Lenzites Betulina.. Very well spoken. I feel the same
necessities of development within in my own Spirituality. As for the chasm such developments can create between ourselves and others, you are not alone. Perhaps in part it is that lone wolf complex that Capricorns can be so characteristic of.
To correct a previous post, it is also possible to be born in 1986 and be a member of the Neptune Capricorn generation. ;-) I feel in general its lessons seek to dispel the excess of 'smoke and mirrors' that Spirituality often generates.. To find a grounded, wholistic understanding of these elusive and esoteric aspects of life. Such a grounding is rather challenging.. but as with the sign of Capricorn, it is those that continue to strive and meet such challenges that we receive our Spiritual rewards.
I like what you say about dispelling the smoke and mirrors of spirituality. I often thought it would be good to have a regional magazine which reviewed healers and mystics and psychics. The purpose of the magazine would be to separate the wheat from the chaff. To expose the quacks to the population and relate who the truly gifted are. The alternative community lacks a control valve. Most other conventional communities have this. It's no wonder that people associate "new agers" with flakeyness.
Glad to see another person of the Neptune in Capricorn generation feels this way. I think that my interpretation of how the energy effects me is not exactly status-quo, and not necessarily applicable to the general population. It's not just about the influence, but also other aspects, environmental rearing, cultural norms, the quality of the receiver, as well as
what one does with the influence.
So let’s examine this influence on a massive scale, comparing the internal(psychological) and external(cultural) phenomena as we go along.
Our generation has been given the unfortunate moniker of "
The Entitlement Generation". That's about as ridiculous as a wealthy man telling a group of starving people(the unskilled youth) that he will have a massive feast(the american dream) to which they are invited on a given day(adulthood). When the day arrives the starving people join the wealthy at their table. The wealthy man and his friend(baby boomers) are fighting over who gets the caviar because only 70% of what was paid for was delivered(pension, retirement).
The starving person(entitlement generation) sees that the wealthy are starting to feel decreases in their standard of life(cutbacks), but also notes that they and their friends are unlikely to every have any caviar for themselves, either to eat or to fight over, so they as for some bread(a job that supplies a living wage). In response to this the two wealthy people who were fighting over who gets the caviar, report to the starving man that
he is brimming with a sense of entitlement. Afterall, the caviar is running short, so why give up your bread? Who does that starving man think he is anyway?
Does he actually think he is entitled to a slice of bread? How brash! How arrogant!
Few things smell more foul than the baby boomers accusing us of entitlement. Nothing could be more hypocritical. Isn't it they who are currently fighting tooth and claw to keep their entitlements? Isn't it us, who scarcely expect to have retirement funds, pensions, paid vacations, overtime, and living wages?
"We have become a society that kills it's grand children to feed its children" Tom Brown Jr. The baby boomers are killing us to feed themselves.
Societally speaking and in a general sense,
a large proportion of our generation is unskilled. In fact, outside of the generations born after us, we are likely to be the
most spectacularly unskilled generation in the whole of American History. (My cultural assessments are that of the culture to which I belong, which is American culture and is most applicable to American society, but parallels may be found in other industrial, first-world countries, as they are our cultural relatives)
By unskilled, I mean, unskilled in any area outside of the field of technology, most typically hand-on trades. If one is of our generation and skilled, they are exceptional, whether or not belonging to the alternative community or the status quo.
If one is unskilled it limits the avenues in which they can make money. Neptune(delusion, deception and self-deception, uncertainty) in Capricorn(work, profession and professionalism, ability to make money, 10th house matters, social prestige based on career, financial security)
In fact, we as a generation share an unfortunate social conflict when it comes to work. First of all, we were given false expectations(Neptune manifesting as deception by an outside source) about work. You see, many of us were raised to expect a living wage and a socially acceptable career(Capricorn). For some time, the baby boomers were able to pay for a family of four on a single income with a job at an auto manufacturer without a college degree. The expectation for this standard of life was passed onto us.
