Saturday & Sundry Rambling Thoughts on Fourth Turnings, Cycles & suchlike

Steve Bannon Believes The Apocalypse Is Coming And War Is Inevitable
a piece by Paul Blumenthal at Huffington Post this week, begins:

In 2009, the historian David Kaiser, then a professor at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, got a call from a guy named Steve Bannon.

Bannon wanted to interview Kaiser for a documentary he was making based on the work of the generational theorists William Strauss and Neil Howe. Kaiser, an expert on Strauss and Howe, didn’t know Bannon from Adam, but he agreed to participate. He went to the Washington headquarters of the conservative activist group Citizens United, where Bannon was then based, for a chat.

Kaiser was impressed by how much Bannon knew about Strauss and Howe, who argued that American history operates in four-stage cycles that move from major crisis to awakening to major crisis. These crises are called “Fourth Turnings” — and Bannon believed the U.S. had entered one on Sept. 18, 2008, when Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke went to Capitol Hill to ask for a bailout of the international banking system.............Bannon pressed Kaiser on one point during the interview. “He was talking about the wars of the Fourth Turnings,” Kaiser recalled. “You have the American Revolution, you have the Civil War, you have World War II; they’re getting bigger and bigger. Clearly, he was anticipating that in this Fourth Turning there would be one at least as big. And he really made an effort, I remember, to get me to say that on the air..........”

 "Take care my man! It might be awkward if you was to let 'em loose"

Hmmm. Uncomfortable thoughts! Anyway, I was immediately reminded of something I posted a couple of years ago, touching on a similar topic. I'm going to copy that post here - I found it an interesting one to prepare, though it does ramble on a bit. Long post! The rabbit hole was dark and deep! I shall add any commentary from 2014.


The Way of Things - Cycles and Generations

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Hear Sting sing it HERE

A column titled "A New Breed, But Millennials Should Be OK" by a friend and in-law, who edits one local newspaper and writes a weekly column for another, sent me scurrying down one of the internet's numerous deep rabbit-holes, as well as into my own cavern of archives.
SNIP from his column:

We who’ve lived a few decades are told we must study and understand the Millennials; we must adapt to their unique needs.

What are those needs? Experts echo the theme Millennials are selfish and irresponsible (a generalization that’s insulting to them); and the answer to nurturing Millennials is to understand them better (a solution that’s insulting to us).

Every generation of “older folks” has the prerogative to become crotchety and play the sorrowful kids-are-going-to-Hades card. But what’s different this time is that we keep getting told we have to put up with the Millennials and their generational peccadilloes.

When the whole column becomes available at the newspaper's website I'll link to it here. I'm no expert on the fads and foibles of any generation, especially the younger ones. Even on my own, War Baby generation, I could lay no claim to expertise. We're now well past our best, sadly few and far between on the net these days...at least on that part of the net I frequent, there are some residing in corners where I refuse to wander, talking about stuff I prefer not to think about.

Any passing reader interested to see a few of my own words on generational matters: easy pickings - just click on "generations" in the cumulus that is
"Label Cloud" in the sidebar; there are several posts, 2008 on, touching on generations and generationalism.

The habit of pitching one generation against another, a game seen regularly around the internet, remains objectionable to me, another form of bigotry in fact, when taken to extremes. Stereotypes, though not without a tiny kernel of validity, can soon become toxic, like the stereotypical notions that women nag, men are henpecked, Americans are loud-mouthed egotists, Brits have bad teeth, French are cowards, Italians pinch women's bottoms...etc.etc.etc.

Vast arrays of variety exist within each generation, it's like millions of different melodies being played, but with a distinctive background "humm" going on, a "humm" peculiar and individual to each age-group - something which draws the group together, and at the same time sets them apart - yet it is only a subtle background "humm", not the melody, not the composition, not the lyrics.

Astrology understands this.

A serious study of what the generations actually do comprise is a different matter. A study either considering said "background humm", or not considering it at all, but studying how whatever the generations do comprise affects aspects of life for all of us. Even then, though, it depends which part of the world one is considering. The English speaking (or more properly English reading) internet is heavily weighted towards the USA in most things, the topic of generations follows this pattern. It's hard to find much that's specific about Britain, in this respect, though I did see a few articles on Australian generations - possibly inspired by some new book or TV programme there. How generations, say from the 18th century until now, have formed in the USA and how they have formed elsewhere in the world via background and experiences, even in the land of the USA's closest cousin, Britain, has to be so different as to possibly negate all attempts to classify. Having said that, keeping it in mind...

Studies and several books by William Strauss and Neil Howe, see Wikipedia , and Amazon are of interest.

For example, their Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (1992) was described by former Vice President of the USA, Al Gore as "the most stimulating book on American history he'd ever read". He even sent a copy to each member of Congress. The book is described:

William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today.Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millennium.

