Pluto : permanent metamorphosis
- Sign attached, Domicile : Scorpio
- Attached house : 8th House
- Exaltation : Cancer and Leo
- Detriment : Taurus
- Falling : Capricorn and Aquarius
- Element : Water (cold and wet)
- Polarity : Feminine Yin
- Harmonic or complementary Planets (excluding Aspects) :
Moon – Mars - Cycle duration : about 248 years.
- Symbolizing aspect : Semi-square – Sesquisquare (even Square)
- Corresponding life age : transcendence
- Physiology : wound healing, hormones, viruses, immune system, genitals, excretion
- Because of its irregular orbit, Pluto transits from 12 to 30 years depending on the signs.
- Pluto is in retrograde an average of about 162 days per year, with signs ranging from 3 months to more than half the year.
See Planetary Rulerships.
Pluto in astronomy
With a 2300 km diameter, barely smaller than our Moon which is 3400 km long, Pluto is a sort of Sun’s moon, it has recently been called a “dwarf planet”.
Pluto forms a couple with Charon its moon, which with its 1200 km diameter is almost as big, they both oscillate as in a synchronized dance, their center of gravity being in the void separating them.
Pluto is composed of rock, methane ice and water, without any real atmosphere, its color varies according to its distance from the Sun, as it gets closer it takes red and black tints (we have few images of Pluto, above artist’s illustration).
Pluto has remained and still remains quite mysterious as a planet because of its distance, it has not yet been well explored…
Its orbit is strongly inclined (it is sometimes above or below the ecliptic plane) and very eccentric, its distance from the Sun varies strongly to such an extent that it may be closer to the Sun than Neptune (this was the case from 1979 to 1999).
Pluto would have been torn from the Kuiper belt by the gas giants, but would have been taken over by the influence of Neptune which stabilized its orbit.
The first precise images of this planet dating from July 2015 have left astronomers questioning : a diversity and complexity of relief on its surface without equivalent in the solar system although partly similar to the planet Mars.
See: Pluto on Wikipedia
Pluto, astrological planet
Collective transpersonal planet the furthest away, Pluto is the force of transformation, regeneration, deep metamorphosis, the underground magma, the phoenix that rises again and again from its own ashes ever brighter…
Pluto is a groundswell that will draw from the abyss of being, from its subconscious, from its hidden part, all the psychic, emotional and mental material, to recast personality in its deepest crucible… But this evolution, this mutation, is not done without pain that can go as far as Depression (read notably the very interesting books “Pluto : The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul” by Jeff Green).
It is a symbolic death to bring a rebirth, a consensual loss for a fundamental structural improvement, for a psychological remodeling going to the subconscious. It is a descent into hell and an eventful questioning, it is a natural process of introspection and psychoanalysis (see the myth of Sisyphus).
At the beginning one refuses and backs away from this task which seems so arduous and trying, but the only solution with this planet is acceptance and letting go, long term integration.
The change that Pluto achieves is imperative and irreversible, impossible to dither and go against it, the upheaval will come relentlessly.
One must overcome one’s doubts and anxiety, and accept a certain fatality of fate…
The Pluto’s central function is to eliminate the slag of personality, useless and harmful residues to the purity of the whole once the individuality has been renewed, refined… It is a kind of natural recycling of the process of Individuation that purifies the mind.
It’s very powerful, very destructive, but very constructive at the same time. The very subtle energy of Pluto causes explosive psychic rises, the unconscious stirred up in this way expels the suppressed feelings from the underworld to the conscious surface, producing sudden revelations and realizations, awakenings.
Pluto is similar to the controlled pyrolysis process to create pure charcoal; moreover it is the extreme process that leads to the transformation of a simple piece of carbon into diamond, a process that prioritizes the material’s final quality over its quantity. Pluto is the “Calcinatio” of the alchemical process, psychic autolysis.
Pluto represents our deep instincts and our unconscious, our obsessions, sexuality, fecundity, our functions and organs of elimination (excretion), our deaf anxieties and sometimes physical death, i.e. the end of a material reality, the end of the earthly life cycle, and probably the beginning of a new cycle on the basis of a new seed from the past existence (process of reincarnation)…
Pluto is just after Neptune, its mission is to purify the dreams of universality and fraternity in order to extract from them the part of illusion or mirage, and to keep only the useful essential, which it galvanizes, and it will rigorously achieve its objective.
Pluto can be sublimated and become a personality releasing factor, it allows us to spiritualize the matter of which we are made, to feel the absolute unity…
As a slow, heavy or even collective planet, Pluto marks entire generations (like Neptune and Uranus) and often signs the evolution and metamorphosis of civilizations.
In the Birth Chart, Pluto indicates the capacities of transformation and inner metamorphosis, the test imposed by our external environment, fatality, as well as our instinctive part and our sexuality.
Pluto in Sign brings its power to the archetype of consciousness in question to purify it and draw the quintessence from it, it can give a harder side to the sign in question, more intransigent less conciliatory, galvanized.
