Transform trauma and shed the dead during 2025s Pluto retrograde in Aquarius

Pluto, our petite power planet of primordial urges, transformation through trauma, ID energy and the subconscious mind, is going retrograde in Aquarius from May 4th to October 13th.Over the past few years, Pluto has been dipping between the final degrees of stalwart, capitalist dad jeans Capricorn and the early degrees of charismatic cult leader Aquarius.But now, the so-called dwarf planet has set up shop in the realm of the water bearer — where it will remain until March 8, 2043.A reminder, planets do not truly move backward, but do decelerate during retrograde cycles — appearing to reverse from our vantage here on Earth.

This happens when Earth, in its orbit around the sun, essentially laps a planet.While Mercury retrograde is the best-known and most maligned of retrogrades, all planets, including the diminutive Pluto, get down with a slowdown at some point.During a retrograde period, the prefix “re-” is a real deal power player inviting us to remember, reflect, reimagine, renegotiate, rework, revisit, and reframe themes associated with the planet in question.During retrograde cycles, people, patterns and unresolved issues from the past tend to return to us, so that we can reckon with and/or release them.Pluto is a slow moving outer planet that spends roughly 5 months of the year in retrograde.

In the Northern Hemisphere the planet’s yearly retrograde typically bridges the gap between spring and fall.According to myth, this is the span of time time that Persephone, the queen of the underworld would leave her husband/captor Hades/Pluto and return to the land of the living, signaling to her mother Demeter that the time was nigh to bring all things on earth back to life.Pluto meanwhile was in serious sad boy territory, presumably clutching at his hair, staring at the wall and wondering what he’d done to deserve this desertion.Apropos of this dubious association, the planet is linked to endings and downfall, the ashes before the ascent.

As master of c...