In 1997 Strauss and Howe wrote The Fourth Turning. At Amazon it was described as having been heralded by reviewers as "a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading".

Snip from comment at Amazon By 'Odysseus'

The basic insight in this book is a simple one: Instead of trying to build a theory of American history (as did Arthur Schlesinger) that is based on unexplained "cycles" and "swings" from liberal to conservative and back again, why not simply look at how American generations behave as they age? When you do that, as Strauss and Howe have found, you find that American generations behave with a certain consistency throughout their lives. If their formative experiences push them in a certain direction while young, they'll continue to act in that way as they get older. That is, if you understand that history is really the process of different generations moving through time, then the swings of American history no longer look so mysterious; they appear as predictable manifestations of the fact that different generations with different life experiences have risen to the foreground.

Of course, you don't want to take all of this too sweepingly, or else it starts to seem like astrology or historical biorhythms. Generations are diverse groups, and no two people within a generation are exactly alike. But there are clear trends of generational behavior, which Strauss/Howe substantiate quite well.

Of course we wouldn't want to bring astrology into it would we? Would We? TSK!

There are some long and interesting reader reviews at Amazon links. I shall press on without going into more detail about Strauss and Howe's theory; it is set out in detail and clearly enough at Wikipedia, here. Also there's a good run-down on the topic at Hub-pages HERE.

For now, keep in mind Strauss and Howe's theorised four generational cycles:
Prophet/Hero/Nomad/Artist.
Four generational archetypes that repeat sequentially, in rhythm with the cycle of Crises and Awakenings.
From the Wiki link:

....four generational archetypes that repeat sequentially, in rhythm with the cycle of Crises and Awakenings (High/Awakening/Unravelling/Crisis). In Generations, Strauss and Howe refer to these four archetypes as Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive. In The Fourth Turning (1997) they update this terminology to Prophet, Nomad, Hero, and Artist. The generations in each archetype not only share a similar age-location in history, they also share some basic attitudes towards family, risk, culture and values, and civic engagement. In essence, generations shaped by similar early-life experiences develop similar collective personas and follow similar life-trajectories. To date, Strauss and Howe have identified 25 generations in Anglo-American history, each with a corresponding archetype

 Hat-tip Sacred Geometry Inc

Astrologers have long known some variation of Strauss and Howe's theories.

Searching for a book on this topic by an astrologer, I found Generational Patterns Using Astrology by Edwin Rose (2011), described at Amazon:

Generational Patterns Using Astrology will enable you to find your place in history. It will explain how your parent's generation is different than yours and even the differences between your parent's generational patterns. Once you see your generation's pattern in the flow of history, you will see what challenges we now face, and what part your generation's role is in all of it. Looking forward, you will see what years in the future will be key, and what opportunities (and difficulties) await us. If you have children, you will understand their generation and how it differs from yours.

I wasn't familiar with the author's name, but eventually found this at Dodona Books website:

Edwin Rose

The author taught and lectured on astrology for 35 years. During that time he studied how astrology influences people and history. He self published a 445 page book Planetary Music: Understanding Astrological Rhythms (1998) and has a website with astrological information and predictions that gets 300 hits a day -- it has been in continuous operation since 1996. For six years the author and his wife owned the metaphysical bookstore Guiding Star in Mill Valley (near San Francisco, CA) which has given him an appreciation of the astrological audience. He has worked as a software engineer and software manager for major corporations including Apple, Leapfrog, Cisco, and Autodesk -- most of his software career has been in animation, games, graphics, and TV. Edwin Rose died in 2010 shortly before his title Generational Patterns Using Astrology was published.

Three chapters of Mr Rose's book are available at Google Books - see HERE The last of the three is most relevant to this topic. I've taken the liberty of copying part of the chapter as a sample:

...The excerpt ends there.

Strauss and Howe's four cycles of generational archetypes: Prophet/Hero/Nomad/Artist have astrological cycles which could be seen as comparable. Edwin Rose mentioned the elemental cycle, and was comparing it as the excerpt ended. There's also a cycle on a more personal scale - related to the individual, the Saturn cycle of Saturn Returns which equate roughly to childhood/teenage/young adulthood/maturity. Cycles within cycles! The far outer planets, though, are the ones related to generational astrology. Mr Rose's book will explore their cycles.

Another book which touches on the generational theme astrologically, and one I already own, is Horoscope for the New Millennium by E. Alan Meece. I've mentioned it more than once in archived posts, and there's an excerpt from it relating to the generations at Wandering Star, HERE.

The burning question after stumbling through all of this has to be - "Well then, where are we now?"
It seems that using Strauss and Howe's theory we're in a period of Crisis, the most intense of the four periods. The last Crisis was World War 2, after which society underwent a drastic change. That was followed by a High period, with prosperity growing along with corporations and middle class contentment. An Awakening phase began in the 1960s, with the hippies, civil rights, etc. Then things began to unravel, slowly, during the 1980s, with the next turning point possibly being 9/11...and off we went into Crisis (again). Major change ought to be around the next corner (but, as the song goes "who knows where or when?")

