Transits at Midlife - How the Outer Planets Change Everything

by Rod Suskin

As a model and mirror of our lives, astrology has a special ability to accurately time not only the unfolding of unique personal changes in our lives, but also the milestones of life both familiar and forgotten. In this article, I will look at the meanings of the major “midlife crisis” transits and consider how best to navigate them.

The Four Stages of Change

At the heart of the astrological view of time are the four stages of any particular cycle. This is the most natural cycle of all, the sine curve, which has two turning points and two crossing points, just like a sound wave or the seasonal solar cycle — the clock on which all others are based. If we track the progress of the Sun in the zodiac, we will see that at each of these four stages the Sun is at the beginning of a cardinal sign, so each stage is exactly 90° ahead of the one before, forming squares or opposing its starting position every three months. As the Sun reaches each of these points and changes direction, the seasons change on the Earth.

Each of the planets traces a similar pattern around the zodiac, squaring or opposing its own natal position every quarter of a cycle. As a planet reaches these turning points, changes happen in accordance with the nature of that planet.

When we track these cycles, we are identifying what will be the most significant times of growth and change in life. We identify squares and oppositions as events that bring changes in our lives whether we like it or not — unlike the sextiles and trines, which merely offer opportunities to change or bring the results and rewards of it.

Pluto Sets the Scene

For many people during their late thirties, Pluto squares its natal position (for some generations, it happens later). This creates a crisis and we increasingly feel disempowered. Whether we’re dealing with a boss, a partner, or the circumstances of life itself, we begin to realise that we have little power over our own paths and that we have given away or lost power to others in our lives — for example, by allowing them to make major decisions that affect us.

While Pluto transits are often dramatic, this first square usually isn’t. Rather, it creates an awareness of where in our lives we lack control. Whatever the specifics may be, the feeling of powerlessness grows, and along with it we begin to feel somewhat disillusioned with adulthood. Instead of being free adults in command of our destiny, we find ourselves in a rat race, in a bad marriage, at the wrong end of a contract, or in some other situation where we “ended up” by default or by poor choices.

The Midlife Crisis

Major changes to our identity and the big issues of life happen at the times that the outer planets square and oppose their natal positions. These sometimes come within a short time of each other, creating a cluster of changes that is experienced as a milestone time of life.

One such milestone is around the beginning of the forties, when Uranus and Neptune make transits to their natal positions and describe a series of shifts in our lives and in our psyches, which often leave us to believe that “life begins at forty” — even if that was frequently a difficult beginning.

This time has been called the “midlife crisis.” It is often depicted in somewhat clichéd terms as little more than the panic of growing older before having ticked much off the bucket list; a time when we chase after youthful lovers and buy ourselves expensive luxuries. But it is really much more than merely an ageing process: It is an opportunity to adjust the trajectory of our lives, achieve meaningful goals, and once again try to figure out who we are.

Contemplating our identity may seem like a luxury we have little time for, but as we age and gain experience, our sense of identity must change and grow, too. Although the chart describes much of the core of who we are for our lifetime, we are, of course, not static. At some point, the identity we forged as young adults in our twenties will no longer usefully describe who we feel ourselves to be and how we react to our life experiences in our forties.

Making changes is not easy, and rarely happens spontaneously or by choice. At this stage, we need to make big adjustments, but it is very difficult to take the initiative and make something happen. Like the rest of nature, we need something to force us to change, just like plants that thrive when pruned. We may know what we need to change, but we don’t have the tools to change it, and anyway we would probably not know what to do to align our sense of who we are now with what we do and what we want to do with our lives.

Understanding Midlife Transitions

As people become aware of their feelings and aware of their failure to act, they feel stuck and confused. Although Uranus and Neptune represent sudden or debilitating changes and their transits are rarely pleasant, they come at this time when we are so ready for change, even desperate for it, that we willingly embrace the upheaval they may bring.

