Surviving Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn 2015
Not another one! Yes, it’s that time again when Pluto reverses its direction and seems to stay forever on whatever sensitive life nerve it is presently hitting. If you have any planets or major points in the Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn) from between 10 degrees to 18 degrees, you are going to feel the effects of what is best described as INTENSITY. That’s the key word to use when Pluto walks through the halls of your life. Everything gets more intense. 
Before I elaborate on that theme, let’s review the logistics.
Pluto usually has a retrograde period once per year for up to six months in duration. That is why it barely inches along in the sign it is passing through for more than three degrees per year. This year it turned retrograde on April 16th at 15+ degrees of Capricorn and moves slowly backwards until September 24/25 when it will station and turn direct, once again, at 12+degrees of Capricorn. That means that for the next five months those degrees are strongly ‘hit’ by a force that can not be avoided. The force is one of evolutionary change which is generally irrevocable. In other words, a new form is being created out of the ashes of the old whether we like it or not. That’s the real nature of Pluto. It is transformative. So longing for the ‘good ole’ days isn’t going to cut it.
Yes, it’s true that Pluto will bring up elements of the past into our lives, but that is usually so that something can be completed and then we can move on.
Yes, Pluto rules elements of archeology where artifacts from the past are unearthed to be studied and reflected upon, but Pluto doesn’t necessarily restore them to what they were way back when they were a part of a living system. That time is gone. With Pluto we must evolve. It seems to be a part of how the universe works. Some things leave forever. Even our own Sun/star will eventually be gone. This death theme is often hard to take. It truly means we have to let go. For some mysterious reason, once we’re willing to let go something else generally emerges and that is the re-birth part of Pluto. Out of the ashes something truly does rise up with new life and energy. Please don’t forget that as you move through the dying or death part of the journey. In this vastly mysterious universe of which we are a part, stars are being constantly born as old stars die.
So now we find ourselves with Pluto reaching the apex of the sign of Capricorn even though it has a ways to go before leaving this sign of structures and organized systems that seem so impervious to change. After all, everything in Capricorn tends to take a long time to get built and thus resists with collective might the revolutionary changes that something like Uranus tries to bring. We’ve been living through that one! But Pluto in Capricorn is slow and insidious in its efforts to destroy outmoded structures and institutions. Now at the turning point of 15+ degrees something is peaking and getting ready to probably decline or even implode. We are witnessing these evolutionary changes on a global scale, but I’m not going to write about that in this article.
What about you and your life? What old structures in your life need to change into something more appropriate for where you have now evolved? This retrograde period is a good time to help that process along. What will that possibly feel like? There’s that word again: intense! Birthing is an intense process.
If you are giving birth it’s extremely intense for awhile. I mean you feel like a telephone pole is trying to push through your body!! If you are being born, it’s got to also feel intense trying to squeeze through that impossibly small hole!! In both cases you’ve got to surrender to the force and if you are giving birth, BREATHE!!!
themandalajourney.com
If being born, you get to finally breathe on your own once you’re out of that impossibly small space. Pluto passages are like that. Whether coming or going it’s a feeling that you could die in the process because you really don’t have any control at that point. Letting go of control is a requirement with Pluto rights of passage. The force of it all is greater than anything our small egos can muster.
Pluto is so dense out there at the edge of our solar system. It really does represent some sort of doorway into the unknown of the vastness of space and the ever-evolving universal. We may try to hold fast to the known, but it is the clinging and resistance that causes us pain.
With some of these principles in mind, let’s look at how the signs are impacted by Pluto in Capricorn at this pivotal juncture:
Capricorn: If you have Sun, Moon, Ascendant, as well as other personal planets/angles, in this sign it is a direct hit. Pluto is now merging with your energies and intensifying everything so that you will be transformed. This force is relentless in its demands to change you.
Aries: Planets or Angles in this sign get the pressure of Pluto in Capricorn to change and to let go of anything that prevents those Aries energies from moving on forward into new life and possibilities.
