Astrologers' Words of Wisdom #4 : Culture Lag

Astrologer Bill Sheeran's article: Generational Themes draws attention to an important point.

Groups of individuals born with outer planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto in similar positions are thought to have common characteristics, as a generational set. What we have to bear in mind though is that the people born into any given generational group have no perceptible effect on the world at large until they achieve adulthood. Not until some point well into adulthood will any member of a generation reach a position of influence or power (of one sort or another). Mr Sheeran calls this "culture lag".

Thus there is what I call a culture lag between the initial emergence of astrologically associated themes, and a flowering of expression of the same principles decades later. In my opinion, this explains why an author might write a book which is very much of its time, but being of its time it is inherently novel and therefore radical. It may have initial impact, and then slide out of view. But years later, many of those born when it was being written will experience a resonance the contents. Astrologically, the book and those born when it was written have something in common. The later generation ‘get it’, and the writer’s work re-emerges into popular consciousness.

I've tended to overlook this rather obvious fact at times, crediting the astrology of a certain era as significant in that era's "flavour", or in what was popular then. It must take a few decades, though, for things on the ground to catch up with what the generational planets indicated at a given time.

Mr. Sheeran ends his article thus:

This way of looking at the issues is a bit simplistic - there are many inter-related factors involved in unravelling the picture. But I do think it is important, especially in mundane or collective level astrology work, to bear in mind this culture lag aspect of astrological dynamics. Apart from anything else it helps to make sense of the tensions which can arise between generations. Or illuminate political dynamics.