*A Pink Floyd Mural - “We Don’t Need No Thought Control”*

In Part I of our Pluto in Aquarius series, we set the scene for this incoming 21-year transit and how its likely to show up for us here in the present day. Mostly, we speculated on Pluto in Aquarius’ influence on technology and the role Big Tech will continue to play in our culture. We highlighted some key Aquarian and Plutonian archetypes and reviewed a handful of previous Pluto eras by sign to frame how Pluto in Aquarius may influence the collective strata in the modern age.

Read Pluto in Aquarius: Part I here to catch up!

In Pluto in Aquarius: Part II, we will review previous Pluto in Aquarius sojourns, thus highlighting additional themes we might like to consider for our present journey into this transit.

Let’s get into it!

1777- 1798

Pluto’s most recent visit to Aquarius occurred during an era of revolution among several countries around the world. While the Declaration of Independence was born in the late degrees of Pluto in Capricorn, it’s important to note that the US colonists continued to war with the British through the early years of Pluto’s journey into Aquarius. While we’d prefer our Pluto return to be wrapping up, I’d speculate that it will continue until Pluto reaches 9° Aquarius – Pluto’s position when the Revolutionary War was declared over via the Treaty of Paris.

The French Revolution began as a Women's March demanding lower prices of bread (to which Marie Antoinette said “then let them eat cake,” not realizing that you also need flour to bake a cake); this spiraled the movement into class warfare. The French revolution is regarded as a movement whose ideals of equanimity ran away with them – a textbook example of the oppressed becoming the oppressor. It wasn’t enough to level the playing field; heads were going to roll. The shadow side of humanitarian Aquarius is the authoritarian masking its agenda as the greater good. What is deemed humanistic to one grouping may very well be oppressive to another.

The 1780’s and 1790’s are considered a bridge between the Age of Enlightenment (the flourishing of social sciences, individual rights and humanistic morality) and the Industrial Revolution – the flourishing of machinery. On one side of the coin, machines liberated the individual from a more grueling labor; on the other, machinery brought more of a focus on efficiency versus the value of technical skill, laying the foundation for capitalism and new forms of exploitation.

Democracy was the hot, up-and-coming political ideology of this era – a true Aquarian ideal which considers the aims and desires of the group. Haiti, Australia and the Netherlands also claimed their Independence during this period. Liberalism and Partisanship (loyalty to a political party) began to take root for the first time, while abolition movements arose in the United States and Europe. Pluto in Aquarius fixates upon the question of what it means to be humane.

Technologically, scientific breakthroughs abound. The composition of water is first understood, new elements are discovered – and yes, planets. The discovery of Uranus was earth-shattering for both astronomers and astrologers – and certainly for those who had no previous knowledge of planets at all. Imagine the buzz on the street! “Science and technology, ooh!” More inventions such as cast iron, hot-air balloons and steamboats innovated architecture and travel. The small-pox vaccine brought medical breakthroughs while the cotton gin and lithograph innovated labor. The metric system was formalized as a global default measurement system – “fixed-air” indeed!

1532 – 1553

Roughly 500 years ago, Pluto again visited the sign of Aquarius – a sign concerned with societal infrastructure and social ideologies. King Henry breaks from the Roman Catholic church, radically dismantling England’s devotion to a particular doctrine. King Henry facilitates a Protestant reform, establishing the Church of England where his ideologies reign and the heads of traitors roll. Indeed, this encapsulates the tyrannical, uncompromising thread of Aquarian thought control. Note that this is also England’s second Pluto return!

As I mentioned in Pluto Part I, reflexives defense to the new Pluto movement are common. As Protestantism gains popularity, Catholicism resurges within the Reformation – which sought to rebrand Catholicism in a way that was more appealing to people, while also experiencing its own reprising of new Orders, including the Jesuit Order (Ignacio Loyola, a famous devotee amongst them). During this period, Sikhism is also established by Guru Nanak in the Punjab region. We often think of religion as belonging to Pisces, but the organization of peoples around a shared grouping of values or mission statement can be distinctively Aquarian. It’s no wonder the line between cults (Aquarius) and spirituality (Pisces) is often a porous one.

*An orignal copy of Copernicus’ “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres”*

In terms of Aquarian technology during this period, we see several “firsts” in printing – mostly of various religious texts in various languages. The Scientific Revolution begins in 1543 with Copernicus’ publishing of “On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres,” which formally pitched the heliocentric model in a cultishly geocentric Europe. True to the outsider archetype of Aquarius, Copernicus dared to challenge the dominating thought. While he wasn’t formally banned by the Vatican until 1616, the birth of the book and its tectonic social ripple are born of Pluto in Aquarius.

We think of Aquarius as humanitarian – but maybe it’s more accurate to say that Aquarius possesses a spectrum of rigid viewpoints about what that means. This period features the Spanish conquest and the transatlantic slave trade, spurring conversations amongst the Europeans about the inherent rights of indigenous peoples. Oppressive conversion of language and religion begins in some regions, while other groups are able to retain autonomy. This seems to parallel the 1780’s when the enslavement of African and Caribbean peoples is banned as a practice in some parts of Europe and the American colonies. Pluto in Aquarius here then leads to the erasure of culture and the oppression of peoples in the name of thought control.

