Pluto in Scorpio
If some equitable balance between East and West is not achieved during
Pluto’s passage through Libra, then its entrance into Scorpio may precipitate
drastic conflict about the year 1990. This could be the Armageddon prophets
have long foretold. Yet Pluto in its own sign could also supply the resources
required for the reformation of the social order by leaders in the realm
of business and finance. Money will be redeemed by being channeled into
constructive projects, even though this may involve exorbitant taxation.
Most important of all, the insight gained by scientists into the nature
of subtle etheric energies will banish the fear of death which has haunted
mankind since the dawn of history. Psychic research, supported by government
funds, will finally come into its own.
In The Secret Doctrine, written half a century before the discovery of the
planet Pluto, Helena P. Blavatsky states, “Pluto is a deity with the
attributes of the serpent. He is a healer, a giver of health, spiritual
and physical. and of enlightenment.”
By the time Pluto reaches Scorpio, psychologists will have started to appreciate
the potential benefits of the ancient discipline of Kundalini Yoga which
concerns the raising and transmutation of “the serpent power’~
or libidinal energy in man. In its lower manifestation, this fundamental
creative force is associated with sex, but it can be used to regenerate
as well as to procreate human bodies. Consequently, this Scorpionic period
of purgation and purification may bring the rediscovery and restoration
of long-lost secrets of psychic healing which will serve to usher mankind
into a higher, more illumined state of consciousness.
Astrology, The Divine Science. Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas. Foreword by Dane Rudhyar
Out of Print
Pluto 'rules' Scorpio, which simply means that Pluto is very much at home
in this sign. Thus, the combination is particularly heady. As you might
imagine, the key word here is intensity.
In Scorpio, Pluto has a passion for ferreting out whatever is comfortably
hidden behind a web of fear, lies and ignorance. It is hungry for the bracing,
edgy spark that comes from looking the devil straight in the eye.
We must emphasize here that ultimately all planets are about consciousness,
and that a sharp distinction can be drawn between pure negativity and the
consciousness of pure negativity, which is Pluto-in-Scorpio's real domain.
Only when mortally twisted does this energy descend into an identification
with the dark.
To the fainthearted, the style of Pluto in Scorpio appears to be bleak,
self-serious, even morbid. We humans have always had an ambivalent relationship
with life's frightening apsects: on one hand, fascination. On the other,
horror. You can observe this phenomoneon rather comically while watching
a horror flick in a movie theatre. Maybe there's a gruesome shocker of a
scene about which everyone has been warned. Half the audience will have
their hands over their eyes, but they are still watching the screen fixedly
through spread fingers. The same behavior occurs reliably at the scene of
an automobile accident: onlookers slow down and stare, hoping - and fearing
- that they'll see bloody carnage.
In essence, the style of Pluto in Scorpio centres on a compelling curiosity
about everything that makes us uncomfortable. Thus, during Scorpio's most
recent passage through this sign (essentially 1983-95) there was an exploding
preoccupation with childhood wounds, sexual abuse, and psychology in general.
Twelve-step groups multiplied exponentially. There was a corresponding swell
in the sales of horror fiction and films. The vampire - a classic creature
of the dark - became the 'national bird' of the collective unconscious.
A graveyard mood of desolation arises... and contains a lot of wisdom. Black
is the color. Unflinching perspective on the truth is the goal. More precisely,
the goal lies in generating consciousness regarding certain particular truths:
those which make people squirm. Other, happier truths about the human condition
may get ignored. But, laser-like, the Pluto-in-Scorpio vibration tunes us
resonantly with the collective Shadow. And by elevating consciousness there,
we rob it of some of its power to run our lives.
Pessimists, by their natures, excel at recognizing problems. Psychologists,
through their training and experience, develop a knack for sniffing out
psychopathology. Doctors look for disease. Private detectives and police
officers learn to treat everyone as a suspect. All these roles are necessary
in the world, and many of us have had our lives saved or at least made better
through contact with such people. But imagine what it would feel like to
have those attitudes and perceptual faculties rolled up into one big ball
inside your head! The mind would then operate like a filter, and what would
not pass through it into awareness would be the sweetness, health and nobility
woven into every human being. We would miss the bright sense of possibility
that exists for every person, every situation, even for the human future.
In our 'realism', we would succumb to despair - and ironically lose track
of a significant dimension of what is actually real.
That is the blind spot for Pluto-in-Scorpio. In essence, it boils down
to one word: hopelessness. And that hopelessness is often complicated by
a self-righteous sense of one's own superior wisdom and moral courage. Imagine
a foolish, arrogant psychotherapist who blindly views every difference of
opinion as evidence of 'your resistance'. That's the Pluto-in-Scorpio blind
spot.
Most of us know such psychotherapists, be they professionals or of the
self-appointed variety. Thus, the individual who has fallen into this trap
is profoundly resistant to help; he or she dismisses every notion of a broader,
brighter, more hopeful attitude as 'denial'. As a result, he or she may
very wel rot for a long while in a self-absorbed, imploded state of isolation,
impossibility, and grim anticipation.
