These are global energies of Pluto in Cancer or in the 4th House which must be nuanced according to your birth chart, see the article Pluto in birth chart; see also the article on the general interpretation of Pluto.
The planet Pluto is one of the attributes of the Shadow in the chart, as such it can indicate a Projection of this one, especially intellectual projections on “social entities” (political party, club, syndicate, nation, church, etc.), everything that concerns more directly the psychological quest, the depth of spirit, the intensity of primary instincts.
It can materialize a place of upheavals, fear, destruction, fatality, losses, betrayals, darkness, submission, as it is also a vector of passion, domination, power, self-control, creation of purity.
It is often referred to the higher octave of Mars and is directly related to Scorpio.
As Pluto remains from 12 to 30 years per sign (due to the irregularity of its orbit), its position in houses is more meaningful for the personality. The energy of the sign especially gives a common elemental background coloring to a whole generation, which will apply more personally to the life sector signified by the house. Therefore, focus first on the house affected, the sign giving a background tone.
Emotional and familial metamorphosis
This planet is at the nadir of the birth chart here, in a sector that is under lunar rulership, where it adds a very significant burden in connection with family, the home, one’s roots, and the maternal archetype (see the Moon); for example, one of these people’s parental archetypes may be “missing” in some significant way for various reasons.
These are very intense energies which may add some violence and instability to this sector which usually requires just the opposite: having reassurance and security.
This positioning is quite mixed, because on the one hand it may force people to be “strong” and tough very early on in life, as they may be forced to be this way as a result of direct learning experiences with losses and destiny (like the saying, “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”).
On the other hand, though, this can also lead to emotional insensitivity, bitterness, and inner violence, which may be very destructive and self-destructive, so externalizing what they feel and perceive is not easy at all.
This planet may greatly impact these people’s unconscious side, potentially bringing back things from the past very easily, including from their family’s karmic past (unsaid things, taboos, secrets), and these things ask to be treated, purged, and evacuated (hiding things from children with this positioning is not necessarily a good idea, even if it is “for their own good” due to the circumstances).
The good thing is that it may allow for a transformation and a deep purge in relation to these things. For example, these people may “sort and separate out” the things that they want and need to retain from their heritage and what they have to pass on in turn to their own descendants, and in this way they may function as a “filter,” as it were, in a way “choosing” whether or not to break old patterns that they lived through or that were imposed upon them.
This may be a fairly significant challenge during these people’s incarnations: finding a different way of obtaining reassurance and security around them, in their home, or, by extension, in their region or their country, as well as taking care of these things (for example, with this positioning we may find various military or political figures who have a vision for their “homeland” where the nation’s territory represents a sort of “super mother” that needs to be protected, or people with this positioning may have been exiled).
From a symbolic point of view, this may also for example be a sign that the “mother” archetype is directly impacted by Scorpio and Plutonian energies (for example with Pluto in a conjunction with the luminaries, the angles, or the ruler of the person’s birth chart, or with this sign or the 8th house being highly developed).
And things are quite mixed here, remember, since the Moon is in fall when it is confronted with these energies: its natural sensitivity and gentleness tend to be somewhat mangled.
It should not be forgotten that among the negative facets of Plutonian energies we find the sides of people that are focused on domination, manipulation, possessiveness, jealousy, power, emotional blackmail, and many other things that are likely to stick to the Moon’s energies quite readily and be projected onto the maternal archetype, which may be fairly tough for these people in general.
Much will depend here both on the overall power of the Moon in these people’s birth charts, which they will have to learn to appreciate, and also on other factors, such as the level of Plutonian energies, the Animus (the Sun/Mars/the elemental energy of Fire), and Uranus, all of which in a way represent counterweights and forces of confrontation and emancipation, which may or may not allow these people to fight.
With Pluto in the 4th house / Cancer, people may feel as though they have a kind of debt towards their family, and they may feel as though they need to sacrifice themselves for their family, though not in the devotional, Neptunian sense, but rather in the sense of a “purifying fire” that allows them to restore their pride, honor, etc.
A large part of the work that needs to be done with this planetary positioning consists of becoming aware of one’s heritage in an objective way (along with all of the forces and burdens that come along with it and which need to be sublimated), and then managing to perpetuate only “the best” afterwards, only that which they themselves would have wanted to have received, but even though this work can be very powerful and salutary for their family line, it is still not simple or harmonious most of the time, instead being done in the context of “intense pressure” and varying degrees of pain.
Based on the same logic, their relationships with children may be hugely important, and not only their own children for that matter, as this may be more broadly about the next generations. Even the absence of children may represent another kind of challenge depending on the configuration of their birth chart.
In terms of negatives, this positioning is likely to be mainly “reactive;” that is to say, it is often a sign of trauma, scars, or fear (of poverty, danger, being abandoned or rejected, etc.), and it calls on these people to act or react accordingly, but avoiding all of this tension can be quite difficult, especially since these things often go back to early childhood, when these people by definition both had little ability to take action and were also very easily influenced, and so these things may become deeply rooted.
With these people, it may be hard to bring up the family sphere, as they like to keep this secret and even clandestine sometimes (for example, we may find that this positioning is linked to children who are born out of wedlock or need to be hidden from the eyes of the world for various reasons, such as threats, etc.).
Pluto retrograde in the 4th house and Cancer
This planet’s Retrograde motion here tends to make it more introverted, and thus deeper and more secretive, and therefore there is more difficulty when it comes to emotional expression.
Retrograde motion of Pluto in a birth chart is much less important than for other dominant features of a birth chart, since, as it is a very slow, transpersonal planet, it is retrograde for much of the year.
Nevertheless, it is helpful to monitor the evolution of this retrograde motion through Progressions; a change of state here will not necessarily lead to a specific, noteworthy event, but it may still be an indication of a non-negligible psychological change in how this planet’s energies are used.
Celebrities with Pluto in 4th House
Joseph Stalin, Jiddu Krishnamurti, Mozart, Pamela Anderson, Che Guevara, James Dean, Victor Hugo, Johann Sebastian Bach, Louis XVI, Charles Manson…
Celebrities with Pluto in Cancer
Martin Luther King, Brigitte Bardot, Elvis Presley, 14th Dalai Lama, Che Guevara, Nelson Mandela, Warren Buffett, Osho, Edith Piaf, John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher…