Do Our Questions Create the World?

Do Our Questions Create the World?

Quantum theorist John Wheeler’s “it from bit” hypothesis anticipated ongoing speculation that consciousness is fundamental to reality

By John Horgan

John Archibald Wheeler (right), conversing with Albert Einstein and Hideki Yukawa, at Princeton, 1954.

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Is quantum mechanics weird if no one is paying attention to it? Lots of people are paying attention to it now, and they seem to agree it’s weird. Several new books address the topic, including Beyond Weird by Philip Ball, What Is Real? by Adam Becker (see reviews by James Gleick and David Albert) and When Einstein Walked with Godel by Jim Holt (see the chapter “Einstein, ‘Spooky Action’ and the Reality of Space”). Scientific American has posted several columns on quantum weirdness, including “Quantum Physics May Be Even Spookier Than You Think,” by Ball, and “Coming to Grips with the Implications of Quantum Mechanics,” co-written by Bernardo Kastrup. Two physicists often cited in quantum discussions are John Wheeler and David Bohm, whom I interviewed in the early 1990s and wrote about in The End of Science. I thought my profiles of these physicists might contribute to current quantum debates. Below is my (lightly edited) profile of Wheeler, who died in 2008. I’ll post on Bohm soon. John Horgan

John Archibald Wheeler, the archetypal physics-for-poets physicist, is famed for his analogies and aphorisms, self-made and coopted. Among the one-liners he bestowed on me when I interviewed him at Princeton on a warm spring day in 1991 were: “If I can't picture it, I can't understand it” (Einstein); “Unitarianism [Wheeler's nominal religion] is a feather bed to catch falling Christians” (Darwin); and “If you haven't found something strange during the day it hasn't been much of a day” (Wheeler).

“I do take 100 percent seriously the idea that the world is a figment of the imagination.” John Wheeler (1911-2008). Credit: Princeton University

Wheeler is also renowned for his physical energy. When we left his third-floor office to get some lunch, he spurned the elevator—“elevators are hazardous to your health,” he declared--and charged down the stairs. He hooked an arm inside the bannister and pivoted at each landing, letting centrifugal force whirl him around the hairpin and down the next flight. “We have contests to see who can take the stairs fastest,” he said over a shoulder. Outside, Wheeler marched rather than walked, swinging his fists smartly in rhythm with his stride. He paused only when he reached a door. Invariably he got there first and yanked it open for me. After passing through I paused in reflexive deference--Wheeler was almost 80--but a moment later he was past me, barreling toward the next doorway.

The metaphor was so obvious I almost suspected Wheeler intended it. He has spent his career racing ahead of other scientists and throwing open doors for them. He has helped win acceptance--or at least attention--for some of science’s most outlandish ideas, from black holes to multiple-universe theories. Wheeler might have been dismissed as flakey if he did not have such unassailable credentials. In his early 20s, he traveled to Denmark to study under Niels Bohr (“because he sees further than any man alive,” Wheeler wrote in his fellowship application). In 1939 Bohr and Wheeler published the first paper to explain nuclear fission in quantum terms. Bohr also taught Wheeler to “be prepared for a surprise, and a very great surprise.”

After World War II Wheeler became an authority on general relativity. He coined the term black hole in the late 1960s, and he helped convince astronomers that these bizarre, infinitely dense objects might actually exist. He also became increasingly intrigued by the philosophical implications of quantum physics. The most widely accepted explanation of the “meaning” of quantum mechanics was the so-called orthodox, interpretation (although “orthodox” seems an odd descriptor for such a radical worldview). Also called the Copenhagen interpretation, because Bohr lectured on it in Copenhagen in the late 1920s, it holds that we cannot specify the nature of fundamental reality. Subatomic entities exist in a probabilistic limbo of many possible “superposed” states until they are brought into focus by the act of measurement.

Wheeler was one of the first prominent physicists to propose that reality might not be wholly physical; in some sense, our cosmos must be a “participatory” phenomenon requiring the act of observation--and thus consciousness itself. Wheeler also drew attention to intriguing links between physics and information theory, which was invented in 1948 by mathematician Claude Shannon. Just as physics builds on an elementary entity, the quantum, defined by the act of observation, so does information theory. Its “quantum” is the binary unit, or bit, which is a message representing one of two choices: heads or tails, yes or no, zero or one.

Wheeler became more deeply convinced of the importance of information after conceiving a modified version of the famous two-slit experiment, which demonstrates the schizophrenic nature of quantum phenomena. When electrons are aimed at a barrier containing two slits, the electrons act like waves; they go through both slits at once and form what is called an interference pattern, created by the overlapping of the waves, when they strike a detector on the far side of the barrier. If the physicist closes off one slit at a time, however, the electrons pass through the open slit like simple particles and the interference pattern disappears.

