Understanding Pluto and the Purification Process

by Robert Wilkinson

A while back a friend and I had a conversation about some sensations he was having that seemed “devilish,” “primeval,” or “shadowy.” He wondered if Pluto on his Sun could be associated with these impressions. As I said, “Sure, why not?”

We last looked at this over 3 years ago, and since we have Sun trine Pluto going on, I figured it would be good to take a new look at the “Lord of the Underworld.” While Pluto can indeed seem like those “dark traits,” Pluto is also the Transpersonal Transformer that assists us to purify ourselves of all the selfish dross in our existence, so that we can live Life unafraid of anything that comes or goes.

In the original conversation, I offered that the trick is to observe those "devilish" "primeval" "shadowy" seeds and understand their meaning and power in your life. They show us a side of our inner nature, both past and present, that can lead us to great power if we understand these seeds and turn them to good.

I told him that while I was a wild man when I was much younger, I learned over time that the dark side is only good until it begins to ruin your life and/or hypnotize and steal your desire mind and have it run rampant over your Soul. It took me a lot of crashing around and “getting it wrong” until I realized I had a choice of how I was going to suppress or externalize those wild (and often destructive) attitudes and behaviors.

While there is a branch of pop psychology that believes we must “honor our dark side,” that doesn’t mean we should indulge it beyond a certain point, or it will become a habit that will be very difficult to bring under leash when it has been fed enough times and becomes strong enough to rage around. A wild animal must be restrained when still weak lest it do damage once it grows.

Many times, when we feel “dark tendencies,” it’s not so much our personal inclination as our ability to pick things up in the atmosphere. Because there has been so much pain and suffering generated across the centuries that was never resolved, these reside in the generic atmosphere, and we pick up on them as a radio picks up on random signals as we move through the bandwidth.

Because we are living units of giving and receiving energy, a part of our evolution is learning how to feel all there is to feel. And since we’re never separate from the larger Field in which we live, breathe, and have our Being, we will from time to time sense parts of the toxic soup of modern existence.

Over time we learn what is ours “to own,” and what is not ours, but rather just part of the greater human energy field. When I sense an impression of these types of “shadowy” things these days, I do not take it personally. It's more likely something toxic in the atmosphere which I can transmute by not playing to it and if possible, consciously nullifying it.

We will pick up on many “invisible influences” when one of the invisible Quartet makes a conjunction to any significant point in our chart. Uranus often “agitates” us in new directions, or in ways that are contrary to our usual way of living and doing our Being. Neptune often “dissolves” that planetary sense of self and expression, and either moves us into something more “widely popular” or we find ourselves enveloped in the “all-Self.”

TransPluto has only made conjunctions to planets in Leo and the first 3 degrees of Virgo for the past 80 years, so it’s in a special “field” all of its own. I have written about this vast influence in several articles that are in the archives.

Back to Pluto! When Pluto makes an exact pass over a planet, or even a hard aspect, it tends to strip us to the bone. In learning to with “the Lord of the Underworld” in “the underworld of our existence,” we are exposed to our deepest core. Pluto tends to annihilate everything that is no longer true for us, or which serve no purpose in our future, but it also takes us to the foundation of our strength, integrity, and endurance. The heat and pressure of the underworld is good for turning our coal into diamonds!

Pluto transits show us who we are as a distinct unit of spiritual energy, and show us what “skins of personality” we must shed so we can be clearer and a more authentic expression of who we are at the core, unafraid of anything that we confront in our life. It acts as a catalytic reagent that will precipitate out everything in the “solution of Self” that is impure or a particulate we don’t need to be a part of us. That includes all fear, vanity, desires that have no purpose, and any need to cling to strong reactions to passing irrelevancies.

Pluto was in a tight orb square to my Sun from 2012-2015. By that time in my life, I was no longer tempted to act out unfortunate behavior patterns, but I was shown that some people in this world are toxic personalities, and even though it's painful, we must say goodbye.

To put it another way, as much as a scorpion wants to share your space, if you allow it to be there you will at some point get stung. And again. And again. Who allows that sort of painful stuff in? We do.

So a tight Pluto conjunction, square, or opposition to one of our planets shows us that internal function is under pressure in a big way. We can break free of old inner restrictions, old toxic things, and purify whatever needs purifying. However, I’ve also found it has its own pace, and so getting in a hurry or wanting it to be over and done is a useless response. Our discontent usually doesn’t help us learn what we have to learn.

Though the purifying process can be painful and at times impossibly ugly (since we cannot control other people’s responses to what we’re letting go of), it frees us to walk on into a new chapter that feels a whole lot better than the old. And yes, we will experience echoes of feeling from time to time, since what is purified out from deep wells of life is bound to hurt a little.

Which is why we are told that though life is painful, we do not need to suffer. By trusting the process of self-purification and ever-unfolding self-realization, we can come to know who we are at the core of our being, and live our spiritual Power, Love, Wisdom, and Intelligence in active conscious ways. And that’s a very good thing. Thanks to the Friend who inspired this!

© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Vera]

Marvellously put! Thank you for your honesty.

[Zephyr]

Hi Robert, thanks for this latest offering, shedding some light on Pluto. The God of the Underworld has played a key role throughout my life, so I have a particular interest in this subject. It seems there is precious little that has been written on this dwarf planet, and even less about the immensely transformative powers of Pluto transits to natal planets. As one of those who has experienced Pluto criss-crossing over one natal planet after almost my entire life (I got a break when it went through Sagittarius) I have found it fascinating to discover how transit Pluto conjunctions have presided over nearly all of the most powerful and transformative periods I have experienced. There is one particular aspect of Pluto transits for which I have been unable to find any information. I would welcome any insights you may wish to share regarding this: what does the energy of Pluto signify in cases where it retrogrades and passes back over a natal Pluto placement? Quite a few babies must experience this. In my case, the result of this was extreme. My natal Mars is widely conjunct Pluto in 12th H Virgo. The retrograde of Pluto and Mars over these placements in my first two years of life was indicative of child abuse by my mother. But most babies would not of course experience this. Presumably, these Pluto retrograde conjunctions would simply be the the tremendous rate of growth and awareness in a new human being? Also, there is not much on the actual transmutation of Plutonic energies - harnessing Pluto's energies to become a driving force for good. It is possible, but in my case, it was rather like taming a wild stallion. I got kicked, stamped, thrown to the ground, taken for a wild ride and then finally - it has taken decades - learned to ride the damn thing. Any further comments you might have regarding everybody's 'Monster in the Closet' would be most welcome.

In Light

[Nic]

Thanks for a clear and very insightful post.

Blessings be to all.