Pluto in Aquarius: Healing + Awakening the Soul of Humanity
A flock of starlings moves in concert, forming for a brief moment the shape of a bird.
On March 23, 2023, Pluto moves into Aquarius for the first time since 1797. As the planet farthest from the Sun, Pluto orbits in extremely long, slow cycles. Whereas it takes the Earth 365 days to make one full orbit around the Sun, it takes Pluto roughly 247 years (Earth years, that is) to make its full journey around the Sun.
So anytime that Pluto moves from one zodiac sign into another, it represents a period of massive transformation, potential upheaval, and new collective chapters being written, with cosmic significance.
In this post, I’ll be diving into what Pluto energy holds and represents - although, you’ve actually already been feeling its effects! For the past few years, as Pluto has been moving through the final degrees of Capricorn, the U.S. has been going through its Pluto Return, which is basically like a Saturn Return on (a)steroids (lol do you like my space pun there?!). If you’re interested in hearing more about the U.S. Pluto Return, I dive into it in this podcast episode with Andi of Your Woo Woo Best Friend. Regardless of whether or not you live in the U.S. though, you’ve no doubt been impacted in some way as the U.S.’s make-it-or-break-it moment on the global stage (which is what Pluto Returns are all about) has generated waves and ripples throughout interconnected systems of economy, government, and more. With such strong Pluto energy impacting the collective, we have all become accustomed in recent years to its intensity and directive for mass transformation.
As we look ahead to Pluto’s next big moves, here’s a timeline of when it will move between the final degrees of Capricorn and into Aquarius for good:
March 23, 2023 - Pluto moves into Aquarius for the first time since 1797
June 11, 2023 - Pluto Rx moves back into Capricorn
January 21, 2024 - Pluto moves back into Aquarius
September 1, 2024 - Pluto’s final visit to Capricorn
November 19, 2024 - Pluto enters Aquarius to for good, where it will transit for the next 20 years
March 9, 2043 - Pluto briefly enters Pisces
August 31, 2043 - Pluto moves back into Aquarius
January 19, 2044 - Pluto enters Pisces for good
Now, for a little bit of context around Pluto energy, here’s what its impacts have been the last time it moved through the sign of Aquarius and more recently as it’s moved through Capricorn…
When Pluto was last in Aquarius (1777 - 1797), the world saw:
Revolutions in the U.S., France, and Haiti
The beginnings of modern democracy with the creation of the United States
The beginnings of abolition of slavery around the world
Increased reliance upon reason, intellectualism, and rational thought
The height of the industrial revolution
Now, more than 250 years later, we can expect to face similar themes: Social movements, revolutions, liberation from oppression, technological advancements and innovations.
And yet, we have evolved, and the energy of Pluto in Aquarius has evolved as well. We are now faced with even deeper questions, like:
What does it mean to be human?
Where does humanity 'fit in' amongst nature, technology, the greater cosmos?
What is the role of a single individual within the broader human collective?
Do I matter? Do WE matter?
As the planet of death, rebirth, transformation, and capital-t Truth, Pluto makes a significant global impact whenever it changes signs.
Pluto's energy is similar to going through a plant medicine ceremony - we're taken on an underworld journey to meet our deepest fears and demons, so that we can integrate the power they've held over us and return to the surface stronger, more whole, and more self-realized than before.
To make sense of what this means for us, we can also look back to where Pluto has just been...
More recently, here’s what we’ve seen with Pluto in Capricorn:
Since 2008, Pluto has been bringing its signature themes of destruction, revelation, and regeneration to Capricorn-related areas: Government, capitalism, patriarchy, authority, corporations.
While we've seen shake-ups and truth-bombs emerge in these areas, the medicine hasn't gone down (or come up) easily. Pluto also represents POWER, and we've seen a rise in authoritarian leaders, corporate greed, and separation-based paradigms as these old structures and systems have resisted against their own impending ego deaths.
The collective, though - represented by the archetype of Aquarius - is ready and begging for change. We know on the level of the soul that a collective ego death is imminent and necessary. None of this is working anymore, for anyone.
We are not who we've been told we are: Cogs in a machine, an easily replaceable number on a corporate roster, a walking resume striving to impress someone higher up than us with numbers and stats about our accomplishments. These are the Capricorn shadows that, as Pluto continues to move back and forth between Aquarius and Capricorn in 2023-24, will be purged and shed. We can't rely on them as our source of self-worth and identity anymore.
Instead, we return to our essential true nature. You are a dynamic, multi-dimensional, ever-evolving soul in a human body. No wonder you have the urge to rewrite your Instagram bio every 5 days. No wonder you've been sitting in a puddle of existential crisis lately, asking over and over again, "Who AM I? Why am I here?" Every time you've found an answer and clung to it, it shifts. You are outgrowing the static labels that once defined you faster than a toddler outgrows its clothes.
What to expect from Pluto in Aquarius:
Pluto in Aquarius is here to obliterate the containers and boxes and boundaries we've put ourselves in. In reality, you cannot be contained. You can't even be fully described. Your energy must be felt and responded to in each moment.
