The Real Tea on Pluto in Aquarius☕

If you pay even a quarter-ounce of attention to astrology, you’ve likely heard that Pluto is changing signs this week* — and while every transit is significant in it’s own right, this is a monumental astrological event. Interpretations of what this means are everywhere and range from cryptic and fatalistic to vague and unrealistic (and given the outright scary condition of the world — from our rapidly worsening climate crisis to global unrest and the rise of fascism in the United States — people are more desperate for answers than ever.) Below is my take on Pluto in Aquarius from a centered, humanistic perspective, complete with all the info you need to know — but first, let’s tease apart the hype.

*This post is originally dated January 17th, 2024. At the time of my editing, Pluto is about to enter Aquarius for the full jaunt, taking us into 2043/2044.

Pluto in Astrology

🔥Though a dwarf planet, Pluto’s influence is anything but small — the cosmic transformer, Pluto brings the energies of regeneration and revolution to whatever sign it’s transiting. Named after the Lord of the Underworld, Pluto is connected to death and rebirth cycles as well as power, wealth, currency, and the shadows and secrets which hold our deepest wounds (and our untapped superpowers.) On an individual level, Pluto wants us to integrate and accept every aspect of our nature, to show up authentically and to cultivate a deep sense of strength and resilience via extreme pressure and adversity.

🔥Pluto takes 248 years to orbit the sun (and has yet to make a full orbit since it’s discovery in 1930) which means the planet of death and rebirth spends about 20 years in each sign respectively. Pluto moving into Aquarius is a big deal because this hasn’t happened since 1777 (to 1798) and will effectively mark a paradigm shift and set the tone for the next two decades — in a lifetime, we experience Pluto changing signs no more than four to five times (and that would be if you live to be 100!) Each Pluto era is unique — most people won’t live to see a Pluto-in-Aquarius era at all — and if you’re roughly my age hovering around your first Saturn Return (in your late twenties or early thirties) this is the first time you’re experiencing Pluto changing signs as an adult (which happened most recently in 2008 when the Lord of the Underworld left philosophical Sagittarius for pragmatic Capricorn.)

🔥As an outer planet, Pluto’s influence is considered to be generational, meaning that it sets the economic/sociopolitical tone of a decades-long generation more than it impacts our everyday lived experience. That said, to undermine the impact of this mighty planet is naïve. We (and our microcosm) are directly a product of our generation and the economic/sociopolitical background we’re functioning within: as a result, Pluto transits impact all of us at the individual level as well as collectively (and to gain more insight into how it affects you personally, look to the house containing Aquarius in your birth chart. These are the themes and life areas most likely to transform and evolve in your immediate environment over the next decade.)

🔥Although intense and often radical, the transformation cued by this planet and it’s movement through the cosmos isn’t sudden — instead, it unfolds gradually over the course of a 20-year period. While some astrologers describe a distinct energy shift around the actual date of Pluto changing signs, I’d say it’s not unusual to feel completely and entirely the same (unless Pluto is forming an aspect to one of your personal planets in the early degree of a fixed sign.) Our invitation is to be present with whatever arises as Pluto moves through the sign of the Water-Bearer — and thankfully, we’ll have plenty of time to slowly acclimate to the new paradigm.

Pluto in Capricorn: A Paradigm in Review

👻Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008 — depending on how old you were, you may not remember what that shift felt like (I was 12 so while I’m sure I was undergoing an adolescent dilemma at the time, I wasn’t socio-politically attuned to the larger implications of the transit.) For those of us around age 30, this is the first time we’re experiencing Pluto changing signs as an adult! Knowing what we know now, let’s revisit the highlights of the Pluto-in-Capricorn era.

