Pluto in Aquarius caused me to want to write more Pluto articles – including the Pluto transit through the 6th house (Virgo Risings have this currently). While I normally write for both birth chart and transit (which is the fancy name for an astrological event that affects you), I wanted to very much focus on the event this time around.
In this article, you’ll find out how Pluto affects the 2 big themes of the 6th house: work and health. If you’d like to learn what to expect and how to thrive under this influence, keep reading! But before, a quick explanation of the terminology and a list of dates for when you’re affected.
Astro-terminology
Pluto:
Pluto is a dwarf planet that rules power, transformation, secrets, and big changes in your life that happen from the inside out. It’s associated with intensity, the primal, and the taboo, as well as psychology, your life mission, and the underbelly of our societies/lives.
The 6th House:
Houses are areas of the sky that speak to different life areas. The 6th House deals with themes around health, work, daily routines, service, and work-life balance (among other fringe topics).
Birth Chart vs. Transit:
Being born with Pluto in the 6th house means that the themes described in this article will be ones that you live into throughout your entire life. They may be more important at some times, less so at others, but they’re always there. You can see your birth placement in your natal chart (feel free to come to say Hi in a consulting session with me & figure out not just where your Pluto lies, but also what it means and how to work with it).
However, as Pluto wanders through the sky in real-time, the planetary player may also enter your sixth house for a temporary stay. That event is called a transit. Pluto transits differ in length: the shortest is 12 years, and the longest is 32 years. So, as you can see, we’re talking about long frames of time – but ones that are still fractals of our lives rather than life sentences.
Dates:
If you’re wondering whether Pluto is in your 6th house currently, here’s a list of time frames for you! The overlaps between timeframes are due to something called planetary retrograde. In plain English, this means that Pluto “moves back and forth” as per our perspective from Earth.
Caution: This list ONLY works for your Rising Sign, it does not work for Sun Sign or Pluto Signs.
Virgo Rising: With this Rising/Ascendant, you’ll have a Pluto 6th house transit from May to June 2023, January to September 2024, November 2024 to March 2043, and September 2043 to January 2044.
Leo Rising: January to June 2008, November 2008 to March 2023, and September to November 2024.
Want to read your own article for Pluto in Aquarius? Find it here.
Past:
Cancer Rising: Jan-Apr 1995, Nov 1995-Jan 2008, Jun-Nov 2008.
Gemini Rising: Nov 1983-May 1984, Aug 1984-Jan 1995, Apr-Nov 1995.
Taurus Rising: Oct 1971-Apr 1972, Jul 1972. Nov 1983, May-Aug 1984.
Aries Rising: Oct 1956-Jan 1957, Aug 1957-Apr 1958, Jun 1958-Oct 1971, Apr-Jul 1972.
Pisces Rising: Oct-Nov 1937, Aug 1938-Feb 1939, June 1939-Oct 1956, Jan-Aug 1957, Apr-Jun 1958.
Future:
Libra Rising: Mar-Sept 2043, Jan 2044-Jun 2066, Jul 2066-Apr 2067, Sept 2067-Feb 2068.
Scorpio Rising: Jun-Jul 2066, Apr-Sept 2067, Feb 2068-Jun 2095, Sept 2095-Apr 2098, Nov 2096-Mar 2097.
Sagittarius Rising: Jun-Sept 2095, Apr-Nov 2096, Mar 2097-Jun 2127, Nov 2127-May 2128, Jan-Mar 2129.
(Capricorn Rising: Jun-Nov 2127, May 2128-Jan 2129, Mar 2129-Aug 2157, Nov 2157-Jun2158, Jan-May 2159.
(Aquarius Rising: Aug-Nov 2157, Jun 2158-Jan 2159, May 2159-Aug 2183, Jan-Jun 2184, Apr 2185.
And then, it’s Pisces Rising’s turn, then Aries’s, Taurus’s, and so on.
Want to find the article written for you for these times? Click here and find it!
Now, let’s get into the nitty-gritty stuff.
