Immediately upon entering the house after eating at a restaurant, my cat asked me if I had any leftovers for her.

“Leftovers!” I proclaimed. “You are thinking about the United States before its Pluto return. It took me 15 minutes of ‘Where’s Waldo’ to find the cranberries and pecans in my Cranberry and Pecan salad. Later I realized that the bacon bits were absent. And you want leftovers!”

“Why did America get rid of leftovers during the Pluto return?” asked my ever-inquisitive, astrologically-minded, and politically-astute feline.

The explanation, of course, was not brief. I had to explain our culture of abundance and how from the Reagan Administration greed has been sanctified as a business model which precipitated the subsequent excesses and crashes we experienced in the 1990s and 2000s. No one is “greedy” anymore; we are merely looking for a return on investment.

Around this time of the Reagan Administration, I explained, is when Americans became heavy (I showed my cat pictures from the 1960s and 1970s to show her that people were naturally thin). I went on to explain corn subsidies and the rise of the highly-addictive high-fructose corn syrup and the increased portion sizes. It’s human (and feline) nature to eat more of tasty stuff if provided, as my feline knows very well.

As most Americans are trying to lose some weight, the smaller portions are probably not a bad thing, I said, and simply a return to pre-greed normal portion sizes. And many are aware now of the addictive substances included in processed food. The price, in contrast, continues to increase. And it would be nice, of course, to have cranberries in the Cranberry Salad.

My feline listened intently, as she always does, then asked:

“When the Pluto return is over,” asked my feline, “will there be leftovers again?”

“In March Pluto will move into Aquarius. But I don’t think that will bring leftovers. It may bring technology that tells us when we are hungry, the exact amount of food we should eat and when we should expect to relieve our bodies of the waste. We may even forget how to get hungry and allow technology to remind us.”

After seeing the shock in my feline’s eyes from my dystopian science-fiction novel statement, I reassured her that I would always provide two meals a day, Pluto return or no Pluto return.

Pluto in Capricorn

As I began this blog in 2010, Pluto was at the beginning of its 20-year trek through Capricorn which represents evolution of our social consciousness, societal structures, rules, laws, discipline, and boundaries. The transit began in late 2007 with the collapse of the housing market and world financial meltdown. It’s fascinating to watch how close we can come to global infrastructure collapse yet rebound and forget due to government intervention. Yet at the same time there is a great dislike of government. Most of what governments do to prevent global collapse is esoteric and given empty monikers to further obfuscate (“quantitative easing”).

Near the end of this transit 2020 – which was near the United States’ Pluto return at 27 degrees of Capricorn – most of the governments of the world did the same thing at the same time – physical lockdown due to a global illness.

This Pluto-in-Capricorn transit has brought anger and outrage as government and large corporate power (more and more the same thing) have increased and personal power has decreased. Technology like other inventions throughout history is weaponized by governments and used for control. The historical themes have not changed, just the methods with which they can be executed.

The United States’ Pluto Return

What does it mean to have a Pluto return?

Individuals will never have a Pluto return (except Moses) due to the length of the revolution around the sun which is 246(ish) years. Countries have Pluto returns but they are difficult to identify as countries evolve and borders change. It’s difficult then to determine the country’s “birth.”

The United States is easier to track due to its youth and expansionist nature – it has expanded borders but has not lost territory (I don’t think). And its “birth” – the one I use – is the symbolic July 4, 1776, although the nuts and bolts of nationhood were not established in a day. The symbolic identity is more relevant to me personally than actual document signature dates because it is the myth we are taught and believe.

Natal Pluto in Capricorn means our evolutionary lessons are about social structure, authority, control, and boundaries. In the 1990s there was discussion about whether the United States military should be the “cops” of the world. That’s Capricorn trying to be the big boss. The United States has military bases across the globe for this reason.

While politics (and Pluto) is in the eye of the beholder, I believe my nation’s Pluto return represents a great loss of global power and control. In the first round of Pluto we had great cultural (Disney), political (force) and monetary (dollar) control. That is changing and since most don’t live an entire Pluto return, I don’t think it can be understood at a personal level. That’s what astrology can help with.

Empires rise and fall. Other empires on the globe have risen in mass culture, wealth, and political control. The United States will not be able to be the World Cop anymore. Some countries even invade other countries just to prove this point.

A nation divided is weak and it’s my personal belief our sports-minded split of two parties with winners and losers is a calculated method to keep the masses from organizing against the minority of plutocrats (yes, Pluto in the name!). Some countries use direct, open control. Some use more subtle methods like this one.

Pluto in Aquarius – the sign of fraternity, liberty and equality if I may steal the French Revolution slogan – may change that. And the plutocracy will fight back as it always will. It should be an interesting 20 years of transit for the United States and the other countries of the earth.

United States’ Pluto Return – Thinner and Angrier

We astrologers love trying to predict the future. We’re so much like economists you might call us cousins. Astrologers like economists come in the usual two flavors: optimistic and pessimistic. Life tends to move along in neither absolute direction which makes both astrologers and economists inaccurate in many predictions which lends to some mistrust of the two arts.

When I heard predictions of another civil war in the United States I laughed. Really? Miss our entertainment to take up arms against people from other states? And we are not physically fit for this either. Although as our portion sizes decrease, that may improve.

There is a war, a Pluto-in-Aquarius war of airwaves, information and ultimately mind. Our enemy’s greatest desire is that we carry their thoughts. These types of thought wars began in the early 20^th century with wars based on ideologies, not simply wars to acquire land to become physically richer or more secure. These ideological wars started with idealistic aims of equality and reduction of poverty – and definitely provided that over time – but at the expense of high levels of control.

Technology has made thought wars more sophisticated and insidious because we willingly engage through what appears to be innocuous entertainment. Each technology device is a portal into your mind generating emotional responses. Marketing will tell you that negative responses such as anger are more effective in generating response and, of course, return on investment.

Like many historians, I would argue that the ideals of the United States were never fully achieved but are ideals for which we constantly strive. Ideals are in the realm of Aquarius so this Pluto-in-Aquarius transit is an evolutionary cycle to rise higher in that goal.

Independence has been sold to Americans as something personal and individual which encourages both separation and alienation. But independence is a collective goal of cooperation and agreement as hopefully Aquarius will teach us. We can choose cooperation or we can choose to have others control us to force it. We can actively participate or we can react with useless, unproductive anger.