Zodiac Times

As Pluto is entering Capricorn now, where it is going to wreck all structures of our lives for the next 15 years, I’ve decided to write a little tribute to this planet.
In order to truly understand what it is doing to our lives, we have to look a little deeper at the Reality Core of our Selves.
In some computer games, like “Second Life”, for instance, the players create an “Avatar” for themselves in order to participate in the virtual reality of that game. The “Avatar” is the character they play there. The players choose its body frame, features and characteristics, and then behave accordingly to that character in the game’s virtual reality.
I believe that we, as Spiritual Beings, do the same, when entering The Great Game of Life on Earth. Our “Avatar”, the human persona we assume, is defined by the planetary picture active at the time and place of our birth.
That planetary picture, otherwise known as horoscope, create energies that form our bodies and psychological perceptions of life.
It also contains the synopsis of our life stories and their time line.
We become the heroes of our life stories, which Karma – The Game Master – incorporates into The Great Epic of Life on Earth by interweaving different strands of one life story with those of many others.
Why do we play this game? There are many answers to choose from. But the ultimate goal of each player, it seems, is to slay his or her own “Avatar” we call Ego, thus conquering the virtual reality of Life on Earth and reclaiming our Divinity.
Rarely this victory happens in one life time. In fact, The Game is designed to offer as many opportunities as necessary, hence – reincarnation.
But each individual life contains within its story such possibility. Each planet in the horoscope functions not only as a layer of the virtual persona we wear and the timer of the “Avatar’s” story line, but also as a Spiritual Reality Lever. We just need to solve its riddle, while playing the “Avatar”.
Let’s take Pluto, for instance. This planet on the outskirts of the Solar System is so tiny, that it was recently demoted by astronomers from the planetary status altogether. Yet it acts as our Power Archetype. All our ideas regarding power, whether Divine or human, stem from that archetype. Pluto’s position in a chart, and its interconnection with other planets there via aspects and rulerships defines the perceptions of power by the “Avatar” (i.e. the human persona we wear in a particular life) and it offers us lessons in power throughout the life story.
The solution to the riddles of its lessons (which tend to be excruciating in their level of pain) is to find the power within, which would lead us to the liberation from the Ego.
Any person that lived through Plutonian transit and survived to tell the tale would attest to the mightiness of this tiny planet’s punch. Astrologers call it the planet of death and rebirth for good reason. Under its transit, we all must let a part of our “Avatar” die a very painful death, and then find the strength within to either carry on emotionally maimed or to be spiritually reborn and take our life story on another level.
You may say that Pluto acts as a catalyst of our human lives. Its energy has a certain obsessive-compulsive quality. It is inward oriented, compelling us to dig within ourselves all the way down to our Spiritual Roots, so we could find the power of our Spirit and raise our Kundalini. Kundalini is our Real Power that lays dormant in our Root Chakra, until it is awakened. Once awakened, it rises straight to the Crown Chakra, issuing great heat within the spine that burns down layers of the “Avatar” and, if the player is ready, takes him or her onto the next level of The Game. If player is not ready, real physical death results. That is the Lever of Consciousness that Pluto operates.
People, whose natal Pluto aspects or rules their Sun, Moon, or any other planet for that matter, exhibit Pluto’s obsessive-compulsive behavior in the aspected planets’ domains of reality.
For instance, people, whose Moon is touched by Pluto, either via an aspect or by the virtue of being placed in Scorpio – the sign of Pluto’s rulership, have certain obsessive quality to their emotional make-up. They would continue to emotionally focus on a subject that once stirred their emotions, until they find the power within to transform their emotional picture.
People, whose Venus is colored by Pluto, have obsessive likes and dislikes, and their human relationships take on the obsessive quality as well. Again, inner transformation is the key to solve their relationship puzzles.
