You Were Searching ... Generations Later

Galaxy of Galaxies from M-Set

(image credit: Jonathan J. Dickau, image created using ChaosPro 3-3 software by Martin Pfingstl)

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We’ve already had a Lunar Eclipse, Pluto’s station, Jupiter’s station, a New Moon (to go with the Lunar Eclipse Full Moon) and the Sun, Mercury and Venus all changing signs.

In short, if what you’re keeping up with is current astro-doings, that’s all the ‘major’ doings until Mercury changes signs on May 1st (UT/+0 time). (Which I’ll get myself to thinking about in time to write a post.) But in the meantime, it’s time to get out the ever-accumulating list of search terms sourced from a list which appears in the astroPPM digital ‘back room’ courtesy of Google.

There, under ‘Stats’ (subsection ‘Traffic Sources’) is a list entitled “Search Keywords,” in the fields of which are words you (and all your merry human friends)(the un-merry ones too) use when looking for the information which leads you to astroPPM.

For the record, I have no idea what other blog owners do with like information. But here at this blog, when Existence provides time (as it has this month) in the astro-schedule, I like providing a few words on such subjects.

You know, just in case you haven’t found an answer yet. And besides that, it’s always good to know someone is listening.

So here begins this edition of ‘You Were Searching’ - which I’ll start with a brief mention of Searcher Field Theory.

What’s that?

Allow me to explain: the following search turned up in the keyword list just yesterday:

APRIL 2015 + AQUARIUS + EVEN THOUGH...

That’s a line which sounds a bit like the beginning to a mystery novel to me (a timely mystery novel, yes...). But more importantly (to you, should you want to get your queries on the astroPPM search term board), it’s also very clear evidence of how much information gets delivered by Google.

Yes, even though.

So here’s the topic du jour...

‘MILLENNIAL GENERATION PLUTO IN SCORPIO’

This line has turned up a couple of times on the search list. And every time I see it (or anything like it), I think of two things. The first is how iffy society’s general estimations of start-and-stop dates seems if you’re used to using some sort of generation marker (astrology uses Pluto) ... and the second is about how much of the world’s current turmoil is to be expected simply because of our being at - and having to live through - the change of astrological ages.

To explain the Ages in short, have you ever watched a spinning top or gyroscope? As you’ve watched them, did you notice how that top or gyroscope ‘wobbles’ slightly as it spins, causing the point at its top to describe its own little circle?

What you probably didn’t realize at the time is how is that little circle is rotating in the direction opposite to that of the top or gyroscope’s spin. But it is - and the same thing happens with planet Earth as it spins on its axis...

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... a situation which means that though we currently call Polaris our ‘Pole Star’ because its district of the sky is the place an imaginary ‘stick’ stuck through Earth pole-to-pole currently points at.

And that means Polaris’ won’t be our pole star forever, as the following diagram of where Earth’s pole ‘points’ to (at given years) demonstrates.

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As for the length of time it takes for Earth to go through the whole of its ‘pole star’ cycle, that number (in years) is 25,920. And if you divide 25,920 by twelve (the number of signs in the zodiac) gives us 2,160 - the length of one astrological age.

And when we add in how the top-of-the-top (or gyroscope, or planet) cycles in a direction opposite to that the planet rotates, that tells us that  astrological ages rotate backwards.

So if we used to be in the Age of Pisces (more on that in a moment) and we’re now in (or moving into) the Age of Aquarius (the sign which precedes Pisces) that means we are moving not into our strength, but that our ‘forward motion through time’ (the Earth’s forward motion and its direction of rotation as part of that motion) we encounter or stir up 12th-harmonic things ... 12th derivative things ...

...in other words, every time the astrological ages change, they move us not into our strengths, but into those areas of life or towards those considerations which whether on a planetary, personal, societal, spiritual or ecological level are the difficulties, the vulnerabilities - all those things which we really would rather not have to deal with, which we have to deal with anyway.
Why?

Because it’s our planet and thus the basis (foundational) thing which support life on Earth.

Just as a full disclaimer here, there are a couple of notable astrologers who think we’re still in the Piscean Age and that we’re going to be in the Age of Pisces for another hundred-plus years yet. Their logic (as I understand it) is based on the length of constellations (constellation star positions) instead of Earth’s motion relative to its position in space plus the fact that astrology is a geocentric (Earth-centered) study.

Well, something close to 90% of it is. There is heliocentric (Sun-centered) astrology. I don’t practice it, nor do I know anyone who does ... but theoretically its possible to have Sun-centered astrology, Saturn-centric astrology or anything else-centric astrology. (And as soon as someone perfects that software... which has been kicking around in rough form for years now... the research will begin.)

Each to their own there. Meanwhile, back in the world of geocentric astrology, the bottom line on Ages is that everyone does indeed agree they cycle backwards - and whether we’re at the-crack-of-dawning-of or already fully encompassed by the Aquarian Age, its plain that things are changing radically from where they were as little as a hundred years ago.

Besides, given the nature of Aquarius (a sign which not only seeks integration but also sometimes supports the value of making objections for the sake of finding out what happens if objections get made) ... given that, we would hardly think the Aquarian Age would start without a quibble.

What, not even ONE?

Really?

That aside, astrological ages also don’t flip on and off like light bulbs. They’re more like the colors in a rainbow where hue by hue, degree by degree, the color shifts. There is a time when you look ahead and another moment in which you know you’ve arrived.

And until then, the fact that the Ages are changing ...? That can be tough - on an individual basis, a generational basis (changes of Ages are bound to affect parent/child relations in odd and head-or-heart-aching sorts of ways where the parent is born in the outgoing Age and the child is then born imprinted by different metaphysical patterns.

Such differences can leave both sides feeling  invalidated and unsuccessful - and it’s not that they’re flawed as human beings, but because these people happened to get their turn at parenting or being someone’s child in a moment when our time and energetic tides are taking a Age-driven turn.

