5 Things to Know About Pluto in Aquarius

If you’re even a casual follower of astrology, it’s likely that you’ve heard the chatter or seen the news pop up in your social feeds:

Pluto, the smallest and furthest planet in our solar system, is moving into the sign of Aquarius today.

Pluto moving into Aquarius is one of the biggest transits of the whole year, possibly even the decade, let alone a month.

Why is this such a big deal? What can we learn from this? And how might it impact you?

Here’s the lowdown on what you need to know about Pluto’s move into Aquarius and the lessons we can learn from the general pattern of Pluto’s transits.

(1) Why Pluto Moving Into Aquarius is a Big Deal

Quite simply: Pluto doesn’t change signs very often.

Pluto has been in Capricorn since 2008, so this move creates a change in energy from the past 15 years.

It takes Pluto 248 earth years to complete its cycle around the sun. Because it has an unusual orbit pattern, its time in each sign can vary from between 12 and 32 years.

Because of this timing, Pluto’s transit through a sign defines and shapes a generation and its outlook.

Each time Pluto moves into a new sign, it begins a new chapter in our collective experience.

(2) Logistics: When Is Pluto Moving Into Aquarius?

If you like logistics and long-term planning, this section is for you.

Pluto’s move into Aquarius will happen in stages.

Pluto will leave Capricorn and enter Aquarius on March 23, 2023.

However, this move is just the opening sentence in the book that will be written about Pluto in Aquarius.

Its ingress into Aquarius this year will be short — it won’t even get through the first degree of Aquarius before it stations retrograde.

On June 11, 2023 Pluto will retrograde back into Capricorn.

Pluto will return to Aquarius on January 20, 2024. It will get as far as 1º55’ into Aquarius before stationing retrograde again.

It will retrograde back into Capricorn on September 1, 2024 and will return to Aquarius on November 19, 2024.

At this point, it will finally settle into Aquarius for almost 20 years — until March 9, 2043.

After moving onto Pisces in March 2043, Pluto will return to Aquarius for one last epilogue to its story, from September 2, 2043 to January 20, 2044.

(3) Pluto’s Role in Astrology

In astrology, each planet is like a player on a team, with a defined role or job to do.

Pluto is the planet of transformation, death and rebirth, and power.

Pluto is the smallest of the planets, but its energy component as a volume of its mass is much greater. Because of this, Pluto represents intense energy and power.

Where Pluto transits, it effects significant and lasting transformation in that area of life. No part of that area of our lives — both collectively and individually — will go untouched.

Pluto often accomplishes this transformation by purging all that is unnecessary and destructive. Sometimes this happens through a catalyst event that can be painful and bring suffering, even if it eventually serves our collective good.

By the time it finishes its journey, Pluto will leave us — individually and collectively — with a completely different worldview in the area of life that it touches.

(4) What Pluto in Aquarius Will Mean For Us

Here’s some truth you won’t find anywhere else: nobody really knows.

Astrology doesn’t give us magic powers to predict the future. Instead, it gives us a map for where to look and a lens through which we can see patterns that play out over time. Using these tools, we can better attune to what is playing out.

Each planet does its work in the nature of the sign where it is residing.

The Nature of Aquarius

Aquarius is a fixed air sign that brings a focus to the collective. Its symbol is the Water Bearer, a symbol of the gods bringing nourishment to Earth.

Astrologer Janet Booth explains that the Water Bearer in an ancient village would bring you water if you couldn’t go to the well to get it yourself. It knew everyone’s business and shared the news.

Aquarius is known for being visionary, progressive, idealistic, innovative, intelligent, ground-breaking, and revolutionary.

As an air sign, Aquarius can be hard to define. It’s influence leads to shape-shifting, and the qualities of this sign can manifest in different ways.

Aquarius’s nature as an air sign gives it a focus primarily in the realm of ideas and communication, including how we communicate our ideas.

The air element is about human interaction: think about how the air we breathe is shared among all of us. Air signs are about how we think, communicate, share ideas, and bring people together.

In Aquarius, we imagine ways to make society better for all. Humanitarian causes take precedence over individual needs.

Aquarius also draws us to what is new and innovative — especially in the realms related to how we communicate and gather.

What We Might See While Pluto is in Aquarius

The last time Pluto transited Aquarius, the American and French revolutions happened.

What might we expect this time?

Under Pluto’s transit through Aquarius, we will likely see shifts in how we think about online platforms, social media, and how we can use these tools to serve the greater good.

Pluto will also ask us to look at how power is distributed, where we are giving away too much power to a select few companies, how they are abusing that power, and how we can reclaim our power as a collective.

(5) What Pluto Teaches Us About Transformation

If you believe what you read on the internet, and the marketing that is targeting you every day, all it takes to change your life or grow a business is a weekend seminar or a 30-day challenge.

It’s certainly possible for a short-duration event to catalyze a change, but change isn’t the same as transformation.

True transformation happens when you emerge fundamentally changed in your ideals, your vision, in your beliefs and thoughts, and in your drivers to action.

Pluto teaches us that true transformation is not an overnight process. It doesn’t happen in a weekend or in 30 days.

Go back to the section above on the logistics of Pluto’s entrance into Aquarius. Notice that it will go back and forth between Capricorn and Aquarius — passing over the 0º mark of Aquarius three times — before it settles in.

Regardless of the sign that it is in, the enduring lesson from Pluto is this:
Transformation takes time.
It requires us to travel the same territory repeatedly, often regressing and progressing in small, imperceptible steps, until we realize we have made a shift.

The nature of Pluto is to move slowly. Painfully slowly. It spends weeks passing through each degree of a sign, often going back over the territory it traveled before moving forward further.

Even if you take nothing else from Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius, this is the crucial lesson that Pluto teaches us:

Transformation takes time. It requires us to travel the same territory repeatedly, often regressing and progressing in small, imperceptible steps, until we realize we have made a shift.

Transformation has no shortcuts or hacks. It requires daily work to examine and thoroughly cover the landscape, leaving no stone unturned.

It may not seem like we are making much progress in the moment, and that may be true. But in the longer arc of time we will look back and see how much we have changed.