The Millennials - introduction (part 1/7)

Times have changed. The older people can tell (with great certainty) the difference between the world of their youth and the present one, being commonly called the digital or network society. We live in the world of an interpersonal communication via cell phones or the Internet.

Many of us, regardless of the age, are so imbued with the modern life-style and technology that we can't imagine any other way of functioning than the one with each and every technological advancements at hand. It is hard to just mentally return to the past to see how different things were back then. Let us look at the essential element of the modern human being - the cell phone. The first "cell" was introduced to the commercial circuit in 1973 and for many, many years it was an exclusive object - available only for the rich connoisseurs or fans of technological novelties. A similar theme played out with the computers. Only with time both of these objects became accessible and common enough to be present in each house.

The moment of mass technological entrance into our everyday life could be called the process of the great world permeating into our small world and vice versa - the great world became the place to which we could vent our frustrations or joys of our small worlds. Such a major change had to take its toll on people, completely and definitively shifting their habits and ways of daily functioning.

And within all of this multitude of events, a generation of people had been born which started to consider technology as something obvious from an early age. Over time, the progress has continued to the point of defining the standards of living so much that even the present few-year-olds have no problems firing out those phone apps. Even the cells phones themselves are designed so that children can intuitively use them.

How astrology can help with understanding one's role in the society

Surely you have encountered timeless stories concerning the subjects that are always up-to-date, regardless of who and when reads them. Such is the case of the texts that describe certain ageless truths using e.g. symbols or archetypes - the meanings of these are not limited by time, because they refer directly to the universal inner world of the man.

Long time ago I've read a book by Robert R. Svodoba called "Greatness of Saturn - the therapeutic myth" that had a fantastic descriptions of what myths and symbols are. This particular point of view I'd like to present now:

For example we have an apple that, objectively speaking, looks, tasted and smells the same for every human. However the process of eating that apple will be a very individual and source of different experiences for each person. Similarly, from the outside  the symbols can seem mediocre and not contributing much to life, but suddenly coming to life when reaching our inner world, being a source of varied experiences for a person. Just like an apple is food rich in nutrients, so the words and information containing symbols are the food, though for our inner world.

Nowadays, many people know only one, external reality that is filled with a lot of dead knowledge and analysis that do not enrich our interior. By rushing on this informational highway, we gain knowledge only to burn it out in the blink of an eye and replace it with something better - this process drives the commerce as we are constantly looking for, consuming, and buying stuff in order to start from scratch afterwards. And the conversations about our inner reality are either overlooked by the majority of people or treated as boring stupidities and quirks.

Many people try to offset this lack of knowledge and food for the inner world by fervently engaging in the type of symbols like the flag, nation or sport and the favorite team. But all of those are just a reflection of real, timeless symbols. Just as, in the long run, drugs will never fill the inner hole and hunger for something deeper, so many modern symbols will not satisfy the needs of our inner reality for something "higher and more meaningful" or more valuable.

For me, astrology with all of its tradition reaching the ancient times along with the planets and their symbolic meaning, makes timeless wisdom that is a source of food and nutrients for our inner reality. 

In this series of articles we'll be looking at the goals, challenges and obstacles of the Millennial Generation, also trying to explain why this group is struggling to find its place in the world. There will be a little bit about history and the future that the Millennials will shape more and more actively.

"As Above So Below"

One of the fundamental astrological principle is the rule "As Above So Below". In accordance with this principle, the planetary placement occurring at a particular moment on the sky will reflect and describe the very moment e.g. the position of planets on the sky at the moment of a wedding will describe the longevity of the relationship, the roles of spouses etc., and will indicate how both people will find themselves in their roles. This very principle is the basis behind the natal chart that is the record of the planetary positions in a certain place and time on Earth. Thanks to it we can describe a person's structure, his/her potential and predispositions, analyzing e.g. the condition, the symbolic meaning and the relation between planets.

For a moment let's reverse the situation and say "As Below So Above". The nature of events from the early 80' to the beginning of the year 2000, will be reflected in the planetary placement during those years. All the social turmoils, hopes and disappointments will be included in the symbolic meaning of the planets. Now every change happening during those years will not only affects the people living during those times, but also the people that are being or will be born. This is extremely important, because often the birth chart analysis ends on studying the relations between the planets, avoiding the nature of events that transpired at that very time. For example, at some point in time a very financially favourable combination of planets (Jupiter conjunct Venus) could have been formed on the sky, but its real and specific manifestation would be different for people born in economically developed counties and different for those living on a smaller islands.

Astrology clearly shows the direct connection between the events of a given period and the potential and character of people born during this period. To sum it up, the more significant changes are happening in the world, the more significant and extraordinary people will be born at this time. And if on top of that there is a particular planetary placement on the sky, we are dealing with a very complex group of individuals.

Who are the Millennials? 

In the Internet one can find a multitude of descriptions and divisions of societies based on generations. Why not use one of already published descriptions to have a point of reference? Personally, I have stumbled upon one particular division that I'd like to showcase - the Strauss-Howe generational theory.

William Strauss and Neil Howe are the authors of series of books describing the generations of people over hundreds of years. The basis of their study was the research of the American society, although these two men have also looked at other developed countries and ultimately came to the same conclusions as with America.

Often one looks at history from the "linear" point of view, where the events are direct result of the preceding events. What makes Strauss and Howe's work special is viewing the history as a cycle - a series of recurring experiences that generations go through. The theme of cycles is broadly present in astrology, for example incorporated in the techniques used for the predictions of the external and internal human reality (transits and progressions).

According to the generational theory of Strauss and Howe, the society goes through a four-stage change cycle. These stages are called Turnings - the first one is high, second is awakening, proceeding with unraveling and ending with crysis. People born during those specific Turnings are classified as: Prophets - born during high; Nomads - born during awakening; Heroes - born during unraveling; Artists - born during crysis. The authors claim that each Turning lasts about 20-22 years and the whole 4 Turnings create a cycle of aprox. 80-90 years that is called the saeculum, after the Latin words meaning "a long human life" and "a natural century".

One calls The Millennial Generation a group of people born during the years 1982-2004 being the Heroes type, belonging to the Millennial saeculum. 

According to the descriptions provided by Strauss and Howe, the Heroes in general are pragmatic individuals and self-reliant people. Heroes mature during the crisis, become young optimists oriented towards the team play. As middle-aged, they are extremely confident and energetic people that age into politically wise elders. 

The Millennial Generation itself is said to have a developed social sense, both on the local and global field. They are attributed the traits like confidence, tolerance, but also narcissism and self-entitlement. The millennial teenagers were said to transform the image of "worse and alienated" youth to the "optimistic and engaged" one. In comparison to the previous generations, the millennials are said to hold higher standards than their parents and also be less vulgar and sex-oriented than the older generations perceives them to be. One can see within this group returning to the conservative values.

And that's it for the scientific research.