Comments from 2014


anyjazz said...We saw circles within circles at the Salina River Festival. An old workmate of mine had a quip he would quote now and then: It's all the same circles, just different people going around in them. Now, I don't know what any of this has to do with that but it's what I though of as I was reading.

Twilight said...anyjazz ~ Yes we did - I ought to insert your photograph from Salina in the post [added]..
Your workmate was being polite...I think what he/she really meant was "same shit, different assholes". Sorry!) ;-)


mike said...In a bit of a twist, take anyjazz' comment from his workmate and add your poop comment, Twilight...look at the (very nice) photo of the sculpture and peer into the background at the port-a-potties...LOL.

The cyclic nature of astrology is all too often overlooked, except for the "returns" of Jupiter and Saturn...maybe the solar return, too. Our finite, flash-in-a-pan years on Earth limit the greater view. Most individuals want astrology to work for them within the limits of decades and, preferably, the immediate present, which typically doesn't allow much consideration toward repeating cycles. But, as your interesting post indicates, many cycles of the slower-moving planets correlate with generational qualities, particularly when considering Jupiter and Saturn aspects to each other and to Uranus-Neptune-Pluto.

Financial-economic astrology is all about short and long term cycles. The Mayan calendar is a superb example of maxi-mini cyclic timekeeping. The Earth may not have ended 12-21-2012, but something shifted!

Nick Anthony Fiorenza has an interesting site delving into synodic cycles:
http://www.lunarplanner.com/index.html

Twilight said...mike ~ LOL! I hadn't noticed that in the photo....well done Sherlock! :-)

Yes, you're exactly right about astrology. It is very annoying, too, how people who consider themselves intellectually bright and "in the know" about everything, but the minute astrology is mentioned they dismiss it out of hand, sometimes even ridicule it - and the person mentioning it. Yet - here is proof of some measure of correlation between findings of non-astrologers and of astrologers.

Astrology is often "a fool to itself" in many ways, because it survives (admittedly the only way it can) via the old "He's a Taurus and his Mercury is being hit by....whatever" kind of thing. That's all well and good, but it's not what astrology really ought to be about, well...not if for consumption of those intellectually disdainful mortals anyway. I could rant for a week on this - but shall desist. Thanks, yes -I think I've visited Mr Fiorenza's website before - it's a very good one!


mike (again) said..."Astrology Making Progress in Britain’s House of Commons"
http://astrologynewsservice.com/news/astrology-making-progress-in-britains-house-of-commons/

New cycles will start in six years, with interesting conjunctions of Jupiter-Saturn-Pluto-S Node happening in Capricorn, 2019-2020. Michael Lutin says:
"... At the same time, don't kid yourself, there's a war brewing.....greater what you see or read about in the news. It's a world wide revolution that will reveal itself more openly sometime around the moment Pluto reaches the third decant of Capricorn. IN America 2018-19 and beyond. The crucial national Elections will be In 2020, not 2016 . The situation is pretty much contained and under control of the control freaks who fear chaos, at this point, and what we are seeing is the smouldering of distracting local brush fires."
http://michaellutin.com/dailyfix.htm

Twilight said...mike ~ Well may the goddess of astrology (Urania) bless David
Tredinnick! A quick look at his birthday in my ephemeris - Jan 19 1950
Sun Capricorn/Moon possibly Aquarius, Venus and Jupiter in Aquarius - yep - Urania!

Michael Lutin thinks 2018/19 and onward for the start of the next "turning" then? I've always thought it to be likely around 2024/5, but that might be the culmination of something begun around 2018 I guess.

I still think 2016 election will be an important one though, and could make all the difference to how it all plays out - nothing is written in stone, not even astrologers' pronouncements or astrology itself. It's "blowin' in the wind"

Changing Generations and Cynical Smiles

I'll be waiting eagerly for the results of the New Hampshire primaries tonight. Bernie Sanders should have the advantage, Vermont, his state, and New Hampshire being next door neighbours. In this year of the unexpected, though, nothing will surprise me!

It's heartening that so many young people, those under 30, are drawn to Bernie Sanders' campaign. These people are not blinkered by political establishment's controlled spin via TV and newspapers. They form their opinions through peer to peer conversations on social media and reading on the internet in general. The Clinton machine might have overlooked this potential wave of opposition. Astrologically it ought not to have come as a great surprise. Look at these forecasts of "the generations" from E.Alan Meece's always absorbing book "Horoscope for the New Millennium". To save copy-typing I found the section of interest on this point online (link). Here are Mr Meece's relevant generational outlines for those now in their early to late 20s, and for some who are even younger, poised to add to a wave of change in coming years.

