Fishy Times
El Sol is new-born in Pisces as of Thursday morning, and wastes no time in sparking up the news and the weather. A Sun-Moon-Uranus conjunction (that is, a New Moon in Pisces, conjunct Uranus) occurs early Friday morning across time zones in the U.S. and U.K. I'm sensing a palpable, energetic and refreshing shift of energy with the Pisces ingress and New Moon: the last degrees of any sign can get to feel like too much of a good thing, and the last days of a lunar cycle can feel like doing bong hits at the bottom of a coal mine (in the case of Aquarius, perched on top of a cellular phone tower over Los Angeles). With the beginning of Pisces time, we can come down from the cell tower and up from the mine, canary alive.
Doubtless, the shift to Pisces will bring a wave of surprises, and some obvious benefit to all the introspection of the past week. There is a childish quality to this chart, as though a lot of kid energy is going to be released all at once. Young folk may in fact go through a kind of unleashing process, insisting that they get to be who they are and not restrain themselves for the alleged benefits of the adult world. Grandparents may be involved.
It is likely that many people will be bestowed a large or significant dose of intuition around this lunation. I'm looking specifically at the Moon-Sun-Uranus-Asbolus alignment. Add Hidalgo and Urania to the mix in Pisces and that intuition may be delivering revolutionary or at least rebellious ideas and solutions that were perfectly invisible up till today. A lot may hinge on your ability to act on what you know. Contrary to popular opinion, action is the fruit of knowledge.
More on the Sixties: Pluto square Pluto
In two recent Planet Waves essays, I explored some themes of 1960s astrology and how the qualities of this era express themselves in the lives of people born in those days (see archive for back issues). The Sixties were at once a deeply tragic and brilliantly creative and idealistic moment. In our own time, which is remarkably similar to the Sixties in some respects, the pain of life is more cleverly masked and medicated, and the sense of potential concealed behind a feel-good, when in doubt, add sugar mentality. Once that façade is peeled away, how painful and serious the problems of the world are can seem paralysing.
The result is a lot of stuck energy. Titillation is not a substitute for creative or erotic fulfilment, and we know it. The most notable difference between now and then is that in the earlier era, there was a visible, vital response to injustice and world conditions. There was also the sense that life could get better and was worth working to make better. There was the notion that progress was possible. If there were serious problems in the world, there were also people who were actively, vocally and with great determination working to solve those problems. At least in cities, people working for the future were visible, and the fact that there were many others besides oneself provided a source of courage, strength and affirmation.
Today, we are very much under the impression that we have to struggle alone. I assure you, we are surrounded by comrades de conscience, but you would hardly know it. My take as to why, short version, is that the kinds of progress that people devoted to progress are making is largely individual. There is at our moment in history very little sense of We or "we're all in this together." Getting involved in the collective realm, be it politics, social causes or other group activities besides birding, is about as appealing as eating breakfast directly off the floor of Grand Central Station. The collective realm as we see and experience it seems corrupt, and it seems to drag down and contaminate the few good people who show up. [Note: Internet politics, MoveOn and HoDean style, feel safe, good and have a sanitised quality, but as for whether it all adds up to more than a pound of rat poo I'll believe when I see.]
Progress today is usually viewed as inner integrity or some form of enlightenment, therapeutic progress or healing. Alice Bailey explains this pretty well in her 1951 book Esoteric Astrology. There are, she says, three levels of consciousness: individual, group and mass. When people get together, it's usually on the level of mass consciousness, and involves people who have little or no sense of who they are. Mass consciousness is 'fans' screaming in the bleachers of the Yankees' game or the crowd gathering in Munich to cheer Hitler.
Group consciousness, she says, requires people who are truly individuated. Only people who have a working sense of who they are can form a group of any kind.
Key life transits certainly work to make us self-aware and help us birth our individuality. In this week's essay, I'd like to look at one of the significant and challenging midlife transits, called Pluto square Pluto, and mull over how it relates to the lives of people born in the Sixties.
Review (or preview) of the Saturn Return
If you were born in the Sixties, your Saturn return happened in the 1990s, about 30 years after you were born (this is true for all generations). Hence, it happened a while ago. Saturn traversed five signs in the Sixties, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces, Aries and Taurus. These are about as different as five signs can be, but all Saturn returns have one thing in common and that is the experience of restructuring one's life. This is rarely experienced as a pleasant event. The Saturn return demands that we master a whole new level of skill and really begin to take life seriously.