It can be daunting, no doubt - even if you’re someone who believes we are never given challenges we are not also given the power to tackle, master and learn from, even if you’re someone who believes the great metaphysical treatise about how ‘unbeknownst to us, the universe is unfolding as it should.’

As for generations, astrological generations are a Pluto function; in every generation we see its drive - the ‘mass passion’ of a group of people born over a period of years.

 Pluto through the signs

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Most of us know Pluto generations by their nicknames: Pluto in Leo is the Baby Boomer generation, Pluto in Virgo equals Yuppies, Pluto in Libra is Gen X, Pluto in Scorpio has (somewhat mysteriously, which suits) come to be known as Gen Y and the Pluto in Sagittarius group - the group which was being born at the time of the millennium, they get the astrological title of Millennials.

We are currently living under Pluto in Capricorn, and that tribe doesn’t have a name yet. But then, that isn’t surprising ... there are some things in astrology we only understand once they’re over or past. Pluto and Saturn transits are both pretty well known for this effect - which makes a good deal of sense as we sometimes can’t know what something has been transformed into (Pluto equaling transformation) until the metaphysical hocus-pocus is over just as many of us are understandably hesitant to say what something is (or whether it is real) unless - per Saturn’s rule as definer of time and ‘structural’ reality - it truly is real, that being when its ‘reality’ solidifies in our mind as real.

But as for why Pluto functions as a generational marker, that answer would seem to be all about what some call an ‘over-focus,’ some call a ‘passion’ and others call an obsession, all of which are the hallmark of how Plutonic energies function in real time - i.e., how we tend to ‘act out’ our Pluto energies. This differs from Pluto’s traditional themes of direction - Pluto energetics tend to ‘aim’ at any of the keywords which describe how Pluto ‘transforms things’ - that being either through a process of creating, denying or destroying, the latter of which can be a simple elimination (a “wiping out”) or an eliminating of one thing as part of a process which allows something else to come into being with ‘denials’ being either a method of control OR a means by which one thing is ‘denied’ (or denied access) so that something else can have its turn.

In any case, wherever we see Pluto by sign (and house) in our natal chart that combination tells us the thing or things we are going to be passionate about and where or how in our lives we are going to operate while pursuing our personal passion(s).

And so dedicated are we, so passionate are we about that thing we love, crave, and pursue with such a Pluto passion that other people look at us sideways or wonder what we’re up to (or if we’re crazy to be wanting to be doing it so much)... well, eventually things happen.

And when those things happen, we are transformed.

Some of us decide the ‘thing’ wasn’t our aim (the pursuit was) while others find their Plutonic passion has so unbalanced their life (as a whole) that they now need to ‘re-transform’ things and bring them back into balance person for one’s own good.

In other words, Pluto really is the ‘outcome’ ruler of Scorpio, as Scorpio - among its roles as the zodiac’s fixed interactive sign - functions as a warning system to tell us where or how we are getting (or have gotten) out of internal balance by confronting us with perils we have metaphysically “asked for” by mistaking or projecting our vulnerabilities onto others - this being part of Scorpio function as the oppositional sign to security-loving Taurus, the other side of which we just jolly-trotted though in the recent post on Sun in Taurus.

-link to post-

Sun in Taurus

And yes - that would be one of the thoughts behind my picking this particular search term at this particular time. This Earth Day 2015 (the date of this post) with three personal planets (Sun, Mercury and Mars) in Taurus and (oh yes...) Pluto in Capricorn - another earth sign, so we are rooted in our reality at the moment and feeling our mortal earthly earthiness.

The whole of Earth is feeling its Taurus/Scorpio balance (and lacks thereof) at the moment.

Among other things, the net here is that the Pluto in Scorpio generation is likely to do many ‘extreme’ things - all of which are about this generation’s need to feel and find a balance within the Self. Some members of this generation will find it easiest to figure this out through others and challenges or opportunities presented by or in their society, and this isn’t shocking - its just part of the natural ‘vibe’ of a planet being in a sign which is public, interactive and connective by nature.

Scorpio learns by testing what makes it feel secure and what makes it feel not so secure, and not all of it is real: this is an emotional sign which feels its own vulnerability, often as an inner feeling of ‘lack of completeness’ which arises from the Taurus desire to feel secured trying to ‘complete’ its task through interaction with others.

At the time of the millennium, Pluto was in Sagittarius - the sign after Scorpio, otherwise known as the ‘2nd derivative’ ... and as of the end of 2008, Pluto moved into Capricorn - the 3rd derivative sign to Scorpio. Any third derivative sign speaks to the tone or notion of our thought pattern, which with the Pluto in Scorpio tribe is described as being Capricorn in nature, telling us that this astrological generation has all sorts of Capricorn-like mental blessings and banes. So on one hand we have generation fully armed with much mental determination, ambition and a powerful ability to see through veneers, whether that exposes the good, bad or merely foolish. And on the other hand this generation is also endowed with a singular potential for producing depression, fear and exclusion - in the Self or in others.

Currently on track to be sorting through life choices often through trying things out and learning how to define the Self through what doesn’t fit, the Pluto in Scorpio generation is currently experiencing a very long (Pluto in Capricorn) period of watching the world changing even as they try to decide what part of that world is worth wanting to feel challenged by (that being the process by which this generation defines personal-individual goals). This period, which lasts until 2023/2024 when Pluto sidles its way into Aquarius, is probably going to remembered as amazingly productive once Gen Y folks get a couple of decades down the line even if things don’t look entirely frivolous at the moment.

But then, should they? From the Pluto perspective nothing is simple, if only because we are feeling people. Pluto in Scorpio people know this - and unlike the several generations before them, this is a generation which lives and thrives on emotionality and all things which promote and provoke emotionality. To Gen Y, the world is about a connection which is not so much about what we connect on but why we connect. Initially they will center their feelings on those who are their nearest and dearest, but as this generation matures over the next couple of decades (of Pluto in Aquarius and Pisces) they will discover much about life as they define its worth being that which makes the world worth living for all. (And may the good Lord help those who try to tell this generation what they believe in!)

