Pluto in Aquarius - the Transition
by Stefan Hofbauer
Pluto's entry into Aquarius
Source: Diagram provided by the author
After about 15 years in Capricorn, Pluto's gradual transition into Aquarius begins in 2023. This sign change will take place in three steps. In 2023, Pluto will first change to Aquarius for about three months, and then return to Capricorn for a little more than seven months. In 2024, it will remain in Aquarius for more than seven months before returning to Capricorn for two and a half months in the fall, from where it will finally and permanently change to Aquarius on November 19, 2024.
When transiting Uranus, Neptune and Pluto first enter a new sign of the zodiac, there are often striking historical events associated with that energy. For example, the cases of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, which became increasingly public from the mid-1990s when Pluto entered Sagittarius, or the great earthquake in Fukushima, which occurred at the same time as Uranus transited into Aries.
Especially with Pluto, which also signifies unconscious currents, needs and taboos, we can often only assess in retrospect what really changed during its passage through the sign. Thus, in retrospect, we can see that Pluto in Sagittarius had a lot to do with sexual abuse (Pluto) in ecclesiastical institutions (Sagittarius), but also with a heyday (Pluto) of globalization (Sagittarius), which suffered an abrupt dampener with the Lehmann bankruptcy, almost simultaneously with Pluto's transit into Capricorn in 2008. With Pluto's passage through Capricorn, we saw many hierarchical institutions and established structures run into trouble, but I wouldn't dare make a final assessment of Pluto's impact while in Capricorn at this time. Presumably this will become much clearer after Pluto's final passage into Aquarius.
The dates of the transition
- Pluto in Capricorn until 3/23/2023
- Pluto first in Aquarius: 3/23/2023 to 6/11/2023
- Pluto back in Capricorn: 6/11/2023 to 1/21/2024
- Pluto again in Aquarius: 1/21/2024 to 9/2/2024
- Pluto back in Capricorn: 9/2/2024 to 11/19/2024
- Pluto finally in Aquarius: 11/19/2024
After its final entry into Aquarius, Pluto remains in this sign for about 20 years before moving to the sign Pisces in 2043/44. Because of its highly elliptical orbit, Pluto has been slowing down in each sign since Sagittarius. While it stayed in Scorpio for only 11 years, its transit through the sign of Sagittarius lasted already 13 years and through Capricorn about 15 years. It moves slowest through the signs Aries to Gemini, staying for about 30 years in each.
Pluto was discovered in 1930 when it was just at 18 degrees Cancer. This also means that no person alive today has ever experienced Pluto in the zodiac signs Aquarius through Gemini. This is important, because in Mundane Astrology we assume that new celestial bodies are discovered when humanity has crossed a certain threshold of consciousness. The Plutonian energy came into the focus of collective attention in 1930. It is true that it (the plutonic energy) is often associated with the rise of the National Socialists and with nuclear fission (plutonium) and is mainly interpreted negatively. However, I now believe that this is a little too superficial. Pluto has mainly to do with ideas, with images, entanglements and taboos. The more unconscious a person is, the more dangerous their life is and the more dangerous they sometimes are for others. For the collective of humanity, the discovery of Pluto may have to do primarily with the exploration of the unconscious.
Wherever Pluto transits in the individual horoscope, we have to deal with dissociated personality parts, with shadow projections and with all the ugliness in ourselves. Only where we cannot stand this at all, we need the psychological mechanisms of dissociation and enemy projection. And against this background, also the phenomenon of totalitarian ideologies might become explicable. Also the persecution mania, smelling conspiracies, and the general distrust of other people often has much more to do with individual fears, suffered humiliations and offenses than with external enemies. Feelings of power and powerlessness are also a domain of Pluto. Where I feel particularly powerless myself, I like to smell conspiracies, because in this way I can restore the feeling of power, of being smarter and of self-efficacy.
A first attempt at interpretation
There seem to be a lot of expectations attached to Pluto in Aquarius. While some expect the final decline and destruction of our culture, others are full of hope in view of a supposedly dawning Aquarian age in which everything would be all harmony and love. Such expectations or forecasts tell a lot about the people who make them but as good as nothing about the astrological connections.
In connection with Pluto in Aquarius, astrologers are also very quick to make reference to the French Revolution, which took place during Pluto's last stay in Aquarius. However, the French Revolution did not take place until 12 years after Pluto first entered Aquarius. And it is also a bit strange that astrologers seem to have a negativity bias. Bias is the term used in science to describe a systematic error. When astrologers interpret constellations in mundane astrology, the first thing they do is to check the ephemerides when this constellation has occurred before. There is nothing wrong with that, because people have been doing that for at least 4000 years, as far as we know. However, most mundane astrologers seem to only ever look for wars, uprisings, revolutions, epidemics and natural disasters when it comes to events of the past. Hardly anyone asks what was the positive result of the historical constellation and what might have been the potential. The latter is actually the more interesting question, if we ask it as astrologers. Otherwise, we run the risk of always projecting only our own projections, wishes, fears and anxieties into the future.
