Renewable fuel sources and technologically creative conservation are clearly the wave of the future. Within thirty years or less, most of us will derive some of our energy consumption from renewable sources, whether in the public buildings and transportation we utilize, our own homes, or our technologically improved cars. Within sixty years this process will only have accelerated dramatically. Oil, gas, and coal, once the foundation of our industrialized society, will still have their place, but it will be greatly diminished by today’s standards. The seeds for this new phase of energy development have already germinated. They will flourish more quickly with care and attention, but they will grow, develop, and multiply nonetheless.

We are at the threshold of a tremendous transformation in the energy industry, just as the last decade brought a revolution in the information industry via the computer and the Internet. So how are we to view Resident Bush’s plans to institutionalize ever more drilling and excavating for energy at tremendous cost to our environment, both in terms of the destruction of natural habitats and the increase in CO2 expected as a result of this policy? What could possibly be the point of this alarming disconnect? If the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is drilled, it is predicted that the peak of its production will be in 2030. Will there even be a need by then?

The image that comes to mind is that of a battle between the past and the future, the entrenched forces of money and power versus the quiet but extraordinary power of a burgeoning new life. It is almost as if this current pressure to dig and extract and drill, to suck as much money as quickly as possible out of the system, is the last desperate stand of a dying industry, intent on grasping what it can before its demise.

One way to understand this current situation is through the lens of astrology, specifically focusing on the planet Pluto, the planet of death and rebirth, of cycles of profound and immutable transformation. Pluto is presently conjunct the Ascendant of the US Sagittarius rising chart. This powerful transit happens once every 248 years and is a potent harbinger of transformation. It has not occurred previously during the lifetime of the United States. The actual transit takes a little under two years in its most intense form (3/00 to 11/01) and then continues to unfold while Pluto remains in the first house of the US chart over the next fifteen years. During its occurrence, this transit takes on some very definite characteristics that are specific to the nature of Plutonian process.

Pluto, the natural ruler of the sign Scorpio, is most commonly associated with the cycle of death and rebirth. It is significant that death, whether it be to an organism or a type of experience, is first met with enormous resistance. The person with a fatal disease generally attempts all kinds of available medical intervention to prolong or sustain his or her life and, only after great resistance, may finally be persuaded to accept the inevitable. The person in a job that has become limiting or highly problematic often does everything possible to improve the situation, only reluctantly and after great duress, facing the necessity of change. The death part of the Plutonian cycle is always met with tremendous resistance, resulting in a profound power struggle between the forces of the future and the forces of the past for ultimate control. We see this today both in the battle over environmental protection as well as in the battle over energy sources. Indiscriminate use of resources without thought as to the ramifications in the environment is no longer tenable, but industrial polluters and the energy robber barons have a vested interest in the status quo. It is, after all, the source of their wealth.

Because Pluto is currently in Sagittarius, the sign of the higher mind, the power struggle is also taking place in the realm of human thought. The profound political polarization presently experienced in the United States is largely two different versions of the “truth”, each held with equal fervor and with equal demonization of the opposing position. This was particularly noticeable during the post-election drama when Pluto was exactly on the US Ascendant, but it has continued to simmer unabated ever since, both in Congress and in parts of the media. It is likely to once again reach a fevered pitch during the Pluto station of June, July, August, and September 2001, when Pluto remains stationary on the exact degree of the US Ascendant.

It is significant also to mention that in the US chart, Pluto natally is in the second house of resources. Thus a Pluto transit is all the more likely to directly impact the use and flow of the country’s resources. The transit to the Ascendant implies that this transformation in the use of resources will directly affect the life and well being of the country and its citizens. In 1899, when Pluto crossed the Descendant of the US chart (12 Gemini), the point exactly 180 degrees from the Ascendant and thus likely to have similar impact to the current transit, the seeds were already germinating that would foretell extraordinary changes in the American way of life. A number of people were working on the construction of a “flying machine,” and the Wright brothers were beginning their gliding experiments (1900). August 8, 1903, brought the first successful flight (27 seconds) of a heavier-than-air vehicle powered by a gasoline engine. It is worth noting that at this point Pluto had begun its conjunction to the US Mars (21 Gemini) thereby bringing a rush of energy into the changes that were already at hand.

The other momentous change taking place at the turn of the century was the development of the automobile. Gasoline engine research unfolded throughout the 1880’s and 1890’s. In 1901 Oldsmobile successfully marketed the first gasoline-powered automobiles. Although the majority of cars at that time ran on steam or electric power, the more efficient gas-powered auto had begun its penetration into the American market. In June 1903, the Ford Motor Company organized, beginning its revolutionary assembly line production in 1908. This transformed the automobile from a luxury item to a mainstay of the American economy. With the founding of the Ford Motor Company, we again notice that Pluto is conjunct Mars in the US chart.

And so, the transformation of America begun around 1900 with the advent of the automobile, the airplane, and the potential for mass production, now moves into its next phase, the pursuit of renewable energy sources and technologically advanced conservation. Because Pluto will be opposed to Saturn from July 2001 until May 2002, this new birth will not be an easy one. We have already noted the intense struggle to maintain wealth and power by the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear industries. Added to this will be the austerity measures imposed by Saturn, particularly in California. In October 1973 it was a Pluto Saturn square on the US Venus that brought the oil embargo, with its subsequent gas lines, quadrupled oil prices, and tight conservation rules. Now we have a Pluto/Saturn opposition on the US Ascendant/Descendant axis. This is likely to bring similar circumstances with the added quality of the powerful new impulse of an alternative view of energy and the environment that will move us into the future. By 2004, with Pluto opposing the US Mars, we will see tremendous energy moving to foster this new cycle. Alternative sources will be marketed more and more frequently to the consumer, just as the gas-powered combustion engine transformed the world of the early twentieth century.