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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Pluto: Changing Times Stir the Societal Pot

 Dwarf Planet Pluto as photographed by the Hubble Telescope

photo credit: NASA-JPL

Back when I got out of high school here in the US, American society was all about affirmative action. Under the guise of ‘fairness,’ the rules of that particular day had colleges admitting students of non-white ethnicity with lower grade scores before higher-scoring Caucasian students – many of whom found they couldn’t get into college at all.

That was 1971. Pluto was heading towards the end of its run through Virgo and the students in question were born under Pluto in Leo.

Pluto in Virgo fixates on “the method” with the drive being to achieve the our chosen goal. At the same time, there’s a great undercurrent of morality when it comes to Virgo – especially when we consider Pisces as the polarity sign to Virgo. That signs ‘succeed’ in their given task only when they satisfy the prime directive is why Virgo has such strong and earthy  underpinnings. In Virgo, the thing has to not only function, it has to be right. It has to be moral. When Virgo entities such as doctors, soldiers, civil servants act in an immoral manner we’re particularly offended. There is a sacred (Pisces) quality to everything Virgoan, which is probably why Virgo drives so many to be so exacting and perfectionistic – they see getting the thing right as necessary to the whole of life. Maybe even to the functionality of the universe.

(Their universe? Yes, absolutely.)

For the Pluto in Leo generation which was then trying to get into college, their native Pluto polarity is Aquarius. 

The enormous creativity and inventiveness of this generation has been both carried into the world creating (Aquarian) success and been daunted by societal (Aquarian) challenges to their ability to achieve the very sort of internal acceptance (as a personal realization) that humans are driven to strive for.

There’s a cost for being too individual. Aquarius is the sign where we must first be and become our Self and then find the place in the world where that Self fits in and is accepted and indeed rewarded for being who they are.

Pluto in Leo is something of an obsessive ‘me-myself-my creations’ sort of vibe. It’s funny but probably not a joke that the Pluto in Leo tribe has come to be known as the ‘Baby Boomers’ because Leo is the sign of children, and the Pluto in Leo generation has made having and raising children into a virtual (Aquarian) profession.

As Pluto moved on into Libra the polarity became Aries. This is ‘Gen X’ – a time tribe famous for taking the cult of celebrity and branding to a whole new level. None of this would be likely without the Pluto vibe creating a relationship between Libra (the other, the effect on others) and Aries (the Self) which amounts to ‘other-as-self.’

(And yes, a zillion paparazzi owe Gen X a whole lot of gratitude.)

During the latter part of the Pluto in Libra years, the Pluto in Virgo (Yuppie) tribe hit college. Considering the Libra focus on the other and that the idea of picking one’s personal profession when Pluto is (generally) in the sign after that you were born in…it’s not surprising that many Pluto in Virgo natives went into the ‘helping (and) process-oriented professions’ (medicine, legal, finance). And given Pluto in Libra’s natural ‘advisory’ quality – especially as Pluto in Libra gave way to Pluto in Scorpio during the 1980s it’s not surprising that we was the ‘business of business,’ the ‘business of law,’ and ‘medicine as a business’ make huge leaps and bounds.

Pluto in Scorpio (with Scorpio’s opposition being Taurus) would naturally foster a ‘merger’ sense. It’s sort of the ‘together, we are stronger’ sort of thing. At the same time, Pluto in Scorpio would naturally test not just self worth but the sense of boundaries to a far greater extent than had been seen in several hundred years. (Pluto takes 248 years to make one orbit of the Sun.)

Scorpio being Scorpio and Pluto being Pluto, it’s not unnatural that this is a time when people whose self worth was lacking felt an incredible, emotionally-driven desire to be seen as “equally worthwhile” in whatever fashion.

Its not to be shocked that these years of Pluto in Scorpio saw the rise of consumer debt. These years saw the Gen X crowd becoming adults and wanting to ‘be like’ those they saw as good or admirable or popular…even if they had to finance their way into it.

Fundamentalism of the religious type hit during Pluto in Sagittarius, a time which also saw a tsunami hit the legal system, bogging it down and boggling the public mind. That mind – represented by the opposing sign of Gemini – was asked to decide what is working and what isn’t working. Not surprisingly, a few things were crystal clear to all, a few things were crystal clear to some and a lot of people went to the Pluto in Sagittarius (Gemini polarity) maximal by trying to (en)force their opinions on others.

