Pluto is the god of the underworld, wealth and criminality, a cleaner-outer of sewers and harbinger of slow, grinding transformation, symbolised by the phoenix who only arises after all is reduced to ashes. Slowly nearing the end of fifteen years in Capricorn, it will dip a toe into Aquarius in late March 2023 and hovers around the cusp through the year, retrograding back into Capricorn, before moving forward in January 2024 for a twenty-year stay.
Pluto’s modus operandi is to pull down old structures, not explosively like Uranus, but by exerting great pressure and stress-testing to show up flaws. What is no longer functional, is broken down and dilapidated needs to go. Pluto doesn’t do pitch and patch, baling twine fixes. It insists on getting right down to the foundations to conduct a major overhaul, complete clear out and then a rebuild that can stand the test of time ahead. Aquarius is a sign that fosters ideas and learning. It can be humanitarian but also can on occasion have an ideologue’s failing of stubborn adherence to dogma and ‘ideals’ without considering feelings. The French Revolution was a Pluto in Aquarius movement, which swept away the old corrupt aristocracy and lauded liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was a bloody, vengeful affair which ended up, during the 25 years of Pluto in Aquarius, with the dictatorship of Napoleon Bonaparte.
What is curious, looking back at the sign changeover years back to the 1770s, is that Neptune has a much clearer pattern of significant events when it shifted sign. See previous post 29 April 2020 below. Which isn’t to say Pluto doesn’t have a massive impact but it doesn’t leap out in quite the same way, with the exception of 2008 when it moved into Capricorn and the financial world crashed and one or two others.
The rise and fall of empires or power figures is one Plutonic theme with Catherine the Great taking over the reins of control as Pluto moved into Capricorn in 1762 and dying two cycles later as Pluto was about to exit Aquarius; and Napoleon Bonaparte fighting his way towards becoming Emperor as it moved into Pisces. The Manchu Qing Dynasty in China which started on a Pluto in Gemini finished 268 years later on the dying days of the next Pluto in Gemini as the Republic of China was established in 1912.
There were rebellions aplenty and revolutionary independence wars through two centuries on Pluto changeovers – in America, various South American countries, France China, Spain, Hungary. Irish history, not surprisingly, has shown periods of turbulence when Pluto shifts sign.
Computers also flag up as early Pluto events, from Charles Babbage’s early Difference Engine as Pluto moved into Aries in 1822; up to modern day first Mac computer in 1984 as Pluto moved into Scorpio, and TED was also founded then.
As with Neptune, many iconic books and films were launched as Pluto sashayed into a new milieu.
1851 into Taurus the New York Times and Reuters were founded. Moby Dick and Uncle Tom’s Cabin were published.
1892 into Gemini Sherlock Holmes collection was published.
1912 into Cancer Tarzan of the Apes hit the public via a pulp magazine
1937 into Leo Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not. The Dandy comics and Detective comics launched. Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.
1957 into Virgo had a bumper crop perhaps Neptune also shifted sign that year into Scorpio. Wizard of Oz. Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal. Dr Seuss The Cat in the Hat. Perry Mason. West Side Story.
1971 into Libra The Godfather and Alex Comfort’s The Joy of Sex. Walt Disney World opened in Orlando, Florida.
1983 into Scorpio A Christmas Story. Michael Jackson’s Thriller video.
See also post August 24 2019 for previous Pluto in Aquarius events.