When the outer planet (that's not a planet?) tumbled mountains
And hope on the cosmic level for the decades ahead
This is part three of a three-part series in which I am examining the impact of the outer planets on the powerful wave of religious deconstruction in the 2010s. You can read part 1 (Neptune) here, and part 2 (Uranus) here.
Think of a memory you have, a core memory, something that is essential to your remembrance of an experience or a moment in time. Isn’t it funny how so often, those core memories are not built on big, grandiose, earth-shattering experiences, but are rather built from something that seemed mundane, just a little nothing that turned out to be a really big something?
I can remember this moment as clearly as if it happened yesterday. It was December of 2008, and my husband and two little girls and I had just moved to a small town in western Oklahoma. My husband had left his coaching career in college football months earlier, and the financial services firm he was now working for had planted us out on the prairie.
We both were formed in a culture where the first thing you do when you move to a new town is find your new church home, and we indeed had found one at the local First Baptist Church. We were still very much the newcomers when we showed up at the home of fellow Sunday School class members for a class Christmas party. There was an ornament exchange and we all had brought our kids so there was no small amount of chaos and there was food, so much food of the potluck variety.
The women of the class had gathered in the kitchen to set up the buffet line, and we were all chit-chatting when the topic of newly-elected but not-yet-in-office Barak Obama came up:
“Oh and you just know he is the Antichrist. I think the Bible makes that very clear.”
I huffed a laugh because surely, she was joking. I saw in an instant that she was very much serious, and I can still, right now, nearly seventeen years later, remember how my stomach dropped and my blood felt like ice.
Weeks earlier, I had voted for Barak Obama with a smile on my face. Yes, we can and all that. In the mumbled agreements I heard and the angry faces I saw standing at that kitchen island in that small town Oklahoma home on the plains, I suddenly felt very alone.
Oh. I don’t think I belong here.
That year, 2008, and that moment in the kitchen at the Sunday School class Christmas party have been very much on my mind as this contemplation of Pluto’s place in our collective deconstruction movement has languished in my Substack drafts.
In 2008, the is-it-or-isn’t-it outer planet (technically dwarf planet) Pluto moved into the sign of Capricorn. Here are some quick notes about this transit:
Pluto is the planet of transformation, death/rebirth, power, control, hidden corruption, and deep systemic overhaul.
Wherever Pluto travels, it exposes rot, breaks down structures, and forces regeneration from the rubble.
Capricorn (my rising sign!) is the cardinal earth sign ruled by Saturn.
Amongst many other things, some of the components of Capricorn’s rule include institutions, governments, corporations, hierarchies, tradition, patriarchy, authority, and the scaffolding of society.
As the furthest out celestial body, Pluto is a generational planet and it sets up shop for lonnnnng stretches of time. It was in the sign of Capricorn from 2008 until it moved fully into Aquarius in November 2024 (gulp).
Remember how I said Pluto is the planet of transformation? And how its energy exposes rot and ignites massive system overhaul? And remember how Capricorn rules the institutional systems?
Well, let’s take a look at some of the Greatest Hits of the stretch of time that Pluto was in Capricorn:
2008
Pluto enters Capricorn.
Global Financial Crisis hits (banks collapse, mortgages implode. Let me tell you, that was a FUN TIME for my husband to start a new career in the financial services industry! And by FUN TIME I mean ABSOLUTE DISASTER)
2010–2012
Catholic Church abuse revelations intensify worldwide.
Arab Spring uprisings; people challenge entrenched governments.
Occupy Wall Street (2011): remember this? The first voice given to collective rage at corporate greed.
2014–2016
Black Lives Matter movement grows after Ferguson. Policing (Capricorn authority) exposed as abusive.
Trump elected (2016): institutional norms of governance destabilized; the populist distrust of government became mainstream.
2017–2018
#MeToo explodes. Hidden abuses in Hollywood, politics, publishing, religion, everywhere; tons of Capricornian power structures are shaken.
2020
COVID-19 pandemic. Global shutdown dismantles daily structures of work, school, church.
Religious institutions falter when buildings close because it reveals that faith practice can exist outside institutional walls.
George Floyd’s murder (2020): further breakdown of trust in authority.
2021–2022
“Great Resignation” and “quiet quitting” reshape work.
The fall of Roe (2022): women’s bodies (remember this is when Uranus was in Taurus) entangled with authority structures (Capricorn) in a life-altering way.
