What does Pluto in Aquarius mean?

This is your Horoscope Highlight for the week of March 20-27, 2023 with world-class astrologer, historian, and author of The Cosmic Calendar, Christopher Renstrom.

This week, Christopher dives into Pluto’s monumental ingress into the sign of Aquarius. He begins by describing the archetypal nature of Pluto, the Roman god of the underworld, and the potentials of working with its energy in your life. Then, he goes through the three air signs and their relational qualities, giving special attention to the sign of Aquarius, which he relates to the concept of “Utopia.” He speaks about the relationship between Saturn and Uranus, the two ruling planets of Aquarius, and the implications of Pluto in Aquarius for our world.

Chapters 📺

0:00 Intro

0:49 The Plutonian Experience

3:27 Air Signs and the Realm of Relationships

6:29 A Closer Look at Aquarius

10:17 Saturn’s Myth: Recap

13:30 Ovid’s Saturn Poem

15:38 Various Views of Saturn

17:10 Saturn & Uranus

22:15 Separation of Church and State

29:15 Looking Ahead

The Plutonian Experience

[00:00:49] First of all, let’s begin with the planet Pluto itself. In astrology, Pluto represents the ordeals and the transformations that arise from them. In other words, Pluto is a planet that talks about your journey down into the underworld of yourself or down into the underworld of life in general. Because Pluto was named after the Roman God of the underworld.

[00:01:14] So this journey down into the underworld isn’t necessarily a pleasant excursion. It’s often described by people who have experienced Pluto in their charts or Pluto transits as being an ordeal. It’s something that’s very difficult, but Pluto doesn’t. Exact or ordeal in your life to chuckle to itself, sadistically at your aggravation and grief and calamity Pluto brings about this ordeal in order to bring about growth.

[00:01:45] It’s the idea that the more. Deeper or the deeper that you go down into yourself and that you face those sort of underworld aspects of yourself. These have the capacity to transform you by the experience of going through an ordeal into something better. . Now that can be a little tricky. I mean, sometimes people go through ordeals and ordeals are really traumatic.

[00:02:11] They’re very, very difficult and, and they don’t come back from them. And, and that is something that does happen in different occasions or other occasions. You can experience an ordeal. You can go through something that’s, That, that feels like it’s wiping out your life, but at the same time, it reconnects you to yourself in a way that you’ve never felt reconnected before.

[00:02:36] That the experience of going down into this deep, dark place in yourself. also offers the potential of a transformation of a rebirth, of a rebirth back into your life. And so this is why Pluto is often associated to the idea of transformation and the idea of rebirth. Pluto named after the God of the underworld also rules over what lies beneath the floorboards of your horoscope. So in other words, uh, it, it, it rules over those dark. Corners of the horoscope that you came into this world with. And Pluto has one question and one question only about what lies beneath the floorboards of your horoscope.

[00:03:22] And that question is, is it hidden treasure or is it rot?

Air Signs & the Realm of Relationships

[00:03:27] Now let’s talk about Aquarius. Aquarius is the last of the three air signs in astrology. In astrology, there are three air signs. There’s Gemini, Libra, and Aquarius, and each air sign describes a stage of relationship. All air signs deal with relationship. So each of the air signs describes a stage of relationship or relating Gemini rules over sibling relationships.

[00:03:55] These are our earliest relationships in life, either with a sibling or , a playmate. This is where we learn how to. Play. This is where we learn how to share. This is where we learn how to throw hissy fits. This is where we learn how to, accept and forgive things. This is where we learn how to put things back, where they belong.

[00:04:14] Everything you learned in kindergarten is basically. Everything that’s espoused by the sign of Gemini. But our earliest relationships are playful relationships, our relationships in which we are creating friendships, and we explore the limits of those friendships, when not to hurt people’s feelings.

[00:04:32] And when to give a hug. These are associated to the zodiac sign of Gemini. When we move to Libra, we’re moving to a sphere in our life that deals with partnerships. Okay? And, and, and in astrology, Libra was specifically associated with marriage. That’s sort of a partnership.

