Pluto’s transit through Aquarius over the next few years promises to deepen our understanding of the sign of the water carrier and suggests profound transformations. This transit is already setting off processes that ask us to re-examine our core understanding of what it really means to be human.
These are issues we have explored in a number of articles over the past couple of years, looking at Pluto in Aquarius in relation to democracy, to economics, to artificial intelligence; overall reminding us how to be human.
Here we focus on the nature of Aquarius, the sign of the water carrier.
ONE
The humanitarian
Aquarius is one of the fixed signs. The others are Leo the lion, Taurus the bull, Scorpio the scorpion. Aquarius, the water carrier is the only one of the fixed signs that is represented by a human figure. It represents humanity, and what it means to be human.
In the Zulu language spoken in South Africa, the phrase, “umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu”, translates literally to “a person is a person through other people.” It is the core maxim of the African philosophy of Ubuntu meaning our humanity is tied to the humanity of everyone around us.
This is a key part of the way Aquarians understand and live in the world.
TWO
Popular image of Aquarius
Some of the adjectives used to describe Aquarius: whacky, quirky, independent, unconventional and bohemian.
The first astrology book I ever came across back in the last century described Aquarians as bohemian. This has nothing to do with the area of The Czech Republic known as Bohemia. Historically it’s more to do with a particular non-conformist lifestyle popular among starving artists in 19th century Paris, portrayed in Puccini’s opera ‘La bohème’.
More recently, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody echoes the same Aquarian spirit of independence unfettered by convention.
THREE
No exceptionalism
There are those who feel that the rules don’t apply to them because of who they are, the status that their nationality gives them for example. For Aquarius, however, everyone is equal, everyone is individual and there is no exceptionalism because we’re all connected, all part of the same community.
FOUR
Used to be ruled by Saturn, now ruled by Uranus
Before the discovery of the planet Uranus in 1781, Aquarius was considered to be ruled by the planet Saturn. This meant that Saturn ruled both the earth sign of Capricorn and the air sign of Aquarius. Saturn’s image is notoriously sober and traditional, and as the ruler of Capricorn it is the guardian of traditional authority with its associated structures and responsibilities. While for Aquarius, Saturn’s rulership suggests traditional ways of thinking with its strict, formal, logical processes.
Come the rulership of Uranus, and Aquarian thinking takes on the ability to disrupt time-honoured processes. It encourages thought experiments, intuitive leaps and examines different ‘what-if?’ scenarios. It even allows parents to learn from their children, something unthinkable when Saturn ruled.
FIVE
Colour palette
The coming of Uranian rulership of Aquarius also changes the colour palette of the sign. Under Saturn, Aquarian colour was a formal grey that blended into the background and made no statement, other than the statement of being bland and familiar.
With Uranian rulership, the grey becomes silver, a rainbow emerges and the colours of Aquarius become opalescent. The effect is decidedly futuristic.
SIX
Air sign
Paradoxically, the sign of the water carrier is a fixed air sign. This is appropriate since Aquarius is the sign of paradox. The other air signs are Gemini and Libra and like them, Aquarius is involved in the air business of thinking, rational processes and communication. The element air doesn’t accumulate it flows, for example from high pressure to low pressure, from warm to cool, from topic to topic.
The three air signs differ in their approaches to logical processes. While Gemini deals with the discussions that result from the polarizing logic of either / or, and Libra deals with arbitrations and compromises, looking for common ground, Aquarian thinking takes an idea and its opposite and finds a synthesis that unites them both, taking us to a new and higher level of conceptualisation. This process is called dialectic, and it is associated with the German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
SEVEN
Dialectic and Revolution
But dialectic refused to stay hidden away in the high tower of philosophy. Karl Marx turned Hegel’s dialectic into Dialectic Materialism, the basis of Communism. It didn’t work out too well in practice because it was about 200 years ahead of its time and every attempt to set up a state based on Aquarian egalitarian principles collapsed back into the worst form of Capricornian hierarchical control by the state. George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ illustrates this process.
But that does not deny the role of Aquarius as the revolutionary, the overthrower of tyrants, the disruptor of systems, the re-asserter of common humanity.
EIGHT
Aquarian logic
Here’s a story that illustrates the Aquarian way of thinking.
Little Johnny had problems getting up in the morning and was invariably late for school, for appointments, for everything. One day his teacher decided to explain to him why he should get up earlier.
“If you look at the birds, if the bird gets up early in the morning, it will catch the juiciest worm for breakfast. But the bird that gets up late will find nothing to eat and will be hungry for the rest of the day. So, you see why it’s better to get up early.”
