Pluto in Capricorn and Aquarius: We Are All the Walking Wounded

Recently, I have been going through a particularly overwhelming Pluto transit, so I have been reading Steven Forrest's sections on Pluto in his Book of Water to help me get my feet. While I was reading about my transit, I stumbled on a section where he talks briefly about what it means when Pluto is transiting each of the signs. I was curious about what Steven had to say about Pluto's current passage through Capricorn and its upcoming time in Aquarius (preview in 2023, beginning in 2024), so I took a brief detour.

Steven has said repeatedly in the past that Pluto's passage through Capricorn is about dealing with conservative evils, and Pluto's passage through Aquarius will be about dealing with progressive evils.

Before you get your hackles raised, when Steven talks this way, he isn't just talking about political parties. This isn't a red shirt/blue shirt kind of thing. He is talking about overall movements in society that look to the past for guidance (conservative) or strive to build a better future (progressive).

We all have parts of us that loves old things (even if it's just a dearly loved teddybear from childhood), and we all hope for a brighter future, even if we spend more time identifying with one side or the other. So, Pluto's passage through both of these signs is for all of us.

Pluto in Capricorn: Me First and the Gimme Gimmes

In the United States, where I live, we have been tormented by people who use old social norms as an excuse to be selfish and put themselves first since Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008. This issue reached a crescendo during the pandemic when millions of people refused to sacrifice their freedoms in small ways like skipping trips to the movies or putting on masks, but the selfishness issue isn't new. The suffering caused by "me first" attitudes have been an issue during the entire time Pluto has been in Capricorn--from bankers who gave themselves bonuses during a worldwide recession to presidents who attended debates after testing positive for Covid-19.

Steven says that the purpose of Pluto's passage through Capricorn is to heal society from this selfishness and from blind adherence to the past.

As a society, we have been looking at old conservative values one at a time and considering if these are values we still want to have today. Some have survived. Couples separated by the pandemic have learned to treasure their commitments to each other, and commitment to a relationship through difficult times is a conservative value.

Many of the conservative values under examination, however, are being found wanting. There is nothing more concretely conservative than a monument cast in stone, and we have watched as monuments to heroes who have been found wanting have toppled. Entrenched cultural institutions, such as the Thanksgiving holiday, have been called into question. Media is becoming dated at a faster rate as speech that was once tolerated has become no longer acceptable.

These attempts to clean house have brought us forward a long way, but I worry that we are not addressing the underlying issue of selfishness that has done so much harm. We have no reason to believe the banks will be prevented from driving us into another Great Recession, and, during the pandemic, the vulnerable and conscientious have been the ones to suffer for the selfishness of others.

The Antidote to Pluto in Capricorn's Poison

The antidote Steven suggests is a turn away from self-interest and toward learning the "dignity of service." When an individual is engaged in service, they are necessarily putting the needs of others before their own. During the early days of the pandemic, we became more aware of people engaged in service because the previously ordinary services they provided became so dangerous.

This value for service that we learned during the pandemic is something that I hope we keep. I hope that we become a people who see people who are providing us a service and show our gratitude, and I hope that corporations offer pay to match.

During Pluto’s passage through Capricorn, I have come to value service for its own sake.

I have Capricorn in the 5th and 6th houses, so I have been experiencing Pluto's lessons in my creative work. When the transit began, I was a self-centered writer. I saw my work primarily as a means of expression and self-aggrandizement. When other people were involved, it was because I wanted them to give me publishing contracts or attention.

During Pluto's passage through Capricorn, my attitude has shifted massively, and my work has changed, too. I have stopped writing self-indulgent literary fiction, and I have started writing educational content and personal essays. When I express myself in my work, it's because I am hoping that it will help someone who has had similar experiences feel seen and less lonely. Ironically, this has meant that I am getting much more of the applause I was seeking before, and the praise is much more meaningful. I write with confidence, knowing that I have things to say that will make people's lives better.