The Saturn return is the transit that divides what I'll call young adulthood from actual adulthood. Since we live in a society that extols juvenile indulgence until we're ready to collect Social Security, the Saturn return is often experienced as a crisis. Television commercials have just not prepared us for the realities of life. Typically, the first marriage falls apart, or the first marriage happens, and there is some kind of experience within the person's career that comes with a message approximating 'get real'. If the professional life has been real (that is, in tune with both one's personal needs and some cultural mandate) up to this point, there can be significant rewards: an advance, promotion, success or a change to a more rewarding career. As Steve Forrest said, you know you've successfully graduated from your Saturn return because you like going to work.
A lot of this has to do with how well the person having the transit has achieved some level of mastery involving Saturn. That's another way of saying learned how to take care of themselves, or learned to be their own parents and not project that responsibility on to a partner, boss or society. Saturn also deals with ego formation -- not ego in how good you look in your Gucci sunglasses, but rather ego as the operative function of the mind that provides a sense of identity apart from what we think everyone else thinks we're supposed to be.
In general, the changes of the Saturn return are structural and seem enforced by outside factors. Overall this transit has the effect of inducing the person to grow up a bit. The reality is this transit presents a phase of rarely welcome inner growth and offers many choices. This is a time in life we're learning above all to make decisions. Saturn loves when we make decisions. Since, however, decision-making is an art and arts take time to learn, lousy decisions can result at the time of the Saturn return, which is why astrology offers a variety of midlife transits to help us get back on track. The Pluto square Pluto transit is a big one.
Pluto Square Pluto
Everyone born in the Sixties has Pluto in Virgo. Virgo is a mutable sign with associations to service, ideas, ideals, healing, knowledge, teaching, learning and living in the moment. Pluto is the bottom line; it always brings us back to the most basic necessities, whether natally or by transit. Pluto in this sign, at its best, calls the Virgoan intellectual and service-oriented qualities to sharp focus. People with this placement will typically attempt to express a spiritual vision or higher calling into the most mundane affairs of life. To be truly happy with Pluto in Virgo, your day job simply has to be meaningful, or rather, it's usually not so simple. Virgo Pluto can also be obsessed with work, trivia, and intellectualisation, and this placement can and does get in the way of the emotions. This is the "I have to think about how I feel" generation.
At the same time, enormous idealism can be reduced to a petty level; if people don't live their astrology in a big way, they will invariably do it in miniature. A lot depends on which house Pluto is placed in, which in turn depends on the time of day, rather than the day or year, of birth. Where there is Pluto, there is focus; where there is Pluto in Virgo, the mind can be exceptionally focused. Add to that Uranus in Virgo (near Pluto in all mid-Sixties charts and close by in all Sixties charts), which spans 1962 through 1969, and there is often the impulse to a kind of innovative or creative anarchy. The native may compensate with being a control freak.
Uranus-Pluto was the conjunction that sparked the Sixties, with a lot of help from Chiron in Pisces. Where, by house, you have Uranus conjunct Pluto opposite Chiron, you have a picture of where, why and how your life is so intense. The creative potential is stunning, but creativity on that level requires a lot of surrender in a world that encourages nothing of the sort. As a result, you feel a powerful creative force and a deep impulse to express it freely. At the same time, you may feel that too much freedom is a bad thing. The basic set-up is the impulse to control yourself versus the impulse to break free. This can present a real struggle.
Pluto in Virgo emphasises Pisces, the opposite sign; there can be considerable impetus to let go of all that mental energy and bliss out, find God or ease the mental stress with drugs and alcohol.
I'll include an illustration of a typical version of this set-up, so you can imagine it more clearly, but what you basically have in mid-Sixties charts are three slow-moving planets in a straight line with Uranus-Pluto on one side of the chart, and Chiron on the other. When any transiting planet comes along and makes an aspect to this set-up -- usually by conjunction or square -- you get a burst of action. All that (typically) pent up creative energy gets the juice turned on, and the resistance factors get a real push. Hopefully you're sober when this happens.
People with Sixties charts tend to have a kind of all or nothing set-up; life is calm, then all of a sudden, it's anything but calm. And depending on the birth time, which may emphasise the effect, this quality can be INTENSE. Which leads to the Pluto square, one of the most significant midlife transits.
Around the age of 35, Pluto reaches the 90-degree mark from its natal position. Speaking broadly, people born between mid 1967 and mid 1969 are under the influence of their Pluto square. For some it will stretch out another 18 months from now. Others born around 1966 have recently passed through the most intense phase of the transit. Either the dust is settling, or Pluto is continuing to square nearby planets.
