// sea change // pluto's nodes, the age of aquarius, and change in 2018-2020
(Image credit: Cor Ritmeester via Pinterest)
It's August 2018. The planet is on-track to have the hottest year every on record. Heatwaves in Europe are threatening agriculture and stressing electrical grids. The entire western United States is covered in a layer of smoke as fires burn from the Rockies all the way to the coast. Systems of government are collapsing around the world. Permanent employment is becoming obsolete as the gig economy becomes the norm rather than the exclusion. Titans of industry are being brought down left and right as evidence of sexual harassment and abuses-of-power come to light. Traditional gender categorizations are collapsing as self-identification becomes the norm. And every day it seems we wake up to yet another news story announcing yet another collapse, another scandal, another paradigm shift, so much so that at times it feels difficult to keep up.
You are not imagining things....everything is changing. Not falling apart...just changing. But as part of the process of change, some things must come to an end.
"Mundane" astrology is the name given to the field of astrology that connects current world events with astrological transits (the others major fields: natal - reading natal charts, horary - divination based on the chart at the time of a question, or elective - planning future events based on future transits). At any moment an infinite number of possible outcomes exist given a certain set of astrological influences; we are human beings with free will and the power of choice. Any attempt to predict or explain every single event or outcome in a given moment will ultimately prove futile as there are simply too many variables at play, not the least of which is the impact of our own decision making on our individual and collective lives. That said, we can still glean a lot of information about current world events by understanding the astrological energies involved.
Vitula focuses on natal astrology (and to a lesser extent, elective as well), as I believe that the collective is ultimately a reflection of the individuals within it; the more the individual is aligned and manifesting from their authentic, native energies, the greater the impact that will have on the well-being and prosperity of the collective. But even in this very practice there is evidence of one of the two key astrological influences currently at play, responsible for creating the current climate of change.
Described below are the two key energies to which I ascribe the changes taking place on the collective level, namely the transit of Pluto, Saturn and soon Jupiter and the north node across the north node of Pluto in Cancer; and the beginning of the Age of Aquarius, a more nebulous concept but one we can hardly ignore as we see evidence of this shift daily. I would describe both of these influences more as background frequencies than actual aspects; they simply set the tone within which all of the other major transits operate. But that doesn't lessen or diminish their impact.
In concert, these greater themes are shifting us from the external to the internal, from the collective and tribal to the individual. We are shifting from an external authority dictating our internal lives, to our internal world manifesting and creating that outside of us. Both shifts create an imperative to be intimately in touch with our own unique sense of self, along with our own unique energies of manifestation No one is going to tell you what to do anymore nor reward you for doing it; your life is entirely yours to create, and create it you must.
Mundane astrology is far from united on the exact causal relationship of these influences...nor should it be. But whatever the exact cause-effect relationship, at the end of the day we cannot deny that things around us are changing in real, physical ways in our material world. My hope is that explaining these influences will lend everyone reeling in the wake of drama after drama a small amount of comfort that comes with the understanding that there's a reason and an explanation for everything, and that this is not the end of the world...it's merely the beginning of a new one.
Pluto's North Node in Cancer
A bit of a technical introduction in advance of this one:
In natal readings we talk about the "north and south nodes", the points in a chart which, simply put, represent our karmic path. Technically speaking, however, we're really only discussing the nodes of the moon - the lunar nodes - when in actuality there are eight other nodal pairs present in your chart as well.
Nodes are not actual planets or space things, but rather represent a mathematical point where the orbits of two celestial bodies overlap. The earth travels around the sun in an elliptical orbit as the moon similarly travels around the earth. The two points, mathematically calculated, at which these orbital paths cross are considered the nodes - north and south depending on whether it's the leading or following orbital direction.
Like the moon, planets likewise take elliptical paths, albeit around the sun, and the points at which that elliptical path crosses that of the earth are likewise considered the nodes of that planet.