Cancer: Planets or Angles in this sign get heightened awareness through major relationships with others that it is time to allow for death/re-birth to occur. Often the Cancer type person has to be willing to let go of security needs for a while and surrender to the forces of those more Plutonian types who are the instruments of powerful evolution in their lives.
Libra: Planets or Angles here get the powerful urging of Pluto in Capricorn to move forward with change and take action. Get off the fence Libra! This is an all or nothing time when becoming pro-active really does matter. Life moves ahead because of such intensity.
Earth signs, Virgo and Taurus get the benefit of Pluto now in an earth sign to change and evolve without becoming stuck in earth-bound ruts. Pluto urges Virgo planets/angles to move ahead with greater plans and structures that are consistent with evolutionary urges, while Taurus planets/angles get the push from behind to let go of stubbornly staying in one place and to realize that change can be actually good!
Water signs Pisces and Scorpio also get the benefit of Pluto in Capricorn earth with Pisces planets/angles realizing that letting go can actually be easier right now as they go with the flow of ever-evolving life and Scorpio planets/angles get the opportunity to grow towards purposeful new heights in realizing their goals of transformation. After all, their ruling planet is now beckoning them to build rather than tear down something—a nice change!
It’s the other Yang signs that are challenged by this relentless long-term contraction of earth-reality-inevitability that Pluto in Capricorn brings.
The Fire signs of Leo and Sagittarius are impacted with Leo decidedly needing to adjust to the physical realities of this very collective pressure. You see this in an entire generation of those born with Pluto in Leo, for example. What? You mean I can’t just indulge in my own pursuits of pleasure without considering the whole? You mean I can’t party on forever? The aging process is certainly one theme here. Yes, even Pluto in Leo mortals will eventually die. Yes, your bodies do grow old even if plastic surgeries give the illusion of eternal youth. Nonetheless, we see planets/angles in Leo pushing the envelope and striving towards those mountain tops of eternal youth! ☺ Sagittarians, and people with planets/angles in Sagittarius, on the other hand are finally free of the ole devil who was riding them hard from 1996 to 2008. This is now a ‘New Moon’ phase for them where they need to trust their instincts in forging ahead into the evolving structures they must become participant with.
The Air signs of Aquarius and Gemini are also impacted in rather strange ways. Aquarians, and those with planets/angles in Aquarius, may feel the creeping intensity rising in ways they can’t completely ‘see’ and that may feel disconcerting from the perspective of always wanting to see ‘the big picture’ and know what lies ahead. Who really knows? It’s difficult to be a visionary when so much is rapidly changing in all forms/structures and on all levels! ‘The future is not ours to see’ is pretty apt right now which is not easy for the futurists amongst us. And Geminis! Oh dear. There are a lot of psychological adjustments that this sign must continuously maneuver through to keep bouncing and bounding along. It’s not necessarily a light and breezy form of energy for Gemini planets/angles to handle.
Perhaps these brief descriptions help those of you reading this to understand some of the forces at work in your own life. I won’t deal with the houses in this article. Donna Cunningham wrote a marvelous article in The Mountain Astrologer Aug/Sept 2009 issue describing transiting Pluto in the career sectors of the chart which would be the 2nd, 6th, and 10th houses, plus the MC. If you have Capricorn governing any of those sectors in your chart I highly recommend reading this article.
Remember, we still have a LONG ways to go. Pluto doesn’t leave Capricorn until November 21, 2024. That’s another 9+ years.
With this retrograde period, review where you need to restructure your life and evolve towards handling your life in a more sustainable, organized, and solid way. Capricorn isn’t for sissies! It’s a sign that demands responsible action. It’s a sign that wants us to be disciplined in our approach and to set high standards for excellence in our need to achieve. Let’s try to evolve towards some of those worthy goals.