Pluto in the 6th: Transformative Work
Pluto in the 6th has, as promised, more themes than just health: namely, your work. Expect big changes and transformations of a) your job itself, b) how you do your job or c), the circumstances under which you do your job. Here, we’re not talking about your career as such, but about the actual things you do in your life. This includes professional endeavors but isn’t limited to them. Not just that, but the focus is on the effort you put in, not the result.
Under this influence, you may grow a lot professionally. This can include being a student for part of the time Pluto spends in this house, or also just learning how to do your job differently from what you’re used to, gaining more confidence, handling colleagues differently, etc. This can also include being subject to big changes in your professional life, such as switching workplaces, gaining a very different team of colleagues, the way you do your work changing (f.e. because of technical advancements or laws), or even changing professional avenues altogether.
The social and physical environment of your job (colleagues, place of work, etc.) may also have a profound effect on you, so change things up if and where you need to. You may feel called to do something meaningful in your work (career or otherwise) on a regular basis, which could also cause you to make changes. You will also find yourself transformed by your job as an individual person – and grow as a human being.
But there’s more. While we think of the word “job” as something we get paid for, there are also different types of jobs such as doing chores, taking care of a home, being a caretaker of a sick family member, or being a full-time stay-at-home parent. Those types of “jobs” can also become much more important under Pluto in the 6th house and become agents that change you and make you step more into your power. Pluto always calls us to become more aware of our own resilience. Therefore, the job you do (in the widest sense of the word) may show you how much more you’re capable of doing than you think.
For some people under this influence, picking between a paid job and a job you do with a lot of effort but little monetary result (like for instance parenting) may be a theme under this astrological event. However, Pluto here really shows you how resilient you are – including how much you can do that you never thought you could, so an either/or change may not always be necessary for everyone. However, Pluto also makes us see truths we ignore… so for people who literally can’t do both and need to realize it, the realization is going to be forced onto you.
In general, Pluto in the 6th brings times when we need to put more time or effort into whatever it is that we do in our life… and it usually doesn’t allow for much idle time.
Because of how demanding Pluto in the 6th can be in terms of work (again – whether that’s on the job or outside of it), it’s incredibly important to set up professional (and/or personal) boundaries and to defend a healthy work-life balance against demands. Not every problem needs to be solved by you: learn to delegate. This is especially important if part of your tasks in this world include taking care of people in your personal life: learn when and where you need to set up structures that take some of the weight off of you… and where you need to step up.
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Being of Service
Pluto in the 6th shows us more than anything that we’re not an island, and we aren’t the people with the biggest problems, either. Under this event, you may experience a big transformation through being called to help other people in a very hands-on way – whether that’s in your job or by being a parent to a child that needs you, taking care of your elderly parents, or supporting a friend with mental health issues. Please don’t forget to take care of the caretaker too though – remember, running yourself to the ground only harms you and the person you’re supporting. Regular rest costs you less time and effort than a breakdown that takes weeks or months to recover from.
Now… let’s talk about the second big topic people worry about with Pluto in the 6th house… health.
Pluto in the 6th: Health
Because the 6th house rules health, the first question people usually ask when they hear that Pluto gets here is: “IS MY HEALTH DOOMED????” An understandable concern – and the short answer is: No.
No, your health is not doomed.
No, you aren’t destined to experience life-threatening health issues.
No, you do not need to book your own funeral.
However, in all honesty, there are still some things to look out for which we’ll cover in this article. Please read this section fully before freaking out – odds are, you’ll find by the end that you don’t need to freak out at all.
A couple of general reminders:
First off, astrology is complex and how an astrological event impacts us depends entirely on your birth chart. Without having that information, doing a medical analysis makes little to no sense. This also means that I can’t guarantee that no one who reads this article will ever experience a health issue. (If you'd like to learn more, consider a reading!) However, what I can say having seen people go through Pluto in their 6th without getting “please get your affairs in order”-type diagnoses is that you truly don’t need to worry about the worst. Pluto sounds scary, but it’s not as scary as you think.
Second, your actions when it comes to health matter. If you choose to smoke six packs of cigarettes a day and play “let’s poke my arm with this discarded needle on the ground…” No offense, but you don’t need Pluto’s help to get sick if you’re that stupid. Similarly, taking good care of your health always pays off, even if it’s not always a guarantee for a sickness-free life. And this is advice that applies to any transit, ever. It also applies to Pluto going through your 6th house. Taking care of your health makes a difference. Being deliberately self-destructive does, too. Choose wisely, regardless of what’s going on in the sky.