There is a good side of Pluto in Sagittarius – the upswing of the internet, the access to the marketplace given to the masses. Of course some didn’t know what they were talking about, and that would be the Sagittarian/Gemini polarity. Shams and falsehoods would be a hallmark of this time and not just online. The object here would be to find a way to consider how we think and to improve ways of making choices, but that’s probably yet to come.

Mostly, that is.

This Pluto in Sagittarius generation (which begins in 1996) is now heading towards and into adulthood with Pluto in Capricorn. It’s this which got me to thinking about this whole Pluto Issue, as the dotted line from where I was when I wanted to go to college…(no, I didn’t get to go – I was one of those Caucasian students whose high grades got them waylaid)…to today seems rather clear and almost startling.

(Orbital diagram generated by the JPL Small Body Database)

The story on today’s news was one of many about how entitled undocumented foreigners are (or aren’t) to go to US colleges and universities.

I’m not arguing the yea or nay here – I’m only thinking about the fact that Pluto is now in Capricorn (the sign about ‘status,’ about governance and about consequences national, political, and commerce-oriented)…and how Capricorn is in opposition to Cancer, the sign of one’s homeland and a national population.

Pluto in Capricorn has a natural tendency – as we already see – to ‘split’ the top from the bottom, the few from the masses, if you will. Ultimately, Pluto in Capricorn will be more than that; it will show us that structures must be solid and that the tide turns on those who skim cream off society’s top.

Some ten-plus years from now, Pluto will move into Aquarius. At that point the challenge will likely be about getting people to be truly creative and not just innovative.

Yes, there’s a difference. Creative in this sense is ‘whole cloth creation’ where innovation is an improvement on the system already in place. For those who care, this will like as not be when societies around the world get around to realizing that they really do have to deal with infrastructure man-made and natural. Until then, (under Pluto in Capricorn) there’s likely going to be a lot of finger-pointing at the top and a lot of ‘just get out of my way while I do my OWN thing’ going on at the bottom.

Those who are ‘movers and shakers’ in world society always seem to be focused on Pluto in its current sign. Everybody else (and those folks, when they’re not on the clock) seems to be living to fulfill their natal Pluto drives through the challenges and opportunities described by the sign that Pluto was in during that oh-so-important late-teen, early 20s formative time.

There is no good or bad here, only awareness.

And thereby ends this Plutonic tale!

Chiron in Pisces: Needed Feelings vs. Crisis of Faith

 Lightning striking a tree - photo credit: NOAA

Chiron goes once around the zodiac in 50.54 years. Knowing that, it’s easy to recognize that Chiron is – as some have called it – a ‘bridge,’ which in the age sense would be between life segments.

Having one of those eliptical orbits which doesn’t divide nicely into segments, for early Baby Boomers, Chiron tended to hit it’s first ‘challenge point’ (the square) during early/middle childhood – say, around 6 or 7 years old.

By the time we get to late Baby Boomers, that same ‘first quarter’ point occurs at about age 20-21.

Again, we’re using generalizations. But this one holds pretty much all the way through not just the end of the Boomers (Pluto in Leo), but pretty much through the Pluto in Virgo Yuppie years. By the time we reach 1971/1972 which is the end of the Yuppie generation and the beginning of Gen X, that first Chiron square is occurring more around age 17-18 than 20-21, showing us how Chiron is now moving back towards where it was at the beginning of the Baby Boomer generation, that having happened in the late 1980’s…some 50 years after Pluto’s shift into Leo back in 1938/1938.

Why does this matter? Well, of all the many interesting metaphysical essays and books which have explored the Chiron process, one thing seems clear: Chiron is about a challenge we have to undertake without knowing how to deal with it.

For those born (generalizing again) in the latter part of the 1920’s into the early 1940’s, the idea was how to get through childhood and indeed what childhood is and is about. And this may well tell us a whole lot about why those people have grown up to be a generation which investigates the effect of childhood on people and thus, on society.

But on the personal side…those people are always being tested by their own sense of childhood. And that basic pattern will repeat with those born in the mid/late 1980’s and on into the 1990’s, though we can’t say exactly what their adult focus is going to be. Why not? Because they’re growing up not with Pluto in Cancer (the family/childhood issue) or Pluto in Leo (childhood learning and growth, adult fun and frolic)…they will be growing up with Pluto in Scorpio (other people’s values/my worth to others/my effect on others) or Pluto in Sagittarius (need/lack of need to know/know what is right).

