Transform trauma and shed the dead during 2025’s 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.

What does Pluto retrograde mean

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.

What does Pluto retrograde mean

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 ceremonies for death, Pluto teaches us that destruction is the wheel grease of creation and that holding power is the ultimate test of our humanity.

 Pluto retrograde effects

During Pluto retrograde, we can behave as an empowered Pluto, recognizing that relationships, beliefs and less adaptive versions of ourselves must end, die or be irrevocably altered in order for anything to be reborn or reformed.

The retrograde motion of Pluto, like the dark lord’s despair remind us that withdrawl and self-inquiry are requisite for real growth.

Psychic astrologer Rose Smith imparts, “This is a time to trust the process, even when we can’t see the path ahead clearly. By surrendering to these deep currents of transformation, we allow ourselves to be reshaped into something more authentic and powerful than before.”

Pluto “tests” the mettle of his children and casts out and cuts loose what holds them back. Rarely gentle but always necessary is the name of the game here, and we can’t see what will be until we burn what has been.

Pluto is associated with subconscious drives rather than logical thinking — when the planet enters retrograde things get murky, judgment is shaky and repressed feelings subsume rational thought.

In his book “Courting The Wild Twin”, author and scholar Martin Shaw argues that what we exile comes back to haunt us. In relationship to Pluto, the planets retrograde can be viewed as those banished parts, patterns, thoughts and desires come knocking heavy and irrefutable on our proverbial chamber door.

As Pluto rules sex, death and finances, this retrograde highlights the way we fear, abuse, obsess over and attempt to control these elements.

Pluto retrograde in Aquarius 2025

In Aquarius, the planet of death and transformation meets the community focused, weird as I want to be water bearer, the zodiac’s resident revolutionary.

With death and revolution dancing backward cheek to cheek, here’s some questions to consider/pose to your shadowy underbelly; how, where and why do you accumulate power and is your relationship to that power supporting or subverting the status quo?

Aquarius is associated with the collective and Pluto with endings, in kind and in the name of change, this retrograde marks a period where we may become increasingly aware that collabortaion and the championing of the common caue of humanity (Aquarius) is our best defense against literal and metaphorical annhialiaton (Pluto).

Get free, get weird, face fear, be generous — and dare to believe a better way is being born.

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and irreverently reports on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture, and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.