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.
.

For more information

on mid-life transits:

(link to post) Transitory Times 

 .

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). 
.

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.

.

.

.

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.
.
.
.

Zachary ‘Zak’ Bagans: So Spooky

 ..

 .

 A detail from the painting 'The Shade of Samuel Invoked by Saul' (1857)

 by Dmitrij Martynov (1826-1889)

 ..

.

Everybody needs ‘down’ time. So as I turned from the ‘must do’s of life somewhere back early in the 2012 May-June Venus retrograde, I did what we do…I rolled through television channels, seeing if something would penetrate the thickness of a rather tired brain.

Then I ran across something...a show which had three grown men exploring some very dark somewhere using only the tiny LCD screens of their night-vision video cameras as a means of finding their way.

That's different.

The thought of going through some building that way struck me. On one hand, it’s sort of the ultimate in taking a step in the dark – an expressing of faith in your own ability to be safe. It's also an interesting…perhaps even illuminating (yes, I said that) use for applied technology.

As usual, the script writer in my mind clicked on...:

Ancient Explorer: In my day, we used a compass and raw wits.

Modern Explorer: We use LCD, GPS and electronic measurements.

Or something like that. Trust me, it wasn't a big-budget effort. Like I said - I was tired.

Anyway, it became clear almost immediately that these guys were being caught in the (filmic) act of trying to connect with ghosts either in ‘tape loop’ (energy imprint) form or real time. Their aim seemed to be documentation (as opposed to helping trapped spirits move on) and the intelligent responses, the electronic signatures, it all immediately struck me as rather lovely stuff.

The show’s name: "Ghost Adventures"

Personally, I find the idea that people think we simply die and vanish odd – so I’m not arguing with ghost hunters. If E=mc2’d and we’re all energy, the ‘animation’ of the mass of flesh which all too soon crumbles into elemental dust when we die…that energy must go somewhere.

Here’s the law: energy is never lost. It may change forms, but it’s never lost. This isn’t some fanciful concept, it’s one of those real-live science things.

Anyway…I’ve known one true parapsychologist in my life. And just as obviously, I have my own orientation to energy and 'things unseen.' As for those who say “where ARE they?” (referring to ghosts) I suggest M-theory...you'll find it on the shelf (digital or otherwise) at about half-past string theory.

M-theory is the only thing which accounts for everything we don't quite have a 'place' for...starting with ghosts, and perhaps ending with the ethereal realm of Angelic Beings.

Such theories also (by the by) account for the compounding of metaphysical effects we pondered a couple of days ago in the blog on Pluto's newest moon (LINK). 

But I digress.

So there I am watching these three guys doing their investigation...and I’m intrigued. Intrigued enough that over the next few weeks I manage to catch several other  episodes, one of which causes me to cry (don’t ask) and one of which amuses me - highly.

I think it's safe to say that it was somewhere between Zak Bagans turning to the camera when somewhere very high off the ground to confess a loathing of heights (which I share)...and then when he takes it into his head (no comment) to confront his fears by picking up a snake that the human side of this parapsychological exotica got to me.

Not that Zak was so successful with said snake. As shown, he quickly became so overcome with fear that he drops the snake and goes leaping and shrieking across the hillside, sounding for all the world like a pre-teen girl while reminding me of a springbok trying to avoid getting eaten by a lion.

Gotta love a man who will allow himself to be filmed doing that, y’know? Since he's one of the Producers on the show, he would (more than likely) have the power to get the scene cut. But he didn't. As a 2nd generation Hollywood studio brat, I know the 'face saving' side of image molding. I also know the manipulation of the image.

It's all fine.

Well, except for the picking up snakes off western US hillsides part. That, I don't think a hugely good idea. True, in this case the crew may have vetted this snake. They may have even spoken to its agent to make sure it wouldn’t bite. For all I know (and I'm a girl who can recite many a movie union contract rule) it’s just possible that in this day and age snakes get hazard pay for biting stars.

But still...

Wherever that left me, I shortly thereafter did what astrologers do: I Googled Ghost Adventures and very quickly came up with three birth dates and three birth places (one for each guy, not three for one guy. That truly would have been spooky!).