For middle/late Baby Boomers, as well as the Pluto in Virgo Yuppies and early Pluto in Libra Gen X’ers, the issue is more about the 18 to 21 (generalizing… generalizing…) shift into adulthood. Their lives will be marked by their ability to have done that and all they experienced during that time, how they dealt with that period.

But whoever we are, whenever we are born, Chiron still hits its natal point at 50.54 years. That’s universal. Thus we have that golden moment when we all look back and go…oh, now I get it. Some of us realize what we didn’t do and undertake it at that point like a person obsessed. Others figure…why worry? It obviously wasn’t that important or I would have already taken that on!

Thus we come to a pretty good picture of the Chiron return as a point of self-reflection. Of passing from the hustle-bustle years of our 30’s and 40’s into a more aware period: the 50’s and 60’s, where we know the moments count and we become more prone towards cherry picking what we want to do with that time. And there are those folks who upon reaching this point simply get paralyzed with fear about time, too.

Plus all those ‘variations’ on a theme: those who are a little frightened but a lot empowered and those who are undecided about whether to try or settle for what they’ve already built in their lives. Who is which and how much of what – that’s an individual chart question. But generally….the Chiron question which arises at about age 50 is as described above, give or take a generational influence.

Into all this comes the fact that as of February 8 at 7:56pm (UT/+0) Chiron enters Pisces. Why we would then care about all the above is not just because it’s interesting, but because Chiron’s 50.54 year orbital cycle means that the last time Chiron entered this most global, worldly, trying, universal, humanistic and effusive of water signs was back in 1961.

 

 An Aries Wheel (no specific location) chart of

Chiron's entrance into Pisces

And do we all remember what happened during the 1960’s? Speaking in US of A terms (because that’s where I live and where I grew up) we had hippies and bra burnings and demonstrations in the streets. There were wars and the cry of ‘sex, drugs and rock-n-roll!’ as both a proclamation of freedom and call for rebellion. President Kennedy was assassinated. The national society was in upheaval. The US prosecuted a painful war in Viet Nam so hated at home that soldiers, those who had seen things no human should have to came home not to support, love and care but to near invisibility.

Credit cards and color TVs were really just coming on the scene and becoming part of American life.

Fifty years later retrospectives on Kennedy are being played on TV. The cost of drugs and fighting wars is just being grappled with in human terms even with the United States (again, citing just one country) still has its fingers in a lot of foreign pies.

Such are the cycles which amount to the expanding of our feeling horizons and what can be a crisis of faith, or a crisis which arises out of having put too much or too little faith into life, our values, our emotions - whatever.

As I often say, I phrase things in terms of American doings because I grew up in America (for the most part - I did spend some time living aboard)...and because I still live in the USA...California, to be exact (which may explain something about what time posts generally go up on the blog, no?).

But the point is that this is not just about America: global cycles are global. So if you're not American, think back on your own national, cultural or personal family history. What was happening fifty years go and was it a break from the norm? Were people breaking out of old molds (or trying to) and feeling a deep need to be 'more in touch' with what it means to be really human?

That's the question!

The good news is that with Pluto now in Capricorn, the very sobering realizations we are facing now are not only difficult, trying and contentious, but also an opportunity. Astrologically, opportunities are denoted by sextiles, and as Chiron enters Pisces, given that Pluto is already in Capricorn, thus we are being given a signal that those things which evoke such great feelings of need (Chiron) and which we have perhaps despaired about (Chiron in Pisces) because they have to do with the very need to change our functioning world (Pluto in Capricorn) - that's exactly what we're being told we can now work on.

And apparently some folks are rather ahead on this curve. Painfully so!

So whether what you are focused on are the results of credit/debt gone globally wild or what modern technology can do now as part of the interwoven fabric of world culture, what that may well be doing is  increasing our awareness of the cost of questionable behavior and choices based on fantasies of grandeur or imagined needs versus what real standards of humanistic humanity are when you get right down to it. 

Yes, this is part of the turmoil sweeping the Middle East. But it's also part of world-wide economic instabilities. It's part of the results of little Jeanette getting cyber-bullied by her classmates or when ideals overtake not just legalities and ethics, but moral and mortal common sense.

Let's face it - these problems did not arise all at once. They're not just today's doings. They're not even just a decade or two (even three) old.

Every round of Chiron raises such specters. And though humanity makes advances with every round Chiron makes, we ultimately make advances by remembering what it means to be human.

And that we are all human.

Yet when you're dealing with those who don't want to recognize that, it often takes really brutal circumstances to break through all that denial.

