Pluto is the planet of obsession, power, taboo, death, and rebirth. But what if it wasn't all bad? Hear me out. Let's look into the birth charts of people with heavy or prominent Pluto placements and see how it has actually impacted their lives. Because, spoiler alert, they weren't all so bad.
First up, Mary Shelley.
Now, many of you will recognize Shelley as the author and creator of Frankenstein and the mother of science fiction. But you may not have known that Pluto was not only retrograde, but also conjunct her Midheaven with a two degree orb. Shelley may have become known for some of the earliest examples of science fiction, with Frankenstein being what I consider to be a unique blend of sci-fi and horror, but she also had a perfectly beautiful life. We can see her becoming famous for the Plutonian themes of Frankenstein very clearly in the chart.
But something else I wanted to cover was her marriage. It was a happy one, despite having Venus square the Descendent, and she loved her spouse very dearly. I just want you to know that just because you have Pluto conjunct an angle or a hard Venus aspect, you are still perfectly capable of having a happy life. You aren't doomed to constant rebirth and death of your career - Shelley's impact with her novel created a whole new genre. Don't allow other people's interpretations of your placements to shape you, instead work with your chart and see how it actually plays out in your life, because that may be very different from one person's (or two, or three people's), interpretations.
Muhammad Ali's birth chart is fabulous. I don't say that sarcastically. I love it. His Pluto is opposite his Moon and squaring his Mars, forming a t-square. He has 6 planets in retrograde, 3 planets in detriment, and one in fall. It's great. He's not only one of the greatest boxers to ever live, perhaps fueled by his "hard" Mars aspects, but also a renown activist who pushed for social and political reform. He looked oppression in the face and pushed for a better life - not only for himself but for others. I wonder how an astrologer would look at this chart without knowing the person behind it and what they've accomplished. We now know that his Pluto in retrograde and in a tight square to Mars may very well have been his driving force in fighting for reform, and I'm certain his Sun trine Uranus played a part as well.
Next, I'm going to use a more personal example.
This is the birth chart of a very close friend. The birth time is from her mother, in case there is any question of her Rodden rating - but I've blocked out personal/identifying info.
As you can see, she has Pluto conjunct her Ascendant with a two degree orb. Now, the interpretations of this placement aren't nice, to say the least. The popular interpretation website Astrology King says, "Obsessive-compulsive disorder can control your life... Crime, addiction, prostitution, and violence are manifestations of the dark side of Pluto. Threats, intimidation, near-death experiences, and suicide attempts can result from total loss of control. Too much control and friends will desert you. Not enough, and you’re engulfed by dark forces." (link.)
I'm sorry... But what the fuck kind of interpretation is that? I mean, all due respect to Jamie, he's a brilliant astrologer, but if you were using his interpretation alone, just from this article, you'd think you were doomed. Now, does every interpretation need to be touchy feely? No. But we shouldn't leave a reading feeling worse than when we came into it. I actually distinctly remember reading the article with my friend - we laughed at it together. She joked that maybe she's a got a dark side. And while it might look that way to someone with little to no astrological background (especially with Pluto in the twelfth house), that simply isn't the case.
No, my friend is an occupational therapist. She wanted to go into the field to help older people. She's one of the friendliest, bubbliest people I've ever had the pleasure of meeting, so no, "You're secretive and spooky and love black," interpretations from the Pluto conjunct AC crowd, if we decide to go the route of saying, "The AC is how you present yourself to the world."
So what's another interpretation we could have on Pluto in the twelfth house conjunct the Ascendant? One interpretation I mentioned in this article about the twelfth house is that I find that people with heavy twelfth house placements actually go into the healthcare professions more than others. Not because they themselves are sick or ill or any of the things we typically associate with that house, but because they see that in the world and want to fix it. They want to help and serve others.
Now, she also has her Pluto quintile her south node (and her nodes are at the infamous 22nd degree - kill or be killed. They're also direct.) and square her Venus. Helping people seems to come naturally to her. She's also getting married in May! So don't let people tell you that hard Pluto aspects (or difficult degrees) will interfere with your life.
