Everyone is talking about ... Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt . I'm interested in Aniston's chart because she has Pluto transiting her Moon right now. This article is written January 25, 2005 as photos are appearing in tabloids showing Brad and Angelina Jolie together. Brad and Jen filed for divorce about a month ago.
This is Aniston's chart.
chart from astrothemePoor Jennifer Aniston. She has Pluto exactly on her Moon right now (less than 30 seconds from partile), if you would like a vivid way to always remember how horrible that transit can be.
We can be sure Aniston is losing her fondest hopes and dreams, things she thought she could not live without, something she is tender about ... perhaps her defenses about having a baby, for the time being anyway. One might even conjecture an abortion at least in the symbolic sense. This transit is stirring up compulsions, dread, terror perhaps, so-cqlled irrational fears. Since it's taking place in Sagittarius, probably fears about being tied down, losing freedom. Many fire sign women and mutable sign women are not all that thrilled about having someone else inhabit their body for 9 months!
From msnbc.com article by Michael Ventre:
It seems Brad and Jen had some friction over the issue of children. Brad, 41, wants kids. Jen, 34, doesn’t, at least not now. [Nancy's note: Most with Moon/Pluto at birth would hestitate!] She reportedly became angry when Brad pointed out that Angelina, who is 29, has been a good mother to her adopted son Maddox while at the same time pursuing a movie career. What Brad was suggesting, in effect, is that Jen should look at Angelina as a role model. Whether he was pushing for tattoos, a vial of his blood around her neck and an uncomfortably close relationship with a male sibling is unclear.
There were constant rumors about Jen being pregnant. Anytime she wore a loose-fitting outfit, people would congratulate her. If she skipped having a glass of wine at dinner, people figured there had to be a bun in the oven. If she was at a party and went home early, eyebrows would be raised that she was just resting for two now....
Aniston has four other planets at 23 degrees which Pluto is aspecting this month: Sun at 23 Aquarius, progressed Moon at 23 Aries, Mars at 23 Scorpio, natal Pluto at 24 Virgo. Probably things heated up over the baby issue whem Pluto was at 24 degrees Sag, squaring her natal Pluto. Now comes the loss.
Aniston has Moon square Pluto natally. She is a very strong woman, lots of yang planets. But when Pluto hits your Moon you are likely to be more vulnerable than you ever thought possible. The vulnerability will seem to come from within yourself, however, as if "you" are caving in, as if something within yourself is attacking you. That's v e r y vulnerable. Where can you hide from yourself?
Next year Aniston's Sun will progress into Aries. That's a brand new start! We wish her well. If Aniston is initiating the divorce, taking a strong stand, good for her. She needs to use her Aries North Node to win in this lifetime (win over past life patterns).
Moon/Pluto aspects : One's Fate is Inescapable or it wouldn't be fate ...
Here's an anonymous response from a reader of my blog article on Brad and Jen. Please remember my policy is not to "correct" email formatting. I think the internet style should be relaxed as it helps people communicate who may not be natural writers like us introverts!
A reader wonders ...
"Does that mean if pluto and the moon are together in your 12th house on your natal chart, you have a permanent aspect of vulnerability? My immediate thought on Brad and Jennifer and their marriage was her persona is the good girl, and his is the sexy bad boy, so how could he not eventually go with other women?"
Great comments. so where in this chart does it show she would get trapped in an image or persona rather than being a whole person?
Moon conjunct Pluto
This is a very tough placement, as if you didn't know that already if you have it. I will treat the subject of just Moon conjunct Pluto regardless of what house it is in first. Vulnerability is actually a bit of a euphemism. For those with Moon/Pluto I truly recommend that you buy Liz Greene's incomparable book for Plutonians called The Astrology of Fate. You can click through and buy it right now.
This book discusses the affect of having Pluto connected to any of the inner planets, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars. Just the use of the word "fate" in the title tells you it isn't going to be a walk in the park.
Fate is a politically incorrect word these days when we like to think that a tsunami is an outrage against "us" because "we" know better ... we are gods and these things should not happen. Seeing hundreds of thousands of souls washed away in a few minutes forces us to meet another face of God, the dark face of God. It is cruel and we turn away. Those for whom Pluto is a traveling companion in life can't turn away. We are forced to know God through extremes of fate and we understand this at a level other can't.
