Pluto in Capricorn

Pluto recently changed signs again, and such an event can sometimes be dramatic—as it was in 1914 and 1939Pluto recently changed signs again, and such an event can sometimes be dramatic—as it was in 1914 and 1939. We know that the movement of celestial bodies are rhythmic; they circle the sun smoothly and always return on time, therefore to guess at the future we need to look at the past with rhythm in mind. It takes about 246 years for Pluto to complete its orbit around the Sun and re-enter any particular sign of the zodiac, so to study what happens when it does requires us to look at the history books and sift through for clues.

It seems that issues have arisen that touch upon what people can and cannot do—played out by the powerful authorities that influence the march of history. Some of the events have been quite pivotal in the development of religions; others have had great impact upon political matters and marked the rise and fall of a few impressive empires; a few were indications of shifts of attitude. In different ways these were all expressions of the reformation of the fabric of social structure—the underlying issue of how to develop civilization.

Always there was something to make a profound impression on history during Pluto in Capricorn. In every case there has been a major development of awareness experienced by humanity, as vast tidal waves rippled across time—waves of social change as transformative and enduring as Buddhism, Christianity, discovery, schisms, wars and empires. These seminal events are examples of what has occurred:

Confucianism begins in China
Buddhism enters China
Rome begins its dominance
Rome takes Britain
Christian Mission of St Paul begins
Goths take Rome
Marco Polo enters China
Luther seeds Protestantism
Cook arrives in New Zealand and Australia

Looking back one Pluto cycle to see what happened last time, we notice that the seed was planted for the birth of an empire. The Boston Tea Party was the refusal of Americans to pay British taxes, their will to independence, and the beginning of a power that dominates today's world.

The hard events that are written down are simply clues pointing to underlying streams of humanity's ideas, expectations and destiny—which find their way into our books according to the selective processes of commentators, who have no way to put them into context. For example, we can learn about the fact that during the 1340's the population of Europe was devastated by plague—an event whose implications are resonating strongly 600 years later because it killed off so many small villages that vast migrations towards cities began, and the stage was set for the Industrial Revolution—leading inexorably towards climate change—because a city-based population tends strongly towards machinery and away from relationship with land.

This was truly a Capricornian expression, yet more like Neptune in its insidious hidden eating-away process, and indeed Neptune was in Capricorn then—and subsequently during England's 1664 plague and again for the Aids scare of 1984. Also an earlier plague in 542 AD that eventually killed off 50% of Europe's people was said to be the cause of the migration of the Goths who fled the rats and went on to take Rome in 546. And on the same theme, the pied piper of Hamelin was another story of rats and big societal changes, based in 1284 when Pluto was in Capricorn. Is it too fanciful to suggest that rats are the antithesis of government, representing the absence of good order? Failure to clean up the mess we make is surely as much to do with rats as it is to do with climate change.

The challenges that we could expect to come up during the intensely saturnine years of a Pluto Capricorn transit are those things that hold in place our sense of security on a society level—our social security. We include government, banks, laws, institutions, corporations, and structures of all kinds, including religion and even morality. Some of these will have to go through watershed-level shifts. What is essentially unhelpful has to wither and fade.

I think it would be naïve for us to trust in the system—it's dying! Some realistic possibilities include: USA loses superpower status, a bad loser; China becomes a major economic power; Political reorientations; Climate change polarizes countries into different alliances; Insurance industry rocked by cost of natural disasters; Religious crises; Islam asserts itself, fearing the loss of oil-based influence; Mass migrations because of climate change; Rats proliferate; Widespread disease; Poverty and starvation in the West; Medical services under great strain; Pensions inadequate, the old suffer; Breakdown of law and order.

However, it is for us to find a way to express our need for structure and yet find ways to keep it clean—in other words light and honest. That is the challenge of our time. It cannot be ignored or postponed; within the next 20 years we will have had to come up with new ways to govern ourselves, and probably to clean up our religious practices too. Unfortunately however, since we can't reasonably expect the powers-that-be to roll over and accept it all, there may be a tussle—the normal tight grip of those in power will become stronger as they feel the challenges come.

We have to build new structures of governance as the old ones collapse; we have to replace other institutions that have failed too—insurance, pensions, religions, banks, schools—anything that governs us and yet currently lacks human decency. There may be a great deal of discomfort and inconvenience for most of us, some more than others, so we have to find forbearance, tolerance and a profound degree of dignity and respect for others during the troubled times ahead.

Research info from Palden Jenkins

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