Pluto is the agent of 'death', whether this is the death of desire, the death of our attachment to form, or the total death and surrender of the lower self as it merges and gives its life to the Soul. This is the death of liberation; the death of the resurrection.
Pluto serves as the vehicle for the First Ray energy of destruction. It represents that process which breaks down the sense of selfishness and separateness of the lesser ego/personality, so that our little, personal will becomes the Will-to-Good of the realised Soul self. It is a purifying energy which, in its external mode of expression leads to the disintegration of form so that the Spirit of man may triumph.This Human spirit is the indwelling Universal Consciousness, the Loving Presence of the Soul. This is why, from the esoteric level, Pluto is the ruler of Pisces, sign of the World Saviour. Yet it has to be clearly understood that the passion of the death and resurrection of the Anointed One is the same Path and Passion for each of us. The form of this Way in the Aquarian Era is outlined in the Laws and Principles of the New Age. Yet the energetics - the transcendental dynamics of the Path - remain constant throughout the Ages.
The Earth, the material realm, and the physical body represent the polarity to Pluto. It is in the physical world that our attachment to our desires is the greatest, and our illusions the strongest. Pluto and the other First Ray planet, Vulcan, teach the lessons that relate to the process of detachment from matter. Pluto may bring change {temporary} darkness, and death, but it can never destroy consciousness. On the contrary, the work of the First Ray and its planets frees the individual to become more closely in touch with the consciousness aspect of Life.
The breaking down and detachment from forms, especially on the emotional level, is most painful. Indeed this is the sacrifice the personality renders out of Love to the Soul. It is this undertaking, which becomes increasingly more conscious as spiritual evolution unfolds, that leads the individual from the experiences in Scorpio to the emergence of the indwelling Christ in Pisces. This relationship and transference of energy also helps us to understand how Pluto is the co-ruler of Scorpio from the level of personality and the ruler of Pisces from the level of the Soul.
Birth and rebirth are painful processes. The physical and emotional pain a woman endures in the process of giving birth to an infant is highly symbolic of the esoteric process of generation. The mother [form} is pulled again and broken as the child moves out of her womb and onto the Earth. What was once existing within one and thus creating a whole has now become two, and all duality is painful in nature. The birthing of the individual out of the womb of his previous forms of containment (no matter how secure and comfortable) is absolutely essential for evolutionary development.
The undying Spirit of Life is always creating new Ideas, and Humanity consists of the Sons and Daughters of Mind. The above says something to us of the relationship of Neptune as the esoteric ruler of Cancer and the exoteric ruler of Pisces. The relationship of these two water signs (and hence, an extension of meaning to Pluto and Scorpio) might well be worth contemplating at this point.
Pluto is the instrument for the development of the Spiritual Will. This comes about through the trials and tests on the Path of Discipleship. For this reason, Pluto is the exoteric co-ruler of Scorpio, as it serves to facilitate the many deaths and transformations associated with this sign and its Path. The combination of the First Ray (Pluto) and the Sixth (Mars) leads to the battlegrounds which are so rightly associated with Scorpio.
[Source]