👻Not surprisingly, money and politics have been consistent themes of Pluto in this earthy, material and deeply hierarchal sign. The beginning of this transit coincided with The Great Recession — unemployment rates soared, the housing market crashed and in 2009, interest rates entered emergency lows, exposing the flawed nature of capitalism. In 2011, protestors marched the streets of NYC under the Occupy Wall Street movement, condemning rampant income inequality and the influence of money in politics (and sparking similar movements nation-wide.) The same year, a series of pro-democratic uprisings sparked in the Middle East, protesting authoritarian regimes and promoting a global awareness of the failure of certain hierarchal structures. The murder of Trayvon Martin — an unarmed teenager — sparked the BLM movement in 2013, illuminating the deeply-entrenched systemic nature of racism in the U.S. (the movement gained more momentum in 2014/15 following the deaths of several black men at the hands of law enforcement, exposing the myth of law & order.) In 2016, TV Personality/business man Donald Trump was elected President of the U.S. despite losing the popular vote — his campaign was popularized for it’s (ironically) anti-establishment message, his strongman/anti-PC approach and his disturbing promise to remove undocumented immigrants from the country. While the hashtag “Me Too” technically dates back to 2006, Pluto in Capricorn birthed the movement of the same name — particularly by exposing high-profile offenders like Harvey Weinstein in 2017, it led to the firing/resignations of many prominent figures revealed to have used their influence to systemically abuse women, often under threats of destroying the professional future of their victims. On December 18th of 2019, Trump was officially impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of congress (then acquitted in February of 2020) and in 2021, he incited a riot at the capital which attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, won by democratic nominee Joe Biden. Timed almost exactly to the Saturn/Pluto conjunction of January 2020, Covid-19 entered the conversation as an imminent airborne threat and by April of 2020, almost half the world was in some form of lockdown. In 2022, Roe v. Wade was overturned, leading to 17 states banning or seriously restricting a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion (with six of these states offering no exceptions for the health of the mother — i.e., sepsis, bleeding out or other complications — leading to the documented deaths of four women.)

👻Though not all of these events are the direct function of Pluto moving through Capricorn, a clear theme emerges: The Lord of Underworld moving through the Saturnian sign of the sea-goat brought global and national revelations about systemic inequality and corruption within power structures (and drew attention to how fragile these systems and structures are.)

👻In the final days of Pluto in Capricorn — which saw the Underworld God almost exactly opposite Mars in Cancer, making an already angsty moment more turbulent — the U.S. experienced a reckoning. Donald Trump won against Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, claiming the popular vote on a draconian platform with a disturbingly fascist, misogynistic and anti-humanistic message. Though not a predictive astrologer, Pluto’s retrograde back to Capricorn for the election strongly hinted at this outcome (IMO.) The “Old Guard” is doubling down, clinging to systems and structures which — I don’t think it’s inaccurate to say — not only don’t serve everyone, but actually place a majority of groups in peril. This moment we’re currently in is deeply Plutonic — we’re in a paradigm shift, and no one really knows WTF is going on or what comes next.

Pluto in Aquarius

⚡If any astrologer is claiming to know exactly how this transit will unfold? Well… they don’t. Because no one on the planet at this time has lived through it, it’s largely uncharted territory for all of us as a collective. But we can develop informed theories based on historical data (i.e., considering what happened last time Pluto was in Aquarius), by analyzing the trajectory of existing trends, and simply considering the role and governing themes of Aquarius at the symbolic level. It’s especially fascinating to see the ways in which these different schools of thought intersect and suggest the same outcomes!

⚡As Aquarius is the sign of progress and technology, I would expect the next twenty years to produce paradigm-shifting revelations, inventions and discoveries, massive technological advancement and major scientific progress. Last time Pluto transited the zodiac’s fixed air sign, we saw a surge of innovation which included the invention of the earliest parachute and hot air balloons (which would have been the first time humans took flight), the development of the smallpox vaccine, the discovery of Aquarius’ ruling planet, Uranus, and we learned about the existence of black holes in outer space (Aquarius is connected to the sky, cosmos, and aircrafts — so yes, anticipate UFOs to continue to make the headlines and the possible discovery of a new planet!) Maybe most importantly, this era saw the invention of the cotton gin, which some historians believe played a major role in inciting the civil war by lining the pockets of wealthy plantation owners while solidifying the economic role of slavery in the South. Pluto in Aquarius circa the late 1770s also saw the climax of the Industrial Revolution, a major moment of societal transformation which forever changed the way people live and work. My hypothesis is that the impending Pluto-in-Aquarius era will produce a number of cool, zany and out-there inventions and discoveries — many of which don’t even seem possible at this particular point with the tools and information we currently have — but it will also pose a number of ethical questions about how we’re using (or misusing) certain tools, and what their lasting implications are (this is already happening with the AI renaissance, which we can expect will experience breakthrough advancement over the next two decades— by 2044, we’ll be very surprised by what technology has evolved to look like.) In an increasingly automated and algorithm-driven world, what does true connectivity, ingenuity and creativity evolve into? At what point are our technologies effectively making us their tools? These are questions the Pluto-in-Aquarius decades will present, especially through the lens of Plutonian power and control (we already saw this in 2023 with attempts to ban TikTok in North America — I suspect major social media platforms will continue to face scrutiny as awareness increases of how much these tools can disempower us if misused.) Pluto in Aquarius is the kind of astro under which inventions are made that literally go on to change the course of history — this is both scary and exciting!