Once Pluto left the six 'private' signs behind as it entered Libra back in 1971-1972, a lot of focus moved out of the private life and into the public, worldly and interactive sector ... after which everything went 'social.'

In other words, when obsessive Pluto left the 'private' signs, society - led ultimately by those born under those born with Pluto in Libra (Gen X) and beyond - society also left the realm of the personal and personally private for all the reasons, results, notions and consequences good and bad.

There's a very large shift which exists between these two groups - those born under Pluto in a 'private' sign and those born with Pluto in a 'public' sign. The difference between them has ... and will ... create much friction and 'push.' And that, considering how members of generations born under Pluto in 'private' signs are still generally in charge of our world can easily be seen as a subtle if persistent astro-signature behind much now and yet to come which is and will be sincerely troublesome.

On top of which comes our global disorientation and all the shifts of perspective which go with the changing of the Ages.

It's all quite enough to cause members of Pluto-in-a-fixed-sign Gen Y members to choose carefully when it comes to allowing your Self to indulge too much in personal passions ... in spite of the urgent magnetism of this idea or that.

And yet this generation is destined to experience - over time and in many forms - how overindulgence in the intensity of obsession and one's will to control generates exactly the sort of thing which defeats either the aim ... or maybe just the reason you were aiming for it.

Which in the end ... well, isn’t that the very nature of Pluto and Scorpio? If so, the Pluto in Scorpio generation is destined to push themselves - and many around them to many a frighteningly powerful brink, that being the way this generation finds itself as something akin to, and yet separate from others. 
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Mercury in Capricorn

An English country lane in Autumn

(photo credit: Jongleur100, 2008)

 

From late September to December we all lived through the intensity of Mercury in Scorpio. Compared to that, the couple of weeks of Mercury in Sagittarius were a fling. A gallop. A blink and a flight and a chuckle and a time when time was doing one of the things time does best – flying by.

Of course there is the fact that during Mercury’s December 5th through 24th transit of Sagittarius Uranus also went direct. Uranus on station always requires flexibility and with this one all caught up in things Mars, that flexibility was in high demand (along with the need to direct your focus, lest your focus end up getting you into trouble, directly).

In that sense, Mercury in Sagittarius couldn’t have come at a better time – even if the down side of Mercury in Sagittarius tends to be overstepping bounds and things getting out of hand.

Maybe in the cosmic/karmic sense had we been any more confined or self-restricted than we were (if Mercury had still been in Scorpio, for example) we would have only made things worse. Life’s opportunities do tend to want to provide for us, we just have to be willing to avail ourselves of that ultimately good thing which may not be the easy thing.

And sometimes not even the likely-seeming thing.

So Venus went retrograde on the 21st – in Capricorn, setting the stage for six weeks of trying to get something better from ourselves, not others. This is support-of-self time – and considering Mars having moved into Libra (sign of relating through interactions) on December 7th we’re in for weeks yet of having to deal with people knowing they don’t know (and for some, care) what we’re all ‘about’ at the moment.

Is that true? Maybe or maybe not, but anything life can pull to get us to pull back to a place where we’re considering how we may need to change considering how everything in our lives has changed – of late and otherwise – that’s what life is going to come up with.

This Venus-Mars Capricorn-Libra square is likely to manifest in all sorts of things which bog us down, tie us up, totally bug us and otherwise force us to focus on things which well may need doing and which may even benefit us in time.

But it’s not what we WANT.

Venus and Mars both relate as ‘modifiers’ of our feelings and emotions, so to have them in square with one (Venus) in retrograde suggests having to put something which makes sense over personal preference.

So what do we stand to get from that? A whole grumpy planet. :(

And then Mercury enters Capricorn. The date? December 24th, which would be just as Mars and Uranus are nearing the crispy crackle of their potentially enlightening, perhaps invigorating and just possibly unnerving opposition. There will be some who react to this shift by getting serious – and it is to be expected that some odd ‘last minute’ Christmas/holiday maneuvers will go into gear with just hours to go before midnight.

Then again, this combination may mark travel difficulties. And for a few, depression – intermittent or otherwise – or depression’s far more manageable cousin, disappointment. The first days of this transit are likely to be the most difficult what with the working through of Mars/Uranus, but after that it may well simply be useful to think of this transit as the collected sort of ‘realistic’ thinking, communicating and/or organized efforts we need to be focused on now so as to make the best of Venus retrograde.

The positive here is that Mercury in Capricorn is a credence to us that we can make a difference in our own life and as pertains to our own goals – as ikky as we might think the process of reaching them may be. Throughout these weeks moments and situations and things simply become clearer than ever, for whatever reason.

With the Sun, Mercury, Pluto and Venus all in Capricorn that’s a lot of drive. Determination. Willpower. It’s all about getting down to whatever represents the structure, the idea, the construct upon which we can build and have what we build last. A good number of us will spend at least part of these weeks working towards ‘proving’ something (to self or others) while others will be waiting something out. Neither is right or wrong provided your aim isn’t manipulative. In other words, if you’re taking some stand because you believe in it, that’s fine. But if you’re taking some stand because you are hoping someone else will ‘see your point’ (or otherwise ‘see the light’), that’s not likely to go all that well; either the point won’t get made or whatever you will have done to make that point will set you back in your own life in terms of everything you need to do.

This whole period – meaning the eight long(ish) months that will see Mars through Libra (a sign ruled by Venus, let us remember) is going to be hard for many of us. By generation, the Baby Boomers (Pluto in Leo) are going to be hell-bent on doing what they think they need to do in the world – and please, don’t try to distract them, lest you hurt yourself in the effort. Under Mercury in Capricorn, the Baby Boomers are always likely to take on too much…and yet, since only that which works for everyone is going to work for them, that’s a bit of a problem. This is a headstrong generation which is fine when pursuing their own goals if a little short on the ability to see the issue when others see things differently.

