Welcome to Pluto Retrograde. Our backwards spin through the underworld. Our dance with transformation. Our return to the depths of our own becoming.
Pluto Retrograde is an invitation to come into partnership with the parts of ourselves we are yet to accept and pour love into, so that we may reclaim these aspects of who we are – light and dark.
Pluto Retrograde 2024 Dates:
Pluto Retrograde begins on 2 May 2024 and continues until 11 October 2024.
The Dance: Pluto in Capricorn, Pluto in Aquarius
Pluto can spend up to 21 years in one sign and turns retrograde every year for around five to six months.
Having been in the spotlight this past year, Pluto it has been dancing upon an era-defining shift in our cosmos – that from Capricorn to Aquarius – representing this moment in time we currently find ourselves within as somewhat of a straddling of two worlds – the old and the new. Pluto in Capricorn being the old – or the existing, and Pluto in Aquarius being the new – or the future.
Our planet of transformation, we are dancing deep with change. We are preparing for a new era – individually and collectively. And this retrograde is an integral part of the dance.
After 16 years in Capricorn, Pluto first entered Aquarius in March of 2023. Due to its slow movements, its retrogrades only seemed to move Pluto straight back into Capricorn. Dancing between the final stages of Capricorn and the new beginnings of Aquarius, this retrograde represents Pluto’s final dip back into Capricorn for over 200 years. It is our last stage of the transition before beginning an entirely new era of Pluto in Aquarius until 2043.
Pluto Retrograde in Aquarius begins May 2 2024, where it will shift back into Capricorn for the last time on October 11 2024.
After Pluto stations direct in Capricorn on October 11 2024, its forward movement will enter Aquarius again on November 19 2024 where it will remain for the next 19 years.
Retrograde Medicine
It has been theorized that as we move further away from the Earth in our Solar system, the more complex, misunderstood, mysterious and subtle the astrological invitations and frequencies of the planets are. Pluto, named after the Roman God of the underworld and sitting at the edge of our known Solar system, is no different.
Pluto’s influence cannot be grasped only with the mind. It is the process of death, rebirth, transformation, power, and the unconscious. It represents the unseen, the mystery, and the hidden aspects of self and humanity. It is the deep reserves within us that are not often journeyed. It is our shadows, darkness, and vulnerabilities.
Retrograde periods in Astrology represent R-E words like review, revise, reconsider, realign, revisit, and so on. They are the one step backwards to allow for the many steps forward. They are a sacred pause inviting us to look around, review who we are and the path we are walking upon.
They arrive so that we may integrate our lived experiences, consider past journeys that were left behind, bring closure to what is needing it, question what lives within us previously gone unquestioned, and to arrive present, centred, and aligned before continuing forward once again.
Retrogrades remind us that life, no matter how we try, is not linear. Our journey is cyclic. We move up and down and every other direction possible. And our inner world is no different – especially with the influence of Pluto.
Pluto Medicine
Pluto is transformation. It is the kind of cracking open that brings change down to the roots, the centre, the core of who we are. Pluto journeys deep, moving through our underworld, our psyche, our unconscious. Pluto excavates. It brings to light. It asks us to be with.
Pluto’s retrograde shows us what is laying within waiting for healing. Waiting for acceptance. Waiting for closure. Waiting for our presence. It digs deep within our hidden inner caves, the unconscious, the emotional body, the hidden within us.
As Pluto goes Retrograde, we are travelling to the spaces that are ready to be transformed.
It is where we feel imprisoned within ourselves that Pluto asks us to find our freedom. It is within the experiences that have us feel powerless that Pluto invites empowerment. And it is through cracking open from within that Pluto welcomes light into dark spaces.
If ‘old’ stories, wounds, fears, or pain points present themselves to you throughout this time, celebrate.
How can you befriend this part of you?Â
What is waiting on the other side?
What would it feel like to descend into it?Â
What does this part of you need?Â
How can you create safety within your being as you journey with this?
How is this moment bringing you closer to yourself?
2024 Pluto Retrograde: Transformation, Empowerment, and Reclamation
Pluto represents aspects of humanity that for many are uncomfortable. To journey through one’s inner shadow and face what sits within the discarded parts of us isn’t easy. It is loving, however. And it is deeply healing.
Pluto is the missing piece of the puzzle that bring us home to the wholeness of our human experience. This retrograde is a time that invites us to be vulnerable while it peels back layers to sit with what lies underneath. To witness parts ourselves we have disowned and cast into the shadow – all so that we may reach into acceptance, piece by piece reclaiming ourselves. To witness what has been keeping us in chained, dimmed, powerless, and fearful – all so that we may remember our freedom, power, and light.
As Pluto beings its retrograde, allow the cyclic journey of your becoming and unbecoming to be what it is. Not only are we in the space of retrogrades, but we are dancing deep within the era-defining changes of Pluto from Capricorn to Aquarius, with this retrograde being our final visit returning to spaces within us that have been running beneath the surface, shaping our experience, and influencing our movements in both conscious and unconscious ways – so that we may observe them, question them, bring love and healing to them before we move ahead once again.
Pluto Retrograde will affect everyone, every zodiac sign. Especially Capricorn and Aquarius, and those of us with a ‘prominent’ Pluto in our astrology chart. Yet for all of us, it is a release. It is a healing. It is the finalising of a chapter. It is a soulful reclamation of who you are here to be.
This article has been updated. Originally published April 28, 2023.
Image by Marcus Black, 1844.