"The committed ones," 1988-1995 [now aged 21 to 28] (Generation Y-b) (Uranus conjunct Neptune in Capricorn, Pluto in Scorpio) This is a group with outstanding potential. It is a very precocious generation, but won't burn itself out in youth. They are steady, persistent, determined, ambitious and passionate. They have great talent in the arts, politics and organization, and they may be the great leaders who lay down lasting foundations for a new age of civilization. On the other hand, some might consider them too cold, calculating, rigid, worldly or obsessed with their own goals.

"The flame throwers," 1996-2003 [ now aged 13 to 20] (Generation Y-c) (Uranus in Aquarius, Neptune in late Capricorn and Aquarius, Pluto in Sagittarius) This will be a very outgoing, irrepressible, exuberant generation, quick to question authority and convention. They will be brilliant intellectuals, inventors, reformers and propagandists.

"The universal free spirits," 2003-2010[now aged just 6 to 13] (Generation Z-a) (Uranus in Pisces, Neptune in Aquarius, Pluto in Sagittarius/early Capricorn) Their successors will be similar, but more easy-going, sensitive and poetic. They will follow the paths laid down by the previous two generations, but will show greater brilliance in the imaginative arts. As the first of Generation Z, they will teach compassion for Humanity as we all reach the "omega point" of universal human awareness after 2012.
[Long after 2012 as it happens!]

A video to raise a cynical smile or two. A commenter at YouTube remarked that it is some 15 years since the video was produced, but it feels as though it could have been made last week.

The Way of Things - Cycles and Generations

Round, like a circle in a spiral
Like a wheel within a wheel.
Never ending or beginning,
On an ever spinning wheel
Like a snowball down a mountain
Or a carnaval balloon
Like a carousell that's turning
Running rings around the moon

Like a clock whose hands are sweeping
Past the minutes on it's face
And the world is like an apple
Whirling silently in space
Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind

Hear Sting sing it HERE

(Warning: Long post!)

A column titled "A New Breed, But Millennials Should Be OK" by a friend and in-law, who edits one local newspaper and writes a weekly column for another, sent me scurrying down one of the internet's numerous deep rabbit-holes, as well as into my own cavern of archives.
SNIP from his column:

We who’ve lived a few decades are told we must study and understand the Millennials; we must adapt to their unique needs.

What are those needs? Experts echo the theme Millennials are selfish and irresponsible (a generalization that’s insulting to them); and the answer to nurturing Millennials is to understand them better (a solution that’s insulting to us).

Every generation of “older folks” has the prerogative to become crotchety and play the sorrowful kids-are-going-to-Hades card. But what’s different this time is that we keep getting told we have to put up with the Millennials and their generational peccadilloes.

When the whole column becomes available at the newspaper's website I'll link to it here. I'm no expert on the fads and foibles of any generation, especially the younger ones. Even on my own, War Baby generation, I could lay no claim to expertise. We're now well past our best, sadly few and far between on the net these days...at least on that part of the net I frequent, there are some residing in corners where I refuse to wander, talking about stuff I prefer not to think about.

Any passing reader interested to see a few of my own words on generational matters: easy pickings - just click on "generations" in the cumulus that is
"Label Cloud" in the sidebar; there are several posts, 2008 on, touching on generations and generationalism.

The habit of pitching one generation against another, a game seen regularly around the internet, remains objectionable to me, another form of bigotry in fact, when taken to extremes. Stereotypes, though not without a tiny kernel of validity, can soon become toxic, like the stereotypical notions that women nag, men are henpecked, Americans are loud-mouthed egotists, Brits have bad teeth, French are cowards, Italians pinch women's bottoms...etc.etc.etc.

Vast arrays of variety exist within each generation, it's like millions of different melodies being played, but with a distinctive background "humm" going on, a "humm" peculiar and individual to each age-group - something which draws the group together, and at the same time sets them apart - yet it is only a subtle background "humm", not the melody, not the composition, not the lyrics.

Astrology understands this.

A serious study of what the generations actually do comprise is a different matter. A study either considering said "background humm", or not considering it at all, but studying how whatever the generations do comprise affects aspects of life for all of us. Even then, though, it depends which part of the world one is considering. The English speaking (or more properly English reading) internet is heavily weighted towards the USA in most things, the topic of generations follows this pattern. It's hard to find much that's specific about Britain, in this respect, though I did see a few articles on Australian generations - possibly inspired by some new book or TV programme there. How generations, say from the 18th century until now, have formed in the USA and how they have formed elsewhere in the world via background and experiences, even in the land of the USA's closest cousin, Britain, has to be so different as to possibly negate all attempts to classify. Having said that, keeping it in mind...

Studies and several books by William Strauss and Neil Howe, see Wikipedia , and Amazon are of interest.

