In the final part of my Pluto through the Social Signs series, we will cover some miscellaneous themes connected to Pluto in Aquarius but also touch upon Neptune in Aries, Uranus in Gemini, and Saturn in Pisces. Finally, I will be doing some theoretical wrap-up where I will briefly revisit the guiding principles formulated in part 1.
As you may have noticed by now, I like to use example charts of people to demonstrate how the archetype under discussion can express itself. When doing so, I don’t focus very much on Sun signs or Moon signs, because these placements in themselves will tell us very little about what the primary focus of the individual is. Both the Sun and the Moon relate to the interface created by the south node and north node of the Moon: it is there that you find the primary thrust of the given life which both Sun and Moon will express themselves through. It is when you realize this that you are really beginning to think like an evolutionary astrologer.
Of course, you don’t have to agree with me on this, but I challenge you to investigate it for yourself! Of the five individual charts I brought up in the last post - Marilyn Manson, Vladimir Lenin, Albert Einstein, Olympe de Gouges, and Jeremy Bentham - all had a Lunar node in Aquarius and/or conjunct Uranus. These were some of the most Aquarian individuals I could think of and with the exception of Lenin and Einstein I didn’t even know beforehand what their placements were. But among the five, there was only one Aquarius Moon (Lenin) and one Aquarius Sun (Bentham). Manson, for instance, had his Sun in Capricorn which I could not have guessed - but I wasn’t surprised by the close conjunction between Uranus and his South Node.
For one more example, I decided to look up the chart of Peter Singer, the animal rights philosopher who has been considered by some as a modern heir to Bentham. As I suspected, he has an Aquarius emphasis on his North Node: it is closely conjunct Uranus and, if his birth time is correct, in the eleventh house. Next, if I were to do a full chart analysis of Singer, I would look at the Moon and Sun in relation to the nodal axis (having first covered Pluto).
Pluto in Aquarius: Miscellaneous Themes
I will now list what I think will be some of the more dominant themes during the Pluto in Aquarius era.
Climate Action and Electrification
Due to the dangers of climate change, world leaders, politicians, and businessmen are increasingly trying to step up their game to make more and more radical pledges to curb emissions. One of the primary methods of doing so is through electrification (Aquarius) of transportation and of industrial processes which have so far relied on fossil fuels for energy. The United States and the EU have both set goals for carbon neutrality no later than 2050, which means that the entire Pluto in Aquarius era (2023-2045) is going to have to be the age of radical climate action where countries and communities try to adapt to a carbon-neutral way of life. Interestingly, countries and regions that are a little bit more ambitious - California, Germany, Sweden, Austria - have pledged carbon neutrality by 2045 or earlier, thus marking Pluto in Aquarius as the era when the entire transition has to happen.
The shift towards a sustainable, green society will not be without its hazzles. Who will get access to clean energy? Who will be able to afford an electric car? Some scientists are also rather pessimistic that solar panels and electric vehicles will be enough to save us. Much more radical lifestyle changes will probably be necessary, but which politician wants to tell their voters to cut down on beef?
What I find interesting here is that the climate goals for 2045-2050 have been formulated almost as if politicians had the Pluto in Aquarius transit in mind. In the case of Sweden, not only is there a goal to reach net zero emissions by 2045 but also to double electricity generation by that same year. Apparently, you don’t have to be a psychic astrologer to be able to sense, on some level, that this is the year when the green transition needs to be finished.
With any luck, Pluto in Aquarius will see a number of technological breakthroughs that will aid the transition. As Aquarius needs its Leo polarity, I am going to cross my fingers and hope for a breakthrough in fusion power technology (fusion being the power source of the Sun). Uranus entering Leo in 2039 may also help in this regard.
Some more of the locust pie, dear?
If Leo is the archetype of fine dining, luxurious food and good wine, Pluto in Aquarius may well see the breakthrough of various kinds of insect-based foods and diets. Not only are insects decidedly not food that is fit for a king (Leo), they are also animals that swarm, entirely insignificant on their own, gaining strength through numbers - Aquarius. As it happens, they are also eco-friendly compared to the aforementioned beef.
Several types of insects have now been approved for human consumption in the EU and more are sure to follow. Not to worry, EU representatives have said, all insect foods will be clearly marked as such. No one will be eating house crickets against their will. Some conservative politicians still went haywire:
“Thank goodness we left the EU,” Farage must be thinking. Let them eat bugs!
