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. Through Pluto we know who we really are. Right now it’s stationary retrograde at 29 Capricorn. We have major global shifts ahead at the threshold of global change!
Pluto’s exact retrograde station occurs at 11:38 am PDT, 7:38 pm BST on April 29. 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 March June 2020, and then again from January 2022 to now.
Since early January, Pluto moved from 27 Capricorn to 29 Capricorn. It will retrograde back over that span between now and early October, when it goes stationary direct at 27 Capricorn. After that it will be in its “shadow zone” through mid-February 2023, when it will again enter an unknown zone humanity has not experienced since 1776-1778. It would seem that revolutionary times are upon us over the next 5 years!
Pluto in the Power Zones
Between 2016-2018, Pluto transited the 5 degree “face” between 16-20 Capricorn where personal power gets translated into group energy through activities. In 2018-2019 Pluto transited the “face” between 21-25 Capricorn, where that power gets applied on the emotional or social level. Between 2021 and 2024, Pluto is transiting the face between 26-30 Capricorn, where that emotional or social power gets expressed in individual ways on the mental and spiritual levels of life. Pluto is done planting seeds in the first two zones, and has been planting seeds in the third zone.
These zones were incredibly important in 2019-2020. Saturn occupied 21-25 Capricorn in Apr-May 2019 and Dec 2019-Jan 2020, after which it occupied 26-30 Capricorn in Feb-Mar 2020 and again from July through December 2020. During these times, Saturn gave structure and solidity to the Plutonic seeds already planted in those zones. Many long term seeds were “made real” when Saturn conjuncted Pluto at 23 Capricorn in January 2020, setting a 33 year cycle into motion.
Those “structured seeds” or “disciplined transformational pressures” were then sprouted and expanded by Jupiter’s transit of 21-25 Capricorn in March-April and 26-28 Capricorn between April and June 2020. We experienced another pass at the social-cultural Capricorn seeds when Jupiter retrograded through 21-25 Cap in June and July 2020, and it began a permanent expansion of the transformational action seeds of 16-20 Cap between August and October 2020, the transformational social/emotional seeds of 21-25 Cap in Oct-Nov, and the transformational individual spiritual seeds of 26-30 Cap in November-December 2020.
Pluto is now in final few degrees of Capricorn in the Virgo decan, favoring efficiency, adaptability, and discernment as to how and where things fit into a sequence of tasks or a larger picture. This is the final transformation period of our late Capricorn sector as we prepare for Pluto’s initial entry into Aquarius just after the 2023 March Equinox! It will dance back into Capricorn in mid-June and remain there until late January 2024, when it re-enters Aquarius. As you can imagine, when Pluto is at 1 Aquarius, it will sprout all kinds of transformational energies related to the Grand Mutation of December 2020 at that same degree!
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 29 Capricorn.
The symbol for the 29th degree of Capricorn is "A woman reading tea leaves.” In The Astrology of Personality, where he used notes from the Marc Jones classes, Rudhyar says this degree is one of “the quest for inner understanding through all life-conditioning,” “first approach to reality,” and “desire to transcend routine.”
In the Astrological Mandala he states this degree is one of “the ability to see the signature of hidden meaning in every occurrence drawing one’s attention,” where we seek some procedure to establish a deeper understanding of the meaning of things through omens and oracles. He offers this has been used by seers, “based on the realization of ‘the relation of everything to everything else,’ a definition of astrology given by Marc Jones.” He continues that these techniques are “based upon the establishment of a close connection between the unconscious and the conscious,” where we learn to rely “upon the power of occult forces… to convey the information that will clarify confusing situations.”
He says it’s a technique of understanding and “the ability not only to perceive the facts of everyday existence, but to see through these facts and discover how they are related to the realm of basic meanings or archetypal processes,” and relates the technique to “Clairvoyance, the capacity to see in everything the Signature of deeper realities.” He states it falls in the Span of Dependence, and is the technical degree on the individual-mental level of the Scene of Group Performance in the Act of Capitalization.
