Pluto Enters Aquarius: 23 Mar 2023
Pluto moves into Aquarius on Thurs 23rd March, making its first venture into this sign, just for two months, before retrograding back into Capricorn, and returning in January 2024 for its 20-year stay.
This is a time where we must confront the shadow aspects of a sign that is so easily idealised and anticipated as a harbinger of what is good. It seems we are destined to experience the dark side of Aquarius before we can truly know its radiant, light-filled potential. We’ve had a strong taste of it with Saturn in Aquarius these last two and half years, and so we can look to this recent period of time for some pointers. Aquarius governs the form and architecture of language, and conceptual thought, and Saturn the great organiser and record keeper, has thrived in this sign. Many progressive political movements, which emphasise inclusion, diversity and social responsibility have penetrated popular culture, and environmental agendas that promote the classic Aquarian slogans like ‘we are all in this together’ and ‘we are all collectively responsible’ have streamlined their narratives and strengthened their power base during this period.
At the same time, I would say there has been a serious undermining of the importance of sense perception, natural rhythms and the acknowledgement of biological differences, couples with an over-reliance upon screen-based perception, algorithms, and ideological differences. Social distancing and the removal of the requirement for close human contact has become a normal expectation, we have become more reliant upon disembodied language and have been presented with ever-more abstracted conceptual frameworks to live by. And alongside of this, we have seen the accelerated implementation of AI, and the breakdown of contingent humanness in favour of a technologically-driven humanitiarian ideology.
There is a fundamental difference between the archetypal functions of Saturn and Pluto. Saturn’s role is to establish order in society, set the rules and enrol our conformity, while Pluto’s role is to destroy the integrity of conventional systems of control, and penerate the deeper, darker truths that lie hidden within our motivations and desires, especially the desire for power. And it is this journey toward the deepest truth of our being that underwrites our soul’s evolutionary path. Pluto works primarily at a collective level, and what we come to realise, as Pluto traverses through a sign, is that the shadow themes of that sign are exposed and as the consequences of that are wrought upon the world, there is an accompanying consciousness shift that transforms the collective narrative.
Aidos Kyne: Hades’ helmet of invisibility: “which maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy in the counsel, and celerity in the execution.' (Francis Bacon)
In the Pluto in Scorpio era (1984 - 1995), there was an intense collective desire to subvert and expose taboos, transforming sexual attitudes, and facing our fear of death. This period was characterised by the emergence of AIDS, and made us confront attitudes toward homsexuality and safe sex. The Pluto in Sagittarius era (1995 - 2008) forced us to confront issues of faith, and religious bigotry, we had to face the Sagittarian shadow of fundamentalist beliefs, and the Pluto narrative centred a lot around religious fundamentalism, a collective fear of what is foreign, or unknown, wars fought on religious grounds, the war on Islam, and so on.
We are in the final throes of the Pluto in Capricorn era (2008 - 2023), characterised by the desire to restructure society and expose the corruption of corporate & governmental control (Capricorn themes). As the dark shenanigans of top-down power have been uncovered, people have lost faith in political systems of control, and corporate hierarchies. Society itself has broken down, revealing the fragility of the nation state and institutions that might previously have trusted are now deeply suspected of being corrupt. The dark side of Capricorn lies in that strategic, Machiavellian maxim “the ends justify the means”, which can be used to justfy all manner of atrocities.
If Pluto in Capricorn has shown us the untrustworthiness top-down control, then I believe that the Pluto in Aquarius era will expose the ways in which democracy (an Aquarian ideal) is corrupted by power and manipulation, and the naive trust we have placed in social, cultural and spiritual utopias. In its shadow manifestation, Aquarius takes an aloof stand toward the human experience, removed from emotional involvement, a remote viewer fixated on ideals of progress, innovation and a reliance upon technological systems, and artificial intelligence. It is ironic that Aquarius is the sign we most associate with the humanitarian cause, and this remains true, even in the midst of this. Ultimately Aquarius reveal to us the interconnected web of human interaction, and it blesses that with an inclusive attitude that welcomes all faiths, all paths, and acknowledges every different form of life as having an equal right to participate in the world. In order to attain this level of perception, though, Aquarius stands back and observes the world from a distance, intent on designing a better form and structure for society.
Pandora & her box: One of the mythic images of Aquarius
One of the characters from myth that we associate with Aquarius is Pandora, (the ‘all-gifted’) and what does remains after all the ills of her famous jar (or box) are spilled, is the star of hope. I think the Pluto in Aquarius era may help us to strip away the false pretences of thinking that we can’t simply replicate the world of nature and expect it to deliver the same kind of sustenance that we all need to live fruitful, creative and spiritually nourishing lives. We are sensuously embodied beings with a soul that longs to return to an experience of wholeness, and however intelligent the ‘machine-human’ may become it will never be able to experience that longing of the soul’s return to original unity; and it will not become wise, as wisdom is born through the experience of human suffering and the healing journey to wholeness.
One of the primary capacities of the soul is the ability to distinguish one quality of experience from another, and Pluto, notwithstanding its destructive force and appetite for power, is a primary gateway to the recovery of soul. I believe it is through Pluto’s dark exposure of the profound impoverishment of an artifically intelligent world, that the fundamental importance of those differences will be realised. That deepest quality of Soul that Pluto stands for will break through the underbelly of human greed and the desire for power in whichever sign it dwells, and in revealing what is rotten about that sign, it will re-empower the human spirit to know the depths of its own darkness and to restore the beauty and integrity of that sign’s healing medicine from within that knowing.
As Carl Jung said:
“There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own Soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” (C.G. Jung)
Pluto will spend just two months in Aquarius before turning retrograde, and back into Capricorn for the remainder of this year, before returning for its long stay in Aquarius in January 2024. So we get a two-month glimpse of what is to come, and an opportunity to prepare ourselves for that.
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The Moon's Nodes: A Karmic Journey
Fri 21st April (6 - 9pm UK time) & Sat 22nd April (10am - 5pm UK time)
This special event on the Moon’s Nodes, is timed for the April eclipse season, where the energy of the Moon’s nodal axis is at its most potent. The Moon’s north and south nodes, which mark the points in the zodiac where the Moon crosses above and below the Sun’s path (respectively) act as eclipse predictors, and a crucial significator in astrological work, known to the ancients as the Rahu & Ketu, or the Dragons' Head and Dragon’s Tail. The nodes point to our soul’s deep karmic patterning, and where there is an imbalance that needs addressing in this lifetime.
On the Friday evening, I will be presenting a talk about the eclipse season, and how to work with eclipses. And from there, looking at what the Nodes represent in astrology, how we interpret them karmically, and how to work with them in the context of the birth chart. This talk will be delivered in person in Glastonbury, and will also be live-streamed online. There will also be a Q&A, and an opportunity for participants both in person and online to ask questions relating to the topic.
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