Mundane astrologers take charts like this one, of the birth of the U.S., and make predictions about it. They use various techniques – transits, the daily motion of the planets; progressions, where the natal sun is brought forward in time; and solar returns, where the sun is returned to where it was at birth. I’m not a mundane astrologer. However, if this chart belonged to one of my clients – who would have to be really old! – I would be alarmed.
Here’s why. First, over there on the right side of the inner chart, see all those planets and points in Cancer? (69)
Cancer is a nurturing sign, mother earth, her arms are thrown open and she’s welcoming all who come here.
All? What’s that mean?
Well, look at the sign on her ascendant – – the arrow to the left of that horizontal line that cuts through the middle of the circle. That arrow represents the sign of Sagittarius – foreign people, cultures, philosophies, worldviews. In other words, those planets in the sign of Cancer welcome immigrants.
When Pluto entered Capricorn in late November 2008, I shuddered. Pluto – that odd trident with a circle in the middle of it in the 2nd house) a powerhouse that exposes the dark underbelly of what’s hidden, the power structure, the underworld, death and sex and taxes – sounds like Woody Allen, right? And Capricorn is about ambition, power. We had a financial meltdown and housing crisis and the way the government solved it was by bailing out the banks – not the people.
In the outer circle, you can see transiting Pluto at 17 degrees Capricorn in the 2nd house, and the natal Pluto in the inner circle at 27 degrees Capricorn in the same house. The U.S. chart is going to experience its first Pluto return, which happens every 244 years.
For the U.S. natal chart, that means that between the years of 2020 and 2022, things in this fragile experiment called democracy are going to be really dicey. This Pluto return isn’t necessarily an aspect of war, but it certainly challenges the existing authority of government, how it’s structured, what it hides, its power machine, its power figures, and what it means to be a democracy.
The conjunction is exact in early February 2022, two years into the next presidency of whoever succeeds trump. But because Pluto moves so slowly, we’re already experiencing some of the effects. The dark underbelly of power is being exposed in sex scandals, in a president who is incapable of telling the truth, tweets his policies in the dark of night, and attacks everyone who criticizes him. We see how the internet and social media are empowering the people. As one MSNBC commentator said recently, “Thanks to social media, we the people don’t have to wait for congress to act. The #metoo hashtag powered a movement.”
It’s as if the people, the masses, are now challenging the authority and claiming the daily headlines. It’s tougher to pull off shadowy moves when you’re monitored 24/7. Take the tax bill the house just approved- and yes, taxes fall under Pluto’s jurisdiction – supposedly for the middle class. Despite the spin about how wonderful this is for the middle class, people who make between $10,000-75,000 are the ones who are hit. They lose most of their deductions to the one percent, to the corporations, the uber wealthy. Trump himself will save millions.
That said, the voices of the people may be silenced when the FCC votes in mid-December on overturning net neutrality. There’s nothing good in this repeal for the people. As NBC news put it:
“Try this scenario on for size: You wake up, reach for your phone, and head to your favorite news site to check the headlines. But instead of the latest news, you see a message from your cell phone carrier: “This site is not available. Please upgrade to our deluxe package to access it.”
“Since you’re broke and can’t upgrade your plan, you head to social media to find out what’s going on in the world. On this platform, however, your feed takes forever to load because your carrier doesn’t have a special “Fast Lane” deal with your preferred app. Growing frustrated, you try to search for alternatives to your phone company online, only to be met with a “This site has been blocked,” pop-up in your browser.”
This move is right in line with the approaching Pluto return in the U.S. natal chart. An attempt by the powers that be to silence all those irritating dissenters.
So even though I see these next years in either/or, black/white contrasts, there’s some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel. I think we’ll emerge from this as a stronger country, with a clearer sense of who we are as a collective and as individuals within that collective. In March 2023, Pluto enters Aquarius, the sign of the rebel, visionary, of the collective called humanity, the one who thinks so far outside the box that I believe this is probably the true beginning of the age of Aquarius.
Thousand years of peace, promises a spiritual text.
Well, we’ll see. I’ll be well into my 70s by then. Our daughter will be 34. The future will lie in the hands of her generation, the millennials, whose first voting experience brought Obama into the white house.
Thanks for the heads up. I am so upset over the net neutrality issue. We just can’t catch a break with this moron.
I know. Net neutrality, health care, threats of nuclear war…
Optimistically, we can say that our US natal Sun already survived transit Pluto opposing it. Yay for us! I see the belt-cinching hitting soon when t Saturn moves into Capricorn and more government control, a commander-in-chief who is too carried away with that role. A Pluto return is unfathomable. As a Taurus, I always have my heels dug in–hey, not so fast in the change department–but I’ve been very glad for Pluto in Capricorn. O Earth, lovely Earth. I worry that Pluto in Aquarius will be the colossal breakup, breakdown, flee to space colonies if you have the big bucks. As always, the show is totally engaging. Thanks for the thoughts.
Good to see you! Pluto opposing the sun…to me that isn’t nearly the game changer of a Pluto return. I’ve got a Capricorn moon, husband and daughter are both earths signs with earth moons. No problem. But a Pluto return of the U.S. chart….that concerns me. Deeply. Given all that Pluto represents – in astrology, in mythology, in that bigger picture – and given that the U.S democracy has always been an experiment….here come the profound, irrevocable changes. So what will the choices be? No telling. But some possibilities: dictatorship and a complete disintegration of democracy; a revolution that leads to something greater than what we’ve known; a paradigm shift so huge and obvious it can’t be ignored by anyone. None of us alive now have ever experienced a Pluto return. Big unknown. But perhaps, collectively, as a race, a collective consciousness, this is the earthquake and tsunami we need to make that quantum leap.
I fear you are right. All empires fall, and new ones arise. At this time of year, I’m hyper-aware of our misdirected materialism and corporate greed. If evolution is always working toward a superior manifestation for continuation of life, exhaustion of resources may necessitate tearing down dictatorship and democracy with it, before a new alignment. Painful to this sentient being.
To C.J., I’d say there is nothing we can do to change the basic blueprint, and yet we are all morally called to play our part, that what actually coalesces could be a thousand years of peace, as Trish and Ron suggest. I’d like to think we bear the responsibility and opportunity to co-create what comes.
Thanks for the discussion. Wish y’all lived in Eugene, Oregon for an extended in-person conversation! You’ll move, right!?
Thanks for your insights, Elizabeth! Eugene…oh, you lucky person!
While I find all these insights to be of great value and accept them as truths, my question is, how can we as a vast community of Americans change the blueprint? I don’t expect to be in this dimension in 2020, (it’s iffy), but my children and grandchildren will be unless some kind of massive catastrophic event occurs to decimate millions. What I am seeing now certainly isn’t working toward positive change; instead, all the riots and protests and killings everywhere are amplifying the existing situations with overwhelming negativity. My natal Sun is Capricorn, and my Rising Sign and my Moon are Cancer. If still here, I will personally be deeply affected by all of it, and am already feeling the shifts. I am making a very deliberate choice to not live immersed in a cloak of darkness. However, I have faith in the old adage that there is almost always darkness before the Light, and am holding that as my mantra.
Just as an interesting tidbit of history, Nancy Reagan’s sister Joan was a professional astrologer, and Nancy as well as President Reagan scheduled EVERY aspect of their lives guided by applicable astrological data. They held firm convictions in the validity of this science, and governed their lives accordingly. Regardless of the politics involved in his presidency, this fact is uplifting for me. Astrology is a mathematical science, and as such provides a wealth of information we might not otherwise be able to access. Thank you, Trish and Rob, for this post.