When the intensity, depth, and primal quality of Pluto combine in the birth chart with the feeling nature of the Moon, the result is a deep feeler, a sensitive soul who is immersed not only in his or her own emotional world, but who is in touch with the sentiments, rhythms, and moods of the collective as well.

The emotional wellspring of those who possess the Pluto-Moon configuration in their birthchart is filled with very passionate feelings: jealousy, anger, deep attachments to loved ones, and a powerful felt sense of connection with life in general. Often emotions are a double-edged sword of survival for the Pluto-Moon person. In order to survive, the Pluto-Moon possessor needs its emotional requirements to be met–this is as important to Pluto-Moon as the basic necessities like food and shelter.

Paradoxically, however, due to the intensity of the emotional world, feelings can be very threatening to the Pluto-Moon type. Very forceful emotions from the depth of one’s own being can feel like an attack on the self and the more dangerous emotions can appear to be a matter of life or death. Thus, the Pluto-Moon type can create a lifestyle which will ensure that its emotional life doesn’t get stirred too much. Even more strategically-inclined, the Pluto-Moon owner can dominate, manipulate, and control his or her emotional life and the emotional life with whom he or she engages.

Thus, at times, the Pluto-Moon combination can be completely overpowering. The poor ego often has little to resort to in attempts to defend itself against the onslaught of the emotional tidal waves that are served up in this combination-and often there is nothing one can do except to ride the storm out.

Author Judy Hall calls the Pluto-Moon combination the “Hades Moon,” for it drags the person through a journey into the underworld and the shadowlands of life. When the Pluto-Moon combination is activated by those who possess it, the normal tempo of life stops, everyday activities are suspended, and one must pass through the dark, repressed, taboo areas of emotional life.

The ebb and flow of the Pluto-Moon combination is not a hell to be endured without recompense; those with Pluto-Moon combinations often have a far richer, far more meaningful experience and relationship with reality than those without it.

To better illustrate the Pluto-Moon phenomenon, let’s see the combination in the work of some musicians and composers who possess Pluto-Moon combinations natally.

Rage and Catharsis

Those with the Pluto-Moon are innately predisposed to have intense emotional reactions to the world around them. Oftentimes the stressful pace of life in the modern world and the seemingly constant acceleration of change can drive the feeling life of the Pluto-Moon over the brink.

Take for example “Cage” written by Adrian Belew. Belew, born with a natal Pluto-Moon opposition, laments over the increasing dehumanization and isolation in America. As the song builds in dissonance, Belew moans, “What in the world are we doing to the world?”

Performances in songs like “The End,” are indicative of the Pluto-Moon aspect.

A more classic example is the dramatic apex of the Doors’ “The End.” Morrison is whipped into an emotional frenzy, releasing tension from what he perceived as a sterile, repressed upbringing.

When Pluto-Moon people are sad, they are sad; they redefine “down in the dumps.” Often, however, they are able to transform their sadness into something meaningful or useful. If they are artists, Pluto-Moon types have been able to create some of the most hauntingly beautiful, redemptive pieces out of their bouts with sorrow. The opening trumpet solo of Solea by Miles Davis is indicative of these heart-scorching isolation.

Intensity

It is hard for those with Pluto-Moon not to engage in work and relationships without intensity. These are rarely types who can distance themselves or remain dispassionate unless other factors in the natal chart suggest otherwise.

It is difficult to name a guitarist in the Rock era who packed in more note-for-note intensity into his solos than Eric Clapton. Listen to this Clapton solo from the song, Deserted Cities of the Heart, dating from his days with the power trio Cream.

Vulnerability

Often, usually through a twist of fate, Pluto-Moon people find themselves in emotionally vulnerable positions. Some circumstance will propel the Pluto-Moon person into having to expose deep, dark, raw, possibly traumatic portions of themselves to the outside environment.

Take, for example, Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle-a little-performed masterpiece-and quite possibly the purest expression of the Pluto-Moon phenomenon-and the theme of possessing emotional skeletons in one’s closet.

The entire opera focuses on the exposure of a man’s delicate and troubled emotional past to his beloved. Symbolized by doors in his castle, deeper and deeper passages of the heart are opened as the opera progresses. In this passage, what’s behind the fifth door of Bluebeard’s castle is revealed. Since the Pluto-Moon is such a huge emotive force, it often takes more than the owner to carry the emotional load.

The Pluto-Moon makes the person very dependent on a significant other’s ability to create a supportive and often nourishing environment.

Once again, we turn to Eric Clapton, in this case, Layla.

Layla-you’ve got me on my knees… Layla-darlin’ won’t you ease my worried mind.

Last updated on July 11, 2016 at 4:21 pm. Word Count: 875