Generational Planets: The Roots We Share Across Time

When astrologers look for personality in a chart, we first check out the faster moving Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus & Mars, and usually pull in Jupiter & Saturn, too. Even Saturn, the slowest moving of this bunch, passes through each sign in roughly two years, so these are the planets that accent the differences between us. The ongoing combinations of all these planets in changing signs and houses produce a wide variety of personalities.

But the “generational planets” (Uranus, Neptune & Pluto) move so slowly, the signs they are in often symbolize the tone & overriding qualities of an era. When a generation gets a name (Generation X, the Lost Generation, Baby Boomers, The Greatest Generation, etc) it can often be traced back to the effects of Uranus, Neptune & Pluto, solo or combined.

I am a Baby Boomer. Most of us had Pluto in Leo. Pluto is about transformation. Leo is about celebrating the self. And most of us were caught up in the self-oriented “do your own thing, man” from the 60s, transforming the idea of serving society as a conforming, traditional citizen into one of distinct individuality. Many Baby Boomers also had Uranus, the planet of disruption and new ideas, in Cancer, the sign of home & family, symbolizing our desires to overturn ideas of traditional domestic situations. And we had Neptune in Libra, giving us idealized concepts of relationships.

My parents’ generation has Pluto in Cancer. They transformed the idea of extended families living in the same home to separate homes for the nuclear family. And the generation before them took Pluto in Gemini and transformed communications with phones and radios and movies.

I am simplifying. A look at all the effects of the outer planets would take too much room here. But I think there is an interesting metaphor to be taken from the balance between the inner and outer planets, the “personality planets” and “generational planets.”

Everyone’s life is a mix of satisfying their personal paths and goals, and having to respond to the world in which they chose to be born. And when we are responding to the world in which we have chosen to be born, we are in many ways connecting to the roots we have with everyone else in our generation. Whether we flow with the themes of society at the time, or fight back against them, or even simply ignore them by going our own way, we are all working with our common generational roots. We are all growing from the same soil, even though we consist of quite a variety of plants in the fields.

And the funny thing is, before the outer planets were discovered, back when astrology charts didn’t have “generational planets” to link us together in big social groups, individual human rights were not respected at all, even as a concept. Of course, worldwide, we still have a ways to go in the direction of universal human rights for everybody, but we know the concept and believe it should be spread far and wide. And this concept was realized and encouraged only after we realized we had more in common, after we realized deep down, we were all dealing with the same things in our own distinctive ways.

And this realization points me in the direction of pantheism. We are all one, connected, and yet each of us is utterly unique.

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SPECIAL NOTE: The Practical Mysticism Expo is coming this Sunday June 12th, 2011 • 11am to 6pm • One on One NYC, 34 W27th St., NY, NY • 11th Floor • $15 entry fee includes access to all 4 lectures and 2 group meditations • I will personally be giving a lecture on astrology & one-to-one relationships. Individual Sessions Available for an extra fee, including tarot card readings, psychic readings, mediumship, and more. This expo was created by several gifted friends & myself to demystify the mystical, & translate spiritual methods into useful, practical, everyday tools. Our goal is to help you integrate the mystical into everyday life.

For more info, including lecture times, see http://practicalmysticismexpo.com/