Artist, Benjamin A. Vierling
April 25, 2015 30 Comments
Categories: Astrology |
Tags: Pluto in Capricorn, Pluto Retrograde, Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn
30 comments
Genevieve,
In reading your article, I just realized that when Pluto reaches 19 degrees of Capricorn (which seems ages away!), it will tr. my natal Uranus. Guess we shall see then! But in the midst of having tr. Neptune having a beach party in my chart, I feel removed from Pluto in Capricorn. But then in talking my Capricorn friends, I see the how Pluto is guttering out the kitchen to be rebuilt. I thought that once it hits 15 degrees (and passes it finally) that’s when one can rebuild their gutted kitchen (that’s the image I use to explain Pluto’s transits).
I guess I’m grateful I’m not having Pluto dancing back and forth in a sensitive section of my chart. Small graces. 🙂
Vanessa—I love your metaphor of the ‘gutted kitchen’, and I do know people doing remodeling jobs right now. How wide an orb do you use with a transit like Pluto? I think it can easily be felt 5 degrees or further back as it approaches. The intensity just gets more so as it hits the nerve! I do know of lots of people with those mid-degrees, and their lives are changing dramatically—-many for the best I might add! Thanks for your wonderful shares.
Thank you Genevieve & WOW! Love you dearly, Lisa
Lisa, I hope readers take note of your most appropriate web site! You are the quintessential ‘dragon lady’ and the phoenix journey is second nature to you for sure!
Genevieve – for the slower transits I can go as far as 8 degrees, only because I feel it’s like the weather pattern… first comes the wind…then the clouds… and you know the rest. But normally, I too feel that 5 degrees already informs quite a bit.
Perhaps I’ve been so worried about Neptune, that I haven’t been too concerned about Pluto in my chart.
🙂
Vanessa–That makes sense with these long-cycling outer planets. I know Richard Tarnas allows 15 degrees or more, but he’s dealing with collective issues rather than personal. It’s a pretty wide margin to make any sort of predictions from I’d say. It’s always easier after the fact to correlate these transits with world events.
How you can measure the transitions of planet.. and how it is relates to our destiny plz tell me its occurrence in life prediction..
I’ll go ahead and reply to this knowing you’re plugging your business. The grammar of your question is a bit difficult to unravel, but we in Western astrology work with cycles and do emphasize the Sun perhaps more than the Moon as Vedic astrologers do. It’s not good to compare apples with oranges here I feel. 🙂 I’ve often wondered about cultural conditioning here. We western types probably could learn more about ‘arranged’ marriages and their efficacy, but I think we’re far too experimental as a group. I met my husband serendipity literally walking on the street past him, and we’ve now been married for 43 years. Our love is strong today because we have tried our best to consciously grow within the relationship. Was this our destiny or our fate? These are good questions to ponder. Our Suns are in trine and we also have that ‘bonded’ Sun/Moon conjunction. I would welcome astrologers from India giving information here, but usually you guys are just looking for more paying customers and add nothing to the dialogue like the rest of the readers.
Oh Genevieve I wish I had read your article sooner then I wouldn’t have been so surprised by the kick in the ascendent ass! 🙂 Thanks always!
Allison—At least now you know what’s prodding you along! 🙂
Oh. My. I have four planets in Capricorn and my husband has an ascendant in Capricorn. We were wondering what the hell has been happening, ha.
Ani—Be sure you look at the DEGREES of your planets to ascertain when the transit of Pluto makes exact hits. It’s not really an all out onslaught but the intensity will come and go for sure.
Didn’t the ancient civilizations actually know about Pluto (and the other generational planets) before it was discovered in the 1930s? Did you know that it’s stated that the Assyrians knew the rings on Saturn way before they were seen by European telescopes in the early 17th century.
wonder if they had the concept of retrograde in astrology as well…
P–Perhaps some did as the Dogons of Africa knew about Sirius, etc. The intuitive mind was exercised more by some quite possibly. An excellent book on the history of astrology is THE FATED SKY by Benson Bobbrick. He doesn’t mention the use of these outer planets by the Chaldeans,, Egyptians, Assyrians, etc. however. The predictive use of astrology for kings and rulers used Saturn as the last planet out as far as I have discovered. You query makes me wonder what the Mayans knew, for example. Robert Hand is a good author to explore with these questions as well. The Hellenistic schools of astrology are doing a lot of research into the ancient systems and what they knew and didn’t know.
