If you have Venus opposite, square or even inconjunct (150 degrees) Pluto you know all too well the challenging aspects of this planetary combination—likewise if you have Venus in Scorpio, or, to a lesser degree, Pluto in the 7th house or Venus in the 8th. But Venus-Pluto doesn’t only promise a world of pain—it can also lead to transformation.
The Venus-Pluto Personality
Venus-Pluto people are passionate and intense. They can be controlling, possessive, obsessive and jealous. They can manipulate their partner using love and sex. They can be transformative and they can be dark indeed. They are also brutally honest.
With these more challenging aspects, there may also be a difficulty in controlling desires. You want something or someone so very badly, so intensely, so extremely and so completely that all rational thought can fly north for the winter. It doesn’t matter whether what you want is free to come to you or whether it belongs to someone else—you can’t help craving it. You manipulate and play games until you get what you want—but have you really? Love and power become confused to the extent that your biggest fear may be in letting yourself be equal to another; only self-confidence will allow you to completely trust another.
(For the record, I have Pluto in the 7th and Venus and Pluto exactly inconjunct. I admit it—I have control issues and difficulty in detaching or letting go and I do have a weird attraction to power plays. Venus-Pluto is absolutely at play in my relationships.)
Venus-Pluto in Relationships
When you are in a relationship, your expectations can be ridiculously high, especially in regards to your partner’s honesty, fidelity and loyalty—your own faithfulness may be a little more questionable. Quite often, your dark side emerges sometime into the partnership (although partnership is not often a word associated with Venus-Pluto). Be careful not to let the power games ruin what is actually a good thing. The crappy stuff you see and obsess over is more than likely coming from within you, not him.
And when it is over? Regardless of whether it was unrequited lust, a single night of guilt-ridden passion or a long-term relationship, letting go is something that does not come easily to you—even when you are in pain. In some cases, it is the pain that reminds you that you feel, and the pain which you find yourself coming back for again and again.
I have Venus in Aries inconjunct my 7th house Pluto, and I can obsess and hang on to the fantasy long past its end date and then suddenly wake one morning and it will be gone. If, however, your Venus is in a fixed sign (especially Scorpio or Taurus) you may constantly be holding onto something that is no longer true or seeking a closure that simply doesn’t come.
You hate with as much passion as you love—Venus-Pluto revenge fantasies are as colorful as their sexual fantasies can be. There is indeed a fine line between pleasure and pain. In fact, your need for intensity can push you into relationships which you know are no good for you. The temptation may be to search for passion in a secret or forbidden way—perhaps with someone who is out of bounds or otherwise attached.
Venus-Pluto Transformative Potential
The upside of all of this intensity and passion is the potential for creativity and transformative experiences that comes from Venus-Pluto challenges. You know only too well what pain is like, and appreciate real love and pleasure all the more. When you are able to give yourself over completely, that is when the healing can start.
How Pluto-Venus Transits Will Impact You
When Pluto meets up with Venus by transit (Venus transits are normally quicker and are therefore unlikely to have long-term impact), even if you are not by birth a Pluto type, you will be over the duration of this transit. You may find yourself yearning after a married man, involved in power plays, or indulging in something intensely secretive. You may also find it more difficult to control your thoughts, with desires for a person, relationship or something else never far from your mind. If you already have Pluto-Venus contacts, the impact of this transit will magnify these.
As an example, a few years ago, Pluto (in Sagittarius) was trine my natal Venus. My natal Venus-Pluto aspect was activated, and the trine by transit just made what was happening happen more easily (and by “easily,” do not read “pain-free”). All the barriers were removed.
Synastry
Don’t just look at your own chart here. Think about the chart of those with whom you are in relationships. A Venus-Pluto contact can happen through synastry. It can occur if you are involved with someone who has a Venus-Pluto signature. There may be someone in your life who forces you to see something about yourself that you wanted to keep hidden. There may be someone in your life who transforms you, brings you to life. There could be someone who helps you destroy something which is no longer good. There may be someone whom you allow to control you, or manipulate you or possess you. If you look at the charts of these people, it is likely that you will find a Scorpio or Venus-Pluto aspect there … or even an 8th house contact by synastry. Have a think about it.
›› Astrological compatibility reports can offer insight into how the planets play out in your relationships.
With Venus-Pluto oppositions in synastry (i.e., your Venus is opposite his Pluto or vice versa) the attraction can go between love and hate and right back again super fast. The relationship will definitely be volatile, possibly unrequited, but, if sexual in nature, undeniably and addictively intense. This is the sort of passion that will never be forgotten, the affair that you will compare all others to.
In any Venus-Pluto relationship, each partner’s deepest fears, insecurities and fantasies are dragged kicking and screaming out of the closet. In healthy relationships, this is change your life stuff. Where the motivations of one or the other are not so “pure,” passion can very quickly turn to pain and power struggles … and the Pluto person will usually hold the power, with the Venus person the “submissive” partner. This in itself can cause frustrations, jealousy and manipulation—staying together is as much a challenge as letting go.
So when Venus and Pluto hook up by opposition, it is very like a one night stand (the opposition often implies a coming together and pulling apart) or blazing short term affair that changed you in some way. The sex may have been incredibly good or incredibly bad—it doesn’t matter. What is important is the transformative experience: what you learned from it and how it has changed you. Because it will have … changed you, that is!
How is Venus-Pluto impacting your relationships? Let us know in comments below.
This post is republished by permission of the author and originally appeared at Jo Tracey Astrology.
Related Posts:
- Venus Square Pluto: Third Parties
- Pluto Relations in Synastry
- The Top Five Synastry Aspects for a Significant Relationship
