Although discovered only about forty years ago, and of very slow motion, the planet Pluto has now considerable seemingly reliable astrological data gathered about it. By inserting Pluto in old charts, and taking the keys handed down in mythology, it has been possible to fashion many keywords and key phrases which enable astrologers to interpret correctly the influence of this planet in any sign, house and aspect.
These keywords are numerous and include such well-known ones as transformation, transmutation, redemption, regeneration, degeneration, death and rebirth, unity, cooperation, dictatorship, disappearance, underworld, gangster, and coercion. It will be seen that these are very largely connected with the eighth house, the house of inheritance and death.
In mythology Pluto was God of the nether world, called Hades, or the Hell of orthodoxy, where burns the Eternal Fire. This fire corresponds to sex, the procreating force. When analyzed, Pluto indicates all phases of sex, and, as sex activities are the strongest in matters of life and death, so this planet may well be termed the powerhouse of the planetary family. It should not be strictly termed a malefic, we believe, but rather as uncompromising, giving no favors and demanding that benefits be earned.
Pluto can well be allocated to the underworld, for the word means wealth, being applied to him because corn, the wealth of early times, was sent from beneath the earth as his gift. Plutus, the God of Wealth, was represented as blind, indicating that when man focuses his attention on material things he fails to see the more worthy things around him. Truly, "the love of money is the root of all evil."
Our word plutocrat is derived from Pluto, and means power or domination through wealth derived from sources other than one's own labor. Such wealth is within the jurisdiction of the eighth house, the natural zodiacal position of Scorpio. It stems from inheritances, legacies, bonuses, windfalls, insurance, and similar sources. It has been earned in a previous incarnation and comes from hidden sources as an inheritance in the present life.
Pluto and Proserpina, his wife, ruled over the Spirits of the dead in the Lower World; here we have a direct analogy with the eighth house rulership of death. Pluto and Proserpina are correlated with the male and female principles in Nature, the principles of procreation.
Another correlation with eighth house matters becomes evident when we consider the function of Ceres, Goddess of Corn and the mother of Proserpina, from whom the word cereal is derived. In the growth-cycle of corn, as of most plants, an old plant dies, but the seed from which it sprang is buried and regenerates — out of death comes rebirth.
Pluto, generally accepted as ruler, or co-ruler with Mars, of the sign Scorpio, governs the excretory organs which control the sewage system of the body, as well as municipal sewage systems. Here we see Pluto's role as regenerator and transformer, for all excretory matter, when buried in the earth, is transformed, regenerated, or redeemed, and will reappear, phoenix-like, in other forms.
On its positive side, Pluto works for unity through organization. The regeneration of body and mind takes place when sense gratification is discontinued, the life forces ascending through the serpentine spinal cord as a fluid or gas, vitalizing the pineal gland, which comes under the rulership of the spiritual Neptune. Then men may soar to great heights by the force of a renewed mind. As a result, the Plutonian rulership is converted or transferred to the head sign Aries (ruled by Mars), the seat of thought and of the pineal gland.
On its negative side, Pluto engenders tyranny, dictatorship, and organization for the purpose of domination. Thus Pluto influences the lords of the underworld, gangsters, and murderers. When in the eighth house of a natal horoscope, it may indicate a mysterious death, possibly through surgery, or after disappearance.
In its adverse aspects, Pluto has been likened to the Dweller on the Threshold (the composite elemental entity created on the invisible planes by our untransmuted evil thoughts and acts in past lives). In its positive aspects, it has been compared with the Holy of Holies. No planet can indicate more depraved or drastic conditions, or, conversely, more exalted heights of spirituality.
The essential qualities of a planet's "spiritual nature" must coincide with the essential qualities of the sign it rules. Therefore, in a study of Pluto, it is necessary also to consider the sign Scorpio, concerning which considerable authentic information has come to us through past centuries, and of which Pluto and Mars are generally accepted by leading astrologers as co-rulers.