[00:04:49] It’s the idea that you come from one place, another person comes from another place. Meaning you come from one family and background, another person comes from another family and background, and you enter into a marriage. You build a bridge between these two families or these two areas of life. So the idea of working in a partnership isn’t the same thing as.

[00:05:10] Playing around, you know, poking someone in the ribs or making faces with Gemini. It’s something in which the two people endeavor to take on, the yoke or to take on the contract, of a partnership and to basically coordinate efforts to work together as one for both. People’s interest. This is the idea of Libra when we get to Aquarius.

[00:05:32] Aquarius deals with the group. Aquarius deals with society. It deals with the individual as being part of a greater society. So what it sort of essentially introduces is this idea that, well, it’s basically the big ideal or value for Aquarius is that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the.

[00:05:55] So Aquarius is always keeping its eye on the bigger picture. Is everyone being heard? Is everyone being seen? This is something that’s very important to the aquarium mentality, uh, that, that everyone be heard. Everyone be seen and everyone feel like they have a place in society because as far as an Aquarius concern is c because as far as an Aquarius concerned, a society, a society is only as good as the people in it.

[00:06:26] This is basically the big, Aquarian mantra.

A Closer Look at Aquarius

[00:06:29] Now Aquarius, as I said, rules over society. And for an Aquarius, it’s really an idealized society. It’s the best that society can be. Air signs are very into rules and laws. And principles and they’re very into height.

[00:06:48] Okay. When you think of air, you sort of think of air that circulates in a room, but when you also think of air, you can think of the atmosphere and you can think of birds that fly in the air and, and air signs at different times of a conversation are able to sort of take the bird’s eye view of things.

[00:07:05] So with air, you always think of height, and with Aquarius you’re thinking of the highest height. You’re thinking of the stars in the sky. So Aquarius will stand for ideals, eternal truths and principles. Principles that inspire us to be better than we think we can be as human beings here on the planet.

[00:07:26] So the society that Aquarius espoused. Was the, the perfect society that Aquarius espouse the, a society ruled by the highest principles. The best philosophy, the greatest values that people can conceive of was basically called Utopia.

[00:07:45] Utopia was coined by the Lord High Chancellor of England, Thomas Moore, who served King Henry ii. It was the title that he used for his essay about a great or perfect society.

[00:08:00] Utopia comes from the Greek words , which means no, and topos, which means place. So utopia essentially means no place.

[00:08:12] Many people know that Uranus is the modern ruler of the Zodiac Sign of Aquarius. So let’s start there. Now, did you know that the planet Uranus has a birth chart? Yes, it does. Everything that comes into being in time, everything that is born into time or discovered in time, or begun in time has a birth chart.

[00:08:38] And so Uranus’s birth chart is basically the time, place, and date that it was discovered. Uranus was discovered by the British astronomer, William Herschel, and so its birth information is March 13th, 1781, 10:30 PM Bath, England.

[00:09:00] Now for those of you who want to know, Uranus’s Sunshine is Pisces. Pisces with Scorpio rising and the moon rising in the Zodiac sign of Scorpio. Those are the three essentials of Uranus’s birth horoscope. But that’s not what’s interesting to us today about Uranus’s birth chart. What’s interesting to us today about Uranus’s birth chart is that Uranus has Pluto at six degrees Aquarius. Its birth chart, which means that in the next four years, Uranus, the planet Uranus will be experiencing its Pluto return.

[00:09:42] I’m Georgia Staes. I’m a business astrologer publisher, author, and I’m very, very excited about what’s coming up for all of you for free. With the upcoming Game-Changing Trance event, we’re talking about Saturns ingress recently and to Pisces Pluto Ingress into Aquarius. I’ll personally be speaking about the Jupiter Uranus conjunction.

[00:10:04] It’s research that I’ve done for from the recent books that I wrote. So why don’t you join us. Go to astrology hub.com. Slash game-changing to learn more and register for free admission.

Recap of the Story of Saturn

[00:10:17] Aquarius has two ruling planets, Saturn and Uranus. Saturn is its ancient ruler and Uranus. Uranus is its modern ruler. Now, Saturn and Uranus have a very antagonistic relationship. This is something you might recall from an episode that I did on Saturn back on, I think it was February 12th, called Tragic Hero or Cosmic Misfortune.

