In our Facies: Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair in 1906

(photo originally published by the New York World Telegram

and Sun Newspaper Photo - courtesy of the Library of Congress collection)

If you don’t know who Upton Sinclair is, I’m not sure if I’m sorry…or if I think you’re lucky. I met up with his name in middle school, and have been flinching ever since.

The man Upton Sinclair was born on February 20, 1878 – which makes his birthday the same day as that when Pluto will go station/direct here in 2013.

Here’s his chart:

Upton Sinclair

born September 20 1878 - 9:00 a.m. (+5-06-27) - Baltimore MD

With the South Node in Leo, this would be an opinionated man. In fact, with that South Node conjunct the Midheaven in Leo, and with Leo’s rulership by the Sun pointing us to a Sun conjunct Mars in the 11th house, having his say in a big way was Upton’s forte.

Which indeed it was. Author, political activist and general rabble rouser of his time, Upton Sinclair had a way of getting under people’s skin. He was roundly hated by many (including a couple of Presidents of the United States) for his inability to stay quiet whenever he found something going on he thought was terribly wrong.

And seeing how back in Upton’s day, Facies was at 6 Capricorn – that puts Facies, a snarky little nebula if there ever was one – conjunct his 3rd house cusp.

Upton Sinclair - natal chart detail

 

And since the 3rd house is always the house of mentality and communication, and since Facies is known to torment us as much as we torment others because we feel so tormented, we can bet that Upton Sinclair felt tormented by what he saw going on in his world – and hence why he tormented others.

A friend of mine refers to this as ‘sharing’…which only goes to show that sharing is not always about sharing the good stuff. When we feel tormented or upset or hurt or maltreated, we share our displeasure. We share our anger. We share our negativity.

In the metaphysical sense, we’re stirring the pot. At the very least we’re trying to let someone else know that their right to swing their arms ends about the time they punch us in the nose (or some other place which is equally if not more painful).

Sinclair was a man who wanted to get things done. Sun conjunct Mars in the 3rd ten degrees of Virgo said he saw things being (Virgo) done wrong and the placement in the 11th house says this was on a societal level.

The opposition to Saturn at 29 Pisces just helped things along. Yes, he felt it ‘critical’ to do something about it. Any time we see anything at 29 degrees of any sign there’s an emphasis, a focus, a ‘need’ to attend to whatever that symbolism speaks to. In Upton’s case, there were three modifiers – besides the opposition, I mean. His Saturn (an indication of career and business) was conjunct Agamemnon, indicating a stubborn tenacity…conjunct fixed star Scheat, a quotient which is always all about what we or others don’t want to look at or accept as the truth…and our not-so-good, good friend Sedna, the emblem of ‘take your blinders off, and stop thinking in those rose petal terms. If you keep on like you’re doing, in the end the person you’re going to hurt worse is going to be yourself or someone you love.’

-link to-

The Sedna Conflict

There are lots of other things we could say about Upton Sinclair as a man who wanted to get the word out. Certainly his Moon at 7 Cancer in the 9th house was all about how society functions and letting his feelings be known. Conjunct Vesta, he was all about the cost of what we do…and what we don’t do.

Chiron at 7 Taurus sitting atop the Descendant and conjunct Neptune and Ceres would basically describe Upton Sinclair as someone who didn’t have any ‘plan’ about how he was going to take others on, he just knew when he had to say something…and when we flip this around, he was pretty much saying ‘you may not have thought about having a plan about dealing with what’s wrong about what’s going on, but you probably should get one.’

Like I say, he was a real sharing kind of guy.

So why did knowing who Upton Sinclair queeze me out back when I was in middle school? That’s because my class was required to read one of his many (many) books – a rather notorious book called “The Jungle.”

