2020: The Year of Pluto

Watching the events of 2020, I’m sure you’ve been asking the same question that’s on everyone’s mind - “What the hell is going on?”

We’ve gone from Impeachment trials and a deadly virus shutting down the country to the cities burning with protests and the President fanning the flames even as the West Coast is on fire. And now we could be headed toward a Constitutional crisis.

Every nation goes through cycles of growth and chaos, and if you look at our nation's chart, you can see why this year is deep in division and chaos.

Conjunction Junction

2020 began with Saturn and Pluto together in the sky. This happens only every 32 to 38 years, and what’s unique about it this time around is Jupiter is right there with them as well.

Jupiter is conjunct Pluto for March, June, and mid-October to mid-November this year, and then Jupiter and Saturn will be conjunct in the sky from mid-November through December.

This Jupiter-Saturn conjunction happens only once every 20 years. And since Jupiter rules kings, and Saturn rules time, in ancient days this conjunction was called The Great Chronocrater (time keeper), and seen as marking the change of kings.

(These Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions cycle through the signs every 800 years, and while this isn’t one of those changes, one hopes that, as Kepler wrote of them, this particular conjunction might "burn up and destroy the dregs and dirty-doings of Rome.")

Now, how often do we get this triple whammy of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto all right together in the same year? I checked with my software, and I had to go all the way back to 1284. Yeah, it’s that rare.

And Now The Kicker

The reason the US is feeling the effects of this super-potent conjunction more than other nations is it’s happening directly over our nation’s Pluto.

So this year Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto are all conjunct our nation's Pluto. Meaning Pluto is returning for the first time ever to the very place it was when our nation was formed. Because Pluto moves so slowly, this transit is in effect for all of 2020 through 2023.

To put it another way, picture a clock in which the second hand takes 12 years to go around once, the minute hand takes 29 years, and the hour hand takes a whopping 248 years. You start the clock running with them all pointing in different directions, and now, all these years later, when the hour hand comes back to where it began, all three hands are exactly together, pointing at that spot.

And it all comes together in the very month of the crucial 2020 election.

Digging Deeper

So what does this triple conjunction mean? Let’s start with Saturn conjunct our Pluto, which happens about every 29 years. It’s been in effect since February, right before the lockdowns and protests, and will run through November.

Saturn is about structure, including authority and corporations and actual buildings, and Pluto is about death, transformation, and rebirth, as in forest fires, which clear out the dead wood and allow new growth to begin. It’s also about power and the test of how it is used. So when you put those together, the structures of Saturn are challenged by Pluto, and since Saturn resists change, this often doesn’t go well.
 
Here’s what Robert Hand’s Planets in Transit says about this transit that we’ve been feeling since February, at the very start of the virus.

Structure in your life will change significantly, but not suddenly or without warning... During this transit some things will come to an end or an old order of life will cease...

This process involves getting rid of old structures. On a material level, this transit often causes financial problems or other kinds of shortages. Sometimes government or other officials will impose heavy burdens that greatly restrict your freedom of movement. It is also possible that some incident or accident may affect your health and thereby restrict your freedom of movement.

One danger of this transit is that Pluto can signify tremendous evolutionary energies, which Saturn restricts. This can lead to an apparent suppression of the Pluto force. When the suppressed force erupts, it may be dangerous, explosive and quite violent... Build new structures to correct the problems you face now, and concentrate all your energy on bringing about necessary evolution in your life.

And this is just how we’ve seen it play out, with resistance to the states’ and government’s restrictions. And at the same time, protests over racial injustice called for change, and many of the nation’s authorities refused to accept that change is needed and so clamped down even further.

Pluto's Return

And now we get to the heavy hitter, Pluto returning home.

To give an idea of Pluto's effects, when it crossed our nation's Ascendant (the start of the First House and our home base) for the first time in 2001, it brought home Pluto's themes of destruction, death, and grief to the nation through the tragedy of 9/11.

Then in 2002-2005 it came into opposition with our Mars, fueling the push to war, and we invaded Iraq. Pluto had made similar transits to our Mars just three times before - when we invaded Canada in the War of 1812 and ended up with the British burning the White House, when we put Pluto's destructive force to good use in blasting open the Panama Canal, and when we again turned to war and invaded Vietnam. With two of them we endured our greatest defeats. The invasion of Iraq repeated the cycle, where we had to pull out without gaining anything but what Pluto teaches about the abuse of power.