In Wheeler’s version, called the delayed-choice experiment, the experimenter decides whether to leave both slits open or to close one off after the electron has already passed through the barrier--with the same results. The electrons seem to know in advance how the physicist will choose to observe it. This experiment was carried out in the early 1990s and confirmed Wheeler’s prediction.

Wheeler accounted for this conundrum with yet another analogy. He likened the job of a physicist to that of someone playing 20 questions in its “surprise” version. In this variant of the old game, one person leaves the room while the rest of the group--or so the excluded person thinks--agrees on some person, place or thing. He then re-enters the room and tries to guess what they have in mind with a series of questions that can only be answered with a yes or a no.

But unbeknownst to the guesser, the group has decided to play a trick on him. The first person to be queried will only think of an object and answer the question after the questioner asks his question. Each person after that will do the same, making sure that his response is consistent not only with the immediate question but also with all previous questions.

“The word wasn't in the room when I came in even though I thought it was,” Wheeler explained. In the same way, the electron, before the physicist chooses how to observe it, is neither a wave nor a particle. It is in some sense unreal; it exists in an indeterminate limbo. “Not until you start asking a question, do you get something,” Wheeler said. “The situation cannot declare itself until you've asked your question. But the asking of one question prevents and excludes the asking of another.”

Wheeler has condensed these ideas into a phrase that resembles a Zen koan: “the it from bit.” In one of his free-form essays, Wheeler unpacked the phrase as follows: “...every it--every particle, every field of force, even the spacetime continuum itself--derives its function, its meaning, its very existence entirely--even if in some contexts indirectly--from the apparatus-elicited answers to yes-or-no questions, binary choices, bits.”

Inspired by Wheeler, physicists and other researchers began probing the links between information theory and physics in the late 1980s. String theorists tried to use strings to knit together quantum field theory, black holes and information theory. Wheeler acknowledged that these ideas were still raw, not yet ready for rigorous testing. He and his fellow explorers were still “trying to get the lay of the land" and "learning how to express things that we already know” in the language of information theory. The effort may lead to a dead end, Wheeler said, or to a powerful new vision of reality, “the whole show.”

Wheeler emphasized that science has many mysteries left to explain. “We live still in the childhood of mankind,” he said. “All these horizons are beginning to light up in our day: molecular biology, DNA, cosmology. We're just children looking for answers.” He served up another aphorism: “As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.” Yet he was also convinced that we will someday find “the answer.”

Abruptly Wheeler jumped up and pulled down a massive black book on gravity that he co-wrote in the late 1980s. Flipping to the book’s final page he read: “Someday surely we will see the principle underlying existence as so simple, so beautiful, so compelling that we will all say to each other, 'How could we all have been so stupid for so long.” Wheeler looked up from the book, his expression beatific. “I don't know whether it will be one year or a decade, but I think we can and will understand. That's the central thing I would like to stand for. We can and will understand.”

Many modern scientists, Wheeler noted, have shared his faith that humans will one day find the key to the mysteries of existence. Kurt Godel, Wheeler’s former neighbor in Princeton, believed that the key might have already been discovered. “He thought that maybe among the papers of Leibniz, which in his time had still not been fully smoked out, we would find the--what was the word--the philosopher's key, the magic way to find truth and solve any set of puzzlements.” Godel felt that this key “would give a person who understood it such power” that only “people of high moral character” should possess it.

Yet Wheeler’s mentor Bohr apparently doubted whether science or mathematics could achieve such a revelation. After Bohr died, his son told Wheeler that his father had felt the search for the ultimate theory of physics might never reach a satisfying conclusion; as physicists sought to penetrate further into nature they would face questions of increasing complexity and difficulty that would eventually overwhelm them. “I guess I'm more optimistic than that,” Wheeler said, “but maybe I'm kidding myself.”

The irony is that Wheeler’s it from bit implies that a final theory will always be a mirage, and that truth is something created rather than objectively apprehended. His view comes dangerously close to postmodernism, or worse. In the early 1980s, organizers of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science placed Wheeler on the same program as three parapsychologists. Wheeler was furious. At the meeting, he made it clear that he did not share the belief of his co-speakers in psychic phenomena. He passed out a pamphlet that declared, in reference to parapsychology: “Where there’s smoke, there’s smoke.”

But Wheeler himself has suggested that there is nothing but smoke. “I do take 100 percent seriously the idea that the world is a figment of the imagination,” he remarked to physicist/science writer Jeremy Bernstein in 1985. Wheeler must know that this view defies common sense: Where was mind when the universe was born? And what sustained the universe for the billions of years before we came to be? He nonetheless bravely offers us a lovely, chilling paradox: At the heart of everything is a question, not an answer. When we peer down into the deepest recesses of matter or at the farthest edge of the universe, we see, finally, our own puzzled face looking back at us.