And yes, they’re going to get a few opportunities to do some of that seeing over these next few weeks.

All this will be going on as Pluto in Virgo peopled are continuing an ongoing shift from the way they want things to work to the way they will work if one is willing to make a few changes. Like Pluto in Scorpio, Pluto in Virgo is a generation used to taking its cues from what goes on around them and in the world which Mercury in Capricorn certainly supports, even if the changing world denoted by Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Virgo is forcing this generation to rearrange their thinking and methodologies.

To Pluto in Virgo people, Mercury’s transit of Capricorn is a time to figure things out. With Venus retrograde in Capricorn, not only can hasty decisions can be wasteful but what is to be gained by thinking things through is not to be ignored.

The Pluto in Scorpio-Gen Y folks will also be having a time of things for this next while, but their challenge is less about changing who they are than it is about dealing with the actualities and realities of who they are…and perhaps some limit or constraint that puts on some plan.

(Or at least how you had thought said plan was going to work, that margin of error being your next little clue in the puzzle.)

Then there’s the Millennial Pluto in Sagittarius tribe – which is having a hassle of a whole different kind, namely the difference between their idea of how the thing should be and how they just plain are. Venus retrograding in Capricorn is likely to manifest in any number of momentary (or even protracted) struggles with ‘being satisfied’ along with frustrated ‘not liking this’ moments when said Pluto in Sag person isn’t satisfied.

The good news here is that these next few weeks of Mercury in Capricorn is going to have Millennials focused on their own business, which will be quieter, if not any less of a concern. Over the next few months this generation is going to for whatever reason and by whatever means begin ‘hearing’ some wider and broader concerns. How Millennials react to such information mirrors how well internally balanced they are when it comes to internalized security (the structured Self) versus a capacity to rely on those around them.

You may have noticed that I skipped Gen X, the lovely, airy, Pluto in Libra group. That’s because the next eight months of Mars in Libra is going to be a trial if a blessing to Gen X in which this Mercury in Capricorn transit brings a perspective on others which causes the native to reassess who they are (differentiation from the other) while (hopefully) processing the ‘why’ of the basic “attraction” whether the term ‘attraction’ is meant in the human/personal sense or the metaphysical like attracts like (and) what you put out comes back to you sense.

For the whole of this passage Mercury will be in what’s known as a ‘whole sign square’ to Mars with this particular square linking Mercury in earth (the facts) with Mars/Libra as the “desired/desirable aim” inclusive of any blessings or problems you have gone on at the moment.

This square – like any square – is asking us to bring these two factors not into “oppositional” balance, but dynamic balance. Mars is in an interactive sign (Libra) so the idea and/or means is ‘the idea’ of the thing involved and thus how it is expressed.

Or not expressed, of course. Just as in Gemini to not make a choice is to choose not to choose, in Libra not dealing with the other person or the issue is a valid relationship action. So whether we now choose to do or not do something – or anything – in, to, about or through the process of interacting with others (specific or generic others both qualifiy) that is what you are doing.  And just as dealing with our responsibilities and taking ownership of what we do and why we do it – or at least being darn certain that we know why we’re doing something in our own terms before we ‘go public’ whether in word or deed, so Mercury in Capricorn puts us into a mode and mood where we become highly aware of life in the Big World and indeed our life in the Big World as a matter of our ability and willingness to structure our lives not as an image, but as a reality.

A copper engraving of Mercury dating from 1597

Where we lack and where we are lacking – most of all as people – Mercury in Capricorn defines influences which will give us reasons to strive or deliver grief (of some kind) because we’ve so cut back on the reality of what we stand for in our own daily lives.

This Mercury/Mars square tightens to exact through the New Years Eve/New Years Day when in squaring Mars from 11 Capricorn, Mercury is also conjunct Pluto.

This is a potent and powerful moment. Pluto and Mercury will be at 11 Capricorn and the Sun at 10 Capricorn as the Moon enters Capricorn on New Year’s Eve at 6:02 in the evening UT/+0 time.

(Someone wrote to ask me what ‘UT’ is. For information’s sake it’s ‘Universal Time,’ a “+0” time zone designation outside of any jurisdiction and therefore not subject to any tinkering.)

All of this means yes, there will be a New Moon on New Years – it will be at 10 Capricorn with Klotho (beginnings, initiations), Kallisto (persevering through the worst of it and charismatic fixed star Vega.

That doesn’t sound like fun, does it? And then we add in Mercury-Pluto, which has a (rather notorious, actually) reputation for obsessive thoughts/thinking and persuasive or manipulative communications. Mind you, this could mean you’re Sherlock Holmes or a fabulous orator or something. And since 10 and 11 Capricorn both tend to refer to the ability to get things done, this Mars/Mercury square could be just that – getting something which requires a lot from you into gear. Or to fruition – something. With Venus retrograde, any ‘something’ is going to not feel right and you should not expect it to. At the moment the expectation of what you thought ‘would happen’ is taking away from the Mercury/Capricorn energy you could be using to understand what has happened or what you could make happen.

And that is just the thing. If you think things through you may well realize that while what’s on the table may not be your idea(l), it may well be…indeed you may know it is a path to the thing you want.

This brings us back to that Venusian issue of values and that conflict between the idea of the thing and what it is.

You know…Mars in Libra, Mercury in Capricorn.

Good luck!
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Generation Y / Pluto in Scorpio

image based on 'The Legend of the Phoenix' by Evangelivm

In continuing to think through the astrological generations (evidently I don't have enough to do) it struck me that as a member of Pluto in Leo I’m always attracted to people through whom I can learn how to better develop myself as my own ‘product’ (if you will) just as my Gen X friends are drawn into relationships with many and sundry (and a few other people besides that) in order to feel themselves experiencing their Self through relationship and through how they are and aren’t received, through their successes and catastrophic failures…

Gen X people do seem to create and experience failures on at truly grand scale. It’s part of the Pluto in Libra signature as a public, worldly, ‘not entirely private and in my control’ sort of sign. And that's the point...for a hundred-odd years prior to Gen X (Libra being the first 'above the horizon sign' in the natural zodiac), Pluto transited the personal-and-internal signs: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo and Virgo. Thus, just as Pluto in any of these signs spoke to the 'energetics so Plutonic' which worked to transform such lives directly, so Pluto’s transit through the six worldly/public signs (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces) is always going to represent various processes where the native is transformed through experiences and interactions and efforts which are external to the Self which then end up transforming that Self.

