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. It is going stationary direct at this time. What does this hold for us?
Pluto’s exact direct station occurs at 6:10 pm PDT October 10 at 28 Capricorn. 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 transformational experience where we are shown anew the span Pluto has been traversing off and on since February 2022.
Where We’ve Been in the Global Transformational Process
When Pluto made the transition from the first half of Capricorn to the second half of Capricorn in 2015-2016, left the Scene of Crystallization and entered the Scene of Group Performance. Because it involves Pluto, it means the seeds of collective personal power (Capricorn) moved out of the period where these were “crystallized” and into a period where this crystallized power would be expressed in group forms. It is easy to see how that has dominated public affairs since period leading up to and including the election of 2016.
The span of 16-20 Capricorn is the actional level of how that “group performance” evolves. The span of 21-25 is the emotional, social, and cultural level of how that “group performance” evolves and expresses itself. The span of 26-30 Capricorn which Pluto began to transit in January 2021 is the individual, mental, and spiritual level of how these seeds of transformational group performance will express.
Between January and April 2018, Pluto moved from 19 to 22 Capricorn. It then retrograded back to 19 Capricorn, where it went direct in September 2018. It remained in its shadow zone through early February 2019 after which it occupied 23 and 24 Capricorn which humanity had not experienced since 1773-1774. Each of these gave us various Plutonic exposures to the themes of that section of Capricorn.
It went retrograde at 24 Capricorn in April 2019, and retrograded back to 21 Capricorn, where it went stationary direct. It then remained in its “shadow zone” through February 2020, and then entered the unknown zone of 25 Capricorn which humanity had not experienced since 1774-1775.
It went stationary retrograde at 25 Capricorn in late August 2020, stayed on that degree through early July, and then retrograded back to 23 Capricorn, where it went stationary direct in October 2020. It then remained in its shadow zone through late January 2021 and entered the unknown zone of 26 Capricorn which humanity had not experienced since 1775-1776.
It went stationary retrograde at 27 Capricorn in early June 2021, remained on that degree through mid-August, and then retrograded back to 25 Capricorn, where it went stationary direct. It remained in its shadow zone through early February 2022, and then entered the unknown zone of 28 Capricorn which humanity had not experienced since 1776-1777.
It went stationary retrograde at 29 Capricorn in late April 2022, and then retrograded back to 27 Capricorn, where it went stationary direct in October. It remained in its shadow zone through February 2023, after which it entered the unknown zone of 30 Capricorn and 1 Aquarius which humanity has not experienced since 1777-1778.
It went stationary retrograde at 1 Aquarius at the end of April 2023, and has retrograded back to 28 Capricorn, where It now goes stationary direct. Pluto last transited 28 Capricorn in late 1776, going retrograde at 1 Aquarius in May 1777. It retrograded back to 28 Capricorn, doing direct at 28 Capricorn in October 1777. So 2023 parallels 1777.
From here, Pluto will remain in its “shadow zone” through late February 2024, and then go on to transit 2-3 Aquarius, going retrograde at 3 Aquarius in early June. It will go back to 30 Capricorn, which it will occupy from September to mid-November 2024, after which it will not retrograde back into Capricorn.
Pluto went direct in October 1777 at 28 Capricorn and made it all the way to 2 Aquarius, where it went retrograde in May 1778. It retrograded back to 30 Capricorn, where it went direct in October 1778. So right now we are paralleling late 1777, with 2024 paralleling 1778.
So Pluto is moving through the same spans, and hitting the same stations, as it did 245 years ago! We have an equivalence between 2015-2023 and 1770-1778, so it would seem that revolutionary times are upon us over the next 3 years!
How Does the Second Half of Capricorn Differ From the First?
The span from 16-20 Capricorn is where personal power gets translated into group energy through activities. Pluto has been in the second half of Capricorn for a while, and when it left the second decan in December 2018, we moved out of the Taurus third of Capricorn and into the Virgo decan
Pluto first occupied the Virgo decan from early February through early July 2018. It went back into the Taurus decan from July through December 2018, and then re-entered the Virgo decan in mid-December where it will remain until 2024. Its occupancy of the Taurus sector of Capricorn from 2013-2018 gave both stability and stubbornness to the Pluto in Capricorn expression, and now we’re solidly into the more functional practicality of the Virgo decan influence. This gave way to a blended Capricorn/Aquarius energy when Pluto first entered Aquarius in late March 2023, so at this time we’re experience the cusp of where Capricorn and Aquarius overlap.
Because Virgo rules Nature Herself and all food and organic commodity production, beginning 2019 and lasting through 2024, we can expect more extreme weather and crop problems, as well as upheavals related to other natural phenomenon, since Nature expresses in these Virgo forms. Many things in the future will give way and transform as a function of pure necessity as extreme weather brings changes in where and how food is produced in our world.
Sabian Symbols Themes
It is now stationary direct at 28 Capricorn. The Sabian Symbol for the 28th degree of Capricorn is “A large aviary." In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols published in The Astrology of Personality, Rudhyar says this degree is one of “enhancement of personality by familiarity with spiritual values” and “Joying in the significance of things; or mental confusion.”
In his Astrological Mandala, he offers that this degree is one of “the enjoyment of spiritual values by the soul able to familiarize itself with their implication.” He states that birds symbolize spiritual forces which bring “joy and harmony to the consciousness,” and here there is “a picture of familiarity with inspiring experiences,” which may lack spontaneity.
He goes on to say this is a “complex state of inspiration,” which can bring confusion due to too many voices talking at the same time. He states this is a symbol of “clairvoyance” and the ability to tune into the inner voice. Rudhyar says it falls in the Span of Dependence, and is the synthesizing degree in the Individual-Mental level of the Scene of Group Performance in the Act of Capitalization.
