by Robert Wilkinson
Pluto represents the Divine Power of ultimate regeneration, and is the Lord of the Underworld we all must pass through at least once in our life if we are to be a purified vessel and become authentic to our core. Right now it’s stationary retrograde at 24 Capricorn. What does this hold for us?
Pluto’s exact retrograde station occurred at 11:45 am PDT, 7:45 pm BST, on April 24. As is the case with all the outer planets when they turn stationary direct or retrograde, it marks a major “sea change” in those invisible Spiritual transpersonal energies. We are all about to have a different but familiar Plutonic experience where we are shown anew the part of Capricorn Pluto first traversed between February and mid-July 2018, and then again from December 2018 to now.
Since December, Pluto moved from 21 Capricorn to 24 Capricorn. It now is going back over that span between now and early October, when it goes stationary direct at 21 Capricorn. After that it will be in its “shadow zone” through February 2020, when it will again enter an unknown zone humanity has not experienced since 1773-1774. It would seem that revolutionary times are upon us over the next 7 years!
Before 2019, Pluto transited the 5 degree “face” between 16-20 Capricorn where personal power gets translated into group energy through activities. The “face” between 21-25 Capricorn is where that power gets applied on the emotional or social level. Pluto is done planting seeds in the first zone, and has begun to plant seeds in the second zone since 2018.
These zones are incredibly important in 2019-2020. Saturn is now tending to the seeds in the first zone, and will “make real” the seeds of the second zone in 2020 when conjuncting Pluto in that face of Capricorn. Joining them will be Jupiter conjunct Pluto in the second zone, sprouting and expanding those seeds of Pluto crystalized by Saturn during that time.
Pluto is now in the second half of Capricorn for the long haul, and in February 2018 began to leave the Taurus decan of that sign, which has given both stability and stubbornness to the Pluto in Capricorn expression. Now that it’s solidly in the third decan there is more of a Virgo emphasis, favoring efficiency, adaptability, and discernment as to how and where things fit into a sequence of tasks or a larger picture.
The Sabian Symbol for Pluto’s Station
This degree represents a “threshold state,” showing us the limit of our future as we now review the past. Pluto is stationary retrograde at 24 Capricorn.
The symbol for the 24th degree of Capricorn is "A woman entering a convent.” In the original Jones class notes published in The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “protective kindness of life to wearly hearts,” “quiet undercurrent of real existence,” “compelled assistance,” and “timely rescue.”
In The Astrological Mandala, he states this degree involves "total commitment to a transcendent goal.” He offers that a convent symbolizes a place where we can reach a “world transcending state of consciousness,” either as an escape from worldly pressures, or somewhere we can pursue “a spiritual ideal” we aspire toward.
He continues that this is a technique of a social process, where we can “transcend ourselves” by acts of denial as well as “surrendering to a higher Law or quality of Being” in order to find “transcendent security.” He says it falls in the span of Dependence, and it's the fourth degree of the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Group Performance in the Act of Capitalization.
With Pluto making this a hot spot, we must find the spiritual will and inner integrity which helps us dedicate or re-dedicate our lives to a transcendent ideal perfect for us. So for the next few months, one of three things is happening; a) we’re looking back at the distant past when we surrendered or transcended ourselves and found a greater spiritual security; b) we’re looking with new eyes at recent events requiring us to surrender to a higher law or quality of life; or c) we can see how to rededicate ourselves in the future to achieve a greater spiritual security.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “the soul’s characteristic dependence of some deep-stirring challenge to its potentialities, and of the fact that life can have no satisfaction for (us) unless (we can) develop and maintain some enduring allegiance of … significance.” He continues “Here is a measure of that cosmic insight through which the self knows that of itself it is nothing, and that it can find itself only as it somehow can feel itself a participant in all-self.”
He offers us the keyword of CONSECRATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is "the irresistible power of a true inner vision.”
Other Factors
Pluto, the Cosmic Purifier, will be in Capricorn for many years. It continues to teach us deep lessons about practical, organized economy of energy and efficiency in sprouting seed forms of new "laws of our lives" we can relax into. Pluto has planted many seeds during the time it’s been in each segment of Capricorn, and these have been sprouting and taking shape in 2018-2019 as Saturn has transited those Plutonic spans. Much more will be revealed when Jupiter transits Capricorn and expands those previous seeds and opens new doors of possibilities when it conjuncts Pluto in 2020.
