Leonard Cohen and the Pluto Uranus Conjunction of the 60’s Generation

From 2007…

My friend, satori is a Pisces born in the 60’a with the Pluto Uranus conjunction in Virgo opposing her Sun. With Uranus transiting Pisces, I have been witnessing her liberation and kickin’ it up a gear whenever I think I can.

 

“Well I think you should check out some of this stuff that was born when you were. The art, I mean. The creative stuff”, I said.  “And I mean get the purest stuff you can find. Like Leonard Cohen’s poetry from the era. It’s very potent. He writes about taboo sex. He writes this stuff and he does not screw around. He puts it right on the paper, the energy of your generation in just a very few words. And for me it’s one thing. For you it would be another but I do think it would impact you because it is you. The poems were born when you were born and you share something with them.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, I am getting a lot out of this. Because the poems are from this certain era and the astrology is very clear. It’s the 60’s and the sexual (Pluto) revolution (Uranus). We have the pill so people can screw each other’s brains out and they do. And he’s writing about the shadow much of the time. You know. This is not peace and love and hippies. This is not the Grateful Dead. This is Cohen, and though it interests me on other levels one of the things that attracts me is that this stuff was written at this specific time. A very charged time.”

“Yeah.”

“So then he goes and lives on a mountain. He goes Buddhist… he does whatever he does and he’s not writing this stuff now, 40 years later.” I laughed. “But good thing he wrote it then. Very good thing, because now we have it and we can read it.”

“Yep.”

“And it reminds me of the stuff I wrote back when Pluto was transiting my Sun. That stuff was something else. It was scathing. It was some kind of stream I was in and I can’t believe the stuff I wrote. I thought it was great writing but I got censored on the astrology lists for that stuff. Remember that?”

“Yeah.”

“Well that was disturbing! But oh well. I found it pretty hard to care. I knew I should write that stuff down and I am glad I did but I am especially glad when I read this old Cohen stuff. Because he is not writing like this anymore. Why would he be? He’s 40 years older! It’s a different time! But the point is he recorded the energy that is you. You embody this.”

“I understand. I get it.”

“I figured you would. So I just think you should read some of the stuff from this era. And see some of the movies because they are the same thing. Not just any movie but the ones that really define this time. Because the fact is, your mother? Everything she taught you and told you that you should be is anathema to who you are. Do you realize that? You are not the droid she wanted you to be. And I am thinking that exposure to things that embody your authentic energy are bound to resonate with you and help liberate you. It’s got to wake you up.”

“What’s the name of that book again?”

Energy Of Slaves. There are others, but that’s the one you want.”

Does the art from a certain era move you more profoundly than another? Which era and why do you think that is?

Skip to Part 2 – Sleep With Her Husband At Your Own Risk

18 thoughts on “Leonard Cohen and the Pluto Uranus Conjunction of the 60’s Generation”

  1. I noticed I was way more receptive to music, able to “feel” the music I listened to back when neptune squared my venus ~8 years ago. I didn’t do much sampling at/of the time, but what I stuck with really reigns high in my mind even now when my musical interests are quite different overall.

    Can’t say I’ve done much exploring of what came out of the time I was born, but I’m still young so some of this might still be in development. I’ve noticed that at really intense periods of my life, I’ve been drawn to music from that same time – even finding the music years later never having heard it before.

  2. In the sixties we did see new ways of being; the pill gave sexual liberation, revoutionary art, poetry, music and fashion. However, having observed my fellow peers with Uranus conjunct Pluto in Virgo there is a deep conservatism in this bunch. Like the Virgo is private and this group can keep their radicalness private and not on display. Some friends (of this group)have very mainstream, suburban, straight lives on the surface – but dig a little deeper and there will be an (one ?) aspect of their lives that is very naughty, risque and/or potentially criminal, experimental, creative. Many choose safe lives on the surface whilst being underground mavericks.
    Would love to hear more from Elsa with her knowledge an experienes with this curious lot.

  3. Good rap overall.The Grateful Dead reference doesn’t make sens though. I haven’t figured out why,but people seems to ascribe all sorts of stuff to the dead that is only in their own minds.Many of their songs are dark tragic cautionary,stories of losers ,gamblers ,the dispossed, trouble, lost sailors,cowboy murderers,drug crackups, people with nothing left to lose.etc.I think people just listen to the words that mirror their own state ,and disregard the rest.
    I found this page cause uranus is just hitting my Moon/venus in pisces conjunction ,and the only sustaioned relationship i’ve ever been in is getting hit hard.

  4. I love 40’s music and humor. Preston Sturges cracks me up.

    I think we’ll see the Pluto/Uranus in Virgo energy/people manifest more visibly in the next few years. Not sure why.

  5. Jilly, I couldn’t agree more. We’ll see them (finally) come out of their shells (I don’t really think “shell” is the right way to characterize this, but I don’t know what is right.)

    Those years of the Uranus/Pluto conjunction in Virgo occurred at my coming of age, 10th, 11th, and 12 grade, and at that time transited my natal Saturn/Sun conjunction). I’ve only found out recently, having read Eric Francis on the subject, about this phenomenal 60’s event. It was a huge revelation to me, a huge relief to finally have a reasonable explanation of why I went so very very nuts 65 to 67. Lots of other people my age were sort of just growing up, more or less as usual, while I virtually turned myself inside out, and then upside down. Luckily I didn’t get too far afoul of the authorites that be-d at the time. Still my “changes” (the code word of the era) were painful for my parents generally, and acutely so for me from time to time.

    Then I began to wonder the other day, when people are born slightly ahead of Pluto on their wheel, what does it mean, just generally, to experience a major Pluto transit so (relatively) early in life.