As an astrologer, I of course prefer to have time of birth included as part of my entrée, but taking data snack in hand I retreated to my comfy world of astrology software (which come to think of it also requires and LCD screeen) and typed the data in.

The first chart I took a close look at was that of Zak Bagans. Here's the simplified version of that chart:

 Zachary 'Zak' Bagans - April 5, 1977 - Washington, DC

(Chart erected in Aries Wheel format due to no birth time.
No Moon is shown for the same reason. though unless
the birth time is prior to 39 minutes after midnight, this
nativity will have a Scorpio Moon.)

Truthfully, my first 'Ghost Adventures' astro-fact involves the idea that the entire team is born under the sign of Aries. And that doesn't strike me as being out of line. Aries is the sign of existing and conscious recognition of same. So for a trio of Aries people to be documenting the existence of ghosts seems apt. These guys are spending their lives looking for signs of life beyond life. And the manner in which they look for it is through looking to connect (as they often point out) through intelligent communication - the very sign of existence as consciousness-in-action.

How very Aries.

The last chart called up in my program was that I began to ponder - Zak Bagans'. And before I continue, let's be straight here: I know very little about him. But I had heard the show's introduction a couple of times by the time I did all this chart-casting.

Episodes of Ghost Adventures begin with the Voice-of-Zak declaring in a tone forthright, declarative and maybe a wee bit confessional (...again, how very Aries...) the following:

“My name is Zak Bagans. I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one."

"So I set out on a quest to capture what I once saw onto video. With no big camera crews following us around, I am joined only by my fellow investigator Nick Groff and our equipment tech Aaron Goodwin. The three of us will travel to some of the most highly active paranormal locations, where we will spend an entire night being locked down from dusk until dawn"

"Raw...extreme...these are our Ghost Adventures.” 

...and when I saw Zak Bagans' chart, even without a proper time of birth that little phrase ‘I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one’ jumped right off the screen. 

Astrologically, the image was perfect: sitting at 15 Aries, Zak's natal Sun (life) is conjunct Eris (discord) at 13 Aries.

Remember my saying that I was going to look around for some charts which highlighted Eris? I couldn't have asked for a better example. And considering several inquiries about Eris (that’s what you get when you’re the warm body doing the research) it’s apparent that the metaphysical Eris as ‘discord’ (from the Roman name for the goddess: Discordia) doesn’t yet make sense to most folks. We tend to think in terms of 'destruction' and Eris isn't about destruction. Eris isn’t even about not taking the trash out or leaving your socks on the floor.

Eris isn't about anything you do. Eris isn't even about anything done to you. Eris is about how you experience something which occurs.

And if the byword for Eris is 'discord,' that tells us that Eris represents some thing or some feeling...or both...which evokes a sense of discord.

Like ghosts, maybe?

I guess if you're Zak Bagans, yes.

 The idea of ghosts has been part of virtually every culture

throughout human kind. Philosophically, this would be a

reflection of the idea that as soon as we 'own' the idea we exist,

we wonder what 'non-existence' is - and what becomes of

a life as rich and consciously vibrant as that of a human is,

whether filled with joy or horror. The above is part of a

three-panel painting from around 1850 called 'The Ghosts of

 Togo and His Wife' by Utagawa Kuniyoshi

Yet I doubt it's all that direct and linear-simple. Very little about life is...very little about astrology - a lens through which we can better understand life (or the afterlife, depending) - is that simple.

Dwarf Planet Eris inhabits the far flung regions of our solar system beyond Neptune, the last “official” planet. This entire region is known rather generously as the Kuiper Belt (with fringe districts being known as the Oort Cloud) …with anything which cycles in this arena often simply referred to as a KBO (Kuiper Belt Object).