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John Horgan, who has written for Scientific American since 1986, comments on science on his free online journal Cross-Check. He has also posted his books Mind-Body Problems and My Quantum Experiment online. Horgan teaches at Stevens Institute of Technology.

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Source

https://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/cross-check/do-our-questions-create-the-world/

An Introduction to the Outer Planets

An Introduction to the Outer Planets

by Donna Young

© Donna Young - published by Constellation News, 2018 / 19.12.2018

For thousands of years Saturn was the planet that set the boundary for our solar system. With the advent of telescopes in the early 1600’s, it became possible for star gazers to see farther than ever imagined. Neptune was the first planet to be observed by Galileo, but at the time he didn’t realize what he was looking at and Uranus became the first official outer planet to be identified in 1781.  This was followed by a confirmation of Neptune in 1846, and the discovery of Pluto in 1930.

The outer planets were named after Greek and Roman gods and are related to their mythologies, but their astrological interpretation was developed based on what was going on in the world when they were discovered.

These outer planets move so slowly that on their own they don’t add a lot of information to the natal chart. On an individual level, these outer planets can affect the individual quite profoundly when they are closely connected to the more personal planets by aspect relationship. Here we will see the strength of the outer planets asking the individual to rise to the challenges and accept the power that they might bring into our everyday lives. We can also look to house position to determine what area of life they might be influencing. But their energy by sign is felt on more of a collective level. We look to these signatures to gather information about larger groups or generations of people. Because they are in a sign for a much longer period of time, their influence is more powerful, causing a deeper experience than the closer, faster moving planets.

As we go through the transits of the planets, consider that there are three phases that we need to think about: The first is the moment of birth; what kind of environment were these children born into? The second is when these children come of age. What was going on when these children started to find their voice as young adults? What are they protesting? What changes do they hope to see in the world? And the third is when this same group of children become adults and begin to have influence in the world. What does it look like when they are the people in power?

Because we are looking at the outer planets from a generational perspective, we are wise to look at history to help us make sense of what to expect moving forward.  The historical examples given are largely from a European perspective but will give an idea of how the energy of the planets coincided with what was transpiring on a larger scale.

Uranus

• Discovered in 1781
• Orbit: 84 years
• 7 years in each sign
• Co-Rules: Aquarius
• Masculine – Malefic
• Retrograde 1x/year for 5 months: desire for unconventional behaviour is internalized.
• MYTHOLOGY: Conceived from chaos, Ouranos, the Sky Crowned with Stars. Married to Gaia (mother earth). Most of the other gods came from their union.
• COLLECTIVELY:  Dramatic change, new social movements and change, technological advances
• INDIVIDUALLY: Our desire to individuate, revolutionary thoughts, questioning of authority, need for freedom, flash of inspiration, feelings of alienation. Look to house position to see what area of your life is unconventional, where you do not follow societal norms, where you need to learn to express your unique individuality, where you might find yourself challenging authority.
• RULES:  Disruptions, unique expression, sudden events and breakthroughs, rebellion, innovation, disasters and catastrophes, telecommunication
• SKILLED: idealistic, original, inventive, expression of individuality, innovative, liberated, genius, spontaneity.
• UNSKILLED: erratic, inflexible, irresponsible, rebel without a cause, unreliable, stubborn, disruptive, negative response to authority.

Uranus is the first of the modern planets, discovered in 1781. This was the time of the first industrial revolution, with the discovery of an extraordinary number of inventions, and the push toward modern science (the first reference to a scientist came in 1833).

Its symbolism was assigned based on its eccentric order and the global political revolutions that were occurring around the time of its discovery.

Originally Uranus was interpreted as partaking of the nature of Mercury and Saturn. It was considered wholly unfortunate. Today, astrologers tend to say Uranus represents the need for freedom, originality, sudden changes and new possibilities, the possibility of chaos, the unexpected, innovation, our desire to be unique, liberated, and radical. It also represents genius and eccentricity, invention and original ideas.
Many astrologers believe it rules all new technology and scientific discoveries.

Alan Leo (1911): 
His professions: electrician, scientist, metaphysician, astrologer, and uncommon professions of every kind.
(E)ccentric, electric, and changeable, being a mixture, or essence, of all the planets. (Displays) eccentricity, abruptness, originality, genius, and superior refinement and subtlety of ideas.

Marc Edmund Jones (1945):
Uranus, in its indication of independence, brings social reality to the point of individual opportunity. ... Uranus is essentially a planet of deviation in a highly creative sense, actually inoperative in any area of conscious experience unless there are elements in the individual life which are somehow challenging to the entire context of a modern world. It provides the measure of originality and genius.

