A Pluto Cazimi Ushers in The Age of Aquarius
If you've been thinking, "Gosh, the world isn't weird or uncomfortable enough," then THIS is the planetary transit for you.
What is happening?!
Pluto, the enigmatic ruler of shadows and nether realms is enjoying his very last degree in Capricorn this week and moving into Aquarius; a powerful, foreboding transit for a planet that only changes signs every 20 years or so. Not only will Pluto thrust humanity from a generational era of constrained material focus into one of boundless intellectual aspiration, but he will do so from the heart of Helios himself when he forms a cazimi with the sun on January 20th, 2024.
Pluto’s ingress into Capricorn on January 25th, 2008, was the beginning of a financial, social, and cultural reckoning that we are only just beginning to fruitfully unpack. Not only would that month prove to be the most economically catastrophic on record since the 9/11 terrorist attacks in America, but on the second day of Pluto’s Capricorn sojourn, Barack Obama won the Democratic primary in South Carolina, setting the United States up with a real shot at having our first black president. What came to be known as the Global Financial Crisis never truly disappeared from our zeitgeist - we all became familiar with previously niche phrases like ‘predatory lending’, and ‘sub-prime mortgage’. Not only did the death knell of America’s institutional faith sound that year, but it has been ringing steadily into this new decade as more and more citizens understand how soul-crushingly poor they are being kept by their ruling class. Even more depressingly, many scholars and sociologists have made the case that the election of Barack Obama as the U.S. Commander in Chief lit the fuse on a powder keg of barely contained xenophobia and racism in this country, which exploded 8 years later and blasted a crude, bigoted reality television host into the most powerful position on the planet.
Pluto briefly went retrograde in Sagittarius over the summer and early fall of 2008, giving the recession a bit more of a philosophical spin as well as the opportunity for a community post-mortem regarding our banking system - i.e. the usual, “How could this have happened and how do we prevent it from happening again?” conversations that retrogrades are so good at bringing about. Shortly after the 2008 U.S. election, Pluto went direct again in diligent, obsessive Capricorn on November 26th, 2008 - the same day militants later identified as members of Pakistani terrorist group Lakshar e Taiba began a horrifying, four day assault on the citizens of Mumbai, killing 175 people and injuring over 300 during their proclaimed jihad.
Pluto, it could be surmised, is clearly not a planet to fuck with. This is Hades, after all - the god who knows all of our darkest, meanest secrets, from whom we cannot hide even in death. Interestingly, Hades/Pluto is also heavily correlated with riches due to the ancient idea of Earth’s minerals, crystals, and life force residing deep in the ground with the kingdom of the dead; in fact, the Ancient Greek word Ploutos translates directly to ‘wealth’. When we consider the Capricornian love of material wealth, security, and all things rich and shiny, it’s astounding that we’ve been able to talk about anything other than money since 2008.
Fast forward to 2024 - we are staring another seismic Plutonian shift dead in the eye, and the simultaneous illumination our sun provides during cazimi could make the reveal brighter, wilder, and more intense than the 2008 ingress proved to be. On a personal level, we can expect to come face to face with hard truths about ourselves and the lives we’ve built, because hard truths are the currency in which all death gods deal. Anubis weighs our hearts, Shiva fights our demons, and Pluto sits in judgement of our deeds on Earth, deciding if we will spend our afterlife as happy shades in the Underworld or burning prisoners in Tartarus.
The Lord of The Underworld saunters around our sun on a vast, irregular orbit, and the conjunction of both this weekend is but a preview of a reckoning that will unravel over the next two and a half decades, so take it slow…we have a long way to go toward enlightenment.
Why would this affect me?
Pluto is very much a death avatar, and as disturbing as it is for some folks to admit, no one escapes the reckoning of death. Indeed, Pluto’s Capricorn sojourn ended the lives of at least 7 million people worldwide due to the Covid pandemic alone. When he meets up with the sun, Pluto’s message is amplified and broadcast in ways that get right up in our faces (as the year 2008 can attest.) If we consider the major flashpoints of Plutos last transit - money, dogma, institutional failure, retraction, strife between human generations - we can reasonably expect The Lord of The Underworld to exit with a few last words on said subjects as he prepares his formal entrance into yet another Saturn-ruled sign. When we look at these issues individually in the context of a cazimi, it seems highly likely that we will encounter unsavory tension regarding the following:
Money - Capricorn loves money, Pluto controls money (dark money, in particular), and a very small portion of people seem to hoard all of it on the planet right now. Aquarius sees money as a means to an end, and is far more concerned with how finances are used for the greater good, which could indicate market shake-ups, budgetary fights and criminal financial exposès in our near future, as well as new labor and proletariat movements in our far one. On an individual level, employment weirdness, inheritance drama, and other prosperity issues might rear their heads starting this weekend.
Dogma - Capricorn and Aquarius are both intractable signs, but they dig their stubborn heels into separate elements. As an earth sign, The Sea Goat is preoccupied with the material realm of wealth, sensuality, and physical labor, whereas Aquarius lives in the airy space of the intellect, ideas, and spiritual enlightenment. 2024 is turning into a chaotic combat zone for all of the above, unfortunately; in many Western countries, populations are at war with each other over systems of faith, governance, and economics. In other parts of the world, ground invasions loom and rockets are being fired. Stochastic terrorism is on the rise, as is good, old-fashioned direct terrorism. Individually, the things some of us have said or done previously in service to our own personal dogma may come back to bite us, or we might be proven painfully wrong about some deeply held belief.
