“It seems that destiny has taken a hand,” said Rick Blaine in the timeless movie Casablanca. For most of us, the sensibility that fate and destiny play an inexorable role in love is the stuff of fairy tales or movies. For natives with Pluto in the Seventh House, truer words were never spoken.
Seemingly self-assured, confident and in control, Rick Blaine was the master of his corner of the Universe – a “gin joint,” as he described it – where Casablanca’s international stable of war refugees gathered to wait out the onerous process of obtaining an exit visa. “Everyone goes to Rick’s,” proclaimed Captain Renault, local legal authority of the town, he himself a regular customer. People knew where they stood with Rick. “I don’t stick my neck out for anyone,” Rick said more than once. Coolly distant, no one had a hold on Blaine’s affections. When a girlfriend – who drank Rick’s liquor generously before she saw him – demanded to know where he was the night before, he replied that he didn’t remember that far back. When she asked if she would see him that night, he replied that he didn’t make plans that far in advance. When she fell apart emotionally making a scene, he had an employee whisk her away from the bar. Affair over. Anyone who has ever has loved a Pluto in the Seventh native and not engaged his or her heart has felt such a bitter sting at the end of the relationship. Didn’t he or she ever care?
Such a question is pointless with a Pluto in Seventh individual. Like all Pluto-ruled positions when it comes to love, Pluto in the Seventh finds the process of loving someone so intense that the rest of the world and all its players seem like a lifeless shell of reality. Long before some luckless human falls for the charms of a Pluto in the Seventh person, they have given their hearts to an impossible love. Even after the relationship ends for one reason or another, the memory of the relationship takes on a life of its own, twisting the motives and purposes of the Pluto in the Seventh individual. Rick cast off his freedom-fighting ways after his Paris affair ended, and wandered down to Casablanca, where he established the Café and started a life that is starkly reminiscent of the Lord of the Underworld, Hades. All manner of seedy activities happened in the glitter world of the Café: sex, drunkenness, gambling, theft, black market activity and visa scams occurred under Rick’s watch, but he acted like nothing bad happened – just people enjoying a drink. In fact, the Café was Rick’s personal torture chamber, where he could compare the suffering in his heart with the suffering of others and still come out on top. Nothing compared to his pain, not even that of young women forced to trade in their virtue for exit papers for a safer life. Even when visa peddler Ugarte was shot to death by the police in front of the Café’s customers, Rick proclaimed, “I’m sorry for the little excitement, you can all go back to having a good time.”
Rick’s world and his careful reconstruction of his life falls to pieces when his Paris love, Ilsa, walks in the Café on the arms of the one man Rick respects, a world renowned freedom fighter. Not only was she with someone else, she was with someone “better” than him. We watch as Rick drinks himself almost into oblivion, while his piano player, Sam, cajoles him to go home. “There is no reason to stay,“ says Sam. “She’ll be here,” declares Blaine, certain as any Pluto in Seventh person would be that his obsession is hers, too. Indeed, she does arrive. What follows is a scene reminiscent of Nickelback’s song, This Is How You Remind Me. Ilsa tries to explain what happened. Getting all Neptunian on Rick, she starts, “Let me tell you a story….“ But Pluto trumps Neptune every time. “Let me tell you a story,” Rick cuts in, “of a man waiting at the railroad station with a stupid look on his face, because his guts were just kicked in.” Though she walks out angry and disappointed, you just know that this was not the last of the story, and with Pluto in the Seventh, it never is – unless the native follows the only escape plan possible.
Though it is easy to glibly say that Pluto is the planet of transformation, the actual process is painful and torturous. Whenever Pluto is involved, the Lord of the Underworld demands that you relive your angst over and over again until you’ve had enough of it and want things to change. For some people with Pluto in the Seventh, even though a memory is all they have, they’ll cling to the memory of that lost love like it was the only thing that matters. Make no mistake; this is an addiction as potent as any drug. There is only one solution: Release.
We do not see Rick’s moment of actual transformation. Maybe it was in the hinted-at last night of passion shared. Or maybe it was when Ilsa submitted to her feelings and asked Rick to think for them both. One or both moments of power gave Rick the ultimate momentum to change the fate of not just three people, but perhaps the fate of the world. If Rick ran off with Ilsa, would it shatter the man, Ilsa’s freedom-fighting husband, on whom so many people depended on for inspiration in one of the world’s darkest hours? And how would Rick and Ilsa ultimately feel about an ill-gotten life together?
“It doesn’t take much,” said Rick to Ilsa, “to see that problems of three little people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this world.” In looking beyond himself and his pain, Rick was able to let go and move on into a new life free of the emotional shackles of his past. And so too must a Pluto in Seventh person. He or she must ultimately realize that “a kiss is just a kiss.”
About the Author
Beth Turnage is a professional astrologer with over twenty years experience counseling clients in career and relationship issues. She writes an astrology column for a weekly newspaper along the Connecticut shoreline and blogs about astrology at Astrology Media Press.
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Brilliant, Beth, this is just brilliant!
NR–Thank you. How could you miss with Bogie as your subject?
great article
can you please do pluto in the 5th house i have this placement in scorpio and am very intrested in learing more as im not very clear on it.
i second memaids request i have pluto in the fifth (in libra) i want to see what it all means.
