Fertility Issues, Fear, and Pluto in Capricorn

© 2010 by Nicola Smuts

As modern astrologers, the mere presence of Pluto by transit or progression can bring several issues of fear onto the table. I find that resolving clients’ fears is a key to my practice as an astrologer specializing in fertility. In frequent interpretations of various myths and narratives, Pluto remains an energy to be feared, a dark force to be reckoned with and evokes the notion that a price will have to be paid in exchange for life itself.

Pluto dwells in the underworld, the dark place of the unconscious and desire, and in the place of the unseen. In astrological narrative, Pluto seems to arrive by transit to strip us bare of extraneous baggage, dross, dead wood, making us unbearably vulnerable for an extremely intense period of time, before moving off and leaving in his wake the naked truth, the exposed soul, and the “diamond in the rough”. This is an abbreviated version of some of the interpretations that most modern astrologers would attribute to Pluto.

At the risk of sounding trite and clichéd, most fears are easily allayed by the conscious embracing of them with therapy or even just role playing in the shower. The key to this is that once a fear is known, it no longer has that overwhelming power to threaten our very existence. Trouble is, sometimes we forget, or worse, even deny that we have those fears, making it almost impossible to address them.

Not all my fertility clients have issues with Pluto, not all of them have run out of time biologically, but Pluto is most present in those charts by transit or progression, where change is difficult, because a woman has fears related to her loss of her political clout, social status, relationship, bonuses, and independence. And now Pluto has moved into the sign of Family and Parenthood – Capricorn.

In the area of fertility, there are gender biases that override socio-political correctness – which is a fancy way to say that women have to bear the children, until medical science comes up with an alternative, and so the bias is inbuilt into the biology of child bearing. This means that we (especially as women) have to face up to certain biological truths which are at odds with our feelings about gender equality. We are hormonal, we run out of time biologically at age 36, most critically, and we need support, financial or otherwise during the vulnerable years of child rearing.

In our very organised and politically correct world we have had strategies in place, legal and social to ensure that we can pretend that everything is equal, we have rights and we have political clout, we have bonuses and we have independence. So why then do we struggle to yield to our biology and not have children when we are younger, and why do we complain about not being able to fall pregnant in our 40’s?

This is where a lot of modern women get stuck – delaying child bearing in order to establish independence is all well and good but the reality is that after returning from maternity leave, the playing field is never equal – the corporate world is still prejudiced against mothers, and one can hardly blame a CEO for assuming that if a child is sick a mother will have to leave work to take care of her family. A lot of women pretend that this is not the case, and that gender equality laws will protect them in the case of any discriminatory behaviour by a corporation.

A modern woman fears this loss of financial equal opportunity and independence more than anything. Such a woman trying to conceive during a transit from Pluto will have to face real fears of losing her position in the company she works for, and losing the status she enjoyed, the salary she earned and most importantly, the sense of identity she created for herself through her career.

Power struggles in personal relationships will also suddenly come to fore under Pluto transits coupled with a desire for family – husbands or partners have the tendency to think that a woman will really WANT to stay at home and look after the child and expect that the role of child raising is exclusively a female one – this can lead to a re-working of the marriage or relationship that is uncomfortable, and to some the beginning of the end of the relationship.

For others, especially the Scorpio Sun/Moon/Venus women, the loss or change to their sexual relationship can be very threatening, and the potential fear that their mate might look elsewhere during nursing or confinement is a very real and loaded with insecurity. With Pluto in an earth sign, issues of sensuality, financial resources and personal autonomy are a given, in fertility these issues can be addressed by facing up to facts, and not pretending that the gender laws can make you feel better about losing your figure, your sexuality and your sleep.

On a mundane level, we are not surprised to learn from the media on a daily basis that our families are dysfunctional, broken and that our extended family relationships are not even considered let alone nurtured. The Government (in the UK) taxes married couples more than single ones, thereby putting pressure on people not to marry and teenage pregnancies are on the rise. This is after some 45 years of the contraceptive pill being available to women. Teenagers know how NOT to get pregnant, they just don’t mind it so much because the government will give them a grant and an opportunity to get away from their dysfunctional families to recreate their own.

So what will Pluto achieve during his "Staycation" in Capricorn? Will we so thoroughly trash the concept of family that we will have to recreate new ways of parenthood? And who will decide what those methods of parenting should be? The Government? The Church? Will we seek to redefine the role of parent (since Pluto is in Capricorn) and as Saturn squares the Dark Lord, will we make laws that arise from a fear of redefining father? Or will we, on the square from Uranus, be able to move into a more proactive debate about what “father” should, or can be, in modern families where parents are sometimes of the same gender? More especially who will take responsibility for those decisions?

The Law (Saturn) will challenge Reproductive Science (IVF and Human Embryology) and the Scientists (Uranus) and minority groups will shriek for individual choice and rights, while Pluto will represent the unspoken fear of the potential loss of the concept of parenthood in the light of new technologies that allow for reproduction without participation from "Father".

How does this affect You?

Where does the fear (Pluto) hide in your chart? Does this contribute to your own fertility?

Will people think about having a child as a means of reproducing family, and an extension of personal identity, particularly Cancers and Capricorns? I wonder if the recent knock to the financial markets means that women will have children as a means to secure material resources from State or father. In my practice and my experience there are many reasons why a woman wants a child – all of them are valid, but it is surprising to learn how many of them have a child to fix something missing in their lives, they assume that a child will "cement" the relationship, or that childcare or support is enough for them to live off.

How do we integrate this while trying to fall pregnant? By consciously facing the financial reality of child rearing, and being prepared for it, by acknowledging if we are career driven, that there are other ways to mother, and that domestic help is not a cop out from motherhood, rather it allows the role model of mother to be extended to that of career woman too. As a mother-to-be it is quite acceptable to be frank about discussing financial matters such as wills and joint bank accounts.

By preparing your partner for the inevitability of you having to ask for money, or support, he can be proactive and make this process less humiliating by providing joint bank accounts or additional credit cards. This is not to assume that a woman is always dependent on a man for income, on the contrary, but for a short time such an independent woman might be, and these discussions will highlight financial inequalities in child rearing and will better support the woman in the long term, rather than pretending that such issues do not exist at all.

Pluto in Capricorn represents the fear of loss of material resource, and this is the last fear attachment one needs while being in the extremely vulnerable place of trying to create new life and new families.

I have focused mainly on the material issues, since this is a particular and specific manifestation of Pluto in Capricorn, but of course there are many other manifestations in people’s charts. Psychological issues of Pluto in Capricorn can vary from re-visited fears of parental abuse, and fears relating to repeating those parental patterns in new families, to just  the fear of the process of the physical birth.

Every mother knows that once she is pregnant, she has to face her own mortality in the process of child birth - willingly risking her own life for the birth of a child is no light undertaking, complications happen, women still lose their lives in childbirth, and a large percentage of them suffer from some physical damage as a result for years to come. Women are literally transformed (nice Pluto word) by childbirth, and this is something worthy of a little respect, if not outright fear and dread. Pluto will, by hook or by crook, drag a woman to the underworld, and return her changed, no longer a virgin, no longer innocent, but 100% woman, and ready to rock!

This article is featured in Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed? Here’s What Helps! published by Skywriter as Part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The Cardinal T-Square of 2010: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.