[00:10:44] That’s where I did a whole spiel, a whole history on the planet Saturn. Now to recap quickly in an edible triangle that would’ve made Sigmund Freud proud Saturn Castrates his father Uranus and takes his place as ruler of the universe, only to discover that he will be overthrown in time by one of his own children.

[00:11:10] Now in order to stall this prophecy, Saturn swallows each one of his children as they are born. So Hestia, Hades, Demeter, Poseidon, and Herra all go down the gullet of Saturn at the very moment that they are born. And this is to for stall. This is to prevent the prophecy of Saturn being overthrown by one.

[00:11:35] Children to take place. He’s trying to keep that from coming to being. Now unbeknownst to Saturn, the last of his children, Zeus has been secreted away and, and hidden on an island somewhere in the Mediterranean until he can come of age and, overthrow Saturn as it has been prophesied.

[00:11:55] This story of Saturn swallowing his children is pretty much one that’s made famous by the painting of Goya. Maybe you’ve seen it. Saturn is shown almost like a troll, like God holding up this body, which is one of his children, and pulling at it, you know, with his teeth, you know? So he is not just like swallowing his child, he’s.

[00:12:16] You know, pulling apart, ripping it apart with his teeth almost as if he were assailing a chicken breast or something like this. And, and this is a, a painting that has stayed very much in the mind of, of anyone who’s seen it. But. The actual depiction of Saturn swallowing his children is quite different from the Roman point of view.

[00:12:39] Not the Greek point of view, but the Roman point of view. The idea was that each child was swallowed. Uh, And they would then tumble down Saturn’s throat and land in his belly. And there they would reside in this no place, this, this suspended time, this place where time didn’t pass. They didn’t age and nothing happened on the outside.

[00:13:05] Okay, so, so the children, each of Saturn’s children fell down the gullet down into his stomach and they resided. For a very long period of time in the belly of the God. Now, this period of time, according to the, uh, Roman poet Ovid, was actually called the Golden Age. This was a time that was seen as being wonderful and bountiful.

Poem about Saturn by Ovid

[00:13:30] And well, what I would like to do is share with you a very quick, excerpt from Ovid’s poem. Ovid begins by saying the golden Age was first. A time that cherished of its own will justice and right no law, no punishment was called for fearfulness, was quite unknown and the bronze tablets held no legal threatening, no subsequent throng studied a judge’s face.

[00:14:01] There were no judges. There did not need to. Trees had not yet been cut and hollowed to visit other shores. Men were content at home and had no towns with moats and walls around them, and no trumpets blurred out urs. Things like swords and helmets had not been heard of. No one needed soldiers. People were unaggressive and unanxious.

[00:14:30] The years went by in peace and earth. Untroubled un harried by ho or plow share brought forth all that men had need for, and those men were happy gathering berries from the mountainside, cherries, or black caps and the edible acorns. Spring was forever with a west wind blowing softly across the flowers.

[00:14:57] No man had plant. And Earth Unpled brought forth rich grain. The field unfollowed whitened with wheat, and there were rivers of milk and rivers of honey and golden nectar dripped from the dark green oak trees. After Saturn was driven to the shadowy land of death, and the world was under Jo Jupiter, the age of silver came in.

[00:15:28] Lower than gold, but better than bronze. And that’s from Metamorphosis, written by Avid, translated by Roy Humphreys.

Various Portrayals of Saturn

[00:15:38] Now this is a very different view of Saturn as we know Saturn as astrologers. Okay? Saturn is often portrayed in astrology as being carnivorous time.

[00:15:50] Okay? Just eating it’s young, that you’re born into this world, that you grow old and that you’re eaten by Saturn. Okay? So everything young becomes old and is supplanted by uh, something that is younger. Uh, baby boomers will be supplant. Millennials who will one day reach the age of baby boomers, um, and then be supplanted by the next following generation.

