I am an avid watcher of Dateline; I blame it on my Pluto in the 8th house square my Sun and opposite my Moon. Awhile back I started running the natal charts of those I could find birth dates for and almost always the murderer or the victim had Pluto in hard aspect (square, conjunction, opposition) to Venus. Pluto the planet of darkness, death, and obsession meets Venus planet of love, relating and light. I have posted a few charts of those I can recall off hand; some cases involve celebrities such as the Hartman’s and more recently Oscar Pistorius.
Pluto is Lord of the Underworld in Astrology. We have to think of the myth of Hades and Persephone when we think of Pluto in connection with Venus. Pluto being a planet of extremes it isn’t enough to love someone sometimes you want to possess them and keep them all for yourself. Pluto on Venus above all is the “If I can’t have you no one can” aspect.
Allow me to place a disclaimer here*
This post in no way implies that having this aspect makes a person dangerous. We must always take into consideration the entire chart and levels of consciousness. People are not pieces of paper with planets scribbled on them; each of us is operating from different levels of awareness. Also sometimes you embody the energy & at other times you deny and/or project the energy in turn attracting it from the outside.
With that being said Pluto is a planet of extremes. Pluto is a planet that digs deep, I like to say it likes to get to the root of the root of the root. It can be merciless and relentless in its quest to unturn every stone.
When Pluto connects with Venus via square, conjunction or opposition the love nature can be a lot of things extreme, self-destructive, relentless it will surely trump a Venus in Scorpio with its level of intensity any day.
Often when we are operating from Pluto we are operating from a deeply unconscious shadowy part of ourselves. We have to catch it, we have to see the spiral or it can very well runaway with us. I call Pluto aspects the “checkmate” in astrology. If we take two Plutonian people both operating from the shadowy parts of ones persona they will want to win at all costs. The only way to win is for one to stop playing or for both to recognize they are actually on the same team.
“Pluto embodies the archaic feminine element that can be both fruitful, creative and healing as well as dark, cruel, brutal, sadistic, destructive, devouring and lethal” –Keywords for Astrology
With Pluto and Scorpio influences you can be the Scorpion, the Eagle or the Phoenix. I find you usually have to travel through to become the Phoenix. Rarely does a short cut seem to exist.
“The only way out is through” I suppose
“Venus/Pluto seeks an experience of deepening and transformation, a movement from the everyday world into some heightened archetypal realm where everything matters terribly. Often this can only be reached through pain and conflict, which is why the aspect has a reputation for complicated relationships and psychological game playing” –Liz Greene
“Once Venus/Pluto becomes deeply engaged, it does not easily become disengaged”- Liz Greene
“If you have a fight it isn’t a cool little exchange, it means all the crockery gets smashed, everything is over final and you’re going to go off and throw yourself under a bus” –Liz Greene
Pluto/Venus can result in the highest of highs and the lowest of lows since Pluto has a way of making everything meaningful, everything dramatic and intense.
“The general pattern for Venus/Pluto clients is that get involved with emotionally demanding relationships with a strong sexual element. They are very anxious about being rejected and therefore will stick with the partner though extreme situations of great psychological intensity” –Adrian Ross Duncan
“Venus/Pluto people have to particularly avoid being compromised economically in relationships as this later becomes a battlefield where power games take place”-Adrian Ross Duncan
“The energy core of Venus/Pluto is the relationship between love and survival. Not being loved is unconsciously considered life threatening” –Adrian Ross Duncan
“What is cathartic for them to admit is that they are secretly paranoid about their partner leaving them and that their love and sexuality are measured to keep control of the relationship”-Adrian Ross Duncan
As we can see this is clearly an aspect that requires great care and self-inquiry. At its lightest it can represent devotion and profound transformation and it its darkest it can result in complete annihilation. Tread lightly.