Pluto-in-Virgo Generation: Transforming the Work Environment

Back in the day (i.e., December 1999), I published my first astrology article, "The Astrology of Generation X," in Dell Horoscope. That month, I regularly walked to my friendly neighborhood news stand, Gem Spa, which also made the best egg creams in New York City, to see my name featured on Dell Horoscope's final cover of the twentieth century. I was 29 years old and had every reason to believe that I was on the verge, that my thirties in the "aughts" (as I somewhat pretentiously referred to the '00s) would bring me over the threshold. To be sure, my upcoming Saturn Return chart looked ominous, with a pileup of planets in Taurus squaring Uranus in Aquarius. Yet I was still hopeful. It helped that the magazine almost immediately accepted another article and that I landed my first telecommuting job that winter (organizing a database for an online business dictionary), which necessitated my first desktop (a Compaq) with internet capability. To be sure, it was a gig (meaning the hours were just shy of making me eligible for benefits), but the hourly wage was decent, and my landlords at that time were my parents. The ruler of my 6th house, Uranus, was in my 1st house, so I was born to be my own boss, to freelance. If I was a patchwork worker, I figured I could cover myself enough to have a patchwork blanket.

In that first article, I wrote that the Pluto-in-Virgo group, born between 1956-57 and 1971-72, may have "bad job karma." This was in part a reaction to what the early Gen-Xers (and late Boomers) experienced in the workplace during the 1990s, trailing the Pluto-in-Leo mainline Boomers like Cinderella picking up after her diva stepsisters: we were either snubbed or bullied. The media painted us as apathetic slackers or stupid jocks; the smarter ones were nerds before geek was chic.

As the "aughts" wore on, however, the slacker image wore out like an artfully ripped flannel shirt. Pluto-in-Virgo workers got busy as transiting Pluto burned through Sagittarius. By the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century, with Pluto entering Capricorn, the so-called Great Recession hit the United States, and most downsized Pluto-in-Virgo individuals had the misfortune of being on the wrong side of forty while also being left out of the fledgling Boomer-Millennial debate/pity party/pissing contest. Virtually every industry was cut to the bone; it was a "jobless recovery" that mainly benefited corporations and banks (Pluto in Capricorn) as well as people who were already rich (the so-called 1 percent). Freelancing and gig work became more common, with many people having to cobble two or three jobs together just to survive. (The only reason I was able to stay afloat as a freelancer in publishing for as long as I did was because I had worked "in house" for a few years.) Now, with the Covid-19 pandemic leading to unemployment levels in the United States not seen since the Great Depression, it will fall to the Pluto-in-Virgo group to transform the work environment.

It will be a tough task, as the Pluto-in-Leo generation isn't going anywhere, and they are far more likely to be at the top of the pyramid in terms of position and power. But in the decade leading up to this global health crisis, the younger Millennial generation (born with Pluto in Scorpio and Sagittarius) has been far more likely than their Boomer bosses to view white-collar office or "knowledge" work more as a thing than a place, thanks to the technological advances that occurred during Uranus and Neptune transiting Aquarius, from the World Wide Web and Windows 95 through smartphones. It is therefore up to the Pluto-in-Virgo group to transform the work environment, even if it means jamming the gears with our bodies.

For office workers, this will entail Pluto-in-Virgo managers convincing Boomer top dogs that health concerns (Virgo) matter more than face time and that actual productivity (Virgo again) matters more than the appearance of busyness. As all 50 states have reopened in varying degrees for business despite the warnings of epidemiologists, this is the optimal time to jettison the one-size-fits-all approach to work in favor of flexible arrangements that will suit everyone's different and often unexpected needs, including the most control-freaky Pluto-in-Leo bosses (when they consider how much money they will save on office space while still being able to monitor their employees' output via tracking software). The "essential" workers in the service industry who are grossly underpaid while risking their health face an even tougher battle for a living wage plus sick live, as well as the millions of Americans who will remain unemployed and, consequently, uninsured and at risk for all sorts of health issues, including malnutrition. I am hoping against hope that some Pluto-in-Virgo individuals will come out of the woodwork to engineer a pragmatic (Virgo) plan (Virgo again) that will clean up (yep, Virgo once again) the mess we are in.

At its worst, Virgo is myopic and pays so much attention to detail that it can't see the forest for the trees, but at its best, there is a purity of purpose that cares more about what works and less about ideology. It is worth noting that the US natal chart has Neptune in Virgo square Mars in Gemini, which can lead to poor judgment as well as erratic energy, lies, and scandal. Transiting Neptune in Pisces is within range of opposing America's Neptune, and in part this is manifesting as the United States being #1 in infections and deaths from a pandemic.

