This is actually one that, if you've been following the news or even just going onto Facebook, you're seeing it and feeling it play out.
The reason is that outer planet aspects like this, especially a square, are acted out on the collective and not just the personal.
Both Uranus and Pluto play a role in transformation of self and of culture. Pluto represents the underlying desire nature of the soul itself, and is a driving (sometimes conscious, sometimes unconscious) force that is at play whether or not we want it to be. When we ignore Pluto, or run away from Pluto, it can become shadow and manifest itself as crisis. But Pluto is also responsible for healing, great awakening, and transmutation - the phoenix from the ashes, the great transformations of consciousness. And Uranus symbolizes the collective urge for liberation through all types of freedom, new ideas, innovation, new ways of perceiving reality. There are two types of liberation at play here:
1. Liberation from something (Pros: quick change, effective. Cons: collateral damage, the "become what you hate" phenomenon)
2. Liberation itself (Pros: inspires new ways of thinking, elevates humanity as a whole. Cons: There are none, in my opinion, when this is a true experience. It has so much power and reaches far and wide and stands the tests of time. HOWEVER It is when someone is pretending this path to ignore the first step, and not actually being this path, that this is not really true liberation. It is when someone ignores reality as a form of transcending it, which is not transcendence at all.)
The square between Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries means that there are two forces forming tension:
1. Pluto in Capricorn: Desire nature to build structural reality. Crisis when these structures (Saturn/Capricorn) are not functioning or do not support the soul or collective's goals or life. If the pipes are broken, they're going to burst. Transformation of the structural reality. This is a heavy, strong energy. Giant towers. Impressive mountains. (And do giant towers crumble like gently falling snowflakes? Nope. The building and the fall have that same, Saturn infused heavy energy. Pluto also represents cycles of life, death and rebirth.)
2. Uranus in Aries: Liberate through the instinctual nature. Being liberated or free through the impulses, yang outward and forward motion. Aries wants to move. Uranus likes to be brilliant. This is a fast, brilliant energy. Electric, independent but interconnected, zingy, sharp, quick.
For us filtering our experience of the Universe as people... This Uranus placement can agitate the Capricorn footholds and Capricorn's desire to stay solid, and the rigidity of structures will irritate or block Uranus's impulses, but Aries can be a battering ram, and Aries wants what it wants. Pluto in Capricorn signifies as well a desire to form structures based on the underlying truth and reality, so there is a call from deep within to build structures that actually work. In a beautiful way, Uranus in Aries is here to nudge and irritate and bother the parts of the Capricorn shadow. And the wisdom of Capricorn is here to give direction to the Aries shadow that is too impatient to build, and only wants to wage war. Squares present conflict AND opportunity. This is the tension. This is the gift. Structures are cracking, the debris is spreading, and what will happen next? Rebuilding. The consciousness revolution is happening, and it is graceful that it may be in tandem with the government and social revolutions, because if we're going to step out of vicious cycles, we'd need to try something new (Uranus in Aries - pioneering innovator!)
It's no coincidence that my Facebook newsfeed is a combination of political upheaval - the challenging of hegemonic values or systems, the exposure (Pluto) of underlying structural forms of inequality and injustice - and then - spiritual, "be here now", sacred geometry, and the like.
Each have their role, and they don't need to disdain the other. One of the biggest reasons I do astrology is to understand all different types of human experiences and to validate people to do what they are good at and what brings them happiness. The great thing about that is that we as humans are actually wired to be able to experience flow - complete, in tune, ecstatic joy - when we do what we're good at. And then the rest of humanity benefits from it as well, if we share it or are discovered somehow. I am filled with love for the activists and the protesters and the scientists looking for cures for illnesses and the guys living in cabins off the grid and the preacher who loves his work and shares good word and the chef who makes art with his ethical, love-filled food.
But true liberation doesn't mean you put your headphones on when the bombs go off. We are all in this together, even if it doesn't look like it immediately on the surface. You don't have to look the other way at injustice to keep yourself from getting sad or burdened. You have to decide which battles are yours, though. And if part of your process right now is dropping off of the grid and living in a cabin in the woods for a bit, I won't fault you. Hopefully you'll write a book about it later that will help us grid peeps out. We all can answer the call for Uranian liberation in our own way. But if the battles in the news aren't yours to fight, it doesn't mean you have to turn away either. Educate yourself. Form connections. Be a member of Reality as it unfolds, and play a role you can be proud of.