 
Taking this into account, Pluto in Libra (Gen X), Pluto in Scorpio (Gen Y), Pluto in Sagittarius (Gen Z - the Millennials) and so on are always going to 'feel' (particularly to each other) more like each other than any of them is going to feel like Pluto in Leo or Pluto in Virgo (Yuppie) folks.

That doesn't mean that they can't get along - far from it. But the means and methods through which each group is transformed are going to differ. 

There's another way to look at this which also seems apt...if you’ve ever heard about how in family dynamics seem to skip generations, astrological generations seem to work a bit like that. The every-other-sign thing seems to hold...and maybe that's because that signs alternate through the zodiac between yin and yang. The traditional “measure” of family generations being 18-20 years is just enough to suggest that every-other sign in the astrology of Plutonic generations.

Or at least it has during the hundred or so years when Pluto was moving at a more or less consistent speed through the zodiac. Currently moving through the 'quick' section of its travels, Pluto is throwing this game off. So...question: is this manifesting as the trend towards people waiting to have children? Or not having them at all?

Maybe.

image generated courtesy of JPL's Small Body Database

This aside, it seems obvious that there is some great shift which has happened when Pluto moved above the horizon of the natural zodiac.

Simply in switching zodiacal hemispheres by sign, Pluto signaled a shift in orientation – a change in the way we go about learning in our life and about life (and our life), in other words.

So what is Gen Y, Plutonically speaking?

Pluto in Scorpio is all about the utilization of Scorpio energies in a singularly driven, rather obsessed manner. With money, through sex, through the sheer wielding of power, influence, talents and everything about those things and all that they entail, so Pluto in Scorpio people tend to make their way in the world.

It’s sort of like Gen X people being constantly exposed to others. And their feeling like they need to ‘belong’ or ‘fit in’ or be ‘part of the group.’With Pluto in Scorpio, the energetic is deeper. The potentials are greater, but so is the danger – to the native, to what they’re doing and to those involved or intertwined in the process. Pluto in Scorpio people are either all about feeling their feelings in conjunction with your feelings or they find your feelings entirely dangerous - and maybe their feelings too.

Scorpio is funny that way. As much as we crave Scorpio's connective energetic, many of us are frightened to tar of it, too. This brings up an old astrological rule we apply when analyzing natal charts. It’s instrumental in understanding this Pluto in Scorpio challenge, which is why I bring it up. One of the first things an astrologer looks at when they survey your chart is the check of elemental presence. Earth, air, fire, water – are they all there? There are rules for how to cope with each elemental ‘lack,’ and when it comes to a lack of earth, the rule says ‘look for fixed water.’

The term ‘fixed’ literally means the astrological mode. Fixed signs have a stabilizing force…although yes, when they’re out-of-adjustment (or where we see them in a chart which lacks balance or the life of a native without sufficient insight) they tend to spell reticence, reluctance, clinging to the known and a whole-hearted dislike of change.

Scorpio is a fixed sign. And in Scorpio’s case, we can make that ‘whole-hearted dislike of change’ into destruction – even self destruction under the right circumstances.

And yet…Scorpio being the sign of transformation, a little destruction is par for the course. And no sign regenerates like Scorpio, which is why we see this sign prominent in the charts of healers, fixers and survivors of various kinds of disastrous events who have mastered the famous ‘turning lemons into lemonaid’ (aka “all things happen for a reason”) mentality.

But think of ‘fixed water’ in the natural sense. Out there in the earthly wilderness, ‘fixed water’ is another way of saying ice. And ice – provided it’s not ‘thin ice’ – is something you can walk on.

And that’s why astrology says ‘if you lack earth, look for fixed water.’

Of course operating Scorpio is a whole other issue...a concept which multiplies geometrically when we get to the subject of Pluto. Pluto being Scorpio’s ‘outcome ruler’ (the transformation we experience because of the choices we have made) to have Pluto in Scorpio is to double your benefits and double your downs. Gen Y is always going to be prone to great achievements and pitfalls the depths of the Mariana Trench – which at 6,831 miles deep at its deepest point is the deepest trench in any of Earth’s oceans.

image courtesy of Google Maps and the US Department of State

 

And since Scorpio is a water sign, the oceanic reference is entirely apt. Pluto in Scorpio people will all try to ‘skate’ on the ice and most of them will eventually find some crack or get careless enough to fall through.

Scorpio’s water can be very, very cold. And yet, much like with an iceberg (70% of which is usually below the water line) to simply try to stay above water is never to realize the scope of our potential.

That’s a statement meant for everyone with any planet in Scorpio…and specifically extended to Gen Y, a generation which is challenged by its willingness to find that which is ‘occulted’ (hidden) and thus to discover the fullness of options both good and bad.

And maybe where they meet and exchange values.

 As the opposition sign to Taurus, Scorpio is always about ‘testing’ our personal sense of value through the values of others and how well we are able to negotiate differences while honoring everyone’s needs in equal measure. The Scorpio temptation of course is to manipulate your way to success (i.e., what you want) or to simply wield naked power.

And yes, those things can be done. With Pluto in Scorpio, that certainly can be done. Where Gen X displays its beauty, where Yuppies display their achievements, where the Baby Boomers display what they’ve made of their lives or during their lifetime, Pluto in Scorpio shows its native power.

That would be the power of transformation. But lets remember…Pluto in the natal chart is always about how we are transformed or how we gather the lessons and information through which we can transform ourselves into the person who has that life we’d like to live.