Due to the huge orbits of most planets, the planetary nodes change signs very infrequently, and thus are very rarely discussed in natal readings. Everyone born within a 500+ year time span will have pretty much the same planetary nodes, so they have very little influence on the energies that make one individual different from the next (the nodes of the moon, on the other hand, change signs approximately every 18 months, and are considered key energies in the makeup of an individual).
As the planet representing transformation and the cycle of death and rebirth, Pluto is often considered to represent (along with the lunar nodes) the evolutionary imperative in a given chart; it is through the energies of Pluto's placement in a chart that one must undergo a transformational process in order to leave behind one state of being and emerge, transformed, into a new, more highly-evolved state.
Representing the evolutionary path of the planet of evolution, the north node of Pluto is considered to play the leading role in collective-level, era-defining processes of evolution. Right now the north node of Pluto is in Cancer...along with the north nodes of Saturn and Jupiter as well. In October of this year, around the time of a very high-impact full moon conjunct Uranus in Taurus, Pluto will conjunct it's own south node in Capricorn, followed in 2019 by Saturn, and then Jupiter in 2020, unleashing a massive wave of karmic pressure to evolve away from the Capricorn south node towards the Cancer north node, pressure that we can already see manifesting everywhere we look.
As Within So Without
Capricorn, ruled by Saturn, is the archetypal energy of the father, while Cancer, ruled by the Moon, is the archetypal energy of the mother. Capricorn, an earth sign, builds external structures in the physical world; Cancer, a water sign, builds internal structures around emotions and emotional needs. Both signs contain an imperative to protect - Capricorn protects the external self, such as status and career; Cancer protects the internal self, the emotions and the home. In our bodies, Capricorn rules bones and teeth - those things that provide structure and firmness. Cancer rules the breasts and stomach, those areas where we give and receive physical nurturing.
In an ideal system the energies work together in balance. But what this concentration of planetary south nodes in Capricorn tells us is that we have become overly dependent on the external, and it's time to refocus on the internal; that we need to shift from top-down, to bottom-up.
Don't look now, but we can see this energy playing out absolutely everywhere: the fall of the patriarchy coinciding with the rise of women taking over leadership roles (or at least trying to); the fragmentation of large corporations and heirarchical employment structures and the rise of home-based employment and self-directed freelance work; a growing distrust of traditional western medicine and the rise of holistic healing modalities that incorporate emotional intuition and spiritual well-being; the growth of farmer's markets and local growers and suppliers displacing large, corporate farms and food distributors; the rise of individual "lifestyle" brands and businesses based solely on an individual expression of daily life and self-care; and a growing, widespread movement of self-definition across the board - gender, sexuality, career - that eschews traditional, externally-derived categorization.
It's vitally important to note at this point: there is nothing inherently bad about Capricorn, Saturn, and the themes they represents. Not all fathers are bad, and not all masculine energy - as expressed by any gender identity - is bad...humanity still needs both of these things. Not all structures are oppressive and restrictive; we need an external self, individually and collectively, otherwise the internal self has nowhere to manifest and we lose the collective. The emotional home that Cancer energy creates needs a physical house - an external structure - in order to survive safely. Capricorn themes are natural energies that we all contain somewhere in our individual charts, as does the collective. We cannot allow collective anger over the toxic, lower manifestations of these Capricorn energies (as expressed by both the male/masculine and female/feminine genders) to simply categorically reject these themes in our lives...to do so would be to swing to the other polarity, resulting in an equally destructive imbalance.
But what these planetary south nodes in Capricorn are urging us to recognize is that these energies have become grossly imbalanced, with the imperatives of the patriarchal/masculine/external structures overpowering the needs of the maternal/feminine/internal structures, leading to a host of complications and imbalances: widespread environmental destruction, misogyny, abuses-of-power, pandemic mental health issues, and toxic economic conditions and wealth inequality. And the energy of this Cancer north node is demanding that we rebuild external structures that are more sustainable, supportive of our emotions and internal needs, and nurture external growth vis a vis internal development and not vice versa. What we must do is build without what we have already posses within, and bring the feminine/maternal back into balance with the masculine/paternal.
