The discovery of Pluto on February 18, 1930 heralded the start of the Pluto Period of the Aquarian Age.
At the time Elbert Benjamine, keenly aware that the discovery of a new planet announced worldwide changes, assiduously researched the influence of Pluto on people’s lives and mundane affairs. In 1938 He wrote:
‘That a new influence has come into the world during the last eight years must be obvious to everyone...
Astrologers (not fortunetellers) have expressed their opinions, in the various magazines, that Pluto is the co-ruler of Scorpio. If this be the case, it explains why Scorpio, more than any other sign, inclines to occult science and the investigation of the inner planes. But, when speaking of Pluto as ruler of the underworld, we should not consider this a region of racketeers and profligates; although this may be its adverse side.
And it is instructive to note that not only does Pluto swing more than twice as far to the north and south of the path of the Sun as do the other planets, but that the eccentricity of its orbit points to its significance as a transitional influence.
If we can understand Pluto as a transitional influence, it will enable us to interpret what is happening on the world today. Especially when we grasp the oft’ demonstrated fact that the influence of the planet is to divide people into two contending groups.
To the extent the unconscious minds of people respond to the influence of Pluto is there a tendency for them, according to their basic characters, to contact and be influenced by, either the powers of light or the forces of darkness. And it would appear that almost everyone is responding in some measure to the energies being broadcast from one or the other of these two invisible realms.
Under the influence of Pluto the world at present is in a state of transition to an entirely new condition; and there is a violent struggle between the constructive element who would give greater liberty to people’s minds, and those working just as energetically to dominate, for their own selfish purposes, the mentality and spirituality of the human race...’
To gain a deeper insight into the Pluto Period the Hermetic System of Numbers and Sacred Tarot can be applied to learn more about its influence and direction.
The term Pluto Period works out at 10 with 16 being the key to the decave.
This reveals that Arcanum 10, corresponding to Uranus and a change of fortune, is the major influence on the Pluto Period; and Arcanum 16, corresponding to Mars and an accident or catastrophe, indicates the direction in which this change of fortune is moving.
And on August 6, 1945 when US planes dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mars was conjunction Uranus in the sky > peak power date was August 17; and Pluto was square Pluto in the Pluto cycle.
The Pluto Period of the Aquarian Age has brought about the revolutionary condition popularly known as the Nuclear Age. And there is no defense against the destructive use of nuclear energy.
Pluto is the planet of fission aka division or splitting into two or more parts and cooperation.
Uranus corresponding to the key – of the Pluto Period – is the planet of sudden change. Arcanum X shows the wheel of fortune turning and the wheel that represents the influence of Uranus to bring radical changes can be made to turn in either direction. The only protection against the destructive power of the Nuclear Age is world cooperation in the control of this revolutionary energy.
Swinging much further north or south of the ecliptic than the other planets, Pluto’s influence is extreme: spiritual or materialistic. And Pluto’s highly elliptical orbit carries it from 30 to 50 times the Earth’s distance from the Sun so that at times it is closer to the Earth than Neptune.
Since its discovery in 1930, Pluto has been moving inward towards its perihelion (the point in its orbit nearest the Sun) and from 1979 to 1999 it was inside Neptune’s orbit. It reached perihelion in September 1989.
How long the Pluto Period will last and how long it will take for the world to successfully transition to a true Aquarian civilization is not known but its influence is outstanding and profound.
Swamped by materialistic madness and the pressures of dollar-driven living few individuals have been able to receive and act on the higher-Pluto spiritual message which advocates a lifestyle grounded in altruistic Aquarian Age ideals and motivated by the desire to contribute their utmost to universal welfare.
In 2025 the nuclear menace is ever present and we wonder if humanity, starring in a dangerous, suspenseful matinée serial, can be saved, just in the nick of time. Its current materialistic folly seems to threaten its ruin, or at least its drastic expiation, as Major Arcanum 22 of the Sacred Tarot depicts.
This article contains words written by Elbert Benjamine and Maria Major.
Astrology for Aquarius – sharing our knowledge
