Hard Labour in Leo: the Saturn Pluto contact.

Saturn conjunct Pluto in Leo is all in the eyes

The Pluto in Virgo generation is currently experiencing the full weight of Saturn’s transit over Pluto. Saturn in Virgo creates an imperative to attend to the minutiae, to look after the pennies and to not see the wood for the trees, where Pluto in Virgo creates an inquisitive type of mind, a tendency to surmount the most difficult obstacles with remarkably few resources and an obsession with health and nutrition. Pluto in a mutable sign is less back-breaking than most other places and – in my view at least – Hades operates with a measure of comfort in Virgo, it is a sign that is less implacable than most, allowing a measure of flexibility.

As ever, with any transit, I have begun to experience the themes of Saturn – Pluto through my peripheral interactions and relationships, and no placement epitomises the extreme potential difficulty of Saturn conjunct Pluto than the contacts in Leo during the mid to late 1940s; hence, my parent’s generation. The key dates are:

• 27th August 1946 until 28th January 1947
• 12th April 1947 until 6th November 1947
• 10th December 1947 until 4th July 1948

The aspect was partile on 11th August 1947. My mother was born in early October 1947, my wife’s mother in the summer of 1946 (although the conjunction is wide in her astrology) and the parents of Alice, (with whom I am now very closely configured) are, considering her own recent experience – rather unsurprisingly – well within the crucial timeframe. I discussed this particular configuration with another (highly competent) astrologer on a visit to Glastonbury recently and her summation of Sa/Pl in Leo was “I am the law!” Most apt in my view. The fixity of the sign of Leo, combined with the compassionate blockage of Saturn in the Sun’s domain and the fanatic tendency of Pluto creates an astoundingly rigid, dictatorial and didactic outlook. It has the potential to be almost psychotically dogmatic, profoundly heartless and due to the tendency to vanity in Leo, extremely narcissistic: it can therefore create a compulsion to achieve an image of success and perfection that is entirely regal in aspect, without a great deal of compunction about the methodology employed. This is exactly why the conjunction is most closely identified with a tendency to cruelty and Ebertin charaterised it as ‘hard labour’ accordingly. The karmic quality of Saturn when supercharged with Plutonic force can create extreme difficulty in the life, but the key observation is that it is almost entirely self-inflicted through an inability to compromise or to feel any genuine warmth for anyone else. Conversely, these people are often very skilled at mimicking the appearance of warmth and compassion, although usually only for the purpose of self-aggrandisement or advancement, or simply, as Pluto ever dictates, out of a compulsive need for control.

But it is not all bad news. The lesson of Saturn in Leo is to navigate a route to compassion. The problem with Sa/Pl in Leo is that very often the appearance of compassion is almost adequate, but the imperative to transform the inner nature that is Pluto does mean that if there is enough pressure, a transformation is possible and then the flood of warmth and genuine compassion, in keeping with the highest principles of Leo, might manifest in full measure. The signature of untransformed Sa/Pl in Leo is of course a heart-blockage. An inability to feel and express genuine love always creates – ultimately – a physical problem in the heart itself, and this principle can be easily delineated by a brief exploration of 3 examples of the conjunction in Leo, two that I would say are untransformed, and a further case, where the sufferer managed to traverse this astoundingly difficult experiential terrain.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, politician, 30 Jul 1947, Graz, Austria

For California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the conjunction forms a near peregrine island in the 2nd house of money, possessions and physicality. Here is a need to appear powerful and rich, where the vanity of untransformed Leo is expressed through wealth and the trappings of status and true to the implacable demands of this placement, he was a millionaire before the age of 30. Intriguingly (and more than a little synchronously) I have always recognised this placement – in its untransformed state – through the native’s stare: it gives what I have called ‘Terminator eyes’, a hardness or implacability in the gaze that often belies the gracious and outwardly concerned and compassionate manner. Schwarzenegger is – in my view – an entirely untransformed example of the placement, a conclusion supported by the necessity for him to undergo heart-valve replacement surgery; a procedure which will require repeating in the next few years if he is to live much longer. The eventual failure of the heart is only a facsimile for the failure to transform the difficult and dogmatic tendency of Saturn conjunct Pluto in the sign of Leo.

James Hunt, Racing Driver. 29th August 1947, Sutton UK

James Hunt won the world formula one driver’s championship in 1976 and enjoyed a subsequent career as a commentator for the sport. His Saturn – Pluto conjunction riding the cusp of the 8th uncomfortably hard is squared by Jupiter and opposed by Moon too, suggesting an hereditary affliction and a great deal of discontent and emotional disaffection. Crucially, James Hunt died of a massive heart attack aged only 45 having displayed no previous symptoms whatever.

Al Gore, Environmentalist. 31st March 1948 12:53pm Washington DC, USA

Al Gore, 45th Vice-President of the United States, lifelong environmental activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner evinces the conjunction alongside Mars and all rising in Leo. Such a profoundly difficult combination can hardly be conceived of, and his chart is replete with tension throughout, with only the independent and bold impetus of his Arien Sun receiving any ease at all. Normally, the combination of Mars, Saturn and Pluto would create a near unstoppable ruthlessness and ambition, most especially in Leo, and it might well be that Gore displayed those very tendencies in his early career. there is also little doubt in my mind that here is a man who did surmount the mountain-sized obstacle of old “hard-labour” however, and the impetus to that transformation is without question contained herein:

On April 3, 1989, the Gores and their six-year-old son Albert were crossing a street after a baseball game when Albert ran across the street to see his friend and was hit by a car. He was thrown 30 feet (9.1 m) and then traveled along the pavement for another 20 feet (6.1 m).Gore later recalled: “I ran to his side and held him and called his name, but he was motionless, limp and still, without breath or pulse [...] His eyes were open with the nothingness stare of death, and we prayed, the two of us, there in the gutter, with only my voice.” Albert was tended to by two nurses who happened to be present during the accident. The Gores spent the next month in the hospital with Albert. Gore also commented: “Our lives were consumed with the struggle to restore his body and spirit.” This event was “a trauma so shattering that [Gore] views it as a moment of personal rebirth” and a “key moment in his life” which “changed everything.” It certainly awakened his compassion and broke the back of Saturn-Pluto irrevocably.