Pluto Archives - Astrology readings and writings by Lynn Hayes

Pluto: A Case Study

This article has been updated from an earlier post.

Last week I saw a client (let’s call her Sylvia) whose birthchart demonstrates the power of Pluto. Sylvia’s Sun is in the hard-working sign of Capricorn: Capricorns typically have a difficult life when they’re young but because they’re such hard workers (ruled by the Celestial Taskmaster himself, Saturn) they can be quite powerful as they age and incorporate life’s lessons. She also has a Grand Trine including Mars, Jupiter and her Moon, bestowing a sense of inner trust (Jupiter/Moon) that life has meaning as well as a dynamic will (Mars/Jupiter) for self-preservation (Mars/Moon). These are the tools that have helped her to navigate a difficult life that has been Pluto’s gift to her. Note to astrologers: to protect her privacy I will not be posting her chart.

Pluto in the astrological chart shows where we come face to face with the underworld of our emotions: fear, compulsion, obsession. Pluto often shows where we face the cold reality of death in order to come to a greater understanding of life. Astrologer Liz Greene says that Pluto represents the essential life force in nature that often must destroy in order to survive. The power of Pluto is that basic, and that intense. When we’re in the middle of a Plutonic disaster (our spouse leaves us, we lose our job, our house burns down, our cat dies) we are lost in the underworld of our fear and the pain of loss that is Pluto’s realm. But once the storm has passed we find ourselves rebuilding the wreckage of our lives with a new sense of empowerment that comes from having faced our fears and survived.

Pluto is conjunct Sylvia’s ascendant (persona and identity) within one […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-06-09T14:29:23-04:00June 12th, 2019|Astrology|Comments Off

Fate vs free will in astrology: Part I, a history involving Pluto

Even though Pluto was not discovered until 1930, its influence is evident in the evolution of modern astrology. The renaissance of astrology in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries began with Alan Leo and the birth of the publication “Modern Astrology” in 1895 when Pluto was in the information gathering sign of Gemini. Gemini is more concerned with the sharing of information than finding any kind of ultimate truth, and Alan Leo, who was a Theosophist, was primarily concerned with spreading the language of astrology to the masses via what we now call horoscope columns.

In England, astrology under Pluto in Gemini was a more academic affair but the “cookbook” texts of Charles Carter similarly helped to spread the language of astrology to more people than ever before. Carter’s words on fate illustrate the way in which the idea of predetermination was beginning to fade:

As regards the higher part of man’s nature, his rational, moral, and aesthetic faculties, it is my firm belief that, if we chose to unfold them, no stellar influence can prevent us, though it may place obstacles and hindrances in our path. There are parts of our lives which the stars do seem to a large extent to dominate, and there is a yet greater part which they undoubtedly can affect, both favourably and adversely. It is for us to place our treasure where they cannot penetrate; no easy task, it is true, but probably the one most worth performing.

The discovery of Pluto in the 1930s coincided with the scientific breakthroughs required to release the atomic bomb which symbolizes Pluto’s destructive force which sometimes requires complete annihilation followed by a necessary rebuilding phase. But it also coincided with the groundbreaking work of […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-11-10T19:20:13-05:00January 11th, 2018|Astrology, Fate|2 Comments

Pluto, psychology, transformation and the devil

Art by Valentina Remenar

You’ll be reading a lot about Pluto in these pages in the next months because I’m just entering a cycle of Pluto to an important system in my chart (geeky astrological details: to my Sun/Saturn/Neptune conjunction which squares Uranus). Pluto was discovered in 1930 and is associated with psychology and the understanding of our hidden motivations and the mental and emotional factors that underlie our actions.

Pluto, of course, was the Lord of the Underworld. In psychological astrology he represents the Underworld of the psyche – the secrets that we hide from others and from ourselves, the dim recesses of the mind where our darkest emotions are tucked away. In transformational astrology I consider Pluto to act as the “Will of the Higher Self” – the part of us that encourages us to transform our secret darkness into an awakened Self through wisdom and understanding.

If we look to the mythological history of Pluto (or Hades as he was called in ancient Greece) we find that Hades was closely identified with Ploutos, the god of wealth and agricultural bounty. Hades himself was a god of the hidden wealth from under the earth such as precious metals and gems, as well as being the protector and defender of the dead.

We often think of Pluto as being a ruthless Lord of Death and destruction, but this early association of Pluto/Hades with protecting the dead reveals a secret to the Pluto archetype that we don’t often consider – Pluto’s real role is to facilitate our personal evolution if we allow it to. Under Pluto’s influence we find ourselves facing life in a far more intense way than might be comfortable, but it’s all for […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-11-10T19:14:02-05:00January 18th, 2017|Astrology in my world, Psychology|4 Comments

Winter Solstice, Mercury retrograde, and Pluto Pluto Pluto

Dear friends, I have neglected you terribly and there is so much to catch up on.

First of all – Mercury has turned retrograde (December 19th through January 8th) so all of the usual warnings apply. Of course I have been wildly disregarding my own advice and doing lots of online shopping to catch the holiday sales. We’ll see how that turns out!

Mercury retrograde periods, especially this time of year, are excellent for reflection – for looking back at the past year to see what changes we would like to make in our lives. With Mercury not turning direct until January 7th, we may want to continue the reflection period into the new year and begin implementation after the 8th.

The astrological Winter Solstice occurs when the Sun reaches 0 degrees Capricorn which just occurred this morning, December 21st. These seasonal shifts are also energetic turning points: our bodies’ circadian rhythms adjust with the seasons by detecting changes and offer opportunities for us to let go of the past and evolve towards our best and brightest selves.

Finally – and I will be writing much more about this in the future – we are seeing the effects of Pluto everywhere in the world today. The darkness of political power grabs, assassinations, mass murders in holiday markets, and the potential destruction in the US of our political system. We have been dealing with Pluto, planet of death and regeneration, for quite some time as it moved through a cycle of a challenging square to Uranus – rebellion and change. Right now Jupiter has entered the equation and is facilitating the expansion of Pluto’s destructive force and exacerbating the Uranian need for dystopia (look it up) and chaos. On top of […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2016-12-21T09:10:54-05:00December 21st, 2016|Astrology|7 Comments

The Reclassification of Pluto

The International Astronomical Union met in 2006 to discuss reclassifying our solar system, and as a result Pluto was deemed to be a dwarf planet, the former asteroid Ceres was promoted to planetary status, and the newest planet, formerly named UB313, was named Eris after the goddess of discord. Because the astrological Pluto deals with the transformation that comes from looking death in the eye and annhilation of the personal ego, it stands to reason that the reclassification of Pluto could open a door to how this process operates.

The last “planet” to be discovered in our lifetime was the comet/planetoid Chiron, and it took some time for its astrological signficance to become known. Through the magic of synchronicity, the name of the planet itself reveals the god whose energy manifests through that planet.

You can read more about Ceres here.

Pluto’s discovery in 1930 brought with it the introduction of the atomic bomb and the fear of ultimate annhilation, the ultimate power. In these days of terrorism when a single individual with a toiletry bottle can potentially wipe out thousands of people, our concept of power is changing. In centuries past, whichever country had the biggest guns had the most power. When the US was the only nation with the bomb we were the only superpower. When Russia developed the bomb, they were the other superpower. At this time nine nations have nuclear weapons, with several more to attain that status soon (including Iran). The whole concept of power, as embodied in the archetype of Pluto, is changing and this will become very clear in the 2010-2013 square of Uranus in Aries to Pluto in Capricorn. The power of Pluto hasn’t lessened one […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-11-10T19:17:47-05:00August 24th, 2013|Planets|0 Comments