Distant Elites
Restating my view of Pluto as representing the deep status quo, it is not hard to see - albeit a bit anecdotal - that the deep status quo of the last Pluto in Aquarius transit was marked by a sense of distance and detachment. The monarchies of both Britain and France - representing the deep elites of these respective countries - would have seemed far away if you were an American colonist or a subject of the French crown. In the case of France, we have the highly symbolic case of the Versailles palace, the residence of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, located well outside of Paris. A few months after angry Parisians had stormed the Bastille fortress, that hateful symbol of an inegalitarian social order, a similarly wrathful crowd marched to Versailles to forcibly bring with them the King and Queen to Paris. In a moment of ill judgment, the royal family decided to try to escape. After their capture, they were eventually both charged with treason and executed.
As anecdotal as this may be, the question of distant elites would fit well with Pluto in Aquarius. It is worth noting, then, that the new, big mega-organizations that rose to power during Pluto in Capricorn - Amazon, Google, Meta, and others - all started sacking people en masse relatively recently. These organizations will likely start seeming ever-more distant to the common man or woman, except through their ever-expanding data centers: huge server halls consuming massive amounts of energy (Aquarius), to the point where they sometimes compete with the ordinary citizen’s or factory’s demand for energy. For this reason, it cannot be ruled out that such data centers will become symbols of a distant, unattainable, and resource-hungry elite, just as the Versailles palace were to the Parisians.
![File:BalticServers data center.jpg File:BalticServers data center.jpg](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F04a906e7-c323-411b-968b-81660bdd3c79_800x531.jpeg)
For a more dystopian version of the same thing, see the movie Elysium where the global elite has abandoned Earth to live on a luxurious space station in Earth orbit. I doubt something like this could happen during the current Pluto in Aquarius transit, but it does capture the archetype of Pluto in Aquarius brilliantly.
From AI to Aliens
In part 5, I discussed how the development of AI is already raising the question of what it means to be human. Will AI overpower us? Will they replace us? These are all important questions, even though some of these fears are probably exaggerated.
Now it would seem that there is an even newer kid on the block, and this one has got really big eyes. That’s right, I am talking about aliens, or “non-human intel” as they are officially called. On June 11, less than a day after Pluto had moved back into Capricorn and with Mercury having just entered Gemini, NewsNation aired an interview with former US intelligence official David Grusch who claimed, in unequivocal terms, that we are not alone. Citing testimony from other intelligence officials, he stated that the United States is in the possession of non-human aircraft and dead, non-human pilots - and has been so for decades. While there is much information he is not permitted to disclose, he has chosen to go public with what he can, because he believes it is wrong of the US deep state (Pluto in Capricorn) to hide this information (Mercury in Gemini) from the public. In other words, the question of what it means to be human may soon have to be asked even more forcefully and nervously than in relation to an online chatbot.
I personally find David Grusch to be credible. There are also other testimonies, including American pilots’ accounts of seeing UFOs in the sky that were reported in this 60 minutes report from 2021. Finally, if you want to go really deep down the rabbit hole, there is this written account by an anonymous molecular biologist who claims to have analyzed the anatomy and genetics of dead aliens in a secret lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland. The comments from other biologists indicate that this guy is either for real or engaged in a very creative, elaborate, scientifically correct form of role-playing.
I could be wrong. Perhaps I have been deluded somehow. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it is finally revealed that government agencies of a variety of countries hold such alien aircrafts and perhaps even bodies. Maybe we will even see a public first contact moment after Uranus has entered Gemini. Even if there is no first contact, exposition of the remains of dead aliens would be enough to force nations, religious communities, and the world community at large to revisit the questions of humanness, humanitarianism, personhood etc. Are we really as unique as we thought we were?
A global conflict? Aquarius as Fixed Yang
In part 3 of this article series, I wrote that Capricorn has a tendency to bring everything to a halt. This is because Capricorn is a cardinal sign: it tries to initiate action, but it hasn’t really got up to speed yet. The same is true of other cardinal signs, perhaps especially so for the other cardinal Yin sign, Cancer. Capricorn and Cancer being both cardinal and Yin creates an inward movement where the attempt to initiate action is contractive rather than expansive.
This is clearly illustrated when we compare Pluto’s position during the outbreak of World War I and World War II, respectively. World War I began on August 28, 1914, two months after Pluto had made its final entry into Cancer on May 26. The theme of collective survival (Pluto) now started to be channeled through the archetype of the nation and nationalism (Cancer). What characterized this war? It was a slow-moving meat-grinder, with hundreds of thousands being killed along a Western front that remained largely static for several years. More literally still, it was a war of the deepest slough, of muddy trenches and homesick soldiers: Cancer, the protective water sign. Neptune and Saturn were also in Cancer by the beginning of the war and it seems that the war only started to get going somewhere after they had both moved into the fixed fire sign of Leo in 1916-1917.
