For instance, the last time Pluto was in the same part of the sky as it is reaching now, the United States was cohering through revolution, as the British influence was being expelled; Captain James Cook was in the process of “discovering” Australia and the Great Barrier Reef, and Marie Antoinette, at age 14, was being married to the future King Louis XVI of France…..setting the stage for another revolution that would shake Europe for a century. Russia experienced the “Plague Riots” in reaction to heavy-handed government actions, China imposed strict rules to deal with foreign traders who started arriving by sea instead of overland on the Silk Road, and Japan was having trouble remaining closed to the world and outside influences. Pluto, the planet that brings dramatic transformation through destruction and renewal, takes between 3 and 4 years to “transit” completely through any one of the 64 Gates in the Human Design Life Chart. In 2008, it entered Gate 10, the Gate of Personal Behaviors and found us questioning our journey through life, challenging us to pause in our headlong expansion into finances and property. In 2010, it started moving in and out of Gate 58, of Joyous Vitality, the drive that “gets us out of bed” each day, to be active in the world. During this past 2-year period we have been forced to remember what truly motivates us. During March of 2012, Pluto edged into and backed out of Gate 38, of Opposition, and the inherent drive to fight and stand for human rights. On January 6, 2013, it will reenter Gate 38 and remain there until the opening months of 2016. During this time, we are going to experience some of the greatest transformations and upheavals the world has seen, as more and more individuals assert their right to a full, just and sustainable life. Apart from fundamental human rights, the whole arena of genetically modified foods is going to be scrutinized, and also the rights of animals as we question the ethics of modern-day plant and animal husbandry. We are moving out of times of gradual and unconscious evolution into a period of conscious evolution in which individuals can make the choice to embrace substantial changes. Pluto’s movements describe some of the ways in which this is taking place. Whereas Revolution happens mostly in reaction to what has gone before, Evolution is an opening for growth and transformation that need not be attached to previous trials, and at this moment in time, can take place through our conscious choices. So what do the upcoming movements of Pluto offer you? Pluto’s natural expression is one of “crash and burn, and rise again” into a new form and expression. Pluto burns off the old, throws out the irrelevant and makes place for the possibility of transformation into the new. In the last few years, with Pluto moving through Gate 58, everyone has been called on to reassess the motivating features of their lives. Many people have moved on from careers that no longer employed them or served their real interests to either “give up,” or evolve into another avenue of Self-expression and entrepreneurship. Many of the systems by which we qualify our lives are no longer relevant, at least in the ways they have been established. The Universe does not run on economy, and yet we have adopted this concept as though it were a natural part of life. If you translate the word “Mortgage” into English, it is akin to meaning “unto death,” implying that the “normal” way to own a house is by renting it from a bank at a high rate of interest until you are dead. The system of democracy only works if there is mutual respect between those who hold differing opinions. Life has many different sides, so holding to a fixed point of view, or being fanatic about anything, is denying the possibility that you might be misinformed, or at the least, under-informed. Opinions and beliefs are exactly what they are : opinions and beliefs …… and not known facts. And there is a foundational difference between “knowledge” and “knowing.” Knowledge comes from outside ….. knowing lives within. Knowledge is past oriented….knowing puts you in present tense. If you comprehend your Human Design, you come to appreciate that you have a real, workable design to live out your life in a state of fulfillment : to know yourself from within. Your Human Design puts you in the present, able to make clear decisions about anything that applies to you as a conscious being. Pluto is going to keep on challenging those aspects of your life that are not in alignment with your ideals, until you find and appreciate that which resonates clearly within you. In the coming years, we have the wonderful opportunity to align ourselves closer and closer to the intelligence of this expanding Universe, and Pluto will keep on nudging us to “get a conscious and fulfilling life!”