[00:16:14] And it goes on and on and on. Um, this process of, of, of decline, which is really how the ancient Romans saw it, this process of decline. From the Golden Age to the age of silver that was brought about by the escape of Zeus and Zeus rescuing his brothers and sisters.

[00:16:35] This led to a decline through time, a decline through history. Everything became less golden. You go from, uh, according to Avid, you go from the Golden Age to the Silver Age to the Bronze Age. I think after that there’s, there’s copper, there’s iron. I don’t know what age we’re in specifically. Um, Maybe we’re in the age of plastic.

[00:16:59] That’s the age that we’re in. And in any case, this, this, this unstoppable decline is what is brought about with, um, the end of Saturn’s rain.

Relationship Between Saturn & Uranus

[00:17:10] So this is very important for our understanding of the relationship between Saturn and Uranus, the two co rulers of the Zodiac sign of Aquarius.

[00:17:23] You can think of Saturn as the past. All right? This is the golden age. Okay, so Saturn represents the past. It’s the golden age, the Garden of Eden that we were thrown out of, right? And then Uranus. Uranus is the future. Uranus is the future. It’s the time that stretches before us, like a blank page with all the promise of what writing on that blank page could possibly.

[00:17:52] Uranus beckons to us to reach for the stars. Uranus beckons to us to embrace the highest concepts and virtues and truths that humanity has espoused. Okay, so where Saturn is pulling for the past, Saturn wants us to go back to a time when, when things were. Okay. Uh, Saturn is, is pulling us to go back into the golden age Uranus.

[00:18:24] Uranus is pulling us to advance, to go forward, to embrace the highest invention, the highest ingenuity. The highest governance, the highest creativity that humanity can envision and that is yet to occur. So there is past and there’s future. And everyone born under the zodiac sign of Aquarius swings like a pendulum between the past and the future and the future back to the past.

[00:18:55] In other words, the more aquariums feel. Um, stuck in a rut in their lives, and that, that they can’t make any choices and that everything has been formatted and, and, and fit for them, the more they wanna burst out of that and, and, and, and, and overthrow the structures, overthrow the rules, overthrow the laws of their lives, and, and run towards something that’s, that’s new and different and hasn’t been experienced before.

[00:19:22] That’s when they sort of go from a conservative. To a more, outward side, you know, a more futuristic side, but the more out there that, that aquas become in their lives, the more like, I, I’ve gone too far. I’m out there. I don’t know what I’m doing with my life. I’m, I’m missing this format, I’m missing this structure.

[00:19:41] I’m missing, you know, those things that, that gave me a sense of place. Uh, then the aquarium swings like a pendulum from the Uran. Side back towards the Saturn side. And so aquas can swing between the Saturn side and the uranium side. Uh, sometimes, once every 14 years seems to be about when that, that that shows up.

[00:20:03] And so they’re, they’re in this constant swing that’s going on where they’re trying to find the best of the two, the best of both worlds.

[00:20:13] Now in the horoscope that’s drawn up for Uranus, right? The horoscope that is, drawn up for March 13th, 1781. 10 30 at night in Bath, England. Okay. The moment that Uranus is discovered, the moment that Uranus comes into being. All right, so this is Uranus’s horoscope. What’s fascinating about the horoscope that’s drawn up for Uranus, other than the fact that it has Pluto in Aquarius, which is something that’s very relevant to us now with Pluto about to enter the Zodiac sign of Aquarius.

[00:20:44] What’s fascinating is that in Uranus’s birth chart, Saturn and Uranus are literally opposite one another. it, it, it, it brings home this antagonistic and oppositional relationship that takes place between Aquarius’s own ruling planets, aquarius’s own ruling planets. Saturn and Uranus in its chart are, Opposite one another.

[00:21:11] And it’s fascinating when you think of what was going on in 1781. Um, the Revolutionary War had not yet been finished. Okay?

[00:21:20] So, so America’s war for Inde independence isn’t yet done. It doesn’t end until 1783. And so Britain is literally at war with its colony, okay? And that’s one way that one could sort of see this Saturn and Mars conjunction really in Sagittarius opposite. Uh, Uranus in, in, in Gemini, you know, it’s the, it’s, uh, Saturn and Mars coming down on the side of Sagittarius, which is, uh, institutions, social institutions like church and state, you know, demanding that unruly, petulant child.

