For Thanksgiving, I went out with my musket and brought home two turkeys. Okay, I’m kidding about the musket. I went out with my backpack, and found two small frozen turkeys (turkettes, turkeycitos?) at the Marktkauf, and brought them home on the bus. My mother-in-law spent all day cooking. She’s a good Venezuelan, but she collects holidays, and Thanksgiving is one of her favorites.

My grandmother-in-law was the sous-chef. She chopped the celery and the onions for the stuffing. She doesn’t look a day over 70, although she’s 89.

In the early evening, I cast myself across the time zones to an earlier hour, and phoned my family, who were gathering in the Shenandoah Valley. I didn’t talk long, since guests were coming through the door, and I could hear the cries of greeting in the background.

And then I was back in Bremen. When my spouse came home from work, and our nephew came home from his college-prep course, we all sat down to eat those tasty little birds, along with stuffing and cranberries and all the trimmings. We complemented the chef and she beamed.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I’m happy for five healthy generations, including my spouse’s grandmother and my own 2-year-old granddaughter. I’m happy that my spouse and I live in Germany, where we have some rights as a lesbian couple. I’m especially happy that the Bush era is coming to an end, although it’s clear that he will leave a last-minute legacy of regressive regulations.

Planets do that too. Just before Pluto leaves each sign, it scrawls its legacy in large letters. It presents the shadow side of the sign it’s been occupying, and in our exposure to that shadow, we see what needs to be transformed. Each sign has 30 degrees, and the 29th degree of a sign is generally a critical point. Pluto’s 29th degree events are not just parting jabs, but also clues to what’s coming. This is because the children born under that sign will carry the energy of that sign into the future, and will be redeemed, destroyed or transformed by it.

How does this 29th degree energy work? Let’s go back a ways.

Pluto was in Cancer, a sign of strong allegiance to home and country, from 1913 to 1939. Just before Pluto left this sign, there was a telling incident of xenophobia. Because of negative feelings towards immigrants, the SS St. Louis was turned away from Cuba and the U.S., though it was occupied by more than nine hundred Jews fleeing Hitler. These people had to go back to Europe, where most died in concentration camps. It was the people born while Pluto was in Cancer who had to leave their cozy homes to go fight Hitler.

Pluto was in Leo, a sign of kings and dictators, from 1938 to 1958. (The overlap comes because there’s always a transitional year or so when Pluto retrogrades back to its old sign.) In May of 1958, when Pluto was in the 29th degree of this sign, there was a coup in France, in the context of France fighting tooth-and-nail for its colonial grip on Algeria, and the compromise was to reinstate that old kingly figure, Charles DeGaulle. It was the people born while Pluto was in Leo who fought both for and against colonial power. They were both the soldiers in Vietnam and the anti-war protestors. For many in this generation, the film “The Battle of Algiers” was an early political influence.

Pluto was in the analytical earth sign Virgo from 1956 to 1972, and the shadow side of Virgo is a need to control everything. When Pluto was at the 29th degree of this sign, there was the Watergate Scandal, when a paranoid need for control effectively crushed a government. It’s the people born with Pluto in Virgo who have dealt with the encroachment on privacy that comes with a networked and interwebbed world. And this also seems to be the most politically cynical generation.

Pluto was in the cooperative air sign Libra from 1971 to 1984, and Libra’s shadow side is a preference for social and political unity. When Pluto was in the 29th degree of Libra, the Indian government (led by Indira Gandhi) decided to rout out some extremist Sikhs by storming their holiest religious shrine, the Golden Temple of Amritsar. At least five hundred died, and later, Indira Gandhi herself was assassinated in revenge. Those born with Pluto in Libra are still young, but it looks like they will be dealing with questions around belonging and social integration.

Pluto was in the intense water sign Scorpio from 1983 to 1995, and the shadow side of Scorpio is the hunger for ultimate power. Pluto’s end-time in Scorpio gave us the O.J. Simpson trial and his acquittal. The people born with Pluto in Scorpio are also still quite young, but they have already learned that their schools are not safe, and that there are guns everywhere.

Pluto was in Sagittarius from 1995 until just the other day, and the shadow side of Sagittarius is a passionate allegiance to certain beliefs. These beliefs have been outlined in fire through the last decade or so. At the 29th degree of Sagittarius, Pluto brought us the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. What will the children born with Pluto in Sagittarius carry into their future? It seems to me that they will have to learn that the cost is too high when religion, passion and community spirit are etched in blood.

It’s so much easier to see the object lessons of the distant past! When you’re still learning them, it’s a little trickier.

But now Pluto is in the cautious earth sign Capricorn, and Capricorn’s shadow side is rigidity and an emphasis on hierarchy. That’s what we will need to watch out for next sixteen years. And when we reach 2024, we’ll have to look out for the shadow side of Pluto in Capricorn, at the 29th degree.

The December full moon (on the 12th) looks pretty volatile, with Mars forming a mutable T-square with the Saturn/Uranus opposition. This pushes people to sudden, willful action. We are still engaged in the conflict between the Saturnine old guard and the Uranus agents of change, even though the election is behind us. Individuals, seeing the old order slip out of their hands, can feel a sense of desperation.

Now that Obama has been elected, I do identify more with the establishment. It’s a funny feeling, but basically good. I want everyone to feel it. I don’t want to live in a world of hungry outsiders, of shadow people who blow themselves up to save the world.

As 2008 comes to an end, we all have things we are grateful for, things we want to preserve. We can say no to madness, self-sacrifice and violence. We can walk together towards a more civilized and peaceful world, constructed with the pragmatic bricks of Pluto in Capricorn.

Index of Jenny Yates' Writings on Lesbian.com