The next chart example is actually yours truly. For longtime readers of the blog, you probably recognize it by now. Sorry, I'm my own best guinea pig, so I am going to use it. As you can see by my birth chart, I have Pluto square my Sun with just a few minutes difference - but the orb is pretty solidly 0 degrees. Pluto is also square my nodes with a 2 degree orb, forming a skipped step in evolutionary astrology. Now, as all my fellow evolutionary astrologers gasp in horror, I'm going to give you a run-down of my actual lived experiences with these placements.
Would you ever expect someone with Pluto square the Sun and the nodes to have a blog titled No Fear Astrology with bright pops of color (and a whole lot of pink?) Would you ever expect a person who is so obviously Pluto ruled to be trying to change how we see astrology, and in turn, ourselves? Convention teaches us that I should run a deep, dark, mystery blog where I complain about all the woes that Pluto has put me through. But here's the thing - I'm still a believer that we don't know all there is to know out there (now that is a Pluto thing to say), and that we have to constantly test our knowledge, and astrology, to get solid answers. Sometimes those answers fly in the face of what we're taught conventionally, and the only things we can do are test it more and accept the answers we find.
Now, I've always been a person who's not afraid to dig for answers. The deeper you dig, the more you find, and sometimes, the more confused you get. But here's the thing - the effort is worth the answer, if that answer is in fact findable. I wouldn't give you the stereotypical answer of "I've been through many deaths and rebirths as a Sun square Pluto person," not because it isn't true, but I think it's just a fact of life. We all change. Everyone. Even people without those placements. Everyone has had to face up to questions of identity before, and placing that burden on like, one placement, is kind of weird.
So to properly interpret the Sun square Pluto, I think I'd look more towards the zodiac signs in this case. I was raised Southern Baptist. For those of you who don't know what that means, I will just say it was a very religious environment. And while placements in the birth chart do show our inherent tendencies, I think this placement was activated as Neptune transited Pisces to be conjunct my Jupiter and Sun. It took the kid who questioned a lot about God and religion and plunged her into the depths of it all. We have Pluto in Sagittarius and the Sun in Pisces. And Pisces, true to its nature, doesn't know when to stop. But that's also why I have this blog - because I see people fall down the rabbit hole that I fell down when I was in that horrible transit. And I don't have all the techniques to stop it, but I survived it. I can let other people know they're not alone in what they're experiencing. I can help, hopefully, guide people through it with what I learned.
As for the skipped step in my chart... If we go off the traditional evolutionary meaning, the nodes are your past and future lives, and the planet squaring the nodes represents a lesson that you did not learn in your past life - and now, with all that t-square tension, cannot ignore. Pluto represents the soul in evolutionary astrology, but also the soul's wound. Now is the time to address those wounds. Now's the time to address the depths of that, because as we all know, when you ignore a problem, the bigger it gets. It's turned into a giant Piscean ocean. I'm not really afraid of it now, though I certainly was when I first started to learn astrology. Trying to figure out what lesson your soul missed is certainly a daunting task, and it's even more daunting to try and attempt fix that in this life. But I think that's the essence of the t-square, you've got to face up to what you ignore, and that's most easily done with the nodal return and nodal reversal.
Acknowledging and "fixing" (if we should even say that, I don't know if there is anything to really be fixed about a t-square) a t-square is done quite naturally, though the transits and progressions of the chart. Nodal returns and reversals are a part of that. Those transits force us to acknowledge the lessons of the nodes, whether that be through house, zodiac sign, aspect, etc. I should also say that I think there is an element of forgiveness here. We don't need to learn the lesson right away. We've got a lifetime to figure it out and consistently do better. That's the point of practicing. So you don't need to rush into a nodal transit or birth chart interpretation to "fix" yourself. What if you're fine the way you are? What if the t-square or Pluto or the nodes weren't doom and gloom, but something to work with? Something to help you?
Just some food for thought.
Stay questioning, my friends! Do you believe we know what Pluto means? What's your interpretation on it?
Much love and best wishes,
Abby
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