The Weirdness of Pluto

The only way out is through

Repost from my Substack from Sept 1, 2026

When I’m going through a certain transit, my clients tend to be traversing similar terrain.

I find that in sessions, I’m also not able to “teach” as much as I wish in order to allow space for processing and self-discovery.

So, I want to begin writing in a more casual way to just share what I know without this internal perfectionism in how I write.

I find so much of what I’ve learned over the past two decades to have helped me find so much peace, and I want to help others feel the same.

I’m sure there are easier ways to teach and share knowledge, but for now writing feels most aligned.

Back to what I was saying…

Pluto. I have been going through intense Pluto transits for about the past 2 years. And most of my current clients, ironically, are undergoing the same.

I haven’t found many blogs that articulate what exactly it feels like to go through a harsh Pluto transits, probably because most people are just gripping on for dear life or retreating into privacy, not wanting to share.

But the few that I have found have been so validating to read because I often find myself asking “what the f*ck is happening!?”

Pluto isn’t light, and it’s transits don’t just touch one part of your life. It excavates the deepest parts of you, brings everything you’ve been stuffing down to the surface and rubs your face in it.

I’m not going to speak lightly of Pluto either.

I get tired of people trying to glorify Pluto into change and transformation – something I have been guilty of when speaking to groups because it’s easier than seeming like you’re fear mongering.

But Pluto is a malefic, Mars is a malefic and so is Saturn… meaning they can be harsh, heavy and dark. They can bring about the harder experiences in life.

Any outer planet, because of how slow they move, touches the grander design of your life in a deep way.

And about a year and a half in to Pluto on my Descendant (and interacting with my moon and chiron), I’ve finally come to befriend it.

I’ve had clients ask what positive traits Pluto has, and it isn’t to say there aren’t any.

Everything exists on a spectrum and “power” is one of those things.

The power Pluto exerts can be seen in a multitude of ways.

There are the positive expressions of authenticity, unmovable forces, being rooted in self-assuredness, being unwavering in the face of adversity, commanding a room with just your presence, etc.

And there are negative expressions of power through coercion, manipulation, control, shadow projection, betrayal, etc.

When I was reflecting on the question of positive expressions of Pluto, I thought of Mother Nature and the powerhouse that she is.

Mother Nature is respected (well should be).

If you’ve ever stood at the edge of a mountain, you feel it. The feeling of being small, the vastness that expands all around you.

And, the feeling that you could slip and fall at any moment.

Living near the mountains brought a new respect of her power. Snowboarding down a mountain you realize that she is ultimately in control, no matter how seasoned you are.

Mother Nature is like Pluto in that she brings about destruction and chaos through natural disasters. They are life altering, but also a part of the process. Tornados, hurricanes, forest fires, flash floods, rockslides, avalanches, those all remind me of the Plutonian power of Mother Nature.

Without the forest fire, there wouldn’t be a cleansing of the dead to lead to new life.

And that is what a Pluto transit feels like.

Watching everything around you burn to the ground. Knowing you can’t stop it. But also having this quiet reverence of knowing it is necessary and part of nature’s natural cycles.

Plutonian people often find these cycles easier because they’ve been experiencing Pluto their entire life.  Scorpio placements, 8th house placements, and those with Pluto in harsh aspects to their personal planets, Pluto in the angular houses and even the 2, 6, 8 and 12th know Pluto more deeply than others. Their relationship with him, well debatable… but they know him.

So the transits, while still debilitating, are a familiar darkness one may be well acquainted with.

And harsh Pluto transits are some of the few we have no control over.

I’m a big proponent of life doesn’t happen to you, but when it comes to Pluto, it does.

Anyone with 8th house placements will tell you that.

But I’m finding that the “change and transformation” Pluto asks of us, well really we’re just being forced through.

And that change can only come from a loss of control.

When all our defenses, coping mechanisms, surface tendencies are stripped away, how do we continue to move through the world?

When people start acting weird towards us, and by weird I mean REAL weird, how do we no longer internalize it?

– This is something I will do another post on because it’s the strangest feeling, and until you read someone else write about it (example), you will be questioning yourself constantly. I’ve found myself regularly saying “I’m literally just existing; what is happening!?”

