The Pluto Return isn’t for you or about you.

Russia has declared war on Ukraine. This is not directly related to the Unites State’s Pluto return…or is it? Since Putin installed Trump who gave Putin the green light, this is our problem, at least in part. And everyone who voted for Trump, supported him, and shared Putin-led paranoid propaganda have this blood on their hands.

And why aren’t we there? Is it our fear of nuclear war? Is it Putin? He is our century’s Adolph Hitler, and he won’t stop here.

Pluto is nuclear power, dictatorships, and world domination.

And to be clear, because the waters have become muddied:

THIS PLUTO RETURN ISN’T ABOUT YOU.

IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU.

It’s not for you, or by you, or because of you. You’re not personally having a Pluto return. No one is. No one lives long enough to have a Pluto return.

This is not your energy. This is not your power. This is not your potential.

This is a collective, long-term, massive shift, a permanent change, that happens to a collective, by a collective, because of the actions of the powerful (and if you’re the kind of person who is trying to harness this cosmic energy right now, my guess is that you’re not a person of power in the real world), who have been doing as they want for years…and I don’t just mean the stupid fucking, plain idiotic conspiracy theories that have slowly bubbled up from the bog to become part of our cultural consciousness.

There’s no mass Hollywood ring fucking and eating children – but there are real children being trafficked every day right under the noses of every stupid cracker who believes in pizzagate and qanon who frankly couldn’t give a shit because 1) many of those children are POC, and 2) it’s not salacious enough — like real children actually being sexually trafficked in smaller quantities isn’t exciting enough for them to care. And that’s a really special kind of depravity and moral flexibility that I can’t even try to understand.

And the weird irony? These same fucking assholes somehow refuse to see the connection between their beloved Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a real life high-profile human trafficker.

This is part of the country’s Pluto return, and this “shift in consciousness” is not cosmic, and it’s not about individuals changing. This is happening in the 2nd house, possessions, earned income, resources, things I get and keep, not the 9th house, not the 12th. We’re just not that kind of country, guys, and so long as there is still a United States, we will never be Starseed Soyland. If anything, the “shift in consciousness” is going to continue to become more narcissistic and more self-destructive until we find a common enemy (and it should be Putin, but unfortunately, it’s not yet), to turn this collective energy toward.

Pluto is a NOT a spiritual energy — it’s not Christ power. It’s Odin power. It’s not love and light; it’s power and destruction. It’s not sacrifice for the good of mankind, knowing that you’ll come back all shiny and brand new: it’s a leap into the darkness not knowing if you’ll survive but knowing you will not come out the same if you make it out alive.

But you can’t go into the crucible and expect to come out a work of art simply because you have the intention to do so. It will make you what it makes you, and you will come out when it decides you come out, and you will be beaten into whatever shape the blacksmith beats into you. That’s what this is, and you’re a fool if you think you’re going to make the zeitgeist work in your favor if you’re not an oligarch already. This is about the big things that are beyond you that you are a part of because you have no choice because this Pluto energy is America’s Pluto energy.

And since it’s Pluto in the 2h, this could very well mean a war on our own soil or our own resources or both, and it could mean a draft, and if there’s a draft, the world will know for damned sure that the United States perhaps just isn’t the military power it says it is. Sure, we have a HUGE military, but when push comes to shove, there’s going to be a lot of draft dodging and a lot of people who really shouldn’t be going to war because they’re too unhealthy mentally and physically. What do young men (and young women) owe this country that they should risk their lives overseas? They will come back to student debt, high housing costs, low wages, a “hustle economy” that denies a work/life balance, and grandparents who come from a generation who forgot just why they called it a baby boom, and that no, they didn’t earn everything they have with their own two hands, who happily slop at the socialist teat of Social Security, Medicaid, pensions, and senior discounts, but god forbid their taxes go up $2 a month to help feed poor children or educate them.

But that is part of the great American folly, and perhaps one thing this Pluto transit through the 2nd house and over Pluto will force us to confront, which is the great lie of the American meritocracy. When children who come from wealthy families are being rebranded entrepreneurs and self-made millionaires, when people actually think a bumbling moron like Trump must be good enough to be president because he inherited his father’s business and licenses his name and that somehow, he is savior of the country because he says he’s nominally Christian even though he has openly conducted himself as someone who clearly isn’t, when the TikTok algorithm makes famous children who don’t actually have any talent, when people are actually terrified of critical race theory because it is the deathblow to American meritocracy which is so deeply rooted in racism, you know that the prevailing belief that talent, hard work, and prayer will make you successful is a lie.

It’s a lie.

Just like it’s a lie that an individual can somehow “spiritual” their way out of the social constructs that exist to keep specific people down in order to permanently elevate others.

And along those lines, the spiritual meritocracy, the Karencraft of the 21st century, the silly idea that you can somehow harness this energy for yourself, is all part of that. Everything is for the taking if you have the notion to take it, right?

I’m going to let you in on a little secret:

Pluto doesn’t manifest anything for you. Pluto doesn’t work for you. Actually, no planetary energy works for you, but especially not Pluto. The tectonic plates don’t take a break for your Hawaiian holiday. Those dormant genes that, once triggered, tell your cells to change to cancer don’t ask your permission first. Putin doesn’t read your fucking social media or give two fucks about your vibes, love, and light.

Because if that actually worked, then why do we still have Christians crying persecution, still: I mean, shouldn’t Jesus have won at Pentecost?

Pluto is about the power that is beyond and so much bigger than one individual. It’s not about the will like Mars is about the will; it’s the will of nature, of the people — and in a country like America where we think that every opinion is precious no matter how uninformed, that heroism is saving your own ass, that people should just be able to do what they want whenever they want it and it’s a high crime to demand someone do a minor thing like wear a mask or get a vaccination — Pluto is the collective force that gets bigger the more it devours, and it has no interest in your piddly ideas about yourself or your worth.

