← Encyclopedia of Astrology · lesson 36/235
Pluto
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Pluto is the planet of depth and transformation: power and control, crisis and renewal, what is hidden, buried or taboo, and the endings that clear the ground for something new. It describes where a person feels things most intensely, where they are drawn to dig beneath the surface, and where life tends to ask for a thorough change rather than a small adjustment. Modern astrologers give it the underworld in every sense — inheritance, debt, research, psychology, crisis, and large collective forces.
Nature
Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in 1930. In 2006 astronomers reclassified it as a dwarf planet, but astrologers continue to use it, judging it by what they observe in charts rather than by its size. It has no place in the tradition and so no traditional nature; it is usually described as intense, concentrated and slow-working, neither benefic nor malefic, and often counted as masculine. It belongs to no sect.
Signs it rules and where it is strong or weak
Modern astrology gives Pluto the rulership of Scorpio, which Mars ruled in the tradition and still co-rules in many modern charts. Its detriment is therefore Taurus. Some modern authors place its exaltation in Aries or in Leo; there is no agreement, and many assign none. None of this belongs to the traditional dignity scheme.
Motion
Pluto takes about 248 years to go round the Sun. Its orbit is so eccentric that the time it spends in a sign varies widely, from about twelve years to more than thirty. It is retrograde for five to six months every year. Like the other outer planets, its sign marks a generation; its house and close aspects are what make it personal.
In a chart
Pluto by house points to where a person is likely to meet intensity and to change most deeply: in the 8th, around shared resources, intimacy and loss; in the 10th, around power and public authority; in the 4th, around family secrets or a home that is remade; in the 1st, a forceful, private presence. Close to a personal planet or an angle, it inclines toward strength of will and a capacity for regeneration.
In transit
A transiting Pluto stays near a natal point for two or three years, sometimes longer. Its contacts are often read as periods of deep change, in which something outgrown comes to an end and power in some area of life is redistributed. They tend to ask for honesty and letting go rather than control.