Karen Hamaker-Zondag (1980):
Uranus stands for the factor in man which, for the sake of self-determination, is all too ready to break up the old patterns, kept in existence by the Saturn function, in order to replace them by patterns and forms which will give the psyche more room for development. Scope for unrestricted and unconditional self-expression is a prerequisite for those with a strong Uranus function, and it can give rise to eccentric behavior in either a constructive or destructive sense, when combined with the urge to break through forms.

Robert Hand (1981):
Uranus intrudes with an energy that is unexpected and often disruptive. Uranus energies strive to break one out of patterns that have become too rigid... Along with Neptune, it is associated with alternative states of consciousness. ... In order to deal with Uranus, detachment is necessary. One must not be wedded to any status quo.

Uranus in Gemini – Mutable Air - Adapting to social and intellectual learning

1781

• The discovery of Uranus coincides with the Industrial Revolution which begins in 1764, and is on the heels of the US Declaration of Independence in 1776.

1858-1866

• Those born 1858 -1866 were the first to have access to the phonograph and telephone as adults.
• 1859 – Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species supporting his theory of evolution
• 1861-1865 – Civil War - slavery is abolished in the US

1942-1949

• First electronic computer – 1945
• 1947 – the Birth of the CIA
• The 1941 -1948 generation manifested in the hippie movement along with other groups who were in opposition to established ways of thinking.

Uranus in Cancer - Cardinal Water –Iinnovations, emotional connections

1782 – 1788

• 1785 – flying shuttle is invented, enabling weavers to double their speed. Improvements eventually made the process possible through the use of water power, and the first factory came to be. Employees are often women and children. 

1866-1871

• Transcontinental Railway (North America)
• Transatlantic Telegraph cable was built – undersea cable built under the Atlantic Ocean connecting overseas friends and families.
• Seven weeks war between Austria and Prussia
• German unification completed
• 1870 – first gasoline powered combustion engine
• Development of the telephone

1949-1956

• Working Women – rebel against traditional family roles
• Crooners: singers who sing sentimental songs ex) Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby
• Television invades the home, producing the first TV generation.

Uranus in Leo - Fixed Fire – Creative self expression, need for individual identity

1789-1794

• French Revolution 1789-1794 ending with the abolition of the monarchy
• 1789 French National Assembly implements the liberal idea of equality
• Romantic movement awakens nationalist feelings

1871-1878

• 1865-1877 Radical Reconstruction gives enfranchised blacks a voice in US government

1956-1962

• August 1955 until August 1962 – The motion picture industry was radically altered because of competition with television
• 1960 FDA approve THE PILL – people can experience sex more openly without fear of becoming pregnant
• This generation group was too young for the sixties and so are more conventional in their approach to life. They are talented investigators or analysts and provide many of the "yuppie" computer professionals. Most in this group are self-contained, shrewd, secretive, careful, tenacious, calculating and capable. They are more thoughtful, hesitant, reflective and unsure than the elder boomers, but often no less outgoing and exhibitionist (since Uranus is in Leo). In fact, many in this group have already made quite an impression in the show business world. Examples: Scott Baio, Matthew Broderick, Katie Couric, Tom Cruise, Michael J. Fox, Woody Harrelson, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Demi Moore, Eddie Murphy, Donny Osmond, Sean Penn, Prince, Tim Robbins.
  http://philosopherswheel.com/generations.htm

Uranus in Virgo – Mutable Earth - Need to analyze, discriminate and function efficiently

1794 – 1807

• Rise of Romanticism
• Electricity
• Steam Engine
• Collapse of Prussia

1878-1885

• 1884: Oxford Dictionary published – to push past limitation and use this dictionary to help function more efficiently.
• 1879 - Thomas A. Edison invents electric light
• 1881 - First union is formed

1962-1969

• Dec. 24, 1962. Burundi, Jamaica, Western Samoa, Uganda, and Trinidad and Tobago become independent
• June 28, 1969 Stonewall riot in New York City marks beginning of gay rights movement – need to liberate who you are.

Uranus in Libra – Cardinal Air - Initiating social and intellectual action to create balance

1801-1807

• 1804 Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor of the French. The focus is on the abolition of serfdom, equality before the law, the protection of property rights, and public education, but fails to defend the rights of women, children and slaves. 

1885-1891

• Invention of automobile
• Invention of electronics, wireless radios

1969-1975

• Apollo 11 – first man on the moon
• Music Videos came out and were a huge hit – change in music & arts
• Attitudes toward marriage changed and were less conventional - the spirit of the union is more important than the form. Legalities are not as important as love.
• Sept 5, 1972 - Eleven Israeli athletes at Olympic Games in Munich are killed after eight members of an Arab terrorist group invade Olympic Village; five guerrillas and one policeman are also killed.

