Pluto in Aquarius

Make Your Memories While You Can

Within the much beloved sci-fi franchise, Warhammer: 40k, there exists a military unit called the Tanith 1st Regiment. They’re more commonly known by the epithets of the “Tanith First-and-Only,” and “Gaunt’s Ghosts,” after their commander, Colonel-Commissar Ibram Gaunt. Alongside their commander, they’re the stars of the “Gaunt’s Ghosts” series of novels within the 40k franchise.

The Tanith 1st came from the Forest Planet of Tanith located on the Sabbat Frontier. Tanith was unique even among Forest Planets in that its forests were migratory and ever-shifting, to say nothing of the predators which stalked them. To survive on such a world, its inhabitants developed land navigation and stealth skills far beyond those held on other planets, save perhaps the similarly harsh Jungle Planet of Catachan.

Shortly after the Tanith 1st was created and its soon to be legendary commander took command, a chaos fleet appeared and assaulted Tanith with intent to destroy it. Gaunt was able to organize an evacuation effort to save as many fighting men as possible, though at the cost of Tanith’s destruction. In the coming years, Colonel-Commissar Gaunt would lead the survivors of Tanith with distinction, and though the regiment was reinforced with the denizens of many other worlds, it never lost its distinctive Tanith character as a Stealth-Infiltration Light Infantry Regiment.

I re-tell the (albeit fictional) example of the Tanith First-and-Only as it fits our situation in the United States of America in Year of Our Lord 2024. We exist in a period of great tumult and transformation, of more significance than previous similar periods. If the procession of the equinoxes is to be believed, we are transitioning/have transitioned from the Age of Pisces, which begun around the time of the birth of Christ, to the Age of Aquarius, which begun around the middle of the 20th Century.

Though the debate around the biblical prohibition (or lack thereof) of Astrology is ongoing (and I’ve heard arguments for both sides,) the symbology of the Age of Aquarius has been a major theme in my work. I would like to assure the reader that I am not placing my faith in idols, I’m merely commenting on the idea’s stimuli and reinforcing observed reality. I would like to state, however, that the three Magi knew when and where the Christ-child was to be born utilizing Astrology.

Aquarius is the water-bearer, the sign of the flood, which brings about sweeping and total change– just as a flood does to a developed patch of farmland. Trees, fences, rocks, buildings, and other landmarks of orientation and property boundaries are cast aside and washed away like toys, leaving a completely unrecognizable landscape. It’s impossible to re-create what once existed there, and the new landscape must be learned as it is.

I’ve recently returned to my home County of Loudoun, and even in my short absence it seems to have undergone its own flood; one of development. Even twenty years ago, Loudoun County resembled an underdeveloped rural campground more than the center of existence it does now. It served as a retreat of quaint Quaker-built stone farmhouses inhabited by Secretaries of State on the weekends, and its untouched forests and fields preserved the patrician Virginia pastimes of Fox and Pheasant hunting. In many ways it was like the Versailles to Washington D.C.’s Paris, a hunting lodge for the top of Government. And like Versailles, it became the dumping ground for never before seen wealth and opulence.

Just as Versailles became the site of an ever-expanding Rococo Court, Loudoun became the site of an ever-expanding Cold War and later Digital Age fueled Federal Bureaucracy. Developers bought up fields and farms, demolished the barns and houses and cleared away the trees and rocks, imprinting subdivisions and townhouses on the land in the same patterns as the silicon chips in the surrounding data-centers. In less than two decades, Loudoun went from a monument to America’s past to an idol of America’s future.

But like all floods, little pieces were spared. Stone Farmhouses constructed centuries ago still stand on their meager plots of land, surrounded by glass monoliths and construction sites. But they serve merely to remind you of the change, rather than preserve what came before.

It seems that one of the only ways we can cope with our current existence is to perceive of it as a flood. The (at time of writing) ongoing standoff in Texas is seeking to stop a flood of migrants the likes of which the nation has never seen. Our phones and laptops are the source of a never-ending flood of information, which overwhelms our abilities to parse it. Our homes and neighborhoods are being flooded with development, the very Earth churned up and transformed to make even childhood boulevards a starkly different landscape over a few short years. And it’s all happening faster and at a larger scale than we can comprehend.

On the mandala used in Astrology called the “Star Chart,” which overlays the signs of the zodiac with the current position of planets in relation to the Earth’s surface, Pluto, the planet of revolution, transformation, and rebellion, has recently entered Aquarius from its previous abode of Capricorn. It will remain in Aquarius until just after the election, then dip back into Capricorn for about eight months until finally resting in Aquarius for the next twenty years. To give the reader some context, the last time this occurred was the period of 1777-1798 A.D., which many would agree was a period of great tumult and upheaval.

But that was in the Age of Pisces, and this is the Age of Aquarius, which only leads me in my meager knowledge of Astrology to suggest that it will be at a greater scale. Everyone knew and felt that 2024 was going to be and has thus far proven to be a chaotic year. And January isn’t even over yet. That is why I feel compelled to comment upon this change in the stars, which the Lord has used to mark events before.

Which brings me back to the example of the Tanith First-and-Only. Their home was one where they could not depend on any tree or rock to mark their location, and they had to rely on the very few (and seemingly decreasing) unchanging things to orient them. After its destruction, they could only rely on the memory of such in the face of the unspeakable horrors of mankind 40,000 years in the future.

Like the men of Tanith, I believe we are running out of things to orient ourselves with, and the majority of mankind will be lost (and not just to the ever-growing genetic bottleneck.) And like the men of Tanith, I believe that soon any homeland we once had will be destroyed like a flood does a landscape. All we can save are our memories, so make them while you can.

Yet I know that the only thing which is truly unchanging is the Word of God. Not the physical Bible or the ink words imprinted upon its pages, but the Truth it conveys, and the promise it perpetuates. I don’t know if the coming flood is the end of the world, but I do know what I can place my trust in.

And that’s enough for me.