Mar 19, 202317 min read

Pluto in Aquarius on Your Personal Life (2023-2044): Where One-Size-Fits-All Goes to Die

Updated: Jan 29

Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23rd, 2023, and stays in that sign until January 19th, 2044. That’s a very long time frame. It’s also an astrological event that affects all of us, regardless of whether Aquarius is a prominent or not-so-prominent part of our astrological makeup: we all have each zodiac sign in our chart somewhere, so this transit affects us all in some way. (Note: A transit is when a planet in the sky goes into a sign, house, or an aspect with another planet. It’s basically what a planet is doing right now or at any other given point in time, as opposed to what a planet is doing in your birth chart, a.k.a. your personal astrological blueprint that doesn’t change.)

I’ve already spent a good amount of time talking about Pluto in Aquarius from a historical and predictive, societal perspective in my article Pluto in Aquarius: History Meets Future. Analyzing the Last 1,000 Years to See What’s to Come.

But I wanted to include an article that shows us the changes in our personal lives and how we can work with that transit… so this is what this article is about! Spoiler Alert: It's going to be a time where we leave the boxes we shoved ourselves into... or were shoved into by others!

Before we jump in: if this article helps you, I would appreciate you so, so much if you could send it to a friend or donate a sum of your choice to support me in doing this work and writing these articles. The ones on Pluto take years of research, so a lot of work gets into them. Thank you!

Now, let's start by talking about the exact dates and the beginning of the transit.

Exact dates:

Because Pluto takes so long to travel around the Sun, there are actually periods where (from the Earth’s perspective) Pluto travels backward. That phenomenon is called retrograde and it has to do with the Earth’s motion in the cosmos in relation to another planet’s motion. It’s a bit complicated and we won’t get into it… but essentially, this means that Pluto travels back into its previous sign a couple of times at the beginning of this transit, only to come back into Aquarius again and again.

This means that Pluto spends a bit of time in Aquarius (March 23rd – June 11th, 2023) before going back to its previous sign, Capricorn. January 21st, 2024, it’ll be back in Aquarius until September 1st, where it’ll take its last quick dip into Capricorn before switching signs completely on November 19th, 2024. Similarly, the end of Pluto’s journey through the weirdest sign of all, Aquarius, starts on March 9th, 2043, when Pluto dips into the sign of Pisces until it comes back on September 1st of the same year. The full transition out of Aquarius then takes place on January 19th, 2044 – and there won’t be another Pluto transit through Aquarius until the year 2269.

The time between the first “dip” of Pluto in its new sign always signals a huge energetic shift, as does the final transit into the new sign. The time in between is interesting, too: essentially, the themes of Pluto in Aquarius remain active even when Pluto goes back into its previous sign, but there is a “dormancy” or “wait-and-see” quality to the energy. Similarly, the themes of the old transit of Pluto in Capricorn are rekindled so they can be “wrapped up.”

To greatly summarize, this means that the time from March 2023 to November 2024 is energetically intense and signals a huge paradigm shift. This time, plus another year in each direction, is one of the most intense timeframes of the transit… especially because you as an individual need to get used to the new energy. And that takes some time.

Working with Pluto

Pluto is one of the most challenging but also most infinitely rewarding parts of astrology in transit. This goes for the “harder” and the “easier” transits of Pluto: yes, it will most likely include times of challenge, but the rewards are worth it. Pluto is associated with the Greek/Roman version of the Underworld for a reason: you have hell there, but also paradise… and all treasures under the Earth like gold, rubies, other precious metals, gemstones, oil, and so on. To translate the metaphor, a Pluto transit can excavate treasures of the soul, things we never knew we could appreciate, and a soul passion for life that makes us happy to get up in the morning. Pluto transits also build up your resilience in the long run: they make you, as a past teacher of mine would say, “unfuckwithable.”

People either soar under Pluto transits as their world changes around them, or they feel like crap because their world changes around them. The difference isn’t whether you like change or not: it’s whether you’re willing to work with what you’ve been given.

Pluto transits aren’t like most astrological transits where you can ignore the energy if you try hard enough. Rather, Pluto brings up the parts of your life that you HAVE to deal with in a new way… and you can either listen and try to find said new way on your own terms, or… well, there is no “or.” The topics you need to change are just going to crop up again and again and again until you make the necessary changes. Each new time brings more intensity as the stakes get higher and higher until you react. The thing that’s most important to note here is that the changes you have to make are always good for you.