[00:21:55] Gemini, Uranus and Gemini behave itself and come back home and, and, and, and, and start acting like a colony again. , you know, so you have this split between the two of them that’s taking place that is, um, supported, with historically what’s going on at, at the time that the planet is discovered. And I always get a kick out of that.

Saturn, Uranus and the Separation of Church & State

[00:22:15] But, um, what you also have going on here is a split between church and state. Which is Saturn in Sagittarius. Okay. Sagittarius, because if it’s association with the ninth house stands in for governmental institutions, and also stands in for religious ones, ones that are structured and held firm to, and you do not question the law of the state and you do not question the doctrine of religion.

[00:22:45] Okay. So that’s going to be absolutely espoused with Saturn in Sagi. And then it’s opposite. Okay? This, we could use the word rebellious , uh, Uranus in Gemini, which is saying, you can’t tell me what to do. Which, is ingrained in the, psyche of the United States of America. Uh, there is a very strong, you can’t tell me what to do, petulant.

[00:23:09] That’s, that’s ingrained in our culture. But what’s also fascinating about this is that Uranus is in the Zodiac sign of Gemini. And by being in the Zodiac sign of Gemini, Uranus is siding or taking the side of rationality and reason, uh, questioning and curiosity basically. A scientific mind. And that of course is also relevant because in 1781 we are in the closing years of the age of the enlightenment.

[00:23:42] Okay? And the age of the enlightenment, the enlightenment basically is what we’ll call it, uh, was the age in which rationality was in the ascendancy over what was called the superstition of religion and of churches and where. Humanity. You know, they called it mankind at the time. Were going to break the shackles.

[00:24:04] They were going to break the chains of superstition and they were going to break the chains of cast and social order, and they were going to enter into this fraternity. They were going to enter into this brotherhoodhood. They were going to enter into this freedom, and we were going to live in a world in which no one genuflected in front . Of a pope.

[00:24:26] And no one bowed in front of a king, that it would be society, it would be mankind that would rule itself. And what’s very important about this period of time, 1781, right, which is the discovery of Uranus in 1776. You have the Declaration of Independence in the United States of America and in, uh, 1789, or really rather, uh, 1787, you have the beginning of the French Revolution.

[00:24:54] What’s important about this period of time is that what had until this point in western history been a theoretical enlightenment. I mean, enlightenment with its promise of the pursuit of happiness and egalitarian for everyone, and liberty and freedom, um, could sort of sound like, castles in the air.

[00:25:13] It could sound like foolish dreams. This is the period of time between 1776 and 1787 when these ideas of a utopian society are being put into practice. Okay? The, the, the 13 colonies are going to become the United States of America under the US Constitution. Okay? So it’s going to become, it’s going go from colonies to a country, a country that is founded on these enlightenment principles

[00:25:41] in France, what you’re going to have happen is that the French citizens are going to overthrow the monarchy and overthrow the privileged class, the nobility. Um, they’re gonna shake off centuries of, of, of feudalism or centuries of a stratified society, uh, centuries of being dominat. By the, Papa Church, and they’re going to throw that off and they’re going to embrace liberty.

[00:26:10] So, so these theories, these ideals are going to be put into practice in the US Constitution and the Declaration of Rights of man and Citizen. Okay, both of these documents, one comes out of America, the other one comes out of France. Both of these documents come into existence in the, in the same year, in the year 1789.

[00:26:37] And that is when Pluto is little more than halfway through Aquarius. So these things are very relevant, to beginning to understand how Pluto in Aquarius is going to affect us now. Both documents had their light sides and their dark sides. Right. You know, um, on, on one hand, one could say, oh, the US Constitution, America’s going to become a democracy, the first experimental democracy on the surface of the planet.

