Midlife Transition - The Neptune Square

When you reach your late 30s and early 40s you reach a significant turning point in life where you are given the opportunity to release the past and evolve further into your own authentic self. Having completed your Saturn Return around age 30, you are now looking at your mid-life transits. Midlife is hallmarked by four major transits of the outer planets.

Because the orbit of each planet differs, these aspects will occur at different times or each person. Some generations did not experience them until they were more solidly into their 40s, but as of the writing of this article, they are occurring as early as age 36. To discover when these aspects are in effect you should sit down with an astrologer for a consultation.

The four transits will take you through approximately ages 36-45. They are:

Transiting Pluto square natal Pluto

Transiting Neptune square natal Neptune

Transiting Uranus opposite natal Uranus

Transiting Saturn opposite natal Saturn

To summarize the nature of the planets and their midlife transit effects:

Uranus is the planet of surprise, bringing sudden shocks, changes, upsetting issues situations, eccentricity and the unusual. Where Uranus sits natally, is transiting and rules is where you need to exercise more individuality and independence.

Neptune's nature is to confuse and obscure reality. You can end up feeling as though your existence and accomplishments up to now are worth nothing. You are faced with questioning yourself and working through things an emerging with a new spiritual connection - or you could escape reality buy delving into obsessions and addictions with sex, drugs, alcohol or lying.

The nature of Pluto is transformation, destruction and control in order to create something authentic. Where you have been playing around and not being serious, you will get serious now because everything will come to ashes around you and you will need to rebuild.

When these three outer planets have finished their wild ride with you, serious Saturn joins the fray for the final lesson around the age of 44/45.

The nature of Saturn is limitations, restrictions, structures, discipline, reality and resistance. These are challenging, difficult and often painful situations in our lives. We may suffer from depression, repressed anger, physical illnesses (especially bones and teeth) due to the heavy responsibilities we are carrying in life - family relationships, work situations or attempts to pursue an authentic life. Mental illness is possible if a stable base cannot be formed in life. This is where astrology works! By being conscious and knowing where Saturn is in your chart you can make beneficial changes. Mid-life transits mean major re-evaluation of the value and meaningfulness of our lives. Have we achieved the goals and dreams of the past? Are those dreams still relevant? Are our current circumstances serving us? This reevaluation is much like a birthing process, transforming life from one phase to the next and defining how we are going to live the second half of our life. At times the changes can be so profound we hardly recognize the person we were before. This process, both excruciating, and exhilarating, is a re-birthing, a redefining of who we are that brings us into profound communion with our spirit. And just like being born, this phase can be marked by alternating periods of tremendous pressure, turmoil, and intensity (the contraction), interspersed with calm (the relaxation) and, finally, the excitement as something new and promising comes into existence.

The mid-life transit we are concerned with in this article is Neptune square Neptune. Occurring at age 40 or 41, this transit provokes contradictions, confusion, forces us to deal with our dreams and brings difficulties in concentration. Neptune’s hallmark is to unsettle our basic ego through confusion and the revelation that what we thought was real is not. Neptune can make you feel as though you are nothing and have nothing. You begin to question yourself, your motives, your beliefs, your goals, and your reason for existing. It can be the catalyst for you becoming a martyr, victim or savior if you are not careful to view reality without a veil.

Control becomes an issue. When this transit arrives at significant points and is strongest you can find it harder to make decisions and choose courses of action. The present and the future are hard to grasp. This can be shattering for strong Saturnian people (Capricorns and Aquarians) and those with natal charts containing strong fixed placements (Aquarius, Taurus, Leo and Scorpio). You cannot get the control you want and succeed as you desire -- and that is not something you are accustomed to facing.

Clarity becomes an issue. During this transit, as with all transits, we are faced with choices. We must choose a course of action, even though it is difficult. With Neptune, we can choose to see things clearly or not.

This transition may also put you into murky, sticky dysfunctional situations that feel like walking through a dark gelatinous cave. You could find yourself working on a dysfunctional situation with inefficient or incompetent bosses who adversely affect you. Or your colleagues could be the same, at worst, because of the Neptunian energy, they could be dishonest. I have heard the story about the women who was due for a promotion but the office gossip chain revealed that some unknown person put the word out that she performed one aspect of her job poorly and so the offer was removed. She has only a vague idea who could have made the false accusation or why.

When a person undergoing the mid-life transit Neptune square Neptune does not see clearly, decisions can be made which may later be regretted: choosing to divorce, choosing to cheat on a long-term spouse with a younger person, quitting a job to join the circus, experimenting with drugs, drinking to avoid problems or joining a religious cult.

The problem with this transit is that just when you think you have firmly gripped a solution to your anxiety and problems; it slips through your hands like water...it becomes like trying to hold onto fog. Your frustration and anxiety can increase if you are accustomed to having things under control. You may find yourself surrounded by dysfunctional organizations, liars, overly dependent people, thieves and folks with substance abuse problems.

