Pluto in the Career Houses–The Power to Manifest or Fail for Spite

Note: This is an excerpt from a longer chapter about Pluto in Donna Cunningham’s ebook, The  Outer Planets as Career Indicators : The Outer Planets and Inner Life, volume One. This book is especially pertinent now with Pluto in Capricorn, the sign of careers and long-range goals.  Pluto’s sign and house position shows what we resent most, and Capricorn has to do with authority figures–the rising tide of resentment toward corporate fat cats is a demonstration of a trend we’ll be seeing lots more of during the 13-year stay in this sign.

 Over-all themes and issues when the vocational houses of the birth chart strongly feature Pluto or Scorpio are the same as for Pluto elsewhere in the chart. At the lower end of Pluto’s range of expressions, they can include abuse of power, battles for control, resentments and grievances, failing for spite, and being a target of other people’s projections. At the higher end, they can include transforming, healing, and empowering the people and conditions Plutonians care about. With the vocational houses involved, these themes impact people’s capacity for success at major life goals (10^th house), their ability to make and manage money (2^nd house), or how they operate with day to day routines in the workplace (6^th house).     

The difficulty with being a Plutonian type where career is concerned is that many of them have been scarred by bad childhood experiences with authority figures including parents or other relatives, or school or church officials. Many faced losses, abandonment, betrayals, or abuse. Not all Plutonians carry these experiences into the workplace-it may instead be a place of blessed escape into normalcy. However, especially when Pluto or strong Scorpio placements are involved with the 10^th house or the Midheaven, that early history can have a direct impact on career patterns and ultimately on their potential for success.

Feeling powerless may translate to a sense of low vocational potential, which these individuals may either accept as their reality or may work compulsively to overcome.  If these experiences left them mistrustful and afraid of people in authority, their relationships with supervisors are likely to be profoundly affected. They may adopt a variety of strategies to cope with their bosses’ power and to have some measure of control over their work lives. Relationships with co-workers can also be difficult. Plutonians’ early experiences may have left them with a feeling of being set apart by shameful secrets, different and alienated. This emotional residue can make it hard to enjoy an easy, comfortable interchange with peers at work.

The house Pluto occupies in the birth chart can represent areas of life where we fail for spite. That is, we may chronically set ourselves up to fail in those areas in ways that are painful, frustrating, and mystifying to us on a conscious level. On the unconscious level, the motive is often to get back at potent childhood figures who considered that area crucial. The behavior is self-destructive, like the scorpion’s sting. For some Plutonians, however, extracting
vengeance is more important than doing well.   With Pluto in the vocational houses, failing in the career can embarrass the parent or other authority figure, a form of revenge. (“You said I’d never make anything of myself. Well, I’ll show you….”)  Parents can’t control whether their offspring succeed or not, and the more parents demand success, the greater the sting when their offspring fail.

People with Pluto or Scorpio planets in the vocational houses or aspecting the Midheaven are prone to dramatic career turns, for better or for worse, especially under transits to the Midheaven, natal vocational-house planets, or natal Pluto. Many of them glory in intensity, exist at a life or death pitch, and view work situations in terms of extremes-black and white, good vs. evil, shadow vs. light. If they engage in spiteful, self-destructive rounds of hardball, they may crash and burn publicly, even repeatedly, under transits or progressions to planets in vocational houses or to the Midheaven. If they’re evolving past those negative patterns, they’re capable of amazing turnarounds–the Phoenix rising from its own ashes.

(If you’re a Plutonian type and need to transform the patterns mentioned here, this is just part of a longer chapter in The Outer Planets and Inner Life, volume 1.  You might also like to read an earlier post, “Stuck for What Seems Like Forever,” which you can read under the Healing Tools category on this site.) Note: This is an excerpt from a longer exploration of aspects to the Midheaven in my ebook, Outer Planets as Career Indicators, which can be purchased  at moonmavenpublications.com. Download a sampler here: Sampler–2015 OPIL1.  

More Posts about Pluto on this Blog:

• Pluto-Saturn Preparedness Kit #1—Houses & Areas of Life Affected
• 6 Things You May Not Know about Pluto
• Career Challenges for the Pluto-Uranus in Virgo Generation
• Pluto and Bullying: How to Recognize and Deal with It
• Battling the Bully – Standing Up For Yourself With Confidence and Assertiveness
•  Pluto in Capricorn: A Laugh and a Half, by John Marchesella
• The Steamy Side of Venus-Pluto Aspects—A Photo Gallery
• Mars-Pluto Aspects? Use your Manifestation Mojo!
• Healing Tools For Plutonians: Transforming The Self And Others
• Purge Yourself of Pluto’s Negativity—Get Free of Bitterness

More Posts about Vocational Astrology on this Blog: 

• Uranus In The Career Houses—“You’re Not The Boss Of Me!”
• Planets Squaring the Midheaven—How They Affect your Career (Neptune)
• Pluto in the Career Houses–The Power to Manifest or Fail for Spite
• Vocational Angst for the Pluto-Uranus in Virgo Generation
• Some Life Patterns of People with Uranus-Saturn Aspects in the Birth Chart
• The Astrology of Labor Day–and of our new Secretary of Labor

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