Since Pluto rules Scorpio, Plutonian characteristics are most visible in qualities of planets that fall into that sign. Scorpio’s element is water, which possesses natural receptive and retentive qualities. It makes us highly sensitive to environmental stimula. Scorpio’s mode is fixed (the water is still), so it is doubly retentive. The environmental impressions are retained by the native and have no place to go (i.e cannot leave the psyche). Pluto, with its obsessive-compulsive inward oriented energy, compels the native to compulsively focus on a particular impression year after year, until the native’s attitude towards it is transformed.
Just to give you an example, I know of one Scorpio Moon lady, whose husband of 5 years once made a cutting remark regarding her figure as she gained a few pounds following the birth of their daughter. She loved her husband dearly all these years, so as offended as she was, she did not rush to file for divorce. In fact, by all accounts (including her husband’s), they continued to have a good marriage for another 5 years, until she got pregnant with the second child. Then, suddenly, she decided that the marriage was over. When pressed for a reason, she confessed that the cutting words of her husband continued to play in her head year after year, until her love for him was transformed into hate. So after 10 years of marriage and 2 children together, she left him despite facing significant financial perils and obvious difficulties of being a single mother of 2 young children.
This, of course, is a negative example of love being transformed into hate. But the same Plutonian qualities allow us to transform hate into love and forgiveness. Until this transformation occurs, the natives continue to obsess about their impressions. The more painful the impression is, the more natives would focus on it, until their very psyche is transformed together with the impression. Scorpio has a certain penchant for pain, perhaps because painful experiences are the ones that prompt us to seek Spiritual Reality behind the virtual mirrors of Maya.
Wherever Scorpio is found on a house cusp of a horoscope, that is where we seek experiences that are most challenging, difficult and painful. But the greater is their challenge, the more we appreciate them.
But it is the astrological house location of Pluto itself, where we are called to slay the Dragon of the fairytale of our life. That astrological house is the area of life where we have to master all our strength to face the challenges. That is because we give our inner power, our strength, away to the concerns of that area of life. Those matters terrify us so deeply, or we attach ourselves to them so much, that they begin to control us. Our task is to get that control back by slaying the shadowy dragon of our greatest insecurities or most strangling attachments. The issues of power play of any sort only surface when we give our power to someone or something outside of ourselves.
If Scorpio is also on the cusp of that house, the challenges would double in difficulty and the Dragon would have many heads.
If expansive Jupiter is aspecting Pluto by conjunction, square or opposition, or if Pluto conjoins the North Node, the many-headed Dragon will be of immense proportions.
But even if Pluto is all alone, it would still belly our greatest insecurities.
In the first house of self-image, it compels the natives to uphold their sef-image at any cost. Rumor goes that Prince Charles, who holds this Pluto position, requires his lovers, Camilla including, to address him “Your Highness” even in the middle of love-making.
God forbid, you would openly disagree with a Pluto-in-the-first-house person. He or she would level you with the ground. That is because these people feel that it is them against the world. So they put on the iron mask of their opinions and bravely march on regardless of what stands in their path.
Their one-on-one relationships tend to be their main casualties. Only when the natives stop seeing the world as their greatest threat and realize that it is merely the projection of their own mind, they slay their dragon.
If you have Capricorn in the first house, transiting Pluto is going to transform your self-image, and your relationship with the world. Personal relationships, particularly marriages and partnerships of all kinds will undergo irrevocable change as well.

