Welcome to Part 6 of my series on the Pluto generations of those living today! In case you missed the previous installments, be sure to check them out: Intro to Pluto, Part 1: Pluto in Cancer, Part 2: Pluto in Leo, Part 3: Pluto in Virgo, Part 4: Pluto in Libra, and Part 5: Pluto in Scorpio.
“She’ll make you take your clothes off and go dancing in the rain
She’ll make you live her crazy life, but she’ll take away your pain”— Ricky Martin, Livin’ La Vida Loca (1999)
What’s flamboyant, exuberant, passionate, over the top, and possibly hiding some secrets? No, I’m not talking about late 90s Ricky Martin, Pluto in Libra (love you and your adorable husband and kids, Ricky!).
I’m speaking, of course, of the gloriously unruly and passionately political Pluto in Sagittarius generation, known as Gen Z.
Born between 1995 and 20081, this generation now ranges in age from about 14 to 27. While demographers classify Gen Z as born between 1997-2012, I’d argue that the Pluto cohort more accurately captures the generation born just before and after the event that dominated this time period: 9/11.
Furthermore, there’s another generation-defining event that separates the Pluto in Sagittarius generation from the Pluto in Capricorn one that followed, beginning in 2008: Covid-19. Those with Pluto in Sagittarius, even the youngest, were all past childhood in 2020, while younger Pluto in Capricorn kids lost years of their childhood to the pandemic. Look for more on this in next month’s final Pluto Generations post.
Marauding Centaurs
The symbol of Sagittarius, the centaur archer, has its origins in Nergal, the ancient Babylonian god of war, death, and disease. Nergal boasted two heads (one human and one panther), and was depicted as a centaur-like creature with wings as well as a scorpion’s stinger above its horse tail. Later, when Hellenistic astrology overlaid Greek myths with earlier Babylonian versions, Nergal was combined with the centaur, a half horse, half man.
In Greek mythology, the centaurs are a dangerous bunch, the fruits of a dubious seduction plot connected to Zeus and Hera’s tortured marriage. Most centaurs were enemies of humans, with several notable exceptions, such as the healer and mentor, Chiron, who educated Achilles and others. Their appetite for destruction was fearsome, notably in the Centauromachy, a battle famously represented in sculpture on the Parthenon.
Centaurs crop all over ancient mythology; scholars posit that they are the result of the first encounters between non-riding cultures and nomadic, horse-riding peoples. Squint at a person on horseback, especially from the front or back, and you see a centaur.
Philosophy Rules
As a mutable fire sign ruled by Jupiter, Sagittarius knows no bounds and is endlessly adaptable. Like a fast-moving wildfire, it gets fired up quickly and can leave a trail of merry, unintended destruction in its wake.
Jupiter’s significations of wisdom, belief, religion, and philosophy express themselves through this passionate, freedom-seeking sign in the manner of a movement or a campaign. Join the cause! Sagittarius is always urging.
Add Pluto to the mix, however, and you can see where things can get twisted. Pluto intensifies, corrupts, and distorts, which can lead to movements inspired by beliefs that turn dangerous.
When Disaster Strikes
Remember, once upon a time, back when we thought a computer glitch was going to bring the world to its knees? And then, the day after the computers of the world were expected to have a meltdown over a calendar issue. . . nothing happened?
While there has often been end-of-the-world fears around the turn of the millennium, the turn of the last century featured a plutnonian obsession with what turned out to be the wrong fear. (Remember, Pluto makes small things big and big things small.) Y2K got all the hype, but, actually, another jupiterian, religiously-inspired threat was brewing elsewhere.
The notable, world-changing event of this era was, of course, the attacks of 9/11, in which a band of religious fundamentalists successfully and dramatically attacked their perceived symbols of oppression.
On 9/11, Saturn in Gemini, the sign of the twins, was exactly opposite Pluto in Sagittarius. This configuration echoes previous world-changing oppositions of these two planets, including during the Vietnam War and World War II, not to mention their conjunctions, which have overlapped with pandemics, most recently in early 2020 when Covid-19 emerged.