In earlier generations, Pluto square happened as late as 60 years old, but these days Pluto is spending less time in each sign than ever (it will eventually slow down again and the transit is in fact happening to people who are a little older as each year passes). Pluto's orbit is rather elongated, which accounts for this difference. When Pluto aspects any planet, the evolutionary machinery gets turned up to full-throttle. So now imagine Pluto making a square (one of the most intense aspects) to not just its own natal position, but also to the positions of Uranus and Chiron. Can you say 'shit happens'? Yes you can, and yes it does.
With the Uranus and Pluto oppositions to Chiron of the Pluto in Virgo generation, there are at least three major phases to the transit: Pluto square Uranus, Pluto square Chiron, and then Pluto square Pluto. Pluto gives each of those planets a push, each in turn, and each push will span about two years off and on. These two-year shoves usually overlap, so the Pluto square can wind out over three or four years, during which, if one is paying attention, one wonders what in God's name is happening.
The Pluto square has this basic theme: all that stuff (inner work, personal growth, major life changes) you always knew was extremely important but to which you could not get, either because you were too busy or because it was 'impossible', all suddenly shows up as raging, burning, undeniable necessity. If you think Saturn is a tough customer, it's merely making friendly suggestions when you compare it to Pluto.
Squares are said to be inwardly directed aspects, yet there will invariably be questions of relationship. This is because Uranus-Pluto opposite Chiron is one of the major factors that depicts and determines the type of relationships that happen in the lives of this generation.
The relationships of these kids, by all rights, ought to tend toward evolutionary and spiritual motives, but (thanks to Virgo) they have another tendency to get overly enmeshed in the mundane. Pluto, when it finally shows up at this transit, grabs these relationships by the hair, the gonads or the horns of the soul and wrestles them into reality. La-di-da becomes a thing of the past. Your average ho-hum boring abuse, superficiality or mundane obsession get pulled to the ground. The rules of involvement change, and a balance of power must be brought to awareness and enacted in life.
Pluto is the planet of power. Relationships have many power themes. Power is a life or death issue, and on some level it usually involves sexuality. Most people exist within their sexuality like a three-year-old driving a loaded dump truck down a mountain road at 70 miles per hour. Either that, or we go to great pains not to pick up anyone on the yoga retreat. Few in our culture have any actual sense of their sexual power, and, as cultural descendants of Miles Standish and John Smith, educated under the Abstinence Only doctrine, we have little reason to. Yet Pluto is, one way or another, going to get you in touch with your sexual power. You might not like what you discover, but you'll like your life a lot better once you discover it.
One of the most distinct feelings and experiences of Pluto square Pluto is that of burning off karma. There is this sense that the past must be dealt with and cleared so that the future can be allowed to happen. While the Saturn return has emphasised this on the structural level, the Pluto square reaches into the deepest areas that we can imagine. This is a time when many people discover they actually have a soul, and that this soul has needs and an agenda of its own.
Nobody likes their Pluto square, but there are very few people who would trade it for a new Porsche, and most people will miss it once it's over. This is a time of inner growth that can make the Saturn return seem like a joke. But it was not a joke, no more than the bricks and roof of a house are a joke. Saturn deals with the house; Pluto square addresses the issues and necessities inside the house, and in the basement, and helps us clean up the debris left over from the Saturn return. It is a monumental turning point. Shallow people occasionally become deep. Proud people can occasionally be brought to their knees. Know-it-alls can find themselves in therapy, finally opening up about long-repressed, forgotten or ignored problems. Marriages can shift from superficial relationships to deep, soulful ones.
Or, life can be utter hell. The most important thing you can do if you're in the midst of your Pluto square is ask the questions that you've always been afraid to ask. Ask does not necessarily mean to answer immediately. The questions of the Pluto square can take years to answer, yet it's a real gift to finally know what they are. ++
When I resume this series in a week or two, I'll cover the Uranian opposition for the Uranus in Virgo generation. This has already begun for people born in 1962 -- if you're having some experiences you'd like to relate, please email me at eric@ericfrancis.com.
Planet Waves Horoscope
for week beginning 20 Feb. 2004
Aries (March 20-April 19)
Be careful about getting caught in a mire, or alternately, diving into something that you're going to regret later. There is an indulgent / addictive quality to your chart right now, and it's coming on slowly. With all due respect to Bacchus, I suggest you ease back on the mind-altering substances because they could lead you to make decisions, particularly involving sex and relationships, that you would not ordinarily make. They may feel good at the time, and if you are going to indulge, give up the car keys and remember that condoms don't work if you don't use them. And last I checked, yes still means yes and no still means no.