But these transits are not just about upheaval. Understanding the cycles helps us to recognize the milestone as an important transition period in life, one that is inevitable and necessary, one to be welcomed and celebrated because the end result is indeed a rebirth of the self, just as it happened back in the early twenties. It is not so much the beginning of a new life as a getting back on track, getting to be the person we were always trying to become but with then-minimal knowledge and resources.

It is not uncommon for the events of the early forties to be dramatic, such as getting a divorce, but the ultimate effect of the good and bad changes is to provide an opportunity to get back on track with being the person you were born to be.

The Birth of Individuality

One of the most significant consequences of the scientific, social, and political changes that characterized the birth of the modern world at the time of outer-planet discoveries was the beginning of a fundamental shift in how we saw ourselves. While we always understood ourselves to be individuals, the notion grew that we had an individual identity not tied to what was inherited at birth (heritage, social class, etc.). The parts of our destiny preordained by those aspects were now in our own hands, and we had a need or obligation to “find” our identity.

Uranus was discovered in the midst of the flourishing of these ideas and at the beginning of the age of revolution that started in America and France. Its discovery in 1781 and the attributes given by astrologers in the ensuing decades and centuries perfectly reflect this new human age, the age of freedom of body, mind, and soul; individual rights; personal responsibility; technology; and eventually equality and diversity — the world we know now. We may take many of these things for granted, but increasingly in adult life we have to put ourselves out there, be ourselves, and fulfil our own personal destinies.

Uranus and Identity Changes

The First Quarter cycle of Uranus, at around 21 or 22 years old, provokes the ”identity crisis” that characterizes the twenties, as we start the journey of self-discovery with young adulthood. Establishing ourselves as adults inevitably requires many compromises as well as pursuing personal or professional avenues that have presented themselves. Many people “ended up” in a job because it was the first or best available at a time when they were establishing themselves as independent adults and needed to prioritize salary over any specific goals or talents they had.

This is one of the reasons that the identity established in the early twenties is no longer useful by the late thirties, when we are more established, more experienced, and need to follow more meaningful goals in order to find a greater sense of fulfilment. Yet, even the frustration that builds up as we yearn for more meaning in our lives is still not enough to be the impetus to make the change, and that’s because all the “old” parts of our lives that are no longer fulfilling are still there.

What Uranus Represents

Uranus is our personal interface with our world; it shows how we as individuals partake of the greater unconsciousness and spirit of humankind. It represents how we are affected by the bigger changes around us and how we convey these principles in a 21st-century way of being. It shows how we express ourselves as individuals in the everyday world, what makes us uniquely ourselves, and where we will have to deal with changes at a personal level. Frequently it indicates where our individuality may differ from the world around us, and where a certain amount of courage may be required to be who we are.

The house position of natal Uranus and the aspects it makes with the personal planets show us where the challenge to express this individuality lies and where it will emerge during the midlife period. The house position of transiting Uranus shows where changes happen during this period — ones that help to resolve the identity crisis that is now at hand.

These transits allow our sense of identity (such as marital status) to undergo deep changes, seemingly just when we need them. The identity we establish in our twenties is no longer relevant or useful to who we are by the time we are in the late thirties, and passage into the forties will bring a very different sense of self. By this age, we have experienced enough of life to care a little less about what the world expects of us, as well as beginning to appreciate that we don’t have an unlimited amount of time to do “our thing.”

As we don’t usually spontaneously make these big changes, a lot of pressure will build up before we reach some kind of breaking point that will finally make us look at ourselves and our lives differently.

In the first chart example, “Ryan” has natal Uranus in the 1st house. (See Chart 1, **wherever.) Matters of identity are important in his life and may produce challenges, and at some point he is going to have to learn to step out and do his own thing. We would expect this to be during the midlife period when Uranus is opposing its natal position.