Uranus in Scorpio – Fixed Water – Stabilising emotional security, need for deep involvements and intense transformations.

1808-1813

• Berlin University founded
• Britain opens up New Zealand for immigration

1891-1898

• 1895 - X-rays invented by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen
• 1896 - First enzyme discovery - Eduard Buchner 
• Sigmund Freud begins practising what he coins psychoanalysis

1975-1981

• First mobile phone – changes how people interact
• May 23, 1977 Scientists report using bacteria in lab to make insulin
• Anti-Nuclear war protests begin
• 1980 – Peak in divorce rates in the US

Uranus in Sagittarius - Mutable, Fire – Need to explore and expand horizons of mind and world

1814-1821

• Foundation of Hindu College, Calcutta
• First trans-atlantic steamship

1898-1904

• 1903 - Wright brothers fly first airplane
• 1903 - Henry Ford organizes Ford Motor Company
• 1900 – first wireless audio message sent

1981-1988

• Canada Act 1982 – liberation & bring fresh idea to reforming of outdated methods to the areas of education, philosophy, religion

Uranus in Capricorn - Cardinal, Earth -  Initiating material action – need for structure, organization and social accomplishment

1822-1828

• 1825 Uprising in Russia
• Mackintosh raincoat first sold

1905-1912

• 1905 - The Russian Revolution of 1905 begins 1907 - Second Hague Peace Conference, of 46 nations, adopts 10 conventions on rules of war. (change to gov & social structure)
• 1911 - Chinese Republic proclaimed after revolution overthrows Manchu dynasty

1988-1996

• April 19, 1989 - Tens of thousands of Chinese students take over Beijing's Tiananmen Square in rally for democracy (social change)
• Feb 1, 1992 - Bush and Yeltsin proclaim formal end to cold war
• Oct 30, 1995 Quebec narrowly rejects independence from Canada

Uranus in Aquarius - Fixed Air – Stabilizing social and intellectual security, need to be innovative and create social change.

1829-1836

• 1829: Greece gains independence from Ottoman Empire
• 1830: First railway line is built in England

1912-1919

• 1913 - Suffragists demonstrate in London. Garment workers strike in New York and Boston for better working conditions
• 1914 – WWI begins (questionable leadership)
• 1917 - Russian Revolution

1996-2003

• March 22, 1997 -  Heaven's Gate cult members commit mass suicide in California (questionable leadership/ unique approach to changing humanity)
• Oct 13, 1999 - Tobacco companies admit to harm caused by cigarette smoking (unique approach to changing humanity)
• Sept 11, 2001 – 911 (created a huge change worldwide socially)

Uranus in Pisces - Mutable Water - Adapting to emotional and soul learning. Needs to commit to the ideal dream and work toward its realization

1837-1844

• Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist – social commentary
• Photography
• Opium Wars in China
• Mass immigration to US
• US – Canada border defined

1919-1927

• 1919 to 1927 there were radical changes in beliefs, religion, and morals. This was the period of prohibiting alcohol and the split between the moralistic and the wild Roaring Twenties.
• 1925 - John T. Scopes convicted and fined for teaching evolution in a public school in Tennessee “Monkey Trial”; sentence set aside.
• 1926 - Gertrude Ederle of U.S. is first woman to swim English Channel

2003-2011

• Dec 26, 2004 - Enormous tsunami devastates Asia; at least 225,000 killed.
• Aug 2005 -  Hurricane Katrina wreaks catastrophic damage on the Gulf Coast; more than 1,000 die and millions are left homeless. Americans are shaken not simply by the magnitude of the disaster but by how ill-prepared all levels of government were in its aftermath.

Uranus in Aries -  Cardinal Fire – Independent, ingenious, new beginnings

1845-1851

• Inventor of the telephone Alexander Graham Bell was born
• Revolutions of 1848: Largest political upheaval in European history. Revolutionaries and working class people were unhappy with the political leadership and were demanding more participation and involvement in their government.

