Pluto, The Moon and the Devouring Mother Archetype

CapAquaPis

Well-known member
I have a Sun/moon in Aquarius (Feb 15, 1980) with Cancer ascendant, and Pluto was close to the IC in Libra opposite Venus in Aries-midheaven. My mother's moon (Apr 29, 1951) was in 28-29' Aquarius, really close to my Sun and Moon placements. My birthdate on a new moon, the full moon occurring before my birth was Feb 1st (followed by Feb. 29th, leap year day), either the Moon was in Leo or Virgo on that month's two full moons in North America. Her Saturn return occurred in Late (around Dec.) 1980, between Feb. 1980 and Apr. 23, 1981 when she had her other son before her 30th B-day. The astrological data can explain my close relationship with my mother and her involvement in the local Autism Society chapter when I was diagnosed with autism at age 4. A mother who has a child around her Saturn return (or in her case, two sons with learning disabilities and neurological disorders) indicate the child will have a challenge in their life. My Pluto placement could foretold such an issue to me, but turns out I have a mild form or less common high-functioning autism.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
I have moon square Pluto, and I was neglected by my birth mother. My adoptive mother took care of all of my needs, but she was emotionally and physically distant. I am not sure if my telling the judge that I did not like her, but that I liked my two brothers and father had anything to do with the way she treated me. I was five years of age.

I was scapegoated for everything that happened in our small household (mother, little brother, me). I was responsible for the majority of the cooking, cleaning and caretaking of the house – mother and brother took care of very little. I was a dutiful teenager, and the only trouble I ever made was the occasional lie to cover up my relations with boys online.

I felt very hated – and one day when I was 16, I calmly asked her if she loved me, and she tilted her head, thought a moment, and then said "no".

This thread disappoints me and depresses me. I have done my best in this lifetime to correct the negative karma. I want more than anything to be a good mother, loving and caring. Spiritually, I am trying to do everything I can to stop this karmic cycle.

My karmic record indicates I hurt my mother in some fashion. So all mother figures behave in a distant fashion toward me, or antagonistic. So I have always been patient and allow them to do what they will, and I soon went through a healing process and reached a point of forgiveness. My adoptive mother and I are friendly, but not super close.

My birth mother had moon conjunct Pluto.

Tension release via harmonious aspects [Moon trine Jupiter, Saturn, sextile Mercury] [Pluto sextile Sun, Neptune]. I believe I will succeed.

I find that women who had some form of neglect from one or more parents during younger years makes them the best mothers!! Many of the best mothers I know experienced this.

My husband has the moon sextile pluto and his mother is suffocating and overbearingly controlling and has no feeling though because she is a narcissist. So he grew up with that detachment because she doesn't know how to love.

In my chart, the 10th house ruler (mother) is the sun, conjunct pluto (me). This gets confusing as to who represents what because my mother and I are very close and I love her. She is controlling and bossy in some ways but I always win with her because she is used to caving in. However, if I see the sun as my dad, it also makes sense being in the 12th house because he abandoned me at a young age and then was mostly distant all other times.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
I have Moon square Pluto. Me and my mother have this love/hate relationship. She is very controlling, manipulative, and irrational. But we love each other even though we always fight.

Im so happy to hear this because my twins have moon conjunct Uranus square pluto conjunct venus. Translation - The twins and their health/daily routines square me and my husband. Im so paranoid there will be too much tension based on the chart when all I want is to provide them the best love and support they could possibly have.
 

duenderoja

Well-known member
I find that women who had some form of neglect from one or more parents during younger years makes them the best mothers!! Many of the best mothers I know experienced this.

My husband has the moon sextile pluto and his mother is suffocating and overbearingly controlling and has no feeling though because she is a narcissist. So he grew up with that detachment because she doesn't know how to love.