Evil has a terrible gravity. Anyone who has ever glanced at the news understands
the horrible way that atrocities breed atrocities. 'They did it first!'
- that's the eternal defence. It's the saddest human paradox: so often we
'punish evil' by becoming evil ourselves. This disease is always with us;
we humans carry it like the common cold. But when Pluto is passing through
Scorpio, we all become more vulnerable.
Vengeance is heady; we've all been caught up in the emotions of a film
or book where the bad guys finally 'get theirs'. That same pardox again:
give us a plausible 'moral justification' and the violent 'dispensing of
justice' becomes exciting business. Although we give the process noble names,
the simple truth is that something in us finds it absolutely intoxicating
to free the Shadow into full, wild expression.
With all the acts of darkness committed in this bleeding world, how many
are done by people who imagine themselves to be evil? Not many, I suspect.
In the majority of cases, there's a self-righteous 'reason'; and the 'reason'
is almost always along the lines of 'I was the victim first'.
With Pluto in Scorpio, this victim-psychology can run rampant and trigger
an escalating cycle of hatred, passionate self-righteousness and blind violence.
The Shadow scares us. Most of us would prefer to be decent human beings.
When the dark looms up loudly, there is another road we may be tempted to
take, almost equally dark in the end. In our fear of our own capacity for
despair and destruction, we may try to take refuge in a Pollyanna view of
life in which 'negative thoughts' become the demons to be avoided.
Thinking positively is in many ways the soul of wisdom, but like any strong
force it has a powerful dark side. And its dark side is the shallowness
and voluntary ignorance upon which real darkness always thrives. Thus, another
modern Pluto-in-Scorpio scenario: the 'positive-thinking New Age person'
who is shocked to discover that his child has been on cocaine for five years,
shocked to discover that she has a cancer that could have been cured two
years ago, shocked to go through a divorce, shocked that the 'spiritual
teacher' has problems with zipper control.
Ultimately, Pluto in Scorpio is about generating consciousness of the dark. And no form of consciousness is in and of itself ever evil. As always, the Shadow of Pluto in Scorpio is at its core a distortion of a positive principle. Emotional courage, psychological understanding, a willingness to face our own hurts and also to recognize the hurt we have done to others - these are the saving graces of this intense, brooding energy.
Steven Forrest
During this transit, the Pluto energies are being transmitted to the world through the sign with which they have most affinity, Scorpio. This means that the energies will be at their least diluted, and will almost certainly pose difficult challenges for humanity to face. The resulting success or failure will largely determine the shape of the remainder of the Pluto cycle through to Pisces.
It is likely that the speed of world change will accelerate even more, and that nations will respond with confusion and outdated thinking to the inevitable changes being stimulated in a multiplicity of ways by Pluto. World tension will increase and armed conflict will often prove irresistible, especially in Third World countries and the Middle East, which are already unstable areas. In view of this, it is essential that the superpowers avoid becoming embroiled in more direct conflict in surrogate countries.
Scorpio and Pluto are transformative energies, and the themes of rebirth, regeneration and renewal allied to a period of endings and new creation are the dominant keynotes. The world is faced with global problems, which are not really being resolved yet, as the ‘world leaders’ and politicians still express old attitudes conditioned by dangerous separatist thinking. This has to change as the Piscean Age fades away, and mankind moves towards its selfjudgement day, reaping the consequences of its choices. Whilst it may appear negative, it is likely that the greatest dangers will face humanity in this phase, and the only recourse is for planetary unity to occur and a radical shift in the world state of mind. Dangers particularly involve nuclear war, famine, plague and environmental pollution. One danger facing the world is the increase in sexually transmitted diseases, especiallly AIDS, which is a prime example of Pluto/Scorpio working through the sex-drive, and apparently undermining several of the individual freedoms already brought through since Pluto in Virgo. These include the development of homosexual rights and the acceptance of homosexuals by society, and that of sexual permissiveness; both of these are now being questioned due to the spread of AIDS. A return to older attitudes is not the way forward, but a new and deeper understanding of the sexual impulse and energy needs to emerge.
Essentially, the world has to take positive steps towards embodying the concept of the planetary village, the commonality and value of the human life irrespective of race, colour or creed, uniting in tolerance, understanding and brotherhood. It is likely that a new evolutionary and revolutionary impulse will be released during this period, expressed with a universal perspective, and backed by occult forces. Certainly there will be an increase in concern for the planet, and the collective influence of environmentalists will increase in value. Ideally, what should come through is a new form of politics to lead into the Aquarian age, one which builds a bridge resolving the present problems and creates a platform for social transformation and global awareness. The new politics will be human-centred, where the good of the individual is also good for the world; it would be very radical, yet would possess the key to guarantee a future if it can be transmitted through into manifestation, whereas the existing social and political models are unable to change and break the patterns of conflict and confrontation inherent in them.
Pluto in Scorpio confronts man with the reality of the world that he has made; the dark side of man is sufficient to destroy the world, and this energy will definitely stimulate the shadow-self, but ideally in order to redeem itself and become reborn into greater light. The old order breaks down, and like the Phoenix, the new is reborn from the ashes of the old.
Haydn Paul