This is your role within the collective awakening: Staying true and authentic to yourself in each present moment. There can't be "rules" - even ones that are highly specific to you - in how you do this. Trying to 'figure yourself out' and apply it to all future scenarios is like trying to grasp onto water. You must learn to trust yourself and your natural impulses. Each moment asks something different of you. It's safe to trust that you know how to answer that call as you go.
On an individual level, the collective ego death that Pluto in Aquarius brings looks like ditching the static labels and group identities that tell you where you belong. You belong HERE, NOW.
As the medicine of Pluto moves into Aquarius, here are some of the themes we can expect to see and deal with, collectively and individually:
Dismantling of hierarchy-based systems, relationships, and organizations
Redistribution of resources, wealth, and power to more people instead of being centralized with the few
Immense social + technological innovation
Healing + liberation for oppressed people
Breaking out of harmful cultural norms that keep us stuck in shame and hiding our true selves
New ways of understanding who we are, together - shifting social + collective identities
Social movements + revolutions that restore power to the people
Shifting our relationship to and reliance upon technology
Developments in AI + technology that ultimately give us space to question + remember what is uniquely human: Emotion, human connection, storytelling, pleasure, love
Power + leadership systems based on networks + webs instead of pyramids + authoritarianism
As Pluto moves through Aquarius for the next 20+ years, humanity's collective soul is healing + awakening.
We are each remembering who we are individually and what we have to contribute to this world, so that we can take our place in the interconnected web of life, toppling the old paradigm belief system that it is man's duty to conquer + own nature, to fight, enslave, and struggle against one another.
We are re-membering who we are, as the collective body of Spirit, together.
The image I get of the highest potential for this transit is of a flock of birds, moving as one through the sky. How do they all know where to be within their formation? How do they all know where and when to turn and shift in unison, without words or delay?
They are connected to one another through a larger field. Though unseen, it is sensed - you've likely felt the force of it before yourself when you've been a part of something - a concert audience taking over the harmony, a crowd at a soccer match picking up the energy of the team with a chant, as if on cue together.
It's no coincidence that the birds we are most hypnotized by every year as they migrate and dance in perfect, choreographed unison together are called starlings.
We are enchanted and puzzled by how thousands of birds can swoop, bend, and soar together without crashing into one another in frenzied chaos. Something deep within us knows that in our own uniquely human way, we have this capacity with one another too.
Even the name 'starlings' stirs our souls - because when we remember our own starling nature, that we are cosmic beings - of the stars - we too can dance together in harmony and unison.
Before that though, a necessary step in this journey of reunion is healing: Grieving what has been lost, repairing what has been broken or stolen, acknowledging the pain we've caused to ourselves, to others, and to the planet. This is all part of Pluto's medicine as well.
There will be change - probably faster than we can imagine. I personally hold out hope that where we are heading is much, much better than anywhere we have been before.
Ultimately, Pluto in Aquarius reminds us that we step into and create a better future all together or not at all. Awakening, ascension, enlightenment - whatever you want to call it - is a group activity. We do not need a single savior. We all play a vital part in the process.
And the part you play is not simply related to your 'work' or job - that again is part of the old shadow archetype that's fallen with Pluto in Capricorn. Your unique part is based on who you are BEING, in this moment. This doesn't require rehearsal or strategic preparation. It requires the highest gifts of Aquarius: Authenticity, celebration of diversity, and the embodied interconnectedness of community.
How Pluto in Aquarius will personally impact you:
No matter what your Sun sign is, we all have Aquarius in our chart - whatever house Aquarius rules for you is the area of life where you can expect to be personally impacted by Pluto’s transit here for the next 20 years. If you’re not sure how to find this information, start with my post on How to Look Up Your Astrology Chart for Free. In my chart below, Aquarius is over my 4th house.
Here’s a quick overview of what area of life you can expect to undergo massive transformation, death/rebirth, buried truths rising to the surface, and deep soul healing over the course of the next 20 years:
1st House: Identity, self-concept, willpower
2nd House: Self-worth, money, resources, skills + gifts
3rd House: Communication, ways of thinking, local community
4th House: Family, home, ancestry, inner world/emotions
5th House: Creativity, self-expression, children/inner child, romance
6th House: Habits, health, day-to-day tasks + responsibilities, mind+body connection
7th House: Relationships, committed partnership, friendship, projection onto others
8th House: Intimacy, the psyche, the occult + esoteric, personal transformation
9th House: Teaching, publishing, international travel, personal philosophy/belief system
10th House: Career, reputation, legacy, impact
11th House: Friendship, future vision, organizations + groups you’re a part of, your part in the collective
12th House: Subconscious mind, what’s repressed/suppressed, spirituality, intuitive gifts
As you can see, Pluto energy is DEEP! As someone with Pluto in my first house (meaning it’s very important in my chart and a core part of my identity), its work of making the unconscious conscious is what I do and love best, with myself and others. If you want to dive into your own chart or the stories, shadows, and liberation waiting within your subconscious mind, book a 1:1 Soul Story Session with me.