"The Jungle" - 1st edition cover

 

I thought it a pretty horrifying book. Why? Well, “The Jungle” is all about big business of its day and is focused on the meat slaughtering business. And maybe it’s because I read this book as an early-mid teen, or maybe it’s because I went through a deal of violence as a child…but were author Jack London (“Call of the Wild,” “Valley of the Moon,” “White Fang,” etc.) thought “The Jungle” was about the corruption of people in power sort of on that ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ sort of level and the evils of what he referred to as ‘wage slavery,’ I thought of “The Jungle” as a litany of mankind’s inhumanity not just to man, but to the creatures of this earth.

To me, “The Jungle” was all about just how callous and uncaring we can be as people. It was about how easy it is to wrap ourselves in the righteous garb of institutional processes and ‘that’s just the way we do it’ without regard to the fact that real lives – and life – is at stake.

“The Jungle” was released on February 26, 1906. Here’s the chart:

Publication chart for "The Jungle" by Upton Sinclair

Release date: February 26, 1906 

28 degrees of Gemini rising puts Betelgeuse (then at 27 Gemini) right behind the Ascendant. The book is thus all about that Betelgeuse thing of doing what comes easily.

And plainly, writing about societal ills came pretty easily to Sinclair. I’ve recently begun studying asteroid Lucifer, and after a first round of examination, the point seems not to be about “Satan” per se, but how ‘bedeviled’ we can be, or how ‘devilish’ we can be with regards to others…and in a greater sense how ‘the devil is in the details.’

With Upton Sinclair, the devil was plainly in the details and with his Lucifer conjunct Betelgeuse in his ‘let’s discuss this’ Gemini 8th house of power and how we negotiate, clearly Upton Sinclair saw his ability to write a way to force people’s hands.

Which he did. When “The Jungle” came out, many – including President Roosevelt – called Sinclair a crackpot. But after reading it, Roosevelt moderated his stance, saying that the book had a lot of valid points.

Apparently so. After publication of “The Jungle” a lot of ‘sanitizing efforts’ went towards the meat packing business from top to bottom. Corruption in the business also got taken on – and spread to other businesses.

Looking at the book publication chart, it’s Midheaven (it’s “public point,” if you will) is at 4 Pisces – which at the time was the position of Hidalgo (protocols or the manner in which something is done) and Eurydike – the emblem of understanding the cost. With the Sun plus dispassionate Pallas united at 7 Pisces it’s not surprising that “The Jungle” would be something which dispassionately…some might say even coolly…discussed something so vital, so venial, so…whether you’re talking about how people or animals were treated…so very emotionally disturbing.

Today Fomalhaut, the royal fixed star which warns us that success comes only when our ‘dreams’ (aims) are not corrupted – whether by means dark or rose colored – Fomalhaut is sitting at 4 Pisces. 

And Neptune is conjuncting it.

- link to -

The Royal Stars of Persia (Part Four): Fomalhaut

A lot of us are dealing with dreams which are coming to nothing and our desire to ignore or not feel feelings which are difficult to manage.
But we need to.

Meanwhile, Pluto is going direct as this post hits the blog, and it’s doing so at 8 Capricorn, conjunct the Uranus end of the book’s Uranus-Neptune and conjunct Sinclair’s 3rd house cusp, setting off his Facies/Moon opposition.

We are all of us facing various forms of wanting to ignore and wanting to simply ‘go along to get along’ and feeling like victims while ‘sharing’ our hurts. Escapism is bigger than ever and so is the wholesale abuse of power. “Wage slavery” as Jack London termed it, is back in vogue and again crushing the life out of countless lives, thus undermining the riches of all for the purpose of a few who think their domination can last.

Life simply doesn’t work that way. When that which ‘nourishes’ us – be it food or income or the ‘milk of human kindness’ is tainted, so our world becomes tainted too.

That was Upton Sinclair’s ultimate message in much of what he wrote.

Metaphysically, the timing of his birthday would seem to suggest we need to ‘clean up our act.’ We need to care less about the end product and more about the process. The idea of Pluto going station-direct atop Facies is shown ably by this combination of charts. But in our lives…in our individual lives, it has more to do with where early Capricorn is in your natal chart by house – and whether anything is pictured there. It has to do with where your Pluto is located natally, and the distance from there to early Capricorn.