The harder part of Pluto transits is that I often find they involve other people. Because how else can we feel out of control but through the mercy of the uncontrollable “other.”

It’s unexplainable that one day someone is treating us one way, and all of a sudden something has changed.

Partners begin abuse tactics, start affairs, become distant, bosses put us under a magnifying glass and we are subject to scrutiny, people leave us, we leave people, and most commonly, people close to us die.

Death can be found in the natal chart, but the more I’ve studied death in charts, the more I came to realize that it’s easier to see in retrospect, rather than predict.

I saw someone once write about how there are many windows and doors we can go through to exit the earthly plane. And it’s somewhat up to when your soul decides to depart.

But one pattern I do see is that when people experience the loss of a close someone, they are often going through intense Pluto or 8th house transits (or a double whammy of both).

Death with Pluto isn’t always literal, but there is often a death of something. It can be a death to a certain way of living, a death to a part of ourselves, there are a multitude of expressions.

And finally (for now), the psyche and subconscious aspects that are drudged up from the depths.

The best way I can describe this, without the usual jargon you see people use, is like a psychological antenna that the volume gets turned up on.

Depending on where Pluto is and what it’s doing, you may become really keen to your own hidden motives… and sometimes either really keen to others (or really blind to others hidden motives) and I’ll give you an example because I’ve read this from others and been like WHAT DO YOU MEAN…

So example, you have a shopping addiction, always have, and it becomes so blaringly loud and clear on a bright neon sign, that you do that to attempt to feel good enough and be accepted.

And I don’t mean the surface level understanding of it. Because you’ve probably found the awareness of that years ago. I mean where and when the behavior started, why you thought it would help fix the problem, flashbacks to every time you were made to feel less than, every time you felt like this behavior helped you (for the sake of the example, a compliment for how stylish you are, etc. thus making you feel loved and accepted), the realization that you can dress like you are a part of the group, and still not belong. To seeing others who effortlessly belong and wear the most “basic it girl” style, to seeing others who are head to toe designer brands, and still give off this air of they’re never going to fit in no matter how much money they’re wearing because the energy they give off is “insecure, awkward, etc.” And I don’t mean this in a judgey way. You are shown the full spectrum of human behavior in relation to this specific thing you a processing. The hidden, unspoken things that just exist. And sometimes have zero explanation like the example of why one person can wear a paper bag and look stylish and another can hire a personal stylist and still look stiff or like they’re trying so hard. I know this is a rant but it will be helpful to someone. And this is just a simple example and not nearly as deep as Pluto will take you.

And a singular behavior or psychological pattern will surround you, in every moment of every day until Pluto’s lesson drops into your subconscious(something you have no control over) and then poof you almost rarely notice it, but it’s on to the next pattern of behavior, addiction, obsession. And it’s like this day in and day out while Pluto is at least 1° away from exact.

And I said I was done, but I cannot talk about Pluto without talking about obsession.

When you go through harsh Pluto transits (or have intense Plutonian personas) another thing out of your control is obsessive behavior (in yourself and others). I can do another post on this too, but it’s something to be mindful of as you interact with the world. The volume on obsession gets turned up everywhere.

You become obsessed with others in ways you can’t explain. The person you pass on a walk takes control of your thoughts, and vice versa. People become enthralled with you. There is a need to know, a need to well…control, have power over, obtain, possess.

It’s unexplainable. People with Pluto square Venus or Pluto opposite Venus will either have a harder or easier time with this. It will either be familiar and something they’ve navigated their entire life so it’s like “oh this again, ok.” Or it will double down on intense obsession and become all consuming.

I want to leave with some sort of advice or helpfulness, but that’s my perfectionism talking. I have more carefully crafted things to share soon, but I just want to word vom sometimes because it’s happening in the moment, and I know someone will find it helpful even just by validating their experience or helping them “know what to expect” as a Pluto transit approaches. 

Even though I find that you can read as much as you want on Pluto, there is no way of fully predicting what it will bring about (or up from your subconscious). 

And with Pluto, you can’t avoid it. The only way out is through.