Mars-Pluto Opposition

(Transit. Mars → Natal Pluto)

Various sources for a child’s horoscope

Your child possesses abundant energy and intense activity, possibly even a sense of omnipotence. He may achieve more than usual and endure greater challenges, provided he can overcome the conflict between instincts and desires, actions and will. He should learn to control his strong desires and tendency to dominate others. He must learn to creatively transform anger or irritation into positive emotions through sports or other activities. Such a child will feel a stronger than usual attraction to sexual experimentation, which may have traumatic consequences.

Het Monster. Aspects

Conflict between instincts and desires, actions and will. Often forced to take on responsibilities beyond one’s maturity. Ambitious dreams are difficult to realize due to inability, misfortune, or lack of opportunity. No one helps them. Tendency toward depression, pessimism. Problems with higher education. Parents are intolerant, tyrannical. Difficulties abroad.

Catherine Haugh. Astrological Dictionary

Opposition, square: aspects of destructive aggression, which may turn against the individual himself. Double-dealing, power achieved through secret maneuvers, suicidal tendencies linked to acute awareness of all that is absurd and futile; this may also manifest as denial of “Martian” qualities—courage, energy, heroism.

Avesalom Podvodny. Aspects

Mars opposition: Having overcome the external enemy, see how he becomes internal; having mastered the internal, watch how he becomes externalized. The principle of the Planet in opposition to Mars will constantly experience forceful influence, and establishing harmonious interaction with this force will be quite difficult for the individual. If the main emphasis lies on the Planet, and the person to some extent identifies with its principle, the external environment quickly becomes aggressive and begins to strongly hinder him. If, however, he starts actively fighting it, he soon develops a taste for struggle and, forgetting his original goals, undergoes a shift in emphasis of the opposition, as a result of which Mars becomes internally accentuated, while the planetary principle loses significance for the person, moving into the external world and assuming the role of an enemy, described by the well-known aphorism “What one fought for.” For example, in Mars opposition to Saturn, one must not fight for discipline; one can only honestly and diligently strive to be disciplined, otherwise such struggle ends in great discomfort, external restrictions (Saturn’s lower octave), and triumph of inner chaos. The problem often lies in the fact that the person feels power only through external manifestations of the planetary principle, yet tends to fight it; and upon defeating and internalizing the planet, he completely loses his power, with the most painful and incomprehensible moments being the unnoticed turning points of the opposition. Processing the aspect grants stable strength to the planet’s expressions, including those vibrations it requires, giving the person great self-confidence and the ability to balance the most acute and tense situations (related to the planetary principle and the houses where the planet and Mars are placed and rule, as well as aspects between these planets). At a low level, and especially with Mars afflicted, its opposition may manifest as destructive aggression from both the individual and his environment. Here it should be remembered that instability of the opposition—i.e., frequent uncontrolled shifting of planetary emphasis—indicates poor processing, while systematic work involving tracking and conscious management is the most effective means of achieving stability and harmony with oneself and the world. Pluto opposition: Good becomes smeared in the struggle against evil. Generally, a major aspect of Pluto karmically aligns the planet with a program of purification, often involving painful but irreversible losses. At a low level, the opposition sets the planetary principle against Pluto’s purifying actions; the person perceives the latter as destructive aggression directed at himself (in the areas governed by the planet) and attempts to resist it. In such a case, he clearly emphasizes the planet, and Pluto appears to him in the form of external fate delivering devastating blows to an innocent person, always striking the same spot (the planetary principle or the house where it is located). The person may complain (quietly), protest (loudly), or fight (desperately), but it is better for him to accept and, most importantly, understand that Pluto does not intend to destroy the planetary principle as such (in Pluto-Moon opposition, a person may sometimes feel that fate wants to destroy him along with his family, for some reason targeting precisely that octave with which the person subconsciously finds it hardest to part). Sometimes (which the person usually does not notice) the chart reverses the emphasis in the opposition and shifts the main focus onto Pluto, so that the person becomes a conduit for the purifying will of the Absolute (fate) and does to the planetary principle in the external world approximately what fate recently did to him. Often, the manifestation of the external planet occurs through certain people who fall under the individual’s fatal influence, who of course may not suspect this (over the years, such suspicions do arise). Strong dark teachers with Pluto opposition may long maintain emphasis on Pluto, brutally suppressing and destroying the planetary principle in their students, but usually Pluto’s blow eventually catches up with them. Here, processing occurs primarily through cultivating humility and eradicating within oneself the primitive craving for complete control over manifestations of the planetary principle in the surrounding world and the desire to reshape it in others by utterly destroying everything repulsive and unworthy (for example, Pluto opposition to Venus produces a desire for power over people’s minds and movements, but not the higher octave power associated with the 9th house, rather “so they cannot even speak or think what doesn’t belong to me!”). The person needs to understand that his planetary principle can be constructively used in external life only after thorough Plutonic purification within it, which will require many external and internal sacrifices. At a high level, the person gains the potential for the highest development of the planetary principle and participation in major karmic programs.

Frances Sacoyan. Aspects

Conflict between instincts and desires, actions and will. Mars, Uranus, and Pluto—planets associated with action and change. Mars’ action is based on personal desires, while Uranus and Pluto produce actions resulting from cosmic forces, higher consciousness, and spiritual will. In highly evolved individuals, this provides a test on the path of development. These people may harness Pluto’s collective will for Mars’ purposes. In the worst case—Satan, extremely cruel. One must learn to use the potential of these forces correctly, as their actions have far-reaching consequences for themselves and their loved ones. In war—participation in combat, revolutions, crimes, natural disasters. They are either perpetrators or victims of crime. Tendency to dominate and change people, leading to quarrels and hostility. In the worst case—theft and violence.

S.V. Shestopalov. Planetary Aspects

Desire to dominate, command; self-assertion, dictation, urge to impose, solving problems by force; belligerence, aggressiveness, conflict-proneness; danger of violence or inclination toward violence, ignoring danger. Tendency toward radical change. Positive side—tremendous willpower, energy, ability to fight and triumph.