I read for a woman with many Pluto contacts to inner planets who had a "troubled" love life but I don't mean she had a couple of failed marriages. She finally found the right man when she was in her 30's. He was married to a manipulative woman who got pregnant to hold on to him so she eventually ended the relationship. He called one night, desperate for reconciliation. She refused and he killed himself.
After many years she found another true love. While she was away on a business trip he was burned beyond recognition in a freak fire and died before she could reach his bedside. This woman has an experience of fate, of God, that is outside the experience of most of us and difficult for those of us who are philosophical or "spiritual" to comprehend. We are all REVOLTED by this face of God, are we not? That's why Liz Greene's book is a must. She actually tried to come to terms with all of this.
911 was perpetrated by evil humans. We are prepared to see the evil in man. It is horrible to have a terrorist attack but we are used to the heinous things people are capable of doing to each other, at least if we stick our heads into history even just a little bit or spend more than a few minutes in a ghetto. But GOD? Why would God do these things? What kind of a God is this? That is the question those with Pluto contacting an inner planet will find themselves asking at some time in their lives. And for some, more than once.
I can give you many vivid examples but they are truly horrifying and embittering, even to hear about. This is the taste of Pluto, the necromatic flavor of death and decay. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here" -- Pluto is the land where there is no hope.
The landscape of hell? There are five rivers that flow through the underworld:Acheron, the river of lamentation; Cocytus, the river of woe; Lethe, the river of forgetfulness; Phlegethon, the river of fire; and Styx, the river of unbreakable oath, by which the gods swore. It was also the river of hate. Can you understand these things? Have you ever made an oath and grown to hate the person who bound you to it (yourself).
These are the toxic, putrid rivers of the underworld, of your own psychic underworld. There are no birds, no trees. These are the waters we drink from, those who have Pluto contacting an inner planet. The river Lethe, the river of forgetfullness, is my favorite. Sometimes you are able to forget. Sometimes you are not. But you are very, very different from someone who has not traveled to the underworld and experienced a living death, a death in life.
When we feel things are predetermined, that we have little choice, we use two words: destiny or fate. Destiny is the "g" word and fate is the "b" word.
Those who have Pluto aspecting an inner planet, Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars seem to lead very different lives. They are often singled out for things that seem fated. This is the simple thesis of Greene's book but her passion and compassion are tremendously helpful as she reviews the real meaning of this with some vivid case studies from her practice as a Jungian analyst in the UK. She has put it better than I could in a few paragraphs, so please read the section in the book pertinent to you if you have Moon/Pluto.
Everyone who has Pluto aspecting Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus or Mars is likely (fated? dare I say it) to lose something they think they can't live without. This isn't an exaggeration. The intensity of desire is wracheted way up because Pluto is involved -- you might compare this to a drug addict for whom withdrawal is a near death experience as well as the experience of addiction, the whole thing being ghastly and transformative. If you make it through you are a different person. Another phrase worth quoting here is "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
So when I say vulnerability, I don't mean emotionally vulnerable, like you might get your feelings hurt or your little toes stepped on. To say this to someone with Moon/Pluto is a travesty and an insult. Sophie' s Choice comes to mind. That's a fairly good example of a Moon/Pluto experience, one that was repeated in the tsunami.
click here to purchaseTragically, it often seems to involve the loss of a child, a particularly unbearable loss, or the loss of the most childlike part of us, the loss of magic and belief in the goodness of things. Perhaps the tragic loss of a baby in a former lifetime is what makes Aniston hesitate -- we have no way of knowing. The pressure will be intense.
In the 12th house this becomes a universalized experience.
The Plutonic nature of the experience is exemplified by the fact that Aniston has to deal with this on stage, as it were, out in public.
There are two aspects to the drama, the apparent betrayal by Pitt and the invidious and painful comparison with Jolie, hardly the woman anyone would put at the top of the Best Mother of the Year list. Because Pluto is on her Moon, I imagine it is the child issue that is paramount and that Aiston must lose Pitt over this issue is the sacrifice that is so painful.
