Incarnating Your Creative Authority-

Generational Legacy and the Dark Night of the Baby Boomer Ego

- Robert Ohotto

I want to look at something connected to a cosmic cycle I have written on before

that was set in motion for us all nearly two years ago now and begins to finish up
this summer. This time I want to add some new layers regarding this cycle that
has been forcing all of us to become more responsible in recreating ourselves
through a new level of self-governance; let’s look deeply at this celestial task
which asks us to incarnate our own creative authority. Ready to rock?

Incarnating Your Creative Authority-

Generational Legacy and the Dark Night of the Baby Boomer Ego

One of the things that doing intuitive-astrological readings on folks has afforded
me is an archetypal viewpoint regarding the developmental cycles that are
passed down from generation to generation. I love this part of my work, and
have realized in recent years how crucial it is that we each establish new
coordinates within our process of spiritual growth and self-development which
include this vital component.

None of us develops in a vacuum right? We all mature and grow out of certain
soil which was fertilized (or ravished) by the generations that have come before
us. Simply put, we must become increasingly aware of our socio-cultural and
generational inheritance.

As each new generation is born, it inherits the psychic DNA of the previous
generation and then must begin to negotiate that patterning, which means you
must begin to negotiate that patterning as an individual fused within that
generation. You must also look at what psychic, spiritual, and earthly resources
(or lack thereof) have been passed down to you by those who preceded you, and
what resources you are leaving for the next generation.
Surely most of you have already faced this dynamic when it comes to your family
of origin and creation, but have you truly taken a look at the archetypal
implications of this process as it relates to your generational imprinting,
inheritance, and legacy? Well that’s what I’m here for! : )

I have noticed (almost without exception) when it comes to clients that I’ve
worked with over the years (and heck, myself and friends of mine!) that many
people work diligently on themselves in terms of healing their family legacies,
yet very few look to the larger picture of cultural imprinting and inheritance.

This is so critical because we can often only be as integrated, whole, and healthy
as our culture and society is. Take a moment and contemplate what that means
for each of us as we are embedded within and evolving out of a patriarchy!

Thus far, addressing family issues has been approached through many mediums
and modalities that I am sure many of you have explored and are familiar with
(i.e. psychotherapy, yoga, meditation, cranial-sacral work, drug therapy,
acupuncture, rebirthing, hypnotic regression, NLP, eating chocolate, I swear this
one works the best!)
While these tools are incredibly useful and represent where we must all begin in
terms of rebirthing ourselves as creative adults, in my experience they are not
enough, especially now that we are being cosmically tasked to incarnate more
soulfulness into our lives. They are often inadequate because they do not
sufficiently address the socio-cultural level of archetypal processes. How many of
you have spent years healing aspects of your familial wounds and still, of late,
are finding that you can’t seem to creatively take the next step? And
furthermore, you can’t figure out why because you can’t see the locus of your
creative block as coming from your family history?

I know for certain that there is in fact a whole generation of folks (and then
some) that currently feels angst in some form or another when it comes to this
part of their growth.

Let’s look at this closely, because even if your not part of this generation, you
still are psychically anchored by and connected energetically to them. Which
generation am I referring to, you ask? Well the Baby Boomers, of course!

The Baby Boomer’s Shadow

We all owe a lot to the Baby Boomers. (To be more specific I am talking about
those of you born from 1939-1956 when Pluto was in the sign Leo, though most
sources would state that this generation spans from 1946-1954. This means all
of you born when Pluto was in Leo have that in your own astrological birth chart.
Pluto moves the slowest of all the known planets, and yes it’s still a planet to
me!, in our currently established solar system, taking about 250 years to circle
the Sun. Therefore it can spend a number of years in one astrological sign,
imprinting a generation with an archetypal pattern pertaining to matters of
power and death. The generational impulse Pluto releases concerns the
transformation found in facing the darkness within life and oneself encountered
at the threshold of survival. And I mean survival on all levels: emotional,
physical, psychological, and spiritual. :)

All that said, no generation catalyzed ego development as it relates to childhood

survival and wounding more than the Baby Boomers--and thank God!

