Reflecting on Pluto's transit through Capricorn

As Pluto prepares to leave primal and earthy Capricorn for the airy waves of Aquarius, I thought I’d share what I wrote when Pluto was settled into Capricorn in 2008-9. At some point, I’ll share more my thoughts on what I believe is important to understand about Pluto’s move into Aquarius, but I believe it’s more important to reflect on what Pluto’s sojourn through the sign I’ve come to associate with evolution. We like to think of evolution as a neat linear, uphill progression. But our evolution as animals on this planet was nothing like that. Over glacial movements of time in millions of years, we have had many starts and stops to become homo sapiens. In fact, many species of humans have become extinct during those long years. And we’re not finished yet. It’s been interesting to see how many leaders in almost every industry have risen, fallen, and risen again during Pluto’s transit during the sign of the Goat-Fish.

But before we step forward, it’s wise for us also to look back and understand where we’re going and what unfinished business we’ve yet to face.  Aquarius is another sign of Saturn, so he’s bound to show us a different side to his symbolic nature. Perhaps Pluto has excavated the animal nature in our leaders, but Pluto in Aquarius might reveal the human nature we can discover in ourselves. We shall see.

–SFR, 11/15/24

LESSONS IN EVOLUTION--PLUTO IN CAPRICORN
PROBING DEEPER INTO OUR ANIMAL NATURE

Since Pluto has gone into Capricorn, a lot of expectations have been dashed. Some of this has been good and some of it has just been awful. I wouldn’t have dreamed even a year ago that America would elect a Black man as President of the United States. I also wouldn’t have dreamt that the American auto industry would be at the brink of bankruptcy and banks would have to go on welfare (what else would you call government assistance like that?) to survive! But here we are! The question is whether we continue to reap the deeper lessons from all of this. While counseling a client recently, I had an insight about Pluto in Capricorn I would like to share.  She’s interested in big business and her chart augurs well for her to go into it, as she doesn’t enjoy working for others. However, Pluto in Capricorn is going to surface some issues she may have with accepting being an authority, as in a boss herself! A lot of people have this problem, and it got me to thinking about a esoteric vision of humanity that I’ve studied that may help us understand what to expect from Pluto’s journey into Capricorn.

According to one aspect of Kabbalistic thought, there are four levels of being—Mineral, Vegetable, Animal and Human. We potentially have all levels of being in us, but we might actively stay at one level more often. There is an evolution or progression of consciousness at each level, but our position along these levels may not be static through our lifetimes, though it can be if we don’t exert free will. The Mineral level of being is mostly when we attempt to lives our lives as simply as possible, without too much interest in change or contrary evidence to our opinions. You might be surprised that these kinds of people are actually rare, because they’re neither interested in being happy or expressing unhappiness. They’re just content to be. The Vegetable level is probably more familiar to us. The Vegetable level is really about being as comfortable as possible with the least amount of effort. So when we “veg” out, this is the level we’re operating on. We go along to get along. The Animal level of being is completely the opposite. It goes along to get power, either power for others or over others. This level taps into one of the primal aspects of ourselves that is still, well, like an Animal. The Human level is when one seeks to gain Divine power for others. This level prompts us to balance courage with consideration, mercy with discernment. 

It seems that most spiritual people want to avoid the Animal level altogether. But according to this schema, it’s not possible to evolve as a spiritual being without experiencing the Animal level. The most obvious reason is that being a passive vegetable may keep you comfortable, but it won’t compel you to evolve as to realize a “self,” much less a “higher self.” The Animal level is what compels us to reflect on the psychological level about our own state in life and then how to take action to change or cope with it.  One fine example of a pop cultural figure who represents the Animal “man” is Tony Soprano from the hit HBO series “The Sopranos.” Tony is a Don of a Mafia family, yet feels acute psychological conflict about how to manage his rather unorthodox life.  He both feels the desire to break away from the herd as a leader, yet he senses that there is more to him than just that. From a spiritual point of view, he is at the point where he is coming to embrace having “a self” and vaguely sensing “the Self” or his “higher” Self.  If he decides to embrace “the Self,” he can function at the Human level. 

From an astrological point of view, this is where Pluto in Capricorn comes in. Capricorn represents the moment when “a self” decides to climb the mountain of ambition (for whatever—the white picket fenced-in house or the White House) and achieve a destiny.  Pluto represents the universal impulse to discover depth and meaning in Life. The downside to this impulse is that just as depth can sound like “death” casually when spoken, it can almost literally feel like Pluto is digging your grave. It takes us into the underworld of ourselves as to discover what we truly are made of. So Pluto in Capricorn presents an interesting contradiction: as you ascend the Capricorn mountain of ambition, Pluto drags you under to discover your true Self. 

As Pluto in Capricorn works his transformative power on us collectively and individually, if a person has been climbing the Capricorn mountain with only a shallow Animal self, focused only on satisfying his or her own private desires and greed, then Pluto will dig in—looking for a deeper self. In other words, Pluto in Capricorn will suffer no petty tyrants, whether they are our own shallow impulses, a company’s fat cat CEO or the local crafty mortgage broker. Nonetheless, these “corrections” can’t be excuses for not climbing the Capricorn mountain of power or from abstaining from the pursuit at some point.  Not all leaders have to become tyrants.  We can’t nix embracing our “Animal” self as to avoid the temptation of becoming petty tyrants or the psychological turmoil that often ensues. No one really wants to be Tony Soprano, right?! Well, in some way, we all do. Sure, it’s better to be comfortable and go along to get along, but the cost is your own spiritual growth. The Vegetable person just stays comfortable, but doesn’t get out of his or her own comfort zone to become his or her own person. The challenge of the Animal person is to fight to become one’s own self. Pluto in Capricorn, then, becomes a pruning force, if you will. We must embrace our Animal selves to become fully human, but Pluto in Capricorn dutifully reminds us that our Animal selves can only go so far. We can’t pursue power at the cost of our Human selves. We must pursue power for our Human selves.