Raw Power, Sumblimation & Control

A Pluto-Mars conjunction in the natal chart is a highly intense aspect that demands the relationship to power, control, anger, and resentment be worked with and faced throughout one’s lifetime.

Pluto is involved with unconscious drives. Pluto’s placement in the birth chart points to the depths of the personal psyche and the unseen, yet powerful, and often compulsive forces we carry within. With Pluto strongly featured in the chart, there tend to be issues around control, vulnerability, and personal power. An emphasis on Pluto can result in resistance to letting others get close and a tendency to guarded, secretive, and sometimes manipulative behavior.

The natal Mars is tied to personal power, expressions of will, anger, dominance, and the establishment of boundaries. With a Pluto-Mars conjunction in the natal chart, there is often an unconscious sublimation of anger and complex experiences of power. Struggles and themes involving dominance, and submission, along with accessing and expressing strength may arise and be core motifs in the lives of those whose charts contain this aspect.

Mars, Pluto, and The Emphasis on Unconscious, Primal Forces

Mars and Pluto have a connection to one another. Many astrologers describe Pluto as the “higher octave” of Mars. Liz Greene says that Mars and Pluto “obey the power of the earth and underworld rather than heaven”.¹ She writes both Mars and Pluto are, “masculine servants and expressions of an ancient mother-goddess who emerges from a primordial world view where the male was subordinate to the ultimate female power of procreation.”²

With Pluto conjunct Mars, these raw, primordial drives are both emphasized, but also subverted to the underworld of one’s own unconscious. As a result, the expressions of Mars are routinely accessed in the journey to the depths. The relationship to anger, personal power, willpower, and strength is complicated and involved in repressions of the psyche. There is often a sublimation of Mars energy that may arise as a significant fear and distrust of masculine energy (in others and within themselves).

The Battleground of Will: Navigating Power and Control with Mars-Pluto

Those with hard contacts between Pluto and Mars in the natal chart often experience:

• strong internal pressures
• challenges expressing anger
• the sublimation of intense feelings
• a build-up of resentment
• the need for control

In Healing Pluto Problems, Donna Cunningham writes of strong Mars-Pluto contacts in the natal chart: “Since the power of anger is exaggerated, these people control it at all costs, yet walk around with it constantly.”³ This tends to result in much resentment.

Oftentimes, those with a Mars-Pluto conjunction in their natal chart present a façade to the outside world that contrasts sharply with their internal experiences.

Self-control and control of and by others are core issues for those with this placement. When speaking of Mars-Pluto contacts in the natal chart, Steven Arroyo writes, “These combinations do show a tendency toward self-repression, and the individual is thus often completely unaware of the forcefulness of his own nature and the power of the karmic tendencies which have motivated so much of his behavior for lifetimes.”⁴

Individuals with this aspect may feel an intense need to control their own actions and emotions, sometimes stemming from a fear of vulnerability or being overpowered by others. This can lead to internal battles as they attempt to balance their assertive instincts with deeper emotional undercurrents. Cunningham explains, “Because of the power given to the Pluto department of life, and the power struggles being carried out there, the person can end up being controlled by the thing he most wants to control.”⁵

With a natal Mars-Pluto conjunction, there is intense pressure surrounding what it held, felt, and smolders beneath the surface This may lead to an eventual boiling over or the feeling of a simmering pot that never gets to boil and release its pent up energy.

Sexual Energy and the Tangles of Mars-Pluto in the Natal Chart

There are strong sexual themes with this aspect. In sexual experience, hidden areas of the self and psyche are expressed. We often find disowned parts of the self through fantasies, desires, and play.

For those with a Mars-Pluto conjunction in their chart, the dark side of sex may be intriguing. Suppressed expressions of masculine strength and dominance may be experienced here. There may be a pull towards bestial and violent experiences, though these individuals may feel conflicted about their desires and the connection to . parts have been buried, rejected, and sequestered within. Liz Greene explains that with aspects to Pluto, the chthonic (underworld) qualities of Mars are emphasized.⁶ She notes a “close link between the erotic and the bloody, the sexually exciting and the brutal, is something which it is not always comfortable for the individual with Mars-Pluto to acknowledge.”⁷

In relationships, the Mars-Pluto conjunction can amplify emotional intensity, leading to fixations on partners or love interests. This can manifest as deep passion, but also jealousy or possessiveness if the energy is not managed healthily. With Mars and Pluto in hard aspect to each other, one may find it difficult to let go of attachments, even when they are no longer beneficial.

Shadows of the Past: Mars-Pluto Aspects in Childhood

Those with Mars conjunct Pluto in their natal chart likely encountered intense power dynamics within their family structure. They may have experienced a domineering parent or authority figure that led them to feel perpetually disempowered.

They may have grown up in a situation where their boundaries were not honored, leading them to develop covert strategies of resistance and a complex relationship to power and control. Violations became buried inside, leading to intense and often unexpressed feelings developed in these individuals. With these dynamics in play, survival became a core theme in their lives.

Unable to say no or express their needs, Mars-Pluto people often develop covert and manipulative tactics to get what they want.

Development, Gifts, and Transformation Through the Mars-Pluto Conjunction

It’s hard to talk about Pluto without using the word transformation. Pluto, with its connection to depths, buried treasure, and unseen forces is also fully about unveiling and bringing what lies in the darkness to the light.

With Mars conjunct Pluto, there are many lessons and deep processes involved in the correct use of this energy. This aspect is about strength and those with this conjunction in their chart must develop their relationship to strength and power by learning to use it for themselves and others. They must learn to use it for growth and healing.

However, Pluto’s power to sublimate and relegate processes to the unconscious realms can make this very difficult.

Those with this aspect need to learn to access and direct the transformational energy that runs within. The determination that comes from this placement in the chart is formidable, giving great strength alongside the challenges that this dynamic brings.

When harnessed constructively, the obsessive energy of this aspect can fuel profound transformation. These individuals are capable of incredible resilience and empowerment when they learn to channel their fixations into meaningful and productive endeavors.

This process is significant. In The Astrology of Self-Discovery, Tracy Marks writes, “As Pluto releases its energy within us, it releases first what we consider to be negative energy—angers, frustrated desires, hatreds, jealousies—all the poisons that have clogged our center become twisted and distorted because they have accumulated inside without the light of conscious awareness and acceptance…But what happens when we fully experience those dark forces, when we allow them to be incorporated into our identity and consciously integrate them into our awareness by confronting them and accepting them as human? The energy that is released with those feelings is transmuted; it is now available for other purposes.”⁸

Famous People with Pluto-Mars Conjunctions in the Natal Chart

Kevin Spacey (Virgo)
Robert Downey Jr. (Pisces)
Woody Harrelson (Virgo)
Shailene Woodley (Virgo)
Bella Thorne (Sagittarius)
Elizabeth Moss (Libra)
John Cryer (Virgo)
Sarah Jessica Parker (Virgo)
Parker Posey (Virgo)
Jimmy Fallon (Libra)
Patrick Stewart (Leo)
Eminem (Libra)
Allison Mack (Libra)
Brooke Shields (Virgo)
Kevin Kline (Leo)
Princess Diana (Virgo)
Johnny Depp (Virgo)
Rudy Guiliani (Leo)
Cher (Leo)

SOURCES

Arroyo, Stephen. Astrology, Karma & Transformation: The Inner Dimensions of the Birth Chart. CRCS Publications, 1978.
Cunningham, Donna. Healing Pluto Problems. Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1986.
Greene, Liz. The Astrology of Fate. Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1984.
Marks, Tracey. The Astrology of Self-Discovery. CRCS Publications, 1985