In previous posts we’ve explored the history and some of the possible effects of this transit, as well as Pluto’s transition from Capricorn into Aquarius. In this post we’ll go deeper into how you can work with it on a personal level to transform the Aquarius part of your chart over the next 20 years.

Pluto will be in Aquarius from 2023 to 2044 but he only spends a few months in the sign this year, giving us a tiny taste of what’s to come. Here are the full dates again:

• Enters Aquarius on 23 March 2023
• Retrogrades into Capricorn on 11 June 2023
• Re-enters Aquarius on 21 January 2024
• Final visit to Capricorn from 1 September 2024
• Enters Aquarius to stay from 19 November 2024
• Dips into Pisces on 9 March 2043
• Final visit to Aquarius on 31 August 2043
• Enters Pisces to stay on 19 January 2044

Pluto represents the principle of transformation that works through the purification and destruction of outmoded forms so that they can be renewed and regenerated. You may experience this as a process of death and rebirth in the area of the chart through which Pluto is transiting, as well as with any natal planets that receive an aspect.

How you experience this transit will depend on the house occupied by Aquarius in your chart and whether it contains any personal planets. Those who are particularly Aquarian or attuned to the energies of Pluto are more likely to experience it on a deeper personal level. Others may only experience it via the collective forces around them as the changes within society force them to adapt.

Obviously, the more awareness you can bring to your experience, the more choices you will have over how to respond. But since Pluto represents such a deep and unfathomable level of life, there’s a limit to how much you can control what happens. Sometimes you have to just deal with what you’re given and accept your fate. You can read more about how Pluto works here: Pluto Myths.

Pluto in Aquarius will reform how we organise society through laws and social norms, innovation in science and technology, and philosophical systems of thought and ideals. You may like to participate in this process by getting involved in politics and social reform and joining groups of friends working to change the world or just the local community. This may transform your view of yourself and how you relate to society, opening you up to new ideas and deepening your humanitarian values.

As the archetypal outsider, Aquarius can see what needs to be changed and is great at breaking free of social norms and rules and doing its own thing. However, Pluto will also stir up the shadow side of Aquarius and intensify its tendency for cold detachment and fixed ideas and ideologies.

This could create the perfect conditions for groupthink, fanaticism, and even totalitarianism. There could be power struggles within groups and an increase in ‘cancel culture’ where individuals are cast out from an institution or society at large. Belief that you’re ‘doing the right thing’ can easily create the radical who wants to force their ideas onto the world, no matter the consequences.

These dangers can only be countered by individuals who think for themselves.

Many assume that Aquarius stands for the individual, but this isn’t the case. The sign of Leo represents the individual, while Aquarius represents society which is made up of individuals. The ideal is to balance these two signs, as too much of either causes problems. Too much Leo leads to self-indulgence and the breakdown of society, and too much Aquarius destroys the individual which also, ultimately, destroys society. More on that here: Aquarius Myths

Aquarius represents group consciousness as opposed to individual consciousness, and the shadow side of this is mass consciousness. In group consciousness, you maintain awareness of yourself as an individual as you come together with others. The group may have an inclusive awareness of itself but this doesn’t erase your identity. In fact, the group identity is enhanced by the coming together of all the individuals within it because the group is defined by something that transcends the individual.

In mass consciousness, the individual loses their sense of self when they become part of the group, as in herd mentality and mob rule. Mass consciousness comes from the fear of the ego that desperately wants to belong and feel part of something larger than itself. It also doesn’t want to feel the anxiety of being an individual and doesn’t want to think for itself or take responsibility for the consequences.

Hence the appeal of groupthink, tribalism and identity politics. These are all made worse by the fragmentation of society and the loss of a transcendent connection to something beyond the individual. When you feel isolated and alone, you have no clear sense of how to relate to society and this makes you prone to being overtaken by mass movements and whatever is running through the collective unconscious.

Pluto represents the collective will, or the will of the people, and this could push liberal and collectivist ideologies to an extreme. Last time Pluto was in Aquarius we saw the development of utilitarianism, the philosophy that doing the right thing should be based on what’s best for the majority. This seems reasonable but in practice the end is often used to justify the means, leading to some truly egregious actions, such as eugenics.

Mass movements always fail in the end because they operate through shadow projection which sets people against each other. In calling for unity they may present themselves as compassionate and humane but usually at the expense of some other group. This reduces people to labels and erases their humanity and the lowest instincts of our nature are unleashed.

Solidarity then becomes unthinking conformity, which becomes totalitarianism. An exciting rise in people power turns dark and becomes a raging mob. The need for social justice morphs into a desire for revenge. A freedom fighter becomes the tyrant he wants to destroy.

The way we have become hypnotised by our technology makes mass consciousness more likely. Our current system of internet and social media is deliberately designed to be addictive and divisive. It reduces our freedom and humanity and locks us into an artificial world controlled by algorithms. Many have already been turned into mindless machines even without a chip in their brain.

There’s nothing wrong with technology in principle and when used effectively it can be liberating and life-enhancing. However, Pluto in Aquarius is likely to increase our obsession with finding technological and digital solutions to every problem, whether this is helpful or not.

For example, AI art generators have been causing a stir recently. But although they look impressive, they’re not really creative – they can only imitate. Based on a prompt, the output is generated by copying whatever the AI has been trained on. It has no awareness of what it’s doing – no imagination, emotional understanding or meaning. In other words, no humanity.

The real issue is what this does to our imagination and ability to create. When using AI to generate artwork or blocks of text for a project, you don’t have to think or use your own imagination – the machine does it for you. What will happen to our imagination and creativity if we don’t use it?

