Generational Astrology - The Basic Breakdown - Differentiating Gen X & Gen Y
The American Dream began its dissolution during the coming-of-age of Gen X (hence Punk Rock and its underground nihilistic rage). The 1970s hangover from the 1960s Awakening period led to the corporate takeover that began under Reagan in the 1980s. The first wave of Generation X (1957-1961/2) were teenagers in the 1970s (Gen X 1957-1969/70, Pluto in Virgo, Neptune in Scorpio). What the first Gen Xers saw was a crumbling economy in Europe and the US. The Sex Pistols’ “No Future” anthem described how it felt to grow up in a post-Awakening period when gas shortages, job losses, and stagflation were the norm. The drug culture of the 1960s went from mind-expansion into a mind-numbing, addict style culture of Disco, key parties, divorce, corruption, and the rise of the Anti-hero.
The latter part of Gen-X (the meat of the generation, 1962/3-1968, when Uranus was also in Virgo) entered adolescence during the Reagan Revolution, remaking the world into the neoliberal paradigm we are currently trapped in. Labor laws were weakened, and unions were busted up. The rules of higher education began to shift away from access and affordability toward a pay-for-play model. Funding for higher education started to get cut, and Reagan instituted the law that made it illegal to declare bankruptcy if one was drowning in student debt. This began the current lockout of middle-class and poor kids’ access to higher education.
Much like the Millennials who entered the job market during the “Great Recession,” Gen-Xers entered the job market during the S & L crisis, as housing spiked and jobs became scarce. Making matters worse, the Royals didn’t share the same long view as the generation before them. It had been common practice for elders to mentor the up-and-coming generation; instead, the “Me” generation pulled up the corporate ladder and held fast to their power. We can see this trend very publicly in their grip on political power, with many opting to become hollowed-out trees that fall in the forest of government rather than planting their intellectual capital in new saplings to take their place once they are gone.
Generation X’s lessons are generally about hard work, service, and discernment. Those without the Uranus conjunction (now, unfortunately, given the title of the Jones Generation by marketing companies, blah!) have Uranus in Leo. Because of this, they share some traits with the Boomers/Royals. This bridge from Pluto in Leo into the meat of the Gen X generation has the sub-theme of individuation through creativity, self-expression, and self-love. However, it is very different than Pluto in Leo, which focuses personal power on those issues.
For early Gen Xers living in the shadow of the Boomers, this energy is about differentiation from the cultural norms, about rethinking love relationships, and allowing themselves to explore whatever lights them up. It isn’t about maintaining the power of the self; it is about individuating the self. This generation embraced many fractured subcultures, each reflecting different paths of personal individuation. Gen X was not (all of this generation has this hallmark) monolithic in their presentation, like the Boomers. These are the early punk rockers, the New Wavers, and kids who re-embraced and re-imagined themselves through the lens of other periods in history. This subgroup lived (as kids) through the Great Awakening and internalized the need for personal freedom.
Among Gen Xers with the Uranus/Pluto conjunction, we see themes of power through individuation. Virgo is a hermetic sign, preferring quiet, perfectionism, analysis, and time alone. This is an oddball combination of transformative analysis, snarkiness (especially when younger), radical individualism, humility, fascination with the past, workforce transformation, and analytical transformation through technology. Kurt Cobain and Peter Thiel are both square at the center of this configuration.
This generation, while politically apathetic during their youth, became radically polarized, either to the left or to the right of the political spectrum. This meat section tends toward extremism, and in fact, as young people, they were so individualistic that they didn’t believe we were part of a generation. They resented being marketed to and were (and are) deeply skeptical by nature to the point of paranoia (at its worst).
