Midlife Transition: The Uranus Opposition

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 entrance into adulthood around age 30, you are now looking at your midlife transition. Midlife is hallmarked by four significant phases.

For each person the specific phase can occur at different times than for others. Earlier generations did not experience them until they wereinto their 60s (!!), but as of the writing of this article, empirical evidence is revealing is that they are occurring as early as age 36. To discover when these aspects are in effect you can arrange a 1-1 consultation with me. The four phases will take you through approximately ages 36-45. They are:

• Uranus Opposition
• Neptune Square Neptune
• Pluto Square
• Saturn Opposition

To summarize the nature of these phases and their midlife effects:

The Uranus Opposition is marked by surprise, sudden shocks, changes, upsetting issues situations, eccentricity and the unusual. Two areas of your life will experience pronounced change by showing you where you need to exercise more individuality and independence.

The Neptune Square Neptune transit heralds a time of confusion and the obscuring of 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 Pluto Square Pluto transit is one of 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 phases have finished their wild ride with you, the final and serious Saturn Opposition transit joins the fray for the final lesson around the age of 44/45. The nature of the Saturn Oppostion 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. By being conscientious you can make beneficial changes.

Midlife phases 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 re-evaluation 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.

In this article we are taking a look at change, more specifically the Uranus Opposition. It represents and reveals where we have been focusing for the years between ages 21 and approximately 40, and it jolts us into a new direction.

Does this mean we have been on the wrong track all these years? Not necessarily, but for many people it is a time to radically reclaim our authentic selves and our true vocation.This phase is symbolic of the process of individuation and a need for freedom and liberation. We experience a major Uranus transit between ages 38-41. This cycle is the culmination of our life direction and the shift into a new direction. We often experience sudden shocking events that disturb our realities, extreme restlessness and anxiety, and even family, friends, and acquaintances that seem to bear the same message we must change NOW. Things which worked well in our lives for many years no longer do so.It can feel as though lightning bolts are coursing through your body and zapping your relationships, your career and everything in your life. It is not a pleasant feeling. But when lightning comes it also sheds light, temporarily, and that is where the gift of the Uranus Opposition can be found.

It reveals the hidden things you have put away and need to reclaim. It shows your new direction.The Uranus Opposition is about leaving behind the "shoulds" imposed by others and integrating your authentic self - even is that mean being rebellious and opposing a teacher, mentor, confining job or a stagnant marriage. This is a time when you are very willing to risk it all to individuate. This is when you start to wonder whether what you've been doing with your life up until that time is what you really intended to do. "Is this all there is?"

This question is quite common at this time - and if you are honest with yourself, the answer is always NO. Now you can step out into the wild realm of opportunities and make a new beginning. Of course this is what makes people think you are losing your sanity, becoming eccentric or simply acting bizarrely. It can be a time of extremes. Marriages frequently end in divorce at this time, between ages 38-41. The further you are from your unique, authentic self, the more deeply entrenched you are in compromise and prohibitive traditions, the more the more radical you will be during this part of the Uranus cycle. To be more specific you may feel pushed to make decisions that you otherwise might not make. How?

This Uranian energy can create a situation so unpleasant in your marriage/partnership, home or career that propels you into a spectacular almost incredible situation which is, to all appearances, against your will. You could find yourself feeling as though you are fighting for your life - and you might be. Accidents and accidental deaths are not uncommon at this time, as are strokes and heart attacks.It evokes the memory of Michael Kennedy. The son of Robert and Ethel Kennedy, he was discovered to have been carrying on an affair with his babysitter, when he was 40. Instead of examining himself and what he left behind at 20-22 that he could now reclaim, he decided to sleep with a young woman approximately that age. This led to a divorce for Kennedy. Soon thereafter he died suddenly in a skiing accident during an ill-advised football game on skis. He spun his life out of control and lost it in a reckless accident.It is not uncommon for men to take the superficial easy approach during the Uranus Opposition and try to reclaim the sexual prowess they had in their 20s by having sex with a woman in her in her 20s. Those caught up in this fallacy believe if they can disseminate, they can stave off mortality. Men frequently close off at their hearts, shut out their spouse and lock the energy in their pelvis….and express it through sexual intercourse in a relationship with someone radically different in some way.

For women this time many manifest in things such as suddenly going on a driven bender for weeks or month about creativity. One woman old me about how her mother suddenly began making dozens of cakes of homemade soap and candles. The shaking and quaking that the Uranus Opposition effects in our bodies at this time is frequently used by women to do something artistic and spiritual as a creative act. Some women who have never had a child might at this time get pregnant.

Before you make drastic life changes and decisions, end your marriage, have an extra-marital affair, run off to join a cult, or quit your job ask yourself if that is the best expression of what you are feeling. Ask yourself if you are honestly reviewing your priorities and options. If you are not, the energy of the Uranus Opposition will do it for you in the form of a painful, unexpected event; then your life's agenda gets set without your input. That is not what you truly desire.

In other words, light to moderate anxiety might signify that you must add some variety to your life, whereas deep turmoil might call for a more significant and revolutionary life change. Out comes The Rebel.

Pay close attention to events in your life: the stronger the urge to change, the greater the warning that you may be way out of alignment and need to undergo a major life renovation. If all areas of your life are full of obstacles, rather than just one, take heed!

Here are some questions to ask oneself at this time of individuation:

1. What is really missing in my life? What is hindering me and restricting my freedom of expression? Why do I want to make such radical changes in my life?
2. What is my greatest fear? What keeps me from feeling free? What keeps me from being happy? If I could wave a magic wand, how different would my life be? Then, do something different. Do an activity that takes you out of your routine.
3. What can I do to bring play, creativity and freedom of expression into my life?
4. What compromises have I been making relative to my true self? Are these compromises still necessary at this time of my life? What important need am I not addressing? Which part of myself have I been holding back?

Many individuals will repress certain aspects of their personality in order to maintain a relationship. During the Uranus Opposition period, they will be pushed from within to unleash these aspects of their personality, sometimes with disastrous effects on personal and professional relationships.

Think about getting a professional consultation or sign up for long-term coaching - or suggest it to your spouse, mate friend or colleague who is going through this time of life. It can greatly aid in attaining perspective, clarity and direction. Send and email to coaching(at)lbarrettpowell.com

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"