Pluto Retrograde 2024 How it affects your Zodiac Sign

Pluto Retrograde 2024 How it affects your Zodiac Sign

About once a year, Pluto retrograde becomes the reason you may suddenly feel off. But while it's all too easy to point to what planet is retrograde as the reason you're experiencing every mishap and headache in the world, unlike other faster-moving celestial bodies, Pluto takes anywhere from 12 to 31 years to cruise through each sign of the zodiac. (This means it spends 248 years moving through all 12!)

In other words, it can be tough to put your finger on how the Pluto retrograde will affect you given it moves at a snail's pace — at least, compared to the pace of an event like Mercury retrograde. But that isn't to say that it doesn't affect you at all.

Named for the God of the Underworld, Pluto's purpose is to urge you to contend with your inner shadows, potentially toxic beliefs and patterns, and deep-rooted psychological and emotional wounds in order to come away healed and empowered. It's also the planet of death, rebirth, and regeneration, so you can think of Pluto's symbolism as the phoenix rising from the ashes. It'll burn down anything that's no longer serving you in order to spur growth.

Pluto also moves backward through the sky, entering retrograde periods annually for about five to six months. Read on for the meaning of Pluto retrograde, and details on how the planet of transformation stands to affect you as it moves backward in 2024.

What Is Pluto Retrograde?
In order to understand what happens when Pluto is retrograde, it helps to wrap your head around how it functions when it's direct (or moving forward). Pluto tends to bring attention to the darkness that underlies everyday life. When it links up or squares off with other planets in the sky or in your natal, aka birth, chart, it could set off power struggles, toxicity, or control issues or uncover nefarious secrets in our relationships. When Pluto is direct, we feel its effects far more externally. However, when Pluto is retrograde, its effects are more internal, psychological, and emotional.

What Does Pluto Retrograde Mean in Astrology?
During this annual astrological transit, the planet named for the God of the Underworld will challenge you to check — and ideally address — your own toxic, negative, and self-destructive behaviors, patterns, and belief systems. Ideally during this period, you might become more interested in resolving these compulsive behaviors or addictions.

When Is Pluto Retrograde in 2024?
In 2024, Pluto will be retrograde from May 2 to Oct. 11 — at first, in Aquarius and then later in Capricorn. (Capricorn is also where Pluto retrograde spent the majority of its time from 2008-2023.)

How the 2024 Pluto Retrograde Will Affect the Zodiac Signs
When it comes to Pluto's 2024 retrograde, people who have their sun or other astrological placements in the fixed signs — Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius — will feel it more than others. If you want to get even more specific, see if any of your "big six" (sun, moon, rising, Mercury, Venus, and Mars) birth chart placements fall around zero to 2 degrees of a fixed sign; if so, you'll feel this one more than most.

Here's how the 2024 Pluto retrograde will affect your zodiac sign. (Be sure to read your rising sign as well as your sun sign.)

As with any astrological event, there's no guarantee you'll feel this Pluto retrograde in a wildly apparent way. Even if it's hitting a key point in your birth chart, it's crucial to remember that Pluto's snail pace means you'll generally notice its effects in terms of patterns or mindsets, rather than something obviously outward like communication, money, or love. You might find that by fall, Pluto's nudges — and mission to purge anything toxic — have managed to put you in a new, empowered headspace.

In 2024, Pluto will move backward primarily through the early degrees of fixed air sign Aquarius, which is ruled by Uranus, the planet of sudden change and is associated with the eleventh house of networking and long-term wishes, a love of striking out against convention, contrarianism, humanitarianism, technology, and progressive ideals. In turn, it's a time to prioritize inner work around all of these subjects — and being willing to look at your shadow side in relation to platonic bonds, how you use technology and social media, and groups you associate with and causes you go to bat for.

June 2 could be an especially eye-opening day, as Jupiter, moving through fellow air sign Gemini, forms a harmonious trine to Pluto, magnifying its powers. And when Mars, the planet of action, trines Pluto on July 21, you may be inspired to take action on realizations that the retrograde has spurred.