Mary Jo Wevers

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Investigating the Darker Side of Aquarius

One of the important astrological events happening in 2023 is the passage of the dwarf planet Pluto from the sign of Capricorn into Aquarius on March 23rd. During the last 15 years Pluto in Capricorn has directed its formidable powers of resurgence and transformation to expose the darker side of traditional, conventional systems and structures that have provided some semblance of material stability and security. We have witnessed Pluto’s disruptive and purging forces acting upon business, government and financial institutions as it roots out and deconstructs all that is toxic and decaying. What might we experience during the 20 year period of Pluto in Aquarius?

Aquarius is concerned with philosophy, ethics, reforming society and progressing into the future. It promotes humanitarian ideals, values equality, and is a champion for the unique individual. Pluto was last in Aquarius during 1778-1798, a period marked by revolution, extensive changes in social order and individual rights. It was also a time of scientific breakthroughs and the first industrial revolution. In the coming years we may witness unprecedented advances in science and technology, including genetic engineering and the use of machinery to enhance human longevity. We may also see advanced technological breakthroughs in computer science that affect our social media and global networking platforms. Pluto will work to reveal the darker side of these developments.

While we may be preoccupied with changes in the outer world, Pluto in Aquarius prods us to look deep within ourselves, to explore the mysteries of what it is to be human. How can we express our own uniqueness as an individual within the context of society? Do we protect and promote the freedom of others? How can we come into a greater knowing of our own strength and power, instead of attempting to control others? In what ways can we temper rebelliousness with self-control? Can we find innovative ways to cooperate and share resources on our planet? Through self-transformation we can play our part moving humanity into the future.

“Those who do not think outside the box are easily contained.” ― Nicolas Manett

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Investigating Our Emotional Depths for Spiritual Growth

In the coming solar month, Mars in Gemini moves retrograde, pointing to a need to be circumspect before acting and communicating. Mars retrograde can manifest as defensiveness and combativeness. In Gemini, it can be caught in the moment, restless and impatient, reactive instead of proactive. As we encounter emotionally charged material in the depths of our psyche during this solar month of Scorpio, we may find ourselves spinning stories about difficult or challenging experiences in which we felt powerless, or attempted to exert control over the situation. Mars in Gemini can provoke the ego-mind to try to explain away our experience in superficial or counterproductive ways, distracting us from going deeper, gaining more profound insight, and affecting real change.

We can come to an understanding of emotionally charged experiences on deeper levels, gaining more personal meaning and spiritual insight from them. Pluto and its sign of Scorpio guide us to turn inwards, and venture into our innermost darkness, to discover the root of our discomfort, face personal issues needing resolution, and connect with our true essence and power. Here is a step-by-step method for handling emotionally difficult experiences more skillfully by investigating on deeper levels that lead to spiritual understanding and growth.

  1. In our day-to-day life we may have a specific experience while interacting in the world. This is the level of physicality, of fact. An event occurred; something transpired. 
  • Ask yourself, What happened? What was the experience? Describe it objectively.
  1. We may have an emotional response to what occurred. This is the level of feeling. One or more emotions may arise in our body, such as anger, sadness, happiness, fear, shame, or some variation of these. 
  • Ask yourself, How did I feel? What emotions arose naturally and spontaneously? Name the emotions you felt. 
  1. Often we have experienced these emotions before. A similar emotional charge from the past may arise and add to the present emotional response, intensifying its energy.
  • Ask yourself, When have I felt like this before? Allow any memories to arise. Make a note of them. Is this experience part of a pattern that repeats in your life?
  1. On the third level we can reflect on the spiritual significance of our experience: the message, lesson or learning we can gain from it. Often an unaddressed issue or theme surfaces when ‘triggered’ in life and we have an emotional response. This allows us to gain insight into unhealed parts of ourselves, or parts of ourself that need to be nurtured or strengthened. When we take ownership of our responses and reactions to events and circumstances, we can affect change, rather than spinning into stories about them. We can take back our power rather than blaming others for our feelings.
  • Ask yourself, What in me is attracting or creating this experience, so that I may become aware of it? What judgments did I make about it, about others, or about myself that interfere with understanding the message, lesson, or learning about the issue?
  1. Finally we can consider what needs to change, be healed, resurrected, transformed, or transmuted in us. How might we grow as a person and appreciate the spiritual significance of our difficult experience and the opportunity for growth it provides?
  • Ask yourself, What in me needs healing? What in me needs to be eliminated, shed, or released? What do I need to do to connect with my inner source of strength, power, love and creativity?

Pluto, god of the underworld in Roman mythology, guides us to explore the deeper levels of innermost self, hidden from the light of our conscious awareness. Once we summon our courage and descend into our subconscious to uncover its hidden mysteries and secrets, we can face them, transform them and reclaim our power.

“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature – that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”

– La Gitana Eva

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Pluto’s Transit of Capricorn: Transforming Patriarchal Systems

The planet Pluto entered the sign of Capricorn in January 2008. During its transit of Capricorn, Pluto functions through the element of earth. It turns its attention to the systems, structures, and organizations we have built that have provided us with material stability and security. It digs down into their foundations, searching the hidden places for that which is degenerating, out of integrity, dishonest, corrupt and decrepit. It strips away the false facade of inflexible, controlling authoritarian traditionalism to reveal the bare bones, the deeper essence and truth about the system in which we live.

Archetypal Pluto in Capricorn is represented in our world by the patriarchy, which wields ultimate power. We have been living within the confines of patriarchal systems for centuries. Its values reflect hierarchical race, gender, and class distinctions. Its institutional structures, and economic systems place white males in charge, who often subjugate others as they exercise their power and control over resources. Before we can fully manifest new foundations, personal and societal organizations and infrastructures that serve all members of society equally and are sustainable, Pluto must do its work to root out and deconstruct all that is toxic and decaying. During its transit of Capricorn Pluto will continue to be a powerfully disruptive and purging force in patriarchal systems until 2023.

