In my last post, Why Are Millennials So Disillusioned? we talked a lot about Neptune’s role in shaping the generation. But when we didn’t discuss was the part that Pluto, the other generational planet, played in making millennials who they are.
Millennials are the Pluto in Scorpio generation. Millennials have a deep, innate understanding of power and the way it shapes society. Millennials are the first to notice a power play, the first to recognize corruption in the system, and the first to see the writing on the wall as existing power structures inevitably begin to decay. This has made millennials a sharp, canny generation, but not a particularly optimistic one.
Millennials grew up while Pluto was transiting Sagittarius. They were raised in a world of unbridled optimism. The Secret, the dot-com boom, the housing bubble, the gravy train that went on and on. This is the world they were told they would inherit. Education and an enterprising spirit were the keys to unlimited abundance. And it that didn’t work, throw up a vision board and watch the riches flow.
They grew up daring to dream.
And then Pluto entered Capricorn. The bubble burst, the market collapsed, and the high-flying age of the Sagittarian Icarus came crashing to the ground. As an older Millennial myself, this occurred right as I came of age, left college and tried to establish myself in the world. A few years before, the goal had been to take a year off after my bachelor’s degree, see the world, and go back to fulfill my Sagittarian dream of completing my PhD and becoming a professor. Suddenly, the brokenness of the higher education system, with adjunct professors working 70+ hours a week and surviving on food stamps while universities tripled the administrative staff and built multi-million dollar housing for high-income students, became public knowledge. The dream just couldn’t be. Seemingly overnight, I was alone, terrified, and exhausted, working multiple minimum-wage jobs and trying to figure out what the hell I was going to do with the rest of my life. And I was hardly alone. While the details vary, this general theme was universal for the people in my cohort, and it has shaped us profoundly.
For many of us, Pluto’s ingress into Capricorn also corresponded with Pluto transiting conjunct our natal Neptune. Pluto not only shaped the landscape in which we would try to become established, but it also effectively killed our dreams. None of us are on Plan A. Or B. Or even G. For most of us, the very idea of the life we once thought we could have is laughable. Instead, millennials have become a generation of realists, even nihilsts, who know the worthlessness of what we’ve been sold.
Instead, millennials fall back on Pluto in Scorpio to help navigate around the empty promises and brokenness of the system. They use their growing social power (Pluto) to protect the weak (Scorpio). They see the secret network of power and influence that manipulates the world, and they are determined to take it down.
With Pluto in Scorpio and Neptune in Capricorn, millennials are a generation that has witnessed the world crumble before them, exposing the network of corruption and cynicism that pulled the strings. They found the man behind the curtain, and the Wizard of Oz is dead.
But they are also a generation that sees the opportunity in the destruction. Increasingly, they recognize their power and are determined to use it to create a world with sound structures rebuilt from the ground up. They are compassionate realists (Neptune in Capricorn) who want to protect humanity from the corruption power inevitably creates (Pluto in Scorpio). Millennials watched as the world as they knew it was destroyed, and they might just be our best chance to save it. Just watch.
Millennials, how has Pluto’s march from Scorpio to Capricorn affected you?
Seeing this post, part of me wanted to break out the popcorn, part of me was scared 🙂 Great insight that’s gonna take me some time to absorb.
Pluto in Capricorn in ingress immediately scared the shit out of me and brought out some OCD. They promised us no more Depression, the narrative of progress (like I mentioned.) Also the Saturn/Neptune transit ended and it was SO much of a slap in the forehead to see that economic collapse was actually behind all of our hunting for WMDs. Suddenly people were demonizing bankers, yapping about “credit default swaps,” things I didn’t know to pay attention to. (I wonder what I’m not paying attention to now.)
For me, Pluto in Capricorn has been much more of a significant time. But, my friend with Sun/Saturn in Sag keeps reliving the issues with the iraq war/other Pluto in Sag happenings and feeling sad that people didn’t care. I believe people cared only when they felt the pressure at the home base and on their purse strings.
I have to tell you, I deflate my dreams every single day. With my non action (Mars in the 12th.) Neptune transit to my Sun is just making me more of a pussy, I feel like Neptune isn’t “sensitive” it’s like someone walking around with a permanent sunburn who can’t do anything.
Midara!!
Excellent post…I would add that the millennials I know (including my own kids) have learned to stay below the radar and avoid the eye of Sauron in this demented world….
Haha, I’d say that’s true! Scorpio is intensely private. Even when millennials are active on social media, the content tends to be highly curated. This stands in contrast to Gen Z, the Pluto in Sagittarius generation, for whom broadcasting is second nature.
True story. We would go online (mIRC, mailing lists, etc) to have our secret lives. To hide. From the world, from parents. Now the youngsters go online to Show. Show up and show off. Hah!
I concur, gemini7…my daughter and cohort are right there with your kids in this.
It’s very accurate Midara. And good writing too.
I wonder what you think/notice about the tweaks from uranus in sagg for those millenials born before 1988, and those born onwards with uranus in those years elsa talks about when there was a stellium in capricorn. Maybe you’ll pick up on this topic sometime.
You write well, Midara. I look forward to more of your comments.
Wow! Is this ever a different slant than the media who have called the Millennials self entitled, greedy, disloyal and immoral. The writers must be part of the power structure that has plenty to worry about. I remember similar swipes being taken at the Baby Boomers of which I am one.
Yes, key word though is ‘witnessed’. Millenials have WITNESSED the world crumble before them whereas the Pluto Sag generation NEVER KNEW REALITY WHEN PEOPLE WERE OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THEIR OPPORTUNITIES.
I have seen this in quite brutal ways. Especially since some of their ‘Pluto before Scorpio’ parents don’t seem particularly insightful as to what’s going on with the world and their kids. You don’t go through that same development without hope.
I agree with this post and your previous one in so many ways.
The Pluto in Scorpio generation, and I am one of them, are just ruthless. I don’t know where this hardness has come from but I think it comes, like this article summarises from destroyed hope. And that some of these people then hope everyone is as miserable as they are.
The Pluto in Sag generation have very much a ‘let’s get down to business’ sort of thing and have zero loyalty to the workplace. They leave without references, they joke about taking time off. Or they work insanely hard but maintain an intense nihilism towards all the dysfunctional bullying in various institutions. Navigating the world like up and coming sociopaths.
The Pluto in Scorpio generation are trying to find a sense of love and warmth in those failing institutions and are often selfishly, in my view, not really looking after the Pluto in Sag generation. I have seen the younger ones cut up in horrible interpersonal battles that are nothing to do with them. But I think the key is really with this generation. They are more instinctively aware of the differences in people whether or not they use that ability.
It is a sad state of affairs and I only hope that we move forward more positively to a place where the Pluto in Sag’s can get an opportunity to be a bit less bitter, and the Pluto in Scorps a bit more nurturing. Most of the Pluto in Sag’s don’t even realise it.
The fall in birth rates is a part of it. Many Pluto in Scorps are not getting the opportunity to be parents and are thus less loving.
For everyone asking about how Gen Z factors in, I’ve written a bit more here: https://elsaelsa.com/astrology/whats-so-great-about-gen-z/