Pluto transiting the 10th House of Career Changes Everything Planned

"How safe is my career, and what can I do to keep it that way?" is a question I field almost every week. When the client's chart shows transiting Pluto, Indicator of Change, Transformation, Regeneration, and Rebuilding in the 10th house, my response is usually along the line of "Whatever you're doing now will NOT likely be your pattern of work in the long-term future. Be prepared for modifications that are vastly different from what you expected." This is an especially difficult message for me to deliver to someone who is very business-minded, or who has status and achievement as their focus.

As a second influence, I've already noted the economic and social impact of Pluto in Capricorn. But here's what Robert Hand has to say about the transit of Pluto in the 10th house. Also, take note of the last paragraph below: most astrologers assign the 10th house to the parent of the opposite sex of the client (although I think it depends also on whether the Sun or Moon is placed there by birth): 

Pluto in the 10th house of Career and Status achievements

This is a most important time in your life, for you will strive to achieve more now than you ever have before.  You aim to make the greatest possible mark upon the world, and now is the time to do it—but only if you have truly found out who you are and what your life is about.  If you haven’t found out yet, now is the time to do so.  Pluto gives you either the power to achieve your life goals or the insight to find out what they truly are.  Consequently, if you are secure and know about yourself, you have the opportunity for great success as long as you heed certain warnings.  If you do not know your goals, you will probably change your path.  You may change jobs rather often and spend several years apparently quite lost while you find out what you are supposed to be doing.

However, in regards to your striving for success and realization, Pluto arouses your ambitions; the desire to take control and dominate.  Its action can be quite ruthless, like a force of nature that has no regard for human standards of morality and ethics.  But people who act like this under the influence of Pluto are often quite tragic.  Having thrown away their humanity, they discover that they can expect no quarter from others who unite to oppose them, and they are brought down.  It is essential that you avoid wreaking havoc or even bending the standards of ethics with this transit, for Pluto’s energies are too powerful to play games with.  Play the game fairly and according to the rules, but continue to pursue your goals.  Do not take shortcuts.

If you experience the other side of this transit as altering your life direction, the important idea is not to get discouraged.  You may undergo considerable changes during this transit, and you may feel that you have become a different person, which is probably true.  Take all the time you need to find the right course.  If you hurry, you will only get into another wrong place, and your life will be much less than it could have been if you had taken enough time to find yourself.

The 10th house also has connections to one parent.  You may find a relationship with one of them dramatically changing now: perhaps in the capacity that you find yourself becoming the adult provider and being a caretaker for them in a “child is father to the man” type of role.  They may now require medical or other care service needs, such as assisted living.