Generation X / Pluto in Libra

 Bacchante by Witold Pruszkowski

 (1855, oil on canvas, Lviv National Art Gallery 

Back in 1971 and 1972, Pluto’s yearly direct-retrograde-direct cha-cha moved it from Virgo into Libra. That means that anyone born between October 5, 1971 and April 16, 1972…

Or between July 30, 1972 and November 5, 1983…

Or between May 18, 1984 and August 27, 1984 are all members of the tribe known as Gen X.

Given that wherever we see Pluto positioned natally we see a huge emphasis pro or con (and sometimes both) in a person’s life, it’s not surprising that those born as Gen X (under Pluto in Libra) are all about the pluses and minuses of All Things Libra. Libra being the sign of 'where cause becomes effect,' Gen X is the generation which brought us ‘branding’ and which has given rise to that wholly ‘let’s talk’ concept commonly known as networking. Both branding and networking have to do with creating an identity which others will know/react to in some given way.

But are they real? Or are they profitable in/at the personal level That becomes the Pluto in Libra question.

Libra is an air sign which in belonging to the zodiac’s 3rd quadrant is all about interaction. ‘The theory of the thing’ and what we bring to the table …to discuss, to negotiate about, to get opinions on, to get reactions through...that’s all entirely Libra.

And yes, people think of Libra as a sign about ‘relationships.' But it may be better thought of as a sign about relating. The whole 3rd quadrant is interactive and its native signs (Libra, Scorpio and Sagittarius) are all three signature ‘stages’ in relationships. Libra is the talking and the establishing a basis for communication, alliance, personal comfort (or enmity) with each other. It's the idea of the thing. But it's not until we get to Scorpio that what we generally think about relationships – the sex, the money stuff, the arguments - that may come on line with Libra, but it doesn't get felt or make an emotional impact until one reaches the Scorpio level.

Libra is not deep-in-your-gut emotional. It’s fervent, it’s opinionated, it’s all about having a perspective. Libra is about the appearance of, and presenting a 'product' or  point of view which includes presenting one's self as a product and that which stands for a point of view.

Thus, branding. And thus, since Libra is the idea and not the reality, the nebulous world of networking. Libra doesn't get to and indeed is not highly comfortable with the carnal heat (and possibility of frigid rejection) we associate with Scorpio.

As for Sagittarius (third sign and third stage in this quadrant all about interacting)…Sagittarius relates to relationships by being the land of ‘working on it,’ ‘working it through,’ 'seeing how/if it works' and figuring out whether you need to make course corrections or maybe even just go back to the drawing board.

So when it comes to Pluto in Libra, we're talking about Pluto – a planet which is all about the lure or allure of the thing and which is NOT theoretical in experience (because it’s about the actuality of the transformative experience) being focused through a sign which merely is about the idea.

Hence Gen X's challenges. Gen X people tend to be very devoted to the ideas they believe in and often the ideals they think are right. But then life intervenes with that little Pluto twist.

Did I say LITTLE? That’s so wrong. Just as Pluto natally placed in Libra can spell devotion to the idea, it can also describe the idea which you can’t let go of even when it brings you to your knees.

(And that would be ‘brings you to your knees’ not in a good way!)

Probably more than many other metaphysical symbols, the experience of Plutonic forces cause us to reflect. They're about being in control, not being in control and whether we want to be in control or whether anyone is in control. Pluto experiences tend to be ‘transformative’ in connection to Scorpionic outcomes (read: how well we tolerate risk and how well we choose who to build alliances with and how well we build them)...and in that, Pluto - whether by transit or in the nativity - ends up pointing very directly to the opposition polarity.

Why would this possibly be? That would be because it's our choices of what to get into or what to not get into (and how those choices are based so directly on who we are or aren't with/within our own psyche) which ends up generating our outcomes.

Since it's always easier to look at history, we'll try out the Pluto in Leo/Baby Boomer formula. People born under Pluto in Leo are sometimes called the “Me Generation" - a call name which has everything to do with the Leo focus on developing or using one's native abilities. But Baby Boomer people aren’t really fulfilled and can't succeed until what or who they are gets out there and tied into the big Aquarian world of society and finding one's functional niche - the 'where you are accepted' thing. This glitch with Pluto in Leo is just like the Pluto in Virgo Yuppie challenge in that it begins with the 'doing it in my own back yard' (or mud puddle) and which can't succeed until or unless it works for everybody else.

That's all about the polarity of second quadrant signs where one develops the ability on a local level but then...well, in the case of the Yuppies, all begins in the Pluto in Virgo world of concrete operation, functional methodologies and aims, gains and systemic imperatives and ends up teaching its natives that to succeed in your own right (or life) you have to care about others.