When the 1970’s got going and psychotherapy was en vogue, they paved the
way by being the first to address their parents for poor parenting as a
generation. Though psychotherapy as a healing tool began to develop long
before the 1970’s, relative societal stability afforded this generation the luxury of
exploring their parental wounds via this tool, out of which ‘woundology’ was born
(a subject Caroline has brilliantly explored in her work.)

Generations before that simply were trying to survive settling new countries,
plagues, civil wars, genocides, world wars, and depressed economies, sorry, no
time to be upset with mommy and daddy when you’re just hoping they’ll live
long enough to keep feeding you!
But as the world relatively stabilized, new needs in ego development as human
beings became urgent--one of which was healing one’s wounded inner child.

Therefore, Baby Boomers were the first generation to psychologically explore in

depth the Child Archetype; an archetype that we all universally share as we each
were once children before we matured into adults. Yet it must be recognized that
whenever we address our parents for the wounds they’ve left us with, it’s going
to be done through the child within us, and therefore if we stay stuck addressing
our parents for poor parenting, we also stay stuck in our Child and can never
truly grow up!

So where am I going with all this, this time? Somewhere very crucial actually,
especially if we are going to collectively begin rebirth ourselves as mature adults.
This requires that we begin parenting ourselves such that we rise from the ashes
of the generational shadow that the Baby Boomers are negotiating: the Ego-
centric Child that seeks constant affirmation, attention, and importance to the
detriment of collective resources and the greater good.

Generational Alchemy

I ask you to consider something that I have discovered and mapped through my
work: Every generation will go through three important phases of growth and
development integral to our human evolution.

Each must face a generational disillusionment, that is a need to become clear on

a belief in something which falsely promises fulfillment (and perhaps salvation)
via something other than an authentic connection with the Divine - a belief in a
false god if you will; a generational ideology that becomes an outmoded way of
thinking which supports a false structure of stability and equality; and a
generational shadow that is born out of a power struggle regarding the collective
denial of the same disillusionment and outmoded ideology of that generation!

In other words, the more a generation empowers their disillusionment and

ideology, the darker their shadow becomes. Take a moment and see if you can
chart yourself within this process. Can you identify your generational
disillusionment, ideology, and shadow? Can you name these archetypal
coordinates? How does this imprinting impact your own personal journey of
individuation?

While I would love to go into more detail about each as I’ve charted them for
each of generation currently on the planet, for now I feel it poignant to solely
address the generational shadow of the Baby Boomer’s as it has been triggered
for nearly two years now via the planet Saturn--currently in the sign Leo. (I do
have a book to finish after all!) It is my hope that this will render you aware of
the fact that your issues may not be nearly as personal as you think; in fact,
they might be originating out of a generational process.

To begin this, as we look at the generational shadow of the Baby Boomers, I

want to lightly add in the generational disillusionment piece also to give you a
sense of how it amalgamates into the shadow issue (sorry, the ideology piece is
a whole other article!)

Once again, even if you’re not a Baby Boomer, you are still affected by what I am
about to say, so listen up! (I mean that with all the love in my heart.)

Illustrating this point: the generational disillusionment for Baby Boomers

includes a false belief that the ultimate fulfillment in life would come from
marrying one’s other half, which the new age now calls finding your soul mate
(they are the same damn thing, come on now!), this illusion has led many to
believe that one’s happiness lies in finding another human being to complete
them, essentially rendering another the source of all contentment.

Though the Baby Boomer generation was indoctrinated with this illusion by
cultural imprinting, many today are still under its spell that are not from this
generation. The main difference is that many of the Baby Boomers are often not
coming out of this illusion until their 50’s, while the subsequent generations are
coming out of it in their 40’s and 30’s, depending on the generation.

That said, the generational shadow for the Baby Boomers is born out of their
generational illusion that denies this truth: No one will ever be our Source of
happiness, therefore others are not responsible for how our lives turn out; this
means we can’t blame our parents anymore for our lives. This denial leads to
projecting the parental archetypes (The Mother and The Father - our first
sources of fulfillment) onto others, landing the Baby Boomers smack in the
shadow of The Child Archetype and victim consciousness (components of their
generational shadow.)