Now, with Pluto coming up to conjunct our nation's Pluto, here’s how I put it in my earlier reports.

from January 2017, before Trump became President

The most striking transit of all is this last one – Pluto conjunct our Pluto from 2020 through 2023. Pluto takes 248 years to make a full transit around one’s chart, and so this is the first time it’s ever happened for our nation. It means coming back to where it all began, the deep sources of our founding. Getting realigned and starting again.

Or, on the other hand, it could mean things turning to abuse of power and fundamentally changing the foundation of our country. Fortunately, I don’t see that happening, in either our politics or transits. What I see is a rebirth of our nation’s ideals and values.

But Pluto rules volcanoes, and just as with the Revolution, those in power don’t give it up easily, but bring about great unrest and destruction. Meaning it won’t be easy to get our country back, but the time is definitely right to burn out the dead wood and all those who stand in the way of progress.

from June 2019

Now Pluto is coming back to where it began, and we’ll need patience, courage, and insight on the best paths to take. There will be much anger and rage, and a sense of betrayal felt by many, but the ground will slowly shift.

With Pluto in our second house, and Pluto transiting there as well, issues of possessions, the economy, and our values will be at the forefront.

At its best, the next four years will bring about universal health care and a dismantling of the system of serving the interests of the wealthiest. At its worst, it will mean a dismantling of democracy and shifting to a totalitarian government. Things point closer to the first, but with Neptune fogging things through 2022, there’s going to be a lot of confusion, delusion, and deceit.

So yeah, we all knew that 2020 was going to be a very important time in getting our country back on track, but this says it’s going to be even more important than we’d thought.

Talking ‘bout a Revolution

With Pluto returning to its natal position for the first time, many issues around the Revolution are coming back to be sorted out and tested.

The founding of our nation is cloaked in myths, and we don't remind ourselves that many leaders of the Revolution wanted the British out simply to put themselves into positions of power. To actually be like dukes, lording over everyone. They didn't even want all Americans to have a vote, but limited it in some states to only white male Protestants who owned property. And one of the main reasons we went to war was because we wanted to expand into the west and seize the lands of the Native Americans, which the British had protected with the Royal Proclamation of 1763.

As Washington wrote to a friend after three years of war, “Speculation, peculation and an insatiable thirst for riches seem to have got the better of every other consideration, and almost of every order of men.”

That’s what you get with a nation founded with Pluto (power and abuse of power) in Capricorn (the sign of big business and corporate profits) in the Second House (which rules our possessions and values).

So has Pluto returned to transform our society of economic inequality, or will it reinforce the way things were at the start, with unscrupulous characters using behind-the-scenes power plays to claim everything for their own?

The way I see it, the GOP have been doing all they can to transform the nation into a corporate-ruled authoritarian state, but all they've been doing is exposing the faults that need to be reformed.

Pluto's in the House

I mentioned the Second House, and it's important to note that Pluto not only started in our nation's Second House, but at the start of 2016 it moved back into it and will be there until 2039.

Again, the Second House is about both our resources and values. And all this year we've had Pluto challenge both our economy and our sense of who we are. Where one of the overriding questions of the year has been, "What's more important - the economy or the people?"

With so many struggling to get by, it's not a simple question, but the whole point is to wrestle with it and find what's true for you.

During the next several years your values will undergo a complete metamorphosis, which will affect both your personal possessions and your sense of values.

The process may include major changes in your financial picture over the next several years. The most upsetting aspect of this change is that quite frequently it begins with a breakdown phase, in which you have to get along with much less in the way of resources. In a business, for example, circumstances beyond your control might lessen your volume of business. You might have to change the source of your income, resulting in less income during the changeover.

This is a temporary phase that will pass soon as the breakdown phase of this transit is finished. If you try to hold on to the possessions or sources of income you are used to, you will only slow down the process and delay the beginning of the new phase.

- Robert Hand, Planets in Transit

That sounds a lot like opening the states back up too soon. Also, don't worry about the 2039 part - with Pluto aspecting itself in this house, the strongest effects of this transit will come before 2023, and the rest will be building a new way ahead.

From the Shadows

An important part of Pluto’s role is to bring up what’s hidden to be exposed and cleansed. And this year Pluto turned over a huge rock and revealed the racist hatred still festering in our nation. And along with it, all the abuses of power by the police and government.