So, I tell you again:

What you do during the Pluto return is you take care of yourself and others in a real, material way, because this out of your control, and it’s been underway for years. It will affect you, but you can’t surf a tsunami, and you’ll die if you try, and any fool who is standing on the shore applauding you exercising your rights won’t be around for very long either. The problem is that Americans just refuse to believe in anything more powerful than their own fantasies about themselves and their potential, and they can’t just do what Pluto really makes you do, which is to succumb to the flames and become ashes again so that you *might* become the phoenix. This isn’t Neptune-type surrender, which is just standing in the thick fog waiting for it to pass, but rather a sacrifice, allowing part of one’s self to die and be discarded so that something new will come in it’s place, with no control over what will come next.

And sometimes it’s sacrifice against your will, and exploitation and abuse, particularly that which is sexual, psychological, and enslaving, is the negative manifestation of Pluto, and unfortunately, that can happen too: I mean, did you see the image of the kid strapped to a gas can at the Canadian trucker protests? It’s not about vaccines. It really never was. Tell me again how great those living, breathing pieces of shit in Ottawa are. What about that child’s freedom to not be exploited?

And vaccination is also Plutonian, as is the far-and-wide karma you reap from the ripple effects of your actions, the effects you could foresee but didn’t actually witness because they were remote but still foreseeable. America has already seen what happens when people place false hopes in their immune systems,or their crystals, or their spirit guides, or their gods or their elderberry syrup, even if it refuses to acknowledge that there are so many people who didn’t have to get sick, and so many who didn’t have to die, if not for the ripple effect of selfishness.

So if you’re going to do anything with this energy from the Pluto return, you’re mostly going to do what it tells you to do, what it makes you do because of the actions of others, the collective, the powers that be. Which means that what you do is try to hold onto the divine love that is also Pluto and take care of others, real others who exist in flesh and blood, to meet their real, actual needs.

But for many of us, we will have to make a choice, and many of won’t make the right choice because America doesn’t understand sacrifice. You think people nowadays would handle food rations? They would burn sacks of sugar in the street before they would wait their turn to buy sugar. They would set fire to low income neighborhoods before they would allow those children to eat if that meant Starbucks has to close every other day due to limits on coffee and corn syrup and all the disgusting bean juices they use as milk substitutes.

And they will let the sick, elderly, and young die before they have to wear a mask or be vaccinated, and we know this because it’s already happened.

Don’t pray for the people who need food. Give them food. Jesus has obviously shown that he’s doing a tremendously shitty job with equitably distributing food across the world so don’t rely on Him. Don’t get cocky and think you’re going to somehow slip through the cracks. Sure, you may have all your money in crypto, but does the hospital take bitcoin?

This is kind of what Pluto return can do:

Sure, maybe you’ll start a great business making cool stuff and make a bunch of money, and then your supplier in China suddenly has sanctions against them for siding with Russia, and now inflation means that necessities cost more so people spend less on cool stuff, and now you got no supplies, no sales, but you still owe your vendors, your landlord, and the IRS. It could happen.

But I’m not saying stop. I’m not saying don’t leave planet Earth entirely just because you can see the crest of the wave threatening the show, because there is no escaping hardship, despair, destruction, or the change that doesn’t think you’re special enough to be spared.

After all, part of the thrill of life is not knowing what’s coming, and part of the thrill is knowing what’s coming but wanting to see if you can survive it anyway.

And that’s why I don’t read my horoscope or check my transits every day.

But if you actually want to do something about what’s going on in the world, roll up your sleeves and DO SOMETHING. Your thoughts and prayers are worth less than shit, and no one gives a fuck about your vibrations, your consciousness — whatever the fuck that means, because honestly, I am so fucking sick of hearing about CoNsCiOuSnEsS as if your thoughts have any value for anyone else or ever did — or whatever thing you say you’re doing while you’re actually doing jack shit for the world.

And it can be a small material thing, but do a material thing to change the reality that we’re all living in. Make a thing to make someone feel better. Plant a tree. Bake some bread for your neighbor. Make some art. Publish a story. Help your neighbor shovel their car out. Buy a candle from that girl at the farmer’s market. Give a teacher school supplies for their students. Leave tampons and pads in the public restroom (women’s room, preferably). The only way you combat the sweep of a mass Pluto transit is to keep going with the knowledge that life will go on in some form, in some way and insist that you go on despite what the powers that be may do.

And on that note, I’m taking a break from professional astrology.

There’s really no existential reason, or at least, not as the main reason. The main reason is that my day job, which is a full-on profession in the actual sense, with certain specific duties and ethics, has gotten harder lately, and those clients come first. I’ve had a great time doing reading for so many of you this year, but I also need to rest, and particularly, I need to let my mind rest on the weekends so I can do my job during the week. But even if I say, have to use the weekend to finish preparing for a trial, that’s what I do. I don’t ask the judge for a continuance so I can do some astrology readings or research an article during “my time.” My particular employment may be a (nominally) 9-5, but being a lawyer isn’t, and I have to spend some more time being a lawyer right now.

And frankly, in a country where people freely babble about their rights but don’t actually know what those rights are and happily ignore the rights of others, lawyers (especially those who serve the most vulnerable populations) are more needful than astrologers right now — and there’s plenty of astrologers to choose from these days, so if you want a referral, I can do that.

That’s all.

Okay, and maybe I am sick of the wellness community and the all the narcissism that astrology has soaked up in the last ten years as it became commercially viable, but primarily, duty requires me to focus on being a lawyer first.

And oh look – it’s almost March. Just three more weeks of winter and then there’s the astrological new year.

Rest up.