Fresh Garbage: Unprocessed Cosmic Energy from Outer Planet Transits—The Pluto-Uranus Conjunction

In Spirit’s 1968 song, Fresh Garbage, they ask us to look at the things that we didn’t totally consume.  One interpretation of this song (to be found in my upcoming book, The Pouring, or How the Universal Mind Reached Out to a Generation: a Commentary on the Counterculture Lyrics of the Sixties) warns against letting our subconscious become a dumping ground for unprocessed negativity.  Our fresh psychological garbage also pollutes the world around us making it a more negative and dysfunctional environment.

As Richard Tarnas tells us, outer planet hard aspects—particularly conjunctions—can unleash tremendous amounts of psychic energy.  Individual consciousness is, of course, the primary locus for this energy.  However, this energy also exists in the collective consciousness and in the collective unconscious, from where one can say that it is distributed to our individual psyches.  Some psyches are more receptive to this energy than others. 

We can view this receptivity as existing in two dimensions.  One dimension is that of acceptance—to what degree does the individual recognize, accept and incorporate the cosmic purpose symbolized by the astrological configuration?  A second dimension is that of intensity—how aware is the individual of the psychic energy associated with the astrological configuration; how strongly is that energy felt?

Receptivity (or lack thereof) at the lower end of the continuum of each dimension will generally result in unprocessed psychic energy—the equivalent of fresh garbage.  If there is a lack of acceptance, resistance occurs prompted by rejection of the cosmic purpose.  When the individual resists the psychic energy, we actively fail to process the psychic content—tossing out the cosmic purpose as metaphorical trash.  If there is lack of awareness of the psychic energy, then there is no chance to process it or, rather, the energy gets processed subconsciously and, because it is not brought to consciousness, incompletely, generating “psychic garbage.”

Each of these failures of receptivity have societal consequences.  When the cosmic purpose symbolized by the astrological occurrence is rejected, forces are marshalled to actively oppose those forces that are working to fulfill the cosmic purpose.  This results in conflict, oppression, and sometimes even persecution.  It also often leads to a concentration of power and the ascendancy of reactionary forces and institutions.  A response to those reactionary forces can be defiance, rebellion and even revolution.  Crusading can be a response from both sides. 

When the astrological cosmic purpose is unrecognized or ignored, such ignorance becomes a breeding ground for psychological and social manipulation.  The unprocessed psychic energy is easily transformed into phantoms.  Bogeymen conjured by those who are actively opposing (or in some cases promoting) the transformative forces symbolized by the planetary configuration are accepted as real.  Because the cosmic purpose of the planetary configuration is not understood and, hence, is viewed as an unknown, those who have not acknowledged this psychic energy can instinctively react against the manifestations of this energy.  Furthermore, their opposition to the astrological cosmic purpose will tend to be subconscious and irrational.  Thus, they are predisposed and unconsciously motivated to not only not participate in the cosmic purpose but to condemn its manifestations and those who are working to advance this purpose.

There are several constructs that can be brought to bear to explain the dynamics of progressive and reactionary forces in social conflict.  These include the motivation of competition for power and authority, the drive to acquire or preserve economic advantage and power, class struggle, racism, and the inherent fear of change.  I choose, however, to use a metaphysical construct to explain these dynamics and the reason for unprocessed psychic energy. 

Before presenting this construct, I must emphasize that it is a mental construct and, therefore, inherently imperfect and incomplete—and ultimately untrue, for the Truth cannot be comprehended by the mind.  Yet, such constructs must function for us to gain some understanding of the cosmic dynamics in play.  Therefore, I present this as a framework of reference that is at least as valid as any other frame of reference and, hopefully, quite useful.

Simply put, we acknowledge a radical monotheism—that “God is One without another” means that there is only the One Existent.  Given this, the individual self must be seen as a precipitation or a particle of the One, ultimately inseparable in essence from the One.  Whether this individual self has any reality we will not attempt to solve but it is clear that the self has no reality apart from the One.  When the self believes in its own separate existence, this is what is known as ego.

Ego, therefore, is an illusion, or unreality.  At some point, we assume that ego was/is a necessary illusion in order for a Creation to exist.  In order for there to be a subject whose object is a manifest creation, there must be the illusion of separation between subject and object.  Even (at some stage, at least) for there to be a being capable of conceiving/worshipping/loving/knowing the Divine, there must be some type of separation into I and Thou.  Thus, it can be said that “after” the creation of individual self(ves) by the One, we were given the covering of ego, the illusion of separation, as we descended into lower realms of consciousness.

However, the ego is problematic (listen to The Bee Gees early song, I Started a Joke, which I also discuss in my upcoming book, The Pouring).  Among a host of problems is that the self inherently knows that the ego is not real, because ultimately the self is the Self, the One, and there is no separation in Reality.  However, once the ego realizes that it is not real, the “Game” of Creation is spoiled (even if we intellectually know that the ego is not real, our behavior typically shows that the ego has not fully realized this truth, so we go on playing the Game despite ourselves).

The mind (which can be said to have been created in order to perpetuate the illusion of the ego’s separateness) is constantly vigilant to protect the ego against the self-knowledge of its own non-existence.  The Mind (or Universal Mind, of which the personal mind is an agent) has created massive and complex defenses surrounding the ego.  This may be compared to a series of fortifications within fortifications within fortifications ad infinitum.  These defenses effectively constitute our experience of the world—an experience of ego-existence.

Paradoxically, at the same time that the Mind is defending the ego against the knowledge of its own illusoriness, there is a pull coming from or through Universal Mind for the self to return to a state of Unity.  It can be said that the Mind, too, is tired of this cosmic Game but is incapable of ending it.  Or, it can be said that the Spirit wishes to recall the soul (the pure self, or Their particularized attention) back to Themself and uses the Mind as a necessary vehicle to fulfill this purpose.

All this brings us to establish the construct through which we will view the dynamic of the psychic energy associated with outer planetary configurations.  This construct is that there are two opposing forces acting upon the consciousness (soul).  One is the force that is pulling the soul towards Return, toward a reabsorption into the One.  The other is the force that is perpetuating the illusion of the separate self, the ego.  Within this construct, we can view the task of the force of Return as the dismantling of the defenses of the ego, the freeing of the self from their attachment to Illusion, and the elevation of consciousness to progressively higher levels.  The task of the opposing force is to continue to protect the ego, to resist the force of Return, and to further embroil the ego in attachment to Illusion.

Viewed through this lens, each of the outer planets symbolizes a transformative force acting to liberate the self from the bonds of the ego plus a counter force acting to enslave the self to the ego and entrap the soul even more completely within the boundaries of the material world and consensual reality—the perception that the world of sense experience constitutes reality.  The interplay between these two diametric forces creates a third dynamic—one which incorporates elements of both the pull toward the Divine and the pull toward the mundane.  In this third dynamic, the transformative force is sublimated (or diverted) into activity that relieves the psychological pressure on the soul to escape the material world and on the ego to self-destruct.  At the same time, this sublimation of the transformative force can be seen as a positive evolution of the self and a step toward its liberation from the ego.

Thus, we can look at the “effects” of the outer planets—especially when their energies combine through conjunction or hard aspect—as manifesting in three basic phenomena.  These are: transformation, resistance and positive sublimation.  We qualify the latter with the term “positive” because resistance often takes the form of negative sublimation, or diversion into dysfunctional or self-destructive activities.  In this article, we will explore these three “effects” by examining the dynamics associated with Uranus-Pluto contacts—focusing on the conjunction of the mid-sixties and the square of the 2010s.

Richard Tarnas in his book, Cosmos and Psyche, explores deeply the Uranus-Pluto dynamic as it occurs in history.  He identifies two archetypal energy flows.  One is from Uranus to Pluto, in which the revolutionary and revelationary energy of Uranus acts on the Plutonian modalities of power and sexuality to bring about ground-breaking transformation in those areas of human endeavor.  The other is from Pluto to Uranus, which sees an intensification and urgency imparted to Uranus’ imperative to change the status quo. 

Tarnas focuses on the mundane (i.e., collective and historical) implications of these forces.  His attention to individuals focuses mostly on the role of archetypal figures who, driven by the dynamics of Uranus-Pluto in their own natal charts, embodied the larger collective dynamics symbolized by Uranus-Pluto contacts.  I will not neglect those collective dynamics but will also pay attention to how those planetary dynamics manifest within individual psyches and the implications that this has for both individual development and (because individual experiences aggregate) on collective development.

Tarnas proposes a 10 degree orb for the mundane influence of outer planet contacts and we can also assume such an orb with respect to how individuals respond to these planetary configurations.  Allowing this orb, Uranus first touches its conjunction with Pluto in October 1961 but moves out of orb in January of the next year, coming back within orb in July.  From then, it remains within orb of the conjunction, making its first partile contact in October 1965.  However, the conjunction had been within 5 degrees orb since July 1964.  In April 1966, the planets were again exact, though in retrograde, making another partile conjunction in direct motion in June of that year.  The planets remain within a 5 degree orb through another retrograde period and then going direct until October 1967.  Retrograde motion again brings them within a 5 degree orb briefly in May and June of 1968 but the planets do not separate from a 10 degree orb until November 1969.  They then briefly touch a 10 degree orb in June and July 1970, separating thereafter.

While using a 10 degree orb to calculate the conjunction, Tarnas and others contend that the effects of such powerful outer planet contacts persist even past this point and are foreshadowed prior to the planets coming within orb.  Thus, though the mid-1960s can be viewed as the most intense period of Uranus-Pluto dynamic, we can expect hints to occur even prior to 1961 and echoes to persist past 1970. 

During this time, Uranus transited through Virgo and into the early degrees of Libra while Pluto traveled from the almost 10 degrees Virgo to near the end of that sign.  In looking at the actors of this intense period of change and transformation, we can pay particular attention to how this Uranus-Pluto conjunction triggered forces symbolized by these outer planets within individual psyches.  In doing so, we will not be concerned so much with individual historical figures (although important historical figures can be seen as representative and emblematic) as with cohorts. 

We can expect that Uranus’ transit would activate Plutonian energies within the subconscious of those with Pluto in Gemini or early Cancer, with possibly the most intense effects felt by those with Pluto in mid-Gemini—those born around the turn of the century.  Those with Uranus in Gemini or early Cancer would also be experiencing their first Uranus natal square and the Uranus-Pluto conjunction could be expected to especially affect those with Uranus in mid-Gemini (the very early Baby Boomers), as well as those with Uranus in Pisces (the parents of the first wave of Baby Boomers).

Before looking at the specific historical trends and events that occurred during this configuration, I would like to clarify that, although the ultimate cosmic purpose behind a Uranus-Pluto conjunction (or any outer planet challenging configuration, for that matter) is the liberation of the soul from the confines of the ego, this is a very internalized and individualized process.  It does not occur through historical events and we should not expect to see it there.  Furthermore, whatever may be going on within the psyches of individuals that is an expression of these outer planet dynamics must, perforce, remain hidden from outside observers.  That said, although historical events do not represent the epitome of these outer planet dynamics, we can see impulse and movement towards the desired cosmological outcome reflected in them.

We say “reflected” in the same way that Plato used this idea in the analogy of the Cave.  We can see them as symbols for larger and deeper psychological and spiritual phenomena that are playing out both on a larger stage and within the human psyche to some extent or another.  As symbols, they are not the thing itself, but point to these phenomena and are, in a way, expressions of these phenomena.  In a way, we can interpret these historical events as descriptive of and a result of forces that are operating within the collective human psyche.

During the period of the last Uranus-Pluto conjunction, which loosely corresponds to the decade of the 1960s, several important historical and cultural movements occurred in which we can see the manifestation of this astrological configuration.  These included the Civil Rights/Black Power movement, the Free Speech movement; the war in Vietnam and the anti-war movement; the Countercultural movement; the sexual revolution, and the Cultural Revolution in China.  Many of these movements were interlinked and overlapped.  Each, also, was incomplete and provoked a reactionary response.  We shall examine each of them as manifestations of the energies symbolized by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

Uranus and Pluto conjoined in Virgo, with the partile conjunctions occurring in mid-Virgo.  The conjunction in Virgo can be viewed as especially powerful, given the nature of that sign.  From the standpoint of cosmic purpose, Virgo’s essential meaning is purification and perfection.  Virgo, thus, can be said to have a special affinity with both Pluto and Uranus.  Pluto transforms through a process of purification—of separating or polarizing negative psychic content and then purging that negativity.  That process results in purer and more pure consciousness—hence the natural sextile between Virgo and Scorpio.

Uranus’ natural transformative goal is the perfection of pure individuation.  Uranus lets go of negative psychic content by breaking away and ascending to higher levels of consciousness and revelation.  The goal is Blake’s Albion made Whole.  Virgo’s natural quincunx to Aquarius suggests a critical sense of urgency for change and manifesting greater perfection when Uranus is in Virgo.  Thus, we can see the movements of the period of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction as a cosmic drive to purify the collective of its negative psychic content and to attain greater perfection of human collective endeavor.  The Shadow-side of this dynamic, however, was struggling to hold onto that negative content and to oppose a more perfected human condition.

The Civil Rights/Black Power Movement

African-Americans had been fighting for their freedom almost from the day that they were brought to these shores, through resistance to enslavement, slave insurrections, escapes and, then, after slavery ended through the exercise of political and economic power.  The modern civil rights movement began in the late 1940s, well before the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s.  However, until Rosa Parks’ defiance and the Montgomery bus boycott in 1955-1956, those efforts had largely been through the courts.  The Montgomery bus boycott could be seen as an early “hint” of the energy unleashed during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

Uranus and Pluto have deep symbolic associations with the ongoing story of Africans brought to America.  Though Pluto symbolizes forces of transformation and liberation, as do all of the outer planets, Pluto’s dynamics are complex.  Pluto’s liberation is a liberation from trauma.  From one perspective, the initial trauma, the Adi-karma, was the soul’s fall from elevated consciousness into the material world or, even prior to this, into the world of Duality.  The mechanism by which Pluto’s forces achieve liberation and transformation are through recognizing the Duality, intensifying it in order to separate out the (relative) negativity, and then destroying or purging that negativity. 

In this process, however, while the negative polarity is identified and isolated, it is also given a form of existence that is independent; it becomes manifest.  This negative polarity does not accept its destruction willingly but will put up resistance in an extreme struggle for survival.  In this struggle, the negative manifestation pulls out all stops and uses every available tool.  These include the tools of control and obfuscation or hiding negativity behind a façade of normalcy.

It is recognized by many that slavery was the primal trauma of the United States (the primal trauma of the Americas, generally, would be the overthrow of the Native American civilizations and subsequent extermination of Native peoples and the appropriation of their land—a trauma in which the United States certainly participated, fundamentally).  Perhaps because Blacks were not exterminated on the scale that Native peoples were, however, the trauma of slavery seems to have left a more indelible mark on the U.S. (henceforth, “American”) psyche.  It is something that we all continue to live with, experientially.

Though from the beginning justifications for slavery were manufactured by the enslavers, it is inconceivable that a part of the American collective psyche did not know that slavery was morally abhorrent.  From this perspective, the American psyche has been struggling against this guilt throughout our history.  Two forces have always been at work within the collective psyche (which includes African-Americans).  One has been to hide the guilt and justify the sin.  The other has been to atone for this violation and progressively purge the country of the negativity resulting from the trauma of slavery.

