People’s work ethics have been described by the generation they belong with and it also signifies the general tone of the times. As I read through the generations and observed the charts it strongly relates to Pluto. It is one of the fascinating planets in the chart and it sees human nature for what it really is. Pluto was named after the Roman god of the underworld, and it rules the collective unconscious, and its shadow. Pluto’s generation group communicates something about what that group calls upon to survive. The outer planets always take us out into the unknown; they can be exciting, but also frightening. The outer planets are about extending the self and growing in new ways. The outer collectivity is represented by Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto and requires transformation. With Pluto transits things will be unearthed, changed and transformed and no matter how we resist – the way back is no longer possible, one door closes and a new door is opening. Pluto symbolises definitive critical points on a world level.
Those born in the 1920’s -30s generation with Pluto in Cancer were called The Silent Generation at a time of economic depression; they were conservative, conformist, and prepared to work fairly hard. The zodiacal sign of Cancer rules over the family, the past and the emotional tone of any time. It can also be motherly, clingy, and possessive, but full of deep and terrifying fear and probably also owing to this extremely watery combination. It was believed they grew up suffocated and overprotected (Pluto in Cancer), many of them born during the war years, The Great Depression and the nuclear family.
Our deeply felt patrionism is one of the strongest forces of Pluto in Cancer people. In our youth we gave the Pledge of Allegiance every day in school, knew all the words to “America, the Beautiful” and saluted our flag with pride. Scratch a man or woman anywhere over forty and you will find the beating heart of a patriot. We all feel deeply, that in spite of our faults, its overwhelming problems and its occasional monumental mistakes, this is still the greatest country in the world. We are all still around in large numbers, we Pluto in Cancer people, somewhat battered and bruised, looking about in bewilderment, struggling to adjust to the constantly shifting and changing moral codes and standards of the world today. Many of us look back longingly in Cancer fashion…we have experienced a total metamorphosis. The world we live in now is no longer the world we knew when we were young. This is the power of Pluto in Cancer, to mark a generation deeply with the intrinsic and unshakable values of country, family and home. The Power of Pluto
An amazing interpretation. But there are countries outside of the USA that people think are great, too.
The Baby Boomers were the 1940s – 50s as Pluto moved into Leo and they were part of the regeneration of wealth. They are described as driven, loyal, and prepared to give maximum effort. Some say they played a direct role in all the drama of the time. Being the creative sign of Leo, the sign of children, there was an increase in the birth-rate after the cold war of the previous generation (Pluto in Cancer). Apparently, it correlated with the growth of wealth, health and prosperity. One thing we can say about the boomers is they were a trendsetting bunch, and not to mention a supremely narcissistic one.
This generation was conceived by Pluto-in-Cancer parents who wished, first of all, to give their children everything they had been deprived of during the strict upbringing of the Twenties and the financial deprivation of the Thirties. The freedom to come and go as they wished with no responsibilities was theirs for the asking. The resounding cry, “I want it better for my child than it was for me,” swept over the nation. And so they had all-tricycles, bicycles, Chevy coupes, weekly allowances for movies and soda, summer camp, prepaid college tuition and fun, fun, fun…And did this affect the children born with Pluto in Leo? In true Leo fashion, they expected the world on a platter and saw no reason why life’s pleasures should be denied them. It was their right to enjoy, to experience, to play their games and flower in the sun. Rich or poor, educated or not, whatever the income level they were plugged in to, they anticipated – and usually got – the best their parents could give them. And these hardworking parents stood on the sidelines delighted their every whim. The Power of Pluto
Generation X of the 1960s-70s portrayed as valuing the informal. This was when Pluto entered Virgo, but also formed the massive outer planetary conjunction with Uranus. The generation was viewed as reckless and uncommitted to work and probably more owing to the Uranian influence with this massive impulse to change things rapidly in the world. It has rightly been called the accelerated culture, and they will probably remain the most memorable tribe for some time. Many were in search of drastic changes, leaving stable jobs, and had ambivalence about the future. Another Uranian word used for this generation was “fractured “the most difficult to define, with so many liberation movements, civil rights, and feminist protests.
Its influence permeated this period, since it was, in a sense, a re-styling of our everyday affairs: what we wore to work, what we ate for lunch, how we felt about our bodies and health. Virgo’s message got through all of us: Clean up the air, clean out the water, clean out your bodies, clean up the world! The first clean-up, centering on our eating habits, combined Pluto’s detective work with Virgo’s ability to analyze. By degrees we were confronted with information that our daily food was far from being pure and wholesome. ..Vegetables and fruits were sprayed with controversial insecticides, picked before maturity and ripened artificially. Junk foods, full of empty calories and artificial ingrediants, proliferated in the supermarkets and dispensing machines…Thousands of health books tumbled off the presses; vegetarianism, juice fasting and cleansing diets leaped into vogue…many herb stores opened up…people who previously found it a chore to carry the trash out to the curb now started exercising daily…The Power of Pluto
Generation Y is the ‘Millennium Generation’ born between the 1970s-1990s with Pluto in Libra. The term used is also the Millenials and it is the generation of the digital age of technology, and also working collaboratively developing and learning new skills. Libra is the sign of equality and the Millenials of the Libra generation were decisive at the time of the 2008 election in America of the first black president and this was also coinciding with Pluto entering Capricorn. However, such progress could not be made without the uprisings of the previous generation (The X Generation) changing everything, and so a nod back to those people who made it all possible. On the whole, the generation of Libra appears more liberal in their approach than many earlier ones, but as a group, they are also the most racially diverse. The most academic of the lot owing to the airy nature of the sign, and the drive for perfection is powerful – one that has us all a little obsessed with appearances.
Relationships were easy to enter into and in many cases where possessions were meager, just as easy to conclude. When disenchantment set in, each person simply packed up his clothing, books, records, sleeping bag and musical instrument and, as the jargon of the time put it, “split.” However, when older people involved themselves in the same place with a welter of his and her furniture, household trappings, personal belongings and objects they had purchased together the rights of ownership became confused if and when they broke up the union. ..Even with its drawbacks, though, this living together for awhile gave these young people something their parents had never experienced: the chance to know each other honestly, without pretense or posture, and to communicate openly about their desires and expectations. It is a long way from the Pluto in Cancer generation which was steeped in the regimented code of their time – strict morality and romantic nonsense….Divorce has now permeated the fabric of our national life…In many states, divorce has become easily attainable by using neutral phrases as “irreconcilable difference” and “irretrievable breakdown in the marriage” for the grounds. Gone forever are the times when trumped-up charges of adultery were necessary to provide the only acceptable legal reason, or when the laws necessitated one supposedly innocent party heaping horrendous blame on the other for the failure of marriage. Pluto has swept away these outmoded concepts. The Power of Pluto