 Planet Neptune

photo credit: NASA-JPL

This KBO 'group-simplification' is useful in astrology simply because all KBOs, no matter their subset (of which there are several) …all seem to be about situations, circumstances and interactions which, in provoking us, get us past our inhibitions, our lack of knowledge, our denials – or simply some lack of experience. The tornado which sweeps through and destroys your quiet, peaceful neighborhood, the experience of that is often signaled by a KBO (either as a transiting object or a natal KBO in your chart being transited by major planet, node or eclipse).

The tornado is not the 'thing.' The 'thing' is what you experience because of or through being exposed to the tornado.

In Zak Bagan's chart, because we see Eris positioned rather tightly conjunct to the Sun, we know a couple of things. He is 'made' (as it were) to provoke. He can do it through what he 'does' (the standard Aries "I do" method) and with Sun/Eris he could be highly provocative, provoking or simply combative. This would be Zak embodying Sun/Eris, Zak being someone who "is" Eris and thus causes discord.

He could also experience Sun/Eris as something which 'disrupts' his physical (Aries) life. One hopes this doesn't happen, but it's another way this confluence could work.

Then again, there's the active/passive 'life as response to Eris' expression - which seems to be more of Zak's style. In this bailiwick we would have Zak 'being' the person which has resulted from his own experiences in life...hence the 'I never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one.’ 

How would we know that Zak would be one of these things and not the other? The whole of how this works could only be delineated through knowing his birth time. But apart from that, the chart does give us one major commentary. Aries (the sign of his Sun/Aries) is ruled by Mars. And Zak's natal Mars is in Pisces. Specifically, in the second or emotional decanate of Pisces (degrees 10-19).

As a sign, Pisces is about experiencing our feelings. Where we see Pisces in any chart, we know that there is a certain level of caution which comes from an inner knowing of how powerful emotionality can be. That Pisces is known as a sign of addicts and prisons is all about that very sort of 'inability to cope' with the reality of life, of disappointment, of mortality.

Given that, unless Zak Bagans was something like a surgeon or some such, it's hard to think that an Aries Sun/Eris ruled by a Pisces Mars would be overly aggressive. Does he have his moments? Abso-pozzo-lutely! But an out-and-out aggressor? Probably not.

This is, however, a combination which does leave some space open for questions of 'toxicity,' be that emotional or physical. Anything from a swelled head and out-of-touch case of emotional narcissism to drug or alcohol dependence through to issues arising from chemical or biological exposure or being on either end of love addictions would fit this particular bill.

So Zak Bagans gets born with this chart. And through his life he experiences this and that form of Sun/Eris - of that, we may be sure even without a detailed life history.
.
Sun/Eris in this chart is like a depth charge with an automatic reset mechanism.

Obviously without time of birth and exactly knowledge of when Zak met the ghost, we can’t know what that ‘trip wire’ was. But that he’s gone on to investigate ghosts – which of themselves are startling and sort of ‘unsettling’ things? That's very Aries Eris/Sun. That he has been forced and through his work introduces others to things which cause them to reorient themselves to the  apparent stability of our dimensional time/space existence?

That's seriously Sun/Eris. That is Zak Bagans acting as the very embodiment of his Aries Sun/Eris. He's making a life (Sun) out of something which by its very nature is emotionally provocative (Eris).

 

An orbital diagram of the solar system including Eris

(diagram credit: JPL Small Body Data Base) 

  .

But how would we know that he would do it through creating a TV series?

Again, the real peach-pit in the works here is that we don't have his time of birth. But even at that, Zak Bagan's natal chart has one very pronounced figure which should really give us a clue.

That figure? Pluto in Libra with Pluto positioned as to be very much in opposition with Zak's Sun/Eris, forming something of a conduit - an energy tunnel, if you will.

(Hmmm....isn't that what he ends up doing a lot of the time? Wandering around in dark tunnels looking for energy readings seems to be one of Zak's hobbies.)

In short, the television show is a Zak Bagans harnessing his Pluto in Libra.

Pluto is (among other things) a generational marker. As Pluto movies through the signs, a greater society unprompted by astrologers seems to follow right along, clicking off generational nicknames: Pluto in Leo - the Baby Boomers; Pluto in Virgo - the Yuppies; Pluto in Libra - Gen X.

