Mars-Pluto

Mars-Pluto combines the warrior, arousal, aggressiveness and competition of Mars with the depth, instincts, power, and elemental nature of Pluto.

The elemental power of Pluto can at times lend an obsessive might to the goal oriented nature of Mars, suggesting an overwhelming lust or an aggressive obsession. We also find the anger associated with the archetype of Mars leading to a path of deep transformation (Pluto). Another way this combination can manifest is as the deep drive (Pluto) to be a warrior protector (Mars), especially in the care of animals and the natural world (Pluto).

Below are examples of famous people born with this combination in their natal charts (natal chart is another word for astrological birth chart, or pictographic representation of the sky when they were born). When we witness how this combination shows up in the lives of others, we can become more self-aware of how this combination shows up in our own lives. The more we are conscious of the ways astrological alignments (otherwise known as “aspects”) show up in our lives, the more the archetypal tensions involved can become integrated in our lives, thus revealing inherent strengths to us.

Please note that the tension of this archetypal combination, as illustrated in the lives and creations of the famous people in the examples below, may be demonstrated in ways that are more integrated or less integrated.

 

  • The Mars-Pluto combination joins the warrior drive of Mars with the deeply instinctual drives of Pluto. Often times this combination creates a compulsion (Pluto) to fight (Mars) and even protect (Mars). Celebrity female characters who embody this combination include Josephine Baker, who was not only a brave (Mars) entertainer exalting the libidinal sexual drives (Pluto) and bringing a dangerous cheetah (Mars/Pluto) with her on stage, but also a civil rights activist and an agent of the French Underground (Pluto) Resistance (Mars); Sigourney Weaver embodies the protective female warrior (Mars) against mysterious biological monsters (Pluto) in Aliens in the following clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFNly1GO5IQ ; Indian actress Priyanka Chopra expresses her Mars-Pluto in many roles in which she plays. Chopra playing the role of boxer Mary Kom is a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxsKcx1IwI8.

 

  • Male examples of the Mars-Pluto combination include actor Mark Hamill who fought (Mars) the power (Pluto) of the warrior of the dark side (Mars/Pluto) as personified in Darth Vader in Star Wars. Actor Forest Whitaker often displays this combination. Examples include his mysterious (Pluto) samurai (Mars) character in Ghost Dog and his portrayal of the compulsively (Pluto) violent (Mars) dictator Idi Amin in The Last  King of Scotland.

  • The Mars-Pluto combination in the natal chart of Russian author Alexander Pushkin can be seen reflected in his famous short story, “The Shot,” in which obsessive (Pluto) anger (Mars) becomes the catalyst for deep personal transformation (Pluto) for the central character in the story.

  • The Mars-Pluto combination in the birth chart of primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall can be seen in her strong motivation (Mars) to bravely protect (Mars) nature (Pluto). Jane Goodall spent a number of years living in the Africa wilderness with the species of apes she wished to protect, reflecting how the Mars/Pluto combination can show up not only as a deep drive (Pluto) to protect (Mars), but also the depth (Pluto) of bravery (Mars) required to live in the jungle in the company of wild beasts and dangerous poachers.

  • The Mars-Pluto combination in the birth chart of actress Maitreyi Ramakrishnan can be seen in her role as “Devi,” the main character in the comedy/drama “Never Have I Ever.” The series follows “Devi” through her teenage years as her very active (Mars) libidinal desires (Pluto) land her in situations in which she has angered (Mars) others and engaged in transgressive activity (Pluto), creating the drama (Pluto) around sexual assertiveness (Mars-Pluto) which the series centers on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTjO2zrgCRU

  • The Mars-Pluto combination in the natal chart of poet Emily Dickinson can be seen in the ways her poetry at times expresses an aggressive tendency (Mars) that combines with the taboo associations with Pluto. We see her use words, in the way only a poet of her stature can, to express a violence that is at times sexual, at times surgical.