And this can be scary, as much of society up to this point has been raised in and conditioned by highly-structured, patriarchal environments, where "doing well" and succeeding meant pleasing someone higher up, most likely a man/father/boss. Eliminate that external source of validation and support, and many people struggle. That mode of being is slowly on the way out, replaced instead by the imperative to create your own external life and the supportive structures that requires - businesses, homes, etc - that reflect and sustain your internal, emotional needs and your own internally-derived self-definition. It's literally a sea change, a pole shift, an 180 flip of the arrow. And it's the disorientation of the change itself - not necessarily the energies and themes it represents - that's largely responsible for many of the challenges facing the collective today.
This is a long-term evolutionary process playing out over thousands of years of humanity. But while the overall process will outlive all of us, our contributions on an individual level are imperative to the overall success of the process...and our overall success period. And with the high-concentration of outer planets - Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter - crossing this Capricorn south node between now and 2020, the themes of this background frequency are going to become foreground issues over the coming years as we move - sometimes painfully - away from a hyper-patriarchal world of external authority and power, and towards one more nurturing, sustainable, and internally-defined.
If you have strong natal Cancer or Capricorn placements - Sun, Moon, Rising, Venus - what you do over the coming few years will have an evolutionary ripple effect on the collective. Much of this will simply come about through your own external manifestations of your unique self, absent the need to focus any of your energy on anything other than what your heart desires.
To manifest and attract under this new energy, we all have to reclaim our own internal space, our own sense of self-definition, one that doesn't depend on the approval or authentication of an authority figure, and leverage our own unique energies in order to create a new external world. Luckily the frame-shift represented by the Age of Aquarius is here to help.
Age of Aquarius - The Rise of the Individual
The universe does nothing in vain; that these two paradigm shifts are taking place simultaneously (along with a supporting cast of related short-term aspects as well) is no coincidence. Whereas Pluto's Cancer north node is urging us to self-define, the Age of Aquarius is brining a radical break with past events and norms, with our past programming, and with anything and everything holding us back from expressing our true, natural energies....and this influence is very much about ENERGY.
The shift out of the Age of Pisces and into the Age of Aquarius is a product of an astronomical phenomenon known as the precession of the equinoxes. I won't describe this in detail here, but it essentially reflects the "wobble" present in the spin of the earth around its axis, resulting in a shift of the position of the earth at the spring equinox in relation to the constellations. In short this precession results in the shift of the constellation overhead at the time of the spring equinox approximately every 2100 years or so. The last shift occurred approximately 2000 years ago, when we entered the Age of Pisces. We we find the constellation Aquarius overhead at the time of the spring equinox, the Age of Aquarius will have begun.
Except that no one can agree on exactly when this takes place...everyone has their own interpretation and explanation (a most Aquarian manifestation to kick-off the Age of Aquarius). Some say it was the 1960s. Some claim it's still 500 years off. Some give the year 2160. Some claim the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012, some claim it was 11/11/11, some claim 2008 for some reason...the point is that the exact date is unclear. Like all aspects large and small, this one doesn't happen in a vacuum nor result in an overnight shift; it's a process rather than a definite point. We are already seeing evidence of this shift taking place...whatever the exact date seems insignificant given the way in which the Age of Aquarius is already changing our world.
Aquarius is ruled by Uranus, the planet known as the great liberator. The natural ruler of the 11th house of groups, wishes, hopes and dreams, Aquarius knows the power inherent in collective energy. Viral campaigns, social media, the rise of networking and connective technologies are all manifestations of the rise in Aquarian energy. In it's highest manifestations, Aquarius is humanitarian, individualistic, and group-focused. In it's lower manifestations, it can tribal, polarizing, radical and sometimes violent.