Yet, The Child Archetype and its shadow are something that each individual must
face in their development creatively.

The Child Archetype is, in part, the source of our creative genius when it comes
to being spontaneous and free to express our inner sense of divinity through
what we do in life. But unless you are able to make your child inside feel safe
and nurtured, how is that part of you going to come out and play?

Though I am not a Baby Boomer, I have still had to deal (and still do!) with my
wounds from my childhood. The difference is that I am not spending twenty
years getting through the bulk of it. And that is due largely to the grace given to
me by the Baby Boomer generation as they got things moving, making it easier
for my generation to evolve through the same issue at a faster pace. This is how
things work in terms of generational progress and growth.

Similarly, what my generation achieves in terms of burning off the legacy left to
us will make it easier for the generations that follow us. However, the other side
of this must also be embraced: if we don’t do the work and elect to remain
unconscious, we leave the next generation with quite a mess. Therefore we must
assume, as individuals, a new level of responsibility for our entire generation
because we are not only inheriting legacy, we are also generating it! What we do,
both positively and negatively, as individuals, determines what we do for All.
As we move back to the subject of the article, I hope you have a sense that
things pass down not only personally, but also collectively at an archetypal level.
Keep this in mind as we continue. Onto incarnating your creative authority!

Incarnating Your Creative Authority

The planet Saturn has been triggering each Pluto generation alive on the planet
for some years now. In July of 2005, having just spent two and a half years in
the sign Cancer making sure we take increased responsibility for mothering
ourselves to secure greater emotional security and belonging in our lives (while
restructuring our so called ‘family values’;), Saturn entered into the astrological
sign Leo (a sign resonate with the Child Archetype) and issued a new task for us
all in terms of fathering ourselves so that we can bring out more of our inner
creative authenticity.

Generally, the astrological cycles of Saturn continually ask us to evaluate how

our ego was structured by parenting and socio-cultural conditioning, and whether
or not this ego structure is tenable for what the soul is growing toward. Thus,
when Saturn is moving through the heavens, He begins to search out the
fissures in our ego structure that are not supportive to housing a new level of our
true potential: a new facet of our Soul.

I like to call this alchemical process the dark night of the ego because it forces us
to reorient our relationship to how much of us, is in unconscious allegiance to
our past conditioning, meaning that some part of our ego/past must die.
As we continue from here, please know that I will be outlining some harsh
aspects of our times. But if we can’t embrace our generational and collective
process with an honest dialogue, we can’t change our future trajectory: we are
evolution. That said, after entering into Leo in July of 2005, Saturn--true to
form--collectively forced us to look at our American Ego structure here in the
United States regarding what we collectively project our Father issues onto:
namely our elected officials. With the Katrina debacle in August of 2005, we got
to see that Daddy government (primarily made up of Baby Boomers) was not
coming to our rescue. This event is symbolic of Saturn asking each of us to step
up to the plate and take greater responsibility for our collective issues, which
must begin at an individual level. Saturn is always ready to make us look at our
own our complacency.
On an individual level, since Saturn entered into Leo in July of 2005, I have
worked with many clients that have experienced this new alchemy as a call to
grow up more, paradoxically, so that they can be a child again and embody their
unlived creativity!
In terms of gender, women have had to reevaluate the ways in which they relate
to their own inner masculine creative energy (being expressively creative and
self-directed.) This has begun to greatly reshape needs in marriages that were
forged out of having one’s husband live out their creative side, and needing
approval from men because of fathers who weren’t emotionally present (or were
but created male dependency as the only source of validation growing up.) Many
women have had to incarnate more of their own inner masculine authority by
fathering themselves, especially those who are Baby Boomers.
But don’t think men are off the hook with this Saturn cycle! Many of my male
clients have had to look at how they feel about their own masculinity as it relates
to approval from their fathers. In fact, some men have been getting caught up in
their father issues through interactions with other men who function as authority
figures in their lives (such as bosses, CEO’s, and law enforcement.)

