A brief look at Pluto

Pluto in the natal chart shows us the trail that leads to the release of past conditioning, at both ancestral and soul levels. Its position in the birth chart shows where we are stuck, reliving ideas, feelings, actions, and experiences that belong to an old self. At first, when we are very young, we do not realize what is happening… Without knowing it, our reactions arise from archetypal behaviors strongly linked to the astrological house where Pluto is located. Like a chrysalis that still surrounds us… the memory of “past lives” makes us follow parameters that are not really part of our present. And Pluto somehow acts as a bridge between the two worlds.

For me, the example of the caterpillar and the butterfly perfectly exemplify Pluto. The caterpillar does not disappear, it simply transforms inside the chrysalis. Although the forms change, the butterfly is still the caterpillar… although now it has wings and a new potential. With its transformed body, the butterfly is able to see the world of the caterpillar from a new perspective… a perimeter that, although it has been full of challenges and adventures, is smaller than the world that opens before her. In the birth chart, Pluto shows that although we are already a butterfly, we still somehow believe we are the caterpillar. Thus, we have not yet realized our present potential.

Of course, spreading our wings is not easy, since we do not know that we have them! Pluto pushes us to jump and fly… and that activates an alarm within us that awakens the survival instinct, which leads us to cling to what we know with all our might.

We can also see Pluto as the collector of the etheric garbage (or the chrysalis) that does not allow us to recognize our current state and that, for some reason, still surrounds us. Pluto is collecting what is no longer useful and taking it away. It is our attachment to what was and our desire not to lose it that creates the Plutonian crises.

Pluto’s transits are also activating these memories of the past and in my opinion, they assist the natal position of Pluto. However, transits activate other aspects of our reality, side by side with the Plutonian signature of birth. Although Pluto’s transits can be intense, they are also parallel to our initiation path, and for this reason, the elimination process is experienced in a more conscious way. It is easy to believe that Pluto’s natal position shows a personal trait and not a process of regeneration. Transits help us distinguish Plutonian energy, and by paying attention to our reactions during these transits, we can begin to recognize our natal Pluto.

Pluto Retrogradation during 2023/2024

Pluto’s retrograde movement between Capricorn and Aquarius is undoubtedly a preparation for the next 20 years. We could say that this retrogradation is creating two very clear energy currents: those who seek to maintain the status quo and those who don’t. The retrogradation brings with it the potential for peaceful integration, where old social structures are renewed to give way to a new vision. But there is also the possibility of establishing rules that seek to maintain what is known and the consequent clash with those who seek progress.

On a personal level, Pluto’s retrograde motion will show to what extent we seek to “do our duty” or “do what we really want”. With “duty” I mean the submission to external authority rather than our own… keeping ourselves in an infant mode, without trusting our own sense of agency. We may feel that being different and independent turns us into outcasts and this terrifies us. As a consequence, we could unite with those who are like-minded, forming a collective that makes us feel “safer”. This may become an intransigent bloc…something that is, in a way, a replica of what we seek to eliminate, even though we are now living on our own terms. The Plutonian potential is to discover and embody our inner authority and begin to think for ourselves…and give space to others to do the same.

PLUTO IN AQUARIUS – DATES

This video can give you a guide to navigating the astrological energies of 2023.

Pluto’s Transit in Aquarius Through the 2nd House

Considering that the last time we had Pluto in Aquarius was in 1777, we have little information about the personal consequences of this transit. However, Thomas Moore, the Irish writer, poet, and lyricist born in 1779, with his natal Pluto in the 2nd House, can show us a Pluto in Aquarius through his words

The 2nd House is traditionally the house of money. But, in reality, we associate it with money because money allows us to buy food, clothes, services,… and everything we need to survive. So… there must be a more “organic” explanation of the 2nd House… which is closely linked with the energy of Taurus. For example… what does the 2nd House symbolize for my cat? In her case, the ability to hunt her own food is a typical 2nd House characteristic. Or her meow to tell me that she’s hungry.

So, in the 2nd House, we see what resources we have at our disposal to provide us with what we need to live. The sign found on the cusp of the 2nd House indicates the way, the style in which we face this primordial aspect of our existence. The planets represent different expressions of our essential geometry.

Pluto’s transit confronts us with what we need to take a deeper look at… what we’ve avoided seeing until now. When Pluto is in Aquarius, it comes to free us from social conditioning that keeps us trapped within a cultural structure (status quo) that does not allow us to do something different, unique, new. This combination in the 2nd House leads us to investigate the origin of any insecurity we have about our abilities to be self-sufficient using personal genius.

When we interpret the transits of Pluto, it is very important to take into account the natal position, since the transits actually assist the evolutionary path described by natal Pluto. As I just mentioned, the transit through the 2nd House awakens the insecurities we feel regarding our ability to supply ourselves with the essentials for subsistence. Pluto comes to clear up those insecurities and once we do, we do a step forward on the evolutionary path indicated by the natal position.

But of course… Pluto, as the god of the Underworld, can take us to landscapes of our subconscious that we don’t even want to look at! Instead of freeing ourselves from social conditioning, we cling more to it! This is how the transit of Pluto in Aquarius can lead us to join groups -and by “groups” I mean what makes us feel part of a community (including friends)- that limits our individual freedom for the well-being of the group. In this way, we avoid feeling the fear that any type of social marginalization causes us. In the 2nd House, the insecurity we may feel intensifies every time we use our personal resources in an unconventional way. And yet… it is exactly in those moments that Pluto in Aquarius opens the door to the basements of the subconscious so that we can ask ourselves… “where does this fear come from?”.

In any case, Pluto in the 2nd House, both natal and by transit, arouses the deepest fears related to the possibility of being able to supply ourselves with what we need to live. There may be ancestral memories of famine, poverty or not being up to the task. These are memories that are stored in our DNA and even in the memories of the soul. The evolutionary work is to be reborn in a new reality… free of past conditioning.

If the 2nd house cusp is in Capricorn, Pluto has long been in our 2nd house. In Capricorn, Pluto has confronted us with our (lack of) internal authority. We have had to investigate how social values have influenced the use of our potentialities and we have had to learn to follow our own rules in order to feel some kind of personal power. This evolutionary work will continue until November 2024. However, Pluto’s entry into Aquarius in March 2023 can give us a hand! We will feel a great desire to free ourselves from those structures that limit our potential and we will have 23 more months to continue creating an internal base on which to build our material reality according to our own objectives.

If the 2nd House cusp is in Aquarius, Pluto in Aquarius revolutionizes the way we use our internal and external resources. Now more than ever we are going to feel an imperious desire to exercise our personal freedom and our focus is intensely directed toward material independence. Pluto will bring to the surface the insecurities that do not allow us to be ourselves when it comes to self-sufficiency… and external “actors” could appear to make us face our deepest fears. Pluto-related crises, while they can be felt intensely, arise so that we can access our ancestral memories and the subconscious behaviors that control our daily lives. This requires the certainty that, whatever happens, we are going through a transformation whose goal is the regeneration of our individual freedom.

It may interest you: Pluto in the 2nd House – Natal and Transit

Pluto’s Transit in Aquarius Through the 2nd House – WATCH IN VIDEO