From the standpoint of astrology, which is concerned with the study and development of human conscious, generation is a meaningful concept. To an astrologer, generation means Pluto.

The Zodiacal position of the planet Pluto identifies and describes a generation. It reveals what is driving our lives, from below the threshold of everyday consciousness. As most will be aware, to the ancient Greeks, Pluto was the god of the Underworld. Western astrology assigns Pluto to the rulership of the sign Scorpio.

When the Twentieth Century commenced, the planet Pluto (which had yet to be discovered) is assumed to have been in the sign Gemini. As the Twenty-First Century commenced, Pluto was in Sagittarius; and it is in Capricorn now, having entered this sign in 2008.

Pluto entered Cancer the year the First World War broke out, and Leo in the year the Second World War broke out. Pluto was in Leo when astronomers detected the planet, in the far reaches of the solar system, and its discovery signalled that human consciousness was now responding to the Plutonian principle.

In the USA, scientists succeeded in splitting the atom in the year Pluto was discovered; and esotericists whose job it is to recognise correspondences, know that personality consciousness was also split, by the perception that we live in the present, but belong to the past, because we are what the past has made us. We live in the past amongst our memories and recollections, and will be held there unless we understand how to make these things fuel for moving on. This is where Pluto lends a hand.

Pluto discloses raw material now available for personality consciousness to process and reclaim. It is human attention and activity, which sorts out what is useful, weaves this into the fabric we call consciousness, and identifies those golden threads that will lead consciousness onwards, and which we call our spirituality. We cannot control Pluto, and we are best not to turn away from its effects in our societies and personal lives. If we have a regard for the human journey we will engage consciously with the Plutonian process, and see how we might make it serve us. The human story is a work in process.

To make more space in a small room, we can push out the sides or raise the ceiling. Pluto wrenches up the floorboards and discloses that which is trapped beneath so that it finds a place in our awareness and our lives because it has taught us to fear those things, which grow in the darkness, out of sight and mind. It compels us to make room in our awareness and our lives for perceptions and attitudes, which have been excluded, dismissed or rejected in the interests of social and personal stability, but which fascinate and control us from the shadows, consuming lives and time.

Certain of these banished perceptions and attitudes will eventually come to the attention of a generation, and become its preoccupation. Then they will rebel against some aspect of the status quo and find opportunities in those things, which hitherto have been considered unacceptable. The nature of the preoccupation becomes evident as the generation comes of age and begins to leave its mark on the world. This is how Pluto expands personality consciousness. It destroys holding patterns and it releases energy.

In the (nearly) 75 years, since its discovery, Pluto has passed through 5 signs and is now in the first decanate of the sixth, which is Capricorn.

This means there are 6 generations in incarnation now, all of whom have the Plutonian principle active in the psyche. Perhaps this is why there has been no Third World War. Even though we have little or no control over Pluto, which uses our personality consciousness for its own ends, as a cuckoo uses the nests of other birds, it is no longer necessary for it to seek its outlet through collective consciousness. Each of us, as a member of our generation and as individuals, is dealing with a small bit of the Underworld in our own lives because we now know how to access, and to some degree, manage what is in our psyches.

To those with Pluto in Leo, the preoccupation is freedom, including sexual freedom, for the individual; and many social structures and conventions were overthrown by this generation in support of it. Their fear is extinction before being allowed to live and receive recognition.

To those with Pluto in Virgo, the preoccupation is truth, defined as the way the personality in material existence experiences reality; and many spiritual and social beliefs were rejected as false by this generation. Their fear is being tricked into giving up freedom and individuality.

To those with Pluto in Libra, the preoccupation is holding a space for human possibility; and many traditional ways of looking at self and organising lifestyle are now being replaced by more positive perspectives. Their fear is becoming bogged down in meaningless commitments, routines, and social conventions.

To those with Pluto in Scorpio, who are now beginning to leave their mark on the world, the preoccupation is creating connections to link them to others. Attraction is their guide in this matter. Like attracts like on the astral plane, and they are seeking for their own kind. The fear of this generation is being isolated in a dark and meaningless world.

It is too soon to know what matters to those with Pluto in Sagittarius and Capricorn. We can speculate, of course.

Those with Pluto in Scorpio were born between 1984–1995 are now coming to prominence in the world. They are driven by the need to feel the connection with others, which gives a meaning to life. They are not interested in, nor will concern themselves with, the authority figures, conventions and taboos that keep people apart from each other, and apart from what they desire. Love expresses the highest principle they recognise. To die with someone is perceived to be better than living alone. Death is a way out of separation and pain, and it attracts them, because they are fearful of what life holds in store.

Pluto is driving them along this shadowy, haunted path through the desire nature on the astral plane, a place the previous generation with Pluto in Libra has always taken great care to avoid because they intuit, quite correctly, that human possibility does not look so great from this path. But as with all dirty jobs, someone has to do it; someone has to disclose the truth of where we stand now, in all the bodies which make up the personality: the emotional and the physical as well as the mental. When they develop compulsions and obsessions, which are very common amongst this generation, they are fed pharmaceuticals by societies wanting to regulate their behaviour.

The sign Scorpio is connected to the planet Mercury and expresses what Theosophy calls the Mantrikashakti energy, which is The Word made Flesh. We do not yet know what their message will be, or how their messengers will deliver it, but we know that will speak about love - human love - and it will shape the spirituality of those who comes after them with hearts not yet open.

It is for those of us from an earlier generation to help them in this task. We have to hold the larger picture for them because no one can be expected to see or care about human possibility when they themselves have been made reliant upon medication in order to function in daily life.

There has to be a better way than this. No generation can afford to write off another because each makes its own kind of contribution. At a time when consciousness is assembling itself in the throat centre, this generation, which is reaching out to others, troubled, extreme, violent and controlling though desperation often makes them, is the best hope we have of keeping the truths of the heart alive.

There is always light to come out of the darkness, which encloses Scorpio, and when it does, we are all illumined. This generation will benefit from the insights of psychology and astrology more obviously than any generation before them. What is in place for them?

Suzanne Rough
DKF-Koruna
September 2013