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Over 20 years later, World War II started on September 1, 1939, two and a half months after Pluto made its final entry into Leo on June 14. This war got under way much quicker than World War I: After only a couple of years, much of Europe was occupied by Germany while Japan was building a huge empire in Southeast Asia. After another four years it was all over. The nationalism of Pluto in Cancer had metamorphosed into a racist, ethnic pride and from there to absolute hubris (Leo). When the dust settled, the world now had a single, undisputed leader (Leo) in the guise of the USA.1
Aquarius is not as fiery as Leo, but it is a fixed Yang sign all the same. The action that was initiated in Capricorn will finally attain a steady, stable form in Aquarius; fixity means steady movement and steady progress. Fixed signs may be stubborn or fanatical, refusing to budge, but that is because they do not want to change themselves. They are still more than happy to act on the world around them.
Whether the conflicts around Ukraine, Taiwan and other places will morph into global wars is of course impossible to say - and I sure hope that they don’t. It does seem that the world is moving closer to the kind of coalition wars that marked the last Pluto in Aquarius transit. In either case, the quality of time is likely to speed up when Pluto finally exchanges the cardinal Yin sign of Capricorn for the fixed Yang of Aquarius.
Saturn in Pisces
Let’s turn our gaze towards Saturn. If my suggestion that Saturn in mundane astrology represents the establishment and the visible status quo is correct, we should have seen an establishment colored by the Pisces archetype since Saturn entered the sign on March 7 this year. And indeed, on March 10 the Silicon Valley Bank collapsed, followed by a string of other banks in the United States and Switzerland. Let’s face it, the establishment is failing (Pisces). The banking system is failing, inflation is still high, there is a general sense of suffering (Pisces) now hitting society. This time it has also struck some of the super-wealthy - representing parts of the establishment - in great proportion. And the awareness seems to be growing that this is a time to reach out to the people who suffer, the poor and the miserable, people who simply cannot make ends meet any longer.
In relation to the Ukraine War, we also see a growing awareness of the sacrifices (Pisces) borne by the general population, as well as by the Ukrainian military in their staunch defense of the city of Bachmut. Calls for peace (Pisces) are being heard, including by Russia’s own partners such as China and South Africa.2 Some of these suggestions may be self-serving and some would clearly benefit Russia by freezing the conflict along current borders. Ukraine is unlikely to accept anything less than the return of all territories invaded by Russia since 2022. Nevertheless, concessions (Pisces) may have to be made by both sides. A peace treaty is unlikely, but a cease fire may eventually be possible. Such an agreement would have to spell out clear and unambiguous terms in painstaking detail, suggesting the Virgo polarity of Pisces. But it would be a bitter pill to swallow for the Ukrainians, to be sure.3
I once made a similar argument about Saturn in Pisces in a Facebook group and was rebuked by another user “because Pisces is not on the side of the oppressor”. So just to be clear, this analysis has nothing to do with what I want. My cherished outcome would be a Ukrainian victory to the point where Putin would have to resign. Then the status of the regions occupied since 2014 could be decided on in a civilized manner. But it just doesn’t make sense to rebuke someone for making a prediction of a less-than-perfect outcome. A mundane astrologer can have strong values but must not let that cloud his or her judgment. Wishful thinking is no substitute for proper analysis.
Finally, the conflict has been bleeding into Russia. The Wagner leader Prigozhin’s aborted rebellion occurred just as Saturn was turning retrograde in Pisces (and was further accompanied by a Mars-Uranus square). Add to this a number of incursions by pro-Ukrainian Russians in Russia and the picture you get is that the very boundaries (Saturn) of the Russian state (Saturn) are becoming porous, unclear (Pisces). As Saturn keeps swimming through Pisces, a general state of confusion (Pisces) is likely to grow, as captured in the following anti-Kremlin parody tweet:
Uranus in Gemini (2025/2026-2033)
Other than the hypothetical first contact scenario mentioned above, I suspect that Uranus in Gemini will usher in a new wave of integration of the world economy. While Uranus in Taurus has seen a retreat from globalization and a tendency towards economic contraction (first Covid-19, now the Ukraine War) encouraging self-sufficiency and more local trade, Uranus in Gemini may well see the tentacles of world capitalism stretching out again, so to speak. What with Pluto in Aquarius during the same time period, rapid innovation in communication and other areas is also likely.
Here’s an interesting perspective from a historian specialized in analysing economic trends:
When I listened to Silicon Valley's venture capital podcasts in recent days, it appears that many experienced investors have been urging their companies to focus on survival, cut costs and stockpile resources for a year now. What they have should last until 2025–2026.