For example, their Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069 (1992) was described by former Vice President of the USA, Al Gore as "the most stimulating book on American history he'd ever read". He even sent a copy to each member of Congress. The book is described:

William Strauss and Neil Howe posit the history of America as a succession of generational biographies, beginning in 1584 and encompassing every-one through the children of today.Their bold theory is that each generation belongs to one of four types, and that these types repeat sequentially in a fixed pattern. The vision of Generations allows us to plot a recurring cycle in American history -- a cycle of spiritual awakenings and secular crises -- from the founding colonists through the present day and well into this millennium.

In 1997 Strauss and Howe wrote The Fourth Turning. At Amazon it was described as having been heralded by reviewers as "a brilliant, if somewhat unsettling, reassessment of where America is heading".

Snip from comment at Amazon By 'Odysseus'

The basic insight in this book is a simple one: Instead of trying to build a theory of American history (as did Arthur Schlesinger) that is based on unexplained "cycles" and "swings" from liberal to conservative and back again, why not simply look at how American generations behave as they age? When you do that, as Strauss and Howe have found, you find that American generations behave with a certain consistency throughout their lives. If their formative experiences push them in a certain direction while young, they'll continue to act in that way as they get older. That is, if you understand that history is really the process of different generations moving through time, then the swings of American history no longer look so mysterious; they appear as predictable manifestations of the fact that different generations with different life experiences have risen to the foreground.

Of course, you don't want to take all of this too sweepingly, or else it starts to seem like astrology or historical biorhythms. Generations are diverse groups, and no two people within a generation are exactly alike. But there are clear trends of generational behavior, which Strauss/Howe substantiate quite well.

Of course we wouldn't want to bring astrology into it would we? Would We? TSK!

There are some long and interesting reader reviews at Amazon links. I shall press on without going into more detail about Strauss and Howe's theory; it is set out in detail and clearly enough at Wikipedia, here. Also there's a good run-down on the topic at Hub-pages HERE.

For now, keep in mind Strauss and Howe's theorised four generational cycles:
Prophet/Hero/Nomad/Artist.
Four generational archetypes that repeat sequentially, in rhythm with the cycle of Crises and Awakenings.
From the Wiki link:

....four generational archetypes that repeat sequentially, in rhythm with the cycle of Crises and Awakenings (High/Awakening/Unravelling/Crisis). In Generations, Strauss and Howe refer to these four archetypes as Idealist, Reactive, Civic, and Adaptive. In The Fourth Turning (1997) they update this terminology to Prophet, Nomad, Hero, and Artist. The generations in each archetype not only share a similar age-location in history, they also share some basic attitudes towards family, risk, culture and values, and civic engagement. In essence, generations shaped by similar early-life experiences develop similar collective personas and follow similar life-trajectories. To date, Strauss and Howe have identified 25 generations in Anglo-American history, each with a corresponding archetype

 Hat-tip Sacred Geometry Inc

Astrologers have long known some variation of Strauss and Howe's theories.

Searching for a book on this topic by an astrologer, I found Generational Patterns Using Astrology by Edwin Rose (2011), described at Amazon:

Generational Patterns Using Astrology will enable you to find your place in history. It will explain how your parent's generation is different than yours and even the differences between your parent's generational patterns. Once you see your generation's pattern in the flow of history, you will see what challenges we now face, and what part your generation's role is in all of it. Looking forward, you will see what years in the future will be key, and what opportunities (and difficulties) await us. If you have children, you will understand their generation and how it differs from yours.

I wasn't familiar with the author's name, but eventually found this at Dodona Books website:

Edwin Rose

The author taught and lectured on astrology for 35 years. During that time he studied how astrology influences people and history. He self published a 445 page book Planetary Music: Understanding Astrological Rhythms (1998) and has a website with astrological information and predictions that gets 300 hits a day -- it has been in continuous operation since 1996. For six years the author and his wife owned the metaphysical bookstore Guiding Star in Mill Valley (near San Francisco, CA) which has given him an appreciation of the astrological audience. He has worked as a software engineer and software manager for major corporations including Apple, Leapfrog, Cisco, and Autodesk -- most of his software career has been in animation, games, graphics, and TV. Edwin Rose died in 2010 shortly before his title Generational Patterns Using Astrology was published.

Three chapters of Mr Rose's book are available at Google Books - see HERE The last of the three is most relevant to this topic. I've taken the liberty of copying part of the chapter as a sample:

...The excerpt ends there.

Strauss and Howe's four cycles of generational archetypes: Prophet/Hero/Nomad/Artist have astrological cycles which could be seen as comparable. Edwin Rose mentioned the elemental cycle, and was comparing it as the excerpt ended. There's also a cycle on a more personal scale - related to the individual, the Saturn cycle of Saturn Returns which equate roughly to childhood/teenage/young adulthood/maturity. Cycles within cycles! The far outer planets, though, are the ones related to generational astrology. Mr Rose's book will explore their cycles.