The unity, the denial, the breaking through same and recognizing that we not only have far more in common with each other than we are different - that's the combination of Chiron and Pisces, and the kinds of questions we all will face while Chiron passes through Pisces. Kids born in these next few years will grow up with feelings and these sorts of realities in their human toolbox. Hopefully they’ll use both of their tools in tandem, but we can bet that Chiron in Pisces’ native sense of vulnerability is also going to breed some hard-headed, hard-ass types who because they can’t ‘afford’ to feel force everyone to pay the cost.

This also applies to world economics: the last round of Solar Eclipses we had in Pisces were during 1998 and 1999 – years when many thought some sort of catastrophe would happen because clocks and computers weren’t going to make it over the date change into 2000.

Remember that? That’s instructive as it not only has a ‘the world is changing’ Solar Eclipse flavor, but also a ‘how am I going to cope with this’ Chiron flavor – all in Pisces, a sign which is all about evoking our emotions so that we can feel them. 

Through feeling our own emotions, hopefully we will do something about circumstances. Maybe just our own, but maybe not. As the sign of faith, mercy and charity (not hope – hope is Aquarian)…Pisces asks if we can not merely forgive ourselves our humanity, but maybe forgive others theirs.

Can we help things be better and through that, have a better world to live in?

Chiron will be fully devoted to this emotional passage through Pisces until it dips into Aries come February 19, 2019. And though there’s not a huge amount of ‘associated astrological commentary’ which accompanies this shift, that Chiron came within conjunctive orb of fixed star Fomalhaut in late January (2011) when it reached 29 Aquarius says a lot. 29 Aquarius is all about humanity – specifically legal debate, the military and a clarity of  administration which is maybe absent at other times. That lore for this degree cites human suffering suggests whenever we see celestial objects of import moving through this degree there will either be suffering or attention to suffering – and sometimes both.

 

 Chiron, Athena and Achilles by Pompeo Batoni

Which on the metaphysical level figures well…not happily, but well considering that to be specific here Chiron is a symbol of necessity. And if the necessity is to hurt so that we may be driven to find a fix or a cure or enough reason to give up some soap box we have long claimed as our stand – that’s simply what the universe is going to deliver. 

All things happen for a reason. Sometimes we just don’t like the reason.

What else is new, right?

To be aware of also: the lunar nodes are about to change signs. That means society is about to change gears as a whole. And let’s not forget the celestial world's solar systemic 'big blue': Neptune. Neptune is about to enter 29 Aquarius, and that is both going to fog up the mental windshield even as it provokes a greater cry of need.

And after that...? After that Neptune also enters Pisces, doing so but a couple of weeks after Uranus enters Aries. What does this amount to? Well, it's something of a double-header labeled necessity and drive, amounting to the choice to get to doing or get done to.

Yes, well, would you rather not know? As with all other things in astrology, those who use the energy are less likely to have the energy use them. That’s about the size of it.

So those who heed the call when Chiron enters Pisces (not even waiting for Uranus) will get a step or two ahead. And that difference could be huge. Would you rather have the thing happen you want to make happen - or have that thing you have been dreading (or maybe worse yet, that you haven't even dreamed of!) happen to you.

Yes, yes...for some, surprises are always good. But let's just get real here. Things may be going (technically) just fine. Okay - good for you. But do you feel fulfilled? 

Ah...a whole other form of 'crisis of faith.' Faith can be in things. It can be in country. It can be spiritual and/or religious. But when it comes right down to it, faith is about our ability to have faith.

Pluto in Capricorn, among other things, can be a signal all about realizing ‘things’ aren’t the sum and total of life. To paraphrase President Obama’s recent speech in Arizona, success in human terms is more about whether we have loved well and done something to make a contribution to this world than how much money is in the bank.

Sure, money helps. Given that civilization has settled on pieces of paper, little decorative discs of metal or even numbers in a computer as symbols of barter, that ‘money’ is necessary.

But it’s not the measure of our humanity. Back when I worked in motion pictures, I once made a joke that movie crews run on money, food and gossip. Back in the 60’s there was that cry of ‘sex, drugs and rock-n-roll.’ In society, as in astrology, there is the eternal cry for money, sex and power. None of these things are really what we're aiming for. They're means to an end. In the end, those are all means by which we feel ourselves feeling like we exist in this world. They're about validating our faith - in self, and for those who believe in Deity, in God.