1927-1935

• 1927: A diamond rush in South Africa includes trained athletes hired by several major firms to stake claims.
• 1927: First sports commentary on the BBC radio
• Wall Street Crash of 1929, also known as Black Tuesday
• Women become persons in Canada
• Nazis rise to power

2011 to 2018

• Civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Sudan
• LGBTQ – more acceptance of how people identify sexually
• In North America: Black Lives Matter,

Uranus in Taurus – Fixed Earth – Finding new ways to be practical

1851-1858

• First World Fair
• Darwin’s Theory of evolution – gave people a new way of viewing life
• Independence of Cuba
• First railway and telegraph lines in India
• Smallpox vaccine

1935-1942

• 1939 – WWII France, UK, Australia, NZ, South Africa & Canada declared war on Germany
• 1939 – Australia’s worst bushfire kills 71
• Dust Bowl

Neptune

• First discovered in 1612 by Galileo, but he didn’t realize it was a planet
• Officially discovered in 1846
• Orbit: 165 years
• 14 years in each sign
• Co-Rules: Pisces
• Masculine - Malefic
• Retrograde approximately 5 months/year
• MYTHOLOGY: Poseidon, God of the Seas. Brother to Zeus, God of the Sky, and Hades, God of the Underworld.
• RULES: Dreams, illusions, dissolving boundaries, delusion, escapism, creativity, inspiration, visions, deception, spirituality, mysticism
• SKILLED: gifted in dance, music, poetry, art. Strong spirituality or psychic ability, desire to create a better world.
• UNSKILLED: addiction to mind altering substances, confusion, escapist behaviour, hypochondria, lack of focus, paranoia.

Western astrologers use Neptune to represent illumination, illusions, disillusions, and delusions as well as spiritual seeking and mystical truths.  It “is the inspiration that must take place before a thing can be brought into the physical world” (Robert Hand)

Neptune rules dreams and visions, self-sacrifice, charity, religion, the intangible, confusion, escapism, deception, glamour, drugs, addictions, merging or uniting, compassion, and lack of boundaries.
Esoteric astrologers consider Neptune the higher octave of Venus and place strong emphasis on its representation of spiritual possibilities. 

Alan Leo (1911):
Of Neptune ... little that is definite can be said at present. He tends to render the nature sensuous and dreamy when prominent in a horoscope, and when afflicted gives a decided tendency to fraud. Undoubtedly, he acts as a malefic upon the majority.

Marc Edmund Jones (1945):
(Neptune) identifies that point in the horoscope where the individual is under the greatest necessity to do what the group as a whole wishes him to do, or where any extreme of co-operation or allegiance is demanded of him by other people in general. Thus Neptune ... describes the situation under which anyone is brought up short most definitely, whenever he fails to respond to the opportunities for this larger mode of being.

Karen Hamaker-Zondag (1980):
The Neptune factor signifies a refining of existing psychic contents. In particular, the emotional aspects of experience and the range of experience undergo a change. ... Universal love, understanding, warmth and human dedication are typical of Neptune and so the planet has come to be treated as a higher octave of Venus. It is the source in man from which the gifted artist and the devoted religious or secular leader draw their inspiration.

Robert Hand (1981):
(Neptune) eludes definition because it is associated with aspects of the universe that are unclear, illusory, delusory, ill-defined, and even imaginary. ... Neptune may also signify both an ideal and an illusion of the perfectly ideal.

Neptune in Aquarius

1834-1848

• Neptune is discovered
• Romantic era (roughly1800 – 1850) romantic artists and musicians did away with rules and began to trust their imagination and intuition. Many viewed God as a spiritual force and rebelled against the dogma of the church.
• German Idealism supports the idea that it is human consciousness, not science, that builds the world.
• The Earliest negative photograph
• Hans Christian Anderson publishes the first of his tales for children
• US/Mexican war begins. Texas is annexed
• Publication of Scientific American
• Karl Marx Publishes the Communist Party Manifesto 1848

1998-2012

• Rapid Technological Advancements – individuals own cellphones and personal computers.
• Social Media - Twitter, Facebook etc.
• Pluto demoted to the dwarf planet category after the discovery of similar bodies

Neptune in Pisces

1848-1862

• 1848 Karl Marx publishes the Communist Manifesto
• First use of anesthetics ether and chloroform
• 1859: Charles Darwin published the Origin of the Species which threatens the worldview of Christianity
• Gold discovered in New South Wales

2013 – present

Neptune in Aries 1861-1874

• Invention of the machine gun and dynamite
• US Civil War
• Louis Pasteur germ theory
• Australian woman allowed to vote
• First Geneva Convention

Neptune in Taurus 1875-1889

• Theosophical Society founded
• Pacific Stock Exchange opens
• Invention of the telephone
• Invention of the phonograph

Neptune in Gemini 1889-1902

• Psychoanalysis
• Motion pictures
• Telegram goes around the world in 80 seconds

Neptune in Cancer 1902-1915

• American occupation of Cuba ends
• Colombia recognizes Panama's independence
• Food and Drug Act (USA)
• Development of unions
• Colour photography
• WWI Begins

