Why the U.S. Pluto Return was only the beginning

Writing about political astrology is a depressing business these days. We are all Cassandras, given the gift of prophecy by Apollo but helpless to change the future.

Some of you will be familiar with the U.S. Pluto return, about which I and others wrote about frequently over the past ten years. In my writings I try to be hopeful where I can be, and in April 2023 I wrote:

2025 will be a year for the history books. Both Uranus and Neptune will both change signs, and Neptune will oppose the U.S. Midheaven. This transit last occurred in 1861-1862 just before the American Civil War. That does NOT mean that we will have another Civil War; the past does not always equal the present. But if the necessary changes do not occur over the next couple of years, we could begin to see some breakdowns in the way the country is run.

The U.S. Pluto return technically began in 2022 with three exact hits of transiting Pluto to Pluto in the U.S. chart, but the U.S. chart had been undergoing a Plutonic catharsis ever since Pluto crossed the U.S. ascendant in 1999 and 2000 (read more about that here). Pluto transits force us to face breakdowns where a rebuilding is required, and in Capricorn this means societal breakdowns as well as the evolution of political structures. Pluto also exposes the dark underbelly of corruption and societal dysfunction, which we have certainly seen in abundance over the past few years.

After the three exact hits of Pluto in 2022, Pluto moved into Aquarius in 2023 and then in 2024 retrograded back into late Capricorn to reactivate the Pluto return. Pluto re-entered Aquarius just after the 2024 election, symbolizing the new power dynamics to replace the old ones that were dismantled when transiting Pluto returned to the U.S. chart.

Planetary transits have “orbs of influence.” The effect of a return of transiting Saturn to its natal place at around age 28-30 can linger for a few years afterwards. It makes sense then that a return of transiting Pluto to its natal place, after 244 years, could take 20 years or more to unravel.

I plan to write a more comprehensive analysis of U.S. political history in the 21st century, but for now I just want to say that under Pluto in Aquarius our ideas of what makes up a collective are being restructured. We are a big country of many different ideological positions, and on top of this we are moving into a global era of technological transformation. Aquarius IS a sign of social equality and democratic ideals, especially under the modern rulership of Uranus. But these ideals mean something different to each of us, and what social theories will prevail in the current climate is still unknown.

Stay tuned, as we navigate the mysteries of a post U.S. Pluto Return America together.