Another book which touches on the generational theme astrologically, and one I already own, is Horoscope for the New Millennium by E. Alan Meece. I've mentioned it more than once in archived posts, and there's an excerpt from it relating to the generations at Wandering Star, HERE.

The burning question after stumbling through all of this has to be - "Well then, where are we now?"
It seems that using Strauss and Howe's theory we're in a period of Crisis, the most intense of the four periods. The last Crisis was World War 2, after which society underwent a drastic change. That was followed by a High period, with prosperity growing along with corporations and middle class contentment. An Awakening phase began in the 1960s, with the hippies, civil rights, etc. Then things began to unravel, slowly, during the 1980s, with the next turning point possibly being 9/11...and off we went into Crisis (again). Major change ought to be around the next corner (but, as the song goes "who knows where or when?")


(NOTE: This post did ramble on a bit. I'm not sure it said what I wanted it to say. The rabbit hole was dark and deep! Anyway, it'll stand for two days. At some point I'll get my head around a better and more concise version and re-air it. ).

Fruits of Earlier Times

I read an interesting article by Ira Chernus, at Smirking Chimp, yesterday:
When Did "the '60s" Begin?

When, exactly, did the era of radical ferment we remember as "the '60s" begin? Exactly one half-century ago, PBS tells us in its recent documentary titled "1964," kicking off a year when we'll celebrate the 50th anniversary of a host of memorable events....(which Mr Chernus lists) and goes on to say "Connect the dots, the PBS show's talking head historians all say, and you'll see a year that changed America forever. "The 60s" had begun!

There's just one problem with this story: Hardly anybody in 1964 was connecting the dots.

And later

That's what historians do: look back and see things that people at the time couldn't see. It's a job well worth doing. But it's equally important that we don't confuse the early seeds of a major political, social, and cultural change with the substance of the change itself............................

Historians face a methodological problem here. If you're going to decide that the key to understanding any historical era is to track down its roots -- as '60s scholars so often do -- where do you stop? Everything that happened in 1964 -- or any other year, for that matter -- was the fruit of things that happened earlier. It's well known by now that the roots of "the '60s" really lie in the supposedly so opposite era of "the '50s."

In fact, just out of curiosity, I took a look at the year 1950, to see whether I could build a case for it as the year "the '60s" really began. It turned out to be a quick easy job. In 1950: (he lists again)

He ends with:

For historians the conclusion is this: We absolutely should trace the sources of change as far back as we can. But we should also make a clear, careful distinction between when the earliest root of any change took hold and when that change became truly significant for society at large.

For society at large the conclusion is this: Never forget how rapidly big changes, sometimes for the better, can happen. And never forget that the sources of the next big change are already gathering all around us.

While reading the article I kept thinking of a brief archived post of mine about something an astrologer had called "culture lag". It related to another way of "connecting the dots", or sometimes forgetting to do so. Here's the post:

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.

“The seeds of the past bear fruit in the present.”
~ Patrick Rothfuss, "The Wise Man's Fear"

The illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean-tide, on which we and all the universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not.... ~Thomas Carlyle.

The Conceit of Generations

Here we go again: Millennials will save us!
Boomers, Gen Xers and pundits like Thomas Friedman have it wrong: Gen Y's pragmatic idealism can create real change. By David D. Burstein

It's been a while since I last ranted about generationism - time for a review of past thoughts and some current ideas.

Generations are yet another way of dividing the population - as if, in the USA, it's not divided enough already! There's the sharp division of left/right political opinion; racial and ethnic divisions; pro-life/pro-choice; divisions in religious beliefs......do we really need more dividing lines? Is the American mindset bent on a continuing and narcissistic generational conflict? There are serious problems to be faced, problems which affect not only the USA, but the whole planet. Infighting and self-satisfied preening is not going to help solve any of them.

"The Boomers" are the target of anger from age groups labelled Generations X and Y. I belong to none of these three generations. I'm a War Baby with Pluto in Leo (on the cusp of so-called Silent Generation). War Babies have a life memory of World War, and if born in Britain(like myself), or in mainland Europe and Asia we have uncomfortable childhood memories which vividly colour our judgement.

Generations X and Y are said to pride themselves on their wish for peace in the world. How come, then, that they are more than willing to wage war, even if it's simply a war of words, on some of the people closest to them?

The retail market panders to an emphasis on the generations - $$$$$$$$$ again. So the tendency to label generations is not going away as long as it continues to bring in more dosh! Suggested divisions become embedded in public consciousness, they grow, spread, and can develop into ugliness. There's more than enough evidence of that to be found in history.

