Gabby Turner Tarot & Astrology

                Pluto moves very slowly, and so its impact through each house of a chart will also be slow. The effects of Pluto are also lingering—notice to what degree we’re still dealing with and recognizing the implications of Pluto’s sojourn through the sign of Sagittarius. The wastefulness and seeming abundance of the Pluto in Sagittarius phase have led us into our Pluto in Capricorn crisis where we acutely lack abundance. Don’t expect to completely recognize Pluto’s intent in each house right away, but do recognize that the sign of transiting Pluto (currently, Capricorn) will help you to understand the ways in which Pluto wants you to heal and transform. In this blog entry, I’m exploring in-depth the experiences I have had with my personal Pluto transits. This entry will include explorations into Pluto transits to the 9^th, 10^th, and 11^th Houses as well as transiting Pluto aspects to Sun, Uranus, Venus, Moon, Mars, Chiron and the Nodes. It’s a lot to take in, and you might only be interested in reading any of this if you are experiencing one of these transits for yourself. For this reason, I’ve tried to identify clearly (via heading titles) the transits discussed in each section.

    At my current age (of 30) I have experienced Pluto’s transit partially through the 8^th house (where it is natally placed), through the 9^th House, through the 10^th House, and partially into the 11^th House (where it is currently transiting). I’ve experienced Pluto conjunctions to natal Venus, Uranus, MC, Sun, and Neptune as well as Pluto transiting sextile to natal Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto, Moon and Mars. I’ve experienced Pluto transiting into a T-square formation with my natal north and south nodes and in opposition and inconjunction to my natal Chiron. If it helps you to have my chart to look at when you read this post, it is available HERE.

PLUTO TRANSITING THE 8^TH HOUSE

+PLUTO TRANSIT SQUARE MOON

                Pluto was in my 8^th House from birth up until age 7. For the first two or so years of my life, Pluto in the 8^th was in the sign of Libra. I don’t consciously remember any of this time, of course! But my mother suffered a nervous breakdown soon after I was born (not her first) and my mom and dad separated around this time. It’s possible that relationships (Libra) were understood from the very beginning of my life to have intensely Plutonic undertones (psychological problems, emotional separation and loss). This is in fact mirrored in my natal Venus placement in Scorpio, as well as the square from natal Pluto to natal Moon.  That square, which was at a 1° orb when I was born, reached perfection around my first birthday. Again, the experience of these transits aren’t consciously remembered, but I do think they likely had an impact on my unconscious.

PLUTO TRANSITING THE 9^TH HOUSE

+PLUTO TRANSIT OPPOSITION CHIRON

+PLUTO TRANSIT CONJUNCT VENUS

+PLUTO TRANSIT CONJUNCT URANUS

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEXTILE MARS

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEXTILE MOON

                Pluto entered my 9^th House when I was 7 and remained there until I was 17/18 (left the 9^th House when I was 17, retrograded back into the 9^th, and then left the 9^th for good when I was 18). Pluto was in the sign of Scorpio for most of its transit through my 9^th House and in Sagittarius from age 14/15-17. Dane Rudhyar says that Pluto transits indicate “crisis moments” that urge us to grow and evolve. Crisis in the 9^th should regard religion, education, and philosophy. Crises related to the sign Scorpio should involve psychological health, plunging psychological depths, sex, power & control, and wealth that is changing hands or controlled by others (taxes, insurance money, inheritances, money held by banks or other financial institutions, etc.).  

                So what did this mean for me? Well certainly school was a major part of my life during these young years, I was always a high-achiever (i.e., school was important to me) and I was also raised in a fundamentalist Christian household in an extended family that was chock-full of Sun-sign Sagittarians. At the age of 8 my family decided that my sister and I should no longer live with my mother (who had long struggled with extreme bi-polar disorder) full-time. We began living with our mother’s sister and her husband and two boys during the week, then we would visit our mother on Fridays and Saturdays. Transiting Pluto was opposition natal Chiron and sextile natal Mars at this time.

                My natal Chiron is in Taurus in the 3^rd House, and much of my Chirotic wounding revolves around a feeling of not being loved (Taurus) in my aunt and uncle’s (3^rd House) household. My sister and I were emotionally abused by our aunt and uncle; everything we did or said was wrong while their own two children could do no wrong. It has taken many years to undo the pain of all of those years. It was confusing to live in a home where God’s love was so revered but at the same time so seldom shared/given, and yet throughout the duration of this of Pluto’s transit through the 9^th I believed firmly in Christianity. Mine and my sister’s freedom (9^th House) was highly controlled and inhibited (Scorpio/Pluto).  Natally, my Mars at 14 Capricorn is trine my Chiron at 14 Taurus, and so when Pluto transited both of those points simultaneously, and when I was taken out of my mother’s care to live with people who were not able to fully love me, that Chirotic wounding deepened tremendously.

