Last time we had a look at the basics of Evolutionary Astrology and how Pluto works to bring about slow evolutionary change and growth. Pluto represents the soul and its deep unconscious security patterns, as well as gifts and talents that may be hidden. In this post, we’ll explore what it’s like to have Pluto in Virgo and the kinds of issues that come up. These notes also relate to having Pluto in the 6th house and Pluto in aspect to Mercury in a conjunction, square or opposition. These notes are from Healing the Soul by Mark Jones.

The Pluto sign placement is largely generational in its effects and the Pluto in Virgo generation was born between 1956 and 1972 (exact dates here). You may find that the sign has greater significance for you if you’ve got other placements in the same sign. For example, I have my Sun and South Node in Virgo and my natal Mercury conjuncts Pluto in Virgo which reinforces this archetype for me.

The Virgo archetype is the pivot that takes you from the personal side of the zodiac to the social side – from Leo to Libra. This makes Virgo transitional. Instead of affirming the self, as in Leo, the soul seeks humility. It brings Leo down to size so the ego can relate to others as an equal in Libra. You go from ‘how can I be special?’ to ‘how can I be useful?’

The goal of Virgo is to serve society in the most effective way. To do this, Virgo needs to re-evaluate the self and deconstruct it and place it at the service of others or useful work. This process brings about a crisis of will because you have to figure out how to act effectively without getting in your own way. In other words, without your ego taking all the credit. The point is to get a realistic sense of who you are in relation to others so you can be of real value to society.

“Pluto in Virgo exhibits the potential for crisis relative to the extent that one’s personal reality and creative aspirations (Leo) are overly identified with.”

So the level of crisis you experience depends on how much of an ego maniac you are!

Virgo is always questioning itself so it can understand itself better and improve itself in order to be useful. Virgo is the yin function of Mercury and wants to discriminate from the data collected by yang Gemini to find what’s most useful. Jones illustrates this process with a great image, perfect for Virgo, calling it:

“a spring-cleaning of the inner and outer library.”

The point is to throw out what isn’t authentic or is no longer useful, but the danger is that you get stuck in endless analysis, a constant loop of criticism and critical thinking that leads nowhere. Self-analysis becomes the end product and undermines your attempt to find a new way of being. And this creates a loss of perspective and sense of purpose.

It occurs to me that one of the reasons for this loss of perspective may be that you don’t have a clear idea of who you are so you don’t know what or who you’re trying to become. To determine what needs to be thrown out, you need to know what it means to be authentic. What is the authentic self?

He goes on to say that this crisis can be overcome by returning to the original reason for the self-analysis which is to reorient yourself in your relationships and to the wider society or community around you. In other words, what works in practical terms.

The struggle to relate to others on an equal basis creates humbling experiences which act as a kind of purification of the self. This can trigger an inner crisis, especially when you mistake humbling for humiliation and the crisis becomes traumatising. By constantly comparing yourself with others, you can end up developing an inferiority complex which leads to feelings of lack and ultimately to meaninglessness.

You may also overidentify with the disenfranchised in society which can create a kind of emotional paralysis and feelings of futility and despair in the face of the overwhelming problems in the world. I’ve done this in the past and used it as an excuse to not develop my own skills – why bother if everything is shit? Perhaps this attitude also feeds into conspiracy culture and the black pill tendency towards cynicism and nihilism, with the younger generations learning from the disaffected Gen-Xers.

This tendency to undervalue yourself in relation to others is a reaction against the inflated self-importance of the Pluto in Leo generation. You may have incarnated with a feeling of not being good enough or that you’ve done something wrong. You may also have high moral standards and a need for perfection that reinforces the sense of lack and not being good enough. You end up feeling unworthy of living a better life and that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as you go between cycles of crisis and guilt.

You may deny what you want in fear of failing to achieve it and then make excuses for not trying. Or you work constantly and are always busy in an attempt to keep your existential anxiety at bay, distracting yourself with all sorts of things until it makes you ill from exhaustion. This forces you to stop and see the crisis for what it is – an opportunity to transform your life for the better.

You may also project your internal criticism onto others and everything around you, or misinterpret what others say as negative or critical when it isn’t. You want a clear idea of who you are but end up defeated by negativity and feelings of inferiority. Of course, the messages you receive from others might actually be negative and your perception of them as negative is correct – but your interpretation of them is incorrect.

For example, my feelings of not being good enough were reinforced at an early age by my parents who consistently undermined and criticised me and called me “a wretched child.” I took this to heart because I didn’t have the capacity at the time to understand the emotional swamp that I was born into (Pluto in 8th). That came later.