Hiding the guilt is not simply a passive undertaking.  The Plutonian Shadow seeks to manifest itself and be recognized.  The positive Plutonian polarity seeks to purge and destroy the negative artifacts of the trauma.  In response, the negative polarity reacts to suppress, oppress and prevent the positive Plutonian polarity from “winning” the battle. 

Control is a necessary Plutonian response to trauma—in this case, the trauma of slavery.  In this Plutonian dynamic, the psyche reacts to contain the strong emotions and forces that would expose the trauma and that would force the psyche to confront the trauma.  Practically, slaveholders exerted increasingly harsh forms of control over their slaves in recognition that, without this control, Blacks would escape or revolt against their enslavement.  Psychologically, control was necessary in order to keep the forces of trauma from manifesting and exposing the moral depravity of White enslaving America.  As Ibrahim X. Kendi tells us in his book, Stamped from the Beginning, all of this was hidden by the constructed myth that Blacks were happy being slaves, or in some way naturally suited for slavery.  This is the Plutonian background for the events of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s.

Uranus represents the liberating force, the psychological urge for freedom.  Fundamentally, this is the urge for freedom from the constraints of the material world and, beyond that, the Mind.  Historically, this urge manifests as the drive for human freedom from controlling or enslaving circumstances.  As alluded to above, this Uranian impulse was present in the African-American psyche from the beginning, as it is in all human psyches  Slave revolts occurred even during the passage from Africa to the Americas and the impulse toward and desire for freedom has been a continuing motivating factor for Black Americans throughout the nation’s history.

While momentum had been building throughout the 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement took a decidedly more militant turn in 1961 as Pluto and Uranus first came within orb of a conjunction.  Two new mechanisms of pushing for the rights of Black Americans arose that year—the sit-in and the freedom ride.  Both were designed to draw attention to the oppression that Blacks endured in the South (Pluto identifying the negative pole), confront and demolish (Pluto, again) specific mechanisms of oppression—segregated public accommodations at lunch counters and on interstate buses—in order to gain greater freedoms (Uranus) for African-Americans through approaches that were new and revolutionary for their time (Uranus). 

Both techniques were met by fierce resistance from Southern segregationists, with sit-in participants enduring insult, humiliation and physical violence and freedom riders often in jeopardy of their lives.  We can see this Plutonian resistance as a direct outcome of the failure of large parts of the American collective psyche to process the trauma of slavery and to do the work of rooting out its negative artifacts.  The push to destroy the artifacts of this trauma in the Jim Crow South and confront the continuing negativity resulting from the failure to positively process that trauma sparked an immediate response to shut down this Uranian movement, to shatter to pieces the light that was shining to expose the darkness, and to control the situation in order to protect the submerged traumatic content from being dug out and destroyed.  There was also mass denial of the existence of the Plutonian Shadow of slavery as Southern segregationists claimed that “their Negroes” were happy in their segregated situation and that it was only “Northern agitators” who were creating trouble. 

There is also a reactive side to Uranus.  Uranus pushes for fundamental change, and even destruction, of the status quo with which the ego has grown comfortable.  In a cosmic sense, the steady state of the status quo represents the continuation of the illusion of the ego.  Change threatens the ego’s sense of security.  Even change on the mundane level can be threatening for it is a reflection of a more fundamental level of change whereby old ego-laden constructs are transformed and consciousness moves to a higher level, closer to the point of the ego’s ultimate death.  Thus, for those holding onto the ego-state, both individually and collectively, change is unwelcome.

The Uranian reaction to the push by Black American and their allies for freedom from old, outdated and oppressive structures took the form of the mantra: you’re moving too fast; you need to slow down and be patient; you’re asking for too much and the country isn’t ready for that.  This reaction appeared to be much less violent than the more intense Plutonian reaction.  It was clothed in respectability and “reasonableness.”  However, it came from the same place of failure to process the enormity of the trauma of slavery and to recognize the imperative that Blacks in America must finally be allowed to take their freedom.  Both reactions were rooted in fear—fear of what would occur if the combined Plutonian and Uranian forces of transformation and change were to manifest uninhibitedly, causing the national psyche to fully confront its primal Shadow.

This was the basic pattern throughout the period of the Civil Rights Movement.  By 1963, with Uranus and Pluto moving into closer orb, things intensified.  In April and May, desegregation rallies in Birmingham, Alabama were met with particularly vicious violence from the police, led by Commissioner of Public Safety, Bull Conner, an ardent segregationist.  Notably, during this period, Uranus and Pluto were conjuncting Conner’s Jupiter-Mars conjunction, inflaming his tendency towards dramatic and self-righteous violence, while squaring his Gemini Pluto.  Riots ensued.  In September, the Ku Klux Klan—the embodiment of repressed Plutonian trauma and denial of the Shadow (the KKK wrapped themselves in “holy” righteousness) erupting in brutal reaction—bombed the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, killing four young Black girls.  1963 also saw the assassination of Medgar Evers. 

From St. Augustine, Florida to Boston, conflict between those forces pushing for Uranian change and the forces of resistance erupted and intensified during 1963 and 1964.  The more widespread and successful were the efforts to dismantle Jim Crow institutions and gain freedom, the more threatened were those who defended the institutions and defended the psychological constructs of racism that kept the horror of America’s original sin from being confronted and addressed, and the harsher and more violent was their response.  Not only Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner, but many others lost their lives as the collective Plutonian resistance to Uranus’ freedom pressures exercised its power.  This violent backlash continued to intensify throughout the 1960s, culminating (at least symbolically) in the assassination of Martin Luther King.

1963 also saw the beginnings of another Uranus-Pluto phenomenon—the largely urban, mass insurrections by a largely poor Black population.  In terms of Tarnas’ construct, this can be viewed primarily as Pluto powering Uranus.  The fuel for these rebellions was the repressed psychic energy created by centuries of Plutonian control and oppression directed at keeping Black people down.  Blacks were the living reminder of America’s great moral failing.  The White power structure had also perpetuated myths by which slavery and racism were justified (by creating the socio-economic circumstances that kept Blacks enslaved to racist stereotypes—that they were criminal and irresponsible).  The triggers for these rebellions were frequently incidents of police brutality (an expression of dark Plutonian energy and a result of the police having imbibed those racist stereotypes).  Over-policing and police brutality were (and still are) levers of control over the Black population that is exercised by the White power structure. 

It is a well-known Plutonian trait that when the powerful psychic energies associated with that planet are locked away in the subconscious and not given a chance for healthy expression, they will ultimately explode with violent force.  The Uranus-Pluto dynamic is a prescription for such an explosion, as the Uranian force creates an irresistible impulse toward freedom, toward unlocking the repressed energy and allowing it to come out into the open.  With such force behind it, however, freedom is uncontrolled and the powerful Plutonian content manifests without any discipline or boundaries.  Tarnas points to the excesses of the French Revolution (when Pluto opposed Uranus) as an example of this dynamic.

The urban uprisings of the mid-1960s were demands for freedom and for the dismantling of oppressive Plutonian systems.  However, the force of this Uranus-Pluto energy “shattered the vessels,” resulting in massive self-destruction.  Or, perhaps the self-destructive aspect of these rebellions was more apparent than real.  Viewing the destruction accompanying these revolts as dysfunctional presupposes that what was being destroyed was beneficial to the communities in revolt.  A case can be made that the businesses and the infrastructure that were the targets of the insurgents were symbols (at least) of the White capitalist system that was their oppressor.  In this sense, the dynamic can be viewed as Uranian revolutionary force brought to bear against Plutonian negative-pole institutions of power.  In many cases, the environment created by the brutality that had been imposed on Black Americans by a collective consciousness that dysfunctionally processed its Plutonian content and treated Blacks as trauma-reminders that must be pushed to the bottom of the collective subconscious was judged not worth saving from destruction. 

In summary, the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s can be seen as a complex expression of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Efforts by Black Americans and their allies to gain the freedom promised under the Constitution (Uranus) was intensified (Pluto) to heroic levels, with people willing to make great personal sacrifice to advance the cause of freedom.  People, individually, were possessed by an intense Plutonian desire for Uranian freedom and a belief that they could overthrow (Uranus) the power structures (Pluto) that were keeping them oppressed. 

This Plut0-Uranus push for freedom was met with an equally intense resistance from the established power structures (Pluto) and from those unwilling and unable to accept revolutionary change (Uranus).  This resulted in intense conflict (Pluto) between the forces of change and liberation (Uranus) and the forces of repression and White dominance (Pluto).  The conflict was often violent and irrational (Pluto) on both sides, resulting in significant episodes of destruction.

Yet, there were also significant manifestations of more transformative energies associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction that appeared in the civil rights movement.  One of these was the focus on nonviolence as a strategy to affect change and to overcome Plutonian (and Uranian) resistance to greater rights and freedom for African-Americans.  While the strategy had been pioneered by Mahatma Gandhi, it became a centerpiece of the American civil rights struggle under the leadership of Dr. King and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.  The strategy may be seen as transformative and consciousness-raising and it involved large numbers of participants, Black and White.  Many, individually, underwent an inner transformation and awakening through their exposure to the doctrine of non-violence.  The strategy was also transformative and effective in bringing about change in that it awakened large segments of the American mainstream to the plight of oppressed African-Americans.

Perhaps even more transformative, however, was the Black Power, or Black Pride movement.  This was a mass consciousness raising movement that involved the rejection of racist stereotypes of Black inferiority that had infected Black peoples’ consciousness (see Stamped from the Beginning for more history on the phenomenon of African-Americans imbibing racist ideas).  The Black Power movement can be viewed as a collective individuation of consciousness (Uranus), as many Blacks escaped their conditioning from White society and developed a more positive and holistic self-image. 

The Black Power movement gained visibility in the broader society when James Brown released his single, I’m Black and I’m Proud, in 1968.  The political manifestation of this movement was Black self-determination.  Both the Black Panthers and the Nation of Islam (which was founded in the 1930s as Uranus approached a square with Pluto but gained prominence during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction) were expressions of this drive for self-determination.  What should be remembered about both these groups (which justifiably or not have been maligned by the White establishment) is their focus on Black self-help and raising consciousness.  Both were based on the idea of a transformative reshaping of the African-American collective psyche in true Uranus-Pluto fashion.  The emergence of Black studies departments in American universities, beginning in 1968, was another manifestation of this transformative energy.  Although participation in this experience by Blacks was not universal, it was significant.  Individually, many experienced a transformation of consciousness through participation in the Black Power movement.

As Uranus separated from Pluto by 1970, the extent to which the United States collective psyche had and had not processed the energies associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction was becoming evident.  There had been significant progress in liberating Black people in America from political, social and economic oppression.  Jim Crow, if not dead, was dying.  Black Americans had reclaimed their voting rights.  The War on Poverty had lifted large numbers of African-American families out of poverty. 

However, there were still mega-tons of Fresh Garbage remaining, as the events of the 1970s showed.  Racism remained very much alive, not only in the South but in the Northern cities and suburbs.  Individually, large numbers of White Americans felt threatened and defeated by the successes of the Civil Rights movement.  While overt expressions of racism that had been common prior to the 1960s became socially unacceptable or illegal, Whites holding on to their fresh garbage found new expressions of racism and new tools of Plutonian oppression.

While the South engaged in “massive resistance” to school integration (and ensured that when schools were forced to integrate it happened in a way that disadvantaged Black children), protests and ill-will over court-ordered busing were prevalent in the North.  The FBI engaged in a systematic campaign to exterminate the Black Panthers.  In 1972, Nixon pulled the fiscal rug out from under the network of Community Action Agencies that had been organizing Black neighborhoods and promoting economic self-reliance and self-determination.  Subsequent decades would see a continuing Plutonian-Uranian reaction to the advances made during the 1960s in the form of the spread (some would say the introduction) of crack cocaine in African-American communities decimating the gains made through the Black Pride movement, and the (continuing) period of mass incarceration that began in the 1990s.

The Free Speech Movement

I am going to treat the Free Speech movement, which officially took place on the University of California-Berkeley campus in the fall of 1964 and early 1965, in a broader context.  I see the Free Speech movement itself as emblematic of a more comprehensive movement to break away (Uranus) from the rigid and largely hypocritical morality of the 1950s.  While the Free Speech movement at Berkeley was triggered by demands of students to engage in unfettered political speech and activity, there were undertones of a demand for a more complete freedom of expression. 

College campuses in the 1950s and through much of the 1960s were ruled by a philosophy of in loco parentis with respect to the student body, with college administrators adopting a paternalistic role and keeping a tight rein on student behavior.  The Free Speech movement, when separated from its political origin, was in large part an expression of the desire of the generation with Uranus in communicative Gemini to break free of these restrictions, using free speech as the spear to attack what were perceived to be corrupt and oppressive (negative Plutonian) institutions which were holding back the freedom (Uranus) that this generation increasingly desired as the Uranus-Pluto conjunction intensified.  Many of the leaders of the Free Speech Movement and most of the undergraduates who participated in it had the Uranus-Pluto conjunction squaring their natal Uranus.

Indeed, many individuals of that generation felt an upsurging desire for all kinds of freedom during the period of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Uranian freedom appeared as a shining light goal in many an individual consciousness.  Uranus conjuncting Pluto spurred a desire to freely express one’s ideas, especially if they were ideas that had been repressed by society and not allowed expression in the past.  This was Uranus digging into society’s fresh garbage and forcing formerly hidden topics out into the open.

One facet of the broader free speech movement was the freedom to use profanity (appropriately symbolized in the Uranus-Pluto conjunction).  It was in 1961, as Uranus and Pluto entered into orb, that Lenny Bruce was first arrested on charges of public profanity.  Throughout the 1960s, as Uranus and Pluto worked through the collective consciousness, “community standards” changed to become more tolerant of profane speech.  By the end of the decade and continuing through the next decades, Americans became increasingly free to use (and consume) profane speech.

However, this was, after all, just one facet of the broader free speech movement.  More comprehensively, Uranian-inspired members of society were calling for the freedom to express ideas that might challenge the established power structure (Pluto).  Such ideas were seen as liberating and transformative.  This was consistent with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction dynamic of intense imperatives for change and new directions to transform and destroy negative artifacts, particularly those of control and oppression.  The ability to freely express and disseminate radical ideas made possible the origin of a number of change-oriented movements arising during the 1960s and persisting into the following decades.  These included the environmentalist and feminist movements—both of which have changed and transformed the collective consciousness in America and elsewhere in profound ways. 

The Free Speech Movement also created a template for future expressions of the Uranus-Pluto dynamic (an intense drive for liberation from oppressive ideas and systems) on college campuses all throughout the 1960s.  College students were experiencing Uranus squaring their natal Uranus through much of the 1960s and along with that square was transmitted the energy of Pluto.  Those cohorts provided ready fuel for what seemed like radical and revolutionary activity to those who were defending old power constructs (negative Pluto) and resisting Uranian changes.

Two other notable student protests during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction deserve mention—both occurring in 1968.  The first is the student take-over of a number of buildings at Columbia University.  The protest was tied both to opposition to the Vietnam War (see below)—specifically to the university’s affiliation with a weapons research think tank—and to the civil rights movement (specifically protesting the university’s historical encroachment and exploitation of neighboring Harlem and the university’s plans to build a segregated gymnasium there).  The former cause was adopted by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) which was calling for radical change.  The SDS occupation was opposed by a group of students led by student athletes and fraternity members and ended in a violent crackdown by the NYPD.

