Venerable Ohio Astrology readers opening this blog are beginning to wonder if there is anything positive to say about Pluto’s transit of Capricorn.

Yes – it will pass.

Pluto entered Capricorn in early 2008 which was the beginning of the U.S. housing market crisis, financial institution failures and global recession.

That nasty, nasty Pluto with its compulsion to destroy and transform messed up our economy, didn’t it?

Like many of you, I don’t believe that astrology causes anything. Natural cycles and man cause changes. The global financial crisis in 2008 wasn’t caused by Pluto, astrology, the market, natural cycles or higher beings. It was caused by man, specifically man’s greed.

Is it coincidence Pluto had just entered Capricorn when that occurred?

For this astrologer, Pluto in Capricorn is symbolic of what occurred in 2008 and will continue through the mid 2020s. Pluto represents destruction and transformation of Capricorn energy which is government, authority, structure and hierarchy. Structure includes financial, legal, educational and religious institutions.

The U.S. natal horoscope (1776 birthday) has Pluto in 27 degrees of Capricorn. While the current transit affects us all, for the U.S. it triggers a fundamental energy pattern of our nation. The Pluto transit is challenging our relationship to authority and ideas of authority.

Pluto in Capricorn: Indicators from the U.S.

The financial structure took the first hit in 2008. Had the reviled U.S. government not intervened on the supposed wisdom of the markets, many more Americans would now be in poverty. If we’d let the collapse follow a natural cycle, we would have to change the American dream which entitles us to have lots of big, material things.

The legal structure came next with federal/legal mandates on health care (2010) and marriage (2015). While the benefit is positive to some, there is still the lingering question of the reach of the federal government. An individual’s ability to litigate to challenge big business is also eroding.

Police across the U.S. are now under scrutiny for how they handle situations with different types of people. Police represent domestic order and Pluto is shaking that up (with help from Saturn in Sagittarius). Is there order when the police are under scrutiny?

And now the 2016 election is changing traditional political structure. There are two parties, get it? They must have opposing views on all topics, get it? Our political structure has forced us into polarity where it doesn’t really exist. The political system is transforming because we were never really two distinct sides.

Fracking Capricorn

Capricorn is one of the three earth signs, Taurus and Virgo being the other two. Taurus is closest to the physical earth and when Uranus moves from Aries to Taurus in 2018-2019, expect combined Uranus and Pluto to contribute to physical earth changes.

Fracking (hydraulic fracturing) has become both literally and figuratively a hot topic in recent years. While fracking has been around since the mid 19th century, in the 1990s the new technology of horizontal drilling provided greater reach into shale oil and natural gas deposits. Shale gas production increased substantially as Pluto entered Capricorn.

Fracking uses a great deal of water, releases chemicals in the air and pollutes water supplies. In fact, in a Pluto in late Sagittarius move (2005), the fracking industry was made exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air and the Clean Water Act.

Pluto in Capricorn now must deal with both the earth changes and the issue of authority. If those whom the clean water and air acts would restrain are exempt from the laws, what is the purpose of the law?

Traditionally the central and Eastern U.S. experience few earthquakes of mostly small scale. Since 2009, earthquake activity has greatly increased in these regions with the suspect being the fracking water waste that is injected deep underground and may be affecting natural fault lines.

In more astrological symbolism, Uranus entered Aries in 2011 and throughout the years has formed square aspects to Pluto in Capricorn. The square energy in these two cardinal signs often leads astrologers to predict earthquakes.

Earthquakes are You

Astrology at its best symbolizes cycles. Were we a happy, contented people living on the land in a sustainable, harmonious fashion, astrology suggests we would still experience earthquakes and changes to authority at this time.

Evolution has its own pace.

In a more harmonious relationship to the earth, the changes would be threatening personally but possibly not globally. Our personal consciousness is now able to affect the entire globe and countless future generations through advanced technology and its material demands.

Pluto in Capricorn symbolizes transformation to government, authority, structure and hierarchy. The level and intensity of the transformation is entirely dependent upon what we’ve created.