The United States of America is having its Pluto return... It’s the End of an Era.
The United States of America is experiencing its Pluto return. That’s when a planet, in this case Pluto, returns to the place it was at the time of birth. The US - that is, the entity founded on July 4th 1776 with the Declaration of Independence - is coming full circle, completing one of the longest planetary cycles in astrology.
The USA has Pluto at 27 degrees of Capricorn. That’s where Pluto was back on July 4th 1776. And that’s where Pluto is right now.
What, if anything, can we surmise about the future of the USA from this?
Pluto in Astrology
Pluto’s orbit around the Sun is 248 years, two and a half centuries. That's a quarter of a millennium. The sort of event we are discussing here doesn’t happen very often. We’re talking a life span of three to four generations. No living human being ever experiences it (as far as we know) nor do most any corporate or national entity. Can we say anything cogent about it?
Here's what we know via first principles. Pluto symbolises cycles of transformation, death and rebirth. Its imperative is “change or die”. And when Pluto comes full circle, that’s the sort of intense, terminal language we should expect.
It’s about an ending or total transmutation of something.
Best case scenario here is a phoenix rising from its ashes...never to be the same again.
The USA's Pluto in Capricorn: Money, Money, Money...
The USA’s natal Pluto is in a financial, corporate sign, Capricorn and a financial house, the second. So, yes, America is all about the money. Surprise surprise.
Capricorn is about corporate and political power, about being top dog, the one in charge. But the US Pluto is also in a financial house, the second house of money as a store of value and of banking, resources and material goods. How appropriate for a country with its currency, the US Dollar, being top fog on a global scale, the world reserve currency. It is here that Pluto will bring transformation, both financially and politically as well as on a deeper level at the very value system upon which the whole of the USA and its Bill of Rights was founded.*
It is no accident that the birth of the USA was precipitated by financial abuse - i.e. exorbitant imperial taxes by the British - alongside colonialist attempts at greater control (another Pluto in Capricorn byword), leading to the War of Independence. Pluto contains our survival instincts. And as Pluto travelled through the last degrees of Capricorn back in 1776, it was financial survival that brought radical change. It’s what led to to the birth of the USA and the Declaration of Independence; what led to USA world domination; and where we can expect the winds of change to be blowing right now.
The USA is experiencing its Pluto return as we speak with a total of three hits in 2022 on February 20th, July 11th and 28th of December.
What sort of death, rebirth or total transformation can we expect? Bankruptcy? The US Dollar dethroned? Breakaway states? Civil war? Changes to the Constitution? It all seems rather extreme… yet possible. But, perhaps it’s not a case of breakaway states, but breakaway corporations.
Pluto is the planet of slow and inexorable change. It is a slow insidious process, a slow deterioration, a slow devolution and return to seed.
With a cycle that big, things don’t just happen overnight. Perhaps, whatever we’re expecting to happen has already happened! Perhaps, the USA, as founded in 1776, no longer exists. It has already ran its course.
With powerful corporations beholden to no earthy government now dictating USA policy, with a crony capitalist system that's corrupt through and through, with government officials routinely engaging in insider trading, with the very Constitution, and human liberty, hanging by a thread, the American dream is long dead.
But what use is speculating?
It might help if we scour history for similar cases. Have other entities had their Pluto return that we can look at? A quick perusal of nations reveals slim pickings. It doesn’t look like many states survive long enough to undergo the requisite transit.
Our modern democracies are all rather new, certainly newer than 1776. The French revolution was in 1789, the founding of the United Kingdom in 1801 and most of the modern nations we recognise today, both in the East and the West, while having deep historical roots, came to existence relatively recently.
The fact that the USA has survived that long is itself remarkable - the very hallmark of a superpower.
And yet, there is a notable exception... One entity that we can still talk about as living, if forever transformed, one entity that has already had its Pluto return, is Great Britain. The chart of the British Empire, it turns out, is the perfect candidate for comparison.
Looking to History for Clues: The End of the British Empire
Great Britain has Pluto in Leo (conjunct equally regal Jupiter - see Charts) and how appropriate for something so glitzy, grand and royal!
Now here is an entity that’s sort of still around, though not really; that died but didn’t quite, that was somehow transformed from a proud Empire to a more modern and modest Commonwealth.
I think we can all agree that while we still talk of ‘Great Britain’, the British Empire that once was is certainly no more.
So what happened when Great Britain had its own Pluto return in 1952? I am no historian but even the most cursory glance here seems to unearth real treasures. Again, remember: things don’t just happen overnight. What we have is a slow and inexorable unfolding of events toward their ultimate conclusion.
Our story begins in 1939, the year that Pluto enters Leo, the sign of GB’s natal Pluto. This is the start of the process of the British Empire’s Pluto’s return.
It seems that WWII was a major turning point for the British Empire, planting the seeds of disillusionment that led to the Empire's collapse. Having contributed majorly to the war effort, British colonies soon discovered that the ideals they fought and died for were long gone, with the post war British Empire bankrupt and battered with little to offer. And so WWII was the beginning of the end.
The next crucial event in our story - the coup de grace for the British Empire - was the loss of one of its most important territories, India, in 1947.
