Bjork, Plutonian

Is Pluto Still The Scorpio Planet?

In August 2006, the International Astronomers Union downgraded Pluto from planet to ‘dwarf planet’ and Scorpios have been confused ever since. It’s understandable.  However, while astronomy has much to recommend it, we don’t look to that science or their federations for spiritual resonance or mythopoetic meaning. Call Pluto whatever you like – this edge-of-the-solar-system erratically orbiting hunk of icy rock – has a potent astrological influence.

You’d know that if you’d had a Pluto transit recently or if, like the musician Bjork, you identified as a Pluto-person. She’s a quadruple Scorpio – born with the Sun, Moon, Ascendant and Neptune in this sign. People with Scorpio Rising are ruled by Pluto, with Mars riding shotgun. Sun and Moon Sign Scorpios are similarly influenced by these two – to be all three plus be born into the Neptune in Scorpio generation is super-Scorped.

Whether you’re encountering Pluto as a temporary influence via a transit or you were born with this sensibility, Pluto makes you not only resilient but anti-fragile. You’re not merely resistant to change or disruption – they’re how you operate. A Scorpionic life, Pluto transit or the part of your birth chart where you have Scorpio is where you pull periodic phoenix stunts, regenerating through drastic change, as if following a secret formula.

“An ancient spirit that’s passionate and dark and survives”

Bjork feels it so much she wrote a song called Pluto describing the process although it’s more primal tech scream than drawn out lyrics.

“…Brand new tomorrow

A reviewer wrote that “the jagged electronic samples and frenetic 140bpm of Pluto creates an uneasy feel.” Yes, well – welcome to Pluto. You know when Pluto is arcing up in your life – especially if you’re a Scorpio – because your dreams turn into ten-part Gothic science fantasy mini-series and you’re all of a sudden allergic to complacency.

As Bjork says “having a lot of Pluto influence, which I do, means you want to cut the crap, throw all the rubbish away. No extra baggage. It’s death and birth.”

“… I wanted it to be like that black, 5,000-year-old blood that’s inside us all; an ancient spirit that’s passionate and dark and survives.  I’ve got a lot of courage, but I’ve also got a lot of fear. You should allow yourself to be scared. It’s one of the prime emotions. You might almost enjoy it, funny as it sounds, and find that you can get over it and deal with it. If you ignore these things, you miss so much….”

Proving beyond any doubt that Pluto is THE Scorpio planet, here is Bjork holding forth on the Underworldly one again. It’s from an interview with the music journalist & punk historian Jon Savage.

JON SAVAGE: When were you born?

BJORK: November 21, 1965.

JS: On the cusp of Scorpio and Sagittarius.

B: My mum is heavily into these things, and apparently I’m as much Scorpio as one can be. To me, whether it means something or not – fuck that, I just love the symbolism of it. It’s pretty, like Greek and Nordic mythologies. I’m supposed to be run by Pluto. It’s like a fairy tale, it simplifies things.

JS: Is Nordic mythology similar to Greek?

B: It isn’t a copy, but it’s got the same characters. In mythology wherever you go, you’ve got the strong guy, the wise woman, the winners and the losers, the travelers and the domestic people. I always like the animals in mythology, like the ravens on Odin’s shoulders.

JS: Scorpio is all about life, death, and sex.

B: That doesn’t surprise me. My three fucking obsessions.

JS: Have you ever had your chart done?

B: My mum did it. I think she took me to all the occult creatures of Iceland, from the age of zero until I was eighteen when I became a rebel anti-hippie. I got my fortune told and everything. I think I probably believe most of it, actually. I’ve got Pluto in a very important place, and that’s what I’m about. I have to re-create the universe every morning when I wake up. And kill it in the evening, which is a bit outrageous, but there you go.

JS: Hard work.

B: Heee! Well, maybe not every morning, but maybe twice a year I have to destroy everything. I’ve also got my moon in the twelfth house, in Scorpio, and my sun in Scorpio in the first house, and also Neptune. Then on my other half, my generational picture, I’ve got Pluto and Uranus in Virgo, and my midheaven is in conjunct with those two. Virgo is the sign of the nurse, so this means I was born to nurse my generation. I’m still fifty-fifty about whether this is true, but I was breast-fed on it.”