Taurus (April 19-May 20)
The story of your life may be alternating wildly between a true story of love and a false one. Hopefully you've got the common sense and self-respect to tell the difference. Here are a few clues and I hope they prove to be anything other than confusing. The true story will burn with a transcendent quality, as if you can see through the veils of reality and can contact a kind of inner devotion that is rare to feel. The false story will feel like you're being pulled by an invisible gravitational force. It's 'supposed to' be right, but it's really nothing of the sort. The simplest test is to ask which lets you feel better about yourself.
Gemini (May 20-June 21)
You may be tempted to respond to what happens next with raw emotional energy, and you may see the wisdom in responding in a more removed, clearheaded and even transcendent way. You have the capacity to do either, and it's reasonable to view the currently unfolding situation as a test of some kind. The essential difference you need to sort out is that between light and dark. Easy, you may say, but if so, then how come so many people sleep during the day, walking around with their eyes open?
Cancer (June 21-July 22)
Make some kind of business move that involves an international contact or aspiration and you'll be met with enough success to be encouraged. And that's worth the effort; your career angle is gleaming but with Saturn crawling backwards through your sign, actual success may seem hard to come by. I can't over emphasise the value of positive vibes, encouragement, and maintaining a sense that anything is possible. In fact anything is possible, however for the most part this is only true when we experiment with the idea.
Leo (July 22-Aug. 23)
This is a very good week to shuffle your investments around, explore the possibilities and generally take a few breaths of the winds of fortune. I mean it. Pick up your phone and call the stock broker, investment advisor or bookie. Check out what's happening in solar energy stocks. You get the idea. This is also a very good week for sex. If you're one of those people who does sex every three years (if you're a Leo, I doubt that you are), this is the week. If you're anybody but a Leo, saunter up to the nearest kitty and mention how good they smell.
Virgo (Aug. 23-Sep. 22)
The door opens. Why, perchance, would you not go through? Perhaps because you sense that making any change or taking the opportunity with which you're presented will result in a shift in your being that you will never be able to go back on. I agree with your intuition 110%, if that's what it's telling you. Hurling yourself into the vortex of change will be better for your control issues than eleven warm enemas. It will be more cinematic than Lord of the Rings. More powerful than a screaming locomotive. And more fun than all of the above. But you know all that; I'm just reminding you.
Libra (Sep. 22-Oct. 23)
Decisions are allegedly not your strong suit, but it's clear enough that you really do have two clear choices. Once you can see that, and once you can see that there is an obvious difference, a decision should not be too difficult. You may be getting snagged in what you see as the unfolding consequences where the choice of a partner is concerned, and can identify closely with their condition. Maintain your boundaries. Their choice is their choice. Yours is yours. The chances are you'll be setting a good example, though only by doing what's right for you.
Scorpio (Oct. 23-Nov. 22)
As the next couple of weeks progress you'll have a tendency to react emotionally in ways that are unlikely to please you. I suggest you focus on creative endeavours: by creative, I mean quite specifically that which creates. Most people (if you'll notice) have nary a clue about the whole notion of destructive, but you don't need a Ph.D. in math to get it. Creative usually has a sense of building, of exploring, of inner change. It feels productive. Destructive feels compulsive, addictive, controlling, upsetting and generally ill at ease. Choose creative. Then choose again every time you forget. Practise this week; this will help you next week.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 - Dec. 22)
You may be trying to steer clear of someone's wild scene or emotional histrionics, and I wish you luck. There is something in the air, and there's something in the air in your house. I would propose that you've been all too reserved lately, attempting to focus on what you feel are more important matters. How many times have you said you're not going to get involved? Have you had the sneaking suspicion that you are already involved? Well, you probably are, and it's not so bad. Just remember that Sagittarius is a mutable sign, which is another way of saying you're at your best when you go with the flow.
Capricorn (Dec. 22-Jan. 20)
Oh, Capricorn. You need the love of a good astrologer. You are not what so many of them make you out to be; why is it that nobody understands how sensitive you are? Why is it that nobody feels the awesome deliberation with which you make each decision, and how deep the idea of ethics runs toward the core of your being? If you want to shine your image a bit, be generous with your ideas. You have every reason to be, not the least of which is abundance. Your ideas may not follow convention and you're clearly in no mood to play by the rules. But you will be the most brilliant this week when you're off the cuff and guided by your sense of smell.
Aquarius (Jan. 20-Feb. 19)
Friday's incomparable New Moon should have you in the best mood of the last 63 years, months, weeks, days or at the very least, hours. I can promise you at least one experience in which your unique value to the world is reaffirmed. Yet it's likely to be subtle -- more subtle than the steel filters of your mind are likely to allow you to see. If I may get philosophical on you, in the end, we have to accept the fact that this life is a rather numinous, tenuous and even illusory experience. You put entirely too much faith in the physical world as a source of strength. Relax: something new is at hand.