The Pluto in Houses informs about the activity field where the challenge to amend will take place, a disintegration and rebirth, the metamorphosis, sometimes leading to a certain psychic heaviness, constraints and inhibition of this sky sector. It is necessary to watch the axes in relation to the house where Pluto is, the Square houses meaning obstacles to overcome and the opposite house being often perceived more as a refuge, help, but also a potential escape, not without tensions…
In Aspect and in transits, Pluto accentuates the psychic pressure, the symbolic death, the planet reminds us of the fatality of destiny in the most tragic way, but also in the sense of providence, always on the thread “disintegration / liberation of primary instincts / reconstruction”…
According to the Aspects, its complex energy combines with the energies of the other planets and increases their instinctive power and their intensity.
The Pluto’s cycle is very complex and lasts about 248 years. Because of its irregular orbit, Pluto does not spend the same time in each sign, the planet thus accentuates different classical elements (Fire, Earth, Air, Water), different Modes (Cardinal, Fixed, Mutable) of uneven manner, from 12 to 30 years according to the signs (for the shortest Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius in 12 years and for the longest Aries, Taurus, Gemini in 30 years).
In a human life, we can therefore see little better than the first increasing Square.
Its transits are “tricky” because they are spread out over time, and imply a need for deep and radical change both psychologically and in the immediate native’s environment…
Its movements modify the structure in the “hard”, and once integrated, one feels fully transformed, and for good !
Pluto as a transpersonal collective planet (the last one), does not have the same impact as the individual inner planets or the social planets, its retrograde motion must therefore also be looked at from this angle, even if its interpretation in a birth chart is not forbidden for all that !
A Pluton Retrograde in Birth Chart indicates an introversion of Pluto values (transformation, regeneration, metamorphosis), may be a clue to the type of life ordeal, or a suppression of instinct and desires, unconscious skepticism about the social structure, Emotional Complexes with increased self-destructive tendencies.
Pluto retrograde experiences less controlled eruption phases in a less calculated and strategic manner than Pluton Direct.
On the other hand, when well controlled, it allows us to dig deeper into the roots on our darker sides, it gives greater psychological resistance. Pluton retrograde will have a more direct impact on individual development, where Pluton direct acts on the collective.
Watch for its direct motion resumption in Progression.
However, as a slow planet, the retrograde motion in birth chart is less significant.
Its retrograde motion of a little more than 5 months per year (on average) signs a period that can produce a rejection and a pause in the evoked transformation processes, maybe we come up against more complex consciousness residues to destroy and assimilate, which come to the surface and produce anguish… Probably also a phase where one takes a support, one takes one’s breath, but it is to move back to jump better, Pluto is a slow groundswell, a endurance test, a marathon, the challenge is to stay the course in front of fatality…
The retrograde motion of Pluto favors dreams and modified states of consciousness (naturally or chemically) that remove slag from the deep transformation in progress, as a form of inner psychological outlet where external expression is impossible and resistance to change is intense. Pluto helps us to uncover the latent energy of the relevant sky sector to achieve our long-term goals, provided we demonstrate the necessary self-discipline, emotionally and sensually.
Do not forget that, being a slow planet, the same chart’s points will often be activated several times during its slow transit through a sign or a house, so the transit unfolding will take place in several phases.
Astronomically, the retrogradation arc of the outer exterior planets corresponds to an Opposition to the Sun (tension with the will), Pluto being thus as close as possible to the Earth, it is advisable to watch the loop development.
Once again all this depends on its function in the chart and in transit as well as the dominants of the Birth Chart (study concerned Houses, other Aspects and transits…).
Plutonian’s personality traits
Native whose chart will be strongly marked by Pluto will have qualities of independence, mental and psychic strength, magnetism, charisma, instinct, originality, depth…
Lonely, disillusioned, detached, distrustful, secretive, enigmatic, he knows how to be seductive and blend into the social theater, even if he prefers tranquility and a certain solitude…
Deep attraction for the occult, hidden forces, secrets of nature, morbid, mystical, life after death…
Negative Pluto : violence, sadism, perversion, authoritarian, despotic, brittle, cold, ruthless, disquieting, extremist, self-destructive, anxious…
Character traits found in Scorpio (its Domicile).
In the circle of life, Pluto does not correspond to a particular age, but is a sign of states of transcendence (like Neptune and Uranus).
At the worldwide level, Pluto signs the great crises that irremediably transform human societies, especially economic crises (the 8th House is a house on the axis of possessions, also symbolizing “other people’s money” as opposed to the personal gains of the 2nd House).
The interpretation of the planet Pluto remains to be completed, however, as this planet was discovered recently, we lack the hindsight to detect the effects of each transit.
It remains however for the moment attached to the atom and plutonium.
Pluto in mythology is inspired by Hades the God of the underworld, see Hades on Wikipedia