Because of this, we’ve seen the extraordinary destruction (Pluto) of the statues of authority figures (Saturn) that celebrate the oppressions of the past. Within just a few weeks, military bases and NASCAR banned the display of the Confederate flag, and both Confederate and Christopher Columbus statues were hauled down by angry crowds or quietly removed in the middle of the night.

The arrival of transiting Pluto in contact with its own natal position signals the advent of particularly intense times of self-scrutiny in which truths are confronted, old blockages recognized, and new, more energetic perspectives on life are generated and put decisively into action. It also warns of the risks of brooding cynicism and cruel or self-destructive reenactments of old, still-unconscious wounds.
- Steven Forrest, The Book of Pluto, 1994

In this way, one might say that God actually did want Trump to be President. Not to lift him or his views up to be praised, but to bring to the surface the worst in America for us to face. For Trump alone could bring out so much of the foulest in American society and get it to proudly parade itself for everyone to see.

Jupiter's Turn

Now let’s go back to the start of this post, with that conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto. We covered what Saturn and Pluto mean, and now we get to Jupiter.

Jupiter was conjunct Pluto in the sky in March and June, and has one more pass from mid-October to mid-November. And then, right after that, Jupiter will be conjunct our nation’s Pluto for November to mid-December.

Jupiter is usually a beneficial planet, simply boosting whatever it touches and bringing opportunity, but with Pluto, the planet of power, one can take things too far. People can become too ambitious and headstrong, and if you get caught up in self-righteous morality, you can become a ruthless extremist, which only brings a backlash from the law. This works the same with authority figures as well, for as Robert Hand writes, "If your ambition becomes the irresistible force against an immoveable society, you will probably be the loser."

Looking back to March, we had excessive use of force with the Breonna Taylor tragedy, and when Jupiter came back for its second pass to Pluto, it started with the death of George Floyd and then the shooting of Rayshard Brooks. All of that set off major protests, including protests that went too far with property destruction and ended with lots of conflict, with both sides claiming they were on the righteous side.

So now, from mid-October to mid-December, we’ll have the same issues play out, including not only a Supreme Court nominee being forced through, but a possible power struggle about the results of the election.

A Change of Seasons

The last important transit for 2020 is the one we started this report with, the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn on December 21st. This is that Great Chronocrater one that comes every 20 years, which will be in effect for mid-November and all of December, and in ancient times marked the change of kings.

What’s unique about it this time around is the conjunction will not only happen on the Winter Solstice, but both planets will move into Aquarius just a few days before, shifting the conjunction from earth signs to air signs for the first time in 200 years. And it’ll stay that way for the next 200 years.

This theme plays out with Pluto as well. Since 2008 it's been in Capricorn, the sign of big business and authority, and at the end of 2023 it will move into Aquarius. Which is like going from having a stern corporate lawyer for a landlord to a Peace Corps web designer who can play guitar like Jimi Hendrix.

What's more, for the United States, after two years in Capricorn, our progressed Moon moves into Aquarius on October 29th, right before Election Day. (The last two times it's been in this sign have been mid-1993 to mid-1995, and 1966-67, during the height of the countercultural movement.)

These are all signs that we’re on the cusp of a change from a corporate, conservative focus to a more revolutionary, humanitarian view.

Summing Up

We have just five weeks leading up to the election, where the country has to decide which path to take – authoritarianism or democracy, isolationism or allies, evangelicalism or religious liberty, and corporate interests or the interests of the people.

Here’s how I summed it up in 2018:

The next few years are going to be an even rougher ride than the last few. There’s going to be battles, and with Neptune in the mix, the fog of war will be thicker than ever, with the most vicious often the most deluded. And of course Russia will capitalize on this, sowing discord and pushing for violence, and then sit back and watch us burn.

From a historical perspective, none of this is new. The years leading up to the Revolution were full of firebrands and crackdowns and angry mobs. The question is, when Pluto returns to where it was during the Revolution, which way will things go?

Whatever the outcome, 2020 to 2023 will set the course for the nation, both in actions and ideology, for decades to come.

Now that we're nine months into this journey, we've already seen deep changes at a fundamental level with all these conjunctions to our Pluto this year.

Our Pluto Return goes all the way through to the end of 2023, but the next few years won't have Jupiter and Saturn adding to the tension. There will be reforms and backlash, and it won't be easy to make our way forward. There will be angry mobs and tragedies, just as during the Revolution. But if everyone does their part to resist abuses of power, we'll have a new administration setting in place the changes that need to be made to root out corruption, bring equality to all, and protect our democracy.