Dr. Jones says this degree is about our “persistent desire to establish conscious relationship with an invisible world of over-reality” through self-encouragement. He says “the mind has its ultimate focus in eternal and universal coordinates” where it tries to fit necessities of “practical living into some pattern of possible consummations.” He continues “conscious experience therefore comes to be supplemented by intuition as a direct realization of pure potentiality.”
He offers the keyword of SIGNATURE. He states that when this degree works positively, it is “naïve insight as brought to high intelligence in meeting the recurrent issues of life.
So in the coming months, Pluto is offering us “seed forms” of opportunities to transform our lives by understanding that there are always omens, signs, and signals indicating the path of our best direction which we can trust. For the rest of this year into February we’ve entered a time of transcending old routines, referencing our inner guidance, learning to recognize the omens in situations, and develop our potential for clairvoyance.
With Pluto making this a hot spot, we must find the spiritual will and inner integrity which helps us honor the core principles we share with others across space and time. For the next few months, one of three things is happening; a) we’re looking back at the distant past when we read omens or heard our inner voice while finding other truth seekers there in a collective “peak experience”; b) we’re looking with new eyes at recent events requiring us to listen to our inner truth to get a new view of our connection with Life on all levels, and especially our own “shrine of higher awareness”; or c) we can see how the “spiritual mountain” we’ve climbed has led us to forms of clairvoyance and/or clairaudience yielding a greater connection with Self, with others, with the Earth, and with Truth.
Other Factors
Pluto, the Cosmic Purifier, will still be in Capricorn for another year, and will dance between late Capricorn and early Aquarius for 2 more. 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 as noted, these sprouted and took shape in 2018-2020 as first Saturn and then Jupiter transited those Plutonic spans. These evolved into new processes and forms during Mars’ transit of Capricorn in early 2020 when it activated the first Jupiter conjunction with Pluto, and recently found newer forms of expression between late January and early March 2022 when it again triggered the numerous conjunction points of 2020.
During the 2019-2020 transits of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto in late Capricorn we learned how to utilize those energies in organized ways. Of course, the three Jupiter conjunctions with Pluto (two at 25 Capricorn, one at 23 Capricorn) will be activated for many years to come, so there’s a lot to be learned about refining our senses, and becoming “psychologically enriched” by enjoying our play as we find a “transcendent security.
This is another extraordinarily dynamic Pluto retrograde period, given the aspects in play as this RX period begins. Dominating the front end of this retrograde station is Sun conjunct Uranus, Mercury trine Pluto, and Venus conjunct Jupiter with both sextile Pluto! This Pluto retrograde will be one where we can “get to the heart of the matter,” and see the results of the Ageless Wisdom as we begin to “escape from a narrow destiny.”
Because of what’s been going on the past 6 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. From here, we review the seeds we’ve already sensed related to seeing the signs and signals in the present showing us the future, learning to listen to the inner voice, and connecting with other seekers for the highest. These will be front and center via the RX through October, and again in direct motion from October through early February 2023 before Pluto again moves into unknown zones.
Use your powers of precise focus to eliminate all which is frustrating your ability to you’re your life efficiently. We’re now solidly in a long term chapter of using power wisely in group situations, and launched multiple cycles of a new era when Jupiter and Saturn conjuncted Pluto. We’ve now been through the two “Great Compressions” in Capricorn in 2019-2020, and the third and fourth Great Compressions in Aquarius, in early 2021 and 2022. While 2019 and 2020 launched multiple Capricorn cycles, 2020 and 2021 have launched phenomenally powerful Aquarian cycles which began to blossom in 2021 and 2022. Be precise in how you use energy in your individual, mental, and spiritual realms, since it will serve you in power-oriented situations this year.
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 © 2022 Robert Wilkinson
Hi Robert, I've been reading your articles regularly for several years and have bought a couple of your ebooks. This beautifully written post has provided a basalmic way of understanding social and spiritual forces in these hard and dark times, as so many of your pieces do. A heartfelt thank you to you. Your insights have provided solace, as well as ways to rethink approaches to people, states of mind, ways of seeing the world, and encourage the best in us. The best to you and thank you.
Posted by: Catherine Lily Payne | April 29, 2022 at 04:27 AM