That's Piscean - whether you believe in God as God or Creation as Existence. Sacred or secular (or both!), that's Pisces. Chiron’s move into Pisces signals that for these next years to come, we’re going to be feeling a whole lot more about how we feel about things, and how we don’t want to feel…or wouldn’t want to feel...precisely so that we learn what feelings are. And that they matter – and not just to us, but also to others (that being a Piscean mandate, that we lose the ego/me thing and consider everything in universal terms).

So going forward, our feeling good at the expense of others or the world - or the society we live in isn't likely to work like it used to. Or as we thought it would. And yes, there will be those who stick like glue to what they wanted to believe would be true. That's a whole other form of Pisces - being scared to be wrong.

Those people will, like as not feel, Chiron's hoof in their....well, somewhere soft and/or vulnerable!

Oh - and that hoof part? that's a reminder that Chiron is a Centaur - both in the mythic and astronomical sense. The idea of Centaurs is the joining of 'animal strength' (the horse) to the human mind (understanding, knowledge and awareness). This 'struggle' about whether mind rules animalistic nature or the animalistic nature carries us away - that's the essence of any Centaur (mythic or celestial) and thus the core of what underlies the Chiron challenge in each of our lives.

As a solar system object, Chiron acts much like a comet in that it cycles through the orbits of other planets. Starting out near Uranus at 18.89 AU, Chiron comes as far in as past the orbit of Saturn, reaching 8.114AU at it's closest. That means that at its farthest from the Sun, Chiron is almost nineteen times as far from that Sun as Earth is (one 'AU' being the distance from Sun to Earth). And at it's closest, it's rather between Saturn and Jupiter.

Like all centaur 'comet' objects, Chiron represents information coming to us. So we shouldn't be surprised that we feel like we don't know enough (or even anything!) when Chiron matters turn up. We don't! And thus, especially considering the Pisces thing, we're bound to feel pretty helpless.

Recognizing how we do sometimes feel helpless and how helplessness feels is a great lesson so long as you remember it as a motivation in what you do, how you do it and that you do it.

Chiron in Pisces signals the proliferation of need. But need is not neediness. Chiron is a symbol of needing to learn that you don’t know how to even start learning. And that’s why it’s so interesting to see how each generation has its own Chiron signature.

It’s hard to bridge these bridges – for ourselves and between each other. So prepare yourself for emotional discomfiture and uncertainty yet to come. What you realize about yourself - what you've done, where you've been, what your life has come to...it's not guaranteed to be all that wonderful in this next while or two.

But that's just the point - if you don't get that something is wrong you can't change it. That means where you've been oblivious to something or on a wrong track, you have to have that 'ugh!' moment (day...month...year) of recognition, reorientation and thinking things through.

 Fixed star Fomalhaut amidst a ring of cosmic dust

photo credit: NASA/JPL - Caltech

Yet for those willing to take the beast on...Chiron in Pisces can be a fabulous time. It can be a time of breaking out of one's shell. A time when you achieve mastery which you only dreamed of. Or maybe which you never even dreamed of!

That Fomalhaut is a fixed star ‘fixture’ in early Pisces tells us that for the next two years its vitally important to clean up our acts! Fomalhaut promises success only where the dream, the aim, the desire is neither corrupt nor corrupting – so take your measures there.

This is not just showing others that you care about them. It’s about proving to yourself that you care about the fact you give a damn below the shallow surface. It's that need to feel human which counts here.

One more 'clue' here. At it's farthest from the Sun, Chiron is rather in the Tempel-Tuttle district. You may remember comet Tempel-Tuttle? If not, here a LINK to that blog.

The idea to contemplate here is that we periodically get greeted with things in life so that we can learn. And if this 'layer' of our solar system (considered as concentric rings) holds true, we may not like the lesson. We humans, we do so like to think things are going to be calm and peaceful and lovely...not to mention the way we want them to be! But if they were, we'd probably get bored. Or we'd waste our time.

Or yes - maybe we just wouldn't learn anything. 

As for what happens in your individual life and how that really works? That's up to you, your 'group', your society and your world. But it is very real, and we are all about to break out in a need for renewal.

This post is going up a day or so early - which is to say, while Chiron is still at 29 degrees of critical Aquarian mass energetics. Aquarian is the idea of the society and the greater concern. Pisces is the emotional experience of the greatest concern. As we go forward over these next few days, you will like as not feel the conversation and your own emotions shift.

Then, hopefully, we will all move into that renewal mode - partly because we want to feel renewed, but also so that we can feel ourselves experiencing ourselves being human as part of the process.

After all, without feeling our humanity, how can we really feel all that human?