  • In “They Put Us Far Apart” (474) the narrator’s feet are stapled to the ground:

They summoned Us to die—
With sweet alacrity
We stood upon our stapled feet—
Condemned—but just—to see—

Listen to the way she describes a hot air balloon (700):

The gilded creature strains and spins,
Trips frantic in a tree,
Tears open her imperial veins
And tumbles in the sea.

Or the ways in which she tuns the beauty of autumn into a seeming bloodbath (656):

The name—of it—is "Autumn"—
The hue—of it—is Blood—
An Artery—upon the Hill—
A Vein—along the Road—

Great Globules—in the Alleys—
And Oh, the Shower of Stain—
When Winds—upset the Basin—
And spill the Scarlet Rain—

It sprinkles Bonnets—far below—
It gathers ruddy Pools—
Then—eddies like a Rose—away—
Upon Vermilion Wheels—

In Dickinson’s poem “My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun” (764), we see the protective principle of Mars taken to its murderous underworld depth by Pluto:

My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun -
In Corners - till a Day
The Owner passed - identified -
And carried Me away -

And now We roam in Sovereign Woods -
And now We hunt the Doe -
And every time I speak for Him -
The Mountains straight reply -

And do I smile, such cordial light
Upon the Valley glow -
It is as a Vesuvian face
Had let its pleasure through -

And when at Night - Our good Day done -
I guard My Master's Head -
'Tis better than the Eider-Duck's
Deep Pillow - to have shared -

To foe of His - I'm deadly foe -
None stir the second time -
On whom I lay a Yellow Eye -
Or an emphatic Thumb -

Though I than He - may longer live
He longer must - than I -
For I have but the power to kill,
Without--the power to die--

  • In a different vein, Mars can be associated with sexual assertiveness, while Pluto’s association with things that are hidden can at times be generalized to a sort of hiding away that could be associated with shyness or even shame. In the following poem by Emily Dickinson we see the aggressive act of plucking a flower sexualized, while simultaneously witnessing a sort of shame-facedness around sexual assertion (91):

So bashful when I spied her!
So pretty—so ashamed!
So hidden in her leaflets
Lest anybody find—

So breathless till I passed here—
So helpless when I turned
And bore her struggling, blushing,
Her simple haunts beyond!

For whom I robbed the Dingle—
For whom I betrayed the Dell—
Many, will doubtless ask me,
But I shall never tell!

  • Rapper and performer Megan Thee Stallion demonstrates the Mars-Pluto combination in her birth chart in that included in her name is the word for an uncastrated male horse. Here we see Mars as the masculinity and Pluto as the animalistic representation of that masculinity.

  • Pluto’s association with the deep hidden drives within humans aligns it with nature in the sense that the drives hidden deep in humankind are the animals drives and nature’s will to live at any cost. Additionally, Pluto’s association with death and rebirth aligns it with nature’s ability to rival itself and overcome itself through the constant process of evolution. Chinese author Cixin Liu, famous for his Rememberance of Earth’s Past trilogy of novels that include The Three Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End, was born with the Mars-Pluto combination in his natal chart. Cixin Liu is known for popularizing the “Dark Forest” hypothesis, a theory that suggests that the universe appears to be devoid of any signs of alien life not because there are no alien civilizations, but rather because the universe is actually a dark and dangerous (Mars-Pluto) place in which alien civilizations hide for fear of being detected by other hostile aliens. The universe is thus depicted as an environment ruled by aggressive (Mars) forces of evolution (Pluto).

  • The Mars-Pluto combination in the natal chart of entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel can be experienced in the following interview with Joe Rogan, on the Joe Rogan Podcast, in which Thiel explains that he believes that the hierarchy of human society arises from violent (Mars) instinctual impulses (Pluto) playing out. Here is the moment in the podcast when Peter Thiel begins to explore these themes: https://youtu.be/klRb0_BAX9g?si=-d_zsxR9EEcP5rTF&t=4342