Pluto in Aquarius: Strange Flows Beyond Man
Chris Gabriel March 5, 2024
On January 20th, 2023 Pluto entered Aquarius. After 15 years in Capricorn, 15 years of economic chaos and upheaval, we now must brave a transformation in the realm of knowledge. As we enter the new days of this era, let us look at some of the symbols at play.
Pluto- The Headless God
First, let us look at Pluto, or Hades to the Greeks. He is the God of death and the Underworld, the chthonic masculine. His symbol is the bident, a two pronged fork with a circle. I read it as an Acéphale, a headless figure. The head is the conscious ego, and the body is the unconscious. In many ways decapitation is a perfect reading of Pluto’s effect in astrology, the violent introduction of the irrational base drives. The Headless Man is operating solely on his lowest drives. The consciousness that mankind reveres is undone by our true nature. Consider the denial of Pluto the planet as a mirror to the rejection of the Freudian Unconscious. Pluto undoes our seemingly perfect, rational structures and systems with a swift coup de grâce.
Capricorn- The Evil Clown
When Pluto entered Capricorn in late 2008, we saw the Global Financial Crisis kick into gear. Capricorn as the sign of material development and gain was decapitated by Plutonic reality, the scapegoat sacrificed to Hades. This led to 15 years of scams, new schemes for making money online, and a culture obsessed with the “hustle” and the “grind”. In my personal symbology, I came to view Capricorn as an “Evil Clown”, for Capricorn is the Devil, the odd goat. In the zodiacal journey we see the motley, rainbow color of Sagittarius become bloodstained in Capricorn, just like Joseph’s coat of many colors gets covered in goat blood. It is unsurprising then that our cultural fascination with evil clowns like Pennywise and Terrifier were renewed in this time, culminating in people seeing them walking about in 2016. These motifs will gradually pass away as a new era begins and gives way to something even stranger.
Aquarius- The Space Alien
Aquarius is the sign of Science, both social and physical. A sign of the collective and the individual. The last time Pluto was in Aquarius, humanity was engaged in the American and French Revolutions. Pluto brings with it transformations of the social. This sign is that which is “far out”. Aquarius represents distance, both physical and emotional. It is both the impersonal, and the absolute personal. When compared with its opposite sign Leo and its extroversion we see Aquarius is introverted. Energies devoted within oneself come to reach the outside. Aquarius contains duality, it flows both ways through the direction of imagination. Like The Beatles song, it is within you and without you.
“Technology will advance radically and social movements will become Aquarian: stranger and stranger. The very nature of individual existence will be transformed.”
In the old days, mystics symbolized Aquarius with an angel. The modern form of this symbol is the alien. The alien phenomenon emerged as the Aeon of Aquarius began and will really kick into high gear over the next 20 years, setting the stage for the next 2000 years. What began as lights in the sky and little green men will become something far more impactful.
Technology will advance radically and social movements will become Aquarian: stranger and stranger. The very nature of individual existence will be transformed. We have grown increasingly alienated as technology has overtaken our lives. I see two distinctly Aquarian reactions developing, one is the Angelic New Age vision of world peace, communal living, universal love. The other is the Alien Transhumanist vision of overcoming biological limitations through technology, virtual reality, and interplanetary travel.
How will our biology grapple with a rapidly changing environment? With the introduction of nonbiological “thinking machines” into our day to day lives? Pluto in Capricorn brought about a stock market crash, Pluto in Aquarius will bring about a total redefining of our relationship with technology, a computer crash. When we restart it, what will have been saved and what will have been lost?
The Aeon- A Little Time
The Aeon corresponds to Pluto. While the card generally refers to the 24,000 year aeonic cycle with its 2000 year months, we can certainly see a microcosmic form in Plutonic eras (10 to 30 years). Massive cultural shifts, advancements and breakthroughs arise on the slow path of Pluto.
The beginning of the Aeon of Aquarius is disputed, but in my estimation it began around 2000 (Y2K), and it will last until 4000. This Aeon will bring about immense technological development and a drastic shift in our understanding of being human. It is very fitting then that we enter the little age of Aquarius on Pluto just as the Great one is getting going. Our actions now will have profound reverberations in the Aeon.
Therefore, let us go farther and farther out from the bounds of tradition, so that we can reach outside, and inside, without fear of what may look back.
