The Meaning of Pluto in Astrology

“I am Pluto, the planet of deep transformation and hidden power. In the 7th House, my influence is centered on relationships, partnership, and marriage. I challenge you to thoroughly explore your personal connections and confront the profound dynamics in your relationships. My presence here may indicate significant transformations in your partnerships, including marriage. Through me, you will learn to deepen your self-understanding through your interactions with others. I also urge you to confront your fears related to intimacy and dependence in relationships. Ultimately, you will find that power resides in authenticity and in building relationships based on honesty and mutual transformation.”

Pluto is the planet of transformation. Wherever it is, a mutation process begins that aims to clean from within what we need to let go of so that our potential can flourish. It’s like cleaning a basement that hasn’t been opened for decades…or centuries. No one likes opening that door and walking down… yet once we do, we not only remove clutter, but uncover treasures we never knew we possessed. When we go down to that basement we are faced with a past that has been forgotten within the subconscious.

The presence of Pluto in an astrological house indicates that, in that area of life, we will see the contents of the basement of our soul. Wherever Pluto is, we will go through experiences that will bring to light behaviors that arise from ancestral memories stored within our DNA and soul memories. In our incarnation they can arise as fears, repressions, negative attitudes and/or the feeling that we are controlled by circumstances that do not allow us to develop personal power in the area of life where Pluto is located.

Pluto is the door to a very different past, where life circumstances have been tougher, rougher. At the same time, accessing these memories connects us with the resilience of our ancestors and the Soul. And consequently, with great personal power.

The difference between the natal position of Pluto and its transit through the houses is that the natal position indicates the area of life where our evolution will focus in the present incarnation, while the transit of Pluto activates temporary processes that assist our evolutionary path.

We experience the power of transformation that Pluto represents both individually and collectively. This is a planet that moves very slowly: it takes 248 years to travel the zodiacal wheel and stays in each sign between 12 and 31 years. In this sense, we are all part of a group that will evolve the characteristics of the sign Pluto is in when we are born. On an individual level, we live this process within the life area (or astrological house) where Pluto is located.

When Pluto is in the 7th House

The 7th House traditionally represents the realm of relationships. This is where we seek the relationship with the Other for the first time. In this house we see the need for interaction with someone other than oneself. In a certain way, we look for a mirror that makes us aware of our own existence through its reflection. By analogy, the 7th House describes our relationships, associations, contracts and everything that means cooperation, collaboration, negotiation.

When Pluto is in the 7th House, the transformation of our being occurs in the realm of relationships with others, especially those that establish a commitment, such as marriage, contracts and alliances.

With this position, we somehow feel controlled (or caged) in these contracts. The feeling that we lose personal power in relationships, that our partners has absolute control over us, can be awakened. At the same time, we can experience very strong crises within our relationships. It’s like we can never get what we want from them!

We may be attracted to individuals who possess great personal magnetism and an irresistible animal energy. In itself, what is happening is that these individuals reflect parts of us that are repressed within our subconscious.

Pluto in the 7th House leads us to evolve the way we see associations with the other. Through these relationships, certain behaviors are awakened that are activated when we feel that the alliance can be destroyed. There is a great fear of being abandoned, or betrayed. A latent co-dependency that has been dragging on from generation to generation can be awakened. Within our ancestral or soul memories are recollections of, for example, marriages or alliances that we depended on to survive. In the past – and even today in certain cultures – marriage has represented security of survival. The dissolution of it has meant a great danger. These ancestral memories are awakened in the present every time our relationship is in crisis, generating a great fear of abandonment.

Another possibility is to feel compelled to make commitments that we do not want to make, to have the terms of agreements imposed on us where our part seems to have no relevance.

Individuals with this position may tend to want to control every aspect of their relationships or seek controlling partners. When the latter occurs, it happens to help the individual with Pluto in the 7th House to discover their own unconscious desire to be completely possessed by emotional or legal contracts that give them a certain sense of security. Until they realize that they themselves are attracted to these individuals or contracts, they may feel trapped within relationships that suffocate them.

Another possibility is to generate a crisis within relationships to never finish consolidating the commitment, because of the fear of their subsequent dissolution.

The position of Pluto in the 7th House leads us to review these fears and to ask ourselves “why” we live what we live within our relationships and agreements. Pluto helps us heal any type of codependency stored in the subconscious. And this is its great power when we find it in this position.

The fear of commitment arises because we are not very clear about our motivations for entering into relationships while we strongly desire them. However, through the experiences that we go through throughout our lives, we will discover that the crises we have gone through have been the propellants of a very deep understanding regarding relationships of all kinds.

With this position we develop a great instinct to understand the motivations within personal relationships and alliances between people. This makes us excellent counselors and mediators. Our ability to resolve conflicts is rare and we can find the real reasons for disagreements easily and effectively.

The wisdom that this position offers is knowing how to connect with others in depth. Having gone to hell in relationships has allowed us to discover the richness of interdependence. The empirical exploration of compulsive behaviors that seek to make the relationship survive at all costs has enriched the Akashic records of our soul and that of the collective consciousness. The encounter with our own shadow and that of the Other leads us to the acceptance of the totality of human nature. And this is how what we used to see as terrifying becomes wonderful, or at least, an inherent part of what makes us human.

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