Capricorn rules business and government and financial institutions. In recent years we have experienced eruptive revelations and chaotic fallout in the stock market, banking industry, real estate and the housing market, in large corporations, and in government and political institutions. The student loan crisis has been coming to a head, and a recession looms on the horizon. The coronavirus pandemic revealed inadequacies and corruption in health and social services. As we sift through the ashes of old economic, political, and societal systems that are currently crumbling, we have an opportunity to eliminate that which is not honest and in integrity, and develop practical plans for rebuilding.

The Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter challenge institutionalized sexual harassment and abuse of women, and racially motivated violence against people of color. The LBGTQ movement promotes equal rights for people traditionally discriminated against in the patriarchy. In the next few years we can expect more disruption and protests as additional members of society subjugated by patriarchal systems are unearthed by Pluto. As we sort through the debris ripe for elimination or transformation we are reminded that Capricorn discipline and responsibility is the balance to Plutonian power.

While we observe these events in the outer world, it is important to look within and recognize the parts of ourselves that are also degenerating and need to be eliminated or transformed. This is a time for us to transmute immature parts of ourselves so that we may be spiritually reborn as wiser, more responsible, self-reliant individuals. Rather than give away our power and authority to others and then resent them for it, it is time to reclaim our own Capricorn power and become a wise, compassionate Spiritual Authority to our self. Take time to assess your own attitudes around being “adult.” Revamp immature beliefs and approaches to life. Use self-discipline in exercising your power. Be honorable, self-respecting and respectful of others. Success in life occurs when we are fully grounded in mature, responsible wisdom.

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Pluto: Source of Our Personal Power

In modern astrology the dwarf planet Pluto rules the sign of Scorpio. Pluto was named after the god of the underworld in Roman mythology. Prior to the discovery of Eris in 2005, Pluto was the farthest known planetary body in our solar system. It is composed primarily of rock and ice. Dark, remote and cold, Pluto represents the darkest aspects of ourselves, hidden from the light of our conscious awareness.

The name Pluto means “riches,” and refers to the gems, minerals, oil and radio-active substances found under the surface of the earth. Pluto rules what is buried and hidden in our depths, in our subconscious. This wealth of material is fertile ground for us to probe and mine. It contains our deepest fears and phobias, obsessions and passions that need to be brought up into the light of awareness and processed. Once we summon our courage and descend into our subconscious to uncover its hidden mysteries and secrets, we can face them, transform them and claim our power.

Pluto is sometimes referred to as the “destroyer.” Its energy is destructive as well as life-giving. The year of Pluto’s discovery marked the discovery of radiation, which lead to the development of the atomic bomb, and the potential to destroy life on the planet. This heralded a new development in human consciousness. We became aware of the destructive potential of a new source of powerful energy, and the ability for us to wield this power to create or destroy. Pluto brings us face to face with ultimate power: regenerative or degenerative.

Pluto’s power is potent, forceful, passionate, and sometimes explosive. It rules all intensely emotional transformative experiences, including sex and death. Pluto’s urge is to plumb and probe the depths, the dark and mysterious, in order to uncover what is hidden or in the shadows. Pluto’s force drives us to penetrate to the core of an experience. It deconstructs, surgically removes, amputates or eliminates that which is decaying, dying, or no longer useful. It strips away all that is false or not essential to reveal the true essence and nature of something.

Pluto represents our Shadow Self: our darkest aspects, hidden from the light of our conscious awareness. This is the part of us that has destructive tendencies and can become willful and manipulative, paranoid and withholding, jealous and vengeful. Our biggest secrets, those we have never shared with anyone, as well as anything that is taboo or forbidden falls in Pluto’s realm.

In the astrological chart, Pluto symbolizes how we have used and abused our personal power in our karmic past. This produces guilt and shame carried forward into this life, which becomes part of our Shadow Self. Facing our guilt and shame, we can transmute them through forgiveness and understanding, and reclaim our power and passion for life.

Sometimes we have painful experiences during the first decades of life. Plutonian themes of power and control, betrayal and abuse, play out as part of our karma. By the time we have our first Saturn return around age 29, we have paid our karmic debts, or created karmic balance through these experiences. However Pluto and its fixed sign of Scorpio are reluctant to let go of pain and suffering. They carry them forward in our life, even when we have completed our karma. We need to be conscious of Pluto’s love of suffering, acknowledge and honor our karmic balancing experiences, and then move on. Letting go of our karmic guilt and shame allows us to reclaim the power of our Pluto and use it in its highest, life-affirming expressions.

Pluto represents the principles of transformation and regeneration, of death and rebirth, and for this reason is also referred to as the “great renewer.” It is the force behind personal transformation and change as well as human evolution. Pluto asks, “What needs to die?” What old toxic parts of our ego-identified self need to be eliminated or released, so that we can be regenerated and evolve to a higher spiritual expression of our true essence? The placement of Pluto by sign and house in our horoscope gives us important clues.

We can summon our courage, descend into our subconscious, and wade through our turbulent, swampy underworld, probing the depths of our psyche. Coming face-to-face with our Shadow, we can discover its true nature, purge toxic elements, eliminate falsehoods, and reclaim our power. Emerging from our underworld with new self-knowledge and insight, we are transformed, revitalized and reborn. Like the legendary phoenix rising from its ashes, we are transmuted and renewed through Pluto.

“We all need to look into the dark side of our nature – that’s where the energy is, the passion. People are afraid of that because it holds pieces of us we’re busy denying.”
– La Gitana Eva