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 wedth 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 mater, 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. The 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 Al 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 if 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 we, and we will be able to make tremendous
spiritual growth under their benign influences.
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