When Pluto entered Capricorn in 2008, I felt something inside of me shift. I had been researching health and astrology for many years at that point, but I hadn’t made the connection yet between certain transits and the physical body.

Having a Capricorn ascendant and many cardinal planets in my natal chart (Aries, Cancer and Libra) explains this sudden sensitivity. When Pluto transits the degree of the ascendant, on and off for about two years, major events transpire in a person’s life. It’s almost like a reset button. Most people feel the effects of this when Pluto is within 2 degree orb, but because I am sensitive, I could feel a gradual buildup years before I knew what was happening.

Since the ascendant and 1st house strongly affect the physical body, as well as the moon (I have an exact Moon-Saturn square), I was a prime candidate for a health crisis. I had no idea I was about to embark upon a major healing journey. A friend of mine who also studied astrology told me that transiting Pluto conjunct my ascendant in 2016 was going to be a very intense time for me.

I had been studying medical astrology too but superficially. As Saturn rules Capricorn, I knew that this rulership affected the bones and the joints, but I didn’t know about the gallbladder. That took a little more research.

The gallbladder is a little pear-shaped organ just beneath the liver on the right side of the abdomen. Gallbladder removal surgery is the third most common operation in America – I’m not sure about the rest of the world. When the liver produces bile during digestion, the gallbladder stores the bile as a kind of refining process that breaks down fats and helps assimilate fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E and K).

The gallbladder only achieves this if it is functioning optimally. For most people, because of modern diets, it is not functioning very well at all. This is the reason it is so often removed through surgery. The gallbladder becomes congested with undigested proteins (bilirubin) and cholesterol. Bile, ideally an alkaline 7-8 ph, becomes sludgy and acidic. This is how gallstones are formed.

As the Pluto in Capricorn years have progressed, the gluten-free revolution really took off as people thought their digestive problems were caused by wheat. Wheat is a very dense protein so this made sense, but as I researched more and paid closer attention to my own body, I realized that most digestive problems are more complex than this.

After my first very intense parasite cleanse in 2009, it would take me another 4 years to make the Saturn-gallbladder connection. Once I started cleansing, I discovered how severely parasites were affecting my health. I had travelled abroad quite a bit so that was probably why, but I learned that 95% of all humans (and all mammals for that matter) have parasites regardless of travel. This might be TMI, but it’s reality. They take up residence in the intestines, liver and gallbladder.

It was after years of parasite cleansing that I realized my gallbladder was in trouble. I had lost a lot of weight and didn’t look at all healthy. Food had become an enemy and I could feel that something was wrong internally. I eventually started cleansing my gallbladder and discovered how distressed it was. Monitoring this helped me recover my health.

One of the main reasons the gallbladder becomes congested is eating too much high fat animal protein. I had never been a huge meat eater and always had a healthy diet, so this didn’t make sense. Then I learned that low-fat diets also cause gallstones to form. This is because the gallbladder needs at least 10 grams of fat with every meal in order to empty itself. Just like the liver needs nitrogen in order to cleanse itself of excess waste, the gallbladder needs fat to do the same. I promise I’m getting to the Covid connection.

If you’ve ever had a gallbladder attack, you’ll remember that it was triggered by eating a high fat meal. This can cause sharp pain on the right side of the abdomen, but more common symptoms are indigestion, nausea, fever, diarrhea and chills. These are also common Covid symptoms. A gallbladder attack doesn’t happen to a healthy gallbladder. A congested one will be unable to digest fats at all. This is actually a pretty big problem.

Other than eggs, the most common triggers of a gallbladder attack are pork, fried foods and high fat dairy. A lesser-known fact about the gallbladder is that it is responsible for breaking down calcium that is then used for the bones and joints. In medical astrology, Capricorn shares an axis with Cancer, which is ruled by the moon. This is called the structural axis. The moon (cancer) rules the stomach and breasts, but also cysts and tumors (how the famous disease we all know got its name).

When the gallbladder is unable to break down and assimilate calcium and other fat soluble vitamins, the immune system gradually becomes impaired. SARS coronaviruses eventually affect the lungs, but this is because the liver and gallbladder are unable to break down mRNA proteins. When the liver and gallbladder are functioning properly, they are able to release their contents easily, which helps excrete toxins like harmful viruses and bacteria.

Researchers found similarities between cholecystitis and Covid through autopsies. Cholecystitis is essentially inflammation of the gallbladder caused by congested, acidic bile. A congested gallbladder not only inhibits our ability to absorb calcium, but our hormones are also affected. Also, too much unabsorbed calcium weakens the heart.

I have been on and off vegan since I was a teenager. I had suffered from terrible allergies and found that giving up dairy especially helped. Now that I’m pushing 50, it dawned on me that maybe I wasn’t getting enough calcium. My joint pain was starting to become an issue. I started taking calcium supplements but also started eating yogurt again. I had read that full-fat dairy was better for me hormonally and this is because the gallbladder needs dairy with fat to break down calcium and other nutrients.

My allergies fiercely returned, naturally because dairy raises histamine levels. Then I remembered one enzyme that helps to digest dairy is bromelain, found in pineapple and papaya. I looked up to see if bromelain was helpful in treating Covid and found quite a few articles. Bromelain inhibits Sars-CoV-2 infection, especially when combined with quercetin and Vitamin C. You can take it in supplement form if you are allergic to pineapple or just aren’t a fan.

Pluto transiting the final degrees of Capricorn gave us its swan song in the form of the Covid virus. Pluto in Aquarius will soon introduce us to circulatory issues that affect the heart.

I know many have been suffering from the effects of long Covid. While there are more medical tips floating around to make anyone ready to explode in frustration, we can also look at what we are dealing with right now on a global scale.

The Saturn-Pluto conjunction in 2020 was the beginning of complete structural breakdown. A breakdown of what has been a very toxic form of imperialism – let’s be real here.  In many ways, we are still in limbo, waiting for WWIII to possibly begin and the economy to tank. It is, both politically and spiritually, an extremely challenging time. It’s important to remember that the anxiety of not knowing what the future holds will most certainly affect your health.

One thing about the gallbladder that is addressed in Chinese medicine is stagnancy. While not a word used very often anymore, galled means “to make someone feel annoyed”. That guy had the gall to call me the problem. Is this not the theme of social media right now – if not the last 15 years? When we are unable to make decisions that help us move forward, or feel held back by the forces of others beyond our control, we feel galled. This sums up the final stretch of Pluto in Capricorn.

All we can do now is every so often focus intently on how we can liberate ourselves. We can do this by deliberately not engaging with the shit we can’t control. No amount of data you provide is going to change our current circumstances. We will get a brief disruption once Pluto enters Aquarius at the end of March until the first week of June. Then it’s back in Capricorn for the rest of the year until late January 2024.

Annoyingly (how galling), Pluto dips back into Capricorn for one last hurrah September to November of 2024, but then it’s finally over. In the meantime, let’s hope that most of our breakdowns end up being breakthroughs. Those of us with cardinal planets can hopefully see the light at the end of the tunnel. It’s been a brutal ride.