Pluto has an extreme nature; it transforms or kills all matters relating to the sign it transits. The "tune in, turn on, drop out" credo of the late 1960s was born during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in Virgo. Divorce peaked with Pluto transiting the marriage sign of Libra, while AIDS peaked during the Pluto in Scorpio transit, effectively ending the sexual revolution. Organized religion, higher education, travel, and zealots were all spotlighted during Pluto's transit of Sagittarius (9/11 occurred on the heels of the Saturn-Pluto opposition). Now, with Pluto in the last decanate of Capricorn, edging up to the US's Pluto's Return, individuals born between 1969 and 1972 are best positioned to work with this often frightening, harsh energy. Since Virgo excels at finding the perfect words for each situation, perhaps it is time to come up with 95 memes for a new reformation.

She's Leaving Home, Bye-Bye (Remembering When)

Today is the 18th anniversary of the first time I left New York City for Another Place: an island that was an extinct volcano, a little-known dot in the Dutch West Indies. Most of my mail was forwarded to Holland.

I had nearly moved to Berlin to be with a not-so-old flame, then chickened out for a few reasons that still make sense to me nearly two decades later, and other reasons that do not. With Sagittarius at my IC, and its ruler, Jupiter, sextile the IC, I could have predicted that I would move far away. However, Pluto exactly square the IC from the Ascendant complicates things. I can run, but Pluto has always pulled me back.

I did not move away because of 9/11, which had happened eight months earlier. I moved to that specific place for all the wrong reasons. I did paint some nice watercolors that the local gallery accepted. (Big fish, little pond.) Two years later, I would joke to my new friends that it took moving out of the country to get me from Manhattan to Brooklyn, which was just beginning its long run as the epicenter of hipsterdom. I would joke about how it was probably the only island on the planet that lacked a beach. I would joke about the two Dutch families that basically owned the island and must have inbred for several generations to ensure their whiteness. Most of the so-called islanders fled for other, slightly more happening islands such as St. Kitts and St. Maarten. There was a second-rate medical school on the island for first-rate students from impoverished countries and third-rate Americans who could not gain admittance to a US medical school. The only fresh produce on the island were mangoes. I would fly to St. Maarten for a day, go to the French side for the beach and shops in Marigot, and pack my rolling suitcase with roast chickens, croissants, a baguette, cheese, and chocolate.

Fifteen years later, I left my fourth apartment in Brooklyn for a basement in New Jersey for all the right reasons. I thought I was going to land in Philadelphia. Two months later, I was back, having secured the ultimate brass ring: a salaried position that paid a living wage. I joked to my few remaining friends that it took leaving the state of New York for me to move from Brooklyn to Queens. Unfortunately, Pluto opposed my natal Sun five times between early 2018 and late 2019, so I paid a heavy price for my financial autonomy: a workplace so unbelievably dysfunctional it could have been the focus of a reality TV show.

There have been more years than not that I have forgotten this day in my personal history. This year, I guess I was destined to remember because I have been fantasizing once again about leaving New York, where I was born and where I finally grew up. It would not be because of COVID-19, but because I have not been able to truly enjoy the city since returning to it on my own terms in the fall of 2017. The city I truly miss was the city of 1998 to 2009. Far too much about me is different now to recapture that decade, and far too much about the city has changed, as well. That is the thing about New York: it keeps changing, both for better and worse. Now that spring is finally here, New Yorkers in my neighborhood are emerging from their apartments after nearly three months of mostly staying in: restless, some masked, as many not, some social distancing, as many not, counting down for the reopening to commence. I am restless, too, but not to go back to the way things were.

I realize there is very little in the way of astrology about this post. I guess I thought back in 2002 that with the Sun trining my Pluto and Ascendant that day, I would land on my feet once the prop plane landed on the shortest commercial runway in the world. Instead, I realized almost immediately (with the Sun inconjunct my Jupiter) what a mistake I had made. I never bothered to fully unpack. But then, that is true of every single place I have lived. Too much stuff (Cancer stellium), too little space (city apartments do not come with attics or basements), too much restlessness (Sagittarius IC).

Perhaps transiting Pluto trine my Pluto will help me find my true home. Pluto turned retrograde about 10' shy of the exact trine this spring, so I guess I will have to wait a while. In the meantime, I will try to be better about living in the moment, as strange as this time has been.

When Predictive Astrology Fails and Why It Is Not Proof that Astrology Is Fake

I am not familiar with the astrologer Susan Miller, but apparently, according to a recent article in the New York Times ("Will Coranavirus Kill Astrology?" by Hayley Phelan, 5/9/20), she predicted in January that 2020 was going to be a wonderful year.

Cue mic crash

Oy. Ms. Miller later recanted this prediction on her website in mid-March, when COVID-19 was slamming into New York, her city of residence; this appeased her many disillusioned fans. She held Pluto responsible (a safe gambit, since Pluto is the OG badass of our solar system) and spoke of the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction that was also in effect during the Spanish Influence pandemic of 1918. She also predicted a second wave that would occur this fall and dissipate by mid-December. Her rationale? That with Jupiter and Pluto parting ways by the end of this year, the pandemic would depart for good.