As an educator, my primary motivation has become meeting the needs of my students. I began outlining an 18 month curriculum for my students yesterday that will cover material that is necessary for them but not of pressing interest to me. As I dove into the work, I found a deeper well of curiosity and satisfaction that I didn't know existed. In the end, I am confident that my students and I will both benefit more from this program of study than if I had gone with material that was simply the most interesting to me

Pluto in Aquarius: Do Androids Dream of Crying in Their Sleep?

As I write this, Pluto is about a year from its first visit to Aquarius, but I believe that Steven's description of Pluto in Aquarius is helpful advice for us to consider now. It is unlikely that society will heal much in a year, and it is good to be prepared for the work that we will be given to do for the two decades Pluto spends in Aquarius.

Steven says that Pluto in Aquarius is about healing from the cold dissociation and social isolation brought on by overwhelming shifts in society. We will be challenged to remember our humanity, connect with others, and feel the powerful feelings that have been held frozen by our inability to cope.

I was immediately struck by how prescient this advice is for a world that has spent the last few years dealing with a pandemic. We have gone through a shocking rate of change since 2019. Millions of people have died. People have been locked in their homes--solitary confinement for those who live alone--for extended periods of time. There are three year-olds who have never met their grandparents because of the risk of transmission to the elderly. Systems of commerce and transport that were so reliable they were invisible to us shut down. Huge corporations have shut down their offices and told their people to work from home. Ordinary tasks that used to be performed in person or over the phone have shifted online.

These changes have conspired to make us live in constant states of stress and anxiety. Ordinary errands, like going to the grocery store, have transformed into potentially deadly tasks. As such, those who can avoid going out stay home unless it is absolutely necessary.

Just the act of returning to activities that have become unfamiliar when one has become used to living in a confined space is stressful, but living with the pandemic means that tasks that once may have been mindlessly simple have become emotionally taxing and complicated.

In the United States, one has to navigate constantly shifting mask mandates and social norms, which can become dangerous in "purple" areas where masking is a hotly contested issue catching people between two difficult options--being ostracized by some of their neighbors for masking and ostracized by others for not masking. You never know, when you go somewhere new, if you will be required to present a vaccine card or follow special rules.

Constantly shifting information has forced us into a hypervigilant state, continually scanning the area around us for threats. The fact that our enemy is invisible adds to the sense of unease. Death could be lurking anywhere. We wouldn't know if it was right on top of us, so coughs and sneezes--the only signs of sickness we have--become unforgivable social gaffes. We have suffered so much from other people's selfishness during the pandemic, we see selfishness everywhere.

The Antidote to Pluto in Aquarius's Poison

Steven says that the answer is healing the wounds of social alienation. The last two years have damaged our relationships with each other, leaving us inclined to see strangers primarily as sources of danger instead of potential allies.

Humans are pack animals. We are not designed to go through life by ourselves, thinking only of our own interests. We are meant to be with others, care for others, and be members of a wider society. It is our wound to our nature to be forced to be so separated from each other

We are all the walking wounded right now. The path to healing is not to pretend that the wound doesn't exist and blithely ignore our inner warnings for the sake of the pack.

The answer, according to Steven, is emotional honesty. It is having the courage to say: I love you. I need to have a relationship with you, but I am overwhelmed and hurting, and you and everything around me are terrifying to me right now.

I have the moon in Aquarius square Pluto, so I have been learning emotional lessons like this my entire life. There are few things that make me feel stronger than the ability to shut off my emotions in a crisis and look like I have everything together when everyone else is falling apart. There are times when emotional stoicism is necessary. Nobody wants a surgeon crying into a bullet hole, but the ability to shut down ones humanity in a crisis has a cost. It can be easy to create a life without heart, moving from crisis to crisis, so the tears you didn't cry never have to catch up to you.

We are about to enter a 20 year period where the path of growth and healing is to cry all of the tears we've been locking in storage. For some of us, this will mean sudden emotional outbursts as the dams we have placed across the river of our emotions break and the river is allowed to run free. We will all have to deal with these raging rivers of emotion. Some of us will discover we have been standing in dried up riverbeds when we are swept away in a wall of water. And despite this, we will asked to face the wounding of the last few years, and we will be asked to prove we are human to ourselves and to each other.

I pray that we are up to the task.