Rooted leadership

Pluto in Aquarius - The Rise of Rooted Leadership

A New Era Of Rooted Leadership Begins

In Cosmos and Psyche, cultural historian Richard Tarnas explores how planetary cycles correlate with deep historical and psychological transformations. While correlation does not imply causation, his research highlights striking patterns between major planetary transits and periods of societal upheaval, innovation, and paradigm shifts.

One such pattern is Pluto’s transit through Aquarius, which last occurred between 1777 and 1798—a period marked by the American and French Revolutions, the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, and the rise of democratic and scientific thinking that reshaped governance, economy, and individual liberty. 

The Cracks Are Already Here

As Pluto re-enters Aquarius in 2024, we arrive at another inflection point: 

“This is not just a leadership crisis. It’s a crisis of being.”

Ecosystems are deteriorating. Artificial intelligence is advancing at breakneck speed. Institutions we once trusted are dissolving. Power is decentralizing. And with it all, a deeper uneasy question:

Rooted leadership and what it means to be human.

We are entering a time unlike any we’ve lived through before. The pace is staggering. The ground beneath us is shifting. And many of us are feeling a growing sense of disconnection—from each other, from purpose, from self.

This is not just a technological revolution. It’s a spiritual one. This is not just a leadership crisis. It’s a crisis of being. The mind is outpacing the soul. Control is dissolving. Meaning is fracturing. But this does not need to be the end. Indeed, this could be the beginning of a new way to lead.

This is Not a Time for Mastery. It’s a Time for Rooting.

“What this era demands is not more optimization. It asks something quieter. Something deeper.”

We are being called to lead in a radically different way. Not faster. Not more efficiently. Not from above. What this era demands is not more optimization, more performance, more speed, more productivity. What it asks of us—urgently, insistently—is something quieter, something deeper: 

Rooting,  Listening, Embodying.

We can no longer lead solely from the mind or from the top. We must now lead from a place of wholeness:

• With the body engaged

• With the emotions integrated

• With the soul remembered

Leadership today requires us to become fully human again, not polished. Not perfected, but present.

The Real Edge is Presence

“Presence is not soft. It is fierce.”

Presence is not stillness for the sake of calm. Presence is what allows you to think clearly in complexity. To hold paradox without panic. To guide others without needing to control them. Presence is what allows us to sense what the data can’t reveal. To feel the truth beneath the noise. To listen when no one else is. This is not soft.This is fierce.  It requires you to unhook from the performance of leadership and return to the core of who you are. It asks you to trust that coherence is more powerful than charisma.

Are You Ready to Lead Differently?

“You’re not broken. You’re being initiated.”

As a leader, you’ve achieved a great deal. You’ve built, managed, coached, led.
You’ve adapted to pressure, performed at high levels, navigated uncertainty. But now, something more compelling is calling. Maybe you feel like what used to work no longer does. Or you sense a quiet urgency to live and lead in a different way—more grounded, more conscious, more aligned. This is not a sign of failure or inadequacy. It’s a sign of awakening. You’re not broken. You’re being initiated into a deeper form of leadership. The world doesn’t just need what you know. It needs who you are when you are rooted, whole, and truly here.

What’s Next

In the next two articles,  we’ll meet the archetypes of this Aquarian era and the paradoxes they invite us to embody as we step into a new kind of leadership.