Those with Pluto in Sagittarius were either very young children (6 at most) or not yet born when the attacks happened. Yet the events of that day, and the resulting decades of war and their aftereffects, will undoubtedly shape their lives.
Rise Up
Which is why, perhaps, this generation, though still young, has already demonstrated their political zeal and knack for forming movements. Many members of his cohort, such as climate activist Greta Thunberg, have cut their political teeth, so to speak, in recent years organizing and attending protests, whether for climate change awareness, racial justice, LGBTQ+ rights, or, most recently, abortion rights.
The thing is, if you’ve been paying attention to this generation during their childhoods, they’ve been gearing up for their political moments in the sun for some time, steeped in the sagas of a previous generation of Pluto in Sagittarius revolutionaries as brought to life by the Broadway hit Hamilton.
That’s right — everyone’s favorite revolutionary turned Treasury Secretary, Alexander Hamilton, along with many of his contemporaries, was born during the previous Pluto in Sagittarius period, from 1749-1762.
The revolutions of the 1770s and 80s in the United States and France, which took place once Pluto was in Capricorn and Aquarius, were instigated and fought mainly by young people born during the previous transit of Pluto in Sagittarius.
Hamilton premiered on Broadway in early 2015, during the early stages of the Pluto return of the United States, when Pluto returns to its position in the natal chart of the country (27 degrees of Capricorn, near where Pluto is now). The runaway hit brought to life by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Pluto in Libra, and starring many Pluto in Scorpio performers, captures just how “young, scrappy and hungry” the revolutionaries were. Kind of like todays young revolutionaries, perhaps.
Even though they may deny it now, I would be willing to bet that a good portion of the current Pluto in Sagittarius cohort, at least in the US, know the lyrics of Hamilton by heart, especially the younger set, who furiously memorized it in middle and elementary school.
Here’s original cast members of Hamilton performing My Shot for President Obama in 2016 (let’s be honest, though: Michelle Obama’s shoulder is clearly the star of the show):
Facts Vs. Belief
The downside of revolution, of course, is radical disruption. The imagined future, woven out of jupiterian beliefs, hopes, and dreams, may arrive; but, there may also be plutonian suffering along the way.
The dark side of this Pluto placement, and the secret I alluded to earlier, is connected to the archetype of Sagittarius — those pesky marauding centaurs.
If the previous Pluto in Scorpio generation bravely, if perhaps excessively, dared to question the status quo and call out problematic behavior of all kinds, the Pluto in Sagittarius bunch is prone to be the mob that follows the public judgement, merry one moment, raging the next.
While this Pluto cohort may be just gearing up for the fights of their lifetimes that current trends seem to point towards, it seems likely that they may eventually gravitate towards the clear-eyed, cerebral information, data, and facts on the ground of their opposite sign, Gemini.
As we’ve been discussing, Pluto generations often long for their opposite, perhaps as a counterbalance to their more excessive tendencies. This generation, egged on by movements rooted in beliefs and philosophies (aka politics), may find itself soothed by ideas and information not tied into revolutionary tracts. Gemini’s unemotional fact-finding and data-collection can reveal truths that challenge narratives that have hardened into dogma.
Squint, and you’ll see the centaur.
Born in 1999, Lil Nas X (Aires sun and Jupiter, Cancer rising, Capricorn moon), is possibly what passes as an elder statesman for this generation. His cheerful, hale-fellow-well-met attitude, an expression of that powerful fire trine from his Aires planets to his Pluto in Sagittarius, demonstrates the enthusiasm and up-for-anything signature of this generation at its best.
Here he is in his hit Old Town Road with Billy Ray Cyrus, with a Virgo stellium around his early Gen X Pluto in Virgo, acting as the actual elder statesman.
Stay adventurous, Pluto in Sagittarius!
If you’re looking at a birth date on either edge of this range, be sure to double check Pluto’s placement using an ephemeris or by generating your birth chart, since Pluto can move back and forth a bit between signs when changing from one to the next.