1041 – 1063

The coolest thing that stands out to me about this period: Around July 4th, 1054, a supernova is observed and recorded by several different cultures all around the world. For 23 days, it remained bright enough to be visible in the daylight. This supernova is presently known as the Crab Nebula. What’s so Aquarian? This event eventually helps historians sync the various calendars of the different cultures on all continents, bringing a sort of unification of time-recording systems.

The Byzantines reconquer the fortress city of Edessa (modern Turkey), returning it to Christian hands after 400 years of Islamic rule. What’s interesting about this is that we see a mingling of religious iconography during this time. Christian symbols overlay Muslim architecture. We also see The Great Schism – a splitting in ideology which produced the two largest Christian denominations: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox. Us versus them – a classic Aquarian aim to define a social order.

As for technology, movable type printing is invented in China; also during this time, a military treatise from the Song Dynasty is complied, becoming the first book in history to include formulas for gunpowder and bombs as well as how to build a double-piston pump flamethrower and magnetic compass.

795 – 819

*A 13c painting recalling the Abbasid “House of Wisdom” era by* ***Maqamat of Al-Hariri***

As an astrologer, this period is naturally my favorite Pluto in Aquarius era. Belonging to the Islamic Golden Age and the intellectual and cultural abundance created by the Abbasid Empire, this era boasted values such as “The ink of a scholar is more holy than the blood of a martyr." While spirituality indeed plays a role in this period, it’s the Aquarian preservation of knowledge which collectively rests upon a pedestal. As Aquarius is the archetypal outsider, it’s interesting to note that foreigners from all over the world were welcomed into the walled city of Baghdad, so long as they brought books or intellectual talent.

Baghdad was essentially a capital of science, astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, medicine, and education –where both Muslim and foreign scholars aimed to accumulate the textual wisdom of the world and translate them into Arabic and Persian. Many classic works of antiquity that would otherwise have been lost were thus preserved – including many of the astrological treatises and texts we treasure today.

Mathematic systems such as the Arabic numerals many of us use today emerged from this period, including the introduction of the number “0,” algebra, and perhaps most interestingly, the word algorithm. As we presently head into a new Pluto in Aquarius era, “the algorithm” is largely considered akin to a tech-God entity and will play a highly distinctive role in this period.

305 – 330

One of the other reasons we observe a strong thread of Christianity throughout these Pluto in Aquarius periods may also have to do with the prominence of Constantine the Great during this period. He rules as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (306-337) for the entire stretch of Pluto’s Aquarius sojourn. During his reign, he formally establishes and ensures the spread of Christianity throughout the Roman Empire, which was largely polytheistic at the time. In fixed air fashion, Constantine wanted to make sure everyone was on the same page. He frequently held councils of theologians to iron out the kinks in Christian doctrine, as well as commission new copies of Bibles (copied by hand at that time). He additionally financed the construction of churches all throughout the Holy Roman Empire.

*Eerie scupture of Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emporer of Rome*

Constantine also supports this shift from a largely polytheistic to monotheistic worldview by rebranding Pagan celebrations into Christian rites. The historically notable Council of Nicea, is held in 325 AD, which orders the celebration of Easter and establishes significant doctrines. So if you ever wondered why Easter is officially scheduled on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the vernal equinox, now you know why.

What is not as well documented is the Plutonian counter-resistance to the Aquarian thought-control. However, there is ample mention in the Old Testament around the persecution of Goddess worshiping peoples and the destruction of their idols and temples of devotion.

Common Threads:

Throughout these periods, we see a definite emphasis on Aquarian “fixed-air” ideology. Whether its an intellectual movement, a societal movement or a divisive disagreement on how to interpret the Bible – we see how an ideology can have a sweeping, dominating effect on the way a society organizes. We can identify themes of loyalty to a specific viewpoint; look no further than democracy, partisanship, humanitarian causes and the value or preserving knowledge. We also see a dedication to scientific advancement either flourishing or budding during these periods. With Pluto, we must also acknowledge the authoritarian themes of thought-control and the deliberate shaping of belief or worldview. It’s both interesting and scary to consider how technology (and the algorithm) may very well embody the tyrannical Pluto in Aquarius thought-controlling entity.

My hope is that we can borrow an important thread from the Abbasid period: This Pluto in Aquarius era highlights the potential of the human mind as a source of empowerment, agency and humanitarian endeavors which continue to benefit humanity to the present day. As we move into a time where AI continues to replace and amaze us, may we remember the potency of our own minds and collectively return to value accessible educational opportunities for all.

How else do you think these themes might connect for us in the present day? Leave me a comment and let me know!

REad Pluto in Aquarius Part III: Noteable Configurations

Big Blessings,

Catherine

Join us in Cauldron 2023!

Cauldron is a monthly astro-meet-up designed for intermediate to advanced practicioners of astrology to expand astrological skillset, develop new techniques and to converse in the eclectic language of astrology with collegues who share our passion! This immersive education model is robust with opportunities to learn and share.

Become a Member

See the Schedule