated”.
In the safe, inclusive Aquarius container, people find the freedom to be themselves. This is not the same thing as trying to get people’s attention by dressing weirdly, for example. Pluto doesn’t like wannabes, or people who try to be cool, because when we copy someone else we distance from who we truly are.
If someone dresses like Liberace to make a statement, that’s probably uncool by Pluto’s standards. Liberace was, of course, genuinely cool – because he was himself – and he was genuinely eager to show it to everyone (he had Pluto conjunct an out-of-bounds Venus on the Descendant).
If you genuinely want to wear a 1-meter yellow hat, then you are definitely cool, because this is who you are. Chances are, not many of us will wear yellow hats when Pluto is in Aquarius.
Perhaps the real you likes white t-shirts and jeans. When Pluto is in Aquarius, “normal is the new cool”. Normal not in the sense of boring, but in the sense of self-aware, authentic, breezy and relaxed. It is ok to be you, whoever you are.
Pluto In Aquarius – The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
“The light at the end of the tunnel” is such a common phrase, that it has lost its significance. Yet, it beautifully describes the silver lining of a Pluto transit.
It is only in Pluto’s underworld that we can find the sacred light of pure consciousness, stripped of ego.
While Pluto always asks us to let go of something that we find it incredibly difficult to live without, while Pluto may want to break our ego, Pluto never wants to break our spirit. On the contrary.
Pluto in Aquarius will help you find your true power. Not a power that seeks to control, take advantage of, and win; but a power that seeks to express one’s truth in a way that serves the best interests of humanity at large.
The Aquarian ‘revolution’ will eventually democratize our society. Pluto in Aquarius is that freedom we can only find when we take responsibility for our lives and become fully autonomous.