Stars and Cars – the extended danced mix.
“I’ll see her damned first; to Pluto’s damned lake, to the infernal/deep, with Erebus and tortures vile also. Hold hook and line, say I. Down,/down, dogs! down, fates! Have we not Hiren here?”
Pistol, in a tavern in East Cheap, from Shakespeare’s King Henry IV, part 2 (Act II, scene iv)
Sidebar: Pluto.
Pluto is a planet, a dwarf planet, an asteroid, a Kupier Belt object, or a double planet, depending on the scientific and astronomical notation at the moment. For the sake of clarifying names and meanings, I tend to regard Pluto as Pluto, define it howsoever one desires, and as a Sagittarius sun sign, I tend believe in what I’ve felt, and later observed, with Pluto’s efficacy. Rather than jump on the debate, I’ll just stick with referring to Pluto with its now-outdated terminology of planet.
Astrology is all about language. A single symbol can pack a lot of information. As such, I’ve worked on developing a couple of monikers for handling recurrent themes. Shorthand for dealing with recognizable phenomena. One of the most prevalent astrological oddities I’m seeing these days is a particular set of charts. It’s not limited to just my narrow range, but I’ve discovered that there’s a group, from 1964 to 1967, and the emphasis is on the 1965-6 natal charts that I’ve looked at. It’s about Uranus and Pluto, in a rolling conjunction, in Virgo.
Historically, this occurs every hundred and fifty years or so, and the historians, political scientists, plus the sociologists, not to mention just about every type of social commentator has something to say about the time frame. But what I’m concerned with are the natal charts — and then the mid-life transits that are occurring, even now.
Perhaps it’s a quirk of my moon sign, or it’s lot of journeyman astrologer in Central Texas (almost 80% of my precinct voted, and of that almost 80% voted for Kerry in the last presidential election), but what I’m seeing are large number of the Pluto-Uranus conjunction charts these days.
To look at the facts, in strict, structuralist astrology, a conjunction is when two planets align and the orb is generally agreed upon as two degrees or less. For the sake of this part of a generation, I would define the conjunction as starting in late 1964, and going until almost the end of 1967, wherein those two planet-objects are within six degrees of each other, and for a good portion of that time, in exact, or nearly exact, conjunction.
Couple of societal factors are hitting at the same time, too. First off, in 2001 and 2002, Pluto transited through 15 degrees of Sagittarius. That caused a Pluto Square Pluto in the natal/transit charts of a whole group. The way I tend to explain this energy in a chart reading is to call the Pluto Square Pluto as a mid-life turning point — a kind of an astrologically defined test. Then, I do point out, in the parents’ generations, this kind of energy manifested itself at an age that has social significance on two levels, one, it tended to occur after Uranus Oppose Uranus, usually several years after that, and two, it tended to occur when the person had a degree of maturity, like in the late 40s.
I tend to interpret Uranus Oppose Uranus as a wake-up call along spiritual lines. Around age 42, parents begin to go to church, in earnest. Then, closer to 50, whatever faith was adopted and embraced, that was tested. At age 42, the kids were old enough to be out of the house, perhaps testing adulthood. That’s another call for faith, to listen to some parents.
But these established cycles are upset. 2001 has been addressed so many times, on so many different levels, I doubt I can encapsulate it in a single tag line. But in 2001, the first of that 65 Mustang group was hitting the Pluto Square Pluto. Before there was any kind of Uranus/Uranian awakening.
Pluto hit 14 Sagittarius at least three times in 2001, the first was right at the beginning of that year. So here’s a group that’s hitting a mid-life turning point, a test of faith, long before there’s been any kind of spiritual awakening.
There’s a whole school of thought that could pin an astrological conspiracy on that generation of 65 Mustangs. But their world-view was shattered that year, and by conventional astrological cycles, there was a lack of spiritual direction.
Uranus is a weird planet, much like the sign with which it is associated, Aquarius. When I get to a point in a reading, where I have to address Uranus transits, I tend to fudge the facts a little, for the sake brevity and clarity. I’ll point out that Uranus is sideways in the solar system, basically 90 degrees off from every other planet. As such, it’s easy to see why the influence of Uranus can be so unsettling. Its transit can have a profound, and world-shifting way of changing one’s outlook. As an astrologer, I just try to hit the important points. The astronomy of Uranus is infinitely more complicated, with the actual angle something like 87 degrees, and the poles shift, every 42 years, and we’re back to that cycle again. Odd how astronomy and astrology cycles coincide.
So the supposition is that this group, the 65 Mustangs, have experienced a world-changing event, Pluto Square Pluto, in 2001 and 2002. Then, just now, even, this group is getting the Uranus Oppose Uranus transit. It’s a backwards group, and it’s a weird transit, but then, as whenever I encounter one from this grouping, I just suggest that the person, due to Uranus and Pluto being so close together, are capable of many great achievements.
What I’ve started doing in many consultations, is to try and do a quick synopsis of the two transits, Pluto Square Pluto as a test of faith, and Uranus Oppose Uranus as an awakening of faith. Then, with the 65 Mustangs, it’s a matter of pointing out that their faith has already been tested, only, due to the odd nature of the orbit of Pluto, this very group didn’t get a specific set of instructions. Yet.
The instructions of the spiritual message, or whatever it is that is contained in the individual chart will vary, but the overall nature of the transits when weighed against a whole population — a whole “mini” generation — the 65 Mustang group, there’s a clear pattern that starts to emerge.
There’s a gentle questing. Calls to mind an image of a Knight from King Arthur’s court, out looking for a holy grail. Relationships are under hard scrutiny, spiritual beliefs are re-examined, and there’s the question of what direction is best for career, and more common, career changes. The planets continue a dance, and life keeps evolving, but I’m continually amazed by the both individual and then, collective reactions to the transits.
“Well I ain’t often right but I’ve never been wrong/It seldom turns out the way it does in the song.”
Scarlet Begonias (Hunter – Garcia)