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For those born under Pluto in Cancer (roughly 1914 – 1938), this is an opposition. It’s time to let go of the old and face what is yet left to do. Take it easy…fighting won’t help and by now you have the wisdom to know better.

For Baby Boomers born under Pluto in Leo (roughly 1939 – 1958), this is an inconjunct. It’s time to do what you need to do in order to become the person you know you should be…not the person its necessarily easy to be. Try to share judiciously, but don’t shut up. Where wrong is wrong, you need to make it right, whether that’s in your own life or in the greater world around you.

For Yuppies born under Pluto in Virgo (roughly 1958 – 1972) this station activates trine energy. Quality, not quantity is the byword. The focus should not be on what you can’t have, but what you can be. Look within.

For Gen X’ers born under Pluto in Libra (roughly 1972 – 1983), this energetic is a square. To see life as ‘us and them’ is to undermine your own interests. Being the bigger better version of yourself – the person you would be in awe of if you met you – requires big-time effort but is worth it.

For the Gen Y / Pluto in Scorpio generation (roughly 1983 – 1995) this energetic is a sextile. You have the opportunity now to see the flaws in your thinking. Change those and you will free yourself of much grief down the line. You’re likely to feel ‘no, this way is the right way’ and where that’s integrative, fine. But where it’s about power and personal gain…not so much.

For the Millennials – the Pluto in Sagittarius tribe (roughly 1995 through early 2008) you’re in for some trying times as this station represents the sort of semi-sextile energetic which gets you to see a really useful (and bigger) perspective by delivering a series of hard knocks. Don’t be offended, consider what you have to gain by expanding your vision and you’ll be fine. Well…more or less fine, and yes, it will take a while. But you can get there!

The little tykes among us – the Pluto in Capricorn group – are fighting battles with themselves at the moment, battles which have to do with learning how to be secure in themselves as individuals. This is all about a balance of being secured without being hovered over: parents beware!

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One of the strangest-seeming facts about astrology is the fact that our charts live on after we die. Just as JRR Tolkien's chart reflected the release of Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' films (I didn't check 'The Hobbit') and just as things have happened since the passing of first my father and then my mother which reflects on their charts, so this Pluto turn atop Facies echoes Upton Sinclair's chart - and the 'natal chart' for the release of his book "The Jungle."

The cycle is coming around again. But then, they always do.
 
Whoever you are, and however you think of your life or the lives of those who have gone before us, hopefully you recognize the patterns in your own life. Hopefully you are able to see your life as a part of the greater world and the cycles of the greater world as operative in your own life.

Not to mention those cycles which are individual and important to our lives as individuals. Humans, like the society they live in are as driven as manifestations of a point in the vastness of time and space which is every bit as evolutionary the cycle of the dinosaurs, creatures which started as little amphibian things and evolved to become astonishing behemoths.

We just don't have a gazillion-million years to get our cycles straight in. But then, it's likely that dinosaurs weren't great thinkers. And no...(yes, I'm laughing)...some of us humans aren't such great thinkers either.

But we have the option to think, and that's what really counts.

It's our choice. 

Wherever you are on your journey, here’s to living a life as filled with conviction as that of Upton Sinclair.

And here’s to remembering some of the lessons he worked so hard and spent his life trying to make us aware of, lest we go through life blinded by the sheer desire to not see.
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Generation Y / Pluto in Scorpio

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe.

image generated courtesy of JPL's Small Body Database

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

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

So what is Gen Y, Plutonically speaking?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

image courtesy of Google Maps and the US Department of State

 

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

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

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

And maybe where they meet and exchange values.

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

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

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

Or which we should be living, depending.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Uranus opposition Uranus and blue stands for Neptune square Neptune. 

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

on mid-life transits:

(link to post) Transitory Times 

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

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

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

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

is native to Pisces (PI)

 

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

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

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

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

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

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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?