Fixed Signs on the Pivots Might Show Past Connections to America’s Founding: An Insight into How Modern Americans Might Experience the US Pluto Return of February 20, 2022

The United States’s Pluto return is just a week away. The US Pluto return is a concept that comes from astrology, though it has appeared in popular culture.¹ When astrologers discuss the US Pluto return, they are largely referring to the phenomenon of the planet Pluto returning to the position it was at in the tropical zodiac in 1776, when the United States was founded. A planetary return is when a planet returns to a specific degree after completing a cycle around the zodiac. Pluto takes around 240 years to return to its position. In this article, I will discuss some basics around the US Pluto return and offer an interpretive lens to understand some Americans’ role in the events of the Pluto return.

First, I will discuss some basics of the astrology of the US Pluto return. Pluto was at 27” 33” degrees Capricorn at the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 at 5:10 PM in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to the Sibley chart. Pluto will transit 27” 33” Capricorn three times in 2022. The first time is February 20, 2022 at 6:19 PM. The second and third times are July 12, 2022 and December 28, 2022. It will get extremely close to the exact position on October 10, 2023 at 27” 53” Capricorn before going direct. The Pluto return will be exact on February 20th, but the impact of the Pluto return has been ongoing for years. The beginning of the Pluto return started in January 2008 when Pluto entered Capricorn and has been at play since November of 2008, when Pluto entered Capricorn for good. In particular, on March 31, 2019, Pluto came within 4 degrees of its return point, and in February 2020 it came within 3 degrees. Planets can make aspects to points, though points don’t translate light because they aren’t physical, so concepts like orbs, applying, and separating aren’t used to describe them. In traditional astrology, aspects of three degrees are active, dynamic, and of high intensity when being applied to the relationship between planets. On February 2, 2022, Pluto entered 27 degrees Capricorn for the first time in recent memory, a certain trigger of intensity.  

Most Americans have already been experiencing the Pluto return, but have yet to see its full implications. The Pluto return, as mentioned, will be exact on February 20th, July 12th, and December 28th. No one knows what will happen on these dates, as it might trigger small or big events that fit the general characteristics of Pluto returns and recent events in American history. On the other hand, it might just be experienced in the collective consciousness of Americans, without any external events. In the latter case, Americans may experience an intensity regarding the application of the Plutonic archetype to their role as Americans and a sort of political and societal rebirth internally and on a mass scale. A further way to understand how the Pluto return may affect an individual is to look at the natal sign Capricorn and to examine it’s whole sign house, the house’s lord, and any planets or aspects to the sign. This applies especially to Americans, who are experiencing its occurrence directly. But beyond this, there is an even more intriguing way to view a natal chart in relation to the Pluto return.

One way to understand the Pluto return as it is related to individual Americans’ natal charts is that Americans with Capricorn as a cadent whole sign house may experience the Pluto return in a way that is connected to the past. An astrological chart can be classified by its angularity, which divides houses into either angular, succeedent, or cadent houses. The word cadent comes from the Latin verb cadere, to fall. Angularity is directly related to the diurnal motion of the planets and a cadent house appears to fall off from an angle.² Cadent houses are the weakest of the three types in their ability to express a planet’s power. The Hellenistic astrologer Julian of Laodicea wrote how the cadent signs were associated with the past.³ So, one could interpret having Pluto in a cadent house means that the manifestation of the Pluto return in the chart is related to the past. The “past” can be interpreted in various ways: the actual past, a past life, or some relationship with the past. It wouldn’t be unheard of to think that every American with a cadent Capricorn whole sign house and fixed signs on the ascendant has a connection to the events of 1776 or the culminating events in the Pluto return due to past actions, behavior, or some other unseen connection. Some examples of this in practice would be: past lives that were directly connected to the American Revolution; strong ancestral ties to the founding of the United States; ties to the American Revolutionary period through past actions; sharing in the material burdens that stemmed from the birth of the United States as a nation; the soul having some unseen connection; or solely experiencing the events of the 2022 Pluto return in a positive or negative way due to past actions and states of mind. In conclusion, the cadent signs can indicate how the events of 1776 were experienced in the past, or have some past connection to that period and how the connection was experienced. In contemporary times, Pluto’s presence in a cadent sign signifies how the Pluto return could have further positive or negative indications for any person with Capricorn in a cadent whole sign house related to the dark cadent houses or the favorable cadent houses. 

Any American with a fixed sign ascendant has Capricorn in a cadent sign. The fixed signs are Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. It should be mentioned that the ancient astrologer Rhetorius called the cadent houses the metakosmios. It means between worlds. The cadent houses represent the parts of the chart that divide setting and rising, day and night, and darkness and light. In this way, they function as liminal houses that connect to the divine but also to darker realms.⁴ As opposing pairs, the Americans with Leo and Aquarius ascendants would have a more unfortunate relationship with the Pluto return and its original events of 1776 while those with Taurus and Scorpio rising would have one that is more positive.  