Institutional Failure - Truly, do any of us trust our institutions anymore? Between 2008 and 2024, human beings have determined the global financial system, the U.N., the W.H.O, Twitter, Payless, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and every government on Earth to be 100% full of shit. (We can’t even have Payless, people.) They have failed to protect us from climate induced disasters, a global pandemic, regional land grabs, and the rampant pedophilia and corruption of organized religion. We in The West are abandoning institutional traditions with a zealous sort of despair; birthrates and marriage rates are plummeting and war, hunger, poverty, and gender violence are either static or rising, as citizens of Earth look to each other and realize that not only are our institutions responsible for this mess, but they’ve been charging us for the privilege of enduring their brutal corruption this entire time. Under the influence of Capricorn, Pluto worked diligently to show us reality on Earth. Going forward, the mission of Pluto in Aquarius will be to inspire ideas and actions that combat current reality because it has become unfavorable to so many in order to bestow great favor to the very few. Aquarius hates that.
If you’re reading this right now and thinking everything sounds kind of awful, I agree, but only on the surface of things. Consider this; in RWS tarot, Capricorn is represented by The Devil, which deals in enslavement to things like money, vice, and dogma. Aquarius, a.k.a. The Water Bearer, deals in things like enlightenment, illumination, higher purpose, and spirituality, represented by The Star - but the latter does not immediately follow the former in the linear narrative of the tarot. There is a card between the two that everyone fears, but that is necessary to traverse the realm between the craven lies of The Devil and the clear eureka moment promised by Aquarius, and that card is The Tower.
The chaos and destruction of The Tower is the bridge we all must cross if we wish to escape enslavement and approach enlightenment, and even when muddling past our Tower moment sucks more than anything has sucked before, the clarity that awaits us once the storm has passed will be worth it.
When do I have to deal with this?
Friday, January 19th and Saturday, January 20th are the days that see Pluto and the sun at their most intimate in Capricorn, and they both immediately move into Aquarius on Saturday evening. Be on the lookout for ominous chatter regarding global events in the realms of finance, political/religious dogma, and institutional corruption, but keep in mind that this cazimi is only the firing shot in a 20 year relay race toward foundational change.
Cool, what does the Tarot say about this?
By Thursday, 1.18.24, we will sense stagnation in the air surrounding professional and creative goals courtesy of the 8 of Arms, but the 2 of Vials ensures that we’ll find solace in things that truly matter like partnership, love, and interpersonal commitment.
The 5 of Wands shows up on Friday, 1.19.24, and prepares us for passionate conflict - not the physical variety, thankfully, but the soulful, idea-driven disagreements that arise from a diverse set of personalities. There will be a lot of talking and maneuvering, but no outright fighting. Hopefully.
Saturday brings us the need to retract from social obligations and interactions, possibly as a result of Friday’s bitchiness. The 3 of Cups reversed wants us all to step back and check our own heads before we get into other people’s business, which is probably good advice during a Pluto cazimi, regardless of our own personal drama. Plus, the shit might really hit the fan on Sunday, 1.21.24, considering a Temperance card reversed that indicates people gravitating toward extreme positions and acting recklessly in service to them. Sigh…it’s almost enough to make one want apathy and ambivalence to come back in style.
Lagniappe
As a self-proclaimed cranky astrologer, I am often telling people about horrible shit that they would rather not hear, not because I wish to scare them*, but because I myself feel better when I am armed with as much information as is available before going into situations that could end poorly. Pluto can be a fearsome planet and we ignore him at our own peril, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the universal truth that destruction begets creation, which will inevitably beget destruction again in this great, existential circle jerk called life.
One of my favorite books is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and I love the Coppola movie so much that I opened a goth boutique inspired by that film’s set dressing for Carfax Abby, replete with exposed, crumbling brick, ancient steamer trunks, smoking candles, and sumptuous black clothing. Stoker wasn’t an Aquarius…he was a Scorpio, the only sign that can claim Pluto as a natural ruler and write something as angsty and sex obsessed as a novel that features Victorian nobles handwringing over their desire to suck on each other’s necks, but I’ve thought a lot about certain passages of this book in regards to our current timeline. When Lucy’s betrothed is told by Van Helsing that she is lost to him and that he will need to literally cut off her head in order to save her soul, he understandably balks.
Coming close to Arthur, he said, "My friend Arthur, you have had a sore trial, but after, when you look back, you will see how it was necessary. You are now in the bitter waters, my child. By this time tomorrow you will, please God, have passed them, and have drunk of the sweet waters. So do not mourn over-much. Till then I shall not ask you to forgive me."
*Okay, there are some people that I enjoy scaring because I’m an evil bitch who holds grudges…but not you, dear reader
I think about this passage a lot as I wade through my own aftermath of The Tower - a shuttered boutique, troubled health, and deep anxiety about the future that covers everything in a heavy fog of dread. We all traverse this place at various points in our lives, and the last thing anybody wants to hear is, “This was meant to happen! Things have to end in order for new things to begin!”
Usually, that sort of proclamation is followed by somebody making prayer hands and offering up a rose quartz or some such nonsense, and it’s enough to make me want to punch everyone in a 20 foot radius.
Being reminded of the transient nature of emotion doesn’t tend to improve anybody’s mood when they’re going through horrible shit - if anything, it produces internal frustration and external irritation. Who wants to hear how fleeting and pointless their feelings are? In my experience, glorious, angry meltdowns are practically guaranteed the moment someone says, “Maybe you should just calm down.”
Whatever Pluto brings us in 2024, I’m not going to tell anyone to calm down about it. What I will do is commiserate; I will gently remind us all throughout the year that we are in this together, whether we like it or not, because the nature of Pluto’s power is generational and communal, which means none of us are alone. We are wading through the bitter water together, and the wading will continue until humanity breaks through to the sweetness that all the gurus, astrologers, and best goth, sexually repressed Victorian novels promised us.
Needed to read this tbh
Not even! I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed how you described everything and how real it was.