The second event was the insurrection that took place in Paris.  This began as a student protest against a paternalistic and repressive university administration but became a class insurrection as workers called a successful general strike that paralyzed Paris and much of the country.  The threat to the Establishment was so great that Charles De Gaulle considered military action to put down the revolt.  Instead, police were used to violently quell the insurrection. 

Both of these events can be viewed as expressions of intense Plutonian energy powering Uranian urges for greater freedom and radical change.  They both elicited equally intense Plutonian reaction as the existing power structures refused to respond positively to the desire for change and for liberation from outmoded structures—refused to transform or to allow transformation to take place.

The Free Speech movement, both narrowly and broadly defined, provoked its own resistance and reaction.  The Uranian-Plutonian dynamics that were working to transform and elevate the collective consciousness were never completely successful, never fully absorbed and processed.  The Berkeley Free Speech movement was instrumental in the election of Ronald Reagan (with Sun in Aquarius, an archetypal Uranian reactionary) to the governorship of California.  Large portions of the population felt threatened—and still feel threatened—by ideas that undermined their ego-dominated concepts and “way of life.”  In fact, the reaction against the Berkeley Free Speech movement can be viewed as the first spark of what would become the “culture wars” of later decades.

We can see the undigested bits of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the conservative backlash that produced the Reagan years of the 1980s.  We can also see it in the early denials of a climate/energy crisis that caused the American populace, by and large, to reject and ridicule Jimmy Carter’s call for energy conservation as a response to the second energy crisis of the 1970s.  We can see it in the continuing misogyny that pervades American culture.  Ultimately, we see this fresh garbage fermenting as an alternative “reality” that blocks out inconvenient facts, instead “transforming” them to be seen as just part of some vast ”conspiracy.”

The Anti-War Movement

The Vietnam War took place throughout the Uranus-Pluto conjunction of the 1960s, both preceding it and extending past the period of the conjunction’s orb.  Uranian-Plutonian dynamics were felt both in America and in Indochina.  For America, the War’s antecedents were laid by John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower’s Secretary of State, who, after the victory of the Viet Minh over the French colonialists, feared a “Communist takeover” of the country under the leadership of Ho Chi Min, Vietnam’s George Washington.  Dulles had Pluto in early Gemini, with Pluto squaring its natal position from early Virgo during those days. (Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s and Johnson’s Secretary of Defense, who managed the War, had Pluto conjuncting his Mars at the beginning of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction when the decision was first made to commit troops to Vietnam.)

Opposition to the War intensified in America (and in Europe) as the Uranus-Pluto conjunction tightened.  The anti-war movement continued to intensify after the exact conjunctions took place.  The protests against the War were a demand for Uranian radical change—an end to the War.  This demand was accompanied by intense emotions (Pluto) generated by a sense of moral outrage at the atrocities committed by the American power structure against the Vietnamese people.  The dynamics of the conjunction were reflected in the feeling by those opposing the War that the American government and military-industrial-complex were acting out of corrupt motives (negative Pluto) that must be overthrown (Uranus) in order for the nation’s moral conscience to be cleansed (Plutonian purging). 

For many during the 1960s, opposition to the war in Vietnam became a catalyst to demand even more fundamental and radical political and social change.  Anti-war protests became an organizing tool and a point of coalescence for the New Left, which rejected the gradual and half-way approaches of liberalism as being grounded in protecting capitalist interests and the existing power structure status quo.  Opposition to the war in Vietnam was a significant impetus for the formation of Students for a Democratic Society (which called for a more radical and revolutionary agenda than its progenitor, the Student Peace Union).  Later, as the Plutonian intensity on the Left continued to mount well after the conjunction separation, even more radical groups, such as the Weatherman and the Symbionese Liberation Front formed—arguably in reaction to the oppressive backlash associated with the unprocessed elements of the Uranus-Pluto energy.

It was not only the Johnson Administration, Hubert Humphries’ animus, the FBI surveillance of anti-war leaders and the jailing of draft resisters that were manifestations of Uranian-Plutonian fresh garbage.  California Governor Ronald Ray-guns spoke for many when he said that if protestors lay down in front of his car, he would simply run them over.  “Love it or leave it” was a phrase that originated during this period.  This slogan was a blatant denial of Amerika’s shadow elements.  The message was: you are not allowed to expose the nation’s Plutonian garbage.  If you do, you’re not one of us. 

This insistence on absolute conformity and loyalty was the shadow side of Uranus.  A stage toward individuation is group identity.  Group identity can also become a barrier to individuation when the psyche gets stuck at that level.  For those fearful of Uranus’ assault on the ego, group identity offers a source of security and a psychological haven.  Scores of millions of Americans had bought into the group identity of a mythologized American narrative in which the nation—and by extension its citizens—were strong, pure and virtuous.  Anything that challenged that narrative was viewed as subversive and threatening.  The contention being vocalized by anti-war protesters that the war in which the nation was engaged was fundamentally immoral amounted to such a challenge.

It was not only our elders who reacted against the anti-war demonstrators.  Although a draft was in place, scores or hundreds of thousands of young men were willingly entering the military, considering fighting Commies in the jungles of Vietnam to be their patriotic duty.  Much has been made of the lack of respect and appreciation returning Vietnam veterans felt from the American public.  However, that was primarily occurring during the early 1970s as the War became increasingly unpopular (though there were also no parades greeting earlier returning troops, since the War was continuing—and unwon).  During the 1960s, it was more frequent that those against the War were the recipients of animosity from returning troops than that they experienced any disgrace themselves.  And, of course, it was contemporaries of the anti-war protesters who, as members of the Ohio National Guard, brought the Establishment’s repression of the anti-war movement to its most intense expression in the Kent State massacre.

Not everyone returning from the War remained gung ho about America’s war effort, however.  The energy unleashed during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction was also evident on the battlefields of Vietnam.  War is always an intense affair.  The conflict in Vietnam was particularly so, with fighting at close quarters combined with advanced wartime technology and the stress of never knowing who was friend or foe.  For many, the Plutonian trauma of war resulted in destructive change—lost limbs, PTSD and loss of life.  For others, the reality that they experienced in Vietnam revealed the dark side of American intentions and the fundamental immorality of the War (Uranian revelation acting on Plutonian hidden darkness).  They came back with radically changed attitudes and joined the anti-war effort (c.f., Vietnam Veterans Against the War).

Those damaged by the War were by and large treated like fresh garbage by collective America.  They were an uncomfortable reminder of the “embarrassment” of the “greatest nation on Earth” having been defeated by ”barefoot army” of people who were supposed to be an “inferior race.”  The American psyche preferred to push such memories, undigested, into the deep subconscious.  The result was an epidemic of mental illness and homelessness among Vietnam veterans.   

While anti-war protests grew as the Uranus-Pluto conjunction intensified and then lingered, the actual war was taking place in Indochina, but most intensely in Vietnam.  Here we can see Uranus-Pluto dynamics playing out again.  The backdrop of the conflict was that, after the French were defeated by Ho Chi Min’s army, the U.S., though Plutonian subterfuge, repressed the Vietnamese drive for freedom (Uranus).  This sparked a renewed drive for freedom and liberation from colonial domination that lasted throughout the period of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction and its aftermath.  This Uranian impulse toward liberation was opposed not only by U.S. forces, but by the undigested remnants of French colonial power, intent on retaining (Pluto) their hold on power.  This largely Catholic elite oppressed (Pluto) and disparaged the largely Buddhist peasantry, who for the most part supported the Uranian freedom-fighters (the Viet Cong, who were themselves largely drawn from the Vietnamese peasantry).

The U.S. response to the Uranian impulse for Vietnamese liberation was to unleash massive Plutonian destructive force.  This occurred on the ground—with almost genocidal destruction of peasant villages and food supply—but especially from the air, with American warplanes dropping more explosive tonnage than had been dropped in World War II, including the Hellish use of napalm, as well as the chemical defoliant, Agent Orange.  Complicating the Uranus-Pluto dynamic was the perception, whether true or not, that North Vietnam was a totalitarian (Plutonian) regime and that the U.S. was defending the South against becoming a communist dictatorship.  Ironically, it is quite possible that the extreme duress that U.S. bombing placed on the North resulted in a more repressive and controlling government than would otherwise have been the case.

It would seem that the Vietnamese were able to process the aftermath of their Uranus-Pluto experience more positively than did the United States.  The Vietnamese were left with a nation that had been physically decimated and torn apart socially.  The social disrepair was “resolved” in ways both Uranian and Plutonian, initially at least not so positively.  Tens of thousands from the Vietnamese middle and upper class and supporters of the South Vietnamese regime fled the country (an expression of the Uranian impulse to escape to freedom).  Many of those who stayed were “reeducated” by the victors in Plutonian fashion or executed in an effort to purge the country of the contamination from its colonialist sympathizers.  Ultimately, however, the two sides reconciled.

Physically, the country began a process of clearing unexploded munitions, rebuilding what had been destroyed, and caring for those who had suffered casualties during the War.  After this period of physical and emotional Plutonian cleansing, the country began a process of transformation.  Civil liberties and personal freedoms expanded.  Economic reconstruction progressed to the point where Vietnam has been able to successfully enter the world economy as one of the “Asian tigers.”  The nation even put their well-justified animosity toward the United States behind them and committed to improving relations between the two nations.

In the U.S., however, opposition to and support for the Vietnam War seeded a seemingly permanent polarization among its citizenry.  While many of those who opposed the War felt vindicated, others constructed a narrative that the nation lost the war due to insufficiency of resolve.  The war could have been won, they contended, if there had been the political will, if politicians in Washington had not held back the military.  This can be seen as a failure of those holding onto the myth of American invincibility and moral righteousness to face and accept reality.  The trauma of the nation’s defeat by an alien “inferior” people remained unprocessed, turning into “fresh garbage” in the American collective psyche.

It was not only those who resisted the changes and transformations associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction who generated fresh garbage.  Those who were pushing for change and transformation also generated unprocessed psychic material because the change and transformation that they were seeking was, inevitably, incomplete.  This unprocessed psychic content was both individual and collective.  Individually, besides dealing with the frustration and guilt (conscious or subconscious) of not having achieved their goals, many carried with them the trauma inflicted by the brutality they experienced from those who had opposed their drive for change and transformation in society.  They would struggle not only with that trauma but also with the trauma of seeing the on-going effects of the fresh garbage emanating from those who had resisted and were still resisting the positive Uranian-Plutonian impulse. 

This was especially true with respect to the Civil Rights Movement and the continuing scourge of racism in America.  However, participants in the other movements experienced similar psychic trauma.  Those in the Free Speech movement had to face the unrelenting implicit censorship imposed by the Establishment.  As they graduated from being students, they had to enter the capitalist world of work and, there, found that the consequences of going against the grain were much more severe than they had experienced from university administrators and they were deprived of the support of a community of like-minded activists. 

Anti-war activists faced the same issues and also saw America continuing to engage in immoral wars of oppression which could not generate the same level of opposition as had occurred during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  The Vietnamese, even though they won their liberation from colonial domination, ultimately succumbed to the lure of capitalism, albeit a state capitalism.  In every case, those who hoped for real and transformative change during the sixties found that their ideals unrealized once the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction had dissipated.  Facing the reality of an incompletely processed outer planet contact needed to be processed and this involved facing the fresh garbage that had been generated during that contact.

The Countercultural Revolution

The Countercultural Revolution was anteceded by the Beat era, seeded by the Free Speech Movement and fueled by the Anti-war movement.  Participants in the Counterculture also sympathized with the Civil Rights Movement.  However, in contrast to the movements that had preceded it and were, to a large extent, running parallel, the Counterculture was marked by a profound disengagement from society, which can be viewed as a manifestation of Uranian separation.  An emblematic motto for the generation that populated the Counterculture was Timothy Leary’s statement to “tune in, turn on, and drop out.”  The Countercultural Revolution can also be viewed as a collective Uranian individuation in which large numbers of young people separated their identities from the conditioning they had received from mass, or mainstream, society.  In terms of what Richard Tarnas theorized in his book, Cosmos and Psyche, the Countercultural Revolution was distinctly Pluto powering Uranus.

The Uranian impulse within the Counterculture was palpable.  The Plutonian energy took this impulse about as far as it could go.  Even more profoundly than the New Left, the Counterculture called for radical and fundamental changes in society.  It was not just the political and economic institutions that the Counterculture believed needed to be overthrown and replaced with transformative structures (Uranus).  It was the entire basis for the construction of reality as experienced on the Earth plane that was to be supplanted.  At its deepest level, the Counterculture called for a world based on Peace, Love and Harmony which would return the Earth to Her Edenic state.  This call was based upon a realization of the Oneness of All and the supremacy of Love.  For a very deep dive into the metaphysics of the Counterculture, read my upcoming book, to be released in mid-2022, The Pouring, or How the Universal Mind Reached Out to a Generation: a Commentary on the Counterculture Lyrics of the Sixties. 

Music was fundamental as an expression of Countercultural ideas and music was a primary vehicle for their communication.  The first musical influences on the Counterculture began in 1963, shortly before the Kennedy Assassination, which was a psychological blow to the hope of any real change coming within the System.  These influences sprang out of the folk revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s.  These songs began to highlight the injustices and the moral corruption that pervaded society and, thus, to move future participants in the Counterculture to break away (Uranus) from an Establishment-controlled world dominated by corrupt power (negative Pluto). 

By 1965, as Uranus and Pluto made an exact conjunction, colonies of “hippies” (or those who would become known as “hippies”) began appearing on the West Coast, particularly in San Francisco.  The term “hippie” itself actually has Uranian origins.  To be hip to something connotes being aware of some truth or some secret (something not known by ordinary mainstream people).  The concept of Uranian revelation is implicit in the idea of hipness (not to be confused with modern, phony hipsterism).  Also Uranian is the idea that those who are hip to the truth/secret are communally bonded together in a group set apart.

In 1964, The Beatles had arrived in the American consciousness and, together with The Rolling Stones, had set in motion a revolution in the sound (and depth of lyrical meaning) of rock ‘n roll.  Much of the early Counterculture coalesced around the music scene with bands such as The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane (and their predecessors) starting to gain notice.  By 1966, “psychedelic music” was a thing, with The Beatles having released their transition albums, Rubber Soul  and Revolver.  The Counterculture was firmly established on the West Coast, as well as in Greenwich Village in New York, by the time of the exact Uranus-Pluto conjunctions in 1966.

The Counterculture continued through this period and past the period during which Uranus and Pluto were in orb.  However, as the orb separated, Plutonian decay became more and more evident within the Counterculture.  Though the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction remained strong and even seemed to grow, there were seeds of the decline of the Counterculture in the Summer of Love in San Francisco in 1967, when the city’s and the Counterculture’s infrastructure became overwhelmed by an influx of often woefully unprepared young people seeking to join the Countercultural Revolution.

Woodstock, the music festival that occurred in upstate New York in 1969, is often viewed as the high water mark of the Countercultural Revolution.  There, the Uranian impulse for freedom seemed liberated, as half a million freaks found themselves without the constraint of the Plutonian police state with which they generally had to deal.  Symbolically, as crashers tore down the fences surrounding the festival, it became a free event—monetarily and in all other ways.  Yet it was not the Edenic state of pure Peace, Love and Harmony.  True, those qualities reigned for the most part and incredibly with that large a number of people with no former connection except their participation in the Counterculture and no external rules enforcing good behavior.  Yet, there were injuries, bad acid trips, difficult physical circumstances (it rained steadily turning the grounds into a mud pit) and eruptions of conflict and not-so-good behavior. 