In addition, everyone is participating in an inner drama which is guaranteed to be of the very most private nature since it involves the Moon. People don't like to talk about "moon issues". It reduces them to groveling fools or regressed infantile feelings of utter powerlessness. It is like a 21st century Greek drama. The Chorus is the man on the street. Poor, poor Jen, they wail, trembling inwardly with mini versions of fear and awe. And if they don't tremble, if they blow it off with "she should have known better", then perhaps they are even more vulnerable because that is the very POINT of it and it escapes them.
The thing to understand here is that one's fate is inescapable or it wouldn't be fate. Oedipus went half way around his known world to wind up doing what he was trying so hard not to do. I'm sure you've heard the story, "An Appoinmentt with Death in Samara"?
This idea of fate is anathema to the spiritual, We like to feel that you can transcend your fate. Jung suggests that we can "avoid" our fate if we tend to our chracter on the inner plane. This is not always possible.
times when we should feel very small ... www.clipart.comBelieve me, this loss to Aniston is nothing trivial. It isn't just her persona, that tiny bit of ego that sticks up above the whole self, that is hurt. It is a cut to the quick, a mortal wound to a fragile childlike heart/soul. My conjecture would be that her compulsion not to have children has cost her something very, very precious and yet, in a very fundamental sense, she has "no choice". She is also subject to public humiliation at a time when she is most vulnerable.
This loss is a bad bargain with a bad god ... that's how it feels. There are no rituals for Pluto. There is now way to address this God. To plead for mercy is for fools. You already know this is you have Pluto contacting inner planets.
This whole thing is not something Aniston may really ever "understand". Pluto transits have to be lived alla the way through. Later on, sometimes there is meaning revealed. This is very hard for someone who has a Sagittarius Moon. What is the meaning of all of this? Someone who has shown such dignity now suffers such indignity and it involves a very private issue.
The baby issue aside, the questionable character and mothering abilty of Jolie aside, maybe Aniston should have known he really was a "bad boy" but I'm sure from this chart that she didn't or that she truly didn't think it would happen to her. In a certain sense that kind of thing is outside her experience at a soul level. This will change her forever. Even the fact that the reason was kept secret will tell you this. She refuses to hurt the one who hurt her.
I'm not a fan of movie stars. I don't know these people personally and have little knowledge about or interest in them other than this particular transit. Being as astrologer permits us to read these charts as though they were "just another person", another soul coming for self-understanding and guidance. That's why I would like to join the great mass who are saying, poor, poor Jen.
Learn more about Pluto aspects to inner planets. Read my article, The Pluto Club.
Books
If you have one of these placements, I heartily recommend a few books:
The Astrology of Fate by Liz Greene who had Scorpio Rising and Pluto in the 9th house. There can be such "fatedness" to a heavy Pluto influence. I think of a woman whose fiance was shot to death in a convenience store robbert the night before their wedding.
Healing Pluto Problems by Donna Cunningham. Cunningham deals majestically wth the lower end of Pluto, addictions. I'm glad for this. I get impatient with psychologists who speak of 100% residivism. Spirituality can heal addictions. No one is doomed to repeat their lessons, though they may choose to with free will. I know of many examples among my clients of those who have healed theoretically incurable conditions. With God, all things are possible.
Astrological Aspects: Your Inner Dialogues by Jeanne Avery. This is a terrific book to describe every aspect, i.e., Sun square Pluto, Sun conjunct Pluto, Mars opposite Pluto. Avery knew many famous people and includes descriptions that are just unforgettable. She is the world's greatest astrologer for aspect description.
The Gods of Change: Pain, Crisis and the Transits of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (Arkana's Contemporary Astrology Series). I haven't read this book personally but Sasportas was an excellent astrologer, now deceased. His books have appealed to many of my students through the years.
Alive and Well with Pluto: Transits of Power and Renewal by Bill Tierney. Have not read this book personally. It's about transits not natal positions, but it understanding transits is an important part of understand the energy you're walking around with from your natal chart.
I don't recommend Jeff Green's books. I don't feel that he has an adequate grasp on the subject.
Pluto: The Shadow or the Light. Heal Yourself Let Go of Anger and Fear, Unlock Your Motivation, Develop Faith in the Universe, a tape by Joyce Levine
The Book of Pluto by Steve Forrest
Astroamerica books about Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.