To give you an example from my personal life, when Pluto transited my Venus (to summarize: planet of relationships), I ran into the same problem time and time again: bad relationships. Anything verging from mildly toxic to downright abusive, with all sorts of people. At first, I saw the truth about pre-existing relationships and how I needed to leave them. I ignored the knowledge for love… and the relationships turned exponentially more harmful. Again, I ignored the fact that I KNEW I needed to leave, that I couldn’t change things. Again, the relationships turned worse, and all my efforts were in vain. Eventually, I couldn’t ignore it any longer and said goodbye to my two best friends. BOOM. A horrible time, but I was better off by a mile.

Pluto transits work like that: intuitively or logically, you know you need to change something. You know, and you just need to choose to listen to the knowledge. Pluto transits give you that knowledge (because Pluto rules truth), and they also take the ability away to ignore the truth you’ve been given. You can try as long as you like, but it’s always going to come back to bite you in the butt – until you’re listening to the truth you know is right and react accordingly.

And yes, the stakes get higher the more you ignore it… and this is why some people do way better with Pluto transits than others, the people who do better are the ones who choose to live their truth rather than ignore it… so the stakes never get as high for them as for the second group, the people who try to ignore the truths they feel for as long as possible – only to fail.

That’s the way Pluto transits work.

But there’s more. To continue with my personal story: after cleaning up my pre-existing relationships, I continued to meet people who were not right for me. Some of them meant well, and others weren’t good people – at the end of the day, the relationships weren’t healthy. Again, I had to make the choice to see if things were salvageable and could be changed, or if I needed to leave. Sometimes, I did need to leave… and it was tough. But I reacted quicker than I did before, so it didn’t hurt as much. I also learned more about the types of relationships that are healthy which led to very beautiful friendships and formative relationships under this transit that last until today.

So: Pluto gives you a lesson (usually more than just one, but this’ll work). And after you’ve started to work with Pluto to learn those lessons, you get multiple opportunities to integrate the wisdom and the truth that comes from it. In my case, this was a “how to deal with toxic/abusive relationships”-crash-course, including a “how to recognize people who aren’t good for you/who are abusive” that was thrown in for good measure.

In the case of someone I know, this was a “kick your workaholism and perfectionism to the curb and lead a life that’s good for your health, or you will lose your health”-scenario. In the case of someone else, it was a lesson called “Actually deal with the trauma of your past or it will eat you alive (but also, here’s how you can deal with it).” As you might have noticed, these follow a formula: “learn this – or else.” Pluto doesn’t make us do anything (astrology doesn’t either, we have agency) but it does give us consequences for messing up… and in Pluto’s case, those consequences are not ones to take lightly.

But once you work with it, you’ll also magically encounter what you need in order to make the necessary changes. In my case, I met people who showed me what healthy relationships were and how to set boundaries (and recognize signs of danger before I got face-deep in it). In the case of the “kick workaholism or lose your health” person, she hit her version of rock bottom by developing a pretty nasty health issue… and just as she realized she couldn’t go on this way, her doctor started a seminar on meditation and stress-relief. That seminar helped her learn how to get out of workaholic spirals and perfectionist mindsets – she didn’t have to sign up, but as soon as she decided she wanted to change, she stumbled over the opportunity that was completely new to her culture at the time of the transit. She beat the health issue and never had it again – and keeps taking good care of her health. The guy I know with the trauma stuff ended up in a bunch of situations (by accident) that helped him stare his own trauma in the face and make choices that were healing for him. He also found a therapist. You catch my drift: as you’re forced to see that change is a necessity, you get the opportunities to make those changes – and a little help from above to make them.

Pluto in Aquarius

As Pluto enters Aquarius, we’re all going to have similar lessons to some degree. We’re also all going to have individual lessons based on where this hits our birth chart (personal astrological blueprint). For instance, I was talking about a transit to my Venus, a planet, while the woman with the work-life-health balance had Pluto through her 6th house. So, the sign of Aquarius brings some general topics we’ll all have to re-learn, and it also brings some individualized lessons based on a) the house Aquarius falls in your chart, and b) the planets in Aquarius/that Pluto stimulates through aspect while it’s in Aquarius. For now, let’s talk about the general topics.

Aquarius is a pretty interesting sign – and one most people don’t quite understand from the get-go. Lucky you, I am one of the people who did, so I spent the past couple of years explaining it to everyone and their dog… the result of this is the article Understanding Aquarius: the Weirdest Sign Made Simple. I am assuming that anyone who’s struggling with getting that sign will just click on the blog article and then make their way back here.