In my chart, the 10th house ruler (mother) is the sun, conjunct pluto (me). This gets confusing as to who represents what because my mother and I are very close and I love her. She is controlling and bossy in some ways but I always win with her because she is used to caving in. However, if I see the sun as my dad, it also makes sense being in the 12th house because he abandoned me at a young age and then was mostly distant all other times.

Thank you so much for saying this. I have been afraid recently. My north node is in cancer, and I wish for nothing more than to be a mother and a wife. I have wished this ever since I was a young girl.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
No worries Duenderoja. Im serious too. I haven't seen your chart but every time I see women I know on social media or mothers in the community who have had a triggers as a youth re parental difficulties, they became the most dedicated, loyal parents I will ever know. I too am hoping I can be just as good. It's the most rewarding job in the world. And important too.
 

StarGazerGirl

Well-known member
I want to ask all the people who have any major aspect between Pluto and the Moon even if it is a "positive" aspect. In her book "Aspects in Astrology" Sue Tompkins says that those who have such an aspect are often obsessed by their mother (and sometimes by the thought of being a mother) and the mother will also be obsessed by her child. Typically the mother is too protective, controlling and is can't let her children leave home. The love of the mother who have with such an aspect might be devouring and manipulative but often this is hidden. But sometimes the devouring mother might really turn into an evil witch or a vampire, a mother that drains the life out of her child. The mother that is too "caring" by constantly invading the personal space of her child and not letting him/her have any secrets and a place where the child can stay alone.
Sometimes the figure of the parent is the grandfather or the grandmother. Often there is a strong matriarchal lineage.

What do you think about that? I have a sextile between Pluto and the Moon and I have realized the truth very late. And one of my grandmothers is a Scorpio and she is a very manipulative person. I have noticed that in my family - the lineage that comes from the mother and the lineage that comes from the father (I have a Sun in the 8th house), there is a story that deals with something like a curse of a bad wish that has been said by the mother to her child at the moment when the child wants to leave her in order to live in another city. For instance, my grandmother says such a thing to my father when he leaves for another town leaving his mother and the chance to meet her very often.

In the family of my mother, the mother of my grandmother also says a bad thing to her, disappointed that her daughter is going to leave her in order to live in a city far away from her home.

How about those of you who have an aspect between Pluto and the Moon?

I have an inconjunct from Moon to Pluto and this describes the relationship between my mom and I pretty well. It's weird, out of four girls, I am the only one that looks and has ways like my mom. All through growing up and 'til this day, I hear "you look just like your mom."

I can't say my mom is a bad mom but I do believe she has some narcissism which definitely had a huge impact on me. I also found that, out of my three sisters, mom and I have several similar aspects. And I've read somewhere that there's something about mom's having the same Moon sign as their childs' rising sign ( somewhere here, I believe ) and we have that, I think - I'm not sure of her time of birth.

At this point, I'm trying to figure out whether she's smothering or I'm just a failure ( I don't believe I'm just a failure ). I mean, did she subtlely sabotage me throughout my life or did I just never want to leave, etc.? I did leave but I returned home after a breakup. Now, I want to leave again I just haven't been able to financially. It's way more of a story than I can explain.

On the other hand, maybe my feelings justify what's said about being obsessed with mom. I'm always in a constant struggle trying to figure out whether my mom hates me or not or if I'm the one that's wrong. My heart says I'm not wrong. I know some people will think that's a horrible thought.

Also, I've always known that I never wanted children of my own but I do love children!

( gosh, these windows are so tiny to write in. )
 
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waybread

Well-known member
Stargazer, my moon and Pluto are widely conjunct, but closely parallel (which works like a conjunction.) My mother's sun was in Scorpio. Her moon was in Leo opposite my sun.

My mother worked very hard to do all the externals of mothering correctly: meals on the table, a well-kept home, clean nice clothes for the kids, support for "extras," &c-- what was missing for me was that warm fuzzy sense of a mother who tended to the inner relationships. I found her to be emotionally distant-- and I say this as an Aquarian! I found her to be constantly judgemental, so I learned not to share very much with her. So controlling, in a way, but never the smothering mother archetype. I went away to college when I was 17 and I never got the feeling she missed me when I was away. She was much closer to my older brother, but even so, not in an emotionally close kind of way that I could tell.

