This is the second part of our exploration of using Outer Planets in astrology to define generations and understand their differences. Click here for the first part. This section will give real-world examples and details that explain what the current placements for Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto might mean. How do these planets behave in concrete terms, how do they affect generational groups, and what does that mean for the young folk and our future?
URANUS: NOVELTY, INVENTION, & REBELLION
Uranus, the 7-year-itch, is the revolutionary, the progressive, the new, the lightning bolt of inspiration or crisis, the shocking change-maker. Uranus feeds off repressed environmental static and then ejaculates it, birthing something wild and unexpected for all to see. Literally, Uranus the Sky God dropped his seed-maker in the sea and Aphrodite was born. How eccentric and controversial. The planet itself is wonkily tilted at almost 98 degrees. What a weirdo.
Everyone has Uranus somewhere. Look at which sign you and your 7-year group have Uranus, and it might show you where or how all of you are inspired to apply shock value and a rebellious desire to forcefully change the status quo. It’s common to notice in astrological charts that earlier experiences of extremes or contradictory-feeling restrictions in this same area might be part of the motivation to change the world in a wider way. Might one need to be placed in a box at some point to generate the compulsion to think outside of it?
Every 7-year Uranus-in-sign transit has very unified collective themes and change-based events or inventions. Whether you agree with the changes or not, your opinion on the matter might still be very important to you. In 2019, Uranus entered Taurus (agriculture, the banking system, the daily routine, the five senses, personal values). GMO or no? Lab meat? Crypto? The natural world or VR? Death to the 9-to-5? Seasonal produce year-round? Who pays with cash anymore? What should I value most in life when everything is crumbling around me? Remember, we have 7 years of this until 2026, so don’t limit yourself to just looking at the last year or so to define the wider Uranus-in-Taurus generational vibe just yet.
It begs the question if the children born during Uranus in Taurus will be the ones consciously or unconsciously motivated to collectively work on better solutions to the problems we’re facing now. Does the group effort to figure out newer, better technology or answers to old problems best define a generation? Whether you’re just raising hell about something, defying the expected or thinking up something new will be more explicitly shown in the personal chart, but some part of you is part of the group effort.
NEPTUNE: YOU MAY SAY I’M A DREAMER, BUT I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE
Generations are usually more than 7 years, so how about 14? How does mesmerizing, surreal-looking Neptune unite people? Neptune is all about the subconscious, the dream realm, altered states, beliefs beyond material reason, the spiritual, and anything that gets you there. Neptune blurs the lines of the concrete world, momentarily distorts tangible boundaries so we can expand beyond them. Neptune is very inspiring and creative. It can make you feel loved and All connected. It can be your escape into the Nothing. It can cover up truths with vague, romantic visions, delusions. or lies alike. But, my, what you’re able to do when you just naively believe in something and go for it!
Neptune is currently making its way through Pisces, its home sign, which it entered in 2011 and will remain here until January of 2026. “Hope and Change”? 2012: the end of the Mayan calendar! If we’re colonizing space, does that mean Earth’s boundaries are expanding? Doesn’t everything just feel confusing right now? Let’s get inspired to come up with a bunch of brand-new words to call ourselves whatever we feel like because why should outdated belief systems define us? Can I trust what I read or is it all disinformation? Cosplay! Polyamory! Memes! It’s so easy to “go viral” overnight with everyone all connected by the Internet. Have you had a shamanic medicine journey yet? Time doesn’t exist! I don’t need a religion because I’m just “spiritual”. How did Covid manage to spread all over the world? Why can’t we contain it? And it was all a dream.
What will the children born under the auspices of Piscean Neptune dream up and decide to keep? What lies from this period will later be exposed? As both Pisces and Neptune pertain to the literal oceans, maybe these kiddos will be the ones to finally take all of the plastic out of the Pacific or just figure out a place in space to hide it all. How much of our actions will be outsourced to virtual apps? What new ideas will become part of the next larger collective belief system?
Look to your own chart and see in which sign you find Neptune. Was that an area where you experienced a confusing lack of boundaries? Have you found a way to add a spiritualized touch to that area of life? Does Neptune show you where you hide your most emotional dreams and wishes for the future? Was there a lot of change and uncertainty in this area that might push you to expand your options for what you wish to create in the world? What can Neptune say about your creative style or your relationship to the dream realm or subconscious?
IT JUST GOT DARK… PLUTO: SHARED FEAR, GARBAGE & PAIN
Wait, it was all so bright, happy, and optimistic. In astrology, Pluto “Lord of the Underworld” deals with the hidden stuff, power, what lurks in the shadows, the root rot that from time to time unearths itself and exposes what most wouldn’t want to look at because it’s pervasively connected to too much else on the surface. Intense. It shows us how we define power, leverage, control, sexuality, manipulation, obsession, death and loss, our relationship to secrets, the occult, guilty pleasures or addictions, what potentially hooks us because it touches so deep, what we might do anything for, where our power was taken away, and our capacity for not just change but complete and utter metamorphosis.
That’s a tall order for a planet now demoted to dwarf rank. Leave it to Pluto, power and transformation, to transform its identity and raise a power struggle debate about whether size matters. And does Pluto really have a heart, or did it just rip someone else’s out? Does NASA’s Fallen Angel still matter? I, for one, support this scientist’s justification for bringing Pluto’s full planet status back. Pluto teaches us about our garbage, our dirt, our literal poop, and where we send it, hide it, or can transmute it into fertilizer. It deals with what’s under the surface, sure, but can’t that aspect of collective secret drive make a big mark and define a generation? Or, are these themes so far beyond our control that the immensity of them borders on irrelevance?