Or which we should be living, depending.

And when it comes to the basics of zodiacal learning, that’s always a first-six-sign sort of thing….which is why the lessons Pluto in Libra (Gen X) people  learn through associations and how successful-or-unsuccessful they are in ‘putting themselves (or their abilities) out there’ is a road map for self discovery.

The opposition to Libra is Aries – the sign of ‘I am’ and thus the Self. And the opposition to Scorpio? That's Taurus, the sign of my self worth, my self respect, my true belief in my value and the value of my abilities - hence the issue Pluto in Scorpio folks have with feeling their feelings, your feelings and their-and-your feelings in the same bowl. The mixture could be utterly delicious. Or simply terrible. And some Pluto in Scorpio people will want to savor every bowl for good and bad as their way of learning and occasionally end up with a really bad astro-Plutonic stomach ache (or emotional poisoning) and some will want (even desperately want) to know all about emotions but not be able to bring themselves to tolerate them - yours or theirs.

Then there are the more immediate, socially recognizable attributes. Where Gen X tends to invest in appearance and 'how things look' as a reflection of Self (which is why a messed up Gen X person feels they’re living a messed up life no matter how successful they are) Pluto in Scorpio people exude a high level of allure which they may or may not be able to cope with. This is a generation all about allure...and power, and the ability to wield influence and/or power...but in case you're thinking that's about wanting you - or even because they feel their allure or power or potential...? 

That answer is "sometimes" and "not necessarily." You may be part of a Pluto in Scorpio's day-to-day life, but what others and money and power and success and sexual intimacy - what all these things represent to a Pluto in Scorpio person is nothing compared to their sense and sensation of recognizing their own viability through the action or interaction.

Try thinking of it this way...if everyone is a Gen X mirror (that Gen X sees themselves in) then Gen Y person is looking for their value in your eyes. It's the difference between who they are (Gen X) and what their worth really is (or if they're going to feel worth) - that being the Gen Y challenge.

This lends a curious quality to Gen Y natives: they're there in body, their allure is so palpable you could almost bottle and sell it like perfume. But there's something which isn't always quite there - and that would be the Gen Y ability to reflect back to you (which is part of any relationship) because they're so busy feeling whether they're present in (and what they're worth) in your estimation.

All relationships are about the 'me' and the 'thee' in the interaction. But when we talk about natal Pluto in a natively above-the-horizon (public/worldly) sign against a below-the-horizon (personal/private) sign, the big question is who owns your life. Pluto in Leo people (the Baby Boomers) may well have a darker sign of being all about their "me" individuality, even to the extent of screwing things up because they never learn how to take anybody else into account. And the Pluto in Virgo Yuppies are famously infamous for their negative obsession which lives among this generation which manifests as true and utter materialism. But with the worldly signs...Gen X, Gen Y, the Millennials and beyond...with all of those signs we have people who run the risk of trying to live their life by some standard someone else sets. Gen X will worry about what you think of them, Gen Y will worry about whether you buy into their values and the Millennials will worry about who being 'like' the movers and shakers in this world (or achieving as much as they have/do).

None of these tendencies are about being your own person and living your own life as the individual that you are. There's a longing to be approved of (Gen X) or loved (Gen Y) or acknowledged (the Millennials) which takes the focus off the Self.

And of course none of this is made any easier by the fact that Gen X, Y and some Millennials are growing up having to deal with parents who are Pluto in Leo or Pluto in Virgo.

What is to be expected here is that everyone born under Gen Y (or any of the public Plutonic signs) is likely to go through a lengthy and trying cycle of learning that the basic part of having your own life is being whole in accepting who you are no matter what others think...or say...or whether any given person or group likes, loves or loathes you. To have Pluto natally in a public sign dares us to realize how all that comparing, rebelling and feeling threatened, devalued, unloved or otherwise unworthy is not about what 'they' think...but rather that 'they' will appreciate, love and value you to the degree that you do.

That's the astrological "magic" so many think of as Plutonic. Though Pluto is so often thought of as the obsessive, carnal emotionality we associate with passion, sex, revenge and people who wield any sort of power or ability to control...the real power of Pluto comes from being willing to reflect on who we are in conjunction with, yet separate from others - and from there being willing to be that Self which earns the respect of someone else or some large group.

Real power isn't about abuse or violence. Real power is that people grant to those they trust to care about not just the moment, but the days yet to come.

Taking this back to Gen Y, this is why when Gen Y goes through its 'reflecting value' cycle wanting someone to 'buy into' their worth (or their notion of what's worthy) that sets up an interesting sort dynamic. The Gen Y person is seeking to get energized through their  emotional reaction/interpretation of the relationship or situation. This generation is motivated to change through their respect for others but which initially is likely to have a harder time than some tolerating the normal up's and down's of human emotional fluctuation.

Its a search for self validation which in the end comes from simply validating the Self and beginning to operate as that Self, replete with mistakes, misjudgments and a willingness to try, try again.

And all of that leads to considering some of life's 'automatic' transits. Around the time we move through our mid-20s, the Neptune-trine-Pluto transit hits. Neptune having recently (as in 2012 recently) arrived in Pisces, with Pisces being the trine to Scorpio, the years between 2012 and 2025 (when Neptune enters Aries) are going to see each and every member of the Pluto in Scorpio Gen Y tribe experience Neptune-trine-Pluto.

What is this transit about? Well, at one end of the scale, Neptune trine Pluto pushes the ideas to an idealistic height. At the other, Neptune trine Pluto makes everything completely confusing and unreliable.

No, this isn't likely to go over well with the Gen Y crowd. But the object of the transit is a good one: known as a time when it's not that fabulous an idea to make serious commitments or to get involved at any level which is over-idealized, this Neptune trine Pluto thing - which hits every generation in their mid/late 20s - is a time when we need to learn how to let go of obsessions and obsessive behaviors.

