Uranus Pluto conjunction Archives - Astrology readings and writings by Lynn Hayes

Why do some people have difficult charts, 1966 edition

As someone with a difficult chart myself, I have long pondered this question. For me, nothing other than astrology supports the idea of working out issues, problems and situations through multiple lifetimes. We are born with these charts before anything happens to us, and when we have a difficult chart and our life patterns echo the patterns in the chart, it’s difficult to blame our parents or our upbringing for these situations. I find this comforting – the knowing that there is a rhyme and reason to personal challenges gives me a sense of purpose and helps to make sense of what seems unfair.

The death of actor Michael K. Williams this week gives us an example of a chart that was very difficult emotionally. 1965 and 1966 were the peak of what we now call the 60’s – a time of great upheaval and social change (read more about that here). Uranus and Pluto were in an exact conjunction in the sign of Virgo at the time, causing radical change (Uranus) and destruction (Pluto) to the conservative middle class (Virgo), among other things. This conjunction lasted between 1963 and 1968, but what makes 1965 and 1966 unique is that the Uranus/Pluto conjunction was opposed by Chiron (healing old wounds) and Saturn (tests and challenges).

That is an intense combination of planets, and when that planetary system is embedded in the natal chart it can be quite traumatic. The heightened emotionality and sense of abandonment of Chiron combined with Saturn’s isolation and tendency towards depression brings with it the necessity of a great deal of internal work in order to function and gain the ultimate benefits of this combination, which is the eventual healing of those old wounds and a deep interplanetary wisdom that […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2021-09-08T09:31:02-04:00September 8th, 2021|People|3 Comments

RIP Peter Fonda and Woodstock: An end, finally, to the 1960s

Image borrowed from Pitchfork

There are few more iconic images of the 1960s (or what astrologers call the Uranus Pluto conjunction) than Peter Fonda in the film Easy Rider and the Woodstock music festival. Both took place in 1969, technically after the end of the big planetary conjunction that brought together the planet of radical change and destroyer of the status quo (Uranus) and the planet of destruction and total transformation (Pluto) in the sign of convention and conservative values (Virgo). At the time a favorite saying was “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” which from an astrological point of view means “Don’t trust anyone who has had their Saturn return and has had to grow up.” In any case, these icons of our generation, the Pluto in Leo baby boomers who have made an art form out of youth and vitality into old age, both died this week.

Peter Fonda (born 2/23/1940) was himself under 30 when Easy Rider came out, the youngest of the primary actors in the film who included Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson. Fonda wrote and produced the film which marked the spread of the 1960s (Uranus/Pluto) counterculture eruption into the mainstream consciousness. Fonda was born under a Full Moon in Virgo (Pisces Sun), and like many Full Moon personalities Fonda had an inner conflict from the Virgo/Pisces polarity which required continuous adjustment. He acquired an early reputation as a “dropout” and took LSD regularly, making him less than reliable for film work, yet continued to seek acting and directorial roles.

Neither Pisces nor Virgo deal well with the fire of a sign like Aries – they are too […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2023-03-02T12:52:05-05:00August 17th, 2019|People, Popular Culture|2 Comments

Sunday inspiration from Martin Luther King Jr.

The political chaos that we are now experiencing seems to follow every alignment between Uranus (radical change) and Pluto (destruction and transformation). Today’s chaos is the result of the tumultuous change fostered by the challenging square between Uranus and Pluto between 2010 and 2017. Martin Luther King Jr.’s voice emerged during the Uranus/Pluto conjunction of the mid-1960s when the civil rights movement came to a head. There was a great debate at the time between Malcolm X, who called for disruption and violence where necessary, and Dr. King, who sought nonviolence and the peaceful way. In the end both were assassinated and it’s difficult to say which of these great leaders in the end had the greatest effect on improving civil rights in this country.

In the US today and really around the world, the political situation grows uglier each day and the retrograde travel of Mars has only exacerbated the rage and anger that fills the airwaves. Fighting this intensity with more of the same only fuels the fire and in the end there is no resolution. I offer these quotes from Dr. King as a suggestion that while fueling violence with more violence is not the answer, taking a stand is an absolute imperative.

“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

“We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.”

“He who […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-07-01T09:15:19-04:00July 1st, 2018|Inspiration|11 Comments

The Astrology of the Summer of Love

Summer of Love by Peter Max

It’s hard to believe for anyone who is old enough to have lived through the summer of 1967 which was called the Summer of Love, but this marks the 50th anniversary of that fertile and creative time when traditional values of love and community were turned on its head and some of the best music ever created was born.

Astrologers have a name for what happened in the 1960s: We call it the “Uranus Pluto conjunction.” During this time Uranus, planet of revolution and radicalism, conjoined Pluto, planet of transformation through destruction and regeneration, in the conservative sign of Virgo. This cataclysmic planetary dynamic changed forever the social order (Virgo) and laid the groundwork for the recent upheaval which occurred during the period between 2010 and 2017 when Uranus formed a square (90 degree) aspect to Pluto for the second phase of that revolutionary cycle.

While the first exact conjunction of Uranus and Pluto didn’t occur until October of 1964, the two planets began to align in 1963 and beginning in the early 1960s one could hear the whispers of revolution all over the world. In 1961 Timothy Leary took his first LSD trip and began researching the effects of psychedelics on mental health. By 1965 the revolution was in full swing, with the assassination of Malcom X, the Watts riots, the formation of the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane and so many other great bands, and with them the emergence of the “hippie” archetype. After the San Francisco Examiner wrote an expose of the migration of young Americans to its city, the swarms of youth increased and by 1967 the Human Be-In in San Francisco brought about all kinds of […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2019-05-11T07:35:28-04:00July 10th, 2017|Life, Planetary cycles, Uncategorized|11 Comments

Sinead O’Connor and the Chiron/Pluto Cry for Help

Sinead O’Connor, the Irish singer with a long history of controversy and dramatic life events, was recently in the news after a post on her Facebook page claimed that she had taken an overdose and was in an unnamed hotel. She was eventually found and was not harmed, but her apparent mental illness has become a topic of discussion in the entertainment news circles.

Between 1962 and 1968 or so, Uranus (radical behavior) and Pluto (destruction and rebirth) were aligned in a conjunction in the sky, the last time these two planets were locked in a dance that deconstructed and transformed the status quo. Everyone born during this period has this urge for radical reconstruction locked into their astrological chart, and for much of that time Chiron, the planet of wounding and healing, formed a stressful opposition to Uranus and Pluto.

People born with a strong Chiron aspect in their chart like this tend to come into this incarnation already wounded – they are more emotionally sensitive and often in some degree of psycho-emotional distress. The evolutionary purpose of this woundedness is to clear and release these painful emotions so that awareness and wisdom can take their place but not everyone is able to understand their distress from this higher perspective. I call the Chiron/Pluto combination the aspect of “soul surgery” – the core wound generally requires some focused effort in order to be fully released so that the soul may be liberated and free.

To make matters more complicated, between 1967 and 1968 the planet Saturn aligned with Chiron – the “Celestial Mentor” (Saturn) adding another layer of challenge to the already painful dynamic. This intense Chiron/Saturn opposition to Uranus/Pluto formation figures prominently in the chart of Sinead O’Connor (born 12/8/1966).

It’s somewhat of a […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2015-12-05T08:24:55-05:00December 5th, 2015|People|5 Comments