Third, plenty of people have survived and thrived under Pluto in the 6th house. Just take a look at the dates section here: everyone with Leo Rising had this exact event from 2008 to 2024, Cancer Risings from 1995-2008, and Gemini Risings from 1983-1995 – and I know a bunch of them that didn’t get horror-esque health issues at those times. There’s more than one way this event can play in your life – and this house affects more than just your health. As a matter of fact, you may experience great changes in all 6th-house topics except for your health! Pluto in the 6th will affect you – but not necessarily how you think.
Getting back to health
Pluto rules transformative experiences and ultimately, our resiliency. When this planet moves through our 6th house of health, we may experience (not in all cases, mind you!) transformation through encounters with disease, healing, and more. However, this doesn’t have to mean that anything “bad” happens.
Let’s take the woman who decided to become a nurse and work in the NICU: this person will 100% be transformed via her experiences with various health issues and experiences of healing. Is that an easy or gentle experience? No. But for her, Pluto in the 6th plays out without necessarily affecting her body. She lives it through experiencing the struggles of others in a very, very direct way. She doesn’t have to be the patient herself here.
Or, let’s take a guy who, for the first time in his life, broke his leg… and is thrown into an absolute crisis. Never having experienced physical restrictions, his entire life flashes before his eyes. The way he thinks of himself changes, he for the first time fully understands what health is and how it matters, and how mobility can so easily be taken away… He may ask himself if he still has value for the people around him, he may wonder what life really means and whether the things he thought matter do matter. Dramatic? Yes. Have I actually seen people react like this? Also yes. Do experiences like that change people? They can. Under Pluto in the 6th house, we may transform the most minor health issues in significant ways. In this person’s case, the leg heals without incident and he’s eventually perfectly fine… but the experience changes him, and that’s okay. (By the way, breaking a leg isn’t necessarily that minor and it absolutely sucks – it’s just generally not in the “health issues that can kill you” or “worst nightmare” categories, which is why I put this here.)
Of course, we can absolutely experience significant transformation through more awful scenarios as well – but experiencing these is not a given for this astrological event.
One of the more helpful and hope-giving experiences I’ve seen from people who go through this astrological event is this though: Pluto deals with radical transformation. And what’s more radical than finally getting back to health after significant disease, injuries, or trauma? Sometimes, transformation or a big change makes you healthier than you were before: and Pluto in the 6th house can absolutely bring that. Not at first, maybe – but I have seen that with multiple people as well.
If this article is helping you, please consider leaving a donation of your choice to support my work! Writing these article takes years of research, and it's my personal soul purpose to provide them for those who need it. Thank you for your support!
Advice: Supporting Your Health Under Pluto in the 6th House
For this section, I wanted to bring in a bit of advice to make sure you feel empowered and have the information you need to get through the next 20 years of this astrological event.
Act like your health matters
Too many people walk through life and take completely non-sensical risks with their health for absolutely no reason. I’m not talking about going bungee jumping on holidays, I’m talking about driving without a seatbelt on. Deciding to drink 15 cups of coffee a day instead of doing better time management. Only eating one meal a day and running on energy drinks in the meantime. You get my drift. Under this astrological event, you don’t have to go crazy with caution (that wouldn’t be healthy either): but if you know you’re doing things that have an extreme effect on your body, such as starving yourself or not treating pre-existing health issues, then it’s likely to bite you in the butt sooner rather than later. Act like your health matters.
Prevention is great, but don’t get too extreme
There’s plenty of things we can do to prevent health issues, like regular exercise, eating your veggies, throwing out beauty products with harmful toxins, or learning techniques to decrease your stress levels. Learning things like this or incorporating them up in your daily routine can help set you up for success. However, please be mindful not to take this to an extreme. Going overboard on prevention or highly restrictive diets (without a medical necessity for them) etc. still adds stress to your body that eventually has a negative effect on said health. This doesn’t mean that prevention doesn’t matter – it does – but fear doesn’t prevent the things we’re scared of. So, please foster health, not anxiety.