A Libra Pluto is the signature of Gen X. To paint this tribe in the broadest of all brush strokes, Gen X is a generation very into trends. Gen X creates them, Gen X loves believing in them, and Gen X subscribes to the idea of trends as a righteously good thing.

Gen X likes to share. And this is not so mysterious if we consider Libra as the sign of 'the other' or where the "me-I" of life meets up with reactions.

Pluto is an obsessive, driving energy. There is a drive in every generation which in Gen X focuses on that other and what that other thinks...or thinks about...or thinks of 'me.' Gen X is the generation of the celebrity monogram. Sure, tabloids existed long before Gen X arrived, but this is the generation which made the paparazzi rich. (Okay, richer.) With Libra being an airy and theoretical sign, Pluto’s notorious quality of magnetism drew this generation took the Pluto in Virgo (Yuppie) materialism one step further, bringing us the ‘everyman as star’ (reality TV) while escalating show and tell from 'what you have' (an earthy, Virgo concept) into who you are, what you look like, and who your friends are.

With Pluto in Libra, it's the idea of the thing which is attractive. This is the generation which wants to be able to say it even if the truth is they don't really like it!

Yet there’s a trick with all Pluto placements: the real lesson, the road to Plutonic fulfillment lies in the opposition. So the 'easy' thing is to obsess about the other and being in relationship to the other and blah, blah, blah. But the power of Pluto in Libra comes from the polarity sign.

Which is...?

Aries.

What this means is that the object of Pluto in Libra is to a.) know who you are, b.) know what you believe in and are capable of and c.) using that to connect to others.

Yes, this is why Gen X got so wildly into appearances, including plastic surgery. This is why Gen X members were the first to get wholly into branding.

(Not cowboys-and-cows branding, the other kind of branding - that where one's name becomes a public symbol or 'nameplate' icon...)

 Manao Tupapau (The Spirit of the Dead Keep Watch)

by Paul Gauguin (1892)

I’ll guess that with a 15 Aries Sun (13 Aries Eris) so decidedly in opposition to a natal 12 Libra Pluto, Zak Bagans is a man who understands being polarized and being in connection to others. It's a passion. It's intriguing - in both directions. And yet...how to utilize it?

That, so often becomes the Pluto question. Difficulties arise and we often tend to think 'it's not me, it's them' - Pluto does tend to cause us to project.

Ultimately the lesson is ours. Always ours. It's about needed grow and how after a time, anything can become a bit rote. Then we have to change, we have to mix it up and hopefully in that process, become renewed in our Pluto purpose...lest Plutonic energy come back to haunt us...in Zak Bagans' case, perhaps literally.

That means that in the choosing of what we want to be involved in, we heed our Pluto and choose carefully, lest we end up cutting ourselves short, boxing ourselves in and causing the energy of growth to creating a sense of life lost...a dead end.

As for Eris..it's likely that prior to getting spooked into  paranormal work (of which Ghost Adventures is may well only be one format) Zak was a touch restless and prone to feeling the sort of motivation which sometimes manifests as rebelliousness, sometimes as moments of irascibility.

Yet with an Aries Venus right behind the Aries Sun/Eris duo, though this combination lends itself to some degree of "bottom line expressiveness" (without all the corners getting nicely rounded and rubber-bumpered) the Sun/Venus part of it lends the sort of sweetness which generally spells redemption. Though it can also surface as that special sort of evasive charm which works in the moment but often leads to second-guessing, voluntary or prompted.

In point of fact, any planet in close conjunction to the Sun gives an 'unconscious' sort of quality. So until Zak Bagans found ways to appeal and connect to others through harnessing his own humanness and vulnerability, that Venus-Sun-Eris would have made for a few iffy incidents. And yes, throughout life he is likely to stub his feelings on those of others. But that's just Sun/Venus in Eris.

And let's face it...there are no perfect charts. Or perfect lives.

Plus there is the good part of it all...even when Zak Bagans does rub stumble over his best intentions (and don't we all at times?), he gets a lesson - a Sun-Eris lesson. And thus, through internal Sun-Eris prompting, he grows. Learns. Matures.