David Larsson Heidenblad, 2023-03-17, translation mine. Source
Just as the Swedish government doesn’t seek to time its electrification scheme with the Pluto in Aquarius transit, these “experienced investors” are hardly interested in the movements of Uranus. It just happens that their savings advice, if followed, will result in plenty of saved-up capital ready to be invested anew around the time Uranus goes to visit the sign of the Twins.
Neptune in Aries (2025/2026-2039)
Finally, we have arrived at Neptune in Aries. With so many outer planets changing signs within a few years of each other, there is really no telling what to expect when you add them all together. Here I will only focus on Neptune in relation to developments in media technology.
In previous parts of this article series, I argued that Neptune in Aquarius corresponded to the rise of the World Wide Web and that Neptune in Pisces saw the rise of smartphones and social media. (Smartphones did exist before Neptune entered Pisces, but took a few years to reach a critical mass.) If this is correct, do you see now how Neptune’s previous transits can help us understand its eventual movement into Aries? Remember the fourth guiding principle: Understanding how the theme of the previous sign of the planet was carried over as the planet moved to the current sign. The Neptune in Aquarius theme of the World Wide Web was carried over and transformed as Neptune entered Pisces. Smartphones and social media are of course very much reliant on the Internet, but the experience has become rather different. The mobile app is its own little universe, not perceived as being part of a web. And what is the next big thing that we are supposed to look forward to? Mark Zuckerberg calls it the metaverse and this is how he describes it:
We believe the metaverse will be the successor to the mobile internet, we’ll be able to feel present – like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are.4
And here is a short explanation of how it would work:
The metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together. It is a space where digital representations of people – avatars – interact at work and play, meeting in their office, going to concerts and even trying on clothes.
At the centre of this universe will be virtual reality, a digital world that you can already enter via Facebook’s Oculus VR headsets. It will also include augmented reality [AR], a sort of step back from VR where elements of the digital world are layered on top of reality – think Pokémon Go or Facebook’s recent smart glasses tie-up with Ray-Ban.5
Now, it is true that Zuckerberg’s vision has turned out to be overly optimistic: the company has already spent many billions of USD so far without much to show for. With Pluto entering Aquarius this spring, Generative AI quickly became the new buzzword and even at Meta the Metaverse has been quietly sidelined. According to industry experts, the metaverse is still happening but it may not conform to Zuckerberg’s vision. It may not even be centered around Meta. It’s an obscure topic, but let’s see if we can make sense of it astrologically:
With Neptune in Aries, the archetypal ocean surrounding us will be colored by the Aries archetype. What is Aries about? Fundamental existence. If Neptune in Pisces has us drowning in our mobile screens, Neptune in Aries will likely allow us to enter a new sense of existence, of being alive. To me, this sounds a lot like some combination of VR and AR technologies where you suddenly become aware of your own existence in a new way, even if it is all ultimately a Neptunian illusion. This newborn awareness will also extend to other people in the same Neptunian space as well as to AR objects in the physical world, e.g. bookable rooms at a hotel that are only visible to you when you have your AR glasses on. So while there are good secular reasons to believe that AR/VR technologies will soon become commonplace, it is also supported astrologically. With Saturn conjuncting Neptune in the beginning of Aries in both 2025 and 2026, it is going to be really interesting to see just how fast we get there.
Revisiting the guiding principles
It is time to wrap up. I hope that you have enjoyed this article series and that it has given you food for thought. Feel free to share any of the ideas expressed here as long as you refer to the relevant post. If you want to signal your support of this publication, consider donating any amount of your choice by clicking the button below.
I started out by erecting 7 guiding principles for mundane astrology. Let us see how much they helped and whether we need to adjust them somehow:
Having a deep understanding of the archetypes.
It is for you to say whether I have lived up to this or not. I at least think that my understanding of the astrological archetypes is much deeper ever since I started studying at the EA School Online. I know for a fact that I could not have analyzed the eras of Pluto in Sagittarius, Capricorn or Aquarius without the understanding of these archetypes that I gained from my teacher at the school, Michael De Baker.Looking at many different planets.
We have looked at all planets from Pluto to Jupiter in our mundane analysis, momentarily bringing in Chiron or some of the inner planets. I consciously decided not to bring in certain other heavenly bodies such as Eris. There are so many asteroids, dwarf planets and whatnot that you could bring into your analysis these days but it doesn’t necessarily bring greater clarity.Paying attention to what happens right when a planet is entering a new sign.