So how can you navigate your way through the murky waters of this Neptune transit at mid-life? You have no idea where you are going and there is no way to go but forward because the past is washed away and dissolved. Here are some tips:

• Slow down, physically and mentally
• Stay away from drugs, including resisting the temptation to use prescription drugs to numb your feelings during this time of life (late 30s/early 40s is a popular time for physicians to begin putting women on anti-anxiety drugs and other medications that are supposed to be temporary fixes and end up being daily habits for the next 20 years or more)
• Acknowledge that you have no control in life and that you must let the Divine/the Universe work in its own time and its own way.
• Focus on developing, exploring and enriching your spiritual life
• Do not make any significant decisions
• Take up a watersport – swimming, sailing, waterskiing, surfing
• Ask yourself what you can do in this hour, this day, this week (make a list of small things you can accomplish, such as home projects
• Read inspirational material
• Journal and reflect upon your dreams

This is a time of increased creativity, dreaming, inspiration, and intuitive sensitivity. Old dreams must die but new and more realistic ones can come into existence. Do you desire to start a home web design business and leave the corporate world? Do you want to revive your repressed artistic dreams? Have you wanted to spend more of your life involved in a spiritually meaningful pursuit? Who are you as a spiritual and/or creative person? Neptune square Neptune will force you to face this aspect of yourself and the need to make decisions: Will you accept and integrate this part of yourself?

The person who successfully navigates this time of life does so by relaxing into the present and enjoying riding the wave. S/he will not try to control where it is going, but trust that the wave knows and will get her/him where she or he needs to be.

If you would like life coaching assistance navigating through this time of life, send an email to lbpdkcoaching@gmail.com

Midlife Transition - The Saturn Opposition

If you have made it to or past age 40 you have most likely experienced most of the midlife transits. Midlife is hallmarked by four major transits of the outer planets. These are:

Transiting Pluto square natal Pluto

Transiting Neptune square natal Neptune

Transiting Uranus opposite natal Uranus

Transiting Saturn opposite natal Saturn

Because the orbit of each planet differs, these aspects will occur at different times for each person. Some generations did not experience them until they were more solidly into their 40s, but as of the writing of this article, they are occurring as early as age 36. To discover when these aspects are in effect you should sit down with an astrologer for a consultation.

To summarize the nature of the planets and their midlife transit effects:

Uranus brings sudden shocks, changes, upsetting issues situations and the unusual. Where Uranus sits natally, is transiting and rules is where you need to exercise more individuality and independence.

Neptune's nature is to confuse and obscure reality. You can end up feeling as though your existence and accomplishments up to now are worth nothing. You are faced with questioning yourself and working through things an emerging with a new spiritual connection - or you could escape reality buy delving into obsessions and addictions with sex, drugs, alcohol or lying.

The nature of Pluto is transformation, destruction and control in order to create something authentic. Where you have been playing around and not being serious, you will get serious now because everything will come to ashes around you and you will need to rebuild.

When these three outer planets have finished their wild ride with you, serious Saturn joins the fray for the final lesson around the age of 44/45. This transit, the Saturn Opposition, is the focus of this article. The nature of Saturn is limitations, restrictions, structures, discipline, reality and resistance. These are challenging, difficult and often painful situations in our lives. We may suffer from depression, repressed anger, physical illnesses (especially bones and teeth) due to the heavy responsibilities we are carrying in life - family relationships, work situations or attempts to pursue an authentic life. Mental illness is possible if a stable base cannot be formed in life. This is where astrology works! By being conscious and knowing where Saturn is in your chart you can make beneficial changes.

The Saturn Opposition at midlife is a time to re-examine the concerns of the house(s) through which Saturn is transiting, where it resides natally and what house it rules. Saturn is The Teacher and the best way to be successful with this transit is to be a willing pupil. The first Saturn opposite Saturn aspect occurred at about age 14/15, the Saturn Return at approximately age 28/30 and now a second Saturn opposite Saturn aspect is occurring at midlife. As Saturn oppositions begin we re-evaluate and makes changes. At age 44/45 it is time to re-evaluate the past 14 years or so since your Saturn Return. What have you accomplished since age 28 that is true and authentic and can be built upon as you advance through your 40s and into your 50s? Ages 44-59 can be the most productive and creative of your life.

Saturn builds structure and is all about reality. The coming 14 year period can be very productive if you have cleared away the rubbish which has accumulated - literally and figuratively. Are their possessions and people who no longer serve you well? Have things come to the end of their usefulness or has a relationship gone as far as it will go? What is blocking you and posing as an obstacle? Ask yourself which situations in your life are limiting you, frustrating you, and blocking your efforts? What is it that you cannot accomplish with things as they are? This is where you need to build a new, more solid structure.

Remember that midlife is about YOU. It may mean you must leave a dead marriage (divorces are common at this time), end a high-stress job and take up a profession that pays less but has more satisfaction, or you may choose to get married for the first time and have a child. Many woman have delayed marriage or their life path is one where marriage was not to occur until their 40s. Now they are ready for a new phase of life that will include finding an egalitarian love relationship and raising children as confident, educated, responsible mothers.

The Saturn Opposition and all the transits of midlife are a time of chaos. Chaos is crisis and opportunity. Beyond the crisis, they are an opportunity to cleanse our souls, and strengthen our minds and bodies. If we are willing pupils through the entire process, especially the Saturn opposite Saturn aspect, we will emerge from these approximately seven years as wonderfully transformed, mature and responsible persons.

If you are between 36-45 and would like a confidential consultation, please send an email to lbdkcoaching@gmail.com with the subject line "Midlife Transition"