Aquarius is about standing apart from the crowd while being highly group-oriented

The why – again – I explained it in depth in Understanding Aquarius: the Weirdest Sign Made Simple. But short story short, a group of people is almost never going to be functional if everyone in it is a carbon copy of everyone else and no one brings their unique gifts to the table. What works better is if everyone brings their differences to the table so YOUR gifts can complement MY gifts and vice versa – and thus, I gain from knowing you and you gain from knowing me. Thanks! And, you’re welcome.

With Pluto in Aquarius, each and every one of us has to deal with the HARSH truth that we’re different. I am not like you, and you are not like me. If I try to be like you, I will most definitely fail, and you’ll fail at being me. That’s not exactly news to anyone: and yet, we often find ourselves trying so hard to be someone we aren’t, to attain a standard that’s perfect for someone with a completely different set of skills, and to get the response we see someone else getting… only they’ve gotten it based on their personality, which we might not have. These desires are perfectly beautiful and perfectly human… and they’re perfectly capable of bringing us into a bunch of trouble if we adhere to them in extreme ways.

Under this transit, we’ll become aware of where we can’t adhere to those desires anymore. We become aware of a) where the ways we judge ourselves aren’t realistic because we can never do or be like other people here. B), the things we bring to the table are different than what everyone else brings to the table… which means that we have some gift or genius that can help other people, which makes us special. And c), we become aware that we have to own our differences and live accordingly if we ever want to become healthy, sane, and well-adjusted people. We have to make our lives fit us as unique individuals as much as we have to make ourselves fit life.

Pluto in Aquarius is where the illusion of one-size-fits-all comes to die.

Depending on your personality, your life, and your capacities, you may be closer to the mainstream or really different from it, but fact is that even the most mainstream people are highly individualistic and special people on this earth. You get to live out your uniqueness and bring it to other people, too. The people who are extremely different in their needs and personalities – because of disabilities or physical gifts, an unusual upbringing, or a character trait that’s rare or not acceptable societally speaking – also need to step into their own power, too, when it comes to those differences. For you, it’s not enough to be different and stand apart from the crowd… you also have to deeply, truly, accept your differences and acknowledge that the things that make you an outcast come with hidden gifts.

And yes, I’m saying that knowing that people from the LGBTQ+ community are often in physical danger and that having health issues has few benefits (talking from experience on the latter). But guess what, even that can bring good things with it. The skills you develop from dealing with someone that makes you an outcast – like strength, empathy, wisdom, and resilience, never mind more individualistic skills – are gifts that others don’t have… and only acquire much later in life if they have them at all.

This transit calls you to embrace those skills and find ways to bring them to other people because it’s not enough to be different. Now, you also need to find the right groups of people that benefit from your difference.

Pluto in Aquarius will show us how we need to relate first to ourselves, and then to other people.

Pluto in Aquarius Asks Us To Change The World

Well then, good that it’s not talking about something major. Imagine that.

All change starts with a single step, and all sustainable change comes from small steps that are made continually over time. Pluto in Aquarius shows us where we need to change our world (the stuff we can reach) for the better – and not just for ourselves, but for everyone.

Under this transit, part of the lesson is when to stand up to authority and oppression and where to affect the systems that be (and how). This can look like telling your boss “no,” or changing a pattern that you have when it comes to expressing anger. It can look like changing the way you raise your kids in order to make their lives better than yours was, and it can look like cleaning the wall of your office building so it doesn’t sport racial slurs anymore.

One of the things we are all going to feel though is the desire to become more liberated in some fashion… and we’re willing to fight for that freedom. This, too, can be in multiple areas of life like in your intimate partnerships (“No, Jeff, I am not going to let you keep me from having friendships with people of your gender.”) It can also be on the job (“No, Mrs. Smith, I’m not going to let you cut into my free time and give me even more overtime, no matter the pay!”) or in friendships (“Lainie, I won’t let you dictate the way I feel about that person: it’s my opinion, I get to form it myself – and that’s not disloyal.”) Etc.

You can also become more drawn to humanitarian endeavors. Pluto in Aquarius’s lesson is when to use your voice to speak up for others, and it’s also about bringing knowledge and choice to all sorts of people (that often were discriminated against, too). Regardless of what your life is, you may find yourself including people more in your decision-making as active participants or demanding that others include you in a different way. You may also fight to make the world safer for people who are radically different: like someone I know whose life dream is to speak up for better education for people who are highly gifted. Or another person I know who recently started to do videos on YouTube for parents-to-be of children with Turner Syndrome, and what they can expect.

