When power-monger Pluto entered Capricorn back in 2008, the largest ever single-day stock market crash followed suit. But it took the near destruction of the economy to create space for change and transformation—like for Harriet Tubman to appear on the $20 bill.
Initially, when Pluto transits into a sign it can tear down old structures and create a wave of crisis. But in the wake of all that, space is created for something new and improved to be born—like a phoenix rising from the ashes.
Pluto is the planet of transformation, alchemy and rebirth, and will continue its trajectory through Capricorn until 2024. Is it a coincidence that Capricorn is the sign that governs banks, the economy and governments? We think not!
So now that we’re at the halfway mark of this lengthy Pluto cycle with eight years in the rearview and eight more to go, we’ve seen a ripple effect on the country’s economical structure firsthand. After a slew of financial bailouts and mortgage lending mishaps, the demise of the Lehman Brothers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ensued, and fiscal giant Merrill Lynch imploded. And lest we forget: Bernie Madoff’s arrest in December 2008—talk about an all-time low!
But then, as we might have predicted, the collapse led to progress. The U.S. elected its first non-Caucasian male president who and a new economic stimulus plan was born. Markets slowly began to re-stabilize and Bitcoin, an innovative type of currency, was invented. In the years that followed, credit cards became chipped instead of stripped, while Apple Pay allows for purchases with a literal personal touch only.
Most exciting of all was this past spring of 2016, when antiquated U.S. currency received its first-ever feminist facelift. The front of the new $20 bill will feature the portrait of Harriet Tubman, whose life was dedicated to fighting for liberty. Tubman was born into slavery but was able to escape and took responsibility for the freedom she gained by tirelessly devoting herself to liberating others. She became a conductor on the Underground Railroad and helped shepherd slaves into freedom. She was an active member in the Union cause during the Civil War, where she served as a cook, a nurse, and a scout, secretly gathering intelligence so that she could champion her cause to abolish slavery. After the end of the Civil War, she fought for women’s rights everywhere and supported women’s suffrage.
Tubman once said, “I would fight for liberty so long as my strength lasted.” She died in 1913 and was buried with a number of military honors.
An African American woman on the face of the $20 bill is huge progress for women and minorities (and for those who are both) and quite timely as Pluto continues its revolutionary transit through Capricorn. We would love to see this direction continue with more faces of women on our currency and hopefully, even an eventual demise of outmoded wage gap between men and women, ASAP.
We can look back to the last Pluto cycle through Sagittarius from 1995-2008 for clues about the impending financial future. During that cosmic influence, transformational Pluto trekked through the sign of publishing and international relations. We recall that in the mid-90s, a myriad of print magazine suddenly folded. (RIP Sassy, YM, Mademoiselle and other nearly forgotten rags).
Pluto in worldly Sagittarius was also met with the first attack in over a century on U.S. soil on 9/11, and xenophobic, cross-cultural tensions reached a fever pitch that we still see to this day.
But during this Pluto cycle, a little thing called the Internet was born which metamorphosed the publishing industry. (Once again, one thing had to come to an end in order for something new to be born.) Free speech became accessible to anyone with a connection, and the world of bloggers exploded with over-sharing uncensored visions and ideas. Dial-up technology and pagers (glug) upgraded to broadband and fiber optic cables. As a result, live streaming paved the way for Skype and FaceTime, enabling global, real-time connection.
Subsequently by 2008 and the end of Pluto’s Sagittarius reign, you were basically a dinosaur if you didn’t have a cell phone. Long-distance charges were moot, at least nationwide.
So as far as we can tell, these Pluto-fueled trends and shifts can be directly mapped to Capricorn’s domain. We can only speculate on what lies ahead from here, but we’re pretty sure it’s something we can’t even quite fathom yet.