My parents were extremely protective in trying to shield us from the bad things of life; but perhaps to a fault, because I grew up extremely naïve about life.

My mother died when I was 35, and I am now a senior. But I still think about her frequently, wondering, if it would have been possible (which it was not during her life) to speak to her adult-to-adult, if it would also be possible to learn what it was that wouldn't let her express more warmth and caring to her children.

So while I think my relationship with my mother could be described as dysfunctional and overly protective in some ways, it was far more remote and distant for her to be classified as the smothering mother who cannot let go of her children.

I always wanted to have children, and am the happy proud mother of two adult children. God willing, I will become a grandmother later this year, and am very excited about that, as well.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
I have Moon square Pluto to a pretty close degree and my Moon is also in the 8th House.

I've never been obsessed with my mother or wanted to be the mother.

My mom though definitely seems to not want to let go of me. She tells me all the time that she's worried that I will leave her. She's very needy and dependent. And I wouldn't be surprised if she was like this when I was younger. She's kind of always protective of me; shielded me from the outside world and I guess that's why people who have aspects to Pluto have underlying insecurities or fears. They've grown up not having to face the harsh world and when they have to face it, they lie, manipulate, control, and understand all the undercurrent vibrations to maintain this power to be safe from the world--which they've learned from their mother who also had these insecurities.

Yes. Im so happy to hear this interpretation of moon square pluto. I've been thinking about this aspect the last 2 wks because my daughter has this. I am very protective of my twin daughters. I realised that even though 10th house ruler is pluto, and asc ruler is my daughter (Uranus) conjunct moon, I feel the pluto represents more my mother in law than me. My mil is the matriarch of the family but she is also sick in the head. On tue I realised this when my mil was playing headcase emotional pain trauma games on my 2 1/2 yr old daughter and my daughter was absorbing it all in and entered a depression for 2 days!! I decided right then and there that I would do my best to keep the mil away and to protect this daughter. So what im saying here is, the 10th house could rule another mother figure influence.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
Waybread - That's awesome you are going to be a grandmother!

In my opinion, when I see people who cant connect emotionally and are controlling, I find it has something to do with their upbringing and conditioning. I don't think she could have changed.
 

Abby83

Well-known member
Does anyone have any insights on moon pluto aspects in synastry between a mom and child?

What do you want to know? I have a beautiful relationship with my mother and I find her my best friend. We don't have aspects between pluto and moon in synastry. If you want to look at our synastry chart here it is.
 

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Arena

Well-known member
The Moon is not just the mother in natal chart.
The Moon is your feelings, your home ... but it can be representative of your mother as well as your children. Moon-Pluto can also be about power struggles or striving for power positions and it can be about indifference.

When I see a Moon-Pluto opposition I think of separations. That person might have been separated from mother/father/family or might be separated from his/her own children by divorce or possibly even death.

Sun is not father in natal charts.
 

waybread

Well-known member
Thanks, Abby. My son and daughter-in-law are in their mid-30s, so I wasn't sure I'd get to be a grandmother. However, my son has his moon sextile sun, so we've gotten along pretty well. My daughter-in-law does not want her chart to be read, so I'll leave it at that.

Interesting that the moon-Pluto (Hades Moon) book pretty much focused on the topic from the perspective of the child; whereas many of us are mothers, as well.

Arena, in traditional astrology the sun represents the father in a day birth, and Saturn represents the father in a night birth. Traditionally the IC and 4th house indicated one's father and patrimony, so the mother as the wife of the father (7th house from the 4th) symbolized the mother. Modern astrology reversed this order, in pairing signs and houses by the numbers. As the 4th sign, Cancer and its ruler the moon, theoretically symbolize the 4th house. But it is important to note that planets rule signs. Planets do not rule houses.
 

