Midlife Transits – Part 19 – On the Generations
Returning to the basic building blocks of life and how it unfolds over time, it is useful to remember that the core differentiators of the generations – the outer planets – are about choices. These “dark luminaries” are the solvents of the chemical bond formed between planetary and sign elements, in that they are fundamentally there to destroy. Time unfolds according to cyclical patterns which are predictable and unbroken – without some kind of disruptive force to break this up there would be far less space for variety and the free will of choice, which observably exists in all of our lives. The common patterns and traits of a generation derive from their common experience of these destructive moments and it guides their response to them. A generation is fundamentally a group of people who experience life in a similar way, and that happens because they experience the same manner of disruption and are given to the same bias and approach when presented with a choice. Destroying is not always a bad thing – after all, a great piece of wisdom in life is how to attain “addition through subtraction.” If something is limiting us in life is the destruction of that thing bad? Is it possible to pick up something found along the way if your hands are already full? Creating space and opportunity is the great task of the dark luminaries, and the removal of what was there before is just part of the process of doing so.
A potent way to understand these actions and how they can reveal generational differences is through what astrologers term the “midlife transits.” These are three aspects that the transiting outer planets make to their own natal positions in the late 30’s and early 40’s in the lives of all people. Simply put, this is when the outer planets momentarily destroy themselves, a process that starkly demonstrates their mode of action and which has the effect of revealing to us what they have been doing all along when we weren’t wise enough to see it. At the moment of these transits this past is shown to us – whether we like it or not – and then it is up to us how to respond. The cultural phenomenon known as the “mid-life crisis” results from this period of time, although that is the name given to it by – who else – the Baby Boomers. Why they viewed it in this way and how future generations have responded to the same process tells us a great deal about who each of them are.
First, let’s definite what these transits are. Below is a chart of a Baby Boomer born on May 1, 1949 – that is the inner circle. On the outer circle we see the transit position of Pluto on December 17, 1988. It is on this date, when the native is 39 years old, that Pluto reaches an exact “square” to it’s natal position at 14 Leo. It is three signs away, exactly 90 degrees, and this aspect shows that the transiting planet of Pluto is interacting with the natal position of Pluto for this person. Pluto is known to exaggerate what it interacts with by taking it to extremes and blowing it up. So what happens when Pluto applies this action to itself? That is the essence of the ‘midlife transits.” In each case the outer planet is applying its own mode of action to itself. The net effect is to reveal its own influence by canceling it out for a brief period of time.
Here we must also note that the outer planets frequently retrograde and move “backwards” in the chart. They do this for as much as half of the year, resulting in them passing the same point three separate times over approximately six-ten months. Because of this the transits by these planets are not characterized by a single event but usually speak about a period of time – frequently most of a year – during which they are applying themselves to the natal position, creating the disruption, and producing the effects in the lives of the native. As such December 17, 1988 is just the beginning for the native in question. Pluto will reach the same point a second time, via retrograde, on April 20, 1989, and then it will complete its “square” to itself on October 13, 1989. The native in our chart turns 40 years of age right in the middle of this process. Just when the disruption to Pluto has finished, Neptune does the same thing, squaring itself by transit on January 29, 1990:
Neptune is also fond of retrograding so it repeats this pass on July 8, and then a third and final time on December 2, 1990. This isn’t just the final pass of Neptune, but it is also the final pass of the “midlife transits,” because it turns out that Uranus has recently been up to something very similar. Uranus moves more quickly than Pluto and Neptune so it “squares” itself for the first time in early adulthood, but invariably around the same age as these other two squares Uranus makes its “opposition” to itself. In the case of our Baby Boomer native born on May 1, 1949, this first occurred on January 4th of 1988:
Uranus made a second pass to this point of opposition to its natal placement on July 19th, and then a third and final pass happened on October 20th of 1988. Recall that the Pluto “square” begins on December 17th of 1988, leaving little room to breathe in between. This near-overlapping of these three transits is typical and creates a period wherein the native is under these somewhat dramatic effects for the better part of three full years.
In the case of our Baby Boomer native, it played out like this:
- January-October 1988: Uranus opposition
- December 1988-October 1989: Pluto square
- January-December 1990: Neptune square
Depending on the individual and the generation these transits can occur in different orders and can even overlap (bummer!). They will however always cluster in this same part of life, around the ages of 38-44. Together they generate a phenomenon which in the 20th Century came to be known as the “midlife crisis,” although discussions of the significance of this period of time in a person’s life is present in literature dating back as far as Ancient Greece.
It is the actions of these transits that combine to draw a clear line between the early period of life and the middle period. Similar to how the “Saturn Return” of ages 27-30 ushers in maturity the midlife transits usher out youth. These transits are about experience and they call on the native to apply their accumulated experience going forward. How each generation decides to respond to this call is based directly upon the nature of their unique placements.
In Part 2 we explore the specifics of what these transits actually do, and how that varies by generation.
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