Pluto in houses 9-12
(This is the third of a 3-part series on Pluto through the houses of the natal chart. The first article looked Pluto in the 1st-4th houses; the second dealt with Pluto in houses 5-8.)
The underworld which the mythological Pluto ruled is sometimes configured in the dwarf planet Pluto’s influence as the unconscious. Very often the house where Pluto sits in the natal chart reveals an area of life where the individual behaves less rationally and is more prone to follow compulsive needs and desires. Pluto may also at times represent a more literal type of underworld—sometimes the person will be drawn towards people who influence her/him towards negative behaviors. In a few cases, Pluto’s placement will also show the area of life where the person briefly becomes victim to another person’s darker impulses.
9th house
Individuals with this placement may initially have to struggle against governmental forces or religious prejudice. They may undergo great difficulty in achieving an advanced degree. When natal Pluto dwells in the house of law, religion, foreign cultures and higher learning, the person may seek a position of power as a judge, minister, diplomat or university administrator. Another possibility is that the compulsive qualities of Pluto will make the individual chronically litigious; a religious fanatic or very politically dogmatic. More positively, this position often reveals a great deal of courage.
10th house
This Pluto placement focuses the planet’s compulsive qualities toward the concept of authority. The individual may go to either extreme: either defying and resenting all authority figures or attaining a position of authority and then behaving pompously and autocratically. In some cases, a 10th house Pluto points to a willingness to dispense with ethics in order to achieve career ambitions. Ultimately, people with Pluto here can learn to use their authority to transform institutions to make them more responsive to people’s needs.
11th house
This is the house of friends and connections as well as future plans. People with Pluto here may experience scapegoating and social isolation as they tend to seem like a dangerous loose cannons when they try to be part of a group. Disappointed hopes may also be a recurring theme of the individual with this placement, as Pluto forces her/him to arise from the ashes over and over again. These people must develop a strong enough inner core to have faith in themselves even when other people reject them.
12th house
When Pluto sits in this house of the natal chart, the individual experience a period of addiction or some sort of enforced isolation. Their life may also be shaped by a period in which they lose their privacy and the dark secrets they would prefer to keep hidden become public knowledge. Or this sense of losing all barriers may be more internal, as the individual feels like a psychic sponge, feeling the pain of everyone around them.