By 1969, heroine (smack) had invaded the Counterculture, seriously bringing down the vibe (no pun intended).  The urban Countercultural street scene continued to deteriorate into the early 1970s.  From an energetic viewpoint, we can see this deterioration and decline of the Counterculture as a result of and an expression of unprocessed psychic content from the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  As powerful as the Plutonian impetus for revolutionary Uranian change had been, it was not enough to overpower the resistant Plutonian-Uranian forces arrayed against it.  Furthermore, given the Counterculture’s extreme (many would say unrealistic) expectations for global consciousness transformation and social change, it was no wonder that our Uranian vision remained unfulfilled.  Additionally, many members of the Counterculture were experiencing internal dissonance (and the creation of unprocessed psychic content) as they tried and often failed to integrate the highly nonlinear Uranian revelations they had received with their everyday experience of the mundane world.  This dissonance could then generate confusion and poor decisions and behavior.

That the era of Peace, Love and Harmony was not dawning and that the efforts to bring about this revolution were being actively and successfully opposed constituted an act of trauma upon the participants in the Counterculture.  The disappointment, doubt, frustration and confusion that these unrealized expectations created were not being consciously and positively processed.  They opened the door to negative Plutonian energy.  Reaction to the unprocessed content included a growing antipathy toward the Establishment and, especially toward their agents of enforcement, the police.  This Plutonian polarization and negativity further aggravated the resistance to the Counterculture by the mainstream and the Establishment, creating a negative feedback loop, 

The decline and growing negativity of the urban Countercultural scene prompted a movement toward even greater Uranian separation from the mainstream culture—the Back to the Land movement.  Groups of higher functioning hippies began to leave the cities to form rural communes.  These had been preceded by the formation of urban communes as a way to both survive in the city and express the values of the Counterculture.  Set physically apart in rural America, the hope was that people could actualize their Countercultural values in a Uranian utopian society free from interference and Plutonian oppression by the Establishment.

For the mainstream mass consciousness, the Countercultural Revolution represented an assault that subconsciously exposed long hidden and suppressed unprocessed psychic content.  By the 1950s, Western civilization had successfully constructed the myth that a secular (religious in name and ritualistic observance only), capitalist and consumer society was the path to life’s happiness and satisfaction.  This myth was constructed on multiple levels of false assumptions and suppressed negativity.  Beyond the fact that the promise of materialistic happiness was itself a false one, the myth ignored the fact that the construct of consumer capitalism was built upon and dependent upon a system of permanent inequality.  The exploitation and oppression of a “reserved army of the unemployed” and underemployed and a post-colonial international order dominated by multi-national corporations were necessary in order to sustain this consumer society.

The Western middle class (and upper class) had completely bought into this myth and were in denial of its negative underpinnings.  Their identification was so total that it became a core basis of identity and self-worth for a great many in Western society.  Despite any protestation of religious or ethical values, the primary value held by most in mainstream society was the value of material wealth.  The greatest affront to the those who held to these materialistic values was to see them rejected wholesale by those dropping out and joining the Counterculture—being especially painful when those dropping out were their own children.

This affront would not have been felt so keenly by those in the mainstream were it not that they inwardly knew, but had suppressed, the truth of what the Counterculture perceived and were demonstrating by their actions.  For it is impossible for the inner consciousness not to be aware of the Truth and, therefore, it was impossible that those invested in the consumer capitalist myth could not have subconsciously realized its falsity.  This inner, repressed recognition of the ultimate hollowness of materialistic values and of the negative actions which supported that edifice formed the unprocessed psychic content that fed the Plutonian-Uranian reaction to the Counterculture by those in the mainstream.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Counterculture posed an existential threat to the Establishment.  Small colonies of hippies and freaks could be tolerated but when masses of young people began responding to the call of the Counterculture during the period of the separating Uranus-Pluto conjunction, this could not be ignored.  The ideas and ideals upon which the Counterculture was formed were a fundamental threat to those beliefs and assumptions that underpinned consumer capitalism.  The differences went as deep as the metaphysical assumptions underlying the respective worldviews.

The Establishment responded with its first line of Plutonian defense—the police.  Freaks were harassed, arrested and brutalized by law enforcement.  However, the negative reaction to the Counterculture was generalized and fierce within all sectors of mainstream society.  “Dirty hippies” were almost universally disparaged both in the media and by individuals.  The antipathy toward the Counterculture was visceral and hippies unlucky enough to be caught alone or outnumbered in unfriendly territory risked being beaten up by rednecks or jocks.

An emblematic incident of the repression of the Counterculture occurred in the summer of 1968 at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.  The demonstrations began on August 23 with police violence commencing on August 25, peaking on August 28 and continuing on August 29.  For this event, the Counterculture (represented most visibly by the Yippies), the anti-war movement (represented most visibly by SDS) and the Civil Rights Movement (represented by the Poor People’s Campaign of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) had joined forces. 

By the 28^th, a yadh had developed with Saturn at the point and Neptune in Scorpio and a Venus-Mercury close conjunction in Virgo, with Venus and Mercury captured by the Pluto-Uranus conjunction.  One could read this astrologically as a crisis in which the Establishment (Saturn) was forced to deal with the public call (Mercury) for a profound shift (Uranus-Pluto) in values (Venus) fueled by transformative ideals (Neptune).  The Establishment failed the test with flying colors, instead using the Plutonian levers of power and resistance to Uranian change to attempt to crush those forces insisting on transformative change.  As whenever the test of a yadh is failed, the result was the creation of unresolved psychic content and lessons to be repeated another day. 

The Chicago demonstrations led to the arrest, trial and conviction on various charges of seven of the leaders of the Counterculture and Anti-War movements (with an eighth having charges dropped after a mistrial).  It is interesting to take a look at the charts of these eight leaders.  Abbie Hoffman was 31 at the time and, so, not a member of the generation with Uranus in Gemini.  However, the Uranus-Pluto conjunction activated his mid-Virgo Neptune in the 12^th house which is opposed his Saturn in Pisces.  It also may have activated his Taurus Uranus trine Neptune.  This possibly ignited visions of a transcendent, perfect utopia through the dissolution of the Establishment.  Hoffman also had Sun, Mercury, North Node and Jupiter in Sagittarius (with Mercury the center of a T-square with Neptune and Saturn), so each of those planets would have been forcefully activated as the Uranus-Pluto conjunction moved through Virgo.

A number of other Chicago 7 defendants also had Neptune in mid-Virgo.  This included Bobby Seale (the eighth defendant), also 31 at the time and with Neptune opposed Saturn and trine Uranus.  Seale had Mars conjunct Neptune, however, within 2 degrees, adding a fiery activism that the Uranus-Pluto energy was unleashing.  Natal Uranus also opposes his Sun and Pluto opposes his Moon. 

Jerry Rubin (then 30) is also included in the group with Neptune in mid-Virgo.  Uranian and Plutonian energy is also strong in his chart with Uranus square his Moon in Aquarius, and a Sun-Mars-Pluto conjunction sextiled by Neptune (which, like Hoffman’s is in his 12^th house).  Rennie Davis (then 28) also had a mid-Virgo Neptune, trined by Uranus. So did John Froines (who was 29), whose Gemini Sun would have been activated as Uranus and Pluto came into conjunction in the early 1960s.  Froines’ Pluto is also opposed his Mars and Uranus is trining Neptune and also conjunct his Venus.  Lee Weiner also probably had a mid-Virgo Neptune.

David Dellinger (then 53) had Uranus conjunct North Node and Pluto conjunct Mars.  Tom Hayden’s (then 28) Pluto is in a grand trine with Mercury and Jupiter and his Uranus is in exact quincunx (to the minute) with his Sun.

In a real sense, the Countercultural Revolution can be seen as the beginning of the “culture wars” that openly erupted later, after the Uranus-Pluto cycle had moved passed its semi-square and into sextile in the mid-1990s.  It must be said that the Counterculture Movement fired the first shot in this war, although we fully expected that the fusillade of Flower Power launched against the Establishment would produce a quick and decisive victory.  Instead, those in mainstream society saw the Counterculture for the existential threat to “the American Way of Life” that it was and mobilized a counter-strike. 

I don’t think those in the Counterculture ever intended to provoke such an animosity filled reaction.  The invitation to the mainstream to join the Countercultural Revolution not being welcomed--unlike the example of the Blue Meanies in the film, Yellow Submarine—most in the Counterculture would have been content to live and let live.  However, the very  existence of Countercultural ideas and behavior was a sore point of antagonism for those in society who could not accept that their American Way of Life was in need of change and transformation.

As Dylan would sing in Tangled Up in Blue, some in the Counterculture married carpenters and some engaged in computations as they rejoined a system that they had previously utterly rejected.  Those who re-entered the system took different roads.  Some—especially those for whom the hippie scene had been more or less a plaything—just resumed their role in mainstream society, their values essentially unchanged.  These easily succumbed to the lure of materialism that became outsized during the 1980s; and they became fodder for reaction against values they had once at least nominally espoused.  Once having been exposed, if only superficially, to the forces of Uranian-Plutonian transformation, they now buried those impulses without glancing back.  Inwardly, it is hard not to imagine that their subconscious was busily at work walling off any spark of Uranus-Pluto energy that might threaten the ego.

Others held onto their Countercultural values, internalizing the Uranus > Pluto drive and determined to carry those values forward and work within “the belly of the Beast” to affect whatever positive change they could.  Changes, in fact, did occur with increasing segments of the population engaging in natural birthing, conscious child development (as opposed to my child is so special), wholesome eating, and holistic healing.  Politically, this group pushed for anti-racist policies, anti-imperialist foreign policy, environmental protection, economic justice and human rights.  They naturally allied with less progressive liberals, making the Democratic Party a lightning rod for those reactively opposed to latent Countercultural ideals. 

Still another group returned to life in middle America with a bitter residue of having been defeated by the Establishment.  Disillusioned with the Countercultural Revolution, they often turned to the other extreme, becoming politically and socially conservative.  They exhibited (and continue to exhibit) a strong anti-Establishment attitude and an insistence on personal freedom (the Uranian impulse retained) supporting a feeling of personal empowerment (Pluto).  I see this as a deflection of the transformative Uranus-Pluto energy into a more ego-bound outlet for that energy.  Because it is unprocessed psychic content, it can become an intense and powerful motivator, galvanized by deep Plutonian emotion.

Of course, there were also all those who never participated in the Counterculture and who, instead, had reacted negatively toward it.  They continued to harbor resentment and fear toward expressions of the Counterculture, particularly as they saw them being incorporated (at least partially) into public policy and social mores.  By the mid-1990s, antipathy toward the remnants of the Counterculture, the outcomes of the Sexual Revolution and the Free Speech Movement, and the limited progress against racism made by the Civil Rights Movement combined in a Uranian-Plutonian reactionary movement that grew in strength as the first Uranus-Pluto square approached.

It must also be recognized that the Uranian-Plutonian energy flowing through the Countercultural Revolution had profound effects upon the individual consciousness of a great many people who participated in that movement.  In fact, it can be said that, perhaps more than any other phenomenon occurring during the period of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, the Countercultural Revolution was a result of those internal changes in consciousness and awareness that was occurring among the youth of that period, especially those born after World War II.  Perhaps the closest parallel to the Counterculture in modern history was the Transcendentalist Movement that occurred during the previous period of Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the late 1840s and early 1850s.

There is much to be said for the belief that large numbers of the generation that participated in the Countercultural Revolution were reincarnated souls who had lived in Atlantis during its last days.  Speculation would also not be out of order that a great many members of that generation had recently endured the traumatic events occurring in Nazi Germany, either as Jews or as concentration camp guards or Nazi officials, as well as the trauma of the violence accompanying the India-Pakistan partition in 1947.  Those traumas can be seen as opening up the consciousness of those individuals to the realities of how the world functions on a cosmic scale, preparing them for the intense and transformative (Pluto) revelations (Uranus) that would come pouring into their minds during this lifetime.

The Sexual Revolution

Rick Levine in his article in the 2021-2022 edition of The Mountain Astrologer pointed to the advent of the birth control pill (approved by the FDA on June 23, 1960) as the start of the Sexual Revolution that accompanied the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  The chart for that day (I do not have a time for the announcement) is quite interesting.  Uranus and Pluto were not yet in conjunction (15 degrees separated them), but Pluto was very active in the chart, being involved in a Grand Trine with Mars and Jupiter (signaling the expanded sexual activity that the pill would permit).  Pluto was also opposed by Chiron, perhaps signaling that a sexuality liberated from a set of mores supported by the threat of pregnancy could lead to emotionally wounding situations. [Note that Chiron was active all throughout and even before the period of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, successively opposing Uranus and Pluto.]  A ring of sextiles around the chart was uncompleted by a gap between Neptune and Jupiter but otherwise involved Neptune, Pluto, Venus partile conjunct Sun (and possibly Moon depending on the time of day), Mars, Chiron and Jupiter.

In Tarnas’ framework, the Sexual Revolution should be viewed as Uranus powering Pluto, or the forces of Uranian change acting on the field of Plutonian sexuality (and power).  The power dynamic inherent in the Sexual Revolution was the empowerment of women (and men) to take control of their own bodies and sexuality.  This involved the Uranian liberation of sexuality from the outmoded strictures of a theocratic morality (Uranus and Pluto acting on and through Virgo).  It called upon those who were liberating themselves from those sexual codes to become self-responsible for the outcomes of their sexual behavior, taking Virgo’s energy and meaning to a higher level.

A milestone in this quest for liberation from confining and theocratic strictures was Griswold vs. Connecticut, in which the Supreme Court ruled that couples had a fundamental right to sexual privacy and that government could not intrude on that right.  The decision on June 7, 1965 occurred as Uranus and Pluto approached their first exact conjunction.  Griswold formed the legal basis for what can be considered the denouement of the Sexual Revolution, Roe vs. Wade, decided three years after the final parting of Uranus and Pluto. 

The liberation of sexual mores was by no means universally accepted, however.  Even many of those who welcomed the pill into their personal lives were aghast at the display of sexual freedom they saw rolling through society like a tremendous wave.  Particularly, they felt that the Countercultural ideal of “free love” had gone too far.  Large portions of society were not prepared to accept this much Uranian change and, so, internally and publicly they resisted and condemned what they perceived as the excesses of the Sexual Revolution.

This Uranian reaction (resistance to change) fostered a Plutonian reaction—a push to take back control over the free expression of sexuality and use Plutonian power to reassert authority over (particularly female) bodies.  The incredible force of Uranian change during the 1960s seemed to overpower the forces of Plutonian reaction initially.  However, after Roe vs. Wade (and as the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction began to dissipate), that Plutonian reaction grew stronger and continued to gain strength, becoming the operative dynamic for the Anti-abortion Movement that took shape during the 1980s, 1990s and beyond.

The locus of the Sexual Revolution in female bodies spurred a companion and closely linked movement—modern Feminism.  Feminist movements had, of course, occurred as early as the late 18^th century, often accompanying (as Tarnas points out), strong Uranus-Pluto contacts.  The contraceptive pill was a major impetus for the modern Feminist Movement in that it freed women from the unpredictability of pregnancy, thus allowing them to enter the work force and to pursue careers with greater confidence.  This, in turn, led to growing calls for economic equality between the sexes, as was noted in the inclusion of gender as a class protected from discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (passed as Uranus and Pluto approached a five degree orb). 