                The next major transit Pluto made while in my 9^th House was a conjunction to Venus, which occurred when I was 11 years old. I was simultaneously receiving a Uranus/Neptune transit conjunct both my natal Mars and Moon in Capricorn and trine natal Chiron. At this time, my sister, mother and I were involved in a car accident that took my mother’s life. At the moment of my mother’s death, Pluto was retrograde around 21° Scorpio, applying to a conjunction to my natal Venus at 20°35’ Scorpio. I had a severe wound to my lower left leg from where the metal hinge on my mother’s seat had gouged into my skin. My sister and I were both knocked unconscious by the impact and have no memory of the actual accident. (Neptune erases memory, Uranus is sudden, Mars is the self/body, Chiron is wounding, and Moon is the mother). I received a skin graft surgery for my physical wound and was in the hospital (Neptune) for 2 months. If you’re more interested in learning specifically about transits to Chiron or by Chiron, see my blog post on this issue: Chiron: Recognizing the Wound... and Healing It (Triggers from 29 Gemini Lunar Eclipse

                At this time, my sister and I went to live with our aunt and uncle full-time. Along with the wounding indicated by the loss of my mother (the single most significant moment in all my life thus far), the Chirotic wounding of not being loved by my aunt and uncle (Chiron in Taurus in the 3^rd House) intensified when we moved to live with them full-time, where we were never fully incorporated into the family, always made to feel like outsiders, always wrong, never good enough. Taurus also indicates issues around finances, and I remember often being hurt by my aunt’s unwillingness to use her money on me or my sister (even though I found out years later that she was receiving a great deal of money from the state with which to care for us). I learned to save my own money so that I wouldn’t have to rely on her funds. (Here you see the Pluto/Scorpio issues of shared finances and the Chiron in Taurus tendency to be hurt in regards to personal resources).

                The next Pluto transit came around age 14 when Pluto formed a conjunct aspect to my natal Uranus. Again, we are dealing with Scorpio and the 9^th House, as well as Uranus’ need for consciousness-expanding. It was at this time that I was baptized, which was a very spiritual experience for me. Pluto entered Sagittarius the next year and continued in the 9^th House until age 18. The remaining Pluto in the 9^th House years were full of religious guilt and attempts to meet the religious expectations that I (and my religion) had set for me.

PLUTO TRANSITING THE 10^TH HOUSE

+PLUTO TRANSIT CONJUNCT MERCURY

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEXTILE JUPITER

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEXTILE SATURN

+PLUTO TRANSIT TRINE NORTH NODE

+PLUTO TRANSIT INCONJUNCT CHIRON

+PLUTO TRANSIT CONJUNCT SUN

+PLUTO TRANSIT CONJUNCT NEPTUNE

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEXTILE PLUTO

+PLUTO TRANSIT SEMI-SEXTILE URANUS             

                When Pluto was transiting my 10^th House, it was always in the sign of Sagittarius. This transit was a very freeing one, and it the beginning of it marked the dissolution in my belief in Christianity at the age of 18. I was free to explore wider philosophies and cultures (ways of living) than I had ever experienced in my fundamentalist religious youth once I opened myself up to the possibility that the religious beliefs I had grown up with were not true, and that other beliefs might be valid. I was forced to define for myself my morality. I was freed from the fear of Hell! :) This transit lasted for me from the age of 18 to the age of 27.

                The 10^th House is the house that shows how we will make our mark on the world. Pluto transited conjunct my natal MC at 6 Sag 52 and conjunct natal Mercury at 7 Sag 26 in mid-1998, then approached again via retrograde in March 1999 when my grandfather passed away.  It was at the first conjunction that I went to live with my Mamaw and Papaw because Papaw was severely ill (in addition to his physical health, he was having manic delusions and dementia). I gave him his medication and breathing treatments because he refused to take them from my Mamaw. It was the second conjunction to my Mercury/MC via retrograde during which my grandfather passed away. Then, when Pluto stationed and went direct within 18 arc minutes of my natal Mercury /MC , I graduated from high school. These transits occurred at the same time that Pluto made its sextiles to my natal Jupiter/Saturn conjunction.

                It was the summer after I finished high school that I began questioning my religious beliefs (Pluto transiting 10^th House in Sagittarius). I was forming my own worldviews (Sagittarius), the views that would allow me to express myself in the outer (10^th House) world.  In 1999, Pluto was just barely into the 10^th house, having made its pass over Mercury and the MC, as I entered college and began to live away from home (Pluto in opposition to 4^th House). This was a time of great identity change for me as I gained independence from my aunt and uncle and their religious beliefs. I was pulling away from my 4^th house roots to explore my place in the world. I received access to the insurance money allotted me from the car accident my mother had died in when Pluto had made its Venus transit. This money (death money=a very Plutonic sort of money) allowed me to explore life and live independently.

