About Pluto

Pluto is the last of the main astrological planets, and the third of the transpersonal planets (along with Uranus and Neptune). The energy it carries is of life and death, the Underworld, fate, power, and compulsive attachments. The experiences that Pluto brings us are compelling and they leave us transformed. But they can also be dark, painful, and overwhelming.

Pluto is associated with Scorpio and the 8th house.

Pluto in our natal chart represents:

• where we feel life or death urgency
• where we can have deep trauma or psychological wounds
• where we may experience crisis & transformation
• where we seek to control or dominate, often out of fear
• deep desires we may have repressed
• the area of life where we feel most vulnerable
• the area of life that holds the most potential for power
• where we might encounter karmic patterns
• where our Soul wants us to evolve & release attachments

Working With Pluto Energy

The best way to work with Pluto energy is to surrender your attachments. Most of the pain Pluto inflicts is the pain of ripping something away from us that we think we need to survive, but Pluto wants us to realize that we don't. We are stronger than whatever it is we have become dependent on, and to grow, we need to let it go. If we resist that process, Pluto will simply remove it from our life and we will be left to pick up the pieces. Therefore, it's best to cooperate with the evolutionary process that is trying to take place.

Any area of your chart where Pluto is strong (including Scorpio and the 8th house), will be subject to continual transformation. How brutal that transformation feels will be somewhat up to you and how much you resist the process. We have a Pluto Lessons report that shows you where Pluto is active in your chart.

Affirmations for Plutonic periods

• Nothing is mine; everything is borrowed.
• I can let go or be dragged.
• This is happening whether I want it to or not, so I might as well accept it.
• I will survive without ___, even if I don't want to.

Pluto in myth rules the land of the dead, and nobody escapes alive. Death is irrevocable—once something dies, it will never come back. This is the nature of transformation that Pluto is aiming for in our psyche. And that is precisely why Pluto transits can be so painful. Whatever you are attached to, if Pluto says it has to go, it’s going to go. Nobody can fight Death; your only choices are to cooperate or increase your pain by resisting.

The gift of Pluto is reclaiming the power that was bound up in our attachments. When everything is taken from us, we learn to see what can never be taken from us—who we really are. When the form we desire is destroyed, the desire nature within us is liberated from that attachment. This is a purification through fire.

Pluto teaches detachment through the loss of what we most desire. We learn mastery over our emotions in order to survive the pain. We learn to live without attachments. We learn to enjoy what we love while we have it, and let it go when it's gone. We learn to let it go before it's gone, so we can enjoy it more while we do have it. We learn to stop resisting the nature of life itself, which is impermanence. We learn to feel each moment a precious, because it is.

After the death, whether we go peacefully or kicking and screaming, is the rebirth. As we rise again from the ashes, we discover ourselves as a new being, with new potentials. This is the process of evolution that Pluto helps us walk through in our lifetimes on Earth.

Pluto rules the primal animal drives within us—survival, violence, and sex. Pluto-Venus aspects especially can lead to obsessive romantic attachments. Pluto-Mars can underlie sexual aggression.

Pluto projection

Wherever Pluto shows up in your chart, it will inject wild, raw, obsessive, erotic energy. If it's connected to your Sun, Pluto will flavor your core personality. If it's connected to Venus, it will flavor your relationships. And like any archetypal energy, if you don't express it yourself, you may see it come out in those around you.

If you have a strong Pluto in your chart and this energy doesn't have a way come through you directly, you may find yourself surrounded by people who embody Plutonian qualities. You might be drawn to intense relationships or find yourself embroiled in power struggles. You might find yourself fascinated by "true crime" shows, or other media that explore themes of darkness, intensity, crisis, power, and control.

Energy always find a way to be expressed. In one way or another, the Underworld will find you. It's always better to integrate it consciously than let it find its own outlet which you may have little control over.

How do you integrate Pluto?

You unearth, examine, and own your desire for power, control, intensity, and sex. That's about it—Pluto is powerful, but it’s not that complex.

Whatever darkness is under the surface of your personality, find it, bring it your awareness, admit that it's part of you, and explore how it wants to be expressed. Sometimes all it takes is admitting you have a selfish side that wants what it wants, and doesn't really care how others feel about it. Sometimes it involves exploring your sexuality in a kinkier direction. Sometimes it's about finding and embodying your inner power to change circumstances in your life that really don't work for you, and reworking your life so it doesn't require you to suppress parts of yourself.

It's a personal journey, but the answers to what you need are already inside you. You just need to unearth them.