The Uranian-Plutonian movement for Feminist rights went beyond economic equality, however.  Reliable contraception had also opened the door for women to empower their role as equal partners in the sexual relationship and, beyond that, in all phases of humanity.  That the Feminist Movement remained strongly anchored in the feminine body is emblemized by the powerfully influential book, Our Bodies, Ourselves.  Although not commercially published until 1973, the book had its roots in a Women’s Liberation conference in 1969 (Women’s Liberation itself being a powerful Uranian-Plutonian idea). 

Opposition to the modern Feminist Movement was also centered on maintaining and exercising Plutonian control over female bodies.  The Anti-abortion Movement is just one aspect of this phenomenon.  In the economic sphere, this opposition manifested in preventing female bodies from entering heretofore male-dominated professions.  The fact that, throughout the 1970s and beyond, those barriers were continually broken does not diminish the strength of the Plutonian opposition which could not digest the Uranian freedom that women were now demanding.  Even when women were successful in entering “male” professions, opposition continued to try to keep female bodies from roles in which they might access Plutonian power—a struggle which continues today.

The family was another arena in which Plutonian resistance to the Uranus-Pluto inspired Feminist Movement took place.  Unable to digest the more liberated roles which women were claiming in society, growing numbers of men (and women) became intent on reasserting the Plutonian body-controlling concept that a woman’s place was not only in the home but to be subservient to her husband.  We can easily see the roots of such attitudes in subconscious ego defense mechanisms.  We are not only talking about the obvious defense of the “male ego.”  Liberation from societal constraints and greater freedom, in general, is likely to be subconsciously viewed as a pathway toward higher realization which ultimately ends with a recognition of the ego’s unreality.

Another family attitude dynamic that originated in the mid-1960s and gained strength in the 1970s and 1980s was the stigmatization and condemnation of single-parent (i.e., female-headed) households.  This phenomenon combined reaction to feminine power with reaction to Black power.  The 1966 Moynihan Report, released at the height of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, brought the narrative of a dysfunctional, female-dominated, African-American (“Negro” in the parlance of the day) family visibly to public attention.  Unable to digest the possibility of Black feminine power and a changing and liberating dynamic, those reacting to the positive Uranian-Plutonian societal changes projected negative Plutonian images onto Black, female-headed households.  These reactive Uranian (anti-liberation)-Plutonian (anti-empowerment) images only grew stronger as the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction subsided, culminating in the fabricated stereotype of the “welfare queen” and persisting today as an almost visceral fear and opposition to strong feminine figures, especially strong Black feminine persons.

As with the Countercultural Revolution, the Women’s Liberation Movement involved not just a mass consciousness raising but a transformation of individual consciousness.  In common with the Civil Rights Movement, social progress and transformation would not be able to be sustained unless there were changes in individual consciousness.  Within the Civil Rights Movement, this was manifested in the Black Power Movement.  Within the modern Feminist Movement, it was the realization of personal empowerment (Pluto) and a transformation of identity (Uranus) among individuals that powered and energized the Women’s Liberation Movement.  The Women’s Liberation Movement, much more so than the Feminist Movement in general, was a consciousness-raising endeavor with as much emphasis on internal liberation as on external freedoms.

We would be remiss in discussing the Sexual Revolution if we did not include the origins of the Gay Rights Movement.  Attitudes toward homosexuality and gender queerness had begun to liberalize during the 1960s, particularly within the Counterculture and, to some extent, within the Civil Rights Movement.  This more accepting attitude was exemplified in the release of two gender-queer sympathetic singles that received significant airplay, SWLABR by Cream in 1967 and Lola by The Kinks in 1970, as well as in the gender ambiguous persona exhibited by David Bowie.  Yet LGBTQ people by and large continued to suffer persistent and firm Plutonian repression from society as a whole leading a great many LGBTQ persons to remain “in the closet” (a Plutonian response to hide what was frequently judged to be a Shadow part of their psyche).

The seminal Uranian-Plutonian event in the Gay Rights Movement during this period was the Stonewall Uprising in 1969.  Though Uranus and Pluto were separating, their energy was still strong.  Chiron was now opposing Uranus, after opposing Pluto earlier in the decade and the Sun was forming a T-square to that opposition on the night of the Stonewall Uprising, symbolizing the liberation of identity from past (and current) woundings.  Jupiter conjunct the South Node was captured within the wider Pluto-Uranus conjunction adding energy and a compulsion to face, change and transform the heritage of discrimination against LGBTQ sexuality. 

Needless to say, the Uranian-Plutonian bringing out into the open of what may be viewed as alternative sexualities led to the expected equal and opposite reaction.  Yet the process of digesting the legitimate existence of LGBTQ sexuality and their rights for free expression had begun and inexorably pushed forward over the coming decades.

The Chinese Cultural Revolution

The Chinese Cultural Revolution was a complex set of events that bore all the hallmarks of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Some have seen the Cultural Revolution primarily as a mechanism used by Mao Tse Tung to reassert and consolidate his personal power (Pluto) over the Chinese Communist Revolutionary (Uranus) apparatus.  This, however, would ignore the tremendous psychic force with which the Cultural Revolution occurred.  It was a monumental event that enveloped the entire country and in which tens if not hundreds of millions participated.

The initial core of the Cultural Revolution, as proclaimed by Chairman Mao, was to bring about a fundamental change in Chinese society and culture (Uranus) through violent revolution (Pluto powering Uranus) to purge (Pluto) the Party and the nation of reactionary and counter-revolutionary forces and ideas (the undigested, resistant elements to the Communist Revolution (Uranus)).  The idea that the nation needed to be purified to reach ideological perfection is strongly reflective of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction acting through Virgo.  Whatever the Plutonian excesses of the Cultural Revolution, the ideal was to achieve a total and radical transformation of the Chinese collective consciousness in order to bring it into alignment with Maoist Thought—a completely Uranian expression.

Mao called for the Cultural Revolution to occur in May 1966, in between the second (retrograde) and last partile conjunction of Uranus and Pluto.  While officially the Cultural Revolution was not declared to have ended until Mao’s death in 1976, most of its turmoil—at least as far as the Chinese people experienced—was over by 1971, shortly after Uranus and Pluto had parted their final 10 degree orb contact. 

The Cultural Revolution can initially be viewed as a drive to complete the Uranian revolutionary process that had begun when Uranus and Pluto formed their last semi-square of the previous cycle between 1948 and 1949.  However, Plutonian forces quickly took over and dominated the energy of the Cultural Revolution. In Tarnasian terms we can conceive of this as Uranus (the impetus for revolutionary change) pushing Pluto to its extremes.  An historical counterpart would be the excesses which followed the French Revolution during the Uranus-Pluto opposition of the late 18^th century.

China had been in this “civilization” stage for centuries, if not millennia, with the original cultural institutions and outlooks having long ago crystallized and undergoing a slow decay.  Confucianism, though originating in China’s “culture” period, can be seen as providing a framework for its long “civilization” phase.  Confucianism resulted in rigidly hierarchical and bureaucratic social and political structures that suppressed transformative impulses.  The introduction of capitalism through Western exploitation only exacerbated the hierarchical inequalities in Chinese society.  Much of this occurred during the last Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the period between the two Opium Wars.

It is against this historical backdrop that we can view the violent eruption of Plutonian power that occurred during the Cultural Revolution.  In a sense, this eruption was the result of centuries of collective psychic energy repressed by a rigid and corrupt system.  When Mao called for the final overthrow of the remnants of that system, the storm of that bottled up psychic energy was released.  Since China had for so long enforced a Confucian self-identity of moral correctness, the Uranian release of Plutonian energy during the Cultural Revolution brought out a long-repressed collective Shadow that took over the Movement.  The result was a massive collective distortion of the Uranus-Pluto dynamic. 

The phenomenon of “reeducation” is an example of a distorted Uranian dynamic.  Ostensibly, the “reeducation” of those who had “incorrect thinking” could be viewed as an attempt to raise the consciousness of those holding onto ideas resistant to the more enlightened communist paradigm of collective progress and welfare.  However, with Plutonian methods being employed, the reeducation camps took on a punitive character, often supplying an outlet for the expression of the negative Plutonian qualities of brutality and revenge. 

“Intellectuals” were especially targeted for reeducation.  It was the intellectual bureaucratic classes who had long been the instruments for the Chinese ruling classes to maintain their power over the masses.  Here we can see Uranus opposing its “lower octave,” Mercury, the planet of logic and reason.  Mixed with the Plutonian irrational, Uranian trans-rationality (revelation and non-linear insight) became an anti-rational force. 

Powered by the breaking-boundaries energy of Uranus, the Plutonian psychic energy burst through all former social and moral inhibitions.  We can see a liberation (as in providing unregulated freedom) of the Id taking place in the violence and even depravity that accompanied much of purging that took place during the Cultural Revolution.  Uranus had smashed all boundaries.

The intense Pluto energy unleashed during this period also manifested as an obsession with power.  Very quickly, the Cultural Revolution became enmeshed in a series of complicated power struggles that occurred at all levels of the Revolution.  Local Revolutionary Councils charged with implementing the Cultural Revolution split into factions (Uranus), each vying for power over the Movement (or over the apparatus of the Movement).   The formation of factions within the Cultural Revolution opened opportunities for those institutional forces whose power was threatened by the Revolution to form their own factions, often disguised as supporters of the Revolution, in order to work against the forces of radical transformation and preserve their own power. 

The same power struggles were going on at higher political levels, as well, reaching into the inner ruling circle as Mao tried to remain in control.  Mao himself became caught between his desire to push forward the radical changes called for by the Cultural Revolution and his reactions to the attempts of those around him to gather power (which meant taking power away from Mao).  Besides real ideological differences and contesting for power between conservative elements of the Communist Party (who secretly opposed or only reluctantly supported the Cultural Revolution) and the more radical elements, personal political ambitions were also playing a role in those power struggles.

The factional power struggles (a dysfunctional manifestation of Uranus-Pluto) continued as Uranus separated from Pluto and then moved out of orb.  As Mao became physically weaker, his grip on power also weakened, resulting in the ascendency of the “Gang of Four.”  Deng Xiaoping, who had been exiled from the Communist Party leadership early in the Cultural Revolution, was brought back into the inner circle during the early 1970s. 

Using a 5 degree orb, the semi-square was active from 1984 through March 1989.  Between March 1986 and September 1987, six exact aspects occurred.  Saturn was conjunct Uranus during the period when exact semi-squares were occurring.  Using an 8 degree orb, the opportunity-giving sextile was active from 1991 through 2000.  Six exact sextiles and one near exact sextile occurred from June 1994 until November 1997. 

Using a 10 degree orb, the Uranus-Pluto square began to be active in April 2008.  The planets went out of orb in July 2017 but then moved back into orb for periods lasting until May 2019.  The planets made seven exact squares between June 2012 and March 2015, returning to closely approach an exact square in January 2016. 

Given these aspects, we would predict the following pattern of Uranus-Pluto energy interaction.  From mid-1970 through 1976, we could expect a cooling off period.  Beginning in 1977 and continuing into 1980, the semi-sextile would trigger echoes of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction and we might expect that new pushes for change would be initiated, met with renewed forms of resistance.  We could predict another relatively dormant period from 1981 through 1983 but for unprocessed Uranus-Pluto content to cause more intense energy beginning in 1984 and continuing into early 1989.  We should then see another hiatus of activity until 1991 when we could expect to see both opportunities for change to occur and opportunities for new forms of resistance to develop.  We would expect another hiatus to begin around 2000 until the square begins to manifest in 2008.  We should see periods of the most intense activity occurring in 1978 and 1979, 1986 and 1987, and mid-1994 through 1997, and 2012 through 2016.

Certainly, there were important events that occurred during the “ebbing” periods of the Uranus-Pluto cycle.  Among the most significant were Watergate, the fall of Vietnam, the 1981 recession and the early years of the Reagan administration, the fall of the Soviet Union, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the reaction to George Floyd’s killing and the COVID-19 pandemic.  I think it would be fair to say that ramifications of the undigested Uranus-Pluto energy that was released during the 1960s were evident throughout the period following that conjunction but that there appear to be significant intensifications of unprocessed psychic content during periods of subsequent planetary contact.  Of course, putting this in some perspective, over the five decades since that conjunction occurred, Uranus and Pluto were not in orb of an aspect for only 21 years.  We shall examine the events of those five decades to see how well they clustered in the 29 years that those planets were within orb and, particularly, within the 11 years when we might expect the most intense activity to occur.

Manifestations of unprocessed collective psychic energy from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction can occur in two forms.  The first are attempts to move those changes that were initiated during the period of the conjunction further along.  This reflects the work of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction that was left undone and, therefore, can be considered as unprocessed.  The second form in which unprocessed energy would manifest is as continued (and intensifying) reaction to the changes in society that occurred during the conjunction—the result of the failure to positively process that energy and those changes.  We shall examine the movements we discussed in the previous two posts, although we will lump the Free Speech Movement in with the Countercultural Revolution, as both combined are targets of the “culture wars.”

Civil Rights and Racial Justice

The momentum developed for civil rights during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction continued during the early and mid-1970s as that energy was digested by the collective.  In 1971, the Supreme Court’s Griggs vs. Duke Energy decision legitimized affirmative action by declaring that practices could be considered discriminatory if their outcomes created racial disparities even if there was no intent to discriminate.  Also in 1971, the Supreme Court ruled that busing could be used to remedy de facto segregation in schools.  Gains continued to be made, chiefly in increased African-American participation in politics and other spheres of public life.  In 1972, Congress expanded the 1964 Civil Rights Act to broaden its coverage.

Backlash (the undigested collective imperative for change) began developing even before the first subsequent Uranus-Pluto contact, as when White mobs rioted protesting court-ordered busing in Boston in 1974.  Opposition to civil rights gains intensified throughout the 1970s.  In 1978, at the peak of the Uranus-Pluto semi-sextile, Allan Bakke successfully challenged the University of California’s affirmative action policy, beginning a long process of the erosion of a tool designed to remedy institutional racism. 

The latter half of the 1980s, corresponding to the Uranus-Pluto semi-square saw the beginnings of a movement to effectively re-enslave Black Americans—the era of mass incarceration.  Nixon had set the stage by declaring a War on Drugs in 1973 during the first Uranus-Pluto hiatus period.  However, Uranian forces of change seemed to be regrouping during the Uranus-Pluto semi-sextile with Jimmy Carter running on a platform that included decriminalizing marijuana and seven states actually taking that step during this phase.  (That movement would intensify during the Uranus-Pluto square.)  However, as Uranus approached its semi-square with Pluto, fear (negative Pluto) of urban (code word for Black) crime began to be whipped up for political advantage by both parties.  This fear exploited the unprocessed Uranus-Pluto energy of the conjunction—an energy that rejected African-American liberation (Uranus) from de facto bondage (Pluto) unconsciously (or unspokenly) desiring that this change had never happened. 

The first concrete result of this fear-mongering was the passage of a mandatory minimum sentencing law by the U.S. Congress as Uranus and Pluto began a series of exact semi-square contacts.  This law contained provisions with significantly harsher sentences for crack cocaine (a drug of choice in the African-American community) versus powder cocaine (a drug of choice among affluent Whites).  The result was a swelling of the prison population during the late 1980s with Black males making up a disproportionate number of inmates.  It is astrologically noteworthy that, during this time, Saturn was conjunct Uranus, suggesting the restriction of freedom, which literally translates into putting people in jail.

