How does Pluto's story affect our horoscope? Let's start by looking
at the physical planet itself. Pluto is really a dual planet. It's moon
doesn't rotate around the planet as do other moons. What happens with Pluto
is that Pluto and its face each other and rotate around each other. This
is important as we look at Pluto's story.
Pluto, or Hades, Lord of the Underworld, wanted to marry, but couldn't
find a wife who'd take him. Bad neighborhood, you know. What's worse, no
one but Mercury, the gods' messenger, was allowed
to go to Hades and come back. It was pretty much a one-way trip. So Pluto
decided he'd take matters into his own hands. He saw Persephone. She was
beautiful, young and totally innocent. One day, as she was picking flowers,
he abducted her, took her to Hades, and forced her to be his wife.
In the meantime, back on the surface, Persephone's mother, Demeter,
was panicked and searched everywhere for her daughter. When she learned
what happened, she petitioned all the gods to force Pluto to release Persephone.
After all, the way it stood, Pluto had her forever.... no one (but Mercury) got out of Hades' realm alive (or dead either,
for that matter). Well, the gods finally gave in to Demeter's entreaties
and they commanded Pluto to release his bride, Persephone.
Persephone was forcibly abducted. She was surprised and taken, against
her will, to hell, where she had no hope of ever leaving. Anyone who's experienced
a heavy-duty Pluto transit will know what this feels like. On the other
hand, from Pluto's experience, he finally found his long-sought-after bride
and was commanded to give her up. Both parties to this story were forced
to face issues of loss and surrender. Persephone faced the loss of life
on the surface of earth, of her family and friends, and of her ultimate
freedom and autonomy. Pluto was forced to surrender the one woman he had
found to love (you'll often find hard Pluto-Venus contacts related to loss
of love, or in a natal chart, perpetual fear that love will be taken from
one).
Pluto, being part of the community of gods, agreed to release Persephone.
But Charon, the ferryman for the River Styx, and thus the gatekeeper to
Hades, said she could only leave if she took nothing with her, and that
included having eaten nothing. Persephone had eaten six pomegranite seeds
and therefore she was able to return to the surface of earth for only six
months of the year, and had to return to Pluto for the remainder of the
year.
Here we have another part of the Plutonian experience. In order to become
free, Persephone could take nothing with her. Pluto transits are often associated
with thoughts of revenge, of "getting what's mine", "getting
even" or making sure the Other person "get's what's coming to
him". Here we have a very clear metaphor. If, during a Plutonian experience,
you hold on to Anything.... if you try to take Anything with you, you will
not get out of hell. Period. Pluto requires surrender.
But keep in mind, Surrender is Not the same as giving up, or giving
in. Surrender is done willingly. Giving up is done grudgingly. Surrender
is graceful. It includes forgiveness and release of what is surrendered.
Giving up or giving in is angry or resentful. It includes mentally holding
on to and regretfully recounting what was lost. Sometimes a Plutonian experience
includes an involuntary loss, but the metaphor still holds true. As long
as you hold on to resentment of the loss--the longer you insist on considering
what was lost as "rightfully yours", you have not surrendered
it, and you will remain in hell. Often the most difficult part of emerging
from a Plutonian experience is learning to surrender what has already been
lost.
The story continues.... Persephone became only the second god who could
go to the underworld and return. Each year she would return to the depths,
to the realm of the unconscious, to the darkness. This was the seed time:
the period where the seeds lie dormant, resting, gathering strength from
the darkness. And each year Persephone would emerge, bringing long-dormant
seed-energies into the light of spring. And as the years went by, it was
commented by gods and mortals alike, that the marriage of Pluto and Persephone
was the happiest of all of the gods.
After a Plutonian experience, we have access to uncharted depths. We
have gone into the darkness of the underworld and returned, and we now have
the ability to go into this dark place for rest, for recharging, for deeper
understandings, and return with the strength of new life to the world of
light. And once we have made our peace with the underworld, the Pluto/Persephone
story holds the promise of great happiness.
At this time of great changes in the political, social, and even the
physical structure of planet earth, we have a generation who is going through
the Pluto square in their thirties and forties. My grandparent's generation
didn't experience this until their sixties, seventies and eighties, at which
ages they were watching many of their friends die and facing their own imminent
mortality. Today, many of us are watching friends die, too, but many of
us are emerging with the strengths of Persephone to share with a world going
through profound transformations of its own. If this time in our earth's
history demands a lot of us, it is also a time when we are unusually capable
of supporting those demands.
Each of the planets is associated with a specific fear. Fear is the
opposite of love. The ego-imprints of the seven governors (see Hermes Creation Story) are associated with fears that
keep us bound to earthly experience and separate from god. So, what kind
of fear does Pluto use to keep his ego-imprint in our lives? Pluto represents
a deep and profound fear of loss of control. When you fear loss of control
in some area, you may be pushy and obnoxious in that area, but more often
you'll be subtly manipulative to make things turn out Your Way. What's more,
if your Plutonian fear is triggered by something, you'll tend to react like
someone's trying to put you in hell, or steal away the love of your life!
You'll often find yourself saying "I wish I could kill that person"
or you'll feel like it's "either they go or you go." There is
a life-or-death intensity about Pluto experiences.
When you feel your blood about to boil, when you feel you are being
treated so unfairly you want to scream, that's the signal that Pluto is
active. And the only thing you can do to improve the situation is to exercise
SELF CONTROL. There is no other kind of control available to you at this
time. Then, let go of your attachment to a particular outcome, and "let
go and let God." This is the magic formula that will bring about the
best possible result.
All text and lineart in these pages Copyright
1997-99 by Anne Beversdorf
(and the Shadow)
About Anne
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