Creativity is innately human and inherently valuable. It isn’t something that should be outsourced to a computer to save time, or just because you can. And why would you want to? There’s an interesting post about this by Dana at the Druid’s Garden here.

Despite its problems, we seem intent on turning ourselves into machines, perhaps to avoid the pain and confusion of being human. I shouldn’t have to point out that this will end badly. Here’s a quote from Charles Upton from a comment under one of his videos, explaining exactly where transhumanism would take us:

“No one seems to realise that it takes human character and virtue to maintain human creations; if we despair of ourselves, we will eventually despair of our technology too; if we reject the idea we are created, we will be forced to define ourselves as self-created, for which we will be condemned to the punishment of Atlas. If we do not let God and his creation carry us, but try to carry creation without God, matter will crush us.”

Thankfully, the transhumanist age is unlikely to last very long. It will break apart under its own impossibility and inherent contradictions. And you can help that process along by refusing to be dehumanised by staying in touch with your embodied humanity, including all the messy feelings that Aquarius has such trouble with.

One way to resist mass consciousness and dehumanisation is to embrace the positive side of Aquarius and learn how to think effectively. Pluto may intensify the fixed ideas and ideologies of Aquarius, but he can also help to deconstruct those same ideas and transform your thinking about science, society, humanity, and yourself.

This transit can be used to enlarge the scope of your mind, filling it with new ideas that are liberating and exciting. You may be drawn to revolutionary or radical ideas and develop a need for greater intellectual freedom. It’s a good time to question everything and adopt the scientific method and learn to think in a more objective way.

That means evaluating what you find on your intellectual travels and learning to doubt all your assumptions and ideas. This isn’t easy and it takes time and effort – Aquarius is ruled by Saturn, after all. But you do need to test every crazy idea and intuitive flash of insight, and not just accept them as a new truth.

It’s also important to remember that there’s a limit on what can be understood with the rational mind. That means there’s also a limit on our ability to solve the problems of society using science and technology. It’s not possible for us to be completely objective – we can only increase the number of perspectives we take into account, and we can never know everything.

More data or information doesn’t necessarily equate to meaning or reality. And this is especially true if we haven’t dealt with our emotional blind spots and shadow material. This is why so much of science has been overtaken by ideology in recent years, as important areas, such as the climate, have become politicised. Needless to say, science should be based on reality, not ideology.

All of this applies to philosophy too and the systems of thought that are the foundation of our society. In the ‘West’ that means the ideals of the Enlightenment which have since dissolved into the kind of postmodern thought that’s befuddling minds in universities around the world.

When you deconstruct everything, including truth itself, you only have two choices: embrace Zen (mysticism), or disappear up your own arse and unravel into nihilism. The ‘West’, sad to say, has chosen poorly. Hence the myth of our age is Thomas Mann’s Faust.

Pluto in Aquarius will bring this intellectual dead-end into full focus and demand that we answer some real questions, such as: What is a human being? What is consciousness? What is life? What is reality?

If we want to change the way society works, we need to examine the ideas that underpin it to find out where the problems are. There’s no point in trying to change the world until you can change the thinking that created it. The best ideas will encourage the acceptance and integration of the shadow side of humanity – not by acting it out or indulging it, but by understanding its deeper roots and integrating it into the whole.

And that brings us to the best way to resist mass consciousness and nihilism: becoming a real individual through the process of individuation. This isn’t the same as individualism which is centred on the ego and driven by fear and conformity – i.e. mass consciousness. Real individuality can’t come from the ego. For more on this read: Active Hope and Expanding the Sense of Self

Individuation involves transcending the ego and integrating the shadow, but also examining the roles you play in society. Your identity is shaped, in part, by the society in which you live through cultural ideas and norms and your relationships with others. So a real individual isn’t isolated or self-centred because they recognise the need for society in order to become a fully rounded human being.

With Pluto in Aquarius you can explore your assumptions about who you think you are and examine your conditioning for authenticity and integrity. Ask yourself:

• Is this who you really are?
• Where is the dividing line between you and society?
• What role do you play in society and does it fit your individuality?
• How can your individual perspective enhance the functioning of society as a whole?
• Who are you trying to become and to what end?
• What kind of society do you want to create?

There are no easy answers to these questions and everyone must answer for themselves. Many avoid becoming true individuals, perhaps because it’s too much responsibility and hard work. But if you don’t define yourself for yourself, somebody else will do it for you and then force you to live within that structure – and they won’t necessarily have your best interests at heart.

Depending on where you live, you may want to rebel or revolt against the structures and rules of society in order to liberate yourself from them. But you can’t reform the system because you are part of the system. So to summarise Jung, if you want to change society, you have to change yourself. And you can only do this when you understand who you are on a deeper/higher level than the ego.

Ultimately, all beings are interconnected and interdependent and this is the deeper meaning of Aquarius. Your true identity – the goal of individuation – is the Supreme Identity, the true Self, Buddha Nature, Christ consciousness, or whatever you want to call it. From this perspective, the connecting line between an individual and society is found in the heart where the Self of one is the Self of all.

While Pluto is in Aquarius you have the opportunity to deepen your understanding of your own nature as a human being and transform your relationship to society by making a contribution that benefits others. Where Aquarius falls in your chart may indicate how you can do this.

Imagine what we can accomplish if we all get over ourselves and come together in friendship to create a better world for everyone. Watch this excellent and enlightening interview with Iain McGilchrist on Rebel Wisdom on how we can bring our minds back into balance and sanity: The Matter with Things (essential viewing!)

Next time, some films for Pluto in Aquarius…

More on Pluto in Aquarius here

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