Neptune in Leo 1915-1929

• Norway approves active & passive female suffrage
• Women Granted the Right to Vote in U.S.
• "Tarzan of the Apes", 1st Tarzan film, premieres at Broadway Theater
• First transatlantic telephone call
• First birth control clinic opens in US

Neptune in Virgo 1929-1942

• Gandhi leads the salt march
• Beginning of great depression and WWII
• Stock market crash

Neptune in Libra 1942-1957

• Baby boomer generation who later become the hippies, believing in peace harmony.
• End of WWII
• Beginning of United Nations

Neptune in Scorpio 1957-1970

• Man on the moon
• Woodstock
• Vietnam War
• Marilyn Monroe is found dead of an apparent overdose.
• Aug. 28, 1963 Civil rights rally held by 200,000 blacks and whites in Washington, D.C.; Martin Luther King delivers “I have a dream” speech. Demand for individual freedom.

Neptune in Sagittarius 1970-1984

• Conflicts between capitalist and communist forces.
• End of Vietnam War
• Watergate
• Conclusion of the Cultural Revolution in China
• First test tube baby is born

Neptune in Capricorn 1984-1998

• Scandals on Wall Street: stock, market plunge and brief recession.
• Iraq-Iran War/Oil Spill
• Chernobyl disaster
• Car seat, seat belt and helmet use mandatory for children (US)

Pluto

• Discovered in 1930
• Orbit: 248 years
• 11-32 years in a sign
• Co-Ruler: Scorpio
• Masculine – Malefic
• Retrograde for approximately 5 months/year: internalization of our desire for control and power; denial of ones own capacity for depth and strength.
• MYTHOLOGY: Hades, God of the Underworld. Brother to Zeus who ruled the Sky and Poseidon who ruled the Sea. Abductor of Persephone. 
• COLLECTIVELY: Effects generations. Setting up questions and themes that societies work on together
• INDIVIDUALLY: Phoenix rising from the ashes.
• RULES: Unconscious forces symbolized by destruction, death and rebirth, decay, elimination, radical transformation, rebirth and power, revolution, deep instincts, the underworld
• SKILLED: the ability to rebound against all odds, the ability to re-invent oneself, regeneration, resourcefulness, resilience.
• UNSKILLED: abuse of power, dark motivations, obsession, self-destructive.

Astrologically, Pluto has come to rule the unconscious mind, deep instincts, and the underworld. It represents the power to create as well as the power to destroy. It symbolizes the power of radical transformation and revolution.

Keywords include power-it's use or misuse, obsession, death, birth, regeneration (sex), destruction, and metamorphosis, exchanges in genetic material, genetics, research, spiritual regeneration, the phoenix rising out of the ashes.

It represents the principles that something must die in order for something new to take place and survival that requires collaboration.

In size, Pluto is smaller than our Moon. Although it is now a dwarf, because Pluto has been used in charts for nearly 100 years, most modern astrologers still commonly use it as if it were one of the main planets.

Elbert Benjamine (1939):
More than any other planet, Pluto exerts an influence which may express in two diametrically opposite qualities. ... Pluto is never wishy-washy. The Lower-Pluto influence combines cunning with daring to attain its own self-seeking ends, and permits nothing to stand in its way. ... The Upper-Pluto influence ... is sagacious, drastic and forceful, but works invariably for the benefit of all. The key word for Pluto is Co-operation, his worst quality is Inversion, and his best quality is Spirituality.

Marc Edmund Jones (1945):
Pluto, in its indication of obsession--taken as potentially no less constructive than unfortunate, or as the compelling vision by which men are caught up out of themselves in a transcendence of lesser living--is the planet of meditative activity in cultural self-relationship, or is the mass mind which directs the basic formulation ... of social concepts. ... Pluto shows the native's impersonal response to his group's needs and dangers.

Karen Hamaker-Zondag (1980):
The function of the Pluto factor in the human psyche is extremely critical; it is, to quote Jeff Mayo, '... a natural outlet for bringing to the surface those repressed and lost factors out of the personal unconscious.'

Robert Hand (1981):
Pluto is the archetype of death and resurrection: it breaks down the old and outworn entities into their component parts, and then reassembles them into new being.