White supremacy movements grew during this period, emblemized by the ascendency of David Duke as a public figure.  In 1988, following the period of exact semi-square contacts but well within the orb of the aspect, he ran for the Democratic Party Presidential nomination and then for President on a minor party ticket.  We can view White supremacy movements during this and subsequent periods as demonstrating an inability to accept and process the Uranian-Plutonian changes that had occurred during the time of the previous conjunction.

1991 saw Uranus and Pluto coming within orb of a sextile, signaling opportunities for further processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy but also opportunities for the development of more forms of resistance to that energy.  Directly following the end of the Uranus-Pluto semi-square period, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a number of decisions that weakened the employment discrimination provisions of the Civil Rights Act.  Congress attempted to strengthen the law in 1990 (a hiatus year) but President Bush vetoed the bill (fearing too much change: Uranian reaction).  As the sextile came into orb in 1991, a somewhat weaker bill was passed and signed as the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

However, the 1990s also brought opportunities for unprocessed psychic energy to reassert itself into the collective.  The Plutonian institution of policing had been particularly resistant to Uranian forces of change and freedom and police brutality had never gone away.  The 1991 beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles brought opportunities for police brutality to be exposed (Uranus acting on Pluto) but the 1992 decision acquitting the officers involved showed the strength of the collective resistance to ending the arbitrary use of power by the police.  The result was a Plutonian explosion of insurrection (Uranus) on a scale that had not been seen since the 1960s.

Calls to deal with “urban violence” grew more intense and in 1994 Congress passed a “three strikes and your out” law after a similar law had passed by referendum in California.  This provided a new mechanism powering the mass incarceration of Black males.  Simultaneously, the enactment of “welfare reform” further stigmatized poor Black women and forced an expansion of the labor force “willing” to work for minimum wages.  The turmoil created by the crack epidemic that occurred during the Uranus-Pluto semi-square had already contributed to a decimation of Black pride, particularly in urban neighborhoods.  By the time the Uranus-Pluto sextile had moved out of orb, there were 26 times the number of Blacks in prison than there had been in 1983 before the semi-square.  This can be viewed as a large scale oppression (Pluto) of the struggle for freedom and individual autonomy (Uranus) based upon the empowerment of the unprocessed psychic energy from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

The Uranus-Pluto square saw an intensification of both the urge toward greater freedom and anti-racism (Pluto powering Uranus) and the assertion of unprocessed Pluto-Uranus energy with the two forces coming into open conflict.  Police murders of Black people and other people of color had been a common occurrence for decades.  One could say that the antecedent of this phenomenon can be found in the widespread lynchings that occurred from Reconstruction through the 1950s.  With the energy of the Uranus-Pluto square acting on the collective, however, the brutality (Pluto) of standard police practice involving people of color was being publicly revealed (Uranus acting on Pluto). 

The sequence of unjustified killings of Blacks begins with the vigilante killing of Trayvon Martin in 2012 as the planets reached their first exact square.  This was met with the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013, an expression of Pluto powering Uranian forces,  Those unable to digest the implications of that movement (that in America, Black lives have not mattered) countered with proclamations of “all lives matter” and “blue lives matter.”  With Uranus and Pluto still making exact squares, the situation intensified and exploded with the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.  There followed a series of high-profile police shootings of unarmed Blacks with forceful and sometimes violent reaction following.  This culminated in 2020 with the murder of George Floyd and the protests it sparked, occurring after the planets had passed out of orb but (as Richard Tarnas has contended) with the energy released by that contact still remaining active.  While Uranian forces had been reenergized during the square, this had been met with Plutonian backlash from the undigested psychic content. 

The events in Ferguson and later after the George Floyd killing also possessed elements of undigested Uranus-Pluto energy working itself out.  In this case, the unprocessed energy was the failure of the gains made during the 1960s to end police violence (Pluto) directed at the Black community.  The reaction triggered by the Uranus-Pluto square involved unconscious, highly charged forces (Pluto) engaging in open rebellion (Uranus) against oppression (Pluto).

Emblematic of the unprocessed collective Uranus-Pluto energy is the rapid growth of the White supremacy movement during the time of the square.  We can date this to Donald Trump’s relaunch of the Birther movement in 2011.  The election of Barrack Obama in 2008, as Uranus and Pluto had just come within orb, can be seen as a sort of culmination or empowerment (Pluto) of the Uranian energy behind the Civil Rights Movement.  It can certainly be viewed as a transformative moment in American history.  However, the idea that a Black man could be President of the United States must have come as a traumatic shock to those who had resisted and continued to resist the transformative energy of Uranus-Pluto.  Thus, while this event energized the Civil Rights Movement and particularly its Black Pride element, it also equally energized those forces opposing the Movement.

When Trump ran for the Presidency beginning in 2015, while Uranus and Pluto were still in close aspect, he whipped up fear and hatred not with the dog whistles that had been used in the past, but overtly appealing to the putrefying undigested Uranus-Pluto collective dysfunction.  These overt appeals jump started his campaign and significantly contributed to his win in 2016, while the square was separating but still within orb.  White supremacist groups openly supported Trump’s candidacy and rejoiced in his Presidency.  The infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia drew on the reinvigoration of the unprocessed Uranus-Pluto energy (the even occurred just as the planets slipped out of orb temporarily). 

While other factors may have also been at work, I would contend that the difficult energy associated with the Uranus-Pluto square pushed that part of the collective that had not processed the energy of the conjunction into extreme dysfunctionality.  This dysfunctionality has manifested in the creation of an “alternate universe,” spawning widely held conspiracy theories, the birth of QAnon, and the amazing receptivity to the “Big Lie” that Donald Trump actually won the 2020 election. 

This dysfunctional psychic energy has been exploited for political purposes.  It is difficult to say how much this has occurred solely motivated by a need to retain power (Pluto) and how much has occurred as part of an attempt to reverse the gains for greater freedom and tolerance (Uranus) made through the Civil Rights Movement during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Instrumental in this exploitation has been the 2013 decision of the Supreme Court that gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a decision occurring in the midst of the series of exact Uranus-Pluto squares.  This decision released (Uranus) those who would hold onto power (Pluto) from the restraints imposed by the Act, allowing them free (Uranus) exercise of power (Pluto) to disrupt (Uranus) the democratic process.  The culminating expression of the unconscious Pluto (raw emotion)-Uranus (rebellion) dysfunction occurred on  January 6, 2021—again suggesting the staying power of the effects of major outer planet contacts.

The Vietnam War and Further Foreign Adventures

The period immediately following the end of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction saw a steady de-escalation of U.S. involvement in the War in Indochina.  The de-escalation and the end of the draft in early 1973 resulted in a significant reduction of anti-War protests in the U.S., an outcome to which the chilling effect of the Kent State murders contributed.  In Vietnam, however, the violence associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction ebbed only slowly and with fits and starts.  For that country, the intensity of the Uranus-Pluto contact had been so severe that unwinding that force was complicated and continued throughout most of the period between the planets’ conjunction and semi-sextile. 

In a sense, the period of American withdrawal followed by more than two years of continuing conflict and the eventual victory of North Vietnamese forces can be seen as a painful processing of the energy unleashed by the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Although ravaged by war, the South had been the ostensible beneficiary of the power (Pluto) brought to bear by the U.S. to try to defeat the Viet Cong rebellion (Uranus).  With that power gone (Pluto exiting the scene), a rebalancing of energies commenced, with the piper having to be paid by the South.  A last echo of the turbulence of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction occurred with the fear, confusion and agony accompanying the fall of Saigon in 1975.  However, the country was finally unified (the division symbolized by Uranus healed or in the process of healing).

One sign that the energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction had significantly abated was that there were no widespread retributions against the South and against those who had collaborated with the U.S-backed regime.  Members of the South Vietnamese elite were sent to re-education camps but, again, this can be viewed as a sort of processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy.  As Uranus approached its semi-sextile with Pluto, however, consequences from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction began to appear.

The seeds of the turmoil that erupted in Cambodia as the semi-sextile approached had their roots in the conjunction period.  In 1970, as the planets were moving out of orb, Lon Nol, Cambodia’s Deputy Prime Minister, overthrew the neutral but Viet Cong sympathetic Prince Sihanouk and established a right-wing dictatorship allied with the U.S. and South Vietnam.  This forced Sihanouk to ally with the heretofore ineffective Cambodian communists under the auspices of China (Cambodia’s natural ally).  The result was the Khmer Rouge coming to power in 1975 under Pol Pot.  Nol had previously ordered massacres of Vietnamese civilians living in Cambodia (1970), so Plutonian violence had already been introduced domestically in Cambodia. 

Beginning prior to the semi-sextile but intensifying as the planets moved into exact alignment, Cambodia experienced a period of extreme (Pluto) ideological radicalization (Uranus) aiming for an ideologically pure (Pluto) utopian state (Uranus) but resulting in mass death (Pluto).  The Khmer Rouge experiment gone awry bore much resemblance to the Chinese Cultural Revolution that had occurred during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

As Uranus and Pluto reached their final exact semi-sextile, Vietnam intervened in the humanitarian crisis and overthrew Pol Pot.  This, however, had unintended consequences.  Both the West and China reacted against the intervention, with China briefly invading Vietnam from the north and the West cutting off economic ties.  This threw the Vietnamese economy into a tailspin and the ensuing economic turmoil prompted a wave of emigration from Vietnam.  Known as the Vietnamese boat people, the refugees consisted predominantly of former middle and upper class Vietnamese who had failed to integrate into communist society after the fall of Saigon.  Symbolically, this can be viewed as an expulsion (Pluto) of unprocessed Uranus-Pluto energy.

Subsequent Uranus-Pluto contacts were far less violent for Vietnam.  In fact, they were more likely to be associated with the successful processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy and the reintegration of Vietnam both internally and internationally.  The Uranus-Pluto semi-square saw a decision by Vietnam’s 6^th Party Congress in 1986 to institute economic reforms to move the country towards more individual economic freedom (Uranus) under the guidance of state capitalism (Pluto).  Economic integration continued through the Uranus-Pluto sextile, with Vietnam and the U.S. signing a bi-lateral trade agreement after the planets departed that aspect in 2001.  By 2007, with the Uranus-Pluto square approaching, Vietnam had joined the World Trade Organization and throughout the square it further integrated through trade agreements into the world economy.

It is widely viewed that the U.S. was chastened by its experience in Vietnam and, through the remainder of the 1970s, the country refrained from further foreign adventurism.  However, events at the close of the Uranus-Pluto semi-sextile propelled the U.S. into a new round of asserting its power (Pluto) in opposition to international revolutionary movements (Uranus), a symptom of the undigested energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction (lessons not learned).

The Vietnam affair had been part of the larger U.S.-Soviet contest for global power.  Indeed, many saw Vietnam as a proxy war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.  Part of the U.S. strategy in this global conflict was to ally with and lend support to anti-communist leaders, even if they were totalitarian dictators.  Frequently such support enabled these dictators (Pluto) to repress revolutionary drives for greater freedom (Uranus) within their own countries.  Such was the case with the Shah of Iran.

In 1979, revolutionary forces (Uranus) led by an ideologically radical (Uranus) Shi’ite group toppled the Shah of Iran and expressed their newfound power (Pluto) by directing it against the U.S. (the Great Satan—a personification of Pluto, god of the underworld).  Domestically within the U.S,, the Iran Hostage Crisis contributed significantly to the weakening of Jimmy Carter and the election of Ronald Reagan as President.  Significantly, Saturn (identified with conservative political climates) would conjunct Pluto in 1982 and conjunct Uranus from 1986 to 1989, at the height of the Uranus-Pluto semi-square. 

U.S. adventurism (Pluto) against revolutionary movements (Uranus) that it considered threatening to its interests (Pluto) began in 1983, in advance of the semi-square, with the invasion of the Caribbean island of Grenada, ostensibly to restore order amidst political unrest but in reality to depose a communist-led government.  The invasion sparked an anti-war demonstration of 50,000 people but, since military action was brief, this Uranian opposition to the Plutonian exercise of power was short lived.

U.S. interventionism under the Reagan Administration had also begun pre-semi-square in the central American nations of El Salvador and Nicaragua.  The scale of these “clandestine” (Pluto) interventions opposing revolutionary movements (Uranus) escalated during the Uranus-Pluto semi-square.  The first exact contacts in 1986 saw the revelation (Uranus) of the formerly secret (Pluto) Iran-Contra Affair.  This did not diminish support for U.S. efforts to stop El Salvadoran rebels and to destabilize the revolutionary Nicaraguan regime, however.  Throughout this period, anti-war protests occurred but on a much smaller scale and with significantly less impact than the Vietnam War protests that had occurred during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

We can view these events in the context of unprocessed Uranus-Pluto content from a few directions.  First, it represents the nation’s attempts to come to grips with its experience of the Vietnam War by reasserting American power (Pluto).  In this sense, it is an attempt to process the energy of that conjunction.  From another perspective, this is repeating the same mistakes that were made during the previous conjunction—opposing and repressing revolutionary change rather than empowering it.  From another perspective, we see the weakened Uranian reaction to the exercise of Plutonian power in the smaller and less effective anti-war movement, perhaps a reflection of the difference in the power of the conjunction versus the semi-square.  Certainly, all the way around, the Uranian-Plutonian experience of the 1980s was far less traumatic than during the 1960s, including for the people of Central America compared to those in Vietnam.

During the period of the semi-square, the U.S. was involved in another Uranian-Plutonian foreign conflict but in this one the nation used its covert power (Pluto) to support revolutionary forces (Uranus) against an enemy power (Pluto).  This was the U.S. support for the Mujahedeen forces in Afghanistan fighting against the Soviets.  The Mujahedeen became the Taliban once the Soviets were defeated in Afghanistan and this, of course, set up a dynamic of extreme consequence for the United States.  Significantly, neither 9/11 nor the major part of the Iraq War happened during a Uranus-Pluto contact.  The period of the sextile was largely uneventful with respect to foreign intervention (Bosnia does not fit the Uranus-Pluto pattern) and the Uranus-Pluto square did not seem to be accompanied by extraordinary issues involving the use of power in the face of revolutionary change—except for the Arab Spring.

I do not see events in the Middle East heretofore having been connected to the Uranus-Pluto conjunction and subsequent contacts.  The occurrence of the 7-day War between Israel and her Arab neighbors during the period of the conjunction seems to be accidental and not tied to either previous or subsequent events involving Uranus and Pluto.  However, the Arab Spring has all of the hallmarks of a Uranus-Pluto dynamic—revolutionary (Uranus) empowerment (Pluto) directed against corrupt power (negative Pluto).  In the Arab world, the unprocessed Uranus-Pluto energy had remained dormant and suppressed by powerful ruling elites (Pluto) for decades.  The Uranus-Pluto square seemed to have awakened (Uranus) that energy, igniting an intense revolutionary fervor.

The square, while capable of activating and energizing the energies symbolize by the planets involved, also symbolizes difficulties and setbacks.  Thus, we saw that the Uranian uprising of the people was not able to be successful in dislodging negative Plutonian content or, if initially successful, this was overwhelmed by a resurgence of Plutonian power.  This pattern occurred in every country experiencing the Arab Spring except Tunisia.  In Libya and Syria, the inability of the forces unleashed by the Uranus-Pluto energy to successfully gain power resulted in extended civil war (negative Uranus).  In Syria, at least, it appears that the negative Plutonian power has succeeded in squashing the Uranian impulse, while in Libya the Uranian energy seems to have been blocked and transmitted into a prolonged power struggle (negative Pluto).