We were taught to view jobs like working at walmart or mcdonalds or anything having to do with the service industry(service being ruled by neptune, however, the service industry generally works with non-neptunian goods and products) with contempt, as they were "low-caste" and we, educated as we were, were better than that. For a middle class or upper middle class child to grow up to take on such a job, they would be considered a failure, or an embarassment to their family. This is similar to moving down a caste in India, something few would choose to do.
Besides, reasoning the baby-boomers, who passed this contempt down to us, one cannot support their family or pay their bills with such a job(capricorn).
Well, then the baby boomers outsourced all the jobs to 3rd world countries and the majority of the jobs left were that of the service industry. As our expectations were that of adequate employment and as we do not want the social stigma of working at walmart, as doing so threatens our sense of pride and value, and also as doing so is not rewarding in any way(financial or otherwise), because we were told we would grow up to be knights or kings or fair ladies and then forced to be untouchables, many of us are hesitant to take such a job at all, even if it means unemployment.
This conflict breeds a pretty poor work ethic. We were told that if we worked "Really hard" and if we were to "be all that you can be" we could get somewhere and be something special. We would be rewarded.
Then life happens. The majority of the jobs available are service jobs, regardless of an individual's degree of education. Educated or not, we work our asses off at some dead end job. No promotion. Few raises. When a raise happens that cost of living goes up and we end up making less money. Even the best employees are hesitant to make demands of their employers, as they know they are inherently disposable and easily replaced. We see that. We see that we are asked to be a cog in the machine. And we don't like it. There's no reward in it. It's no wonder many of us have poor work ethic.
We expect the expectations that were given us and society as a whole is not living up the myth it has perpetuated. Neptune in Capricorn.
There is another aspect to this story. Skillsets determine where one fits into the social heirarchy which in turn, determines a person's sense of self-value or self-identity.
Our generation does not know where we fit in to the greater whole. In general, we lack a sense of identity. This can be seen in our lack of confidence, both in terms of body language and speech. We are rarely seen standing upright, as homo sapiens was meant to do, and our speech patterns are heavily afflicted with the second-guessing tone of upspeak. Many of us try to gain a sense of self by identifying with movies(neptune), or how we look, rather than who we are. We'll die our hair purple and pierce our noses just to have a sense of identity, so we can feel unique, not realizing that the purchase of mass-produced chinese studs to sew onto our jackets and cheap beer further perpetuates the consumer society("The Establishment": Capricorn) we deceive ourselves(Neptune) into proporting that we are against. We are so desparate to gain a sense of self that we create facebook pages with pictures of ourselves everytime we eat or fart and crave so desparately to be "liked" for it.
We are always trying to prove who we are. We identify with how we look rather than our character. We have become easily manipulated because of this. Advertisement campaigns know this and feed off of our insecurities: "this product will give you a better sense of self."
As a whole, our generation is constantly plugged into a "virtual reality"(neptune). We cannot stop texting, we cannot put down our iphones, we cannot turn off the TV, or walk away from the computer. God forbid we take those headphones out of our ears, lest we be confronted with the cold-hard reality of things(Capricorn). We were raised with technological baby sitters rather than good old-fashioned nourishment.
We're disconnect from nature(Earth element) and accustomed to artificial environments. This disconnect is likely the strongest disconnect from the Earth ever seen in written history(aside from any speculative reports on the culture and fall of Atlantis). We think rivers of concrete are normal(Streets, roads, highways). We think towers made from the innards of dead mountains are normal(Skyscrapers). We enjoy a winter in a temperate climate with average temperatures of sixty degrees and fail to question why it is that flies are buzzing around in January in a temperate climate. The Earth screams in vain while we plug our ears with headphones. I've met people of my generation who didn't even know what a beet was.
Due to our collective identity crisis(which is not limited to our generation alone, mind you)
many people would rather be something than do it. They want a sense of prestige and a title(Capricorn) that would bear it, but are unwilling to do the work necessary to be qualified for that title. Thus, they call themselves healers, shamans, herbalists, "masters" of this or that with relatively little experience. All it takes to be considered a "master herbalist" is 9 courses once a month. That's only 9 classes! Mastery cannot be acquired in 9 days. This is a very neptunian(self-deceiving) way of going about becoming a professional!