As a fixed, watery sign, Scorpio may be likened to ice, compressed and immobile. As an emotional significator it is feeling in its most intense form. It is the source of desire-power from which all humanity derives its emotional pabulum, to be transmuted through love for the regenerating of Life. From this source, all living things derive their creative expression and perpetuation. Because we have used this power in many ways during many incarnations, all human beings have a great area of "submerged" desire-potential, unseen in the present lifetime, which stems directly from our affiliation to this resource. This mutual affiliation has been referred to by many thinkers as the "collective unconscious."
In terms of conventional, orthodox viewpoint we may say that Scorpio represents or symbolizes the "source of evil." This expresses the attitude of people who see life as black or white — essentially good or essentially evil. Such a concept has been, and still is, necessary, because it serves as a guidepost for the conduct of evolving humanity.
As man evolves, however, his love-consciousness becomes more spiritualized and his intelligence more developed. Self-love becomes love of mate and progeny, and eventually, "brotherly love," the forces of sexuality are raised in vibratory quality to extend into levels of creativity and mental power. Through it all the consciousness of the individual ripens and matures into desire for improvement, expansion in wider acquaintance with the universe and other people and, ultimately, for wisdom and realization of ideals. Thus life is not "entirely black" or "entirely white," but a process of developing. Scorpio, through the eighth house patterns, makes possible the extension of experience into the transcendent expressions of the ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth houses, those ruling the mind, social standing, friends, and sorrow.
Scorpio appears evil only to the mind that sees evil as a "static entity." When viewed in a more dynamic context, Scorpio is the source of all love, all aspiration, and, through fulfillment of relationship-experience, the source of all wisdom.
There is an unpleasant psychological factor involved in the Scorpio vibration which must be considered, and that is the frustration of the unreleased generative urge. This creates a congestion in the desire nature which results in myriad emotional nervous, and mental ills that may afflict humanity in almost any phase of development. It is true that there are a few persons in incarnation at any time who do not require this particular form of release, but they are few and far between.
It is natural and healthy that people, generally speaking, experience the fulfillment of the mating urge in the companionship of love relationship. Not many Egos are yet physiologically or emotionally ready for a life of celibacy, and it would be dangerous, individually and to society, for most people to undertake such a life at their present stage of development.
This, however, is not intended as an argument for indiscriminate use of the sex force for purposes of propagation or pleasure. This same force, when conserved, can be transmuted into spiritual force and released in the form of mental creativity and epigenesis. For people who are aware of the true nature and ultimate goal of the creative agent now termed "sex force," and of the means of channeling it upward, there is no need to experience the frustration and ailments which occur when it is entirely unreleased.
An unfulfilled Scorpio (or Pluto) in the natal chart, however — that is, a configuration in which it does not appear that this force will be released legitimately either for propagation or creative purposes — indicates the possibility that the person may yield to expressions of cruelty, dishonesty, murder, and other destructive impulses as a substitute satisfaction for this thing which, in his desire nature, screams for gratification. As the physical body may erupt with boils due to unreleased toxic conditions, so the consciousness may erupt with all kinds of black urges to release a potent desire urge. The history of humanity's development as a sexual organism is riddled with chapters of fear, perversion, disease, and madness, because so many people have lived, emotionally, by standards ranging from false puritanism to promiscuity, completely removed from the process of natural experience and healthy, loving fulfillments.
We are finally beginning to get at the roots of these emotional diseases and are being forced to the conclusion that life cannot be well lived unless it is based on a philosophy of healthy, constructive, loving, and happy releases. The remedy for emotional diseases is found in enlightened, spiritualized education, plus the vitalized determination to live healthy, expressive, beautiful, and loving lives, in relation to self and to others. In this way the desire resource is transmuted and expressed in terms that make for evolution, as well as the redemption of karmic debts into spiritualized consciousness.
The most significant lessons Pluto would teach will be learned, and the highest potential of Scorpio will be realized, with the development of pure minds, pure thoughts, and pure living. Then the adverse aspects of planet and sign will be powerless to affect us, and we will be able to make tremendous spiritual growth under their benign influences.
