Pluto returned to direct motion at 8:17a PDT on Thursday, 28th September 2017, to continue its run in the sign of Capricorn. This return to direct motion marks the beginning of the latest stage of a process of societal transformation that began in 2008 and will continue now through January 2024.
Pluto in Capricorn has us examining the use and abuse of power and influence in our governments, educational institutions, financial institutions, and societal structures and establishments. We are looking as how some of those in positions of authority within these institutions and structures may be becoming more empowered and influential in society, but also how some of them may be losing power and influence in society.
The current Pluto placement also has us examining our roles or places within our societal institutions and structures. How do those structures, institutions, and individuals in power and influence empower and influence us as individuals? How do we allow them to influence us?
While Pluto was in its 2017 retrograde, we were in a position to receive quite a bit of information from those institutions and the people in positions of authority and power within them. We were able to gain insights into how they really see or perceive those they oversee – especially those who are not their peers or equals. In some cases, we learned what their goals or objectives really are, and realized they may not be aligned with the goals and objectives of others.
Now, with Pluto Direct, we’re in a position to act upon that feedback – to act with the knowledge and wisdom we learned and gathered. We now get to assert our power and influence upon (or over) the people and institutions in power and authority. We get to test out our strength and find out how powerful we really are in the face of those who wield the power through the structures in place.
Pluto is a transformative energy. It empowers or it destroys. In the case of Pluto being in Capricorn, the institutions and establishments which empower society are empowered in turn. The institutions and establishments which disempower society are phased out or destroyed.
This latest 2017 round of Pluto Direct in Capricorn gives us an opportunity to initiate the next stage of the ongoing transformation of our societies and their institutional structures.
I say the next stage of “the ongoing transformation” because the shifts in happening in our societies right now are not simply trends or phases. The effects of what is happening now will have long-term, enduring impacts on our society and our world. These are not events to trivialize or minimize – everything has gravity to it. These events are changing our individual and collective experiences of the world because they are transforming the world. The only elements of the current circumstances we know for certain are that 1) things will not be going back to the way they were, and 2) we haven’t yet determined what they will become.
This next (or rather, current) phase is having us look at our one-on-one relationships to everything and everyone around us. We each and all are being called to look at how we feel empowered or disempowered by the societal institutions which give form and structure to our lives. We are also being asked to look at how we feel empowered or disempowered by the people who we allow and/or enable to have roles of authority or influence in our lives. How do we want to feel? Who do we want to be?
The answers to those questions can only come from us because the structures which usually look to in order to provide those answers for us are in flux. There is increasing uncertainty about what is happening in our society and world. (In the short-term, the 2017 Aries Full Moon on 5th October 2017, and in somewhat long-term, Uranus in Aries through 2018, both show up in big ways to help us move through this time by encouraging us to individually claim and assert our unique and independent selves in service to our communities.)
Therefore, we must find our own ways – set our own individual goals, set our own individual standards of success. We must move forward intuitively, transforming ourselves as we make choices free of institutional influences. In doing so, we are revealing both which societal structures still serve us well and which ones no longer serve. As result, we are transforming our societies and the world by transforming ourselves in the face of a changing world.
Pluto moves retrograde once every year, with its next retrograde/feedback period beginning in April 2018.
Until then, take time to become (more) aware of what is happening in the world around you. Ask yourself what your relationship is to others and to society as the structures we’ve allowed to define us seem to be losing their long-standing definition and presence in our lives.
And remember that in transforming your own life, you transform society and the world.
Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