For example, the lessons Pluto brought us beginning in April 2012 related to finding and demonstrating ways to get beyond fear and becoming more gentle in our approach to others began to come into form when Saturn went stationary retrograde on a related degree. Saturn always brings a process of crystallizing themes and giving them a structure and gravitas in the world.
During 2019, we’ll have Pluto in late Capricorn and Saturn in mid-Capricorn, so get used to major Capricorn energies pervading the atmosphere for many months to come. And even though Saturn won’t exactly conjunct Pluto this year, don’t underestimate the power these two planets in the same sign can have on ALL your planets! Wherever you have late Capricorn, you have seeds of power and authorship being planted. Wherever you have mid-Capricorn, you have disciplines to learn and training to accept.
I believe this will be a very dynamic Pluto retrograde period, given the aspects in play as this RX period begins. The end of April shows a favorable biquintile from Mars to Pluto, along with Mercury making a binovile and Venus a quintile. These energies shift in May when the Taurus transits make tredeciles and trines to Pluto, promising a lot of stability and unique gifts coming forth after the Mercury and Venus squares to Saturn and Pluto in early May.
Also, we now enter the time when Neptune is again nearing a sextile to Pluto, indicating that with each year, we’re getting further away from the 26 year period when the Grand Irrationality pervaded the atmosphere. Still, the seeds of our global “fork in the road of destiny” has been set and re-set many times in the past quarter century, and we’ll be dealing with the results of these seeds for a long time to come.
Also, since we now have Saturn biseptile Uranus, and will soon have Uranus biseptile Pluto again, the Grand Irrationality V.2 is in play. You can find more in the articles every New and Full Moon.
From now until Pluto goes SD in October, Uranus moves from its current trielftile to Pluto into an extremely “fateful” biseptile beginning early May and lasting through late July. As this will involve emergent transpersonal global energies, if you have a sensitive planet or point near 21-25 Capricorn, 12-16 Pisces, 3-7 Taurus, 25-29 Gemini, 17-21 Leo, 8-12 Libra, or 30 Scorpio-4 Sagittarius, prepare for your life to come to an intersection of Fate Street and Freewill Street on Eternity Boulevard!
Because of what’s been going on the past 3 years, it seems that the time when Pluto goes stationary retrograde and begins its review each year, humanity stands at critical forks in the road of its collective destiny. We’ve had seeds of “planned group behavior” and “surrendering with dignity to achieve spiritual victory” come forth since 2017. Now we are in a period of receiving rewards for our courage, and will see previous surrenders in a different light in the second half of 2019.
From here, we review the seeds we’ve already sensed related to receiving rewards for courage, past and present (23 Cap), surrendering or conforming in some way to achieve spiritual victory (22 Cap), and adjusting to a greater cooperation and group consciousness (21 Cap). These will be front and center via the RX through September, and again in direct motion from October through late February 2020 before Pluto again moves into unknown zones.
The coming Pluto RX period can help us find a new effectiveness in group performance situations, giving us a “timely rescue” or allowing to be of “timely rescue” to another. Many Saturn and Pluto related themes will begin to break the surface as Mars draws closer to its opposition to these two heavyweight planets in June. At that point, make sure you aren’t getting deflected into needless conflict, and use your powers of precise focus to eliminate all which is frustrating your mature “economy of energy.”
You’ve now entered a new long term chapter of using power wisely in group situation, and are on the way to major developments in 2020 when Jupiter and Saturn both conjunct Pluto, with Mars also conjunction all of the above in March-April 2020. This is the threshold of a great compression of energies which will end several long cycles and initiate several more. Be precise in how you use energy in your emotional and social realms, since it will serve you in power-oriented situations coming in 2020.
While Pluto does occasionally take us into the underworld of existence, it’s there where we look at our core, and purify all that is not Eternal. Pluto may accompany us through terrifying experiences, but it also is Lord of the Underworld, and so it is through Pluto that we become masters of fear, and it ceases to trouble us ever again. Welcome the depth experiences Pluto brings, since it is the Way to demonstrating your Spiritual Will which overcomes all lesser things.
Copyright © 2019 Robert Wilkinson
My humble Thanks!
Posted by: helina | April 25, 2019 at 08:29 AM
Thanks Robert!
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | April 25, 2019 at 04:14 PM
Yeow! I need to read that again 😬
I really want to understand it All
Posted by: Christie Beecher | April 29, 2019 at 11:39 PM