In addition to exploring what authentic masculinity means, many men are also
investigating the concept of having authentic relationships with each other in
true brotherhood (which means relating in ways where there isn’t a need to
prove oneself more macho than another, but to genuinely support each others
creative journey as men.)

Moving beyond gender; Saturn in Leo is catalyzing for each of us a need to

discover who we really are and externalize that more so we can be seen by
others for what is inside of us. We all are being forced to wake up and face just
how invisible we feel in the world, which is really about us seeing ourselves
anew, or perhaps for the first time.

Moreover, we must acknowledge the ways in which we feel disconnected from

our creative masculine center - our inner divine spark, and how that’s coming
out in less than desirable ways through the parts of us that sabotage our true
potential.

Saturn in Leo demands that we become Kings and Queens of our inner domain,
Sovereigns unto ourselves through an authentic connection to our inner star
quality, you game?

And all of this couldn’t be more poignant for those of the Baby Boomer
generation as Saturn has opened up an unflinching dialogue with their Pluto in
Leo around themes of responsibility, integrity, and karma. This is clearly visible in
how the elected officials of many countries have conducted themselves over the
past two and a half years.

I actually wrote about this theme nearly two years ago when Saturn entered into
Leo, guess hindsight isn’t the only thing that’s 20/20!

Take a moment and look at this with archetypal eyes. Could it be that many of
the world’s leaders and business officials have been, in part, acting out of the
generational shadow through an egoic and childish level of narcissistic pride and
greed?

For it is the Baby Boomer generation that is, for the most part, currently in
political and economic power worldwide and their generational task has indeed
come due. This task requires letting go of childish pride through the support and
approval of the internalized archetypal parents. If you are part of this
generation, how’s it going?? LOL!

And if you’re not, realize that Saturn is currently looking at all of us through Leo
eyes of responsibility and discernment one final time. A terminus is being
reached this late April when Saturn stations and begins moving forward out of its
current retrograde phase, leaving the sign Leo in September. Then he goes onto
his next task with our ego development in Virgo for two and a half years,
triggering the generation that follows the Baby Boomers (those born from 1956-
1972; those with Pluto in Virgo.)

A new Saturn task passes down to the next generation requiring them to heal
and deal with the legacy they inherit. What’s more is this straddles an election
year here in the United States! With the generation following the Baby Boomers
in ascendancy politically and economically, it should be an interesting next
couple of years to say the least.

Environmental policy, selling ethics for profit, and health care will take front and
center stage no doubt, as all relate greatly to Virgo (the sign of the Sacred
Prostitute and Mother Nature.) Saturn will be opening up a dialogue with the
Pluto in Virgo generation, and I sense this generation will respond in a much
different way. Get ready!

Looking back now, the Baby Boomer generation has indeed been experiencing a
dark night of their generational ego the past two years and many are currently
reaping the results of getting caught up in failed wars, Wall Street scandals, and
chasing the approval of their parents to the detriment of their creative potential.

But fortunately, now that Saturn is past its mid-cycle shift in Leo, I see many
people of this generation kicking some ass! I bet you thought I was just going to
keep dogging the Baby Boomers! No way! Many are taking charge of their
creative destinies. After much struggle, many of my clients are reaping what
they have sown throughout this cycle after leaving jobs that are unfulfilling,
ending marriages that are repressive, and dropping the old story lines and
beliefs left over from childhood so they can branch out beyond personal desires
to collective needs. Many Baby Boomers are becoming increasingly vested in a
new model of thought: It is no longer the collective that is responsible for the
individual, but the individual that is responsible for the collective. Something that
I think the next generation will be making even more of a reality. That’s what I’m
talkin’ about! And so it goes…

Take a moment and think about what this means to you and be honest. Is
personal development for the narcissistic reasons of being ‘happy’ and ‘whole’
really enough?

Once we have reclaimed our inner buried treasure, we cannot engage in

authentic heroism unless we deliver it back to the world through service. This
idea contains our next steps as we transition from this Age of Pisces (the Age of
the Mystic) to the Age of Aquarius (the Age of the Mystic Without a Monastery).

- Robert Ohotto, Feb 2007

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