When Pluto is in the second house of our personal independence, the natives’ constant struggle tends to be for their own survival. Trying to fend for themselves is their challenge. At the same time, the natives abhor any kind of dependence on others. They put most of their energy into building the house of cards they call “material security”. But even if one day they may feel they made it, Pluto would pull the rug from under their feet, so they would have to start all over again. All their lives they fight for survival, until they summon their inner power and shine the light of their spirit on the dragon – just to discover that it is nothing but the shadow of their deep mistrust into benevolence and generosity of the Universe.
Pluto transiting through this area of life would create riches-to-rugs and rugs-to-riches stories worthy of 15 minutes of fame.

Pluto in the third house of our mental and physical functioning gives the natives the gift of deeply probing mind, capable of great concentration and laser-sharp focus. These natives cannot stand mysteries of any kind and have to find the answer to all their questions. By obsessively focusing on the subject of their quest until the light of their spirit shines the light on it.
But then the natives would struggle to communicate their discoveries to others, as the third house is also the house of communication. Whether it is writing, public speaking or acting, the natives find communication challenging – yet either unavoidable or unobtainable.
Sometimes, the very physical functioning may become the natives’ greatest challenge, especially if Mars or Uranus make stressful aspects to their Pluto. Paralysis, loss of limbs or other severe physical disabilities would become the natives’ dragon.
And, of course, the natives tend to suffer from constant transportation problems, because the third house is also about how we get from here to there.
Perhaps, the natives’ true dragon is the inability to percieve that their spirit acts no matter what their body/ mind is capable of physically.
As Pluto transits through the third house, the natives’ learning / communicating or the very functioning within their environment becomes very difficult. Accidents that impair them in some way are possible. Yet it is the transformation of their general philosophy that will be transiting Pluto’s most lasting gift.

The greatest challenge of the natives with Pluto in the fourth house is their family and / or nation. Mom also may be the most challenging person in these natives’ lives, as their mothers tend to be controlling, manipulative, and, sometimes, even abusive.
Housing problems may be consistently painful.
But primary issue is likely to be whom / where the natives belong with. The fourth house is the house of our psychological roots. It supposes to be the area of life where we feel at home and can let our hair down. But the natives are never able to “let their hair down”, until their dragon is slain. That is when they discover where they truly belong: the Spirit.
As Pluto transits this house in a chart, home and family problems become severe enough to affect the person’s career and social status.

The fifth house is the house of fun, children, creativity, games and romance. Well, Pluto here takes all the fun out of the process. Having children is going to be a great challenge one way or another; love is peppered with heart-breaks of immense proportions; even the very fun and games are never simply fun and games for the natives. These people keep fighting their dragon even while playing.
The natives tend to be deeply creative, or, rather, deeply obsessed about their creativity – which automatically makes any creative process uncomfortable and turns it into a struggle instead of joy.
Unless these natives slay their dragon of taking life too seriously, they cannot even enjoy their existence!
Pluto moving into this area of life via transit, would transform the natives heart with many lasting gifts to follow (children / great Love/ great creations/ etc.). But expect the transformation to be a painful process. Also, expect your social life to suffer meanwhile.

Pluto in the sixth house challenges our very ability to maintain our life as we know it either through dreadful diseases or terrible work issues. Office politics may be the natives’ greatest foo.
No matter how these natives appear on the surface, they tend to be severely maladjusted. You can say that their sheer will-power (Pluto) moves them through life.
Interestingly, that very will-power is what is required of them in order to overcome such dragons as cancer, HIV or problematic work conditions. Once they discover that they can bend life to their will instead of bending themselves to life’s demands, they have slayed their dragon.
Pluto transiting through this house may cause prolonged unemployment or torturous work conditions, severe health issues, problems with domestic animals or employees.

Natal Pluto in the seventh house of our one-on-one relationships challenges the natives by handing them a very powerful / manipulative spouse / business partner or enemy. Often, the natives spend large chunks of their lives in courts, fighting a Gallayah.
The natives’ very sense of self is challenged in their battles with the world. Only when they expand their sense of self into the spiritual realm, they may slay their dragon.
When Pluto transits this house, it devours our relationships or transforms them completely. Some gain an enemy, some are taken through the slow wheels of court system. One way or another, neither our self-image nor our relationship with the world would ever be the same after Pluto plows through this area of life.

The eighth house Pluto tends to be the most abusive, perhaps, because it is its natural placement. Here natives must struggle with physical/ mental/ sexual abuse or its consequences for most of their lives. This often becomes literally a do-or-die issue for them, especially if Mars, Uranus or North Node make challenging aspects to this Pluto (conjunctions to Pluto are always challenging by the way).
Just look at Princess Diana’s story: throughout all her adult life she suffered from mental abuse by her husband (in her eyes, anyway – but that’s what matters), and it is very unclear (to a non-astrologer) if she died on account of accident or murder.
She, by the way, had her Pluto conjunct Mars, Uranus and North Node.
Besides abuse, the natives also have to often contend with problems arising from issues of inheritance/ debt/ taxes/ insurance/ surgeries/ sexually transmitted diseases or tragic deaths.
But it is their dependency on others that is likely to be most painful challenge.
The natives’ dragon would keep on breathing fire, until the natives take their power back from the abusers.
Tragedy may visit when Pluto transits this house. Other people’s finances should be handled with utmost care, and personal finances should not be trusted to others, as your finances may suffer drastically. Pay all your taxes or be very sorry. Be careful of falling prey to others’ power play.

