Pluto in Capricorn: All Hands On Deck

Photo: Willow

And next up: the Pluto in Libras.

Since Saturn (Capricorn's ruler) entered Libra at the end of October 2009, it has begun to call on the Pluto in Libras to take their full, adult places within the Capricornian structures so as to further the Plutonic process in that sign. People with Pluto in early Libra (1971-1974) have more than likely felt the weight of this responsibility being placed squarely on their shoulders in the past few months, with an understanding that this is just the beginning.

Libra is a cardinal sign, and this Pluto generation is a pivotal one in maintaining a balance and a modicum of harmony and decorum throughout the cardinal t-squares over the next decade (with Uranus in Aries and Pluto in Capricorn). Within this generation lies important new leadership.

This is a generation that will not sit idly by and allow love, justice or human beings themselves to be diminished and consumed by mega-corporate machinations or global warfare. Pluto in Libras know how to go to the mat to keep people together. We know how to get down and dirty and fight for the crucial objectives of the soul within relationship. And when our best effort can't make a go if it, we know when and how to cut our losses and sever ties. There's method to our madness, even when it gets nasty.

Capricorn relates to concrete, collective progress. Rather than the glorification of the figurehead we associate with Capricorn these days (possibly due to the reign of the Pluto in Leos, currently begrudgingly exiting positions of power), the responsibilities and effort taken on with Capricorn are meant to further the group. Because of this group focus and the hardcore flipping mess we're in on this planet currently, we're going to need the whole team playing its A-game to accomplish the Herculean tasks of restructuring the way we do things.

It seems to me that Saturn's transits over the next decade, during the thick of the initiating cardinal squares while dispositing Pluto in Capricorn, do just that - activate the whole team, from the late Pluto in Virgos to the newest Pluto in Capricorn baby being born, and integrate them into the structural morphing process. We need a grand-scale effort to turn things around here, and the Saturn transits of late Virgo through Capricorn give it our best shot.

Leo is a fixed sign, and the Pluto in Leos have held fast to positions of power and their way of doing things. The Pluto in Virgos have often been employed, so far, to smooth things over and clean up messes and keep things functioning as the Pluto in Leos did their thing.

But now there is a massive power shift. There has to be. It's the only way we can right this ship as it heads rapidly for the rocks.

Pluto is a planet that enters a sign and brings with it a deep, often gut-wrenching process of excavation and examination, confrontation and release, digging and purging, stripping down and regeneration so as to completely transform constructs and dynamics that would hinder or stop human soul development on this planet.

Pluto enters a sign at the point when the expression of that sign has become so hideously constricting, toxic, soul-stifling and laden with energetic booby traps related to its past expression that without the Plutonic process, the continued corrupted expression of that sign would bring about soul death, or even literal death, within the collective.

Garbage sticks. And a sign gets so weighed down with detritus (held emotion and remembrances of betrayals of trust, nasty, underhanded dynamics, dishonesty, manipulation, abuse) that it can no longer express in a functional way. It can no longer achieve necessary objectives and gets stuck in the same loops, experiencing the same unpleasant set-ups over and over again until, with Pluto, we go right to the core of the situation and become fully aware.

The clear and true expression of the sign becomes more possible as we go through the Plutonic strip-down process where we burn away all that is false and regenerate the experience and expression of the sign into something with real integrity for the long haul.

Pluto rules a force of generational evolutionary commitment - what a particular Pluto generation is here to collectively accomplish.

Wherever Pluto lies in your chart, rest assured that after you and your Pluto generation get through with it (or it gets through with you), it will be stripped bare and transformed into something more suited to human soul development for the next 248 or so years.

Pluto triggers the alchemy of the soul, applying immense pressure to turn coal into diamond. Yeah, sounds empowering. Feels like hell.

Pluto's transformational process can be called many things: painful, brutal, hellish, cruel. It breaks down energetic constructs, often forcing us to emotional, physical and psychological breakdown in the process. But it's a process that must go on to facilitate the continued survival of human souls. We're here for a reason, for a limited amount of time, and Pluto won't do us the disservice of letting us forget it.

I don't completely know why Plutonic experiences have to be so brutal, and I hope this is not the case in the future. It's something I ponder quite a lot: why we have to go through such traumatic experiences in order to further this process.

All I can come up with is that trauma has a certain energy about it that makes us dig deeper within ourselves and reach further spiritually than we ever could or would without it. It makes us confront things we would often rather die than confront - including the inevitability of our own physical death. Being creatures that enjoy comfort, I suppose we would not willingly break down the energetic constructs or dig into painful emotional and psychological territory without Pluto's impetus.

So we all do the collective soul work of our Pluto sign - whether consciously or unconsciously. And those who have Pluto in close aspect to personal planets will generally be taking on more of the collective work personally and consciously. For example, I have the Sun in Libra loosely conjunct Pluto, so this is a constant in my day-to-day. My whole self-expression is thick with it. Just being me in the world (Sun) brings collective Pluto in Libra dynamics and the required energy work into my life.

And what are Pluto in Libra dynamics?

In basic terms, the Pluto in Libras are here to experience, examine, break down, and process out stultifying, abusive and "just not right" relationship and partnership dynamics, attracting many relationships (especially before we are conscious of this) designed as vehicles to do so.

We're here to create right human relations on the planet, and it's a big job.

We experience many nasty tricks through our relations with others. All the denied realities of relationship held in the collective come up for us to deal with. Pluto doesn't leave any stone unturned.

We're also here for justice, especially social justice, and equality. Many Pluto in Libras make human rights their life's work.

We're here to create a new balance of masculine and feminine energetic exchange within ourselves and within partnership, as well as a new balance on the planet, in general.

It's our job to find a point of harmony and balance even in the most tumultuous of times (these). To uncover and display the beauty in the ugliest of circumstances.

The end result of this Plutonic processing will be a more free and true exchange of love. Creating deeply satisfying, soul-nourishing relationships - the most beautiful, deeply loving and meaningful relationships this planet has ever seen collectively. And not just the romantic ones.

Yes, we've set our sights high, but these are epic times. As they say, we're the ones we've been waiting for, and if we work our little hearts out and achieve our goals, we bring forward human relations and love relationships truly befitting us and this beautiful planet - ones that allow for our further mutual soul growth, rather than following patterns and forms that bring misery and dissatisfaction.

In order to get to those relationships with that beautiful level of trust, openness, and soul-sharing, we have to figure out what is keeping us from that - the areas that lack integrity and honesty. And there are a lot of those.

Many of our parents have Neptune in Libra, a placement that set them up for rosey, Neptunian idealism around love and romance and then massive disappointment and disillusionment when the reality of their relationships didn't measure up.

Being able to tell reality from illusion in relationship is a big thing for Pluto in Libras. Getting to the nitty gritty and then working from there, stripped clean of false expectations and realities left unspoken.

And as our generation brushes away the ashes left from the breakdown and razing of relationship constructs past, we find the raw potential for something real. We understand what it really means to love and be loved when it's not easy, when the chips are down, when things are crumbling all around us. And through this Plutonic process, we heal the crushed hopes and dreams of every disappointed lover who came before us. We connect at the raw, vulnerable, immensely strong collective heart, through the ages, and start again.

Saturn transits Libra until early October 2012, and Saturn conjunct Pluto will be the beckoning call for Pluto in Libras to fully enter the fray.