China: Post-Cultural Revolution

While we’re in Asia, lets look at China and how that nation processed the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution.  As noted in the previous post, while the Cultural Revolution technically continued after the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, its energy was significantly less volatile during the early to mid-seventies.  Mao died in 1976, as Uranus and Pluto approached their semi-sextile.  As the planets entered orb, Deng Xiaoping began the process of unraveling the Revolution and moving China towards a more capitalist economy.  We can see this move in a number of ways.  In one sense, this was a processing of the leftover energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, an attempt at normalization.  From another perspective, this can be seen as a turning away from the unfinished business of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction and an abandonment of the Uranian-Plutonian intension of the Cultural Revolution.  From yet another perspective, this move can be seen as the ascendency of forces that were in reaction to the Uranus-Pluto energy, the taking of control (Pluto) by those forces who always thought that the Cultural Revolution was moving too far and too fast (Uranian resistance).

The capitalization of the Chinese economy continued, representing a change in direction (Uranus) for the Communist Revolution initiated by Mao.  However, the Communist Party retained political control (Pluto) over the country.  During the time of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, political power (Pluto) had fragmented (Uranus), allowing greater freedom and autonomy for various political factions.  Historically, China has always had a dynamic in which the central power (Pluto) had difficulty maintaining control over the outlying provinces (Uranian separation and independence).  As Deng solidified his own power during the semi-sextile phase, he also began a process of the Party apparatus regaining control over the nation (Pluto ascendency over Uranus energy).  While still not complete with regard to provincial autonomy even today, that power has steadily grown and, with it, a doctrine of absolute power and control (Pluto) by the Communist Party.

This led to built up pressure that can be viewed in light of unresolved issues of Uranian freedom and individual autonomy that arouse (albeit in a form that was too intense and chaotic) during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  Those issues began to reassert themselves as Uranus and Pluto went into semi-square aspect.  The pressure reached a climax just after the planets left their semi-square contact (given a 5 degree orb) in 1989 with the Tiananmen Square massacre.

That incident suppressed and drove underground (Pluto) the Chinese democratization movement.  During the planets’ sextile in the 1990s, the central Party continued to consolidate power while the Chinese economy grew rapidly under state capitalism.  There was one significant event, however, that occurred at the end of the period of exact sextile contacts that would prove significant in the future—the British handover of Hong Kong to mainland China in 1997.  The political and cultural freedom (Uranus) that was alive in Hong Kong constituted a threat to the Party’s ideology of total political control and, now that Hong Kong was incorporated into China, the opportunity for the introduction of subversive ideas about political freedom (Uranus-Pluto) was now there, and seen as a threat by the Chinese Communist Party.

The issue lay largely dormant as long as the Party abided by the agreement to maintain two systems.  In 2012, as Uranus and Pluto reached their first exact square, Xi Jinping emerged as the Chinese Communist Party leader, beginning a new push for the suppression of any political dissent (Pluto acting against Uranus) and the consolidation of Plutonian power.  As China increasingly dealt with its own dissident movement during the Uranus-Pluto square, pressure built to defang the latent threat to the Party’s power inherent in Hong Kong.  Subsequent moves to assert central Party control over Hong Kong (Pluto) prompted the emergence of an independence movement (Uranus) in Hong Kong in 2014 in the midst of a series of exact squares involving the two planets.  The Uranian response heightened in 2016, directly after the last exact contact, with a strong Uranian reaction to the imposition of Plutonian power and control over Hong Kong by China.  The contest continued after Uranus and Pluto had moved out of orb, growing even more intense during this post-square period.  As with the Arab Spring, however, Plutonian forces increasingly dominated,  leading to the effective defeat of the Hong Kong student rebellion (Uranus).  Undoubtedly, unresolved Uranus-Pluto issues will persist and are likely to blow up again when Pluto and Uranus move into opposition later in the century.

The Sexual Revolution and the Feminist Movement

Two seminal events that defined much of the sexual revolution and the feminist movement, post-sixties, actually took place during the hiatus period after Uranus and Pluto had moved out of orb of their conjunction and well before they approached their semi-sextile contact.  These were the Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion in 1973 and the passage by Congress of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) in 1972.  Both events can be viewed as post-conjunction culminations of those respective movements.  Both sparked intense reaction from those forces unable or unwilling to accept those change-oriented outcomes that were associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

The Uranus-Pluto semi-sextile saw the first signs of opposition to the changes that had occurred during the sexual revolution and through the feminist movement, catalyzed by the two foregoing events.  The first moves to counter these gains actually occurred just prior to the two planets coming into semi-sextile orb.  In 1976, the Hyde Amendment banning the use of federal funds for abortion services was passed and that year the Republican Party adopted an anti-abortion plank as part of its platform.  It was also during the semi-sextile period beginning in the late 1970s that Christian evangelical groups joined the anti-abortion movement (they had remained neutral until then).

Abortion is a complicated matter.  Practically no one thinks it is inherently a good thing.  Support for it is centered around the idea that women should have the freedom (Uranus) to control their own sexual destiny (birth/sexuality-Pluto).  Opposition, on the other hand, while ostensibly based in a concept of morality, was powered by the intense desire to impose (Pluto) that morality in order to control behavior involving sexuality (Pluto control and sexuality) in order to restrict freedom (Uranus). 

The ERA had been quickly ratified by Congress and ratified by a large number of states before the late 1970s.  However, in 1979, as Uranus and Pluto reached a series of exact semi-sextiles, the movement to oppose adoption of the ERA went into high gear with the recisionist movement, seeking to allow state legislators to withdraw their ratifications.  The following year, with the semi-square still in orb, NOW (the National Organization for Women) began aggressively pushing for ERA approval.  That same year, the Republican Party formally opposed the ERA for the first time.  By 1982, the opposition was successful in blocking the ERA three states short of ratification.

Opposition to (and support for) the ERA involved unresolved Uranus-Pluto issues.  The unprocessed content on the Uranian side was a belief that the ERA went too far, too fast in providing women with equal rights.  On the Plutonian side, we can put forward that the underlying (unconscious and unprocessed) opposition to the ERA involved fears of loss of patriarchal power and dominance (Pluto) and the desire to maintain control over women—psychological motivations that were consistent with the underlying motivation powering the anti-abortion movement.

While the movement to pass the ERA remained dormant during the Uranus-Pluto semi-square (although NOW resumed an unsuccessful push for ERA enactment during the Uranus-Pluto sextile), the anti-abortion movement intensified during this period.  As the first exact contacts occurred in 1986, Operation Rescue was formed.  This organization was committed to radical (Uranus) and even violent (Pluto) tactics to oppose abortion.  Activities of this organization continued through successive Uranus-Pluto contacts.

A series of Supreme Court decisions that weakened Roe vs. Wade came during or near subsequent periods of Uranus-Pluto contact.  The first was the Webster decision in 1989, a month after Uranus parted from its semi-square to Pluto, which was the first decision upholding a state law restricting abortion rights.  The second major decision weakening Roe vs. Wade, the Casey decision, occurred in 1992 at the start of the Uranus-Pluto sextile.  At the end of this period, in 2000, the Court struck down state laws banning “partial birth abortions.”  Republicans in Congress then passed a federal law banning the practice during the hiatus period (2003) which was challenged in the courts.  However, in 2007, still in the hiatus period but as Uranus approached being in orb to square Pluto, the Supreme Court reversed its earlier decision, signaling a new receptivity to upholding state restrictions on abortion.  This began a wave of restrictive legislation that was enacted at the state level during the square, with the Court upholding most of those laws.  The momentum to effectively overturn Roe vs. Wade has continued past the separation of Uranus from its square to Pluto.

On another front, however, the post-conjunction period saw considerable revolutionary (Uranus) change in attitudes around non-heterosexual sexuality (Pluto).  Public attitudes toward homosexuality had begun to shift earlier, and in 1993, during the Uranus-Pluto sextile, the Clinton Administration instituted the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the U.S. military.  This was still controversial and created backlash within the military ranks, as well as among religious groups who saw homosexuality as a sin against God.  Also, at the beginning of this aspect, the modern transgender rights movement was born with the 1992 publication of Leslie Feinberg’s pamphlet, Transgender Liberation. 

Also beginning in 1992, starting with the District of Columbia, a movement began to pass legislation recognizing the legality of same-sex relationships, tantamount to marriage.  By the end of the sextile period, three states in addition to DC had passed such legislation.  The movement sparked a backlash among those unable to digest this Uranian-Plutonian initiative and in 1996, during the midst of the exact Uranus-Pluto sextiles, the Defense of Marriage Act was passed and signed into law by President Clinton. 

During the hiatus period that followed the sextile, the movement to recognize gay unions accelerated and nine other states passed such legislation, three of them in the year preceding Uranus and Pluto coming into orb of the square.  Once these planets came into orb, 14 more states passed legislation recognizing gay unions before the Supreme Court declared laws banning gay marriage unconstitutional in June 2015 shortly after the last exact Uranus-Pluto square. 

With the pressure of the Uranus-Pluto square still active, the momentum shifted to promoting transgender rights.  Of course, those who were unable to positively process the change in public opinion continued to demonize gay sex and fight sex education initiatives that sought to normalize LGBTQ sexuality.  The negative reaction to the transgender rights movement took the form of state legislation criminalizing the use of public restrooms by members of the opposite sex.  This culminated in North Carolina’s infamous “bathroom bill” enacted in 2016.  Subjected to public ridicule and economic boycotts, and with a newly elected Democratic Governor, the act was repealed in 2017, with the Uranus-Pluto square still in orb.

Another expression of the Uranus-Pluto square was the accelerated attention given to combating sexual exploitation by men in positions of power.  This movement, brought to public attention as the Me Too Movement (which actually originated during the hiatus period prior to the Uranus-Pluto square), can be viewed as forced (square) change (Uranus) in attitudes about sex and power (Pluto) resulting in the overthrow (Uranus) of powerful male figures (Pluto).  It was foreshadowed as the Uranus-Pluto sextile began in 1991 in the accusations by Anita Hill against Supreme Court Justice nominee Clarence Thomas. 

While founded in 2006 prior to the square coming into orb, the Movement accelerated (some might say exploded in Plutonian fashion) in 2017 after allegations against Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault and exploitation went public, provoking an intense (Pluto) reaction and calls for change (Uranus), as well as deposing (Uranus) Weinstein from his position of power (Pluto).  Those accusation had originated in 2015 (at the end of the period of exact squares).  Prior to the Weinstein accusations coming to public attention, during 2016, similar accusations were made against then Presidential candidate Donald Trump.  2018, with Uranus and Pluto still in orb, saw a reprise of the Hill-Thomas accusations when Christine Ford accused Bret Kavanaugh of sexual assault.  Though dramatic changes were occurring, there was still much unprocessed energy and both Trump and Kavanaugh escaped consequences for their actions.  The energy unleashed by the square has continued past its separation, the most recent and notable example being the downfall of Andrew Cuomo, occurring two years after the planets moved out of orb.

Post-Counterculture—the Culture Wars

After the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, the momentum of the Counterculture began to lessen, though the forces that had been set in motion continued to progress.  Two vectors dominated the early years after the conjunction had passed.  One was the Back to the Land or commune movement.  This was exemplified by the trek to Summertown, Tennessee and the founding of The Farm by Stephen Gaskin in 1971, though there were a great many more rural communes that arose or were attempted during this period as well.  This movement simultaneously represented a further integration and processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy—a separation (Uranus) from the mainstream in order to create a transformative (Pluto) society.  In another sense, it symbolized the failure of the larger collective to process that energy.  The Counterculture was moving out-of-sight/out-of-mind, becoming less visible as hippies exited the cities.

A second vector was the further radicalization (Uranus) of the political wing of the Counterculture and its turn toward violence (Pluto) as a means to achieve its revolutionary ends.  While this can be viewed as a further empowerment of the Uranus-Pluto energy, it can also be viewed as unprocessed or out-of-control Pluto-Uranus energy, generated by the collective’s failure to positively process the Uranian drive for change in Plutonian power relationships within society.  This expression of continuing Uranus-Pluto energy also triggered intense resistance to this force expressed in the Establishment’s violent (Pluto) reaction (Uranus) and repression of these more radical political movements (SDS Days of Rage, Weatherman, Symbionese Liberation Army, Black Panthers). 

A third vector also developed as Uranus and Pluto further separated from their conjunction.  Large numbers of participants in the Countercultural Revolution who did not retreat out of sight into rural communes and who were not marginalized through police repression re-entered the System and, in the process, introduced and incorporated Countercultural ideas into the mainstream.  Two examples of this phenomenon are the natural birthing movement and the conscious eating movement. 

While natural childbirth (e.g., the Lamaze method) had been around since the 1950s, Frederick Leboyer’s 1975 publication of Birth Without Violence introduced Countercultural values of Peace, Love and Harmony into the birthing process.  While this event occurred during the Uranus-Pluto hiatus period, its influence spread during the subsequent semi-sextile contact.  A movement toward home births gained momentum and birthing centers designed to replicate the gentler atmosphere of a home birth began to appear in hospitals. 

Along with the movement for gentle births, former participants in the Counterculture turned toward breastfeeding as a more natural way to feed infants than bottle-feeding, which had been almost exclusively the practice during the mid-20^th century.  While the practice of breastfeeding became widespread, the right to breastfeed in public became a matter of controversy as Uranus approached its square to Pluto.  A 2007 incident in which a nursing mother was asked to leave an Applebee’s spoked a “nurse-out.  During the period of the square, several incidents occurred involving repressive reactions public breastfeeding (a manifestation of unprocessed collective energy surrounding sexuality (Pluto) and women’s rights).

During the Countercultural Revolution, many participants became aware of the value of natural foods and vegetarianism.  This led to the growth of natural food co-ops during the post-conjunction hiatus period.  Small, independent natural foods stores also began to spring up in areas with large former-hippie populations.  These grew during the period approaching the semi-sextile contact.  For instance, the Dinner for Earth opened in Asheville, North Carolina in 1975.  By 1975, in Austin, Texas, there were several natural foods grocery stores and juice bars.  In 1978, during the semi-sextile, Whole Foods was formed in Austin.  That store began its expansion into other markets in 1984, as Uranus and Pluto came into semi-square orb.  That same year, Dinner for Earth became Earth Fare.  During the 1990s, during the Uranus-Pluto sextile, Whole Foods began expanding by acquiring other natural food grocers.  Earth Fare, too, beginning in 1997, with Uranus and Pluto making exact sextiles, began its expansion beyond Asheville.  During the Uranus-Pluto square, the natural foods movement took a more militant turn with the advent of aggressive veganism. 

Both the natural birthing/mothering and natural foods movements represent a deepened processing of the positive Uranus-Pluto energy—transformative change occurring within the collective.  This positive processing allowed Uranian ideas that were spawned in the Countercultural Revolution to become a more conscious part of the collective. 