Getting down to brass tacks (as we used to say in Yorkshire): does one generation really behave and believe differently from another? Generational generalisation is what underpins most articles on the topic. As fans of astrology know (or should) generalisation about, for instance, those born with Sun in any given zodiac sign tells us next to nothing. Yet decades of stereotyping would have us herded: "He's a Leo, she's a Scorpio" etc. Same thing for generational labels: "He's Generation X, she's a Millennial". Labelling is lazy, misleading and generally unhelpful.

Astrologers believe that the three slow-moving outer planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto can act as generational "markers", yet these planets have little individual personal importance unless one or more of them is closely tied to a personal planet or point in the natal chart. The three outer planets tend to set an "atmosphere" in the world at large, depending on their transiting positions in the zodiac and relationship to one another, and perhaps to the slower of the inner planets, Saturn, Jupiter. Inasmuch as any group of people born into a certain outer planetary "atmosphere" and in the same part of the world, will have similar experiences because of that "atmosphere", this is likely to shape their outlook as they mature. There could possibly be some definable generational characteristic common to such a group, but it will be heavily modified by individual natal chart, family background and personal experiences.

There are non-astrological factors to take into consideration. A fact pointed out by a commenter, to the article linked at the top of this post, that in the USA - and elsewhere to some extent - in the 1960s/70s there was a "glut" of young people ("Boomers") brought about by the raised birth rate following the end of World War 2. So the 60s and 70s brought changes reflecting the virtues and vices of youth, dynamic and unsophisticated in style. Whereas the generation known as Millennials have lived within a society with a higher proportion of older people. Whether that is particularly relevant I'm not certain, but it's something I hadn't considered.

Much adolescent schoolyard nonsense is tossed around about differences in the generations. The Baby Boomer is most often under attack. In common with every generation since the dawn of time, there are good, bad and indifferent among that labelled group. As a generation their contributions have both helped and hindered, as will the contributions of Generations X, Y and Z, and those who will come after.

"I suppose every generation has a conceit of itself which elevates it, in its own opinion, above that which comes after it." ("The Open Door")”― Margaret Oliphant, The Gentlewomen of Evil. (I'd add "or that which went before it!")

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.

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT ~ Generations again.

Following last Tuesday's post on generational conflict, a friend and relative pointed me towards an article at the Pew Research Center website: "Forty Years After Woodstock, A Gentler Generation Gap" by Paul Taylor and Richard Morin, published in August. The main thrust of the research piece was to trace musical taste, but results touch on many different social aspects too.

Pew's findings are interesting, though some of the musical results seem obvious enough not to require anybody going to the trouble of conducting a survey. In a way, although the survey's findings are more optimistic than the impression I had formed from articles and comments elsewhere, I can't help wishing that this very idea of investigating differences would just go away, and start being thought as totally irrelevant to anything.

It is relevant to marketing of course, so it won't go away. That is a pity, because every division embedded into our consciousness, however minor it may seem, can grow and spread, and develop into ugliness. There's more than enough evidence of that in history.


I keep hearing, at the back of my mind, words of one of America's past presidents: "Tear down this wall!" It must be the Aquarius in us both coming to the surface. (Winks and exits.)

Generational Warfare

A post at Global Astrology Blog last Saturday, "Banks, Baby Boomers & Generational War" brought to mind a couple of my own on a similar topic, but from a very different standpoint. (See here and here.) The Global Astrology piece, and pieces linked within it, are interesting but disturbing.

Generations are but another way of dividing the population of the USA - as if it's not divided enough already! We have the sharp division of left/right political opinion; racial and ethnic divisions; pro-life/pro-choice; divisions of religious beliefs......do we really need another dividing line? Actually, getting right down to it, generations provide several different dividing lines, none of them pretty and none of them useful except perhaps for the purposes of astrological research.

If the young American mindset is bent on the kind of generational gang warfare reflected in some blogs and articles around the internet, what hope can there ever be for a peaceful future? There are serious problems to be faced now, problems which affect not only the USA, but the whole planet. Infighting is not going to help solve any of them.

What's done is done. Arguing about whether it was right, wrong or a mixture of both, and by whom it was done, isn't going to change anything. Things are as they are. If future generations are to have a planet to inhabit, cooperation ought to be the keyword now, not recrimination.

"The Boomers" are the target of anger from age groups labelled Generations X and Y. I belong to none of these three generations. I'm a War Baby. I have first house Pluto at 0 degree Leo. At present transiting Pluto forms a scratchy qunincunx aspect to its natal position in my chart. This is no doubt reflected in my own "scratchiness" on this topic. War Babies have a life memory of World War, and many of us born in Britain(like myself), or in mainland Europe and Asia have uncomfortable childhood memories which vividly colour our judgement.

Generations X and Y are said to pride themselves on their wish for peace in the world. How come, then, that they are more than willing to wage war, even if it's simply a war of words, on some of the people closest to them?

