Note: This is a companion piece to my first blog post on Pluto in Aquarius. I recommend you read that piece too, for extra context/background.
The biggest astrological event of 2024 is Pluto’s ingress into Aquarius on January 20, 2024, which marks a new 20-year cycle of Pluto in the sign of the water bearer. By the end of 2024, Pluto will remain in Aquarius until 2043.
The shock of Pluto’s first ingress into Aquarius, back on March 23, 2023, was most apparent in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Right after Pluto’s initial ingress, suddenly the news seemed filled with stories about AI. They tended to focus on the fears and concerns about what AI means for the future – for jobs and social interactions; for humanity itself. Is AI a new type of sentience? If not now, could it become one?
Fear and obsession are very Plutonian qualities, so we can expect a fresh batch of AI hand-wringing in early 2024 which will continue for most of the year. By the end of 2024, the tone is likely to become one of resignation and acceptance – AI is here to stay, whether we like it or not, and now you’ll have to figure out what that means for you personally. The next 20 years will see AI become something totally integrated into our lives, in ways we haven’t even considered yet.
Pluto in Aquarius isn’t just about AI, however. This transit signifies all kinds of novel technology – even alien technology. This will include everything from personal computing to military technology. Wearable tech and bio-implants will become commonplace over the next 20 years. We are headed straight for cyberpunk – now is a great time to read Neuromancer.
Remember all the UAP disclosure stuff that came up in 2023? That’s something we are going to have to face on a wider scale. As of July 2023, it is now a matter of US congressional public record that the US government not only has knowledge of extraterrestrials, but has directly encountered them.
This is earth-shaking news, yet it feels like most people – if they heard about this at all – sort of just shrugged and carried on with their lives. In many ways this makes perfect sense. “OK, so aliens are real and the US government has known about and interacted with them for decades. Great. What am I supposed to do about that?”
But this is truly a huge ontological shock. It’s going to take us years to sort out what this actually means for human society and culture. (And can we even call it human society? How much of our culture has alien origins?)
I’m expecting more developments about UAPs and alien disclosure over the course of 2024 and beyond. I’m hoping it becomes more widely discussed in mainstream circles, as the ramifications are absolutely huge – and we know only the tiniest little piece of what’s actually going on.
In my 2023 forecast, as well as in my first post on Pluto in Aquarius, I wrote about how Pluto’s transit through Aquarius will bring a new ordering of society and social relationships, as well as the revamping or renovation – or maybe even reckoning – of Enlightenment ideals. The last time Pluto was in the sign of Aquarius was during the French and American Revolutions in the late 1700s (the full transit was between 1777 and 1798), which is where all those Enlightenment ideas first made their debut on a grand scale.
I hesitate to even mention things like democracy because of how fraught those conversations have become, but it’s worth nothing that the Liberal idea of democracy came out of the French Revolution. Democracy does seem like it’s at stake right now, though I admit to being a jaded anarchist on the subject. (Democracy; what democracy?) That discourse isn’t going away and maybe we’ll see new forms of government emerging in the west – or a return to older forms.
I’m also hoping this period sees a Plutonian reckoning of scientific materialism – another Enlightenment development. The UAP/alien disclosure stuff should help with that.
In terms of re-ordering social relationships, I think one of the main ways this will play out is a sustained returned to multi-generational living situations. Non-traditional family structures will also become commonplace. This has already been in progress in many areas of the world that have already taken action on things like gay marriage. This will continue, and we’re likely to see new forms of family structures emerging.
As a side note, more and more babies will also be born with the help of technology and I expect that we’ll soon have a very serious, wide-scale conversation about the ethics of using artificial wombs. I’m still skeptical on whether this technology is even possible, but I expect it to at least be discussed, and probably tested, during Pluto’s travel through Aquarius over the next 20 years. (See above comments about technology and cyberpunk.)
Going back to the issue of multi-generational living: this is related to the upcoming disaster in housing markets around the world. With housing prices getting ever higher, and mortgage payments rising over 50% in the next couple of years (in Canada, anyway), many people will not be able to afford their current living situations. Combine that with the aging boomer population and you have an actually decent solution: multi-generational living.
I am still wondering if Pluto’s period of moving back and forth over Capricorn-Aquarius will correspond to a major financial shake-up or market crash. This happened the last time Pluto was in the process of changing signs (from Sagittarius to Capricorn) in 2008.
Hopefully we don’t get a black swan event in 2024, but Pluto tends to bring up a lot of fear and market events are all about fear spilling over into the financial realm. And certainly as Pluto moves further through Aquarius, we are going to see a revamping of our economic and financial system.
On a personal level, the influence of Pluto in Aquarius will depend completely on your own personal chart. Some people won’t even notice it. Others will experience profound changes in their lives.
I won’t offer any personal natal predictions or forecasts for this transit, because it’s so chart-dependent. If you are curious to know how Pluto in Aquarius might impact you personally, please book a consultation with me.
Here are the dates for Pluto’s movement between Capricorn and Aquarius:
- March 23, 2023: Pluto –> Aquarius
- June 11, 2023: Pluto (Rx) –> Capricorn
- January 20, 2024: Pluto –> Aquarius
- September 1, 2024: Pluto (Rx) –> Capricorn
- November 19, 2024: Pluto –> Aquarius (it remains here until 2043)