And that means you have to (Pisces as opposition to Virgo) accept them for who they are (part one) and then recognize that you're 'one of them' and that that's the basis of your ultimate power.

Pluto placements show where life will pretty much force us to grow. And what we will need to grow into are the mandates of the zodiac's polarity sign, which with Gen X (Pluto in Libra) points directly at Aries.

This is sort of where it gets interesting however… Pluto in the first six signs of the zodiac operates on the Self and takes that to the worldly or interactive polarity sign. But with Pluto in any of the public signs (Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius or Pisces) what we learn there becomes the force which shapes us.

For plus, for minus, for undecided, for iffy, Pluto in Libra thus describes a generation which experiences the world they live in, the society in which they transact their life as an operational force which molds their being. Their sense of capacity. Even their validity.

And what does that mean? 
 

We tend to think of Libra as the sign about the other. But it isn’t really that. You have Libra somewhere in your natal chart and wherever Libra falls that’s where whatever you do and whatever (whoever) you are CREATES the reaction you get from others.

A friend of mine told me the other day that he’d been talking to a psychologist who imparted a savvy piece of information he was very appreciative of. We never control others – we only control ourselves, the psychologist told him.

And that’s true. Unfortunately since psychology isn’t metaphysical, that statement is only half of the very important (and powerful) truth which Pluto in Libra embodies like nobody's business. So let's try this statement again with its metaphysical compliment (after all, for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction, and that applies to the metaphysics of human operations).

We never control others – we only control ourselves. Therefore to cause a shift in how the world (including others) responds to us, what we have to do is change who we are, what we do, how we do it and who we are doing it with, or for.

That’s the Libra premise…and that’s the secret of Gen X, although there is a bit more to it when you get down to the zodiacal (Libra/Aries) polarity. Where Gen X people recognize that the success or failure of any given effort or venture or conversation or relationship is about who they are being with the Other and whether that Other is indeed their Libra “equal.”

And that implies that you have to pay attention to the old saw 'what we put out comes back to us' as the key and the understanding that who we are is the key to who we will attract and how successful (or unsuccessful) we will be in that process of relating or relationship process. Commonly known in metaphysical circles as ‘like attracts like’ this one simple idea is Pluto in Libra in spades. So where Gen X people ‘do it right’ or addressing their true Libra equals or the right “audience,” they do splendidly providing they are bringing their valid and verifiable Self to the party. But when they just try and fit in, or where they insist on doing it their way instead of the right way…where they are not being true to their Aries concept of Self or where they refuse (Pluto being in Libra) to deal with that Self in all its glorious and vulnerable shades of dark and light, positive and negative, strong and weak - all that - things don’t work quite so well.

Okay…let’s be more exact here...where they ignore the Aries reality of Self, things suck. Pluto in Libra can be the tendency to get walked on and its natives get walked on exactly to the degree that they don't own their Self and thus attract others equally un-invested in their Self. In fact, given a choice, the Pluto in Libra person who has not chosen to own or invest or grapple with their Self will opt to keep company and ally (Libra = alliances) themselves with other people who are equally unrealized, equally lacking in internal alignment and equally likely to melt like chocolate bars under a hot sun rather than choose someone to grow with.

Of course, there are moments in the Pluto in Libra life when these uber-talented natives realize they need mentoring. Or when they recognize that their innate nature makes them someone who is virtually 'made' to play a supporting role to someone else - such as the soldier to their commanding general, the secretary to their boss, the whatever to whomever.

In that case, to the extent that the Pluto in Libra person owns their own identity, they will tend to attract others who own their identity in equal measure. This is an important concept because when Gen X people simply 'give in and give up' that ceding of personal power will only attract an Other who will use that power for them.

Or against them.

And that would be likely...why? That would be likely because Pluto IS the outcome ruler of Scorpio no matter where we see it placed (natally or by transit). And when Scorpio gets into its 'weakness' mode, that invites tyranny.  

Thus the whole swath of Pluto in Libra subjects - the branding to the networking to the wanting to be ‘part of my group’ thing is rife with Gen X challenges. It just  sometimes doesn’t work. And when it doesn't work, or when it's a manifestation of 'checking out' that's a sign of Gen X trouble.

Gen X is all about the development of the Self which is then 'tested' and 'perfected' against an Other. But the dynamic is always Libra/Aries - it's always about the Self. I know Gen X’ers who blatantly don’t do well fitting in, and yet they loathe the whole idea of standing out – a curious quality for a generation all about “names” and celebrity images and molding the image and being as beautiful as possible.

When Pluto moved into (and committed to its transit of) Capricorn back in late 2008, this put a whole lot of pressure on every Gen X’er around. Why? Because Pluto in Capricorn is the square to Pluto in Libra. Every Pluto placement gets to its 'square point' and we happen to (at the moment) be in Gen X's. And while all squares are about balancing and synthesizing our efforts (and/or keeping things in sync) in this case the earthy quality of Capricorn and the fact that Capricorn and Libra are both cardinal signs has made things squirrelly.