Dr. Jones says this degree symbolizes a "differentiation of interests” and our gift for bringing any line of effort to serve any other effort we may be doing. Here our “wide spread of aspiration is encompassed in the over-all realization” of how we have organized our life, and our breadth of resources can solve our “everyday problems.” He states how we administer our potential socially is our “self-fulfillment.”
He offers us the keyword COMMUNITY. We are told that when positive, the degree is "exceptional success in making all personal concerns a matter of common welfare.”
So Pluto now moves forward in its invisible transformational influence working through the structures built by Saturn and Jupiter since early 2020. The larger theme of this degree is about us learning to see opportunity, truth, and group work using spiritual energies we’re familiar with that “enhance our personality.”
Any confusion we may have should be a spur to see the core seed values related to our path to realization so we can reorganize our lives and solve our problems using the spiritual values we have at our disposal to care for the “common welfare.” Of some importance is that this is the same degree as the 2020 Jupiter SRX degree, showing that each time Pluto has been on this degree since 2022 has sprouted some element of that Jupiterian promise.
Because we speak of Pluto, it relates to the deepest, most profound core principles. Any major shift involving Pluto requires that we ask ourselves if we’re in harmony with the values and ideals of the realization we aspire to experience? We have seen the need to hold to our “indomitable integrity” and the spiritual course we have chosen which will serve as a spiritual touchstone and example of an ideal we share with our Brothers and Sisters.
With Pluto making this a hot spot last year and this, we must find the spiritual will and inner integrity which helps us honor core principles we share with others across space and time. We now commence a new chapter in our Plutonic adventure, having looked back at a great vision, a great responsibility, and a great power “to read the tea leaves” which have left us at this threshold of launching a new Plutonic adventure in 2024.
The past two years we’ve met the other truth seekers with whom we’re sharing a collective “peak experience.” Having built our “shrine of higher awareness,” we now have a long range perspective about how the “spiritual mountain” we’ve climbed is leading us to a greater connection with Self, with others, with the Earth, and with Truth. From here we move forward, familiar with core principles, ready to embrace the next chapter of the unfolding Aquarian era.
Moving Forward Into the Unknown
As I offered earlier, Pluto represents the Lord of the Underworld, as well as global pressures for radical purification and transformation. Its stay in Capricorn has brought forth the worst in governments, dictatorships, control systems, and financial systems. Each time transiting Pluto is put under pressure from squares, it can lead to the demonstration of heavy handed actions, or a curbing of those actions. We are now in the final phase of the old Pluto cycles, with waning squares coming from all the inner planets.
After the harvests in Scorpio and Sagittarius, all of the inner planet cycles with Pluto will be re-set at their conjunctions in January and February. The extraordinary thing is that only the Sun will conjunct Pluto at 30 Capricorn. After that, Mercury and then Mars and Venus will conjunct Pluto at 1 Aquarius, boosting the signal of the Grand Mutation of 2020 affecting us for 20 years and launching a new Aquarian era.
Hard Pluto transits can bring up deep fears. Because we are thinking, feeling interactive Beings, if we feel at all we will feel the widespread fear and dread associated with the collective instability and uncertainty. This has been a common complaint among many I know, due to the destabilization of the world we used to know and live in.
Because both Saturn and Pluto are associated with our deepest, darkest fears, I devoted quite a few pages to the best ways we can manage these energies to our benefit in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Everyone on Earth at some point must confront the need to go into their personal “underworld” to come out with a purified ego that can serve as an adequate vehicle for the expression of our Higher Self.
Difficult Pluto transits offer us opportunities to come out of fear and dread, purified of the dross of the lower self. My book offers valuable tools to navigate these difficult transits, so if you haven’t already, please consider getting your copy. And if you do have a copy, please re-read what I offer about the dance Saturn does with Pluto to purify us of our deepest fears so we may become the fully realized Spiritual Being we are.
After the 2017 Pluto direct lessons of being freed from old inhibitions, the 2018 direct lessons related to an accelerated learning pace. Our 2019 lessons of accelerating our growth within some sort of group context, cooperative practical service, planned group activities, and a greater knowledge of the give and take of life, and the 2020 lessons of receiving rewards for courage in discharging our duties nobly under difficult conditions.
In 2021 we entered a period of seeing the spiritual mountaintop we have attained and looked around to see our spiritual Brothers and Sisters, and in 2022 we entered a period of using our view of our spiritual community to move forward into the seeds of an entirely new world of experience when Pluto entered Aquarius in March 2023. After 7 months of Pluto dancing on the edge of the cusp of these two signs, we now enter a period of using our familiarity with spiritual values to interpret the signs of the times, make decisions which will organize our lives to our practical satisfaction, and then move deeper into the emerging Aquarian era.
Keep in mind that the massive pressure we all feel is part of a long term acceleration phase in the ongoing transformational process. While Pluto continues to sprout the Capricorn seeds set into motion in 2020, we also have a long wave 20 year Aquarian cycle that’s been unfolding for almost two years. We are now forming the preliminary structures for the coming Age of Aquarius which we’ll enter after 2050. And it’s guaranteed that the 20 year Grand Mutation cycle in Aquarius which began at 1 Aquarius will be moved dramatically into manifestation when Pluto re-enters Aquarius in January 2024 and immediately makes multiple conjunctions at 1 Aquarius in the weeks after.
Those who are on a spiritual path have been experiencing joy, power, understanding, and wisdom to the degree we are mature, organized, and grounded as we have steered our lives through the major transformational period of 2020-2021. This has helped us to a more effective expression of our Higher Self as we embrace the future oriented pulses which began at the Grand Mutation of December 2020, ushering in new 20 and 200 year cycles.
Copyright © 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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