⚡Aquarius is associated with revolution and rebellion — when Pluto transits this progressive, futuristic sign, the Underworld God is particularly aggressive and effective at destroying old, outdated paradigms which don’t serve the collective. Historically, this brought major societal upheaval as the old guard doubles down and fights back — during the 18th century, Pluto in Aquarius oversaw the French and American Revolutions, with the former re-defining the nature of political power and destroying the monarchy while the latter established the thirteen colonies as independent from the British Crown. The Haitian Revolution — the world’s first successful slave uprising — was also a function of Pluto in Aquarius, which generally seems to incite resistance against any infringements on the independence, liberty and freedom of the Collective. The Age of Enlightenment reached it’s climax during this transit, with reason and rationality (Aquarian concepts) leading to a surge of collective empowerment which revolutionized art, philosophy and politics. The Women’s Rights movement also made strides with the release of Mary Wollstonecraft’s feminist manifesto A Vindication of the Rights of Women. Welfare of the common individual — and their ability to self-govern and steer their own destiny — was prioritized and celebrated, laying the groundwork for our modern democracy and the basic human rights now under attack in many parts of the country and world. Historically, the major institutions which only seek to serve some individuals — from the British monarchy to slavery in Haiti — seem to crumble during Pluto in Aquarius, often leading to major sociopolitical turmoil and rebellion. In doing so, this destabilization encourages us to lean on our communities (Aquarius) and to build something stronger (and more aligned to the welfare of humanity) in place of the rubble (Pluto.) But while the energy of Aquarius is rebellious, it’s also inherently logical and reasonable — essentially, this need not be a physical, violent revolution as much as an ideological one (and as much as the last Pluto-in-Aquarius era was violent, it’s important to note that Uranus was also opposite Pluto during the French and American Revolutions, which sets the tone for civil unrest and turbulence.) As the BLM movement brings attention to the ways in which the myth of “law & order” was never designed to protect the Black community — and women, trans and queer individuals fight for the basic rights and freedom supposedly guaranteed last time Pluto was in Aquarius — there’s a number of ways this might manifest. My hypothesis is that Pluto in Aquarius won’t tolerate these old systems, and we’ll see major progress, movement, and dialogue around these issues by 2044.

Pluto in Aquarius and You

☠To understand what this era will look like for you in a general sense, turn to the house(s) where Aquarius falls in your birth chart; this is where you’re likely to experience massive pressure and catharsis over the next twenty years. By engaging with the themes of your Aquarius house authentically and fearlessly, you’ll transform and emerge stronger on the other side of this transit (and will have a more easeful experience of it — there’s no question Pluto transiting a house can be extremely disruptive, especially if we resist!) If Aquarius is in your first house, for example, transformation occurs around your sense of identity over the next two decades. We’ll all become someone different by the end of this new paradigm, but Aquarius Risings are the most immediately impacted — by 2044, you’ll have a completely revolutionized (and much stronger) sense of self, but expect the next few years to contain no shortage of identity crises (or to completely strip you of who you thought you were.) If your sixth house falls in the sign of the water-bearer, it’s time to get real about health and wellness — small efforts and micro-changes to your everyday routine can bring major transformation, from incorporating more vegetables into your weekly meal plan to re-committing to regular dental visits (and if something seems off, see a doctor immediately — Pluto in your sixth house isn’t a time to be dismissive or casual about weird symptoms.) If your fourth house resides in Aquarius, questions of home and family are likely to demand your attention — whether you’re revolutionizing your idea of what home means or physically find yourself moving locations. If Pluto is transiting your eleventh house, it’s time to prune away old friendships, communities, and any groups of which you’re a part— many people leave churches or organizations during this transit as they come to discover conflicting values or ideals, and friendships which have simply lived out their purpose are often forced to end. For people with Aquarius in the eighth house, the next twenty years bring sexual revolutions and transform their approach to intimacy, while those with Aquarius in the tenth may experience major career transformations.