Astrologically, Aquarius has to do with the subject of change. If Capricorn was about fixed structures, laws and rules, Aquarius is about breaking rules, balancing differences, justice and freedom. If we look at the consequences of the last transit of Pluto through Aquarius (1777/78 to 1798), for example, it brought an end to the estate-based society, a clear separation of church and state, human and civil rights were formulated and freedom of trade was introduced. For the rulers, this must have been quite an uncomfortable time. The idea of freedom and equality spread throughout the world and caused some royal houses to take even more restrictive and brutal action against their own subjects. Quite similar to what we experience today in Iran or Russia, for example.
In my opinion, we must not make the mistake of singling out individual historical events and viewing them as the sole manifestation of a particular astrological constellation. History and humanity itself are much more complex. With Pluto's entry into Aquarius, total chaos will not immediately erupt, nor will eternal world peace and pure bliss. Pluto's entry into Aquarius will bring us new ideas, new themes, and new focuses. We will become more aware of inequality and injustice. Our focus will be on independence and freedom, emancipation, renewal, decentralization and networking.
We will question many previous values, including forms of government, hierarchies in companies, previous bureaucratic processes, international treaties, but also the structure of the world itself. By the latter, I mean physics' view of the nature of things. And yes, if the imbalance is too great in some places, that could also lead to revolutions and uprisings. We could also take the structure of the Internet and social media to be Aquarian. It is true that there are also efforts to centralize data or even to bring information on the Internet under control. But since everything can become visible at any time, this usually does not succeed for very long. In this way, Pluto could also revolutionize the Internet itself and point out the particularly ugly sides of this new technology and, in the best case, help to overcome them.
In the very best case, humanity itself transforms into a cooperative community. Maybe we finally understand that wars do not work, that exchange, communication and solidarity are the better solutions. Perhaps the current crises (Corona, energy crisis, inflation, labor shortage, climate crisis) are reason enough to realize that we can achieve more with joint efforts. But we know from psychology that transformation and development can only happen if we look honestly and without blinkers at what is happening right now. As long as we act as if there are no problems or delude ourselves, no transformation can happen.
The current Uranus-Pluto cycle
Uranus trine Pluto (1st time), 7/18/2026
Source: diagram provided by the author
We experienced an exact Uranus-Pluto square seven times in the years from 2012 to 2015. This was the breakthrough crisis of a cycle that began in 1966/67 in the zodiac sign of Virgo. With Pluto's entry into Aquarius, we get to deal with a similar energy, not only because Pluto in Aquarius in itself contains the Uranus-Pluto planetary theme, but also because Pluto is in trine with Uranus for almost six years starting in 2024. This trine is within an orb of less than 5 degrees from the summer of 2024 and does not leave it until the summer of 2029. From 2026 to 2028 the trine becomes exact a total of five times, but even in the summer of 2025 the trine is already so close that only 7 minutes of arc are missing for exactness. So we can rightly say that the Uranus-Pluto trine, besides other important constellations like the Saturn-Neptune conjunction in 2025/26, will shape the whole rest of the decade from summer 2024 on.
Pluto-Uranus is an energy of extremes. Under such constellations we do not want to hang on the status quo at all. Let us think of the revolutionary energy of the 1960s! The equality of the sexes, the more ecological view of the world, a freer handling of sexuality, a very wide-spread rejection of war and a re-emerging of spirituality, were some topics of that time. Much has been achieved in some areas, and in others we are well on the way. But of course there is still much to be done. In the years from 2024 to 2029, especially many constructive steps should be possible here. The waxing trine of a cycle is about creative expression and concrete application in the outer world. The energies of Uranus and Pluto flow into each other much more harmoniously here than would be the case with a square (Rudhyar, 1980).
Pluto in Aquarius shows us particularly clearly where there is inequality, injustice and lack of freedom. We also live in a collective plutocracy, where it is no longer politics that determines what happens, but very powerful corporations. Some of these string pullers in the background are not even known to the public. With Pluto's entry into Aquarius, things will not automatically get better, but the world's focus will shift to these issues. At the end of a hard road, the world should be much fairer, more equal and freer than it was until the early 2020s.
References:
Rudhyar, Dane und Leyla, Astrological Aspects. A Process Oriented Approach, Aurora Press, 1980.
About the author:
Mag. Stefan Hofbauer was born in Horn/Lower Austria in December 1970. In the mid-1990s he became interested in astrology, which he deepened in self-study from 1997. By 2013 he had extensive astrological knowledge, which he underpinned with more structure in a two-year training at Sarastro College (www.sarastro.at), graduating in 2015. As early as 1999, he published his first astrological website, which was available at the still current address hofastro.com.
First and foremost, astrology is for him a powerful tool for self-exploration and overcoming crises through better understanding. Furthermore, he is dedicated to astrological research and the connection of psychological and astrological insights.
