Belated Happy 246th Birthday to the U.S.A. on the 2nd Pass of Its 1st Pluto Return

Jasper Johns, Flag (1960)

It's been so long since I've updated this blog, I expected moths to greet me on this "Create a New Post" page. I'd been meaning to post about the U.S. Solar Return, which happened this year on July 5 at 4:29 a.m. EDT. But frankly, I was so depressed about the state of things in the States that I just didn't have the heart.

I use the natal chart that has 13'10" degrees of Sagittarius Rising (5:13 p.m.), Philadelphia, PA. The Solar Return (SR) has 29'32" degrees of Gemini Rising, with the chart ruler, Mercury, conjunct the Ascendant at 0'10" degrees of Cancer. Mercury harmoniously sextiles Mars at 0'04" degrees of Taurus (the sign of Mars's detriment) in the 11th house, indicating opportunity for "fixed" (stubborn and persistent) energy coming from reform-minded groups. Lots of emotional talk combining with lots of know-it-all action.

What's more worrisome is the 4th-house Moon at 22'39" degrees of Virgo opposing a retrograde 10th-house Neptune at 25'26" degrees of Pisces. By itself this is problematic, indicating confusion over both physical and mental health as well as a tendency to run from harsh realities and embrace a delusional dream world by any means possible. This opposition also pulls in America's worst natal aspect: a Mars-Neptune square from 21'23" degrees of Gemini (Mars) to 22'25" Virgo (Neptune). In other words, U.S. SR Moon is conjunct natal Neptune (more confusion, denial, wool-gathering, and self-medicating) while the natal Mars squaring SR Moon and Neptune, increasing anger, fighting words, and violence.

Most important of all is SR Pluto retrograde at 27'42" degrees of Capricorn, placed in the 8th (Pluto-ruled) house of sex, death, transformation, and taxes. This is almost exactly conjunct U.S. natal Pluto; in fact, it happened today (July 11) for the second time (the first pass was this February, and the third and final pass will be in late December). Heightening the emotional intensity of this Pluto Return is the trine from the U.S. SR Moon. At its best, this could manifest in deep-rooted transformation on a national level, particularly as it applies to women and domestic matters.

This whole year of 2022, then, is marked by U.S.'s Pluto Return. America is a relatively young nation; many other countries have gone through Pluto Returns around their 246th birthdays. It remains to be seen what remains of the U.S. after its Pluto Return, which I believe started with Pluto at the beginning of Capricorn in 2008-10 -- opposing natal U.S. Venus and Jupiter in early Cancer, with President Obama's "Obamacare" and the Citizens United case that determined corporations (ruled by Capricorn) had the same rights as people. The Pluto Return ratcheted up its intensity in 2020 with the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that marked the official beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, followed by the attempted coup of January 6, 2021. This year is the peak of the U.S. Pluto Return, and we can see that not only are the events of January 6 (including, unfortunately TFG) back in the headlines, but increased mass shootings (in schools, in malls, in a "nice" Chicago suburb during a Fourth of July parade), sky-high inflation, and the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, which had been the law since 1973. Now about half the States will treat women as second-class citizens, as chattel with no autonomy over their bodies, which came as a surprise to no one who understands that this is how Far Right so-called Christians roll, and that the die was cast in 2016 when Mitch McConnell (the most unevolved form of Pisces) denied Merrick Garland's nomination in the election year of 2016 and managed to push Handmaiden Amy Coney Barrett through just weeks before the 2020 presidential election. Between those two events, more conservative Catholics joined the Court. Many people blamed Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the sin of hubris, for refusing to retire when she had cancer; I would like to believe that she really did not know how much was at stake.

It remains to be seen whether America survives as a democracy. Pluto in Capricorn has manifested in the corruption, decay, and destruction of virtually every institution that exists, from banking to business to government. America has effectively turned into a plutocracy. Big Money, Big Tech, Big Pharma -- all forms of late-stage capitalism and commodification, in which the winners take all and then take some more. Infrastructure is ruled by Capricorn as well, and roads, high-rises, and power grids are all falling apart. The glorification of guns (natal Mars-Neptune square, with Mars in the 7th house of "the Other" so that there's a lot of projection involved -- it's not me, it's you!) is such an ingrained part of America's psyche, with cowboys of the Wild West celebrating their vigilante freedom, I don't see how any gun-control laws will be more than a Band-Aid to stanch the bloodbath. Who will voluntarily turn in their guns, their AK-15s capable of shredding flesh to an unrecognizable pulp? The massacre at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, was almost 10 years ago; when nothing happened after that except for "thoughts and prayers," I knew that nothing would.

With Pluto in the last half of the last decanate of Capricorn, so many of us are tired, numb, and cynical. We are done with the pandemic, even though the pandemic is not done with us. We are seeing the effects of the climate emergency with increased wildfires, floods, terrible storms, and extreme temperature swings, but again, there is more fatalism than concerted, cooperative action. Will this begin to change for the better with Pluto's ingress into Aquarius next year? I can only hope so. In the meantime...buckle your seatbelts and stack up those sandbags. This may well be America's darkest hour.