Neptune-Pluto Opposition
(Transit Neptune → Natal Pluto)
Het Monster. Aspects
Only in angular houses and/or exact aspect: Paranormal and occult inclinations leading to subtle emotional and mental perception. The splitting of will and feelings leads to conflicts. Subconscious desire for power. How this manifests is shown by the signs and houses. These people struggle with racial, national, and social issues.
Catherine Aubier. Astrological Dictionary
Opposition-square: inner impulses can have a destructive effect or create imbalance. A person may find satisfaction in dwelling in darkness and suffering. Instead of lighting fires, they extinguish them.
Avesalom Podvodny. Aspects
Neptune opposition: Lies are never a spice—they are always the main course. A Neptune opposition at a low level presents the problem of external and internal deception and self-deception in the areas governed by the planet; here, the theme of lower meditations arises—i.e., vices of the kind governed by the planet. By emphasizing Neptune, a person may derive pleasure from the lowest manifestations of the planet in the external world, and self-deception can be so strong that the person does not recognize their involvement in something bad, unworthy, or immoral. On the contrary, by emphasizing the planet’s principle, a person will encounter deception and misunderstanding in the external world and will genuinely wonder what is happening, unaware that internal dishonesty, self-deception, and deception of others create a cloud of the planet’s lower octave around them, and the world begins to deceive them in turn. For example, with a Mars-Neptune opposition (at a low level, this is a very dangerous aspect), a person may internally enjoy any external activity, especially aggression, completely oblivious to its destructive consequences for peace and others. Later, the situation will turn slightly, and the aggression of the external world will be directed at them, while Neptune will produce the effect of complete incomprehension, offense, and injustice over what is happening to them—but all with a sweet aftertaste of the lower Neptunian meditation of a masochistic type. Then (oh horror!) the emphasis of the opposition will shift to the opposite, distorting external reality—i.e., the person will decisively lose understanding of others, and internally, destructive Martian self-aggression will begin, possibly with acute feelings of guilt and repentance, which the external world will categorically not understand or accept. Then the emphasis will shift again. Working through this is complex, as it requires deep, intimate, and essential changes in a person’s attitude toward the planet’s principle—they must learn to understand and love it and be honest with themselves and the external world in the relevant areas, at least not lying outright at first. For example, a Neptune opposition to the Ascendant (i.e., Neptune conjunct the Descendant) requires a person to stop lying to their partners and open enemies (to which they are very prone), or they will never escape the cloud of general deception and falsehood. At a high level of processing, a person gains stable, subtle, and profound understanding of the planet’s principle, the ability for elevated meditations in its spheres, which they can carefully and thoughtfully convey to others.
Pluto opposition: Good in the struggle against evil is smeared. Generally, a major aspect of Pluto karmically sets the planet on a program of purification, often painful but, most importantly, irreversible losses. At a low level, the opposition pits the planet’s principle against Pluto’s purifying actions; the person perceives these as destructive aggression directed at them (in the areas governed by the planet) and tries to resist. In this case, they clearly emphasize the planet, and Pluto appears to them as an external force delivering (of course) devastating blows to an innocent person, always striking the same spot (the planet’s principle or the house where it is located). The person may complain (quietly), protest (loudly), or fight (desperately), but it is better for them to surrender and, most importantly, understand that Pluto intends not to destroy the planet’s principle itself (for example, with a Pluto-Moon opposition, a person may feel that fate simply wants to destroy them along with their family, and for some reason, it is the octave they subconsciously find hardest to part with). Sometimes (usually unnoticed by the person), the chart shifts the emphasis in the opposition, placing it on Pluto, so the person becomes a conduit for the Absolute’s (fate’s) purifying will and does to the planet’s principle in the external world roughly what fate recently did to them. Often, the manifestation of the external planet occurs through certain people who fall under the fatal influence of the person, who, of course, may not even suspect it (though such suspicions do arise over time). Strong black teachers with a Pluto opposition can long maintain the emphasis on Pluto, brutally suppressing and destroying the planet’s principle in their students, but eventually, Pluto’s blow catches up with them as well. Here, the processing primarily involves cultivating humility and eradicating within oneself the primitive thirst for absolute power over the manifestations of the planet’s principle in the surrounding world and the desire to reshape others, ruthlessly eliminating everything vile and unworthy (for example, a Pluto opposition to Venus creates a craving in people for power over minds and movements of others, but not the kind of power that comes from the higher octave of the 9th house, but rather: “so they dare not speak or even think what does not belong to me!”). A person must understand that their planet’s principle can only be constructively used in external life after thorough Plutonian purification within themselves, for which they will have to make many external and internal sacrifices. At a high level, a person gains the opportunity for the highest development of the planet’s principle and participation in large karmic programs.
Frances Sakoian. Aspects
Only in angular houses and hard aspects. Paranormal and occult inclinations leading to subtle emotional and mental tensions. The splitting of feelings and will leads to conflicts between subconscious instinctive desires and the drive for power. How this opposition manifests is shown by the signs and houses. These people struggle with racist, religious, and social issues.