Little Johnny thought for a moment and said, “But the worm that stayed in bed and got up late didn’t get eaten. So, I still think it’s better to get up late.”
NINE
Heart and Circulation
In medical astrology, Aquarius rules the circulation of the blood, the nervous system and also the ankles. The heart, ruled by Leo, the opposite sign to Aquarius, is the central pump for the blood system, while Aquarius distributes the blood through the veins and capillaries around all the organs of the body. So while Leo likes to be the centre, Aquarius is concerned that every part of the body gets its share, even the ankles.
TEN
Non-binary
For Aquarius, the sign of humanity, people are people, regardless of race, religion, social class or even gender. Aquarians tend to be less constricted by the roles that society imposes and are generally accepting of the non-binary, or the gender-fluid, those individuals who cannot or choose not to identify with the binary gender roles of male and female.
ELEVEN
Techno-savvy
The Aquarian experimental approach is found in the work of the scientist. But rather than talking about the Aquarian need to keep up with the latest technology, I’d like to talk about my mother’s refrigerator.
My mother was a milliner by trade, a designer and maker of hats, back in the days when women wore hats. We had a wooden hat block at home, a device on which a hat could be built and which could be adjusted to different sizes. She had bags of ribbons and various items of haberdashery such as buckram, which would be used in the making and decorating of hats. Then as time went by and fashions changed, there was less demand for hats and my mother’s skills fell into disuse.
But not entirely. The bag of bits remained in a cupboard somewhere and the various contents came to be repurposed. In particular I remember her refrigerator where packets of things like frozen peas were tied up with coloured ribbon and safety pins in order to prevent the escape of the contents. Anyone who has had to chase frozen peas around the insides of a refrigerator will appreciate the need for this.
This was pure Aquarian, the experimental approach, a mentality that can repurpose an object or material with ease and alacrity. This meant that opening my mother’s refrigerator would take you into an intricately curated world of bags with little hats that echoed the milliner’s art.
There should be government grants for this sort of thing.
TWELVE
The Age of Aquarius
Are we there yet?
The fixed stars are not fixed. Back in ancient times, the sun would rise at the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere at the first degree of Aries. Then over the years this point appears to have slipped backwards and has been in Pisces for the last two thousand years.
This phenomenon was discovered by the Greek astronomer-astrologer Hipparchus and it is known as The Precession of the Equinoxes.
For astrologers, the period while the sun has been in Pisces at the spring equinox is known as the Age of Pisces. This period is coming to an end as the equinox point is about to move into Aquarius taking us into the Age of Aquarius.
A lot has been written, said (and sung) about The Age of Aquarius, most of it fanciful. But just to say that there are so many differing opinions on this topic with some astrologers saying that we’re already in the transition to the so-called New Age, while others claim that it doesn’t begin till 2062, while yet others calculate that we’ll have to wait till the year 2600 before we enter the Age of Aquarius.
Current sentiment is that Pluto’s transit through the sign of Aquarius with all the challenges that this involves is a time of transition to an era of two-thousand-years ruled by humanitarian, democratic and scientific principles. See you there!
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More on Pluto in Aquarius
Pluto in Aquarius : Reminding us to be human
Pluto’s 20-year transit through the sign of Aquarius promises massive changes in how we see ourselves as human, particularly in our relationship with technology.
Pluto in Aquarius and Democracy
What does Pluto’s transit of Aquarius, the sign of democracy mean for the health of our civil institutions? Will they meet the challenge? We explore the astrological influences behind the rise of the plutocracy.
Pluto and the Aquarian Economy
Pluto has been in Aquarius since November 2024 and we are now beginning to see the changes in the economic and social spaces that are linked to its influence.
Pluto in Aquarius and Artificial Intelligence
How will Artificial Intelligence shape the future of business and communication under Pluto’s watch as it moves from Capricorn into Aquarius?
Pluto in Aquarius and the New Economic Paradigm
As Pluto, the planet of transformation changes sign from Capricorn to Aquarius, we’re at a time of transition from the old business model of the last 200 years to a new business paradigm – The Aquarian Paradigm.
Pluto in Aquarius : The Death of the Brand
While Pluto was in Capricorn, power was in the hands of corporates and their impersonal structures. The world was dominated by brands and their identities. So, what happens when Pluto moves into Aquarius? How does the power shift? Here we look at a possible scenario affecting corporate brands and the way they are marketed.
Ben Belinsky
September 2026
