What happened to those good ol’ days between the mid-80s and the mid-90s, when we were so busily focused on personal change and transformation? Everyone seemed to be interested in their own past-life influences, and finding a higher purpose to this life. These days the average person seems even a little fearful of such things.

During recent years, I’ve had this conversation with several of my past students (now therapists and teachers in their own right), as we’ve reminisced about a more flourishing time for the therapists of Change.

So what was it that made that era so astoundingly productive and down-right interesting for those of us engaging transformational tools to benefit others? The shift these days seems to be more focused on money and financial independence, which is, nonetheless, both valid and timely.

The New Age Movement, as it became known, had its roots planted back in the 1960s, but really began to sprout for the masses in the early to mid-’80s, when specialty shops selling self-help books, crystals, tarot cards, and all manner of ‘spiritual’ items, began replacing some of our local gift and book stores.

Naturally, there was a major astrological influence at that time. This was the generational shift of the outer ‘planet’ Pluto from one Sign to the next. Pluto takes an eliptical 248 years to cycle our Sun just once. And as it does, it moves us through twelve very different frequencies of change affecting our survival issues. Our entire planet — every being, from bugs to humans, and even plants of the lands and oceans — experiences these shifts to some degree.

One such frequency of change we know as ‘Scorpio’. Apart from a brief six-month flirtation with the Scorpio resonance in early November ’83, Pluto more officially began the rounds of every degree of Scorpio from August 28 1984 until its complete arrival in Sagittarius on November 11 1995 (and that’s another story!).

So we could say that for those eleven years from ’84 to ’95, Pluto was aligning our survival issues to the frequency of Scorpio, a Sign that happens to resonate with Pluto itself. It is no coincidence then that this was the most significant time of public recognition for clinical psychology; for personal transformation and exploration of life-and-death; for the exploration of spiritual reality as it relates to our ongoing survival as a mind-stream, through the reincarnation process; and for alternative methods of inner transformation, at least to the point of introduction.

It was a golden time of workshops and ongoing classes that re-ignited the ancient and forgotten tools of healing, once buried in the sands of time.

This was not an agitated revolt to our culture as it had been in the ’60s, but a mesmerising shift in public awareness that made its way into mainstream media. The Baby Boomers generation were then young and passionate enough to desire to explore the depths of their beingness from many angles.

Ah, we lament. How to reawaken the populace to the highest values of Scorpio, which lie as potential seeds within each of us through our individual Pluto placements at birth. As individuals we do not need to wait for Pluto’s next sojourn through Scorpio (in the year 2230!) to dig into the roots of our innermost spiritual selves. Take the plunge now, into whatever modality inspires you. Plant some seeds and dig up some old roots. And smell the flowers!

Buddha Blessings,
Kerrie Redgate (Changchub Dolma)