Pluto Whacks Business
A Lecture on Pluto in Capricorn
by Kaye Shinker

The Man in The Gray Flannel Suit moves to the Outback/Bush.

To quote John Marcella “Actually, Pluto doesn't just end things. He exorcises, detoxes, purges, obliterates and makes extinct the antiquated. And yes, He allows new forms to develop, evolve, emerge and unfold.”

Pluto whacked the extended family when he transited Cancer and now he is whacking the tribe of business. Are the girls returning home to earn egg money? Maybe the boys will return instead to construct micro corporations with 40 acres and a pony.

Pluto is said to rule the Mafia or gangsters. The mafia tends to take out members of rival groups as well as their own by whacking them.

Simply that member no longer has a voice.

Pluto has a tendency to whack those things ruled by the sign it is transiting. Then Pluto replaces what it has whacked with something similar yet entirely different.

Pluto through the signs

The roof caves in according the the things ruled by the sign when Pluto makes his entrance. Listed below are the years Pluto transited each sign during the Twentieth Century:

(I have added some things ruled by each of the signs, The question is how did Pluto whack each thing ruled by the sign and what replaced each item. Example: extended family replaced by nuclear family?)

Those are some examples. I’m sure you will add to the list as you think about each era.

OOPS What about Capricorn (2008-2024)?

Areas of life ruled by Capricorn: Government, currency, career, engineers, Capricorn specifically rules heating and air-conditioning, cement and aggregate, coal and alternative energy, corporations, clocks and watches, engineers, financial services, gerontology, investment companies, nursing homes, places of business, office buildings, security systems, salt and vaults.

Pluto is also whacking everything ruled by Saturn and he has two signs to transit to accomplish the goal

Think about the period of the American Revolution starting with 1762 and moving through 1815.  Pluto transformed government in the Saturn ruled signs Capricorn and Aquarius.

The ruler of Capricorn is Saturn and the ruler of Aquarius is Saturn. (Saturn rules Aquarius according to traditional astrology) Therefore, the things Pluto will take out and reorganize are Saturn ruled. The elderly, time, clocks, infrastructure, master teacher and empire builder, accounting, treasury, savings, and financial systems.

Lets Talk Business

Big business has dominated the landscape since Pluto entered Cancer. Pluto is starting his rampage through Capricorn by whacking big business.

The New York Stock exchange started in 1792 with Pluto at 22 Aquarius. One by one, corporations joined the New York exchange to raise the capital needed to expand and equip a business. Investors bought shares in the corporation. The reward for the investment was dividends. When the company manufactured enough things to make a profit the investors shared in the profits.

Banking was a cantankerous problem during the nineteenth century. To facilitate the exchange of resources another method of exchange was developed for doing business in the Twentieth Century. The Federal Reserve
was established. chart: Federal Reserve, December 23,1913, 6:20 pm EST, Washington, District of Columbia

Notice that natal Pluto is at zero Cancer and the Sun is at one Capricorn.

Reorganization of Capitalism

Pluto has started his transit of Capricorn by whacking the banking establishment. Banks over-extended their capital reserves with exotic paper using credit to expand their power and influence to a world wide market. As with all things Plutonian they overdid it and were forced to pull back or become extinct. The next few years will find their replacement as a new business model captures rapidly expanding technology.

This is not the death of Capitalism, but a reorganization of the concept. The economic system may have a new name by the time Pluto enters Pisces.

The business plan for tomorrow will contain ideas never even considered.  Business will continue to spend money to make money, but it will very judicious spending. The savings rate is going up. People are preparing to take some risks and are setting aside the means to do so. Saturn rules Capricorn, therefore, penny pinching and stashing cash in a various accounts is the universal reaction to this transit.

Debt Free is the New Status Symbol

“I owe my soul to the company store” are the lyrics of a Tennessee Ernie Ford song. And who but a fellow with the name FORD would sing about the dilemma of debt.

I was born in Portsmouth, Ohio a small factory town. When I was very young, I walked myself to the corner grocery, picked up a donut and told the clerk to charge it.  He called my Mom and I got the brush on my bare bottom.  Individual stores gave credit during the depression and even a few years after especially to folks who had a job.

What happens when the company store or the small neighborhood store fails because patrons do not come into the store and charge their purchases, but instead spend their paychecks at a store where the prices are lower and the quality better?  The company store was replaced because of the cheap oil and access to used automobiles; the neighborhood store was replaced by Walmart or big boxes and in the next few years the big box store will be replaced by the internet.

It will take about 18 years to reorganize the world's corporations and governments and all organizations ruled by Saturn.  It looks like the first to go were overweight banks, the entities that finance all of the institutions who tried to expand with borrowed money. It looks like now Pluto has formed an alliance with the consumer and will begin to pick off Visa then Master-Card one by one. The credit oriented company store is having a Pluto moment, and the consumer strike will increase in potency as time goes forward until 2024.