    I have been a lifelong devotee of Mr. Cohen’s. I still have my original copies of “Spice Box of Earth” and poetry collections. His early albumns of songs too: Suzanne, The Sisters of Mercy, So Long Marianne, My Priests, songs too numerous (and amazing and wonderful) to mention here. When one lives at such a time of flowering of the arts, and one is aware and open to it, one never stops talking about it, revelling in it, the rest of one’s life. So forgive us old hippies a bit, for all the seemingly constant blah, blah, blah. It’s not just for us, of course, e.g. I myself have only in the last decade or so fallen in love with the jazz era of the early 40’s. So sweet, sophisticated and poignant.

    Hopefully we’ll have something comparable to the 60’s coming up. Lot’s of changes. Probably even huger ones. They will meet with resistance, no? That’s the scary part.

  6. “I think we’ll see the Pluto/Uranus in Virgo energy/people manifest more visibly in the next few years. Not sure why.”

    I think they’ll be leading the death and transformation of business/structure. Hell they already were born at a time of great change so they can handle it.

    So far I’m watching a gemini with pisces saturn and pluto in virgo in action and it’s pretty awe-inspiring to me. The gift of gab, the gift of inspiration and the gift of technical ability and organization. He’s making his own movie.. why? because he can.

  7. wow. i remember being a kid and listening to my mom spin “songs of leonard cohen” over and over. and being young but still feeling the weight behind “suzanne.” i recall that i thought it was creepy, because it was so stark. (then jennifer warnes brought it back when she covered him in her mid-80’s work, famous Blue Raincoat.)

    this is really timely, too, in that it’s been very recently that i’ve found myself diving back into music of the 60’s and 70’s. it’s so rich and devoid of the mtv sensibility. i feel this way about film from that era, when it was “film” and not just moooovies, or opening weekend box office. i don’t know; there’s a richness to the sensibility of the time that i don’t get from much of today’s music and cinema (though of course there are exceptions).

    interestingly – or maybe not – when i need inspiration to write, just a kick in the ass, it’s songwriters i tend to look to. joni mitchell is about untouchable in my book. that marriage of divine inspiration and studied, disciplined craft.

    i’m talking about art from the heart, i think.

  8. Joni Mitchell! Hold one, I read this yesterday from he.. ::runs off to get the book::

    “I heard someone from the music business saying they are no longer looking for talent, they want people with a certain look and a willingness to cooperate. I thought, that’s interesting, because I believe a total unwillingness to cooperate is what is necessary to be an artist -not for perverse reasons but to protect your vision.”
    – Joni Mitchell, 2004.

    Go, Joni!!

  9. Joni Mitchell is a fave songwriter of mine who also started in that era. And thanks for the link the other day of Cohen’s :”Sisters of Mercy” in “McCabe and Mrs. Miller”.

  10. So very nice to see and hear appreciation for Joni and L. Cohen. Last year about this time I had the great good fortune to see one of his concerts, the one in L.A. So FANTASTIC, and there were young people there too, having their eyes/minds opened to what has not hardly ever been on their televisions.

    Joni will be canonized in my church someday, along with St. Judy Garland, and St. Sarah Vaughn, (et al). Just this week I’ve been framing a signed copy of a Joni CD that I snagged a couple of years back when she had given them for a benefit to keep KPFK alive.

    Favorite quote? Mine has always been: “Everybody’s sayin’ that hell’s the hippest way to go, well I don’t think so, but I’m going to take a look around it though”(Blue).

  11. Thanks to my mother I like all the eras from Classical to todays music not real wild about CW like the ballads even CW ballads. My most favorite music is the harder rock-n-roll AC/DC, Iron Butterfly, Black Sabbath, Bad Company, Ozzy Osborn of course, but I also love all the stuff from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, not so much the 90’s music but some of it is great. Have always liked Tattoo’s also if the artist is good. Don’t have any but will most likely. Love fantasy art and the idea of the Renaissance period. Was all set to attend Woodstock in 1969 had my bus tickets. Didn’t get to attend as my mom thought I was nuts I was grounded however she just couldn’t understand why her 14 year old daughter wanted to go that far for a concert then the news clips of the event showed the crowd and that didn’t help my plight any at all.

  12. Leonard Cohen is releasing a new album for his 80 birthday, there is a story on Rolling Stone about it today.

    I too have the conjunction, I like stuff from the ’60’s and the ’30’s when Pluto and Uranus were square last time.

  13. I feel people here should listen to Leonard’s song democracy,and see how it mirrors American society today,very profound human being. Leonard was,plus his song the future seems to fit human society alot today,especially. here in America. right now,I don’t think Trump would like Cohen,since Cohen wrote about folks like Trump in his songs,hopefully a new Leonard comes around again,since we need his wisdom now more than ever to reset us humans back on a moderate track.

    1. I will give it a listen. I bought Leonard Cohen’s albums when they were new. That 60s conjunction happened over (transited) my birth day (Sun) while in the last two years of HS. It has been part of my DNA ever since. And due to that perspective, what’s going on today makes me figuratively vomit, in fact, every day since 2016. I am trying not to let it be the death of me. But do recall when it all moved into Libra, we had Michael J. Fox, playing the money-headed conservative teenager living with hippie parents. I didn’t watch it then as it felt like a personal attack in many ways. But by then, I had already been mostly alienated from American television for more than a decade anyway. I only came around when Seinfeld and the Simpsons came on the scene. Sometime around 1980 Time magazine was still trying to sell the Vietnam War as being ultimately useful to American aims. “What a long strange trip it’s been.”

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