This method has served us very well in understanding Pluto in Capricorn and Aquarius, Saturn in Pisces, Uranus in Aries and Taurus, and Neptune in Pisces. There are some ingresses where corresponding world events keep eluding me, for instance the entry of Pluto into Sagittarius, but for the most part I feel that this is a very powerful method both for mundane astrology and observations regarding your own chart.Understanding how the theme of the previous sign of the planet was carried over as the planet moved to the current sign.
This helped us to understand Uranus in Taurus, Pluto in Capricorn, and Neptune in Pisces. It also helped out with our predictions for Uranus in Gemini and Neptune in Aries, although we have yet to see if they turn out to be correct.Discerning whether a trend is truly global or whether it applies primarily to a particular country.
We have not had the time or the space to delve deep into national charts, but it does seem that the Pluto returns of both the United States and Sweden, as well as the Jupiter conjunction to the US’ natal Pluto in the case of George Floyd’s death, marked events of more national than global signficance.Being transparent with your own values.
Perhaps I would slightly alter this principle. The thing is not that you should have to be explain where you stand on various issues in every single case, but rather that you must not allow your values to cloud your judgment. You must avoid engaging in wishful thinking. If you are doing an analysis of something that is politically contentious, then it may well be necessary with said transparency to avoid misunderstandings. But primarily, I think you need to be transparent with yourself about what you believe in and how that may affect your astrological interpretation of the past and your predictions for the future.Identifying the function that each planet has on a collective level.
Jupiter as the collective outlook of a society, Saturn as the structure of society itself - the authorities, establishment and status quo - Uranus as an untamed energy that society is trying to harness but which repeatedly shakes up the status quo, Neptune as the all-permeating field of that energy, an ultimate structure in the form of an archetypal ocean holding us all in its space, and Pluto as the underlying, deep status quo and the recurring challenge to collective survival - all this has in no small part been inspired by Michael De Baker’s work on planetary functions, itself inspired by Jeffrey Wolf Green’s planetary method.6 I hope I have demonstrated how each of these planets can be understood more concretely in mundane astrology when looked at through this lens. I think I have also shown, to a lesser extent, how these planets seem to work together in practice. This is the most difficult part of all, though, so let’s quickly go over it again for the outer planets.
During the era of Pluto in Capricorn, Neptune in Pisces, and Uranus in Taurus, a recurring theme has been that of the deep establishment (Pluto in Capricorn) creating an ocean (Neptune) of suffering (Pisces) acutely felt as external shocks (Uranus) to survival (Taurus). This pattern includes a number of deaths at the hands of police in a variety of countries sparking nation-wide protests7; inaction in the face of climate change; the revelation of mass graves of indigenous children at Canadian boarding schools; and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, to name but a few examples. On the flipside, we see radical action for survival (Uranus in Taurus) to try to alleviate the suffering, to heal it (Neptune in Pisces impacting Uranus).What long-term effect this radical action will have on society (Uranus impacting Saturn) remains to be seen.
The Soviet Union was a competitor but never really stood a chance in the long run against the United States. Interestingly, the beginning of the Soviet Union truly challenging American dominance came on August 21, 1957 - a mere two days after Pluto had entered Virgo - when they launched the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile, capable of raining nukes on American home soil. In October that same year, they also launched the first satellite into Earth orbit, initiating the space race. Crisis (Virgo) would mark the next decade as both superpowers tried to outdo the other while inching ever closer to nuclear war. Détente (improved relations) only began in 1972 with the SALT agreements after Pluto had entered Libra. (This was also the year when Nixon visited China, normalizing relations with the country.)
In fact, China’s 12-step peace plan was published on February 24, with the Sun in the beginning of Pisces but Saturn in late Aquarius. The calls for peace have only continued since, though.
Update July 23, 2023: Since I first wrote this, the North Node’s entry into Aries about a week ago has made me a bit more optimistic that Ukraine will not just survive (Taurus) but outright win (Aries) the war! In fact, the true nodes changing signs on July 17 was marked by a new Ukrainian attack on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia. If Ukraine can sever Crimea’s and the other occupied territories connection (Libra) to Russia, forcing them to stand alone (Aries), it is Russia that would be forced to the negotiating table, not Ukraine.
ibid.
For Jeffrey Wolf Green’s Planetary Method, see Essays on Evolutionary Astrology, chapter 10. For Michael De Baker’s work on Determining Planetary Function, including the trauma helix for Chiron and the outer planets, see Chiron: Trauma Key.
Outside of the United States, this includes Mahsa Amini in Iran and, more recently, Nahel Merzouk in France.