It must be the t-square with Pluto in Capricorn, Mars in Cancer and Mercury in Libra that drew me to this particular article from my Archives. Enjoy!
To be blunt – we’ve been had. Humanity as a whole is born hard-wired to reproduce and once we hit puberty, we’re at the mercy of changes in blood and brain chemistry unless we learn to pay attention to what the heck is going on. And you better believe that this has not escaped the notice of the Powers That Be all through out history.
One way or another, often in the guise of religious rules and regulations or greedy folk making a buck off sex through the sale of pornography and/or prostitution, humanity in general has a history of being lead by their gonads. Not pretty, people, not pretty!
With my Mars-Mercury in Scorpio plus a strong Pluto influence in my chart, I have observed how this has played out all my life. That being said, it wasn’t until I was close to forty that I started putting some of the pieces together and it was the advent of the crone phase in my life when the picture became even clearer. Some of the research done in this area really opened my eyes. For instance, studies have found there are biological aspects to what draws us to certain people. Here is a link to an article “The Biology of Attraction” from the Psychology Today website.
Many cultures, especially those with strong religious views, encourage early marriages with an eye to controlling through the distraction of sex. We’ve had a big dose of abstinence promoted in this country the last several years for instance. What better way to muddle the thinking of young, healthy people in this sex drenched culture. What’s the best way to make someone focus on something? Deny them access to it!
There are two periods in a woman’s life when the drive to reproduce is almost overwhelming – the first 5-10 years after menarche and the last 5 years before perimenopause. If we are allowed to acknowledge this driving force represented by Pluto and the eighth House, then we can gain some perspective and objectivity – tactics familiar to anyone who is working with Pluto. Men reading this can draw on their own experiences when it comes to the drive to procreate.
There is another facet to this puzzle that’s tied into brain chemistry. Dr. Helen Fisher has a quote that I really feel is true: “Don’t copulate with people you don’t want to fall in love with because indeed you may do just that.” This is the other side of how we are hard-wired to stay together long enough to reproduce. Read this article from McMan’s Depression and Bipolar Website on “The Brain in Love and Lust” and draw your own conclusions.
For those of us with the Plutonian signatures in our charts – lots of Scorpio, loaded 8th House and natal aspects involving personal planets and Pluto – paying attention to this kind of information can save us a lot of heartache because we tend to take the bonds we form with other humans very seriously. We just don’t do casual very well and I see this as a good thing. I have another post in the back of my mind about the pitfalls of so-called “casual” sex but that’s for another day.
posted by Neith . . .
RealAstrologers 
Yeah, I understand this a little better now. I definitely take bonds very seriously. That Libra stellium of mine really insists on fairness all around, and I am instantly reminded when there is none to be found. But this deep understanding is impossible without some experience to provide contrast, IMO. My natal Saturn in the 1st house of self presented a formidable barrier against experience for a long time, but even that wall had to crumble against the inexorable Pluto.
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I laugh at sex toys, porn, edible undies and infomercials about sex toys :).
:: Shrug ::
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Wow, Neith. You’re right on time with this.
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Very interesting multi-page article. I enjoyed all of it :)!
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Joe, you are right on all counts. Libra encourages us to seek fairness and equity but we’d be wise to let go of expectations of finding much more than glimpses of it.
But this deep understanding is impossible without some experience to provide contrast, IMO.
What a great example of how Saturn can work in our lives, since time and maturity are under his provenance. Which is NOT what we want to hear in our twenties!! :-D
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Thanks, Mem & deb! This is one of my personal “soapboxes” and why I wince when I hear others talking about being wildly in love. Loving someone is wonderful but when we start tacking on all kinds of expectations immediately, then we need to double check the facts!
It will be an interesting ride when Saturn is in Libra and we ALL start learning why Saturn is exalted there. hee hee
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Hello! Not sure if Scorpio rising and Sun in the 8th house is enough to make me a Pluto person, but this post is right up my alley. :D
I am a little puzzled by biology versus astrology in attraction though. Surely the two are in sync, i.e. if one is biologically attracted to someone it will show up in synastry? I always assumed that it is the astrological aspects that trigger the attraction which causes the body to release the various hormones and chemicals that give us those feelings. Or is it really possible to be wildly attracted to someone and yet have no inter-aspects with that person?