All this self-criticism is driven by feelings of guilt underpinned by impossible standards of perfection. The deeper source of this guilt may go back to past experiences of strong religious conditioning, especially those critical of the body, sexuality, the emotions and the feminine. These kinds of teachings can also emphasise transcendence which makes you feel even worse, and:

“can contribute to long-standing internal shame on a subtle body level…”

This explains a lot. For as long as I can remember I’ve had a sense of unworthiness, like I don’t deserve to exist. I associate it with Chiron in Aries and maybe Saturn opposite Neptune. But Pluto in Virgo may explain why it’s buried so deep and why I haven’t been able to find its root in this life. Perhaps it’s from past lives or an ancestral inheritance.

Whatever the cause, you may have a sense of guilt or ‘original sin’ that doesn’t relate to any specific incident. But there’s no easy way to make reparations because it’s not from a real event and you’ve done nothing wrong. That means it can “grow unchecked in the consciousness” and lead to an unconscious desire to be punished or mistreated in some way in order to atone.

But masochism is just another kind of egocentric behaviour (Leo) that’s been inverted. The self is seen as either too grand or too worthless, and neither are true. When you believe that you’re not good enough you can manifest all sorts of ‘proof’ to show that you’re right. You set yourself up to fail and when it happens it’s because you deserved it.

You can end up in a permanent crisis where you’re never quite good enough and nothing works. This cuts you off from others and creates a feeling of deep isolation which can be so traumatic that it leads to suicide or self-harm in extreme cases.

To evolve beyond these compulsive feelings of guilt, shame and aloneness you need to embrace the Pisces polarity point which shows a need for forgiveness and acceptance of the world as it is and for learning faith. You also need to simplify your life, especially your mental life, and stop going over and over the same ground in your head.

“There is a need to close the ongoing case of the inner trial and learn to act (Virgo, as an earth sign) practically in a step-by-step fashion on the verdict reached.”

Yes! I do feel like I’m on trial, but it’s me judging myself and I don’t even know what I’ve done wrong. It’s very Kafkaesque! However, this also raises the question of how to reach a verdict in the trial, and this comes back to the question of authenticity too. Perhaps I can just move to adjourn, or better still, throw the whole case out due to lack of evidence! ⚖️

Whatever I do, the negative thinking has to stop because it feeds on itself and gets worse and worse until it takes over your whole thinking process. In my case, this is exacerbated by having Mercury conjunct Pluto in the 8th house and Saturn in the 3rd house – although they are trine which should help to get it under control if I work at it.

I’m also constantly reading and researching, surrounded by piles of books and scribbled notes. It’s a compulsion – like I need more information and if I know more, then I’ll understand things better and then I can solve the problem, or whatever. This works well with some things, but not so much with others. It’s really an attempt to eliminate uncertainty and chaos and to create order and control.

Virgo spends a lot of time trying to get its ducks in a row but the ducks keep wandering off and quacking at the wrong moments. It’s extremely annoying!

Maybe I can learn from the ducks – learn how to float and go with the flow. This is the lesson of Pisces:

“The Pisces polarity point holds the eternal truth that below the surface of the ocean, the water is still. Thinking stops as the self begins to make peace with its own existence instead of perpetuating an endless frenzy of inner activity as a defence against that existence.”

That final sentence really hit home. The distractions and thinking and criticism are all a defence against my true nature, a defence against simply being present, being here in the body (2nd house polarity point). The ‘endless inner frenzy’ keeps me locked in my head going in circles and makes me miserable.

I know I can break out of this inner prison because I’ve done it, either in meditation or by accident or when I’m absorbed in doing something creative – and it gets easier with practice. You just shut up and breathe and surrender:

“The essential issue then is the surrender of the contents of consciousness in order to experience the context of divinity and the reality of love (Pisces) that underlies creation.”

By developing a relationship with the divine and taking a holistic view of reality you can find inner peace. You can also develop real humility rather than faking it by putting yourself down all the time, and find your true work role in service to others. In Pluto: The Evolutionary Journey of the Soul, Jeff Green relates this to karma yoga and the need to be guided by the universal spirit rather than the ego:

“By cultivating an awareness of the Divine, or the whole, these individuals will purge or purify the ego in such a way as to allow the universal spirit…to operate through them. … [they] will flow with the natural currents of life, rather than analysing why the currents go this way and that.”

The positive gifts of Pluto in Virgo include a powerful “laser-like mind” that you can shine on anything. You can gain great clarity and perspective that allows you to see through bullshit and root out whatever stands in the way of surrender. This also helps you to find meaning in the small details of your life so that your everyday routines become a way to serve the divine by serving others. Simply pouring tea becomes a sacred act. 🍵

For me, the stumbling block has always been resistance to surrender in varying degrees of intensity. This is currently being triggered by Neptune transiting opposite my natal Mercury Pluto conjunction at the same time that Pluto and Uranus are trine the same spot. Guess it’s time to evolve!

Next, we’ll explore Pluto in the 8th house which is also relevant for Pluto in Scorpio…

Read whole series here

Images: Help; Beads; Silhouette

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