to ash and resurrecting, a snake shedding its skin, and a caterpillar morphing into a butterfly. Pluto can also represent tremendous power and/or wealth.
Capricorn is the sign of existing institutions and structures, including big business, governments and established religions. It's inherently conservative, tradi-
tional and resistant to change. Its shadow side can be cold, dictatorial, and ruthless, believing that the ends justify the means. Its more evolved qualities include integrity,commitment, and perseverance, as well as being the "wise elder."
Some historical perspective |
is also helpful. Pluto orbits
the sun about every 250 years, so a quarter of a millennium elapses between its passes through Capricorn.
The last time it was there was from 1762 to 1778, during the American Revolution. The time before that, 1516-1533, Martin Luther's Protestant revolt created a religious and political crisis for Emperor Charles V and the Catholic Church. No matter how far back we go in recorded history, Pluto in Capricorn periods correspond with revolutionary changes to the existing world order.
This will also be true for us. The powers that be, however, never go down without a fight. Pluto and Capricorn do have some things in common - they both love being in control, for example - and so we can expect more of the "Big Brother" style surveillance |
and invasion of privacy that are already spreading through the United States and other countries such as Great Britain. (Saturn can also bring fear - of terrorism and other real and imagined threats - to justify government's systematic erosion of our fundamental civil liberties.) Government will seem to believe that, in order for freedom to be kept safe, it must be locked away.
The forces of authoritarianism and ever-increasing government control are likely to gain power through about May of 2010. On May 27 of that year, however, Uranus brings the planetary energy of revolution and paradigm shift out of its seven-year stint in Pisces (dreaming, visualizing and imagining) and into Aries (the leader or warrior taking impulsive action). At that point, we may well experience the start of something |
resembling another American Revolution in order to set our ship of state on a more enlightened course.
This idea is also supported by the fact that Uranus is aspecting three planets in the United States' natal chart around that time (Pluto, the moon and Mercury), and conjuncting the nadir! (I'm using the Sibley chart for the U.S.) The U.S. is also about to undergo the most powerful Pluto transits it has experienced since the 20's and 30's: between now and 2015, Pluto will oppose the United States' Venus, Jupiter and Sun. Venus and Jupiter rule the U.S. midheaven and ascendant - powerful and public points - and the Sun is the core of identity and vitality. |
