Pluto in Scorpio

Pluto in Scorpio belongs to a generation of people involved in a major confrontation with the darker aspects of life, and the most recent transit occurred in 1983 to 1995. Astrologically, Pluto penetrates to the root of all things and describes our urge to destroy what we have outgrown. To most people Pluto appears to be cruel and destructive, it is known as the god of death and represents the end of chapters in our lives. All forms of power, shared resources, merging, sexuality, survival, finance, banking, death and decay are all ruled by Pluto.The myth of Persephone represents the descent into the underworld (Pluto), she was a virgin goddess playing in the field, when the earth opened up and Pluto appeared on his black chariot drawn by fire-breathing horses. The goddess is abducted, taken into the underworld and raped. Persephone’s mother, distraught by the loss of her daughter, sinks into deep depression, and forbids the crops to grow or the trees or bear fruit. For seven years the whole world is cold and barren, while humanity starves. Finally the gods intervene and Persephone is allowed to return to the upper world for six months. Pluto is also linked to toxic states, healing and regeneration, nuclear power, deadly viruses, and any means of mass destruction. In this light, the list of events that happened during Pluto's transit through its own sign, highlights the massive upheaval in all of the above areas and hopefully the attitudes of many towards these areas of life was also transformed.

A famine devastated Ethiopia between 1983 and 1995. The drought had destroyed the entire harvest. Thousands died of starvation. Some trust issue between governments to distribute food properly delayed the grain arriving in the country. Eventually, aid agencies were forced to buy European grain on the open market. In an attempt to shame Western governments into action, Oxfam donated its largest donation, and widespread television coverage of people dying of starvation in Ethiopia was prompting an exceptional outpouring of private donations. In three days, the British public alone donated 5 million, and within two months, the Western public had donated a total of 100 million. In music, the Band Aid single ‘Do They Know its Christmas? , as well as two Live Aid concerts raised millions more.

On April 23 in 1984, U.S and French Scientists identify the virus known as A.I.D.S. Scorpio’s major influence is human sexuality and detoxification through disease. It was no longer safe to have unprotected sex, and both sex and death were merged together like never before. It was much safer to stay committed to one partner, and this embodied the importance that Scorpio placed on fixity in relationships and powerful sense of survival.

On December 3, 1984, a leak in UNION Cabide’s pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, India, caused toxic gas (Pluto) to escape, killing and disabling thousands of people. It is one of the worst industrial accidents in history. The toxic gas spread out across the city, burning eyes, lungs, and other organs on contact. Around 3,000 people died in the days immediately following the disaster. Tens of thousands more were permanently disabled, and it is estimated that 20, 000 people have since died as a direct result of the leak.

I am not sure how much significance this next event has on Pluto in Scorpio, but the wreckage of Titanic was found on the Ocean floor, on August 31st 1985. Pluto was in Scorpio with a Jupiter (large) Neptune (ocean-liner) conjunction. At the time, the Titanic was the largest ship ever built. When the ship hit an iceberg, 1,500 people on board drowned or froze to death in the ice cold waters of the Atlantic. I will probably look at this event in another follow-up post.

On October 19, 1987, the world’s financial markets suffered a sudden drop in value. The loss was around £300 billion. In the U.S.A. the chairman of New York Stock Exchange said, “This is the nearest thing to a financial meltdown I’ve ever come across,’ while President Reagan announced he was confident that the U.S economy would survive. The crash came after a couple of years of fast growth in a ‘bull’ market - one characterised by hostile take overs and relentless company mergers. Although it was the most drastic drop in the market’s history, ‘Black Monday’, as it was called, did not lead to depression, and it was not long before interest rates began to fall and investors began to buy again.

Other events around this period will be covered in future posts.