It's often the smallest acts of kindness that change a person and therefore, a group. So if you’re not comfortable with getting a sign and marching through the streets to fight for a political cause, you don’t have to do that. However, if you’d like to protest like that, please do. (Just… please don’t do destructive or harmful things to yourself or others in the name of evoking change.)

Where We Can't Do It Alone

Right now, we live in a world where the ideal is self-sufficiency to the extent of never needing another person. This is worst for men, and for feminist-raised 20-something women who aren’t old enough to realize that you can’t live like that without getting burnout. The truth is, no matter how strong, talented, and self-sufficient we are, we all need a group of people who’s got our backs, and this is something that’s getting talked about less and less. One person simply can’t do a good job at everything – and even if you could, you do not have enough time in a day to do it all at once. You can go far on your own… but there’s a reason humans run in groups.

Under this transit, every single person will notice personally how much we need group support – be it from a group of people we love and adore, or people we barely tolerate but who do a good job at something we can’t do alone.

The power of the people in your life will be highlighted under this transit, as will the necessity of those people. And not just that: but you need people who are your equal – and unafraid to upset you by giving you truths you need to hear.

Lastly, while no one can do it alone, a group that’s wrong for you can become extremely wrong under the Pluto in Aquarius transit (especially for people with Aries Rising). Make sure that you spend time in groups that value what makes you different, are similar enough to you that there’s some common ground, and that don’t harm you (or others). The personal shadow potential of this transit is to get into groups that could cause you to become extreme or self-harming in some way, so please: be mindful of that. The negative power of groups (peer pressure, becoming more fanatical, etc.) can also become more extreme under this transit.

Revolutionizing the Way We Think

Pluto in Aquarius, in a nutshell, changes the ways we think. This can have to do with a change in education or even knowledge being excavated and unearthed. It can also just be a perspective in mindset or the ideals we hold. We may become more fanatic in our beliefs or rethink our systems of ethics. We may also develop new systems of logic and thinking.

Often (historically speaking) this transit coincided with advancements and other worldwide changes that shattered the worldview we used to hold. So, it may be that we also experience something on a personal or political level that leads to the same thing.

Lastly, some of those changes can come from new scientific advancements as well as people remembering something we already knew as collective humanity but forgot along the way. For instance, humans used to farm with the moon, which was abandoned at the time of the industrialization as it “wasn’t necessary anymore,” and “probably doesn’t even work.” However, people have picked up those methods again after centuries to realize that they do help even nowadays… and now, it’s a completely new way of farming.

You may also be way more future-oriented under this transit than you usually are, (in all areas for Aries and Aquarius Rising), but especially in the area Pluto impacts most.

Before going into generalized summaries for the sign (that can be expanded upon in a reading with me)...

Before we jump in: if this article helped you, I would appreciate you so, so much if you could send it to a friend or donate a sum of your choice to support me in doing this work and writing these articles. The ones on Pluto take years of research, so a lot of work goes into them. Thank you!

The Individual Focal Point of this Transit, By Sign:

Aries Rising: community, friends, allies, social media, group activities, future-planning, strategy, and hopes and dreams. I have an article on this called Pluto in the 11th House: The Power of Groups, Transforming Dreams (Transits & Natal Chart) Want to support my work? Send this article to a friend of click here to donate!

Taurus Rising: career, mission, parenting, status, social worth, reputation, and authority figures. I have an article called Pluto in the 10th: Success, Career, Authority, and Power (Natal + Transit) for you! Want to support my work? Send this article to a friend of click here to donate!

Gemini Rising: adventures, faith, belief systems of all kind, synthesis, strangers, the abroad, higher education, long-term travel, in-laws, and step-family. Pluto in the 9th: Transforming Your Horizons: Belifes, Education, Travel, and Culture (Natal + Transit) Want to support my work? Send this article to a friend of click here to donate!

Cancer Rising: intimacy, sex, trust, truth, experiences that change your life, shared resources, intuition, and death/birth/rebirth (no, you won’t die, I promise – I mean, you could if you go play chicken on a highway, but that won’t be Pluto’s fault). I have an article called Handling Power: Pluto Transiting the 8th House Explained (What to Expect, Advice & More) just for you.