Personally, I disagree with her assessment, as it was precisely with Saturn at the end of Capricorn and the beginning of Aquarius that the tipping point was reached, with much of the world being placed in lockdown mode. We have not even finished with the so-called first wave in most of America. We are learning more about the nature of the virus, but at this point we can't say for sure that antibodies constitute immunity, and that a vaccine or cure is just a matter of when, not if. Many states are currently reopening even as public health officials say that it is still too soon. And with the seemingly far-off Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 0 Aquarius on the heels of the Winter Solstice, social (or, more accurately, physical) distancing will expand to the point of being normalized during the holiday season. Zoom and other virtual hangout platforms may very well recede when Saturn retrogrades back into Capricorn this summer, but they will return (with added features, perhaps Smell-O-Vision?) with Saturn once again in Aquarius.

Yet even if it turns out that Ms. Miller is correct, in which case I would be very glad to have been incorrect, the point I wish to make here is that it is very risky to be in the predictive astrology business. For even if an astrologer is uncannily accurate in predicting widespread societal events, these events will still affect individuals differently. Not everyone who contracts COVID-19 will die of it or even feel ill; not every person who then catches the virus from the first person will croak or experience symptoms, and so on. Not every person will lose his or her livelihood during the Great Depression II. Not every person will even know someone personally who died of the virus or who became unemployed. Certain individuals, as hard as it may be to fathom, will actually thrive this year by falling in love, or by figuring out how to live their best possible lives when lockdown lifts. Such individuals could have many natal planets forming a trine or sextile aspect to the dreaded Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions of 2020. Many more individuals will experience both harmonious and challenging aspects to Saturn-Pluto and Jupiter-Pluto conjunctions, so there will be something to cushion the worst-case scenario.

The thing about Capricorn and its ruling planet Saturn is that it is empirical, oriented toward the material world. It is a quantitative sign more comfortable dealing with the five senses than with mystical, airy-fairy mumbo-jumbo. As a Cardinal earth sign, Capricorn is far more at home with doing than with being. It would be unfair to say that Capricorn/Saturn has no inner life, but it would be fair to say that Capricorn/Saturn tends to look to the things of the outer world to define its inner core. So during this Capricorn-oriented time, it is more likely that astrologers, who are after all just people, are tempted to make outer-world predictions rather than inner-world predictions that will be invisible to almost everyone except to the person experiencing a profound psychological shift.

I cannot promise that I will shy away from predictions made by looking at planetary transits this year, but I do promise to study even more closely individuals' progressions, when everything unfolds in its own time. Even for those of us who have been home for the past several weeks, we do not live in a vacuum, but your own cosmic blueprint aka natal chart is something that no pandemic, political unrest, or economic collapse can take away from you.

Astrology in the Time of COVID-19

(image credit: Dark Star Astrology)

So much has already been written about and discussed by astrologers about the pandemic known as COVID-19, I do not simply want to regurgitate all of what is by now common knowledge (i.e., the Saturn-Pluto conjunction that occurred this January during a Capricorn stellium comprising the Sun, Ceres, Saturn, Pluto, and Mercury) almost two months after this particular coronovirus was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Yet I do feel that there is much to add that I hope will serve the purpose of helping all those who find this article or have discovered my newly revived astrology blog. I am not here to offer false hope, empty platitudes, or unwarranted fear, but to call it as I see it. And back in the day, I did see January 2020 as kicking off a potential apocalypse (which literally means to uncover or reveal), possibly World War III. Two clients of mine recently remembered that I'd predicted this, though during the era of the Uranus-Pluto square (2012-15), it was hard to believe that things could get even worse.

Although COVID-19 first showed up in late 2019 (hence the "-19" appended to the shortened form of "coronavirus"), China publicly shared the the genome of this virus on January 12, 2020: the very day that the Saturn-Pluto conjunction was exact. Interestingly, the Moon was in Leo, the sign of royalty, and "corona" refers to the virus's crownlike spikes. Its "novel" nature does not refer to a long work of fiction but to its being a new strain for humans, yet on the day that its genetic coding was made available, the planetoid Chiron, the Wounded Healer, was in the first degree of Aries (which happens to be the first sign and "newborn" of the zodiac). Even now, many people believe that COVID-19 is a hoax or just another flu (which itself is a remnant of our last pandemic of 1918).

Just as COVID-19's very existence or seriousness has been up for debate, so has its origins. What is apparent to me is that large and/or exotic animals were involved (Mars in Sagittarius making a wide but approaching square to Neptune in Pisces). Certainly, the so-called wet markets in China, where live and dead animals coexist, have been scrutinized. Mars in Sagittarius also points to international travel being a crucial factor.