During the post-conjunction period, however, there was major and growing push-back and reaction to the incorporation of Countercultural values into the mainstream.  Politically, those values translated into a demand for the actualization of democratic idealism—bringing into concrete form the promises of “liberty and justice for all” that we had all been taught were the principles on which America was founded.  The actualization of democratic idealism, however, poses a threat to that part of the collective that refused to incorporate the transformative imperatives associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

This threat occurred on at least two levels.  At one level, democratic idealism is a threat to the vested interests (Pluto) that hold power in the U.S.  This is because the actualization of democratic idealism would bring radical change (Uranus) that would redistribute wealth and power (Pluto) causing those who currently hold inordinate amounts of power and wealth to give up some of this wealth and power.  That is fundamentally antipathetic to an ego-dominated outlook. 

The perceived threat to wealth and power is not confined to members of the governing elites.  There are large numbers of Americans who have historically benefited from the existing power relationship and who fear a loss of status, opportunity, economic position and power should those existing power relationships change to become more fairly distributed.  The privileges gained from the existing power relationship are not strictly hierarchical.  In other words, largely but not exclusively because of race dynamics, there are large numbers of people at nearly all socio-economic levels who enjoy some degree of power/privilege over others (both domestically and internationally), even though they themselves may be exploited by those with more power and wealth. 

This threat creates a broadly felt psychological need within the collective to defend the status quo against transformative change because transformative change is viewed as negatively impacting their personal (ego) welfare.  This need is linked to a significant amount of unprocessed psychic collective content.  One powerful mechanism preventing this content from being processed by the collective is the denial of its existence—the contention that nothing is wrong with the status quo—that injustices do not exist or that they have been overblown.  This constitutes a denial of responsibility.  If there are no injustices, if those experiencing negative consequences can be blamed for their situations, then individuals are allowed to avoid any responsibility for the misfortunes falling upon a perceived few.

The perception that nothing is wrong, however, does not hold when those forces pushing for the actualization of democratic idealism are viewed.  To the unprocessed collective, those forces are very wrong.  Mirroring this intense emotion, those identifying with the forces attempting to actualize democratic idealism perceive those who refuse to process the content of the transformative change initiated during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction as themselves being very wrong.  Hence, the current intense Plutonian polarization over Uranian change.

The second level on which the unprocessed collective feels threatened by democratic idealism is on the level of identity.  Let’s briefly return to the transformative changes that occurred in America during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction in the 1960s and what was demanded of the collective by the transformative force symbolized by the two planets.  The transformative energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction demanded of the collective that:

·       it acknowledge the primal trauma of slavery and bring Blacks (as well as other marginalized peoples of color) into full citizenship, politically, economically, socially and culturally;

·       it liberate sexuality from the Puritanical constraints that had previously governed this area of human experience;

·       it acknowledge women as equally empowered as men in all facets of society;

·       it allow the free expression of ideas; and

·       it reject a value system based upon materialism and ego in favor or a value system based upon Love, principles of the Oneness of All, and goals of peace and harmony.

I am positing that those members of the collective who rejected and resisted those imperatives that were coming from the more transcendent dimensions of the collective consciousness strongly identified with the status quo and the symbols of the status quo.  In other words, they identify with the antitheses of the change and symbols of change that arose during the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  We can characterize the identification of the unprocessed collective psyche as White, Christian, male-dominated, heterosexual, restrictive, materialistic and capitalistic.  This should not imply that those processing the Uranus-Pluto content necessarily reject or do not include those identities; only that the unprocessed collective tends to identify exclusively with these identities.

Identification with group identity is a Uranian phenomenon.  It is a step in the process of individuation, which is the central Uranian transformative goal.  The inherent danger of group identification is that, in strongly identifying with the group, members will feel threatened by anything that challenges that group’s identity.  The intense Plutonian imperative for transformation, as expressed by the changes that occurred during and after the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, represent such challenges and were, therefore, received as existential threats to the identity of those who had not processed the release of Uranus-Pluto energy.

As noted earlier in this essay, forces within the collective that were rejecting and resisting the Uranian-Plutonian impulse for change and transformation were active during the 1960s.  Those forces continued to resist and reject the Uranian-Plutonian impulse, refusing and failing to process the Uranian-Plutonian transformational content that had been released into the collective consciousness.  We have addressed, above, much of this reaction and how it manifested during the post-Uranus-Pluto conjunction period.  In this section, we will trace how the unprocessed collective reacted to the embrace, to a greater or lesser extent, of Uranian-Plutonian transformation by large portions of the collective.  That reaction can be subsumed under the rubric of “the culture wars.”

The culture wars can be viewed as a prolonged attack on Uranian-Plutonian transformational values and their symbols by organized elements of the unprocessed collective.  The culture wars drew on and fed the unprocessed Uranus-Pluto psychic collective energy released during the conjunction of the 1960s.  The “attack” from the “other side” of the culture wars should be viewed primarily as the threat felt by the unprocessed collective generated by the incorporation of transformational Uranus-Pluto values and constructs into mainstream society.  In other words, this is substantially a one-sided “war” and without the attack from the unprocessed collective, there would be no culture wars.  The “war” conducted by the transformative elements of society has been to continue to process the Uranus-Pluto energy in order to transform society.  Given the existence of such large “amounts” of unprocessed Uranus-Pluto psychic energy in the collective, it seems almost inevitable that the culture wars should be taking place.

The “outbreak” of the culture wars can be traced to the period of the Uranus-Pluto semi-sextile in the late 1970s.  In 1977, as the two planets began to come into aspect, Pat Robertson founded the CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) cable network and CBN University in Virginia Beach, Virginia.  I believe that the location of CBN was no cosmic accident.  Virginia Beach is home to the Edgar Cayce Institute and, although the Cayce Institute remains firmly rooted in Christianity (as was its namesake), it symbolizes a metaphysic upon which the Countercultural Revolution drew—the recognition of higher levels of consciousness, karma, reincarnation, etc.  CBN and CBN University, thus, constitute a counterpoint at the other metaphysical pole—symbolizing the extreme polarization that the culture wars would create in American society.

The founding of CBN was followed in 1979 by the founding of the Moral Majority by Jerry Falwell as Uranus and Pluto hit their last exact semi-sextile.  Both the Moral Majority and CBN would be instrumental in consolidating the force of the unprocessed collective and bringing that force into the political sphere.

The Pluto-Uranus semi-square saw the further development of the infrastructure supporting the culture wars.  There were also challenges to these forces that occurred during this period.  In 1988, after the last exact semi-square but while the planets were still in orb, Pat Robertson made an unsuccessful Presidential bid.  The political power of the Christian right was generally seen to be weakening and in 1989, the Moral Majority was disbanded.  It was replaced, however, in the same year by the newly formed Christian Coalition, which would see its power revive during the Uranus-Pluto opportunity-giving sextile.

When Pluto and Uranus came within orb again, Bill Clinton was elected President.  The Democratic Party had become identified with the advancement of several elements associated with the transformative Uranus-Pluto energy.  More to the point, Clinton himself was viewed by those within the unprocessed collective as a man of loose moral character—a perception that was affirmed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal that broke in late 1997 and persisted through the Clinton impeachment in late 1998 (these events occurred during and after the last Uranus-Pluto sextile exact contact).  The Clinton impeachment itself had symbolic elements of Uranus (change/overthrow)-Pluto (power/sexuality) energy. 

In 1994, as Uranus and Pluto neared an exact sextile, Newt Gingrich and others introduced the Contract with America—a document that exemplifies the conscious or unconscious desire of members of the unprocessed collective to return to a world that existed pre-Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  The Contract for America resulted in a gain in power (Pluto) for the unprocessed collective in order to oppose changes (Uranus) that were occurring within American politics and society. 

On October 7, 1996, shortly after the fourth out of six exact Uranus-Pluto sextiles, the Fox News Network was formed by Rupert Murdock with Roger Alles installed as its CEO.  Fox News was formed as a vehicle for the unprocessed psychic content resulting from the Uranus-Pluto conjunction to enter the mainstream consciousness and continues to play that role.  It is illustrative to look at the chart for the birth of Fox News.  4:45 pm ET is the time given in news accounts for when Fox News went on the air and the chart is cast of Manhattan (headquarters for Fox News) .

Uranus is closely sextile (35 minutes of arc) Pluto. Pluto has recently entered Sagittarius and is in the ninth house, suggesting the network’s power to shape the worldview of its audience.  Pluto t-squares the Nodal axis and, with it, Saturn and Mercury.  This strengthens the planet and suggests the power wielded by the network in the course of acting as a public communications vehicle transmitting ideas that support the established authority. 

Fox has a Pisces Ascendant, representing the projection of either conservative idealism or a pattern of shifting realities, sowing confusion, opportunism and a loose allegiance to facts. Neptune, the chart ruler, is in the eleventh house conjunct Uranus, emphasizing both the network’s access to the world stage, its role in shaping group identity through ideology, and their revolutionary (oppositional) stand.  It also symbolizes the network’s incorporation of the dreams and values of their audience (members of the unprocessed collective).  Both Uranus and Neptune are trine Mercury, indicating easy communication of these values.  Uranus is in the twelfth house so the two planets are in mutual reception by house, strengthening their influence.  

Neptune (but not Uranus) is square Chiron, suggesting that the illusions perpetrated by the network have caused a dissonant wounding to occur.  However, we can also see in this the need for healing (even if through illusion) of the wounds to the collective consciousness inflicted by the force of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

Saturn is conjunct the South Node in the first house, which emphasizes the network’s conservative identity.   Jupiter is in Capricorn, suggesting allegiance to hierarchical power and the status quo.  In a chart cast for 4:45 pm, Jupiter is closely conjunct the Part of Fortune, signifying the great success that the network has had.  In the Capricorn 11^th house, that success is associated with conservative identity.  Saturn is also quincunx Venus, perhaps symbolizing the network’s role in fostering crisis-producing divisiveness. 

The Sun is conjunct the North Node in the 7^th house, indicating a link with destiny and the importance of its relationship with its audience.  In fact, there is a stellium in the 7^th house which includes Mercury (communication) and Chiron as well as the Sun and the North Node.  Venus, the natural house ruler, is also in the 7^th, conjunct the Descendant but not part of the stellium. 

There is another indication that Fox’s destiny and its connection to audience is tied to wounding and healing.  The wounding may be viewed as the polarization it has inflicted on society.  The healing may be viewed as the affirmation and validation it has provided to its viewers, who tend to see themselves as victims (wounded by) the transformative energy associated with the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.   Incidentally, Fox’s Sun and most of the stellium are in Libra—could this be the origin of their self-described identity as “fair and balanced”?

There are two mini-grand trines (a trine bisected by two sextiles) in the Fox chart, both involving the Pluto-Uranus sextile.  The top-most mini-grand trine has Pluto sextiling the Uranus-Mercury trine.  It emphases the role of communication in achieving the goal of an alternative processing of the Uranus-Pluto collective content.  The second mini-grand trine has Uranus sextiling the Pluto-Saturn trine, which emphasizes the importance of defending conservative, status quo structures but processing that as a revolutionary and empowering activity.  Also of note in the chart is the Moon-Mars conjunction in Leo, indicating the combative nature of Fox reporting (and its associated entertainment value) and also the stimulating (aggression-sparking) effect that the network has on its audience (Moon signifying “the people” in mundane astrology).

The Uranus-Pluto square accompanied an intensification of the conflict embodied in the culture wars.  One manifestation of the square was a growing extreme polarization (the classic Plutonian process) creating deep divisions (Uranian separation) in the collective consciousness.  Uranus and Pluto came into orb  in 2008 and that year saw what can be viewed as a culmination, or high-water mark, of the transformative impulse that arose in the 1960s—the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American (actually biracial) President of the United States. 

As previously noted, this undoubtedly appeared as a shocking blow to those who had resisted and not processed the transformative energy of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.  It provoked a severe backlash that was largely unanticipated by those celebrating the transformation that Obama’s election symbolized.  Obama, remember, had run as a change (Uranus) candidate and one committed to confronting power (Pluto) in order to affect change.  His election was felt as an empowerment of the change ethos and of those who had embraced the transformative imperative of the Uranus-Pluto conjunction.

This, also, was coming in the midst of severe and disruptive challenges (Uranus) to existing power complexes (Pluto).  Plutonian financial empires were shattering with the sudden onslaught of the Great Recession.  The economic changes and uncertainties, which were unprecedented in the living memory of all but the oldest members of the collective, created tremendous emotional (and financial) insecurity (note Pluto’s association with eighth house emotional security needs). 

Mitch McConnell’s statement that he would do everything possible to make Obama’s administration a failed presidency, though partisanly political, is emblematic of the intense reaction that the Obama presidency created within the unprocessed collective.  That reaction would deepen as the Uranus-Pluto square progressed, finding an expression in the Birther movement—which claimed an Other-status (Uranus) birth origin (Pluto) for Obama—that was championed in 2011, just prior to the first Uranus-Pluto exact square, by Donald Trump.  The reaction also found expression in the Tea Party Movement, which had its origins during the Uranus-Pluto sextile of the 1990s but did not become a major force until 2009 near the beginning of the Uranus-Pluto square.

Trump would continue to tap into, inflame, and ride the energy generated by the unprocessed Uranus-Pluto content that was being stirred up again in the collective unconscious.  That energy would brew and simmer until Trump announced his candidacy for President in June 2015, shortly after the last exact Uranus-Pluto square took place.  The Trump candidacy and his presidency can be viewed in large measure as a release of that unconscious, unprocessed Uranus-Pluto energy. 

The eruption of that energy revealed unprocessed psychic collective content on both sides of the political divide.  Donald Trump must be seen as an archetypal vehicle, an avatar for the collective unconscious.  He and the forces that he unleashed gave permission for the dark shadow forces of America’s unconscious (Pluto)—which had successfully been repressed and hidden away (Pluto), unwelcome in polite society—to reveal themselves (Uranus), become empowered (Pluto) and take on the trappings of a revolutionary movement (Uranus) (c.f., the reference to the American Revolution in the Tea Party Movement). 

As the Shadow side of the American psyche began to emerge into the open with the growth of White nationalist, virulent anti-government, proto-fascist and other “hate groups,” the collective psyche began to fall into a classic Plutonian, dualistic trap.  As each side increasingly demonized the other, each side became increasingly bound and restricted by the polarized conflict.  A great many who had rejected and resisted the transformative changes accompanying the Uranus-Pluto conjunction, succumbed to irrational subconscious forces (Pluto), exemplified by conspiracy theories and “alternate facts,” in order to defend their position. 

On the other hand, many of those who had welcomed those transformative changes saw the extremism of their opponents as too dangerous to tolerate.  This tendency had already begun to develop as “political correctness,” which represented a collective effort to hide (and deny) speech which uncomfortably revealed the collective’s Shadow.  Attempts to ban controversial right-wing speakers and to “cancel” public figures who had transgressed the enshrined liberal norms can be viewed as a failure to totally process the imperative for personal liberty and freedom inherent in the Uranus-Pluto conjunction (c.f., the Free Speech Movement).

As we leave the Uranus-Pluto square, large elements of the collective consciousness remain saturated in unprocessed psychic content left from the Uranus-Pluto sextile of the 1960s.  Furthermore, the extreme polarization that intensified during the Uranus-Pluto square has effectively slowed or halted further collective transformative processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy.  In the coming years, Uranus will be moving into trine aspect with Pluto, culminating with a mini-grand trine composed of Pluto, Neptune and Uranus that moves exact in 2025.  There is much potential signaled by this configuration for positive collective processing of the Uranus-Pluto energy but much work remains to be done.

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