The Black Market

Pluto is really about garbage and recycling. Conservation of resources includes turning trash into treasures. What happens when we buy fewer prepackaged meals and fail to fill the kitchen trash bag with plastic?

What happens when we barter instead of using cash?

When does just helping your friends or neighbors become a black market?

If I trade vegetables with my neighbor, do I have to report it as income and does the same apply to my neighbor?  If I mow my neighbors yard, does my neighbor have to report the service on his income tax?

Theoretically, this is true. That is as much of a black (hidden / Pluto) market (Capricorn) as buying something and then reselling it for a profit without reporting the income as an expense/sale.

The black market has been and always will be there. Pluto, however, will either glorify or expose it.  Will Pluto insist that all barter be reported to the IRS thus driving it further underground?  Or will we all be forced to establish ourselves as a business and every favor and every exchange of produce will be monetized? Will we become modern pirates or tax paying entrepreneurs?

King George was very angry with the colonists for not paying the tax known as the Stamp Act and devised the tax on tea. The more he tried to collect the tax the greater the rebellion. The colonists were used to being on their own and believed that the king had lost his right to spend their money. I think it isn't a coincidence that the NCGR Convention, "Planetary Revolution in Boston" begins on February 24. Astrologers work at being prophets.

Micro Business

This lecture is meant to put a positive spin on the next 14+ years.  All of us have to find ways to become a Micro Business.  

We have endured the Saturn exposure of illusions and greed when he opposed Neptune and now as he opposes Uranus. Saturn is clearing the deck for Pluto to reinvent business. Then the opposition of Jupiter to Saturn guarantees a difficult transition of taxes as well as the entire monetary system.

Saturn rules Capricorn and has sent message #1 to the banks and message #2 to the auto industry.

Saturn is the teacher and does not allow any student to fudge on the rules or throw money at a problem. Work hard, find your opportunity, and eventually you will be able to grab the brass ring. This is a pass /fail class and luckily we live in a country where failure is seen as a prerequisite to success. I often tell people that they have to fail 3 times just to appreciate success. ( I think I’m on number 4 or at least I hope I am.)

All of us have to find ways to become a Micro Business.  We had a printing business and sometimes we printed business cards. Through the years I assembled a Handy Little Business tip sheet and shared it with our customers and eventually my astrology customers.  

Most of us will start by getting off the Utility Grid and on to the Smart Grid

Off Utility Grid on Smart Grid

You will all find wonderful examples of Pluto in Capricorn in your neighborhood as time goes on.  But I’m going to give you one example to start your collection:

In beautiful Arnaudville, Louisiana we have an example of Pluto changing things.

 A neighbor has gone about the business of building a new house and getting off the grid even though we have the cheapest electricity and water in the area.  He has solar panels and windmills and well water and his own septic system for gray water.

He installed an electric toilet and for some unknown reason decided to tell the parish office of sanitation. They said they couldn’t approve such a toilet and therefore could not approve his connection to the electric grid. He tried to explain that he was not asking to be hooked up to the electric grid, but gave up in about a minute when the bureaucrats looked at him with totally blank faces.

Is this a trend?  Has technology made the concept easier?

What jobs will be won or lost because of my neighbors idea to “get off the grid”?

The electric company will loose a new customer or about $100 per month. The water company will loose a customer or about $30 per month. The garden store will loose a fertilizer customer, but will probably gain other revenue from him. The grocery will loose a produce customer eventually but gain revenue with water softening salts. There will be some technology trade offs and Radio Shack will gain along with the tractor supply and hardware store.

OK But where do I find my place in the New Economy?

Tap your imagination. Surf the Net. How can you profitably invest your time and energy during the years ahead while Pluto is in Capricorn (2008-2024)

Big business and government are forced to diet while the nanny state is replaced by personal responsibility and the concept of a job will take on a whole new meaning.

What use will you find for the 9” computers at Radio Shack, ready to do something outrageous.

Remember 1982 when the personal computer cut two hours off the work time of Astrologers?

Almost all of our colleagues are computer literate. Recently they found Pod casting.  Some are even considering their own podcasting network. They are building their own Internet stations.  Is terrestrial radio over? Probably. We are waiting for a radio small enough to carry around and still be a computer.

Keep thinking, use your imagination.  We are all going to need aprons to carry this stuff or the pockets improved, or maybe the briefcase/handbag has to be reinvented.

While you all are thinking about how your ideas will fit into the new economy, or how you can start your own business, and who can add ideas to your own, search the net for the movies that won the academy award in the years Pluto changed signs.  Art is always years ahead of business.  Maybe you'll find some clues.

A fun research project could be to place the names of the winners of the Academy Award Best picture for the year when Pluto changes signs.  Example: Gone with the wind (1939). Planetary phenomena are very literal in popular culture. For example: only weeks after Pluto's ingress into Capricorn in early 2008, the Academy Award for Best Movie went to "No Country for Old Men."

Remember the saying that ”One man's trash is another man treasure”.   That’s Pluto.