Neptune and Disillusionment

Much of the frustration in midlife is caused by confusion about what to do next: Changing one’s life is much easier said than done. Around this time, the Neptune square to its natal position also begins, increasing the sense of vagueness and confusion. Neptune also makes it difficult to do anything at all: It feels like we are stuck on a boat without any oars or motor, going nowhere.

It is true that there is little action we can take, but Neptune gives us the opportunity for reflection, and demands that we allow things to dissolve. Those facets of life or identity which are no longer relevant gradually disappear or fizzle out. As unnerving as it is to have things disappearing, it can be a very worthwhile experience. Many things no longer have the same value; we care about different things. So, it is natural to experience some disillusionment, which is what Neptune engenders. And new “real things” will eventually replace those illusions.

Neptune requires us to sit still and let go: Illusions are undesirable anyway. Doing this is not easy, but it helps us to focus on the right thing at the right time, and also helps us to focus our understanding of what’s happening to us.

Example: Ryan

Bi-Wheel Ryan,
Inner wheel and house cusps: "Ryan"
Outer wheel: Neptune Square

To continue with our example, Ryan has his natal Neptune in the 2nd house. This inclines him to have a poor sense of his own value, perhaps of the value of things in general, and he may also have unrealistic attitudes about money that have made the financial side of his life less than desirable. Although he is self-employed as a therapist and loves his job, he feels frustrated that he can’t do something more meaningful with it.

As transiting Neptune in Pisces squared its natal position through 2017 and 2018, Ryan felt that his talents weren’t being used, and he began to doubt the value of his work because he judged himself for accepting an easy path to success. He felt like a fraud. Fortunately, his partner of 17 years is loving and supportive.

Transiting Neptune in the 5th house stirred up the importance of his gifts and talents, and its square to natal 2nd-house Neptune made him doubt his own worth. The romantic effects of the 5th house helped to give him something to focus on: Restore the romance in the relationship. (An astrologer could have advised him this way — not just because of Neptune, but also because transiting Uranus is heading for his 7th house, too.)

Many charts with such a combination would signal the end of a relationship and possibly a divorce, but in this case, Ryan’s 1st-house Uranus intensified the focus on matters of identity, and eventually brought his concerns down to the very question of identity itself — not just the gifts he has, but his very self. When transiting Uranus in Taurus opposed its natal position from the 7th house, Ryan eventually got married and started a community wellness program in partnership with his husband. It let him make use of his gifts and his most natural inclination, which he described as “to make a difference.”

Marriage is, of course, a significant and highly visible change of identity. It allowed Ryan to start experiencing harmony between his vision of himself and what he was actually doing with his life. Not only did Uranus resolve the question of identity for him, but also the illusions of Neptune were finally being replaced with the much more tangible manifestation of his gifts in ways he probably wouldn’t have thought of without this sequence of events.

Example: Christine

Bi-Wheel Christine,
Inner wheel and house cusps: "Christine"
Outer wheel: Uranus opposition

“Christine” has natal Neptune in the 7th house. She married Mark after a whirlwind romance, and regretted it almost immediately when he turned out to be deceptive and secretive, a typically Neptunian problem. She put her energies into a retail store selling children’s clothes, but by 2016, as Neptune transiting the 10th house started squaring its natal position, customers were scarce. Eventually the marriage fell apart and Mark left her, adding to her frustrations since she was the aggrieved party and felt that she should have been the one to leave him.

Like many people with Neptune in the 7th, Christine had sacrificed much of her own goals and dreams for the sake of her marriage and a romanticized view of her partner. The transiting square made everything much worse, and she struggled emotionally for a long time, as she had to let go of her illusions about marriage, her life, and her future identity (as a married woman).

In 2018, when transiting Uranus opposed natal Uranus in Scorpio from the 11th house to her 5th house, she decided to take her business online, freeing herself up to spend more time with her own child and get on with doing more of what she liked. Transiting Uranus through the 11th house brought more networks of people into her life and business, creating a community of loyal customers and eventually a much more successful online store.