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Welcome Lena!
Excellent question and one I will have to think about. Right off the top of my head, I’d say the astrology generally reflects the physical instead of the other way around.
I wrote a post on Neithnet about Mars as Archetype in Attraction touching on some aspects of this.
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This is one that I am currently wrestling with as well (instead of grading papers). Mars is both my chart ruler and my sun ruler, as I am an Aries with a Scorpio ascendent. My Gemini Mars is in the seventh house, and the seventh house cusp is, of course, in Taurus. My Mars is opposite a first house Saturn in Sag, and sextile my sun/venus conjunction in Aries. Pluto, my other chart ruler, squares my ascendant to within a degree. My north node makes no aspects to Mars, but it does make a wide conjunction to my ascendent from the 12th house. I love sexually intense intellectuals with a gift of gab, who use their considerable powers in service to the downtrodden in society. I prefer Scorpios and Geminis, and are most easily drawn to them. but I always seem to come back to Taurus. Or rather, they come to me. Taurus is not known for wittiness, or depth, and that is a problem. the man with whom I am currently “dancing” is a Taurus with powers of eloquence that I don’t usually associate with this sign. If my estimates are correct (he does not believe in astrology and keeps ‘forgetting’ to ask his mother his birth time, although it is on his certificate), his ascendent is also Scorpio and squared by his Pluto midheaven. we have absolutely no Venus/Mars interaspects (other than a Venus/Venus parallel and a Mars/Mars parallel, both Marses are out of bounds) but have been attracted to each other since we were in third grade, 44 years ago. He is a Pentecostal Christian Minister (!!) and is the sort who is totally devoted to his small flock.
He fits my Mars archetype so closely that it is scary. We have a magnetic attraction to each other that has been life long, and even though there are serious questions as to whether or not a real relationship between us “realistic” (I am a priestess of a traditional african religion), as that would take more flexibility than a Taurus with a sun/mercury conjunction (!!!) can be reasonably expected to have, the attraction and the emotion are not in question. Just my 5 cents contribution to this complicated topic.
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Wow, all honey! Don’t forget the attraction of what we designate as the forbidden either – often a personal choice for many. Very, very tricky area for Scorpio/Pluto types. Is your Mars sextile Pluto by chance?
Saturn in the first can increase the public image of being stable and sensible too. Taurus likes that. :-)
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No, there are 75 degrees between my Pluto and my Mars. Mars at 13 Gemini and Pluto at 28 Leo. And we have not always had spiritual differences. When we met in the third grade, we were both from Christian households. During high school we shared a couple of kisses that raised the hair on the back of my neck, but the intensity scared me and I declined to explore that further. We did not see each other after high school graduation until our 30th reunion and when we met again (after 30 years) he didn’t know anything about my beliefs. I told him nothing of those until he started some hot and heavy flirting earlier this summer.
It was a very unsuccessful attempt to keep him at a distance.
Update: We talked this evening about this matter further and have come to the conclusion that we really have no future. He needs a wife who can be his partner in ministry, and without me experiencing a total change that would absolutely negate my current practice I cannot be that for him. And he would really have an issue with me practicing my tradition under his roof. But like I said, the feelings are real and they are mutual. And I don’t think that the feelings are going away. I like to think that, with love, all things are possible. and I do believe that God is too big to fit into any one religion. Even though I have a Mercury in Taurus, I am also An Aries with a Gemini moon. My mind is more flexible than his. I have opinions and beliefs that can change when new information comes to light. He is a Taurus Sun/Mercury/Venus conjunction and his world view is not nearly as fluid as mine. When I discussed our planets and attraction I forgot to say that my eros conjuncts his sun/mercury/venus. His Eros conjuncts my mars.
there is also the consideration of the mercury retrograde (his natal mercury is retrograde), which kind of brought all of this to light in a real concrete way. Here’s hoping that we are just adjusting and figuring things out and that we will work something out later on.
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Saturn in the first can increase the public image of being stable and sensible too.
I duly take note. That Moon in Cap doesn’t exactly contradict that impression, either. ;o)
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