That's just the way it works. Our charts each have markers which shows how each of us learns. Zak Bagans just does his learning - greatly - through the being or receiving of Eris-type energetics.

So...bottom line? The bottom line here - at least to this astrologer's thinking is that the ghost did Zak Bagans a substantially huge (dare we say transcendental?) service.

I guess he should hope that ghost doesn't have a billing service. (What does a good haunting cost these days, anyway?)

Oh yes - and a note for those who've heard all reality TV shows are scripted and therefore bunk. I'm not touching that with a ten-foot digital pole, except to say that even IF the entire show was fluff, if it rattles people's mental bones and provokes thought about life beyond the norm and status quo, that's Sun/Eris.

Thinking this all through, I turned to one of the ever-present books clustered atop my desk – a well-thumbed copy of Dane Rudhyar’s An Astrological Mandala (Vintage Books, copyright 1973). You've heard me talk about Sabian Symbols and this is one of a dozen books on same. The Sabian Symbols for each of the zodiac's 360 degrees are exactly the same in every book. What makes this book particularly interesting for me however, is that Rudhyar has commented on same.

So...being the cat which gets killed periodically for curiosity, I opened the book and looked up the degree of Zak’s Sun...and yes, I realize that if he was born in the last tick-tocks before midnight of the next day his Sun would be at 16, not 15 Aries.

But when you read this...well, let's just say I would be hugely surprised if his Sun is at 16 Aries. Why? Allow me to type most of what Dane Rudhyar writes about 15 Aries out - I suspect you'll see what I mean.

************************

Image: NATURE SPIRITS ARE SEEN AT WORK IN THE LIGHT OF SUNSET

Keynote: Attunement to the potency of invisible forces of nature.

Text: In the light of personal fulfillment (symbol of sunset and wisdom) man may be able to establish a life-giving contact with natural forces. These are active any time growth processes take place, but man’s individualized mind is usually too focused on working for consciously set goals to be able to realize concretely the presence of invisible (or “occult”) forces in operation. These forces constitute a specific realm of any planetary life. They are inherent in all “biospheres,” on whatever planet. They are non-individualized and un-free energies forming in the substratum of all life processes – thus of the process of integration at the level of the planet-as-a-whole, i.e., the planet as an organism with its automatic systems of growth, maintenance and organic multiplication.

In this planetary organism those nature forces act as guiding and balancing-harmonizing factors...(sic)...(and) It is when this energy becomes less dominant – thus symbolically at sunset – or when the body energy is weakened by illness, fasting or sensory deprivation, that it becomes easier to perceive these “nature spirits” and to give them forms that symbolize the character of their activities. (sic) When this Sabian symbol reaches into the consciousness of a man seeking meaning, it should be seen as an invitation to open his mind to the possibility of approaching life in a holistic and non-rational, intuitive manner.

************************

When I read that, suddenly the image of three men walking through pitch black darkness using only tiny LCD screens as guidance made total sense - at least for Zak Bagans. ‘…when the body energy is weakened by sensory deprivation…it becomes easier to perceive these “nature spirits.”’

It also meant that Zak Bagans' nativity is a 15 Aries chart, not a 16 Aries chart. 

Moreover, this is the moment which prompted me to write this blog. It's the very sort of moment which makes astrology so interesting, useful and illuminating. In harnessing his own willingness to walk through darkness proverbial and literal, Zak Bagans has harnessed his Pluto. He's connected that which provoked his life (Eris) to the questions and questing of millions of other people, enhancing both giver and the those given to. That's how Gen X triumphs - and why so many members of this generation find their greatest strength (in the public/worldly sense) lies in something which has an entrepreneurial flair.

As for Zak Begans, he's found not just a way to connect to the living, but also a way to connect to the spirits of those who, though dead, still cry out. He gives them the voice of Eris provocation and a moment in which they, from their unfathomable nearness, can remind us of what - in the end - are KBO consequences which are just as real in our lives as in theirs. 

As 'tis said in the world of metaphysics: Use the energy wisely, lest it use you unwisely.