Leo and Aquarius risings would have experienced the founding of America through misfortune and bad luck. The Leo or Aquarius axis on the ascendant has Capricorn in either the 6th or 12th whole sign house. Both the 6th and 12th houses are in aversion to the ascendant, the place of life and the body. They were called the houses of Bad Fortune and Bad Spirit in Hellenistic astrology, and are the two most negative houses in the natal chart. They represent the negative side of the metakosmios, the liminal parts of the natal chart. In Rhetorius, the 6th house signifies injury, slaves, enemies, four-footed animals, foreign or low-born parents, madmen, and epileptics. The 12th represents enemies, slaves, four-footed animals, childbirth, illnesses and wounds, banishment, devoured by dogs, mad-men, and dog-men. Of course, readers can find additional significations from other traditional astrologers and modern astrology. Listing all the significations of the houses won’t be included in this article. Therefore, Leo and Aquarius ascendants could have a bad connection to the American Revolution, one colored by misfortune.

Taurus and Scorpio risings would have experienced the events of 1776 through positive connections to higher principles, religion, and friends and family. The Taurus and Scorpio axis on the ascendant has Capricorn in either the 9th or 3rd whole sign house. The houses of the God and Goddess, as the 3rd and 9th houses were called in Hellenistic astrology, would indicate the events of 1776 were experienced either in relation to higher principles or communal ties. The 9th house is often connected to foreign things, philosophy, travel, divinity, higher education, religion, and divination. The 3rd house is often connected to siblings, family, local religion, divination, divinity, philosophy, writing, local travel, local communities, and friends. In summary, Taurus and Scorpio ascendants could have a positive and idealistic connection to the founding of the United States. 

Interestingly, the fixed signs also happen to have the nodes on the natal angles in 2022. Throughout 2022, the lunar nodes will be in the fixed signs of Taurus and Scorpio. Again, there is a karmic connection to events during the Pluto return, as most fixed signs may be experiencing major life changes on the angles of the natal chart that are again connected to the past. Various astrologers have linked the lunar nodes to past events, karma, and so forth.⁵ The angles represent the most prominent and important parts of an individual’s life. When the nodes are on the angles of a chart, they can have a major impact in visible and prominent parts of a person’s life. So, Americans with Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius ascendants will have Pluto in a cadent sign and the lunar nodes on the angles, illustrating that some of the major astrological events of 2022, i.e. the US Pluto return and the eclipses in Taurus and Scorpio, will both occur in places connected to the past while past-related events will occur in major parts of their lives, respectively.

To summarize, one way to understand the upcoming US Pluto return and the three times it will be activated in 2022 is to look at the sign Capricorn and it’s whole sign house in an individual’s natal chart. But in particular, the Americans with the deepest ties to the founding of the United States and its Pluto return are those with natal charts with fixed signs on the ascendant. People with a cadent Capricorn whole sign house might have some past connection to the American Revolution. They might have had past lives that were directly connected to the events of 1776, strong ancestral ties to the American Revolution, or their souls might have some mysterious connection. Another interesting thing is that the eclipses will be occurring on the angles for the fixed signs, showing that the events of the year 2022 will play an important role in major parts of life and that some of these events are related to the past and destiny. Another possibility is that none of the above apply. There are many such cases in astrology, especially when it comes to interpretations of planets in signs and houses. There are numerous interpretive possibilities with any astrological configuration. Finally, it could be that the proposed idea in this article is merely a misapplication of an interpretive principle that was not particularly widespread amongst the earliest traditional astrologers.

 

 

 

Notes

1. Deirdre Simonds and Aisha Nozari, “Kanye West CONFIRMS Donda sequel album,” Daily Mail, January 28, 2022, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-10452879/Kanye-West-CONFIRMS-Donda-sequel-album-divulging-significance-imminent-release-date.html

2. Helena Avelar and Luis Ribeiro, On the Heavenly Spheres: A Treatise on Traditional Astrology,(Tempe, Arizona, American Federation of Astrologers, 2010). 88. 

3. Julian of Laodicea, CCAG.4, 104-105:1,

4. Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum. The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence, (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2016) 144.

5. Steven Forrest. Yesterday’s Sky: Astrology and Reincarnation.(Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, 2012) 135. 

 

Bibliography

1. Deirdre Simonds and Aisha Nozari, “Kanye West CONFIRMS Donda sequel album,” Daily Mail, January 28, 2022.
2. Avelar, Helena and Ribeiro, Luis, On the Heavenly Spheres: A Treatise on Traditional Astrology,Tempe, Arizona, American Federation of Astrologers, 2010.  
3.  Julian of Laodicea, CCAG.4
4. Greenbaum, Dorian Gieseler. The Daimon in Hellenistic Astrology: Origins and Influence, Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2016.
5. Forrest, Steven. Yesterday’s Sky: Astrology and Reincarnation. Borrego Springs: Seven Paws Press, 2012.

 

Photo Credits

1. The United States Constitution. Photo by National Archives and Records. Public Domain.
2. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Photo by Smuconlaw, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0><https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Liberty_Bell,_Philadelphia,_Pennsylvania_-_20120501.jpg>
3. The US Sibley chart. Photo by Astrodienst.