A word about saying goodbye to Pluto in Capricorn
Pluto in Capricorn ( from 2009- to 3/23/2023) has been busy rigging the system, consolidating and concentrating its power through fundamental bureaucracies that support patriarchal capitalism. Pluto in Capricorn oversaw the 2009 Wall Street Bail Out due to the 2008 Wall Street Crash. In 2008, Wall Street power players in finance, earning millions, had set in motion a stock market crash that wiped out more than $2 trillion of Americans’ retirement savings. As the stock market crashed foreclosures and unemployment rose America faced the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929.
Subprime mortgage lenders like Countrywide and Lehman Brothers caused the 2008 Wall Street crash. They sold millions of mortgages to homebuyers with poor credit and offered them “special rates” pushing unqualified people to buy homes they could not afford. Then they packaged the mortgages and passed on the toxic debt by the billions in the form of bonds. This irresponsibility happened when Pluto was in Sagittarius but reigning in and stabilizing the economy happened when Pluto entered practical Capricorn. The economy did not recover until 2013.
The American taxpayer bailed out Wall Street to the tune of $29 trillion. No major Wall Street executive went to jail for destroying the economy. Banks and other financial institutions including the very banks that caused the crash received bailout loans. The bailout loans were granted at interest rates far below the market rate. Meanwhile, an estimated 10 million Americans lost their homes to the Wall Street subprime crash.
So, Pluto in reckless and opportunistic Sagittarius let real estate companies and bankers hype subprime mortgages to unsuspecting homeowners and crashed Wall Street. Then Pluto in Capricorn had to put the economy back together and chose to feed trillions of taxpayer dollars to the very institutions that had caused the crisis. The bail-out allowed Wall Street to walk away with the minor sting of having to pay some fines, a few modest and watered-down financial regulations were instituted and no one of any importance went to jail.
Every time Wall Street and its newly minted billionaire class are asked to pay more taxes the financial world spin doctors insist that the economy will suffer if we anger the financial “gods”. Major multinational corporations, billionaires, and millionaires pay little or no taxes. Huge companies keep gobbling up their competitors. A handful of companies own all the grocery chains. Fossil fuels companies since the 70s have been engaged in disinformation campaigns to confuse and lie to the public about their enormous contributing role in climate change and many countries are still subsidies the industry knowing that they are destroying the habitability of the planet. Income inequality is getting worse and the federal minimum wage in America hasn’t been raised since 2009 it remains at $7.25 and there is no state where an individual can pay rent when working for minimum wage. Many workers need more than one job to survive.
Since the 2020 Covid -19 pandemic the world has been experiencing supply chain difficulties because most companies have been using JIT (just-in-time) shipping. To save money companies have very little stock on hand and the pandemic has made it difficult to get products and consumers have been frustrated by product shortages. Companies have used many excuses to justify raising prices such as; blaming the pandemic, product shortages, and wage hikes. Across the world, inflation has hit consumers’ wallets. The real reason behind raising prices is the unchecked power of corporations. Former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich believes that inflation is caused by, “the economic concentration of the American economy in the hands of a relative few corporate giants with the power to raise prices”. Across the world, people are experiencing hard times. Climate change events have accelerated with melting glaciers, heat waves, fires, floods, and famine. Not one single industrialized country has been able to meet its 2018 UN Paris Agreement commitments. Scientists are warning that at this rate we fall dangerously short of keeping the 1.5 Celsius pledge. If the world does not restrict global warming the earth will soon be inhabitable.
On March 20, 2023, while Pluto was in the very last degree of Capricorn, (the 29th degree of any zodiac sign is an Anaretic degree and considered to be “fated” and destructive), the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report was released. The report was an 8-year-long undertaking with assessments from the world’s most authoritative scientific body on climate change. The 8,000-page report offers a grim analysis, detailing the devastating consequences of rising greenhouse admissions around the world. I have included a summary of the 10 most significant findings from the 2023 IPCC report at the end of this page.
From an Astrological perspective, the fact that this report was released while Pluto was in the Anaretic degree of earthy and ambitious Capricorn, a sign that represents traditional foundations of organizations, governments, and economies signals that these institutions are weak, tired, there is a sense of urgency and crisis looming. The Anaretic degree often indicates that “it is too late.” The report is a desperate attempt by climate scientists to warn governments to take action on climate change before it’s too late. Unfortunately, the media barely covered the report.
Recently, the Biden administration after promising to be climate-conscious decided to allow the Willow Project to drill for oil in Alaska. The project would add 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon to our atmosphere per year.
if you read the report, scientists warn that we can no longer keep pumping carbon into our atmosphere and are running out of time.
Tomorrow we will explore Pluto entering briefly into Aquarius.
P.S.
Pluto will Station to Retrograde on May 1, 2023, and reenter Capricorn on June 11, 2023. Pluto will Station to Direct on October 11, 2023, and will reenter Aquarius on January 20, 2024. Pluto will have one last encounter with Capricorn starting on September 1, 2024, and then finally on November 19, 2024, will re-enter Aquarius. Pluto will transit in Aquarius for twenty years.