Why? We don't want to do the grunt work(earth element). We want to be instant experts(the drive for illumination). We cannot submit ourselves to the service require to gain mastery. Neptune in Capricorn.
Now: Calling oneself a healer before qualified can lead to death, but more importantly than a few individuals dead as a result of malpractice is the fact that when malpractice becomes a common phenomena in a given field, the reputation of the field becomes poor. The lives of the true healers are impacted adversely. Less people are likely to see them and thus, less healed. Even worse, the trade is likely to be stigmatized out of existence and thus, unavailable to the unborn generations of the future.
Now things aren't all bad, but we've got a lot stacked against us.
There are permaculture and urban gardening initiatives that our generation is promoting. Unfortunately, the kid who didn't know what a beet was is also a "certified permacultural designer"!
The positive: We see the problems of society and want to fix them.
The negative: Most of us lack the understanding or the skillsets to do so.
The moral of the story: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Our generation is involved in the 99%. And what have they done? Nothing really. They fizzled out. They acheived nothing. They had a few sit-ins, fed some people, smoked pot, drank beer, made a few posters, complained about the economy, and engaged in a mentally masturbatory circle jerk. Then they got bored and went home.
Why? Because they had no direction. No plan. No goals. No grounding force. Not even much of an idea of history.
Historically speaking, sit-ins were for the 60's. We're no longer in the 60's. The baby boomers were the ones sitting in. They know how to deal with it. They know how to dispell it. It's a game to them. A game they played long ago. They know that game better than our generation and they know how to stop it. The people in power aren't that stupid. They learn what works and what doesn't. Why don't we?
I was suprised when I spoke to some of the 99-Percenters. The ones I spoke with didn't even know the history of the American labor movement. The labor movement was marked by
direct action.
Direct Action is the most effective means to utilize a change.
During the labor movement a small town in America passed an ordinance against free speech. The workers put up soap boxes on every street corner and took turns making speeches. Each time they opened their mouths they were arrested. They had about enough time to say, "Fellow Workers", then they were arrested. Then the next person would step up and get arrested. Before long, all the jails were filled. Then there were so many people arrested that the prisoners had to be kept in highschool gyms...whatever public space was available. Then came the real kicker. The prison system had to feed the prisoners. They couldn't afford to do so, so a tax was raised. The tax was monumental. The remaining portion of the population refused to pay such a high tax just to support a bunch of lawbreaking criminals.
Thus, the ordinance against free speech was changed.
What the neptune in capricorn generation needs to do is reinforce their neptune with the grounding and practical influence of capricorn. And we need to prevent neptune from interfering with our 10th house matters. It is imperative that we gain a degree of mastery over our own neptunian energies to do so.
As it stands, the neptune and the capricorn are in conflict with one another. Our mission is to make it work together, otherwise the quality of our lifes will be(and is) severely comprimised.
We can reverse this: Once we use capricorn to ground neptune we can use neptune to refine capricorn. But those are lofty goals. Neptune is even more difficult than pluto to work with(at least for those of us with pluto in scorpio).
Neptune in Capricorn seems to be an affliction, however, if mastered it could create a form of neptunian energy that is most influntial upon the earth plane, due to it's placement in the most influential of the earth signs. Although, Neptune in Taurus would be a thing to be reckoned with. Many great social reformers were taurus's(Although sagittarius is known for higher learning and for whatever reason associated with reform, many of the great social reformers were either Taurus's or Libras. Sagittarius is, afterall, mutable. Not many of us are known for social reform.
) A taurus lense is more accessible than a capricorn lense to the common people. Thus, the ratio of people mastering neptune in taurus would be higher than that of neptune in capricorn, which entails a certain level of success and influential ability to master. Also, a neptune in taurus generation would be more likely to unite for a cause. Neptune in capricorn is more individualistic. Naturally, it will be difficult for us to unite for a cause.
Neptune in an earth sign seems as though it would be of pivotal importance to us, because of the four elements, we live on earth. We do not live in fire. We do not live in water, as the fish. We do not live in the air, as the bees. When a planet passes an earth sign its energies are most available to earth. It is not the exaltation of the planet. It is the manifestation of the planet through earth energies, and thus when the planets influence may well be closest to us.