                A few months before I turned 21, Pluto transited inconjunct natal Chiron and semi-sextile natal Mars. It was at this time that I seduced my friend Logan into being the first person to have sex with me! ;) I was the first for him as well, and I think it was a very healing relationship. Our “friends-with-benefits” relationship lasted for about 2.5 years. I can see Chiron in Taurus being activated here as I learned to enjoy my body with another person, feeling a love that involved sexual exploration (Pluto in Sagittarius). I kept that relationship firmly in the 10^th House. I didn’t bring him home to meet my family or even discuss the relationship with them. It wasn’t until years later that I even considered it a relationship, once I understood that being friends with someone and having sex with them pretty much equated to a relationship. He and I remain friends until this day, and he also now thinks of the time we spent as “friends-with-benefits” as more of a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship than we had previously thought it to be.

                Pluto transited conjunct natal Sun at 18 Sag 48 in June 2003, the year I should have graduated from college, but I ended up staying in school for a fifth year and taking on a small amount of student loan debt to do so (up until that time all of my schooling had been free). This is also when my “friend with benefits” of about 2.5 years found a girlfriend, after which I began having a lot of promiscuous and emotional unfulfilling sex. At the time I thought the sex seemed adventurous and allowed me to be “spontaneous.” Careers I considered around this time were sex therapist and brothel madame! ;) Ultimately I did not decide to pursue either of these careers, but Pluto’s influence can definitely be seen, regardless. This was also the year that I stopped hanging around with the friends I had had for the previous 4 years because I didn’t feel like they understood or respected my lifestyle choices. It was definitely a time of Plutonic change as I tried to get closer to my authentic self.

                Pluto transited conjunct natal Neptune at 22 Sag 15 in Dec 2004 when I began my first “official” relationship with a man from Turkey, then went retrograde in March 2004 when that same relationship ended, passing retrograde across my Neptune around July 2005, then turning direct in august 2005 when I moved to Knoxville, TN for grad school, and passing back over natal Neptune during the course of my first semester in graduate school when I began my membership in a leftist student political group doing labor rights and other kinds of activism. Pluto was also transiting sextile natal Pluto at this time, which can be seen in an intensified interest in how wealth is distributed, as well as a Plutonic urge to correct social ills. Remember, Pluto was still In Sagittarius for all of this time, so a relationship with someone from a different cultural background (a Muslim from Turkey) was significant, even if short-lived. A Sagittarian interest in politics is also noted, and Pluto definitely shifted my politics from “liberal Democrat” to “leftist Socialist.”

                The Neptune transits from Pluto occurred during a lonely time in my life when I didn’t know anyone and needed to make friends. In many ways, I tried to be who I thought people wanted me to be. During this time I was still having casual sex somewhat, but not as much as I had been as it didn’t seem fulfilling. I desperately wanted a relationship at this time because I thought a relationship would give me the security I needed. I was extremely poor at this time, which probably makes sense with the Pluto conj. Neptune transit because it definitely gave me a greater sense of compassion for people who struggle in life. The merging of Pluto and Neptune definitely fed a need for social and economic justice activism, and that activism (and my organizational involvement in leftist politics/activism) was to remain highly (and I mean VERY highly) important/influential to my life over the subsequent 5 years.

                In August-September 2006, Pluto sextiled natal Pluto and semi-sextiled natal Moon (my natal Moon is square to natal Pluto, so this was a heightened point for Pluto to transit). I more or less had an emotional breakdown involving obsessive and confusing romantic feelings for a co-worker at this time, and that obsession lasted for three years, though resulted in basically nothing in the way of real romantic involvement with this person.

                Pluto semi-sextiled natal Uranus in Jan/Feb 2007 when I met my partner of 4 years now. It happened suddenly, and our relationship has definitely kept a Uranian theme of independence. In many ways it is not a traditional relationship, though I don’t care to go into all of what that means. Notably, this was also the time when I first began studying Tarot and Astrology!

PLUTO TRANSITING 11^TH HOUSE

                Pluto entered my 11^th house at 28 Sag 35 at the end of March 2007. I was 26 years old. This was when I decided to try to form a union in my workplace, and did so in an explosive and very Plutonic way. Pluto hovered back and forth on that point for the rest of the year. It was a HIGHLY stressful time in my life. I got fired for my unionizing attempts in June of that year and afterward had feelings of PTSD. There is more to it than that (also involving the obsessive romantic feelings for a co-worker there that I mentioned above), but Pluto’s entrance into my 11^th house (and the transits that lead up to it, beginning especially with the Neptune conjunction) had lead me into a very deep and confusing depression that I have been working myself out of ever since.

                Pluto hasn’t yet made any aspects to natal planets since it entered my 11^th House, but it will form a square to Jupiter/Saturn, a conjunction to Mars, trine to natal Chiron, a square to natal Pluto, sextiles to both Uranus and Venus, and a conjunction to natal Moon during its transit there. I’m a little scared particularly of what the transit will be like to the point where Uranus/Neptune were contacting my Moon and Mars at my mother’s death. BUT-- I’m glad that I can approach those transits with astrological knowledge on my side! I think I will be able to experience them as healing transits even if they are also painful.