Pisces (Feb. 19-March 20)
Life is not a conspiracy against you, and I suggest that, as the next week or two unfold, you take great pains to dispel any negative theories and ideas you may be holding, particularly about yourself and how people feel about you. From the look of your chart, you have every reason to celebrate the fact that you exist, and the gift that your existence is to the people around you. Well, every reason, save for one: you tend to trip out on fear. Fear makes you do things you would not ordinarily even consider. Deal with your fear first. If you don't want to advertise it on the side of a bus, confide in one or two friends. Come out of the shadows. This is a brilliant moment.
Early Pisces Birthdays
First a brief essay on social chaos theory. Our entire civilisation (along with many others) is based on the false notion that people can control one another. One analysis of how and why people get upset is because this notion is exposed for what it is. Jealousy is a good example. When someone's friend has sex with another person, they tend to freak out. We give this a name, and the name is jealousy. What's really happening is that we're being confronted with the fact that we have no control over this person or what they do. We can think we do, but it's an expensive illusion. Various blocks, locks and repressive devices can consume vast amounts of our energy, and given the fact that (as rumour has it) people only use 10% of their brains in the first place, that doesn't leave us with much.
When we open to a bit of chaos, enormous creative energy can and usually does come rushing in.
For those who are hip to this whole scenario, Pisces will be the envy of the world, because creation, liberation and passion born out of a touch of chaos is the theme of the year. Those born the first week of Pisces are no doubt feeling, or will soon feel, the effects of Uranus in your birth sign at full-strength, which is a little like getting connected to the Cosmic Holographic Passion Power Generator.
While many Pisces are among those in the zodiac most given to anarchy and least impressed by anal-retentive ways of life, we live in a world that is utterly dedicated to control trips, and it's getting worse about every 10 minutes. However, the technofascist rat race is, fortunately, no match for the magnificent energy of Uranus in Pisces, particularly as this planet crosses over your natal Sun and you embody its energy with your all-powerful, vibrant human soul.
The message is not only that you cannot really control your life, and that nobody can control you. The message is that you don't want any of this -- that it feels better to be alive than to be strapped into somebody else's so-called reality. Beyond this, you're likely to stumble into a world where being strapped to anyone or anything is just not your idea of a good time and, fortunately, this energy has a contagious quality. Be with those you inspire! If people throw resistance or regret in your face, go the other direction. Your old friends will wake up, or they'll vibe themselves to where they belong. New friends, and new groups of friends, will come your way if you choose to live from your heart.
For those who are already given to art, music, travel, love, passion and fucking, Uranus in Pisces is likely to feel like you've finally had the key turned on the prison cell you never knew you were in. For those who are trapped in cubicles, in relationships or family scenes they don't like, this transit can present more of a challenge. For one thing, the whole belief system supporting the fact that one is trapped is going to come up for question. There will, I am sure, be some people who grapple with the issue of "how much fun is too much fun?" as if it were a relevant question.
The thing about Uranus is that it bestows the gift of invention. This is very helpful in times when you need solutions to problems that have for years seemed to be beyond hope of understanding. Because you are so different -- energetic, compelling and impassioned -- the world itself will present itself as an entirely different place. Open your eyes and see this! You are no longer the quiet, invisible little fish that people have made you out to be.
You have a bit of reason for caution, but I have mixed feelings about this particular aspect -- the slow approach of Mars square Neptune in your birthday chart, which will be in effect for the second week of Pisces birthdays as well. Mars-Neptune squares, conjunctions and oppositions can be troubling. They can represent people and situations where there is a distinct lack of integrity, addiction issues and a propensity toward dishonesty. There can be a tendency to take absurd risks that are born of compulsion and not of choice.
Is it possible for you to guard against these possibilities while not resisting the flow of energy and life that's pulsing through your heart? Is it possible for you to tell the truth, to ask for the truth, and to be honest about your passions and desires? The compromise position, where you indulge your desires but don't do so in a clear or honest way, would be no compromise at all -- it would be a losing proposition.
Therefore, the theme of this year can be summed up very simply: live your passion with integrity. Take a step, and stand in your truth, and then take another step. Your truth is as simple as completing the sentences, "I feel," "I need," "I want," "I love" and "I believe." Get used to sharing the truth of who you are, what you've done and what you intend to do. Uranus in Pisces style, this is the formula for a true and fulfilling life this year. ++