Ecological awareness activist Timothy Morton writes about the importance of the very Plutonic concept of “Hyper-objects,” like, all the Styrofoam that ever existed that will outlive us many generations over. Whose responsibility is that? Will the problem get to a depth of intensity, life-or-death, that one generation will have to take it on? Or can we avoid it forever? What about the Covid virus? We can’t see it but it’s really making a splash.
THE GENERATIONAL SINK-HOLE
Pluto’s recent demotion might suggest that we’ve reached a point of collective overwhelm where we don’t want to have to be responsible for Plutonic themes, things that are too big or too small to see. We have bigger fish to fry, but not as big as Pluto, because that fish won’t fit in the pan. If we keep ignoring these things though, will everyone have to throw out their pans and get an air fryer to fit that fish and avoid a stink? That is, will we be forced to collectively transform our collective awareness and/or adopt new technology to deal with what we can’t destroy? I predict we’ll start finding out in 2023 and especially 2024 when Pluto finally leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius (the collective), wherein Pluto themes will unavoidably be a collective responsibility. Will the real threat of the end define that generation? Will that also coincide with Pluto earning its planet status back? We have a little over a year until we have to worry about that.
Where are we now? Pluto is nearing the end of its wrecking-ball journey through Capricorn, which started in 2008. Why not enter with a bang and a stock market crash? Capricorn is all about structure, what is essential to survival, hierarchies, building and resource management, corporations, public identity, our literal and symbolic bones, lineage. Might it seem like all the things we thought were solid are not just being called into question but being utterly demolished? Are power structures becoming more extreme? More corrupt than ever? Is supposed democracy looking more like a plutocracy? Is language becoming so offensive that it should get replaced by emojis? First it was “Occupy!” (take control back) and now it’s “#Cancel!” (destroy). Is the imminent extinction of cultures, traditions, and species getting real now? How about the political scandals, sex scandals, pedophilia, human trafficking, and pornography rings? Is the Illuminati real or is it a conspiracy theory?
Yea, no, you’re cool, Pluto. Maybe you should stay a dwarf planet for the time being. Even though you’re the slowest and furthest away, and therefore potentially the best marker to define our widest understanding of generational brackets, you take things too far. Let’s let another generation deal with miraculously transmuting those collective sewage situations or building a new paradigm and structural blueprint to keep us surviving. Let’s pretend none of that has anything to do with personal responsibility. If you freakishly do want to better understand your relationship to Pluto themes, what threatens to destroy you or empower you alike, check your chart. With so many possible generational divides, why is it that some seem completely at odds with others? Pluto can help with that.
WHEN DO I GET TO THROW MY SHOE AT A PLANET-DESTROYING BOOMER?
When do I get to tie a millennial to a corporate ladder and watch them climb it slowly? Generational planetary placements not only can tell us about an individual, but we can also look at relationships between generations based on the special relationships between signs. These angular relationships between signs are called aspects. Like chords in music, some are pleasing and harmonious, while others are aggravating and tense. The relationship between the Pluto in Leo generation (1937-1956) and the Pluto in Scorpio generation (1983-1995), for example, might raise exceptional, albeit productive, conflict because Leo makes a square (90 degree) aspect to Scorpio.
Generationally speaking, then, these two groups might initially seem at odds with each other. Leo is all about prestige, reputation, performance, proving and showing one’s generosity or luxury, fancy brands, everyone knowing your name or at least relishing in name-dropping, living and sharing in the good life (and, more importantly, cultivating the public image of that). Scorpio, very linked to Pluto, is about getting to the bottom of things, the raw and the real, the dirt, the trash, what’s hidden, secret research, scandal, discovering the truth and even leveraging for power with it. The values of one generation might not seem to support the values of the other. They might still work well together, say with a figurehead (Pluto in Leo) and a henchman (Pluto in Scorpio), but the fruit of their collaboration requires each to perform completely different, sometimes contradictory-seeming tasks. Classic square aspect.
WHY MIGHT IT GET NASTY BETWEEN GENERATIONS?
In examining a generation-to-generation square using Pluto placement, Pluto’s involvement suggests that each generation might be deeply motivated to obsess over creating a particular kind of thematic power because of an earlier negative experience of disempowerment in that same value area. Deep pain or fear may be logical, but is the behavior that stems from it always rational?
If Pluto in Leo grew up with a shameful perception of lack, they might be secretly motivated to prove luxury at all costs. If Pluto in Scorpio grew up seeing the dark or corrupt side of power and prestige, they might feel a need to protect themselves against it or not be swayed by the superficial. Pluto in Scorpio might expose the wastefulness, deep problems, or empty façade of Pluto in Leo. Pluto in Leo wonders why Pluto in Scorpio doesn’t comb their hair and get a real job that makes everyone proud. Pluto in Leo might like movies with well-known, Vaseline smile actors who play the same role every time. Pluto in Scorpio might prefer the gritty, the supernatural, reality TV, investigative journalism.
ALLE DINGE SIND GIFT, UND NICHTS IST OHNE GIFT, ALLEIN DIE DOSIS MACHT DASS EIN DING KEIN GIFT IST.
There are “positive” and “negative” illustrations of all signs and all aspects. How you use them is up to you. We attribute to Paracelsus the notion that (I paraphrase): All Things are Poison, nothing is exempt from being Poison; it’s the Dose that determines whether a Thing is or isn’t Poison. Astrology might help us understand personally and collectively our perspectives, orientations, resources, priorities, motivators, dreams, pain, and inspiration. It’s a tool and one that might allow us to work together more effectively to vision the best of all possible worlds (well, perhaps so long as Neptune stays in Pisces) and so much more.