A note on pre-screens: pre-screens aren’t actually preventative as they don’t keep you from developing diseases but they’re still a good idea unless there’s an inherent risk that outweighs the medical benefits. Please use common sense, get medical advice, and make the best choice for you.
In general, a good rule of thumb is…
Set up the big things to promote health and don’t sweat the details
If the big things in your life promote health (home, relationships, daily routines, etc.), then details going wrong won’t affect you much. So, if you mostly eat healthily, you’ll be fine with an exception. If you live in an environment that doesn’t include toxins, you’ll up your resiliency. If your relationships make you feel good and promote psychological health, they’ll have a good effect on your body as well. But if all these things (and related) AREN’T working, they undermine your resiliency and make it easier for you to get sick even if you get on that healthy diet for two weeks or take those supplements. So, set up the big things in your life to help you remain healthy – it matters – and then don’t stress about the details.
Establish a good work-life-balance
Work is important under Pluto in the 6th – but it’s not the end-all, be-all (and if it is, prepare to see your body pay the price eventually). Establishing and defending a good work-life balance and including enough rest in your schedule is one of the best things you can do for your health.
Take charge of your own health
One of the game-changers for Pluto in the 6th house (if health issues are present) is the mindset. Pluto rules power – and it always pushes us to step into our own power. When you really take charge of yourself and your own life, that’s when the planetary energy acts as the most supportive for your healing journey. If you place all responsibility for decision-making on your health practitioner’s shoulders, that is where more issues arise (specifically with this astrological event). That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t trust your health practitioner – it’s about the mindset that you are in charge and your willingness to walk your talk.
Listen to your body
If you learn to tune in, you’ll know what you need and what works. A lot of times, listening to the sense that something’s wrong actually helps you solve the issue before it grows into something dangerous or unmanageable. Your body is also good at showing you what works to heal it/keep it healthy: think of the food cravings that pregnant women experience and how they actually help provide the baby with what it needs before it’s deprived of nutrients. Our bodies can tell us what’s needed even if we aren’t pregnant: pregnancy is the most well-known example of our body’s power going active. But we can work on “making it go active” if we choose that. The more you suppress your awareness of your body, the longer it takes to learn how to tune in and the more likely you are to overlook warning flags: so build your awareness gradually.
If this article is helping you, please consider leaving a donation of your choice to support my work! Writing these article takes years of research, and it's my personal soul purpose to provide them for those who need it. Thank you for your support!
The body-mind-connection
If you carry guilt around with you, that psychological stress eventually affects your body. The same goes with heartbreak or other things stuck in your body: and that’s not just because those things make you treat yourself worse. Clean house in your psyche – it affects your body, too.
Clean house (literally)
Your environment affects your physical and psychological health. Therefore, it’s a good idea to keep your home and the places you spend the most time in reasonably clean – and healthy. If you live next to a former toxic waste dump, move. If you have a reoccurring issue with mold, get this taken care of (or move). If you work in a place where constant noise (f.e. from the street) affects your body, it’s time to make changes to your work environment. Similarly, if you know you have health issues that went unaddressed – clean house in that sense as well. The earlier you do this under Pluto in the 6th, the better you’ll fare under this transit. And don’t worry: it’s never too late to go back and make these changes. Just make them.
Allopathic or alternative medicine?
Under this astrological event, lots of people ask which type of medicine to use. The short answer is both. Alternative medicine can be a great tool to support your body in healing (say, if you have a cold) or keeping yourself from getting sick. But obviously, there are also times when allopathic medicine is unavoidable (or where using both allopathic and alternative medicine together brings the best results!). Choose the best medicine for what’s needed, not what sounds better on paper.
Conclusion:
Pluto in the 6th house is an interesting energy that can play out in many different ways. As it depends on people’s birth chart, booking a reading is the best way to get individual support and clarity. However, I do hope that this article helped you. If you’d like to support me and my work, you can do so here. Also, please send this article to a friend and spread the word about my website!
If you’d like to learn more about Pluto in Aquarius, you can do so here:
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So much love,
Alexandra
Astrology from the Soul
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