In reaching Beyond and reaching out, Zak has also put himself on a path to understanding how his own fulfillment works. How a status quo isn't necessarily his bliss. In the spirits of Nature, he finds his Self. He learns more about the nature of Self and existing. And in that process, he provides us all with insights.

And yes, he serves to provoke us. Whether you find yourself wondering why you haven't taken it upon yourself to do something as meaningful to you...whether you're drawn to ask how life and our lives work...or why what we do with our lives - and even how we do it counts?

If Zak Bagans makes you think. If his life makes him think, it's all good and valid. It's all Sun-Eris-Pluto.

Speaking of which, without reciting here the whole of the Sabian Symbol for his 12 Libra Pluto, let me just say that the (universal) Sabian for 12 Libra is 'MINERS ARE SURFACING FROM A DEEP COAL MINE'...with the keynote being 'The need to carry on at ever deeper levels the quest for knowledge which keeps burning the fires of the collective mind of a society.'

Need we say more? Mind you, this is about Zak himself, and this is about all those he encounters, including those he will never know, and those whose lives (or existences) will be changed because of what he does...or even what he doesn't do. This Sun/Eris opposition Pluto is a powerful configuration, one far better consciously used for good purpose than not.

Of course there are thousands of people born on the same day as Zak Bagans. Will they have his chart? No. they won't, because not one of them was born in the exact like moment and same location. That's why Zak is who he is...and why your chart speaks to who you are.

Charts repeat only once every 25,920 years even if all you're looking at are the most 'standard' of standard astrological symbols: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. Add in modern dwarf planets like Eris, Sedna, Haumea, Ixion and a couple of dozen core asteroids, comets and fixed stars and charts will only repeat once every 250 million years.

Zak is who Zak is. His team partners are who they are. You are who you are. We all have an opportunity to learn who we are and to find ways to tap into our hidden potentials. Life often leads us from theme to theme to theme...and when we stop to think about it, they all 'do' the same thing. The success we have with each thing and each type of interaction, that's what's supposed to tell us how to hone our act, our aim, our plans.

I’d still like to have Zak’s birth time. In fact, I’d like birth times for his partners Aaron and Nick, too. Why? Because they’re a team. Why they're a team interests me. All partners and relationships of any sort have a functional connection in time/space, and understanding the nature of time/space in manifestation is what I do...rather like the Ghost Adventures team looks to connect with ghosts.

There are also some questions I'd love to ask about their equipment. For instance, mel meters are sensitive to certain frequencies. What frequencies are those? We live in a universe of energy and frequencies - all of which translates into numbers.

And since Zak Bagans refers to himself not just as a ghost hunter but a demon hunter...so does that mean mel meters register both? If so, would they also register the presence of Angels? And if not, why not - and what would?

Getting back to what they do versus what I do, there do seem to be differences. (Repetition of Disclaimer: I don't know much about Ghost Adventures as a project or the aims of its stars.). So what their ultimate aims are, they are. They seem to be focused on collecting and documenting that ghosts and spirits exist, which is markedly different from what I do: in my work as an astrologer (apart from all else I do) I use astrology to decipher patterns of time space - to make sense of human life, culture, politics and commerce.

That data, those patterns, that information, I pass along to you, to clients, to others. Beyond that it's all also part of my wanting to know more about time/space...particularly the 'time' part of time/space.

Time is a particular fascination of mine. And to me, metaphysics, especially where it interfaces with hard science...well, just call it reverse engineering. Through what the thing is, we discover how it works. Through how it works, we discover how it comes to exist.

On a metaphysical level, of course.

Having been an astrologer now for quite a while, I realize I may never get any of the data particulars. So my questions may forever remain unanswered. But meanwhile, I can thank the team all for their work - and for having inspired me to see this piece of Dane Rudhyar writing in a totally new way.

For me, it's truly meaningful - a lasting bit of insight which answers some questions while prompting others.

(That's my favorite sort of information. Here's hoping it's yours, too.)

As for Zak Bagans...wherever you are Zak, muchos thanks. Just watch the snake thing, okay?