Pluto in the 6th house: Breaking the Habit
Pluto in the 6th house has an intense, extreme and sometimes difficult relationship with work, schedules, habits, the body, and routines. These topics are typically in flux. You may go through intense highs and lows with work and activity throughout life, with periods of constant hard work followed by periods of very low activity and rest. 6th house Pluto comes with major work hard, play hard energy.
Note: This article is about natal Pluto in the 6th house, but can also be applied to natal 6th house ruler conjunct Pluto, as well as Pluto transiting the 6th house.
Pluto in astrology
Pluto in astrology represents extremes, instability, change, depth, deep roots (especially roots of the psychological variety), truth, secrets, hidden things, power dynamics, fear, anxiety, abuse, generational curse-breaking, intensity, and profound insight. This does not mean that all of these themes will show up in every person’s Pluto story, but these are all possibilities.
There is polarity in everything, and Pluto is a planet of extremes, so polarities really come out to play wherever Pluto is.
The 6th house in astrology
The 6th house is a liminal house where things are in transition. All of the mundane, everyday things we have to do to keep the wheel of life turning fall in the 6th house — the day-to-day part of your job, diet, exercise, health, habits, routines, schedules, chores, etc. Coworkers, employees, tenants, and pets also belong to the 6th house. It’s a house of responsibility.
The 6th house gets kind of a bad rap in astrology — it’s seen as pretty boring and mundane, as well as negative in other ways. It’s even called the house of Bad Fortune in Hellenistic astrology. But there’s something really cool about it too: the 6th house describes what we need to do every day of our lives in order to thrive.
Natal Pluto in the 6th house
Pluto in the 6th has an intense relationship with work. Many are freelancers or people who make their own schedules, because people with this placement can find it tough to adhere to a fixed schedule and do the same things and live the exact same life day after day after day. This is not to say that 6th house Pluto people aren’t hard workers. To the contrary, really. Y’all are very capable of working your asses off, despite the negative effects of having such an intense work schedule. Again, Pluto is a place of extremes and major highs and lows.
Over the years I’ve found that Pluto represents breaking generational curses in everyone’s chart. People with Pluto in the 6th may have come from a family that has an unhealthy relationship to work, and the 6th house Pluto person is here to disrupt that pattern. Sometimes this means that your parents or ancestors were workaholics, people who really toiled, people who glorified the idea of hard work (regardless of whether you’re being paid fairly or whether it’s negatively impacting your health or other areas of your life) or even struggle, or people who did not know how to work hard. You’re uniquely equipped to disrupt this pattern and make a positive change within your family line.
6th house Pluto tends to struggle with schedules and routines. Sometimes the struggle is with following a schedule at all, getting up and going in the morning, always running late, etc.; other times it’s an obsessive fixation on following a schedule; and other times still it is notably destructive habitual or addictive behavior. But at their best, Pluto in the 6th people can be fantastic managers of time, if they are willing to exert their power instead of being afraid of it. Pluto in the 6th requires you to feel empowered in everyday life. This does not mean exerting manipulative control over other people, but managing a team, helping others to manage their time, energy and resources, and leading by example.
For 6th house Pluto, breaking habits is extremely difficult but ultimately extremely liberating too. Pluto in the 6th house people often cling to or get lost in habits and rituals, even though they actually hate conforming to a routine or feeling trapped. “Intense habits and rituals” can span everything from always doing the same things in the same orders, to intense dieting or exercise regimens, to substance use issues, to procrastinating what must get done until you’re stuck working long hours to make up for lost time, and more. The idea of changing routines and habits can feel very overwhelming. It’s important to lean into the “death and rebirth” part of Pluto — you must let your bad habits die and replace them with ones that are revitalizing and energizing.
Pluto in the 6th house people can be self-destructive when it comes to health and the physical body. Sometimes this is in a pretty standard way – eating like shit, not taking care of yourself, avoiding getting treatment, etc. Other times this shows up in less obvious ways, like intense dieting or exercise, not allowing yourself enough rest, workaholism, obsession with cleanliness, extreme adherence to diets or obsession with clean eating, and so on. 6th house Pluto is sometimes said to coincide with unstable health, but I haven’t found this to be true in practice. Not that it never does, but there are other placements that are far more likely to show up that way.
Using Pluto to thrive
People with Pluto in the 6th house need to give Pluto positive ways to show up. How can you incorporate Plutonian themes in your day to day life in order to improve your energy, vitality, and overall ability to thrive?
Healthy ways for Pluto in the 6th house to show up:
• Working in healthcare, particularly in higher-stakes environments (like the emergency room, for instance)
• Exercising, eating healthy, and taking care of your body every day
• Journalism — particularly investigative journalism, or any other job in which you are uncovering hidden things
• Helping others to transition into new lifestyles and break habits and cycles
• Taking interest in or working in psychology
• Working with materials found underground (or literally working underground)
• Working in finance
• Finding the root of an issue rather than treating a symptom
Many people with Pluto in the 6th house are afraid of their own power and have a tendency to keep themselves small, almost cowering in the shadows, particularly in work environments. This is not conducive to thriving. You need to feel actually empowered and in control of your own everyday life. This doesn’t mean wielding control over others nor rebelling by refusing to adhere to rules or a schedule. It simply means that you are an active participant in your own life and are not here to live at the mercy of other people. You do not have to harm yourself or sabotage your chances of living an empowered life as some kind of a backdoor, roundabout way to “have control.” You can have real control by taking charge of your life, taking care of yourself, pacing yourself, and moderating the amount of work you take on each day.