These final years of Pluto in Capricorn and Neptune in Pisces are giving us their most concentrated attitudes before they move into Aquarius and Aries. Both of these long-term transits have had positive and negative qualities.

The legalization of same-sex marriage was extremely positive. While still a long way from global acceptance, that was a significant milestone of the past decade. I feel that both planets had a hand in this.

A revival of classical texts has been a positive contribution from Capricorn. Saturn’s obsession with the past has reminded us to look at ancestral legacies with a new lens.  Not all of these legacies are worth preserving, however. In particular, the legacies of supremacy and oppression. Looking back provides us with valuable information about who we are as a species.

Neptune in Pisces gave us gender binary liberation. In its love of magic and transcendence, Pisces envisions culture with no restrictions, imagining gentler, more fantasy-based togetherness. It also brought us Tiktok, which inspired everyone’s inner performer. Anyone who wants to be seen has had the opportunity.

Where Pluto and Neptune worked together in these signs was conceptually undertaking more social responsibility. Where they clashed is feeling the presence of the past in our dreams of the future.

Capricorn loves tradition. What worked before surely must always work, by Saturn’s standards. But tradition can be extremely stifling. Capricorn is not known for its broadminded acceptance. Austerity and discipline are Capricorn comforts, which feel anathema to the more mystical, boundary-less realm of Pisces. Capricorn is intolerant of dreamworlds. Dreams don’t put food on the table.

These negotiations have been ongoing since 2011, when Neptune entered Pisces. Because Neptune and Pluto orbit the sun so slowly, their transits give each sign plenty of time to settle in. While Pluto is soon to be on its way out of Capricorn, Neptune will remain in Pisces officially until 2026.

So that’s three more years of magic and fantasy, one more year of tradition and righteousness. This last stretch of Pluto in Capricorn has certainly been a slog. The energy has grown stale and predictable. In earlier posts, I wrote about the death rattle of the old guard. Considering how many world leaders now are in their 80s, the old guard has never felt more omnipresent.

Rather than sound ageist, I’m using old to describe an aged system. This is about who controls the majority of the wealth in the world but also who holds onto it like there’s never enough. In many ways, the 1% stranglehold has felt more vampiric than ever during Pluto in Capricorn. Have you noticed how much construction has been happening during the last 15 years? Gentrification has become an addiction – especially in the bigger cities of America.

Capricorn wants to tell us what to do and how to behave, whereas Pisces wants the path of least resistance. One day Pisces agrees with Capricorn, the next day swims away, speaking in abstract haiku. They make an unusual partnership. Pisces has kept the pulse on more inspired creativity when Capricorn wants to do nothing but re-create the past.

In Aquarius and Aries, innovation will reign. The past will be no more than a muted paradigm. They will be ready to flip the script but not always with tact or diplomacy. Fire and air are less interested in drawn out conversations. They prefer swift eruptions. Alchemical transformations. Ready to move stagnant energy, which will feel cathartic if nothing else. If ever there were a time to lift us out of our physical bodies, it will be Neptune in Aries and Pluto in Aquarius. Things will move fast – probably too fast. It will be harder to ground ourselves, though I think we’ll all be ready for some momentum at this point.

With Uranus as modern ruler of Aquarius and Mars as ruler of Aries, these are not the planets nor signs of subtlety. Action, movement, trauma and some forms of rebellion will take the stage. Nevertheless, something new will be introduced. Newness is good for the soul. It stretches not only the imagination but also our capacity to adapt. Without fire, humans would not have figured out how to survive for any length of time. Fire allowed us to migrate to places on Earth that would have otherwise been too cold. In its partnership with air, fire has allowed us to travel great distances.

As we scramble to catch our breath, something will have shifted. We will change. The landscape won’t feel as dreamy and familiar as it did in Capricorn and Pisces, but it will feel more alive. Fighting for our lives might be part of it, hence the inevitable trauma. There won’t be time to wax on philosophically anymore. This will be about how quickly can we move when our lives are uprooted.

It’s nothing to fear because we don’t know exactly what the future looks like yet. Again, roughly three more years of Neptune in Pisces. But the nodes move into Aries-Libra in mid-July 2023, squaring Pluto in late Capricorn. This will kick start an active time that will last a year and half. Then the nodes move into Pisces-Virgo with Saturn transiting Pisces in early 2025, when a dreamy confusion will return. By late May 2025, Saturn and Neptune ingress into Aries. We’ll be getting brief, fiery interludes amidst watery sensitivity throughout the next few years.