[00:27:08] All right? But you know, at the same time, it was like, and don’t pay attention to the fact that it’s built on slavery. . Okay? So it’s democracy. For the few, but not for the enslaved. Or for women or for the indigenous peoples. Okay. So it was very much, um, a particular kind of democracy. And so that’s the dark side of the constitution cuz it actually enshrined that kind of dominance of basically a ruling class, which was now going to be a Democratic one.

[00:27:41] We didn’t have a king, but there was still a ruling class, which is people with lots of money. Um, when we go and we look at France, the Declaration of the Rights of man and Citizen. It indeed overthrows, monarchy. It . I mean, can we really appreciate the centuries of ingrained culture that this.

[00:28:02] Did you know when, when the French citizens took up against, the monarchy and overthrew it, they overthrew centuries of, of, of, of institutions that had regulated, ruled and dominated their lives, you know, in this cry for freedom, in this cry for release and for equality. But at the same time, you know, right on the heels of 1789 when the declaration of the rights of, of man and Citizen is.

[00:28:29] Brought into it existence. You have the bloody terror. Okay. You have wheeling out the guine and chopping off the heads of, of the, of the monarchy, of the nobility, of anyone who disagreed with what the revolutionary class in France was saying at that time, and it was a blood bath. A lot of people got their heads chopped off.

[00:28:51] I mean, it’s, it’s the, um, ultimate expression of cancel culture was the guillotine that if you didn’t agree, you were sent to it and your and your head was chopped off. So, so, and that was called the French terror. So basically what both of these examples with their light and their dark sides asked is the question, what price progress?

Looking Ahead

[00:29:15] Nowadays, our society feels split into two camps. There’s one camp that says potato, and there’s the other camp that says Potto. And both camps want to call the whole thing off. This is something that we hear about a lot in our media right now, and so the question becomes, the question becomes how do we reconcile that?

[00:29:38] What can we turn one of the things that Aquarius represents is truth, okay? Aquarius is a zodiac sign that espouses principles, eternal truths, shining ideals that are meant to lift our sights from our day-to-day grind, we look to the heavens to something that’s greater than ourselves, and we guide our lives by that.

[00:30:04] As astrologers, we guide our lives by the stars, but . In society, there’s guiding your life by higher principles, higher virtues, the best that humanity has to offer. And aqua’s beliefs in this. Aquarius believes that the highest of all of these is truth. Now, somebody somewhere once said, truth sets you free.

[00:30:26] Hmm. I think we’re all familiar with that phrase that the truth will set you free, but how can the truth set us free now? When both sides of our social divide, trundle out facts and stats, incite them as if they’re truth yelling at the other side and the other side shakes its head and says, I don’t believe it.

[00:30:48] I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it. Okay. Both sides must despair at the truth ever setting anyone free because, Person on the other side of the divide isn’t, isn’t understanding your facts and stats that you can point to the truth that that, that you understand and you espouse that seems as, as plain as the nose on your face, you know?

[00:31:08] How do you talk to people who are taking their own stats and facts and flinging them back? You know, it’s a food fight. It’s an intellectual food fight that’s going on right now in our cultural divide. So the question. How do you talk to that? How do you live with that? Do you. I don’t know. , do you introduce a world where children are born into test tubes and they’re categorized into Alpha, beta, Delta, gamma, and Epsilon , like Brave New World.

[00:31:41] Do you take your women and throw, throw them into, red nuns habits with white wing, you know, bonnets like Handmaid’s Tale, I mean, This what we’re supposed to do in our society to reconcile these differences. I should hope not , but at the same time, these are images to hold in mind. Not as frightening images of the future, but images of how do you talk to that?

[00:32:09] How do you live with that? The reason each side resists the other is because the answer hasn’t been found yet. All right? It’s not what we’re talking right now. There is no answer right now. And instead of throwing up our hands and saying, well, this is useless, let’s instead.

[00:32:32] Pluto entering the Zodiac sign of Aquarius because surely Pluto entering the Zodiac sign of Aquarius is going to help us create that answer during its 20 year reign. Pluto will be in the Zodiac sign of Aquarius from 2023 to 2040.

[00:32:55] I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode of Horoscope Highlights. Please don’t forget to comment, like, and subscribe. Your support means a lot. See you next week.