Pluto, a descent into hell or ascent to power

Pluto is hell. Literally so. In ancient Greek mythology he was called Hades and it was he who kidnapped and ravaged the beautiful Persephone. He dragged her down into his underworld kingdom and had his wicked way with her.

We should not forget this, regardless of modern astrology’s euphemisms. These include that Pluto is the planet of “transformation”, “rebirth” or other similar fanciful terms. No, the planet is darker. Pluto is hell when negatively aspected and only when positively aspected a wellspring of power.

Transiting Pluto will cause the native to experience hell-on-earth in the house through which it is moving. The type of suffering will depend on the sign and house through which Pluto is passing.

Aspects to personal planets as well as natal Pluto itself will provide greater clarity on the particular brand of hell the native will experience.

It is only if transiting Pluto forms positive aspects to natal planets that it can award the native power – often great power, almost always unearned and undeserved.

Let us deal first with the former situation – that of Pluto as author of hell, for this is the more familiar experience.

Pluto as hell

The sign through which Pluto is spinning provides us with greater clarity regarding the particular brand of suffering the native will experience.

In Capricorn, for example, the native will become acutely sensitive to the machinations of hierarchy and the feeling of being inadequately placed therein.

In Aquarius hell will be experienced due to the collective. This includes extremist collective ideas and the group-think that plagues many affiliations. This happened during the French revolution when powerful novel ideas about how society should be reorganised created a hell-on-earth for the aristocracy or anyone who opposed them.

The constant experimentation and innovation that is a characteristic of Aquarius may also become a source of Hades. This may come about as a result of rapid changes in technology that upend the native’s world. Aquarius is the sign of friendships and these too could provide a playground for the underworld.

The significance of house

The house where Pluto transits in the birth chart represents the area of life in which the native will experience hell.

If, for example, Pluto is transiting the 7th house, then the native’s partner could be the very devil incarnate. If passing through Aquarius in the 7th then this might be expressed as the partner wishing to radically break free from the relationship or becoming intolerant of accepted societal norms. Alternatively the partner might hold ideas that are completely antithetical or unpalatable to the native’s own deep held beliefs; further they may be bizarre, shocking or modern in the extreme. Worse still, these could be ideas of a group, political party or church to which the partner is affiliated and to which they may have become ‘brainwashed’.

The native could also experience a kind of hell as the disturbance of experimentation and innovation within partnerships – as for example occurred during Pluto’s transit of the sign associated with the 7th house, Libra, during the 1970s, when divorce suddenly became more acceptable, and the “modern relationship” or “open marriage” was born.

The house Pluto rules

The house that Pluto rules in the native’s chart provides the practitioner with yet more information as to the type of hell the native may experience.

Returning to our example, if Pluto is transiting the 7th but rules the 8th then the source of unpleasantness may be the partner’s finances as represented by the 8th house. This may be because they are too rebellious or eccentric to hold down a stable job. Or they could be cut out of an expected inheritance due to their radical views or behaviour. Drawing on the ancient symbolism of Pluto, the losses in joint resource could even be due to a financial “rape”, in which the partner takes for themselves what is legally the native’s.

If the 8th house is ruled by Aquarius, as will be the case for all Cancer rising natives then the cause of the problems associated may be Aquarian in form. The partner may adhere to a strict rule of equality in which they think “everything that is yours is also mine”. The 8th also rules sexual desire, obsession and possession, so hell could exhibit as the native’s partner indulging in perverse sexual behaviour. Or it might manifest as an overly jealous partner using technology to track the native’s every move.

To take another example, if Pluto were passing through Aquarius in the 10th house, as will be the case with all Taurus rising natives, then hell might be experienced in the area of calling, status, superiors or the father. The guise it will take will be that relating to collective ideas, political changes or innovations. Because Pluto rules the 7th house for Taureans, the native’s spouse could be a causal factor intimately linked to the native’s death in status, career or the father. Alternatively it may manifest as a partner who’s status or job title is frowned upon by the collective and even makes them the target of terrorism or other existential threats, that then also impact on the native.

Pluto’s symbolism

Where Pluto goes we will be raped, either actually or metaphorically. If it is passing through our 6th house the rape could be by a co-worker or subordinate, If through our 4th house, it could be by a family member. The 5th house a lover, the 10th a superior.

In the example of the 6th house transit, it could manifest as a co-worker adopting the native’s job functions, perhaps whilst the native is away on extended leave. One way this might play out is the native returning to work only to find their coworker has completely taken over their role. They may be significantly ‘disempowered’ as a result or demoted to more menial tasks.

If Pluto were transiting the 6th in the sign of the Water Bearer as will be the case for all Virgo risings, another interpretation could be that ‘innovation’ is the demon, suddenly automating a cherished profession and thereby making our hardwon skills (Pluto rules the 3rd house for Virgo rising which is associated with skill) redundant – a robot robs us of our profession.

Pluto as power

Pluto carries Persephone into the underworld but she reemerges a more powerful, mature woman as a result of the experience. This is why Pluto is associated with deep powers of regeneration. According to some astrologers, the death associated with Pluto is necessary because it is time for the native to transmute into a better, more authentic version of themselves.

When Pluto positively aspects, by trine or sextile, planets – including natal Pluto itself – in the native’s birth chart this other, more beneficent side will manifest itself. Rather than experiencing powerlessness as they burn in hellfire, the native is raised to a seat of power. This can even result in abuses of that power. The native, perhaps unwittingly may fall into the habit of manipulating and controlling others according to their whim.

Because there is something covert about Pluto, the native themselves may not always be aware of the magnetic effect they possess with a well-aspected transit.

Pluto rules Scorpio in the modern western Zodiac and the specific form of empowerment is often characteristic of the sign. Like Scorpionic power, Plutonic power is often unearned and undeserved – inherited wealth is an obvious example, however, there are many ways this could manifest. It may come from innate personal magnetism, such as that possessed by fabled vampires, or hidden power dynamics at work, or the discovery of something of value unearthed on the native’s land. It is not usually due to the individual’s hard work or the development of talents over time through blood, sweat and tears.

The area of the chart where Pluto is transiting and the placement of the native’s natal Pluto will often describe the type of power gifted to the native. A transit of Pluto in the 11th house, for example, from a natal position in the 9th, creates a sextile and this might result in the native enjoying a high salary (one association of the 11th) because of a hidden foreign influence (9th), or the native finding themselves in the company of powerful perhaps foreign friends (11th and 9th).

The source of the native’s power, however, is unlikely to have resulted from another significator of the 9th house which is the native’s level of educational attainment, because, as we have already said, Pluto’s gifts are often unearned and undeserved. In the example of the 9th house, it may, however, be due to an inherited gift or an ancestral proclivity for abstract thought or blind religious zeal.