Young People as Members of Subgenerations

Recently, I was talking with a woman about some challenges that her six-year-old son has been experiencing for some time now. (I’ll use the alias “Max” to refer to the boy.) Ostensibly, those challenges relate somehow to Max’s health. However, a number of puzzling questions Max’s situation have yet to be answered. 


For example, does Max have one or more unusual types of sensitivity that have been causing his difficulties? Maybe he simply has unusual levels of common sensitivities. In either case, which sensitivity or sensitivities are we talking about here? Maybe both of these possibilities apply in Max’s case.  Then again, maybe neither of them applies, and whatever has been causing his difficulties is something else entirely.


The unanswered questions about Max’s sensitivities reminded me of "The Ritalin Generation: Kids of the Uranus-Neptune Conjunction,” an article written by Donna Cunningham. It ran in The Mountain Astrologer (TMA) in 2001.


As the TMA website puts it, "this article takes a keen look at those hyper-everything children who were born under the influence of these transpersonal planets. Donna Cunningham gives compassionate and helpful astrological guidelines for understanding these high-tech kids – and delineating their charts for the worried grownups in their lives."


Though I had read other articles in the same issue of TMA years ago, and I had intended to read that particular article earlier, I had not taken the time to do so until one morning earlier this week. That day, while waiting in line to vote, I finally started reading the piece.


(By the way, it’s unusual for me wait so long to read an article by Cunningham. She’s one of my heroes in the field of astrology. Like me, she not only has not has an astrology practice but she also has a Master of Social Work, and I tend to think that we bring a fair number of similar, strongly-held values and beliefs to our work.)


In the article, Cunningham defines the Ritalin generation as those people, born between 1986 and 1999, who have Uranus and Neptune separated by no more than 10 degrees (i.e., conjunct, using a 10-degree orb).


Now that I’ve read “The Ritalin Generation,” I’d like to say that I have some special new insight into possible causes and solutions for the challenges that Max (and his parents) have been experiencing. I don’t, and that didn’t really surprise me. After all, I think that it’s fair to say that Max’s type of situation (whatever its cause or causes might be) lies beyond the scope of that particular article.


Even so, the article did get me thinking about challenges (and opportunities!) that young people face, both as individuals and as fellow members of specific “astrological subgenerations,” such as those children who were born in the late ‘80s and ‘90s with Uranus conjunct Neptune.


Those particular children have started reaching their young adult years; and as with every cohort born in recent decades, a certain percentage of them have turned to astrologers for help with making significant life decisions.


As I gradually build my clientele as a practicing astrology, some of them may very well turn to me for help.


I wonder how it will be to work with those grown-up children. Sure, in some ways, it’ll be like working with any other people. But in some ways it’ll be different.


And how about working with the various groups that come after the Uranus-conjunct-Neptune group?


How will it be to work with children of the 2000’s, with those born with more obviously challenging aspects: with a Saturn-Pluto opposition (in 2001-02), or a Saturn-Neptune opposition (in 2005-07), or a Saturn-Uranus opposition (in 2007-10)?


How will it be to work with those born with more subtly challenging aspects: with a Saturn-Neptune trine (in 2000-02), a Saturn-Uranus trine in (2002-04), or a Saturn-Pluto trine (born in 2006-08)?


I don’t know, but it’s that mystery, and the challenges and the opportunities that come along with it, that keep me interested in working with clients of all ages.


I love forward to delving into the mystery as a partner with each of them.