Are you feeling that end-of-an-era vibe?
Pluto (breakdown) is now in the last two degrees of Capricorn (social fabric). Since 2008 it has been destabilizing collective structures and certainties; this month is its last hurrah.
This is the last time in our lifetimes when we’ll experience this transit, so let’s do our best to understand it.
Farewell, Pluto in Capricorn
Along with the excitement about Pluto moving into a new sign there’s a lot of ill-informed astrology buzzing around the internet. It’s a profound milestone and definitely warrants all the hubbub, but let’s do the transit justice by separating the essence of the symbol from the superstitions around it.
Although this is the planet associated with death and destruction, Pluto does not cause death and destruction. It governs the universal principle that says: Things have to decompose so that they can recompose. Let us agree that a celestial body cannot create decay; it tracks the cycle of decay. If Pluto transits correlate with corruption and rot, it is because it points out what’s already rotting, so as to set the stage for rebirth. Pluto is is on the side of Life.
For the last decade and a half, Pluto in Capricorn (economic and government systems) has been gnawing away, like termites, at society’s sturdiest institutions. Creaky, old societal structures have been flailing around in their death throes.
This is the planet associated with underground wealth. During this period, some alarming truths about global resources (details in this lecture) have been exposed. We’ve watched billionaires go bust, tech-geniuses fall from their pedestals and worldwide income disparity grow ever more dizzyingly extreme.
Creepy crawlies
The transit has been doing the same thing in microcosm, for each of us individually. Slowly but surely, it has been undermining the skeletal infrastructures (Capricorn) of our personal lives. It has been merciless towards aspects of our inner scaffolding that were crying out for reform.
You probably already know which house/s the sign Capricorn occupies in your natal chart. That’s where deeply unsavory elements have been revealed, like the creepy crawly things underneath old flooring. Let’s use these last few weeks of winter to peel back the rest of that cracked linoleum. 
Let’s give serious thought to what’s been exposed to the light.
Transits build upon each other. When a planet moves into a new sign, it builds upon what we learned from its tenure in the sign before.
Mercury conjunction
Mercury’s conjunction with Pluto on Feb 10th is an especially good day to think about what the Pluto-in-Capricorn years have been about for you and for the world.
When Mercury moves into Aquarius (2/11-3/1) our minds should be sharpened with an appropriately abstract curiosity about what’s to come. We’ll be more more than usually able to wrap our minds around the implications of Pluto in Aquarius, the twenty-year chunk of our lives that begins on March 23rd (discussed in this webinar).
The soul has desires, too
Meanwhile, diffuse and possibly overwhelming emotions are swirling around this month. The conjunction on 2/14-15 of Venus (personal attraction) with Neptune (universal love) is lovely for fantasy and romance, if we can enjoy its sweetness without delusion.
Especially in Pisces, where it is now, this conjunction fuses spiritual longing with personal infatuation. It works best when we realize that what we’re feeling is inspired not by a particular individual so much as by our soul’s desire to merge with the All-That-Is.
If we don’t realize this, disappointment is inevitable. This is especially likely when the Sun conjoins Saturn around the same time, mid-month. The lesson here is that the object of our affection may be perfectly fine as a human being, but he is not a god.
