Pluto Revisits Capricorn ~ Updated
September 1 the lord of the underworld, Pluto retrograded back into Capricorn for one last hurrah. Pluto entered Capricorn way back in 2008 and will move into Aquarius on November 19, 2024, and remain in that sign for the next 20 years.
In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IUA) demoted the ninth planet from the Sun. Pluto now is classified as a Dwarf planet. Planets are defined as celestial objects large enough to have been made rounded by their gravitational orbit and their orbital dominance clears the space surrounding the planet’s orbit. Pluto is not large enough to exert its orbital dominance and is one of five dwarf planets in our Solar System. It takes Pluto 248 years to complete one full cycle around the Sun
For the purpose of astrology, Pluto is very much considered a planet and can exert a powerful influence in our collective experience and is often a profound teacher in natal and progressed charts.
Pluto provides transformational experiences at the deepest levels of consciousness. Intense, and destructive, Pluto destroys outdated decayed, and corrupted governments, institutions, and relationships, and as a Phoenix rises from the ashes to be reborn.
Pluto offers opportunities for growth through brutal honesty, reaching inside our psyche and shedding light on our inner demons, exposing our weaknesses, and uncovering our strengths. Pluto cleanses and eliminates allowing renewal, and new beginnings.
The negative aspects of Pluto often play out in the collective as power struggles, the rise of tyrannical and authoritarian governments, wars, pandemics, and the fall of long-standing empires.
Pluto in Capricorn
You might remember that Pluto in Capricorn (2008 to 11/19/2024) 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 70’s 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.
During the 2020 Covid -19 shut down the world experienced supply chain difficulties because most companies had been using JIT (“just in time”) shipping. To save money companies have very little stock on hand and the pandemic made it difficult to get products and consumers were 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”.
A report by the United States Congress states that “the top four grocery chains control 72% of sales in metropolitan areas” and this consolidation of food systems drives prices up. Currently, grocery chain Koger is seeking to merge with Albertson in what would be the largest supermarket merger in US history. During litigation, it was revealed that Koger hiked the price of eggs and milk price gouging consumers.
During Pluto’s stay in Capricorn, our planet has been experiencing dramatic Climate change events. We have seen 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 warn that we are now headed for a temperature rise of up to 2.6C and the world needs to take immediate actions to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
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 biggest 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 was 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.
Now once again we are at the Anaretic degree and some scientists are saying that they believe it’s too late to save humanity from a climate apocalypse.
American Democracy in Crisis
America is currently experiencing its Pluto return. When the American colonists declared independence from England, Pluto was retrograde in Capricorn at 27 degrees. The current transiting Pluto will not retrograde back for an exact conjunction, but it will be at the Anaretic degree and close enough to cause major problems for the upcoming national election on November 5th. I will post more about the election once we get closer to the date.
Saying goodbye to Pluto in Capricorn
A lot happened while Pluto was transiting in Capricorn (2008 -2024) a huge financial crisis, the Covid pandemic, the acceleration of climate change, the rise of the billionaire/Oligarchy class, the gig economy, and the cult of MAGA/ INCEL. If you were affected adversely by Pluto’s transit through Capricorn, especially if you have planets or angles in the late degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, or Capricorn, spend the next two and half months reviewing and releasing the past. Decide now what you want to keep and what you need to discard. Try not to be dragged into past power struggles, and use this time to make sure that what you have built can withstand being tested by new challenges.
Be well in Peace with Earth & Sky, ~ Maire
Sources
Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street. Barofsky, Neil
Global Shortages During Coronavirus Reveal Failings of Just-in-Time Manufacturing
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/11/us-inflation-market-power-america-antitrust-robert-reich
https://docs.house.gov/meetings/JU/JU05/20220119/114345/HHRG-117-JU05-20220119-SD006.pdf
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/03/26/high-food-prices-consolidation/