In Between Generations

These days there is a lot of talk about generations. You hear about the Baby Boom generation, Generation X and the Millennials. Astrology has its own way of measuring generations. It typically involves the sign placements of Pluto and Neptune. Astrologers will talk about the Neptune in Capricorn generation, or the Pluto is Scorpio generation, or the generation born withNeptune in Capricorn and Pluto in Scorpio born between 1984 and 1996, which roughly corresponds with the Millennial generation.

The problem with using the transits of these slow-moving out planets to measure generation is that the planets don’t change signs at the same time. For the Millennial generation, for example, Pluto was in Scorpio between 1983 and 1995 while Neptune was in Capricorn between 1984 and 1997. This means that there was a short period before the Millennial generation started and after it ended that was sort of in between. I call these in between periods generational seams.

People born in the midst of one of these generational seams is caught between two generations. If you were born 1983 with Pluto in Scorpio and Neptune in Sagittarius your are not exactly in the Millennial generation, or the Gen X group that came before. You are part of mini-generation that is occupies both, and the same time, neither space.

Some of these generational seams are bigger than other. For example, at the end of the generation born between 1928 and 1938, (corresponding with the so-called Silent Generation) and the first wave of the Baby Boom generation, born between 1942 and 1956, there was a seam of four years. People born during this period were not really part of the Silent Generation, noted for its adherence to convention and resistance to social change. Nor were they really part of the first wave of the Boomer generation, known for its idealism and self-important determination to “save the world.”They were in between.

What’s interesting, however, is that when we look at the people born within this generational seam, with Pluto in Leo (Boomer) and Neptune in Virgo (Silent) we find a lot of amazing people. This includes four men who would change the course of popular music for the Boomer generation: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, and Bob Dylan. Along with Carole King, who was also born during this period, these musicians essentially wrote the song track of the 1960s and 70s.

It isn’t just music that came out of the generational seam. Also in this group we have extremely influential people like Muhammed Ali and Martha Stewart. We have three extremely powerful politicians as well: Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Bernie Sanders. Even though this in-between, mini-generation only lasted four years, its impact on our culture and history has been tremendous.

This might not be an aberration. The one year seam between the second wave Baby Boomers and Generation X in 1971(with Pluto in Virgo and Neptune in Sagittarius)  gave us Elon Musk, Julian Assange and Tupac Shakur. The influence that these people have in their respective fields is still playing out, but the potential is great.

So, if you happen to have been born during one of these generational seam periods, like in1983 (with Pluto in Scorpio and Neptune in Sagittarius) or 1996 or 97 (with Neptune in Capricorn and Pluto in Sagittarius) you haven't fallen between the generational cracks. You are just part of a powerful mini-generation that may be destined to someday show the big boys how it’s done.