☠If this sounds scary or intense, remember that this transit unfolds over the course of twenty years — not overnight. Pluto has always been stimulating a specific place in your chart, and unless you have a natal planet hovering around the first degree of a fixed sign (or 1 degree of Aquarius marks the cusp of a new house in your chart), you aren’t likely to feel personally transformed around the 72 hours of Pluto changing signs (but yes, you’ll pick up on the existential angst and political fervor collectively stirred by this transit.) Since 2008, Pluto has been transiting whatever house(s) you have Capricorn in, so thinking back on how you’ve engaged with the themes of your Capricorn house(s) over the last 20 years can bring a great deal of clarity (and if you are a Capricorn or have Capricorn planets, Pluto formed a conjunct — aka, sat on top of — those planets at some point since 2008.) Locating the Aquarius sector of your birth chart — which may contain two houses — reveals what life sector Pluto is currently activating for you personally (and when the Underworld God will shift houses, marking a transformation in your paradigm.)

☠It’s also worth considering whether Pluto will form any hard aspects to your natal planets throughout his time in Aquarius. If you have any planets in fixed signs (Aquarius, Leo, Taurus, Scorpio), Pluto will form an opposition (Leo), a conjunction (Aquarius) or a square (Scorpio, Taurus) to that planet at some point over the next twenty years, activating it’s energy. When Pluto nears the exact degree of that planet’s position in your chart, you’ll begin to feel the impact. For example, if your natal sun is in Aquarius (like me) Pluto will conjunct your sun during this transit — this is majorly empowering, creative and ideal for recovering a lost or depleted sense of personal power (and it’s not a transit everyone goes through in a lifetime!) If Pluto forms a hard aspect to your Venus during this transit, you’ll suddenly find that you can’t indulge flimsy flirtations or surface-level connection — you’re craving something deep. Pluto in aspect to your Mars can trigger aggression or power struggles but is excellent for tackling superhuman feats or testing the limits of your physical capability. For now, pay most attention to any planets in the first few degrees of Aquarius or another fixed sign, as these transits are imminent and set the tone for your early experience of Pluto in Aquarius (planets in the later degrees of fixed signs won’t be activated for quite a few years.) If you were born between 1995 — 1997, for example, you have Uranus hovering around the first degree of Aquarius, so Pluto will spend the next few years zapping that planet (but this is more of a generational influence — you’ll feel it along with everyone else born in this timeframe. It promotes an irreverent, nonconformist attitude, agitates political fervor and incites a progressive shift in the values and ideals of the generation, classically representing a shift toward humanitarianism and individual rights. In the context of your microcosm, it promotes restlessness and may force you to confront outdated traditions or harmful values upheld by your ancestry/family of origin.) If you have planets in air signs other than Aquarius (Gemini, Libra) or fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sag) Pluto will make a soft aspect to that planet during this transit — in which case, the impact is much more gentle and the gifts are easier to access.

The Dates

🖤March 23, 2023. Pluto entered Aquarius for a couple months (until June 11th) before retrograding right back into Capricorn to finish out 2023. Nonetheless, we caught a glimpse during this time of what the long haul Pluto-in-Aquarius segment might feel like. News headlines from within this window hint at the trends and themes of the next two decades, and anything which surfaced for you personally is likely to re-emerge and become more pressing over the next two decades.

🖤January 20, 2024. Pluto enters Aquarius. This actual date may or may not feel like anything (depending on whether it’s activating anything in your chart, and how sensitive you are to planetary energies generally) but certainly, pay attention to the trending headlines around January 20th — they’re likely to hint at what’s to come. It’s important to note that Pluto changing signs (regardless of the signs involved) creates a fanatical, intense and supercharged sociopolitical environment which can be difficult to find peace within, accentuating the need for self-care during this first week.

🖤September 2, 2024. Pluto retrogrades back to Capricorn for the last time and just in time for the American election, returning to Aquarius on November 19. Unfortunately, this might indicate that the old guard doubles down and could affect election results.

🖤November 19, 2024 — January 19, 2044. Pluto is in Aquarius for twenty years (but will enter Pisces for the spring and summer of 2043.)

Take extra good care of yourself — remember, this is a massive transition. I’ll be back in your inbox on the Aquarius New Moon!

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