Enigmatic and paradoxical, Pluto functions subversively and invisibly to transform by elimination and metamorphosis. Pluto operates with extreme power, and when it manifests it usually causes one to feel out of control.

Pluto in a chart shows how power of any kind will be exerted. Pluto always compels and it can compel to high, virtuous achievement, or to villainous behaviour within or outside the law.

Pluto causes hidden and subterranean states to break forth and erupt. Pluto has rulership over volcanoes from which molten lava erupts, destroying everything in its path. But later the lava helps build a rich soil for plant growth. Like earthquakes and volcanoes, Pluto brings about a climax in the life with much disturbance and upheaval, followed by calmer and more wholesome conditions. This may occur in daily affairs or in the emotions; Pluto is often the planet of the “healing crisis”.

As Robert Hand points out, Pluto is connected to breakdown and decay, so it is also connected to those elements of society that reflect breakdown and decay. This is the source of Pluto’s association with underworld elements, organised crime, and people who are so socially disaffected that they represent a threat to society. The socially disaffected are only a manifestation of Pluto’s power. Though criminals and terrorists seem to be what destroys society, they are merely the agents by which the destructive power already inherent in the situation manifests. They are not the source of the destruction, and even if they were eliminated, something else would replace them as agents of that power.

Plutonian people also take on the positive role of assisting others who are going through Plutonian transformations. Pluto is also associated with healers and therapists, both psychological and physical, and those whose who teach techniques of self-transformation. Plutonians may also appear as religious or spiritual leaders who stress rebirth after death – either literal or psychological. Therapists, healers, gurus, spiritual leaders, and the like are the most positive Plutonians of all because they are most in touch with the central theme of Pluto, the death and rebirth of the soul.

Since Pluto is the higher octave of Mars, there must be a transcendence of desires (physical, material, emotional) for inner illumination and spiritual enlightenment to take place.

When Pluto contacts a planet or point in the natal chart, it seems to deepen and intensify those things that that planet represents. Pluto is not only the significator of secrets and hidden things in general but is also responsible for the uncovering and surfacing of whatever had been buried. And the longer it will take, the greater the effort to keep them concealed, the more devastating the consequences when they do surface but also the greater the potential for self-transformation.