And if you don't get it then...well, then a transit known as Pluto square Pluto - which happens in the late 30s or early 40s depending on your year of birth (see diagram below) will sort that out by presenting situations which can only be solved through taking yourself and your out-of-balance (or unowned) tendencies in hand in learning to create your own life not through catering to your desires, but by utilizing your abilities to create that which will earn the kind of respect which in turn will fulfill that inner sense of vulnerability (or craving for viability).

 The years at the left represent your birth year with the age at which you

will experience the various 'mid-life' crisis transits being shown by

colored blocks. Red stands for Pluto square Pluto, green stands for

Uranus opposition Uranus and blue stands for Neptune square Neptune. 

Looking ahead, it's to be expected that the 'mid life crisis' passage is going to be hard on a lot of Gen Y folks. But the lessons they learn? Those will be (as they say in commercials) - priceless.
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For more information

on mid-life transits:

(link to post) Transitory Times 

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With Pluto’s current transit of Capricorn comes the opportunity for this generation to find its inner voice – a voice which begins with an internal dialogue on the subject of what really matters. To the extent that this generation focuses on their own issues without comprehending that everything and everyone around them has equal value they will tend to project their values on others and incur diminution of their value with or to others. And as Pluto finishes its transit of fixed star (nebula) Facies (which has been going on in a seriously focused manner for the last year and a half or so) and moves on to conjunct the astrological brilliance of charismatic Vega (for the next couple of years), Gen Y people finish sorting through that which though complicated is more mundane and tackle the esoteric questions of life.

As an astrologer, I’m starting to work with more and more Gen Y people. I like their warmth, I like the fact that though they tend to ask the same money and love questions they tend to ask them in a singularly penetrating and insightful manner which speaks to their deep inner core, their mortal fears and their willingness to make themselves vulnerable to those they think will show them kindness.

Even – yes – a bit of people love. Though Scorpio is known as a sign of sex, love is vitally important. Some of the most love-deprived and desperate to be loved people have Scorpio Suns and Moon or Scorpio on any of the native water sign houses (houses 4, 8, or 12). 
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Starting from the bottom and going counter-clockise, the 4th house is native

to Cancer (CN), the 8th house is native to Scorpio (SC) and the 12th house

is native to Pisces (PI)

 

And that’s even without having a native Pluto in Scorpio signature.

Many Gen Y people are past masters at putting on a social mask. They often subscribe to the notion that ‘if I can get you to believe what I want you to believe that makes it true for me, too.’

Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. As transiting Pluto moves past Vega (currently positioned at 15 Capricorn) and then Saturn moves through this area of the zodiac during the year 2019, a lot of Gen Y people will recognize the difference between using life to establish themselves and establishing a life which allows them to be of use and thereby realize (earn) all the supportive reinforcement of what to date is merely a dream, a longing or suspicion of possible viability or validity.

It’s going to be wonderful watching this generation come of age in its own eyes, for in the heart and soul of Gen Y lies the power of reclamation and the potential of the phoenix.

Some will rise, some will raise the hearts and minds of others. It’s something to look forward to.

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Transitory Times

 Image based on a photo of a Westclox Big Ben clock taken by JVGJ

When I was teaching myself astrology, one of the things which fascinated me the most (and which still fascinates me) is how planetary cycles overlap and mark significant passages in our lives.

Learning transits – and the clockwork nature of planetary transits – helped me understand why life works as it does. Why people develop as they do. Why certain age groups go through what they go through.

Your chart is individual to you, yes. But there are also transits we each experience at particular age – like the famous Saturn returns at during year 29, again just before we’re 60 and increasingly, yet again just a bit shy of reaching age 90.

Like I say, there are many transits which are famous with astrologers. But there are one set – a confluence of three – that are SO famous that even mainstream society knows about them. Society calls them “The Mid Life Crisis.” Astrologers know them as Uranus opposition Uranus, Neptune square Neptune and Pluto square Pluto.

As a young and naive astrologer, I dutifully read all about this fearsome trio and dreaded the day I would get there.

And then that day arrived, and I realized – even in the middle of the muddle – that this was a period all about getting more real and realistic with ourselves about life.

The best quip anyone ever used to ‘define’ Uranus opposition Uranus was when they said it was like the ‘flipping of a record.’ For those of you born in the post-vinyl era, this may not make sense, and I’d say that it was like flipping a flapjack except flapjacks don’t have grooves. There’s a quality to the Uranus opposition where we experience our turning ourselves entirely around. What once didn’t seem to be important suddenly strikes us as vital. What once seemed terribly important comes to be anywhere between secondary to totally senseless.

Pluto square Pluto is a life challenge. For many of us, something outlives its function. Or we meet up with a defeat. Pluto’s symbolism is a process which reveals where our drives, fascinations and cravings are less about what we’re chasing and more about our inner vulnerabilities and sense of lack.

And when Pluto square Pluto gets tough, it’s that lack which rears up and bites us.

This is not to say this time can’t represent a victory – it can. But when and where we are victorious, it is because we have proven to ourselves (not to others) that who we are at our core is not merely truly worth our own respect, but the real deal.

Pluto square Pluto will often ‘out’ us to ourselves about the lies we’re living. And yes – sometimes the trick is to know the denial from the real deal truth. But then, that’s Pluto square Pluto all over.

Whatever that means is your business. And whatever you learn at this point in your life, you’re unlikely to ever forget.

Neptune square Neptune involves a test of your willingness to feel your own feelings about life, about who you are (or have been) in life, and how courageous you are (or aren’t) when push comes to shove and life asks whether you’re going to give in and resign yourself to compromising something about who you are or whether you’re going to stand up for who you believe you really are.

Or should be, if you could get past all that reluctance - which is often what Neptune square Neptune is about: an event or situation which does get you past your reluctance by imposing the logic of necessity is the mother of invention.

So my mid-life transits came and went…and as I went on working with clients and studying the charts of my friends I realized that their mid-life crisis transits didn’t come up in the same sequence as mine did.
In fact, for some of them, it wasn’t even close.