I’d love to know what bestows upon a person with a Scorpio in an 8th house for pluto and a moon…
that was a very interesting read above “Pluto in 7th house” I remember a Pluto – Venus contact when I was a young man. She had Venus closely conjunct my Pluto. I obsessed over her for years. Watched her dance away from my life in the arms of another man. The heartbreak was painful and the process of releasing her was a long and painful process. It shook me to the core. I always felt that mad obsession for her. There was no heaven or loving God without her in my life. (Pluto in 9th house..tends to punish anybody with too much trust and faith in things like Santa Claus and the world of oz and kinder angels in everyone.) For ultimately every core belief and superstition is examined and either survives the unblinking microscope of inspection and transformed into the higher mind and in my case with obsession over secrets of the universe and sometimes visions from across the universe and things that sometimes only 9th house Pluto people can see and understand.
Memaid, Kate and Rhiannon–Jeffrey liked the idea of the articles too, so I’ll start working on them.
Richard–Yes, the word “intense” does not begin to describe Venus/Pluto contacts.
Great article, Beth! I always enjoy hearing from you. I’ve recently been thinking about people with Venus-Pluto contacts. I don’t have any myself, but my boyfriend has Pluto in the 7th. His Pluto conjoins my Ascendant. I keep feeling like Pluto’s idea of transformation is the similar to Uranus’s idea of transformation. Do you think people with Pluto in the 7th crave transformation and change, like Aquarius would? Do they require constant renewal in relationships to sustain their interest?
Thanks!
” Do you think people with Pluto in the 7th crave transformation and change, like Aquarius would? Do they require constant renewal in relationships to sustain their interest?”
Hi Christine.
Thanks. I always like to hear when someone likes a piece!
I have Scorpio on the cusp of the seventh which is similar to Pluto in the Seventh. For folks like us, intensity is a requirement to be in relationship and if that intensity is lacking, the interest is lacking too. Once hooked, the relationship just keeps going in a loop, so it self renews if that makes sense.
However the point of a Plutonian seventh house is to transform your idea about relationships. and while Plutonian Seventh House People don’t like change, they are compelled, like a moth to a flame to change.
For people without this dynamic in their chart, it is a difficult thing to understands. However, with your ascendant as his descendant you certainly are the catalyst for your partner’s transformation.
Happy Holidays!
Beth
amazing, Beth! I have pluto in seventh. Didn’t find out all these years coz I had the wrong birth time! And you did my chart for the wrong time in ur blog once.
This article explains so much,and i’m still exploring… thanks for this!
Sanju,
Great to hear from you. Please send me the correct time so I can update my client files, since of course I only used the birth time you gave me.
Glad you like the post!
Beth
superb beth!! i felt that was my story. i can relate to rick very closely. i am 22 and have pluto in 7th house in scorpio. i am a taurus asc and she is, probably, a scorpio asc with pluto in 1st. i fell in love with this girl 4 years ago. it was so so deep, intense, et al – i just cant find words to describe my intensity. i am in dire need of help, beth. i could not propose to her out of my shame and inferiority complex towards her. i was brought up that way. from very young i was always belittled by my elders, asking me to be like her and her brothers. but when i introspect my intention towards her closely, i am not able to clearly say whether this is love or extreme dependence. this has been most disturbing event in my life and shook me at the core. now she is with a man so much better than me. this is killng me from inside. i have been failing in my academics for the past 3 years. i can think of nothing but her. my mind is rotten with jelousy. i have been contemplating suicide for 5 months now. the only reason i am alive is i have to earn for my sisters marriage. i doubt i will ever love anyone again so passionately. pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease reply beth.
i was born on 16.6.1987 in bellary, india. at 2.35am.
Nick,
Were you living in the United States, there are a wealth of services I would recommend to you. Indeed you are going through a difficult time as you are experiencing your Saturn Return, sitting alongside your Progressed Moon and in challenge aspect to your Sun which is conjunct Chiron. Chiron is an energy that is not used in traditional Indian astrology, but Western astrologers are using it more and more. Chiron is an asteroid whose purpose to expose deep karmic wounds. Sitting alongside your Sun, you’ve come into this life feeling that a huge question mark about your self worth and your identity. Yes, you have difficulty realizing your own worth. Most likely you will always feel that way but you don’t have to let that feeling rule your life. It is a feeling after all, and you are in charge of your feelings despite what you think.
The girl is representation of those feelings. Somehow, you think, if you were “better” you would have her. Here is something I tell people all the time. Criminals in PRISON have love relationships and support systems, so this has nothing to do with how worthy you are as an individual. However I doubt very much that this one individual is the answer to your questions about your self worth and even if you did marry her your questions would remain.
What you do need to help you through this crisis (anytime someone contemplates suicide is in crisis) is a good counselor and possibly some doctor prescribed medication to help stabilize your moods. You absolutely must do what you can to seek this help out. You deserve better than this constant self punishment.
Here is a link to the numbers of Suicide Prevention Hotlines in India: (copy and paste if necessary)
http://www.suicide.org/hotlines/international/india-suicide-hotlines.html
In the United State the Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.
Remember, suicide is never an answer, only a painful delay in answering the karmic consequences of your actions.
God Bless,
Beth
Correction,
Progressed Moon going over your Saturn is like a Saturn return.
Sorry, typing too fast.
Beth
Thank you soo much, Beth!!
I was almost sure you would’nt answer like other astrologers on the net. But you’ve proved me wrong. thanks a ton for that. And surely, beth, i shall seek out help for my condition. I have a counselling centre not very far from my home and i shall enroll there, and, this, i thought was a waste of time all these days. That was indeed a great piece of information, especially chiron aspecting my sun was a revelation. i never knew about that. THanks for the concern.
Love,
Nick