What Taylor teaches us about Pluto

Taylor Swift’s level of fame has been unfathomable for almost two decades now. Even so, the release of her most recent album created so much controversy and buzz that my immediate instinct was to look at her birth chart in order to understand how this album release might be more than just another 30 tracks on her Spotify page or a few changed tracks on her Era’s Tour setlist. 

Full disclaimer: without a confirmed accurate birth time for Taylor, our ability to interpret how the current astrological movements interact with her natal chart is somewhat limited. HOWEVER! A major transit immediately stood out to me when I looked at her natal chart, and it’s not a one-off event. It’s a story that isn’t over yet — which tells us we have more to witness in terms of Taylor Swift’s output in the coming year. 

I think it’s important to acknowledge that the astrology being highlighted here is based off of how the current sky is interacting with Ms. Swift’s personal natal chart — which means these themes aren’t necessarily going to show up in your own life, unless there are similar placements in your own chart being activated. I also think it’s important to establish that viewing how astrology manifests in the lives of celebrities can provide helpful and informative reference points, but it is not a model for the only way that these transits can manifest. Think about what’s happening to Taylor as a mythological or symbolic representation of how the astrology might play out in the life of someone who is less public, has different circumstances, or a different upbringing. Turn her life into folklore, and go forth with the wisdom, if you will. That being said…

When I first looked at Taylor’s chart at the time of her album release, I noticed that her Venus is at 1º of Aquarius, meaning that Pluto was directly passing over it in the weeks leading up to TTPD coming out. Pluto is a planet of deep transformation, painful purging, and taboo subjects — all of which seemed to be especially present on this particular album. The planet in Taylor’s chart that was being activated by Pluto is Venus — which rules desire, personal connection, our style and aesthetic, as well as art and artistic expression. All of these things seem to be going through a transformation for Taylor before our very eyes, as she willingly opens up on the album about a clandestine love affair with Matty Healy and the power dynamics of her relationship with Joe Alwyn in a way that is more explicit and emotionally jarring than any of her previous work. 

With lines like “You told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave/ and I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen,” we get up close and personal with the level of madness-inducing intensity that was present in Taylor’s relationships but had previously lived beneath the surface of her lyrics. This is peak Pluto-Venus contact. Pluto also rules all things taboo — including drugs, jail, addiction, and anything that’s been labelled as “off limits” — all themes that appear on TTPD: Taylor sings on The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived “you tried to buy some pills/ from a friend of friends of mine”; on Fortnight, “I was a functioning alcoholic / ‘Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic;” on Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, “turned me into an idea of sorts / You needed me, but you needed drugs more.” Fresh Out the Slammer also uses jail as a metaphor to describe the Plutonian power dynamic she felt in her relationship. 

This is not a particularly innovative metaphor, but it is one that nudged me to consider what might be going on with Joe Alwyn’s chart, as well. On “Fresh out the Slammer” in particular, we hear the lines “Another summer taking cover,/ Rolling thunder, he don’t understand me,/ Splintered back in winter/ Silent dinners, bitter he was with her in dreams,” and later, “Years of labor, locks, and ceilings,/ In the shade of how he was feeling.” This description of Taylor feeling dulled and overshadowed by a partner can be the exact kind of feeling elicited by what I see in Joe’s chart — his Saturn is at the same degree and sign as Taylor’s Venus. There can be a sense of rigidity, a sucking away of joy, when Saturn is involved — and with Venus ruling romance and pleasure, it becomes clear how this relationship felt like “doing time” after the initial sense of security it may have offered grew stale.

And if Joe’s Saturn occupies the same place as Taylor’s Venus, that would mean that all of the timing related to the breakup and the album release is also directly connected to his chart, too — but it will impact slightly different themes, because he has a different natal planet involved. Pluto can have a bulldozing effect — if it crosses over our personal planets in the natal chart we can experience a “burn it to the ground” kind of energy connected with the themes ruled by that planet. When Pluto touches our natal Saturn like it did for Joe, the structures that aren’t truly sturdy or able to last in our lives will crumble, whether we are ready or not. You can no longer commit to the things that aren’t absolutely essential to you during this time. This means that Joe’s experience of the breakup going public may have been more tied to themes of commitment and growing up — it was a sobering, maturing experience that would cause him to look inward for strength. For Taylor, for whom Venus was impacted, we can see how it would be more of a relational experience, one to be aestheticized and shared with others. 

Pluto is also associated with “the uncovering of the hidden,” as Leisa Schaim references in her appearance on the Astrology Podcast’s “The History of Astrology” episode (April 2019). In December of 2023, Swift herself references “locking herself away” for years during her relationship with Joe, and the April 2023 Pluto transit over her Venus was a sort of initial “uncovering” of the self, in the sense that she no longer had to keep her personal romantic life under such tight wraps. It’s also worth noting that Pluto can be linked with wealth. It’s during this cycle of Pluto moving back and forth over her Venus that she reached billionaire status (October 2023). 

So what does this all mean, exactly? For one, we can see how Pluto, named after the god of the underworld, can set things on fire in our lives and create lasting and deep change. But it can also help us to anticipate the future for Taylor Swift. Pluto is not done with Taylor, because on May 3, 2024, it stationed retrograde again — meaning it will move back into the late degrees of Capricorn, and then re-enter Aquarius and pass over Taylor’s Venus once more. The story with Pluto and the Tortured Poet has yet to end. 

Late December of 2024 into early January of 2025 is when we will see the last “hit” from Pluto to Taylor’s Venus. The Tortured Poets Department and her breakup with Joe are inextricably connected, both to each other as events and to the Pluto-Venus action in Swift's chart, so it’s clear that whatever takes place at the turn of the year will mark a sort of final chapter of this story. What’s interesting is that this final Pluto transit will come on the tails of a Jupiter opposition to Taylor’s Sun — and not just any Jupiter opposition, but a Jupiter station (a change in the planet’s direction). This transit is generally positive, and can bring a sense of optimism and readiness to start new endeavors. It is possible that this moment brings too much of a care-free attitude, or a sense of false immunity, but it seems like for someone as ingrained in the collective imagination as Swift, this will be career-boosting, even if it is not personally a totally positive experience in the long-term. It’s possible to imagine that some kind of engagement announcement happens here, as Swift’s public break up also resulted in a very public new relationship, that seems to break entirely with her previous dating patterns. Or, perhaps it is less about her personal relationships and more about her relationship to her career — after a massive world tour, perhaps Swift announces at the final Pluto transit that she is stepping away from live touring, and focusing on ways to “spread the wealth” of her success, so to speak. Perhaps it will be both.