Generation Gap: A chasm, amorphously situated in time and space, that separates those who have grown up absurd from those who will, with luck, grow up absurd. ~Bernard Rosenberg, Dictionary for the Disenchanted, 1972

Wednesday's "Why?" ~ The Generations

Why are the generations suddenly squaring up against each other, blaming and being blamed? Two things bother me about frequent discussion on the generational characteristics of Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y (also known as Millennials).

One: Both astrologically and in general terms almost every article I've read on the subject relates to America. I wonder whether astrological research has been conducted on generational differences in other countries and continents. Astrology happens worldwide, unlike political and environmental issues. If generational differences are led by the movement of outer planets they should be identifiable globally.

Two: The old problem: which came first, the hen or the egg? Do generational planets (Uranus, Neptune, Pluto) mainly reflect/affect mundane matters? If so, over time, culture would change. There would be a knock-on effect for the young and impressionable during the years in question. Or do the outer planets, when prominent by position, conjunction or aspect in a natal chart, affect the individual? If so, a significant number (but not all) of kids born within a certain time-span would have similar traits, and would effect changes in culture as they matured.

There's a third question too: isn't this simply useful and convenient subject matter, ripe for exaggeration by journalists, astrologers and conversationalists? It seemed anomalous to me to read recently a writer proclaiming that his or her own generation is less likely to see race and sexual orientation as dividing factors. That writer then merrily proceeded to divide the population into sub-groups using different, but equally damaging divisors: the generations! Ironic!

"The Boomers left a mess - we must clear it up, or reap the consquences" is a popular cry of writers from later generations. But that is not an accurate assessment. "The Boomers" may have formed a part of the population who brought about the "mess". Logic dictates that all work forces, governments, corporations, think-tanks, committees are composed of a variety of age groups. That complaint doesn't hold water! In any case, if you do decide to accept that argument against Boomers, you have also to accept that they made possible much of the technology later generations now enjoy. And that in turn was made possible by progress in the previous generation. It's evolutionary!

Each generation of 20 to 30 years will encompass billions of people, worldwide. Each individual has a unique birth chart. Totally unique. The way each individual reacts to outside simuli is going to be subtly different. Within a generation the only true common denominator is the state of the outside world in any given country. The state of youth's environment will affect the way youth grows. Astrology will provide input in the way youth reacts. No two individuals will be alike, or react in the same way.

I fee uneasy about the way generations are being set one against another. It's unnecessary. We should be striving to overcome divisions.

Mini-rants: Generationism & Re-makes.

Mini-rant # 1: Erm.....how is it that journalists, authors and politicians are quite happy to define traits of generations, "Baby Boomers" is a popular example, yet decry astrology as superstition or nonsense? Any definition of traits found within a generation of people living in the same general background - in this case a developed country in the West, has to be giving a nod, albeit inadvertently, to astrology. Yes? The outer planets define generations as they move very slowly and gracefully around the zodiac. The mix they provide and how they relate to one another, and the charts of individuals is significant.

Having said that, I am bored, irritated and sick of hearing about how Generation X will do so much better than those terrible Boomers. And what a good thing they are all becoming aged, and good for naught, but they'll drain the Social Security coffers and there'll be nothing left for "us". I don't have an axe to grind here because I'm a War Baby from war-torn Britain, and answer to neither the Silent Generation nor the Boomers. I feel bad though about the adolescent schoolyard nonsense being tossed around about The Boomers. In common with every generation since the dawn of time, there are good, bad and indifferent among them, and as a generation they did stuff which has both helped and hindered, as will Generations X, Y and Z, and whoever comes after.

As most of the relevant offending writings originate in the USA, I look on it as just another way to divide the country, a nation already clearly divided by race, colour, politics, religion. As I've said before on this blog, America has in inbuilt propensity to divide itself. For goodness sake, please not another national division - generationism!


Mini-rant # 2

It'd be unthinkable to take a natal chart and play around with the outer planets.
That thought leads on to another. Why do movie-makers insist on re-making classics? I've probably whinged about this before on my blog, but it's a constant irritant! Now they've re-made "The Day the Earth Stood Still." Yes, I know all the arguments about bringing movies up to date for the younger generation. And I guess that, especially in the case of sci-fi movies, there's a case to be made because today's technology allows for surreal scenes, not available to earlier film-makers. The trouble is, with the extra bells and whistles added, the original intent of the movie can get lost. They wouldn't, I hope, try to re-do works of art such as The Mona Lisa, or the Birth of Venus, just because Photoshop offers opportunity for some interesting additions.

Why can't a young audience be educated to appreciate the original version of a movie, and the atmosphere of its time - which is actually a large part of the plot. You can't lift something out of its original setting without losing something - without losing a lot. It's rather like taking a natal chart and moving the outer planets around into different positions ! A whole different animal would emerge.

The movie medium is supposed to be filled with the cream of our creative individuals, it's a shame they so often choose to re-create rather than create.

End of rants.