Composite Pluto in the twelfth house signifies a relationship that will expose all kinds of previously hidden psychological characteristics, which then require a strong inner transformation in both people. Robert Hand attaches a piece of good news to that immediately, and it changes the tone of the whole delineation.
The same position signifies that the two will be very interested in working with each other on that level. There may be great resistance to particular things in the relationship, but not to the idea of bringing the material out. Inward transformation is one of the objectives here, and both people know it.
What This Placement Describes
Pluto in a composite chart rules death and regeneration, the energy that clears away an order which has outlived its purpose so a new one can form. Hand says its power comes from within, since the transformations it rules arise out of the nature of what is being transformed, and that the house it occupies shows which area of the relationship is most likely to be transformed and most likely to produce crises.
The composite twelfth house is repressed thought. Hand describes it as once conscious ideas that have been eliminated from the waking mind because the mind chose not to deal with them, along with the environmental factors that caused the repression, and he sets the traditional meanings about hospitals and prisons aside as not really applying to a composite chart. The problem with repressed ideas is that they generate unconsciously motivated actions, and because those actions are automatic they are often inappropriate and work to undo a relationship rather than help it. He says twelfth house relationships are among the most difficult of all and cannot be rejected out of hand, since some people benefit greatly from intense day to day psychological encounter.
How It Tends To Play Out
Hand's instruction here is the most operational thing he says about Pluto anywhere. Whatever comes up between the two should be dealt with immediately. His reason is that Pluto's energies can smoulder for a long time when they are not dealt with straight away, and when they do smoulder they break out at last with a bitter fury and fiery intensity that a relationship finds it difficult to survive.
The second effect he describes is a kind of leaking out of energy. The two unknowingly radiate something intense and powerful. Other people react to it and often become afraid, because they do not know what it means, and that reaction often leads them to work against the pair behind their backs.
He then reads the traditional meaning of the house through that mechanism rather than as a superstition. The twelfth is the house of secret enemies, and he says those enemies are usually generated the way just described. What the two do and how they carry themselves triggers a response in others that turns those others against them.
The remedy follows directly from the diagnosis. Be straightforward in dealings with other people, and make clear to them exactly what is intended in any situation.
The Opposite House
The paired house rule comes out of the mechanics of the composite. Any pair of planets has two midpoints, the nearer is used, and the farther keeps some effect that grows as the two natal positions approach opposition. So a twelfth house Pluto should also be read through the sixth, and where the two natal Plutos are near opposition, reading both is essential.
The composite sixth house is the duties and responsibilities a relationship must fulfil. Hand's Pluto in the sixth gives either a strong drive to keep things moving or a continual sense of effort and struggle in which duty crowds out enjoyment. Read as an axis, the sixth is the work openly taken on and the twelfth is what remains unsaid about it, and unspoken strain in the sixth house is exactly the kind of material the twelfth lets smoulder.
Hand gives no threshold for when the second reading takes over and no method for blending them. Both stand.
Where It Gets Difficult
The difficulty is delay. Nothing in this placement forces a confrontation, and Pluto's material is uncomfortable, so the natural move is to leave it. That is the one move Hand rules out, and he is unusually specific about the consequence.
The outward leakage is difficult for a different reason. It is not deliberate and it is not visible to the two doing it. People react to an atmosphere the pair are not aware of producing, and the opposition that follows arrives without an obvious cause.
Set against that is Hand's opening claim, which is that the two are willing to do this work. He reads that willingness as an objective of the relationship rather than as an accident. The house sets the issue. Whether the energy is experienced as difficult or easy is described by the aspects to Pluto, which Hand treats as a separate question.
Recommended Reading
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- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter fourteen.
- Robert Hand, Planets in Composite: Analyzing Human Relationships (1975), chapter four, on the composite twelfth house and the paired house rule.
Continue Learning
Next: Composite Chart Placements and How to Read a Composite Chart.