Pluto Reenters Aquarius; We Are All Just Walking Each other Home
Life is messy. More often than not, the unexpected shows up at our door. Something or someone we never anticipated. Something we didn’t believe was possible. What happens next is determined by both what we make the moment mean and who we are in response to that moment.
As I have said before, everything is connected, everything.
As an astrologer, particularly as one with a psychological and evolutionary bent, I believe we all came into this life to evolve. That we chose our moment of birth, and our natal chart reflects the choices our soul made pointing to what arenas and areas of life we desired to be our focus. It is our own personal map that can act as a guide along the pathway of our transformation; our lives are the actual territory. We have free will, so how we choose to traverse the territory is up to us. We can choose to move through our days full of wonder or full of despair. Regardless of the circumstances that surround us.
On November 19, a little more than a week from now, Pluto firmly moves into Aquarius, where either will remain for the next 20 years. Pluto is one of three outer planets, the planets that can’t be seen with our naked eye. The late astrologer Howard Sassportas called the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, respectively, the Gods of Change. Which, honestly, I believe is an understatement. All of the Outer Planets are asking us to connect in a new way. They are trying to jolt us out of the prison of the ego and teach us that we are not alone, that we are only living in a perception of being separate.
Transits and progression of the outer planets, particularly Pluto, take us beyond the world we have known.
Pluto transforms. Transformation is not the same as change. It is far more radical. Change is I get a new job. Transformation is I professionally enter an entirely new field. Transformation is metamorphosis. And what is going through a metamorphosis when we are experiencing a Pluto transit is our very psyche.
Metamorphosis, when you are in the middle of it, is a strange land.
Pluto brings things to the surface when it’s transiting something in your chart, or the chart of an organization, or even a nation. it transforms and brings to the surface the old stuff to be altered or to be eliminated. He is, after all, the God of Death and Rebirth.
Pluto transits are indeed extraordinary. While metamorphosis is a radical process, this does not mean that what is going to happen to us as we move through the transit is going to be adverse. Pluto is also the God of Wealth.
Taylor Swift has been moving through Pluto, transiting her Venus at 1 ° Aquarius since 2022. She ended a six-year relationship and put out 1989 Taylor’s Version, Midnights, and the Tortured Poets Department. Her ERAS tour has been iconic and even impacted the GDP of the US in 2023. She invested in and created a film that broke box office records of the tour, created and directed videos and a book, and has met what appears to be the love of her life. This doesn’t mean it has been all roses, listen to the lyrics of the songs on The Tortured Poets Department, where she so poignantly chronicled her heartbreak even as she was touring.
It was how she rose to the moment that determined all of this.
Years ago, there was a bakery I would go to in the morning to have coffee and a toasted baguet. The staff wore shirts that said, “The flogging will continue until the morale improves,” which I found enormously entertaining as the sentiment held so much ironic truth.
To actively rather than passively participate in your own transformation is to live a type of fierce spirituality. It is to walk your talk to the best of your ability, moment to moment. When the rubber hits the road, isn’t this what belief is all about?
The words belief and believe come from the old German *ga-laubjan "to believe," "hold dear, to desire, to love.” From my perspective, learning to believe and practicing belief is a fierce spiritual practice. It is holding dear the values that are ours, most importantly, knowing that everything is connected and we play a role, even when the going gets tough, because the world around us isn’t aligning with our expectations. This isn’t about spiritual bypass; it doesn't deny the complexity of both ourselves and life or that sometimes our hearts will be broken. It means that isn’t the end of the story.
When a boxer has been knocked down, he is lying "on the mat." When he recovers and gets up to continue the fight, he is “off the mat.” For all of us, our story lies in how we choose to get off the mat.
Pluto transits insist that we get in touch with our soul’s purpose, and from here, we can rediscover a profound power. It is our battles with our ego and willfulness that most often make them difficult for us. They promise new levels of intimacy, not only with others but also with ourselves if we are willing to do the work. Birth is a messy process, it is beyond our control. Imagine a woman trying to control the timing and force of her contractions, she can’t, it is surrendering to the process that helps. For the child in the birth canal, there is intense pressure then release repeatedly throughout the process. For both of them, something larger, something primal is guiding the process. This is often how a Pluto transit feels.
I reiterate that how we traverse the territory is up to us. I jokingly say when I am doing a reading that there are basically two ways to do transits: we can lean in, trusting that this is part of our greater evolution, or we can be dragged into the future like a screaming toddler. For what it's worth, I learned this the hard way about 21 years ago. I highly recommend leaning in wholeheartedly, which is, of course, a fierce spiritual practice.
Anyone who has any placement in early Aquarius, Taurus, Leo or Scorpio up to about 5° will feel this most intensely over the next three years. My Sun lies at 4° Aquarius and I can easily testify I have been moving through this since 2023. The transit feels the strongest as it is approaching the placement as it is building in strength. It is when it is separating that we begin to fully integrate the experience.
Aquarius is the sign most associated with humanity and community. The words commit and community both come from the Latin com; "unite, connect, combine; bring together," but where the word community is truly about at its root, what we have in common, commit adds mittere "to release, let go; send, throw.” Mission is the word that is etymologically most associated with it. Contemplating this, I had the realization that from a chart perspective, committing to a fierce spiritual practice is to unite with the entire purpose of our incarnation. But even more importantly also recognize that no matter how alone we may feel, we are never truly alone, because everything and everyone, including us, are connected. As Rumi said, “We are all just walking each other home.”
