
Pluto in Aquarius: January 20 – September 1, 2024, November 19, 2024 – March 8, 2043
Pluto transits last couple degrees of Capricorn: June 12, 2023 – January 21, 2024, September 2nd – November 19th, 2024
Venus Retrograde: 28 Leo – 12 Leo, July 22 – September 3, 2024
Mercury Retrograde: 21 Virgo – 8 Virgo, Aug 23 – September 15, 2024
Venus’ current retrograde in Leo brings attention to what our hearts’ desires are and our creative instincts (Leo) and where or how we need to find balance. Retrogrades are time periods where you take a step back and reevaluate and reflect on the sign’s topics. In this case, Leo also involves children and romance so depending on where the later degrees of Leo fall in your chart and if you have planets there will show how much attention these get during the retrograde.
Currently, it also makes a tense square aspect to Uranus’ long-term transit through Taurus, signifying how we might need to compromise our heart’s wants with our personal needs or the needs of someone else or a particular situation. Maybe due to financial strain, we need to become more creative with how we are using our resources to manifest what we want. Developing a relationship with money and how we create our foundations might shift from doing it routinely through old values and habits to new ones. There could be new relationships or changes in current relationships (Venus) developing underneath the surface, which would help facilitate this shift into the future.
Mercury’s upcoming retrograde through Virgo will also have us reflecting and possibly making changes around our health, how we can be of service, and where we could practice more humility. Venus and Mercury retrograding together for about ten days in August could have us possibly thinking about how we can merge our creative instincts with how we are of service. Are we serving the whole in a way that truly comes from the heart? We may also have to look at where our subjective ego (Leo) may need to become a bit more humble. Do we need to do some self-analysis without becoming too overly critical on how we relate and work with others? Mercury will be in its own sign this time so it has an advantage here to make positive improvements more easily.

I saw Barbie a couple weekends ago and thought of this picture of me. I’m 16 years old, standing straight, hands folded, carrying a serious, resigned and focused look. I know how I’m supposed to look, it’s ingrained in me and so natural. Maybe I knew what my future would hold at that time and it would be the usual: a professional woman ending up in a warped Capricornian, male-dominated or dysfunctional world where I would function without knowledge of her feminine and tortured with it. And personally with a partner who is deranged in nature and happy to be with his princess (barf). If I ever get married, will I be able to eat two or three ladoos in front of my in-laws or will I have to hide in the kitchen to eat them?
It’s neat that this movie came out during Pluto’s transit through the last couple intense degrees of Capricorn. It was quite the cinematic display of power dynamics and blinding superficiality in our systems as well as the extra unneeded attention given to Ken in the film. I’m so glad Barbie was able to finally feel her feels and shed a few tears. I’m also glad she didn’t get hounded by a nurse who was astonished to learn that you chose to keep your uterus (at least in the film).
I’m at a point in life where I haven’t taken a shit in four days. This is the first time this has happened and as a Plutonian and Punjabi person, this does not make me proud. Ever since my surgery last year, I’m having difficulty shitting. Pluto is for good churning and refining our futures. What am I having trouble letting go? Capricorn represents our fate, past and karma, and the rewards and consequences of what we reap. Will my efforts from the past trying to connect with the feminine and true self reap rewards for this life? What will I shit out? What is having trouble coming forth? How much smooth-move tea can one drink without becoming addicted or miserable?
I have become a different version of Barbie 25 years after this picture was taken. This new Barbie is evolving a different power dynamic with what exists, one where she can finally say no to what doesn’t make her feel comfortable, yes to her passions and most importantly, yes to her body and yes to her psyche. Her body is no longer a machine or a nail in the machine that holds the parts together without herself having any concern for her own well-being. She now works with consciousness and from the heart and has decided it is up to the systems and people out there to respond and compromise. I’ll be inventing (Aquarius) a clearer picture of my ‘heart’s ground’ during these retrogrades and seeing how I can be of more authentic service to the world from this ground especially as Pluto moves into Aquarius. And let’s hope I can also find my routine again..