Mind you, I’ve been thinking about this on and off for probably over a decade. Then I finally sat down and diagramed it all out.

 
So....what exactly are you looking at?

Starting with January 1st of the 4th year of every decade, I took the positions of Uranus, Neptune and Pluto and then went to look at when said planet hit the degree of the square – or in Uranus’ case, the opposition.

The question I asked was ‘how old would this person be at that point?’

What this tells us is part of why generations differ. And how they differ. The big “difference” being Pluto with that difference entirely due to Pluto’s highly elliptical orbit, what we find is that there are generations (the 1924-born Pluto in Cancer group and those born in the 2000s) where Pluto isn’t in the mid-life crisis equation.

This suggests that the ‘crisis’ point (which is ‘our’ crisis, not a world crisis of course!) really is about who we think we are – which is the Uranus part of the deal. But apart from that, the fact that there are plainly generations who face all these transits at one time. And there are others which get to deal with Pluto somewhere down the line as an entirely separate issue.

As someone born in the mid 50s, I know these transits hit me pretty much all at once. Then I look at my father’s 1920s set-up and know from the ages implied that they correspond both to his two broken marriages and the rise and fall of his rather stellar career.

Then I ask…’how close is close?’ How close do these transits have to be in order for them to manifest in our lives as a period when we just feel like nothing lets up?

That, I don’t know. But I can tell you that having known a bunch of people who fall in the ‘I was born during the 60s or 70s’ barrel, to have Pluto’s square falling before your Uranus opposition seems to be all about the chance of doing it wrong before you get it right.

At the moment, it is this ‘I was born during the 1970s’ group which is in the middle of their mid-life transits. As you’ll notice on the graph, their Uranus oppositions are a bit ‘pushed back.’ Imaged by the green blocks, the pattern of the age at which we hit our Uranus opposition is a nice ‘s’ curve (or sine wave, if you prefer) ranging between age 38 and 44, and people of the 1970s vintage are pretty near the top end of this range.

So they’ve already gone through their Pluto square. That happened (on the average) two years ago – in 2011. They either changed something or something changed for them. And now they’re moving into the period of the Neptune square – a time which is often confusing or which evokes insecurities depending on how truly realistic you are. Or how well you understand the difference between what life really is and how things really work as opposed to how you want it to work.

Or what you’re hoping you won’t have to face.

Or face up to.

The particulars in this come from where Neptune falls (natally and by transit) in your individual chart, of course. But as a theory, those born in the earliest part of the 1970s are feeling the Neptune fuzziness, those born in the mid-1970s are about to get fuzzed and those born at the end of the 1970s have a year or so to wait before the fuzzing begins.

When I look at this chart it suggests to me things like why those born in the 1920s have been nicknamed ‘the greatest generation.’ They didn’t get to the fuzzy and confusing parts of life or the realization they were on the wrong track until they were already in their 40s and life didn’t change the nature of their playing field at a core level until their early 50s. When I think of this as the generation which stayed in their marriages and who worked so hard to build the world they were living in, that makes sense to me as part of the home-hearth-cultural bent of Pluto in Cancer.

With their Pluto-before-Neptune-and-Uranus set up, I look at this chart and see the Pluto in Virgo Yuppies and the early part of Gen X / Pluto in Libra) having hit economic turbulence just when they bought into mortgages and debt loads as part of the cosmic process which will evolve (once they get through the Neptune square and Uranus opposition) into better understandings of the ‘them’ versus ‘the me.’ It’s always fascinated me that the Pluto in Virgo Yuppie challenge is so very much about learning the value of universality (as opposed to my possessions, my wealth, my whatever else) and that the generation immediately following (Gen X / Pluto in Libra) needs to learn more about being who they are as individuals without the branding, grouping and logo’ing.

I look at this chart and I see that by the time the latter part of the Pluto in Sagittarius Millennial tribe reaches their mid-life crisis time (around the year 2044) we will be back to a pattern which in looks is very much like that of the 1920s. Yet with the source energy being Pluto in Sagittarius, this group isn’t going to be about building the world, they’re going to be about making it work.

(Again, yes.)

Then I look at the pattern for those being born now and in the near future, the Pluto in Capricorn kids. They will experience the Uranus opposition and Neptune square at the same time, rather like those born in the mid-1960s did. And it’ll fall right around age 40, probably a little shy of that (making this a projection for around the year 2054). But their Pluto square? That doesn’t happen…give or take…until they’re sixty-two.

To me this speaks of the dawning of realistic space travel and the rehabilitation of our Earth from the perspective of a race which has learned better.

And that says a lot of very good things…and very tough things.

It’s of course to remember that these patterns have repeated countless times. The last time we had a ‘no Pluto square until age sixty-two’ generation would be one Pluto cycle back from January 1914 – or in the year 1767. So what happened 62-odd years later? That was the late 1820s, a time when the world (which is to say, the humans of this world) were redefining the map on a national (astrologically, Capricorn) level. It was a time when established trades were putting their abilities to work building (i.e., creating the Capricorn structure) which would lay in a provisional framework our modern world would one-half Pluto cycle later (Pluto in Cancer) grow out of.

And that’s the other thing I think about when I look at that diagram of transits. I think about how this moment we’re living in – the year 2013 – is the ‘mid-life crisis’ point for things which were set up in the 1970s. The 1970s was when lawyers and ‘things legal’ moved from necessity to a level of glamor and power. And forty years later, I think we’re seeing both the good and the not-so-good in that. The 1970s was when health care moved from the friendly family doctor who took care of most everything (and who you paid for yourself) to corporate medicine and soaring costs and the nightmare which health insurance has become.

We don’t know what will happen with those problems yet. But we do know that the Pluto square to that time would have come before a Uranus opposition which hasn’t happened yet.

But I think we all know something is about to give – which demonstrates rather well that on the astrological level you can look to any point in time and see where it will evolve from there.

Yes, all of life is transitory.
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