RisingSag

Well-known member
What do you want to know? I have a beautiful relationship with my mother and I find her my best friend. We don't have aspects between pluto and moon in synastry. If you want to look at our synastry chart here it is.

I have an heavily aspected pluto, the apex of my grand kite. My child's moon conjuncts my venus but opposes my pluto. We love each other dearly but do argue. My child's natal chart doesn't have the moon making any aspects to pluto so I'm wondering what impact this will have.
 

StarGazerGirl

Well-known member
Stargazer, my moon and Pluto are widely conjunct, but closely parallel (which works like a conjunction.) My mother's sun was in Scorpio. Her moon was in Leo opposite my sun.

My mother worked very hard to do all the externals of mothering correctly: meals on the table, a well-kept home, clean nice clothes for the kids, support for "extras," &c-- what was missing for me was that warm fuzzy sense of a mother who tended to the inner relationships. I found her to be emotionally distant-- and I say this as an Aquarian! I found her to be constantly judgemental, so I learned not to share very much with her. So controlling, in a way, but never the smothering mother archetype. I went away to college when I was 17 and I never got the feeling she missed me when I was away. She was much closer to my older brother, but even so, not in an emotionally close kind of way that I could tell.

My parents were extremely protective in trying to shield us from the bad things of life; but perhaps to a fault, because I grew up extremely naïve about life.

So while I think my relationship with my mother could be described as dysfunctional and overly protective in some ways, it was far more remote and distant for her to be classified as the smothering mother who cannot let go of her children.

This could describe how my mom / family was, too.

These strong feelings towards mom have been stirring up in me my whole life but, I think, with Saturn now transiting my 4th house I'm finally learning to differentiate and see where and how to draw the line with how much of what I struggle with is my fault and how much was the fault of my mom.
 

emotionalaquarius

Active member
my moon(pisces) square pluto:
I lost my birth mother when I was 7 years old, her mother, my grandmother, was my mother.
my birth mother was an bipolar, she was an addict. I didn't get the "emotional" or "physical" attachment to her, due to the fact she was in n out of a mental hospital till I was 4.
she was just starting to get her life straight, she was living downtown in the homeless shelter.
I have no memory of my birth mother, only pictures.
--
My grandma is my mother, she is my best friend, she was the one who woke up in the middle of the night when I cried as new born, she was 56 when I was born.
she has always been my rock, I got the emotional & physical attachment to my grandma, she was the only thing that was stable during my childhood.
******* She is Aquarius Sun & Pisces Moon - just like me!!!! **********
 

waybread

Well-known member
How great that you had a loving grandmother to look after you. Addiction is a huge problem in our society. It is sad that your mother couldn't escape it.
 

belabismo

Well-known member
I have my scorpio moon conjunct pluto (~1 d. orb). My mom was my favorite parent until I was a tween, around 11-12 years old. She was very protective and wouldn't let my sister and I go out much, though much of that is also cultural (we're from a pretty traditional culture). She was also intrusive of our privacy yet at the same time very absent in our lives. She also was very controlling of my dad and didn't like him visiting his family, and really didn't like his family. In short, I resented her for a long time until recently, I think I've made my peace. She had an extremely hard life, with her facing early life responsibilities (having to care for her younger sister while still a child, taking care of her father who was bipolar in a time and place where mental health care was very barbaric), poverty, domestic violence, etc. She is the way she is because of circumstance and she did the best she could with what she had. When all is said and done I don't think she did too bad for herself. I think this aspect is very difficult and painful but ultimately I think we're charged with learning something from this and helping others. I don't think I'm ever going to have an actual relationship with my mother because I think she is incapable of emotionally relating in a healthy and honest way, at least at this time, but I respect her.
 

waybread

Well-known member
Pluto also has the capacity for profound healing. Compassion and understanding are a good beginning. You are on your way!
 
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