She was helped by knowing to focus on reflection and letting go (Neptune), and daring to start something new (Uranus). It also helped her to know that this was a slow transition process that would take a good four to five years, rather than her unrealistically expecting things to be over soon.

Doing the Midlife Crisis Right

The precise timing of the transits varies from one individual to another, and the tendency for the Neptune square Neptune period (from the first square to the last) to overlap the period of the Uranus opposition means that there is a three- or four-year period of transition during which all the issues raised by these transits also overlap. So, it isn’t always possible to handle them one transit at a time. Nevertheless, the planets offer us clear guidance on how to manage this period.

During Pluto square Pluto, we can look at power in our lives — physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, intellectual, etc. — and examine how we have managed to lose control over areas of our lives. Although we can’t reclaim any of this lost power, we learn that, as we shape our next level of identity, we need to manage and retain control of these areas of our lives.

Neptune square Neptune, which often precedes the Uranus opposition, can be difficult emotionally. It challenges us to let go of what we no longer want or need, especially those things we want but that no longer serve any purpose. Even parts of our lives which we think are necessary and desirable can dissolve at this time, so we must also learn to let go of some facets of our “old” identities that we’d like to keep. It is not unusual for the distant past to resurface in all sorts of ways and serve to remind us of an earlier, “purer” time of life when we instinctively knew who we were. It’s important to remember that many of these facets will drift away again — we don’t necessarily have to build them into our growing new identities.

Uranus opposing Uranus brings sudden endings and marks the period during which new things start in our lives. What didn’t dissolve can be suddenly swept away, and this period is very unsettling at first. But it is also a period of experimentation, when unexpected things begin and we have the chance to try things we have wondered about and never imagined we’d do. For some people, this is confusing and can provoke more anxiety if things newly begun don’t work or last. Throughout this period, we are instinctively exploring and rejecting different aspects of our identities, and we will eventually arrive at the end of it with a sense of what we like to do, who we are, and potential new goals. Many things have changed, so it is not always realistic to expect that we are clearly on the path of the second half of life, and it may yet be a few more years before we appreciate why “life begins at forty.”

Saturn Draws Midlife to a Close

The Saturn cycle is a very important marker of our stages of growth. At age 43 or 44, Saturn is opposite its natal position, requiring that we tie up the disparate threads that have emerged in our lives and finally start the second half of life.

Many things will start to settle and stabilize as the next seven-year period begins. These seven years mark a period of beginning to reap the rewards from the earlier part of our adulthood. We may earn more money, get better positions, or be acknowledged for our accumulated experience during this time — all depending on the type of seeds that have been planted and grown since the Saturn return around age 29.

The Uranus and Neptune transits gradually recede as this next phase of life begins. The sense of identity that develops in these years feels at once new and familiar, as if inside we always knew who we were.

And of course, we have known this — we have always been the same person, and have had our natal charts since birth. The midlife crisis transits help us to regenerate our identity, become conscious of who we are, and get back on track to fulfilling our potential.

Notes and References:
Chart Data are confidential, but the source of both charts are birth certificates. All charts use Placidus houses and Mean Nodes.

Images:
Jumping the gap + Time for change + Border control: Images by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Portal: Image by Leonhard Niederwimmer from Pixabay
Boat in fog: Image by jplenio from Pixabay

First published in: The Mountain Astrologer, Oct/Nov 2021.

Author:
Rod Suskin is well known as an astrologer and sangoma (African traditional healer) in Cape Town, South Africa, and has been in practice in both fields for more than 30 years. He holds a BA (Psych) (Wits) and an MA in Cultural Astronomy and Astrology (Wales). He is the author of several books, including Cycles of Life and Synastry, and has his own show, “Rod Suskin’s World,” on Cape Town TV. Website: www.rodsuskin.com; email: rod@rodsuskin.com

© 2021 - Rod Suskin

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