Aquarius understands the power of our individual energies (represented by Aquarius's opposite sign Leo) to come together to create collective change, and, as such, it requires that we each know and use these energies, often creating erratic and challenging situations in order for us to tap into our unique individual skill sets. As a result, Aquarian energy tends to manifest as radical individuality and self-expression, tending towards the unique and innovative over the stable and traditional. All forms of structure that inhibit or repress the collective expression of our unique selves will be eliminated as this era begins, and we will see the power of the crowd rise in relation to the power of traditional authority.
Again - we don't have to look very hard to see this manifesting IRL. Structures that supported stability at the expense of individuality are collapsing. The rise of technology is empowering individual expression through blogs, Instagram/YouTube accounts and startup businesses. Unique and genius ideas - all falling under the rulership of Aquarius - are present all across the board, with "disruptive" technologies, businesses and political candidates constantly unseating perennial incumbents. As soon as something becomes stale, stagnant and slow-growth, you can bet something Aquarian is going to come along and disrupt it, and thus the Aquarian age will glorify the young and novel over the aged and stable - a stark difference from the energetic paradigms of the Age of Pisces. But then again stark differences are what Aquarius does best.
As the eclipse series of 2017-2018 has focused on the Leo-Aquarius aspect, we have seen these themes manifest on both the individual and collective levels, witnessing the rise of individual creativity, collective efforts vis a vis social media and grassroots politics, and a massive wave of new creativity and creative expression coming into being. The total lunar eclipse of July 2018 marked a major turning point in our process of liberation and individualization, and while the impact of this lunation will unfold over the next few months as we settle into these new energies, know that this energy is very much a part of our current reality, regardless of the official "start" date for the Age of Aquarius.
The New Collective
As this energy brings down structures that maintained stasis and stability for centuries, the message is similar to that coming from Pluto's Cancer north node: we must rebuild the structures of the world to support the innovation and development of our own unique expression, valuing our individuality over conformity. Aquarius encourages the power of the group to influence change and direction as opposed to relying on a single authority; we see this in the #metoo movement, in the rise of viral internet campaigns, and through the democratization and decentralization of decision-making (Instagram surveys anyone?).
As this energy strengthens, communities based on old externally-derived systems of definition such as nationality, race and gender will dissolve, and new communities will form around self-defined categories such as aesthetics, ideology, and other individually and internally-derived categorizations. Muti-hyphenates will continue to become the norm as people self-invent and reinvent, defying the limitations of categorization. And as more people begin to express their own unique individuality and individual energies, they will then attract those in alignment, forming new "tribes" and new collectives based on authenticity and individual expression.
**there is nothing to fear**
Change is hard, and we are seeing these difficulties play out in real time. As human animals we are evolutionarily programmed to resist change; it means the unknown, which means potential danger. And yet evolution demands that we undergo continual processes of change in order to reach new milestones both collectively and individually.
As these changes accelerate over the coming years and decades, remember that this is all happening to enable *you* to achieve greater success, and by extension all of humanity. The universe wants only the best for all of us, and it knows how to get us there. It's only when we resist making the necessary changes, choosing to stay locked into the safe but stagnant comfort of our south nodes, in this case Capricorn, that it will start making the changes for us, often in ways that seem uncomfortable or disruptive.
The best thing to do with this energy is to not resist; lean into making these changes. Meditate. Recognize where your wants, needs and desires are based on programming rather than genuine, soul-driven desire. Learn to trust your intuition. Realize the power of expressing your own inherent energies over trying to squeeze them into someone else's categories and definitions. Celebrate what makes you you and find others doing the same. Find your own unique expression and express it. Our human evolution needs YOU and your own unique individuality right now.
As disorienting as this shift may be, it really is a great time to be alive.
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Additional reading about Pluto, Pluto's nodes and evolutionary astrology:
I Love Pluto and It's Nodes, by Linda Johnson via Cosmic Intelligence Agency - Incredibly thorough and well-explained
Structure of the Soul, by Jeffrey Wolf Green, considered to be the father of evolutionary astrology.
Simon Vorster is an incredible evolutionary astrologer (and just astrologer period) and his videos on Pluto are the best around.