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What started out as a blog post about all of the generational icons who passed away in 2016 evolved into a study on our social and societal generations in general. I began looking not only at the celebrities and their influences upon our lives, but also at the political, societal, and social climates we are facing now and in the years ahead.

The outer planets of our solar system –  specifically Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto – determine our generations and our generational influences. They create the larger grouping, subsets of those groupings, and further subsets still.

In most cases, the planets enter a sign, then retrograde out of the sign before going forward into a sign for a full run. For this reason, the dates marking the end of one generation and the beginning of the next are not always clearly defined.

Yet what is fascinating (astrologically speaking) is how the planetary influences affect our roles in the bigger picture of humanity. We can see the influence certain generations had/have on our cultures and societies simply by looking at which planets were in influence at the time. The planetary positions of the outer bodies reflect:

• The time or era in which they were born and raised – what it taught them about the world, how it influenced them.
• The time or era in which they come into power – how they go about changing the world, how they want to make and leave their mark.

Over the next couple of weeks, I will be writing about the generations currently alive and active now. For some of these, I will be addressing those who have recently crossed over so their legacies can be properly addressed in the context of astrology (and occasionally, numerology, too).

Because I’m going off of my astrological analysis, my dates for these periods may be different from what is popularly agreed upon by some sociologists.

When looking at the famous persons who passed away this year, I noticed three distinct groupings. This blog post will address the first of the three.

To that point, let’s get started with the first group – those in what we popularly call “The Greatest Generation” (born 1914-1929) and “The Silent Generation” (born 1929-1943).

I notice that “The Greatest Generation” is operating primarily off of Neptune in Leo energy. They idealized acknowledgment of the self-expressed individual.

Those who passed in 2016 ALL had Pluto in Cancer with Neptune in Leo or Virgo and Uranus in Aries or Taurus.

This group includes John Glenn (born 08 December 1921) – Elie Wiesel (born 30 September 1928) –Morley Safer (born 08 November 1931) – Debbie Reynolds (born 01 April 1932) – Gene Wilder (born 11 June 1933) – Florence Henderson (born 14 February 1934) – Leonard Cohen (born 21 September 1934) – Garry Marshall (born 13 November 1934) – Antonin Scalia (born 11 March 1936) – Muhammad Ali (born 17 January 1942)

In this group, John Glenn had Neptune in Leo. Everyone else had Neptune in Virgo.

Pluto in Cancer is all about transforming the traditions of home and family. This group found themselves being seen as heroes and patriots for their hometowns, for their nations, and for the world. Yet in order to achieve and accomplish what they did, they often had to cut ties with what they left behind at home and in their families. There were sacrifices to be made, and anyone who didn’t understand that couldn’t stick around…or they couldn’t stay anyplace that would hold them back or down in the past.

• For John Glenn (and other members of “The Greatest Generation” with Neptune in Leo), he idealized being seen as a hero by the public for his military and public service as an World War II pilot, as aviator, and an astronaut. Everything he did was to ensure he was acknowledged by his fellow countrymen. The downside for him is that he would be devastated if someone didn’t acknowledge his accomplishments or achievements, or worse, if they forgot them. In order not to be forgotten, Glenn continued to be of service to his country as a U.S. Senator well into his later years of life.
• For those with Neptune in Virgo, they embodied “The Silent Generation”. Being born during or shortly after the Great Depression, then working for their nation during WWII, they found (and still find) that creating practical solutions for everyday problems was/is their strength. They were ‘silent’ not because they had nothing to say, but because their heads were down focused on the tasks at hand. Their weakness is that they saw/see everything from the perspective of practical and functional need. Though health, wellness, and function are fundamentally important to our everyday lives, they often were challenged in getting others to see their point. They also were workaholics. Their incredible work ethic would not let allow them to stop working. They needed to be of service, or rather, or purpose. To be still would mean they weren’t serving a purpose, and there’s nothing worse for a Virgo Neptune native than to be without purpose.

Also in this group, Leonard Cohen, Antonin Scalia, and Muhammad Ali had Uranus in Taurus. Everyone else in this group had Uranus in Aries.

• For those with Uranus in Aries, they were born in a time of conflict and war. It was also a time of individuality and independence – if you wanted something, you had to fight for it. Your actions gave you your place in your community. If you took initiative, you would be rewarded. If you waited for someone to life you up, you’d get left behind. The people of this generation know how to fight for themselves. They also fought each other, and didn’t give much care to who they had to get out of their way to get ahead. There was respect for each other…but it was more about respect for a good fight rather than for being a good person.
• We are currently experiencing a Uranus in Aries return. That means that we are seeing a new wave of Uranus in Aries natives being born now (since March 2011 and through March 2019). What’s great about this Uranus in Aries generation is that they will have that same determination, only with Neptune in Pisces and Pluto in Capricorn, they will be working on a much bigger scale. I also see this as the people of the 1927-1935 Uranus in Aries group phasing themselves out now that the new group is coming in. They’ve served their purposes and inspired the generations after them, and now it’s time for them to move on. We are grateful for them and their legacies.
• For those with Uranus in Taurus, their community priority was lifestyle security – maintaining the “comfort zone” at all costs. In their views, this was in order to preserve material, physical, and financial security and stability AND to uphold traditional lifestyle values (though in the particular case of Ali, those traditions may have varied from those of others). At the same time, they rebelled against innovation, technology, and anything else which threatened their familiar experience of the world. They tend to be a rather nostalgic bunch, longing for days past and resisting change until they can no longer rebel against it.
• We get our first taste of the Uranus in Taurus return in 2018, with Uranus firmly in the sign in 2019 and running through 2026. It’ll be a bit different this time around, though. More on that later.

In the next post, we’ll discuss the next two generations: the “Baby Boomers” (1943-1958) and what I call the “Crisis Generation” (1956-1970).

Thank you for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…

~ Light, Love, and Blessings,

Grace