The world has been facing issues of Pluto in the ninth house for the last 12 years, since the time this planet firmly entrenched itself in Sagittarius – the natural ninth house placement of Zodiac. In the ninth house, we experience matters of faith / beliefs and expansion of our horizons through either media, foreign travel or higher studies.
In these 12 years, the world has gotten considerably smaller than it has ever been, thanks to proliferation of internet, cell phones and internet-based phones (such as Vonage, Skype, etc.), and through aggressive pursuit of global economy (outsourcing).
But the world has also become more divided than ever. With Berlin Wall gone, and the cold war being seemingly over, we’ve got now Muslims pitched against Christians, Jews, and Hindus in the war of terror that is global and amorphous, with no clear boundaries except the human mind.
It is the human mind that becomes Pluto’s playground, when it finds itself in the ninth house of a natal chart. The natives begin to obsess over their philosophy of life (i.e. faith/ religion/ etc.). Fanaticism is another word for such obsession. It comes from the need to control the large world outside, which seems very scary and threatening to the natives. Their greatest challenge is upholding their beliefs at the expense of open-mindedness, and their greatest trauma occurs when their world-view collapses for one reason or another.
They cannot slay their dragon until they untangle their intent (Pluto) from their beliefs, and they cannot do that until at first they slay the dragon of their fear of the world.
When Pluto transits the ninth house, the natives undergo dramatic changes in their beliefs, and many may give away their power (Pluto) to a chosen point of view. On the other hand, some may become liberated from suffocating dogmas that were ruling their lives prior to Pluto’s visit. New exciting learning may take place, and some dragons will disappear as shadows.

Pluto in the tenth house makes fun of the natives’ ambitions. The natives would struggle like no others to get their spot under the Sun. But even if they manage to get there, the finally achieved spotlight would be slowly and painfully killing them. Whether getting a societal position or keeping it would be the natives’ greatest challenge.
The dragon here, however, is the ambition itself, or the shadow of the natives’ domineering father, to whom they continuously try to prove themselves.
As Pluto transits this house, careers would be drastically change, businesses might be lost, powerful would become pariahs and vice versa. This, of course, would bring painful changes into the natives’ home and families.

In the eleventh house, Pluto makes us painfully famous or infamous, betrays us through trusted friends, and makes those who loves and admires us hate and despise us. Friendships for the natives seem to be the breeding ground for power struggles.
Wherever our ambition takes us in life, we either would never know the fruits of our labor, or we might find out these fruits to be deadly poisonous, when Pluto challenges us from the eleventh house.
The dragon here is the attachment to fruits of our labor. Slaying this dragon would take us a good step closer to the main goal of The Great Game of Life: spiritual emancipation.
When Pluto merely visits this hous via transit, friendships will be broken, good will lost or found, businesses may lose their value, children and lovers may betray us. But, the harder our hearts get broken, the more they might open. The more they open, the more creativity pours out. Moreover, within our painfully opened hearts, we might discover the Light of our Divine Essence.

When natal Pluto is in the 12th house, the natives may find themselves confined either within their own mind, hunted by monstrous secrets, or in jail, a hospital bed, or exile. It could be all of the above, as in the case of O.J. Simpson.
Over the course of their lives, the natives would slay one shadow dragon within their mind after another, until they slay the greatest dragon of them all – the illusion of our separateness.
After all, the 12th house is where our Spirit hides all the secrets of the Real Universe from our virtual minds. Pluto there is the dragon that guards them. Slay that dragon, and you are free.
Until then, you find yourself in a prison of one kind or another.
Transiting Pluto may liberate us by imposing physical confines, or imprison us by terrible secrets. Life never is going to be the same after its visit into the closet of our lives, as it certainly going to change or break the lock on it.