Pluto in Cancer 1914-1939 - 25 years

• Overlap between Greatest Generation (1901-1926) and Silent Generation (1927-1945). Both generations were influenced by the war years, and enjoyed prosperity in midlife.
• Need to give and receive emotional warmth & security
• Capacity to deal with “death”. Transformation/renewing.
• Wars and the great depression which occurred while this generation was young created financial insecurity, but ultimately provided a higher level of education and prosperity than the generations before them.
• Individuals will go through a lot of changes that affect their sense of security
• They feel everything very intensely
• It is difficult for them to let go of possessions and people
• Early family life may be dramatically affected by forces beyond one's immediate control
• Community minded, sense of civic duty.
• Accepted gender stereotypes

Pluto in Leo 1937-1958 - 21 years

• Silent Generation (1927 – 1945) and Baby Boom Generation (1946-1964)
• The surge in post-war births created a large generation of individuals who were not called to war. They grew up in an era of abundance, and were provided greater education and employment opportunities than any other generation to date.
• First generation of teenagers – they were not expected to take on adult responsibilities young
• Need to creatively express themselves and be appreciated by others
• Many people of this generation freely expressed themselves through music, dance, art, clothing, etc.
• Women began working outside the home
• Rejecting traditional values, the sexual revolution took place when this generation came of age.
• Technological advances provided more leisure time for this generation. This in turn gives them the opportunity to be more fit than previous generations, resulting in an extended expected life span. 
• Continue to enjoy the pleasures of life after retirement – no rocking chairs for them.

Pluto in Virgo 1956-1972  - 16 years

• Spans a portion of Baby Boom Generation (1946-1964) and Generation X (1965-1980) but missing many of the benefits enjoyed by the Baby Boom Generation. More cynical than their parents, educated but underemployed.
• Self sufficient as their mothers were working and not at home for them as children
• Ecologically minded
• Need to analyze, discriminate and function efficiently. Cautious and skeptical.
• Pluto in Virgo seeks transformation in the areas of service, everyday work and health
• Generation of computers to eliminate human error, but pre-high tech.
• Grew up in times of uncertainty due to divorced parents, economic recessions and world events like AIDS, Chernobyl and the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
• Largest group of people who never married or had children. Many single parents.

Pluto in Libra 1971-1984 - 13 years

• Spans Generation X (1960-1980) and Millennial or Generation Y (1981-2000)
• Children of the Baby Boomers
• Strives to cooperate with others to create beauty, balance and harmony
• Capacity to deal with “death”. Transformation/renewing.
• Highest divorce rate on record which effects the view of relationship to the children born into this generation. Consequently, they strive to find balance in relationships.
• Many of these people are known as being the indigo children and the crystal children.
• Perception of relationships changes.
• Grew up in a digital world

Pluto in Scorpio 1983-1995 - 12 years

• Millennials or Generation Y (1981-2000)
• Need for deep involvements and intense transformations.
• Increased capacity to deal with death.
• Interest in magical experiences (Harry Potter) as well as violence and sex seen in music and video games
• Depth psychology goes mainstream
• Many cultural taboos, physical and psychological abuses were brought into our consciousness including domestic abuse, incest. Adults began to reveal their pedophile perpetrators.

Pluto in Sagittarius 1995-2008 - 13 years

• Millennials/Gen Y and Generation Z (born after 2001)
• Record number of births in 2006 – surpassing that of the Baby Boom Generation
• Need to explore and expand the horizons of my mind and world.
• This generation is very philosophical and rebellious.  They seek action and loathe boredom.
• Travel freedoms have been dramatically controlled and revised during Pluto in Sagittarius.
• Extremes in consumerism

Pluto in Capricorn 2008-2024 - 16 years

• Generation Z
• Need for structure, organization and accomplishment.
• Breakdown and renewal of government structures and systems.
• Cryptocurrencies threaten to replace monetary system
• Economic collapse

 

Bibliography:
Benjamine, Elbert (1939) The Influence of the Planet Pluto: The Aries Press
Edmond Jones, Mark (1945) Astrology: How and Why it Works: Pelican Books
Hamaker Zondag, Karen (1980) Astro Psychology: Aquarian Press
Hand, Robert (1981) Horoscope Symbols: Whitford Press
Leo, Alan (1983) The Key to Your Own Nativity: Destiny Books
Perry, Marvin (2001) Western Civilization, A Brief History: Houghton Mifflin Company
Kepler College W101 Course Material

Image sources:
Uranus clouds: NASA, ESA, and M. Showalter (SETI Institute) (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Neptune: NASA (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Pluto: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Alex Parker (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons

First published in: ivcconference.com/constellation-news/, 2018.

Author:
Donna Young is an instructor with Kepler College, as well as the Canadian Association for Astrological Education. Committed to growing the astrological community, she co-hosts a monthly gathering in Calgary, AB for astrologers of all levels, and helps to organize an annual conference designed to encourage the development of Canadian Astrologers.
She holds an AA degree from Kepler College in the History and Symbology of Astrology, Level III NCGR-PAA Certification, and serves as the Canadian satellite representative for the Organization for Professional Astrology (OPA). Her private consulting practice is in Alberta, Canada, and she can be contacted via www.donnayoungastrologer.com.

© 2018 - Donna Young - Constellation News

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