Pluto plays a very important role in the eclipse chart. Pluto is the planet of death and rebirth. It can be expressed through the death of the body and agents of decay and breakdown, such as terrorists, despots and revolutionaries, or through the death of the lower or separate ego/personality self, through the agency of spiritual healers, transpersonal therapists, teachers of transformation, and gurus. Pluto breaks down the illusory sense of separateness and the attendant fear, self-centeredness, competitiveness, and aggression. In its highest expression it is the destroyer of the separate ego/personality self, a death that is really a birth and a liberation. In a sense Pluto is about the crucifixion of the lower self, which leads to the full emergence of awakened soul, the "Christ" within each of us. The metaphor of the fixed grand cross is emblematic of a crucifixion for humanity, a time when the powerful influences from the solar system, galaxy and universe are channeled into a crucible of crises that necessarily must result in transformation. In the eclipse chart, Pluto is in the first house, which (at a personality level) deals with the physical body, the activities of the personality, the urge for space and dominance of the environment, and the ego in action. At the soul level, the first house is the soul body, the emergence of soul purpose, the expression of the will of the soul. With Pluto in the first house in Sagittarius, there is the greatest of opportunities for breakdown, death of the ego-personality identity and its attendant manifestations, and a rebirth of identity in and as the soul, as the personality willingly surrenders and embarks on the Path. Here again we have the theme of the soul emerging from the ashes of the ego/personality self.