Pluto in Capricorn Revisited

More Recent Observations

June 1, 2010

If you missed last year’s articles on Pluto’s transit into Capricorn, you may still be trying to make sense of some of the major events of this last year.

In my previous article Signs of the Times: Pluto in Capricorn (part 1) from July 2009, I noted: ‘Pluto’s journey through this sign until its final exit on 20 November 2024 will see an intense focus on the systems, laws and regulations that govern and regulate the lives of all people on this planet.’

This was an attempt to be concise.

Let me elaborate just a little.

Capricorn is concerned with structures, management and responsibility, while Pluto brings a life-and-death intensity of focus with it, which inevitably brings about some kind of significant change. (Astrologers often use the word transformation.) This is not an easy era to be in government, or in any kind of executive role. It is definitely not the time to ride roughshod over other people and think that there will be no consequences. This is the era of public accountability for those in positions of responsibility.

Let me give you some real-life examples of this theme.

Recently we have seen:
• headline: ‘Greece must turn away from corruption’; Stage 2 of the GFC with the governments of Greece and several other European Union countries coming under the spotlight due to their sovereign debt issues, resulting in strong austerity measures imposed on Greece by countries offering ‘bailout assistance’, leading to riots among the people who will be affected
• President Obama pushing for financial reform, saying they want a situation where ‘no one bank is too big to fail’ (that is, the social and financial consequences of any of the biggest banks failing being so great that the government is forced to step in to bail them out, often at the cost of tens of billions of dollars). Obama wants to hold large institutions accountable for their failures, and to let them fail if they mismanage their businesses
• the phenomenon of ‘conquest fatigue’ talked about by Deirdre Macken in the AFR May 15-16; it seems that more of us are becoming (or seeking to become) celebrities due to our physical conquests (marathon bike rides: Tony Abbott, around the world sailing: Jessica Watson, Mt Everest: just about everyone) and we are starting to care less and less. The Leunig cartoon in The Age on Saturday May 29 was another classic along these lines: ‘History in the Making – Another First: The first person to conquer Mount Everest and be told “Hurry up and get on with it, you’re holding up the queue!”
• the phrase: ‘Saving is the new spending’
• headline: ‘Senior bureaucrats forced into the firing line’; Australian senior bureaucrats who usually devise policy recommendations to the government of the day behind the scenes, unnoticed, are now being forced to defend their recommendations publicly, often facing criticism directly
• headline: ‘Suing banks looks like a class act’: a class action in Australia against all the big banks for overcharging customers on late payment fees: tens of thousands of people have already signed up to join the class action. It has been suggested that this could open the floodgates for other class actions against other large corporations for similar behaviour
• headline: ‘Downsized – the Aussie dream’. New land sizes are coming down around Australia. Another recent article also indicated a reduction in house sizes being built.
• headline: ‘Swiss banks losing cloak of secrecy’. This is classic Pluto in Capricorn. Pluto loves secrets, and finding them out. Expect this one to keep unfolding.
• Facebook is criticised for not protecting the privacy of its users, and for the difficulty in removing your private information from the system if you’ve had a change of heart about what you have told the world about yourself
• headline: ‘Agony of Austerity will take toll’; sub-head: ‘Compromising to keep the show on the road might make for bad economics in Britain’

And this is all just in May 2010!

All of the above observations relate to this theme of the structures that govern society being thoroughly analysed, tested and, if needed, redesigned, rebuilt, or reorganised.

Pluto in Capricorn indicates a time in the psyche of humanity that will reveal the shortcomings of any management structure, social contract, or office of public responsibility. These undercurrents will affect us all, often through new legislation with which we must comply.

I believe this is a good time, on a personal level, to get down to the deepest foundations of what we value, who we are, and what mobilises our ‘life-force’ and creativity. This is the long-term bedrock of our life. Anyone building a career can understand the years spent on its foundations: the years of study, of preparation. A skyscraper is built on a deep strong foundation. Great success is built on depth: depth of self-knowledge, information, preparation, intention.

This is the time to build these solid foundations for our lives if we haven’t already done so. One approach to this enquiry can be through astrology or Jungian analysis. Both these modalities can help us get in touch with the deeper values of our lives which our busy day-to-day obligations often take us away from. It is worth taking time out to address these issues. Especially in these times.

© Rainer Rollfink, 2010

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