2023
Pluto makes its first ingress into Aquarius. A taste of the shift toward Aquarian themes: AI, decentralized tech, online communities rising in power.
Retrogrades back into Capricorn, making us reckon one last time with the rubble of authority before moving on.
The archetype of Capricorn is inextricably linked to mountains. Its symbol is the mythical creature of the sea goat whose purpose is to rise from the sea and ascend the mountain, building structures along the way that will allow others to follow to the peak, where earth meets sky. Though practical and pragmatic, Capricorn is a very spiritually vital energy. However, we also know that because it is driven to build structure, it is deeply linked with the institutions that govern those structures.
Can’t every single one of us identify that everything that seemed as solid and immovable as the mountains in our experiences of life prior to 2008 seems to have tumbled in some way while Pluto did its insistent, transformative work?
And so, this is one more layer of the cosmic energy that an untold number of people found themselves in one of the waves of deconstruction in the first quarter of the 21st century.
These are deeply unsettling times to be human-ing together on this planet, aren’t they?
But I hold out hope for what’s to come because I can see (and I want you to see!) how we are supported in the cosmic energy ahead:
Pluto has finished its long demolition tour through Capricorn, where it exposed every crack in the structures that claimed authority - every part of life from governments, corporations, and churches, to even family systems. Now, as it moves into Aquarius for the next twenty years, the energy is shifting big time! The archetype of Aquarius is all about innovation and empowering the Collective. If Capricorn was about top-down control, Aquarius is about side-by-side networked power. Aquarius (the fixed air sign water-bearer who brings sustenance to the people) says, “What if we rebuild this together?” Pluto in Aquarius is the deep transformation of how we share knowledge, organize communities, and distribute power, you guys! This will not be a return to hierarchy. The energy here supports alchemizing the old world into something more humane, more participatory, and more transparent.
Don’t forget about Uranus’s historic transit into Gemini (particularly important for those of us who live in the United States because, as a reminder, Uranus has been in Gemini in our most revolutionary moments). After seven years of shaking the ground beneath our feet in earthy Taurus, Uranus in Gemini lifts the energy into the air. The revolution moves from the body to the mind. Taurus broke our attachment to false stability; Gemini invites us to consider how we think, speak, and connect. Expect experimentation in communication, education, and community. I anticipate that this hunger for truth will lead to fresh ways of learning and radical curiosity as a spiritual practice. Uranus in Gemini asks, “Now that the old foundations have crumbled, how will we talk to each other across the rubble?”
Finally, next January, dreamy Neptune moves into Aries for a long-term stay. After fifteen years of dissolution and deconstruction, we can start defining what faith looks like in action. Neptune in Aries (the cardinal fire sign that is all about starting something fresh and new) turns mysticism into movement. It’s the shift from yearning to embodiment. The invitation is to take all that compassion and transcendence we’ve been swimming in and give it flesh. I fully believe that from 2026 to 2039, we’ll see people starting new spiritual communities, creative projects, and personal missions grounded in fiery courage.
Like I said, this draft has been sitting unfinished for weeks. It wasn’t until today that I had a better sense of how to wrap up this series, because I wanted to do more than rehash deconstruction. I wanted to truly offer a vision and hope for what lies ahead for us after everything has shaken to the ground.
It’s clear to me now that maybe all of this - the dissolving, the shaking, the crumbling, and the subsequent deconstructing - was never about losing faith at all! Maybe it was about clearing space for what comes next. Pluto in Aquarius hands us the blueprints for shared power, Uranus in Gemini gives us the language to connect again, and Neptune in Aries lights the fire that gets us moving.
The institutions had their turn.
Now it’s ours.
We’re the builders, the writers, and the midwives of what’s emerging! And if that sounds messy, it’s because rebirth always is! But at least this time, we get to decide what deserves our devotion.
Take a deep breath and breathe in that full moon energy of release today,
Meg
PS - it’s one thing to contemplate transformation on an institutional and collective level, but if you have been longing to know what transformation can look like for you, right here, right now, that happens to be at the heart of my one-on-one work. My signature client experience is called the Whole Self Reading, and it’s perfect for examining who you are and equipping you for what comes next!
I can’t remember if I’ve posted this before or not but that is one reason I left church. Got up and walked out of a service when this was said. Had a Sunday School teacher at a different church say the same thing. It makes me so mad that they demonized a Christian man over the clown we have now. If anyone is Antichrist (which is fake) it would be that guy with the red hat on forehead!