I also have to add the Saturn worship by (possibly Egyptian) Roman/Greek/ and Arab cults; its symbol was the black cube. When satellites captured pictures of the northern pole of Saturn, you can see a giant hexagon of swirling winds. A hexagon that abstractly resembles the said cube when viewed at a certain vantage point.
How fascinating P!! I’ll have to check out some of those NASA images. In keeping with this, our son Benjamin Vierling did an amazing painting of Chronos all in monochromatic tones. Check it out on http://www.bvierling.com Black absorbs all colors and is worn often by those in authority, is it not? How do you see the cube/hexagon as symbolic of the meaning of Saturn/Chronos?
* BTW: Those titles sound fascinating
Thank You
The cube is an imposing object as can be Saturn.
I’m not certain on this, but I think the shape does not exist anywhere in the natural world- explicitly or implicitly…
The hexagon is a feature in a lot occult symbolism.
Oh, and your son’s works are eerily brilliant.
I may be purchasing some…
I’m sure he’d appreciate your support P!
scary has it sounds the trouble started in 2008. how many long years before I feel my self again.
Screenivas—-Pluto can impact us for up to five years. Sounds like you may have more than one aspect coming from this transformative energy. It depends on where Pluto is working, and what energies it is impacting. There may be other factors at work in your life as well coming from Uranus, etc.
Oh I love this article! And P, what a lovely painting from your son! Could you ask him how he came to imagine Chronos like “a firebird”? Children’s imagination is often of a more divine nature than our adult “mental processing”… 🙂 After seeing ‘firebird’, it reminded me of the mythological symbol of the phoenix! I am currently also looking into the cube and the hexagon, as Saturn’s weight is heavy as lead sometimes, so I need to figure this old friend out!
Thank you for your comments Sarah! Benjamin did that drawing many years ago, but I’ll ask him what he had in mind. I believe it was a drawing to illustrate the sign Capricorn. He’s done a lot of ‘firebirds’ and his latest painting is breathtaking. I believe you can see it on his website http://www.bvierling.com. He’s also done an amazing painting on Chronos himself. I’d be interested in your comments on working with the cube and hexagon in terms of sacred geometry as it relates to what we’re going through. That’s an apt description: ‘heavy as lead’. Agreed!
great article, and the gal in the pic giving birth needs to get out of her jeans, stat!
I am a Cap 27*, ris Sag5*, & Moon in Aquarius18*…..Pluto is at 2* in Libra Hse 10 like my Mc. Chiron & Mars in Aries hHse 5….. What a dilemma of a choice! . I know I am strong with special powers but the guild of past lives stop me right now. I know change is on its way! Lets Pray.
Thanks for sharing Stephanie, Yes, you have strength and Saturn going over your Ascendant will also help you to stand strong in self-determination. Looks like it will be in a trine with your Chiron/Mars eventually as well. So use new structures to your advantage!
I have my natal sun at 16 degree cap, husband at 15 degree cancer, Aquarius north node, mc Leo trine natal Pluto in Virgo.. So many around me have been passing away, along with a very large sacred place destroyed by fire. Is it going to stay at this intensity?
Dear Charity,
I’m sorry to hear of the losses you have sustained. I know near us a place called Harbin Hot Springs was totally destroyed in the ‘Lake County Fire’ recently. That was a very sacred place indeed! Pluto hits that 16th degree of Capricorn early in 2016, again in June, and doesn’t complete until December. Whether or not that means further intensity for you depends on the complete gestalt of your chart with your Sun, but I dare say you are going through a transformative re-birth process in the bargain. Pluto moves to the 15th degree for it’s final pass by the end of December. To encourage you, I have seen many wonderful new projects and manifestations arise out of the ashes of what Pluto has destroyed. It can also take you back to a place deep within that needs to be reclaimed as part of your own solar passion and purpose. I wish you grace and protection as you surrender to the alchemy that is upon you both.
I love how you broke it down. Now I have the understanding of the natal. Thank you
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