This date, again, is poignant. For this is the year of the Saturn-Pluto conjunction in Leo, GB's Pluto sign, just a few years before transiting Pluto hit GB’s natal Pluto. This marked another point of no return for the British Empire, as India was one of its largest and most important territories. Strike two.
Our story ends almost a decade later, with the loss of control over the Suez Canal in the mid-50s.
This came as another powerful Pluto-related conjunction took place, again in Leo, in 1955-56: a triple conjunction of Jupiter-Pluto (indeed mirroring Great Britain’s natal Jupiter-Pluto conjunction). That’s when Egypt wrestled control of the Suez Canal for itself and the writing was on the wall. Even if it took another decade for that truth to sink in…(not till the 60’s). The British Empire was no more. Great Britain no longer was the great super-power it once was.
And what about the Pluto return itself?
So, what actually happened in 1952, the year of GB’s Pluto return? This marked the succession: the passing of King George VI and the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
Seen under the fluorescent light of Pluto, this is an event of huge symbolic significance. Not just any succession. A true ending and a fresh start. Moreover, it tells us that the year of the return itself, while deeply symbolic, isn't what brings down the house... It's the events around it. These points of no return, for the British Empire, coincided with three crucial astrological events: Pluto’s entry into the sign of birth, a Saturn-Pluto conjunction in that very same sign; and a triple Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in that very same sign, all rolled into one.
It is really rare to see these factors coincide. And even more remarkable that they should coincide right now once more, leading up to the USA’s Pluto return.
British Empire & United States: Striking Parallels
It all began, as it did with the British Empire, when Pluto entered the sign where it was when the USA was born... This time, Capricorn.
Pluto entered Capricorn, the sign of the USA Pluto, in 2008. Ring a bell? Here we have the financial crisis and the devastating money printing that followed. Here we have the sucking of resources from all corners of the world to save the empire, the funnelling of funds from US citizens (and globally) to stem the corporate bleeding. Here we also have the rise of Bitcoin, in direct defiance to these corrupt financial policies.
Just like with the British Empire and WWII, the crisis of 2008 is the crucial event planting the seeds of disillusionment with the USA.
The crisis came. Large scale money printing rigged the game. And that was the beginning of the end. The end of the free market; the end of the idea that anyone has a chance if only they roll the dice; the end of the American dream. That was the point when the USA truly started going bankrupt - in any number of ways. What’s worst, people in power still don’t realise the depth of devastation their policies have caused. Sound familiar? Yes, it takes a couple of decades for the message of Pluto to truly sink in…
Jump forward to 2020. Here we have the next crucial event in our story - the coup de grace for the USA - COVID-19.
Here we have a Saturn-Pluto conjunction and triple Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in the sign of the USA Pluto, namely Capricorn, all happening in the same year: 2020. This is the equivalent of the British Empire losing India and the Suez Canal all rolled into one. A death blow. How so? Apart from the obvious financial carnage (more money printing), it is my personal opinion that this is the moment that huge corporations and the so called 'global elite' - gathering in places such as Davos and the like - saw their chance and made their bid for power. This is the moment these entities realised they can do whatever they want and get away with it. A moment of realisation, of revelation, that the empire is no more, that it’s no longer in control, no longer an empire.
The astrological parallels are striking! What once happened in Leo - the end of a royal empire - now happens in Capricorn - the end of a corporate empire. We hadn’t had a Saturn-Pluto and triple Jupiter-Pluto conjunction in the same sign since the end of WWII, not until 2020 that is - much less coinciding with a major super-power's Pluto return.
So what about 2022 - the year of the USA Pluto return itself?
We should expect an event of huge symbolic significance for the USA in 2022, even it doesn't look earth-shattering at the time. And it may very likely involve the head of state.
For GB we had the head of state passing in 1952. Could we expect something similar? Or symbolically similar? This is very strong Pluto symbolism, (though by no means necessitated).
Even if nothing earth-shattering happens, the USA, as we know it, is at an end. Will it rise from its ashes like a pheonix? Or will it quietly accept its fate, as a lesser player, an honorary parent of now fully grown global powers?
Let’s see what unfolds in 2022 - the year of the USA Pluto return, the year of the Lunar Nodes in Taurus and Scorpio; the year of the fading Saturn-Uranus square. Keep an eye out for a radical rebirth for the USA.
It won't be another decade till we can truly see what USA 2.0 looks like.
So, what’s to come? I’d say most of it has already come. Its full implications have just not been realised yet.
Charts
Here is the chart for the USA for 4th July 1776, set for 16:50.*
And here is a chart for Great Britain, the entity that gave rise to the British Empire. This is set to have been born May 12th 1707 (May 1st with the old calendar) with the Union Treaty between England (& Wales) and Scotland. Absent a time, the chart here is drawn for midnight.**
*NB: A previous version of this article used a different time for the USA 1776 chart, giving rise to different house placements. I have now amended this. Note that the core argument for this article still stands strong. For an excellent discussion of national charts see Nicholas Campion's The Book of World Horoscopes.
Article by YourAstroGenes
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