Earth plus air equals a challenge to understand the reality of life under any circumstance. And since we’re talking about two cardinal ‘just do it (and exult or take your lumps later)’ signs, this has resulted in many a misstep and shattered psyche. Of course we’ve seen a number of ‘stroke of luck’ cases and right-place-right-time sort of stories.

As Pluto came within orb of fixed star (nebula) Facies back in 2010, things got complicated. For Gen X, this has meant a lot of puzzle pieces…some of which seem to have a mind of their own. For some this meant just a lot of life factors needing juggling. For others, aims and goals became convoluted and difficult to sort through or keep on track.

Here in 2013, Pluto has come within orb of fixed star Vega, signature of charisma. Pluto will actually conjunct Vega starting in 2015, and at that point a lot of Gen X’ers are going to succeed – and some will recognize that what they have been so fervently aimed as is not worth chasing.

And let’s not forget Uranus and Neptune. Uranus ‘flirted’ with moving into Aries during May, June, July and early August of 2010. But it wasn’t until 2011 that Uranus and Neptune shifted signs: Uranus moved into Aries and Neptune entered Pisces. The ‘whole sign’ inconjunct from Neptune to Gen X’s Pluto in Libra plus Uranus opposition from Aries is the signature of many a shakeup which has (and will continue to happen) in the lives of Gen X’ers who are on the wrong track but refusing to change.

And let’s not forget…in transiting Aries, Uranus is saying to the whole of Gen X that they should not be ‘married’ to their perspective. Whatever they learn through others which changes or shapes their lives, it’s likely to produce unusual answers. Odd realizations. A need to find one’s way out of the box.

If there’s a solution for Uranian energy, it’s flexibility. And even that sometimes doesn’t work. In Uranus transiting Aries we have the opposition of Uranus to the natal Pluto of Gen X as a generation.

Maybe the times are changing…maybe they’re not. But in the short and long run Gen X people are going to learn a lot of lessons about individuation, about being an individual and what the balance really is (or should be) between the Self and Other.

The front end of this generation (those born closer to 1971-1972) are nearing 40. That means they’re moving into and through the classic ‘mid life crisis’ transits. At the other end of the tribe, the younger Gen X’ers are just coming out of their first Saturn returns.

One of the many nebula on the edge of Sagittarius as photographed by

WISE - the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer

(photo credit: NASA Caltech, April 2010)

Either way, as they flex, as they accept that some of the standards or ideas or images they have long held dear are not applicable or not possible or plain old not worth the effort, members of the Gen X tribe will be facing now just who they are to-with others, and not just who those others are, but who they are.

This is one of those occasions when I wish I had an astro-Hallmark sympathy card.'

Then again, I don’t have the address of every Gen X’er in the world. So I’ll just say it here: to all you wonderful Gen X folks - my very best wishes for good luck in understanding yourself through others. For the next few years what you do, how you do it, who you do it with and why you do anything is going to be in for an update. And that means people...situations...events...puzzles and quandaries will test your ability to understand the difference between who you really are and what you might think is really 'good' to be. 

By the end of this time, more of you in your generation  will be focused on who they can be instead of how it looks or trying to 'look the part' while working who they're with or whether anyone else cares.

In the end, you who are Gen X are supposed to learn your own worth through the worth of others. The temptation, the 'need' to be 'like' some image or 'pre-approved' notion will sometimes fit...and then again, sometimes it will merely lead you astray until something which seems strange to you wanders across your path, daring you to know who you really are.

The only real question - and the one which Pluto in Libra truly asks - is whether you will be willing to be and become yourself with joy equal to that you have shown in following the 'idea of the thing.' In some measure, in some way, some of your changes will be tough - mostly because you're going to have to dare to be different...which is to say, yourself - that unique person you are.

But if you just try letting go of the ‘what someone else says/thinks is good’ and go the route of living for your Self and who you really are, chances are, you'll like doing and being that...and you'll like yourself better for being the genuine You.

And magically...so will others.

There's a vast difference between the 'like' of pals or social networking and the gut level liking which grows out of respect for who you are. The great and accomplished of your generation are all people who have followed their essence. In being who they were, they have been able to reach out and be heard.

No, transformation isn't easy. Letting go of habits and looking at the truths of who we really are can be downright scary, especially when most of the people you know are busy ignoring the obvious truth of life - that we are who we are.

To be satisfied being who you are while living a Gen X life is to understand that satisfaction lies in purity of Self and finding those who truly correspond with your mind, your spirit and your splendid humor of soul.

The good news is this: once you go there, all becomes obvious...and much, much easier.
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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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