I am writing this from my apartment in New York City, which until very recently was the epicenter of the pandemic, when New Jersey overtook New York in terms of new cases. However, even though new cases and deaths have steeply declined in New York since its peak in early April (just past the Full Moon, with the Moon in Scorpio), the city remains locked down as other states are opening up, as well as previously ravaged European countries such as Italy and Spain. It was clear to me last month, which featured the steepest rise in unemployment in history, the combination of a president who is essentially a failed businessman egging on protesters desperate to get back to work (because the United States is the only first-world country that lacks universal healthcare, mandatory paid sick leave, and government assistance) would lead to an increase in illness and death. A public health emergency should not be politicized or used as a weapon against individuals in the name of big business, yet with a Capricorn stellium in its genome chart, this is exactly what we are seeing, along with the reality that so many US workers deemed "essential" are risking their health for peanuts (or peanut butter).

The United States is two years away from its first Pluto Return, yet the most unlovely, cruel features of Pluto in Capricorn (e.g., corporations and "too big to fail" businesses and banks valued over people, abusive authority figures, autocracy, dictatorships, rampant materialism, extreme greed, the gap between the haves and have-nots grown to the size of the Grand Canyon) that have been increasing since 2008 have been exposed to the light, thanks to the COVID-19 genome's Sun conjunct the Saturn-Pluto conjunction. This pandemic has revealed the rot (Pluto) within the foundation (Capricorn) that, under the current US administration, is essentially forcing everyone who lives here to fend for themselves. Science (represented by Venus at 28 Aquarius) is unaspected in COVID-19's genome chart, but interestingly, it was after Mercury turned direct on that Venus during the second week of March that the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Indeed, the astrological culprit responsible for the delay, secrecy, and denial concerning COVID-19 was Mercury, which turned retrograde in Pisces, the sign of its detriment, in mid-February. Three precious weeks were lost that could've been used for tracing and testing. It is true that not all leaders and governments handled the growing crisis in the same way, but certainly, it was not handled well in the United States. With the Centers for Disease Control defunded and providing faulty tests (unlike the diagnostics created by WHO), and with the president claiming back in March that he was not responsible for dealing with COVID-19 and favoring his own hunches over science, favoring red states over blue for needed supplies, essentially pitting states against one another and constituents against their governors, it is no surprise to me that the United States' patchwork approach is going to lead to even more devastation, or that the administration is apparently okay with millions of Americans dying until (or unless) there is a cure or a vaccine -- that this is the price of getting back to business. What does give me pause is that many Americans themselves see COVID-19 as "only" killing the elderly (symbolized by Capricorn) or people with compromised immune systems and/or preexisting conditions including diabetes and high blood pressure, and so to hell with them: it's time for the relatively young and fit to suck it up and make like the lord of the flies. Another frightening factor is that the Far Right and its followers are behaving like a death cult.

What gives me comfort is the knowledge that there are also people all over the world who look upon this time-out as a wake-up call to change their lives at a very deep-rooted level (Pluto in Capricorn) and also try to save the planet we call home (which, since its name is Earth, especially resonates with the earth signs Taurus, Virgo, and yes, Capricorn) and build a better world before it really is too late. I myself feel that the best aspect of this pandemic has been having more time to think instead of sleepwalking through life feeling increasingly numb, and that "getting back to normal" would be a tragic missed opportunity for all of us to fix some longstanding personal mistakes and, as much as it is in our power to do so, societal mistakes.

Mars in Pisces is a difficult placement, and I predict that the coming transit of Mars in Pisces (May 13 - June 28) combined with a retrograde Venus in Gemini will be a challenge to many people's health, particularly involving the lungs, arms, and hands. It may also be a period when those who have ostensibly recovered from COVID-19 find that the illness has left permanent damage.

This summer will be marked by Saturn returning to Capricorn after spending three months in Aquarius, as well as Mars in Aries. This will be a period where "getting back to normal" by "getting back to business" (Saturn in Capricorn) will take precedence over the so-called social distancing that has thus far been the hallmark of Saturn in Aquarius, and there will also be increased violence with Mars in Aries that could result, by the time of the Mars-Saturn square on August 24, in martial law.

I have been asked by some of my astrology students and clients if I see a second wave of COVID-19 later this year. Although I am concerned that Saturn back in late Capricorn from July until mid-December could put us back where we started this past winter, resulting in another mass lock down as Saturn moves back into Aquarius, what concerns me more is that in the United States, the first wave has not yet peaked when you take New York City out of the equation.

Hope this has given you some food for thought. I shall write more about the astrology of COVID-19 and other matters, but if you are interested in joining my weekly astrology classes on Zoom, please contact me with your email address. I am also available for private consultation.