Midlife Transits

In the fall of 2011, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I found the astrology of the diagnosis to be quite fascinating. Sometimes astrology can be downright eerie. Here’s what happened.

The diagnosis at first was puzzling for me in an astrological sense (not to mention shocking in a real life sense). It occurred as Pluto was making a final station on my natal Saturn. I knew Pluto on Saturn can be a hairy transit, but I hadn’t felt any noticeable effects in the year and a half or so it had been active. Now, just as the transit was ending, I get some very bad news. I understood that the combination of Pluto and Saturn could symbolize cancer, but breast cancer?

I didn’t have any family history of breast cancer. I didn’t have any symptoms, couldn’t feel a lump. I just went in for a routine mammogram, one that I had put off for a year. In fact, I only went in for it because the persistent lady from Kaiser Permanente (my health care provider) happened to catch me on the phone in a vulnerable moment right before a phone conference. I wanted to get off the line so I agreed to go in for a mammogram at the next available time.

Breast cancer was not on my list of worries. In my mind, breasts and disorders of the breast are associated with the moon, the sign of Cancer, and the 4th house. That’s the way I learned astrology, right or wrong. Nothing was impacting any of these areas of my chart. My natal Saturn is not in Cancer. There was a very minor progression, that if generously interpreted might point to the moon, but it was a real stretch to find anything impacting any of the traditional factors associated with breast cancer.

It wasn’t until later, when I more fully understood the type of breast cancer that I was diagnosed with, that I found the symbolism. My type of breast cancer is very very rare. It is called metaplastic breast cancer. It turns out that what metaplastic cancer means is that, for unknown reasons, normal breast cells are transformed into skin cells and bone cells. One woman with this type of cancer actually had a bit of bone jut through her breast!

Pluto is the planet of transformation, literally. Saturn and Capricorn (the sign of my natal Saturn) are symbols of, you guessed it, skin and bone. I was dumbfounded when I realized that. During the transit, silently and unbeknownst to me, Pluto was transforming cells previously healthy cells into skin cells and bone cells that shouldn’t have been there.

When I calculated the doubling rate for my tumor, the time when the tumor must have taken hold was eerily close to the beginning of the transit, a little more than a year and a half earlier. (My cancer was growing pretty aggressively, by the way.)

The final station and ending of that transit marked the ending of the growth stage for that tumor. As is typical when a potentially difficult transit hits its final station, something bad ended. In this case, it was a tumor.

I was blown away when I realized that. I wasn’t exactly glad I had cancer, but I was grateful to the cosmos for bringing it to an end on schedule and to the cosmic planning that went into that persistent lady from Kaiser calling me at exactly the right time to persuade me to come in.

Sometimes astrology is just amazing.

If you were born between late October 1953 early October 1956, your second Saturn return has most likely started. There are some exceptions for people born between January and May 1956, but for the rest of you born within this time range, your second Saturn return has begun. What does this mean?

First, it means that the planet Saturn was in the sign of Scorpio when you were born. Second, it means that the planet Saturn has returned to the sign of Scorpio right now. Third, it means that this is the second time that Saturn has returned to this sign since you were born (hence, second Saturn return). That’s the technical stuff.

Now for what it means for your life. Let’s start by looking at some of the things that the planet Saturn means in your life in general.

Saturn has a number of very important jobs. The one we’ll look at in this series relates to his magic danger assessing abilities. Okay, they’re not actually magic abilities, paranoid danger-assessing abilities might be a better phrase.

One of Saturn’s jobs is to urge you to be careful. He looks ahead to the future with apprehension, identifies potential elements that might be dangerous or harmful, and tries to scare the heck out of you so that you will avoid those potentially dangerous or harmful things.

When Saturn returns to the sign he was in when you were born, one of the things he does is think about your future and what sort of things you ought to be prudent about now so that you can avoid danger and harm. In other words, he updates his fear list.

When you have your first Saturn return at around age 30 or so, Saturn realizes (and so do you) that you have survived your youth, which means that you’re probably not going to be dying any time soon.

You’d think this would be good news and in a way it is, but if short-term survival of the dangers of childhood and youth is no longer at the top of Saturn’s worry list, then something else has to be. The worries and fears of adulthood kick in, and most people start acutely feeling them as they hit age 29 or so.

Now that Saturn no longer worries about you being beaten up by the school bully or anyone else bigger than you, he starts worrying about things like having an adult future in which you don’t accomplish anything. He worries about your life having meaning, your career, whether or not you ought to have children, and then once you have them, he worries about them. He worries about pollution and global warming and world issues and participating in society as an adult.

When you hit your second Saturn return, Saturn realizes that you have survived, gracefully or not, the major worries on his adult worry list. He needs to update his worries. And now he realizes that in fact you might die sometime soon. So he starts worrying about death. He starts worrying about the vulnerabilities of old age. About your bones and skin cancer and your bank balance for retirement. He looks at your future and he tries to scare you into having a successful third age, post raising children and establishing a career or an adult role.

Next we’ll look at how having Saturn in the sign of Scorpio affects the second Saturn return.

You can find Part I here.

The sign Saturn is in when you’re born gives Saturn his particular personality as a worrier. Some people worry about whether they’re unique and interesting; other people really don’t care. Some people worry about their privacy; it never occurs to others to do so. And so on.

One of the things Saturn in Scorpio tends to worry about is control. Self-control and control over other people. Saturn in Scorpio looks at control as a crucial adult survival strategy. He exerts effort toward warning you that it is very important to control your destiny rather than react to it. Depending on your circumstances and environment, he may decide that the only way to control your destiny is to be the boss of others, to wear a cloak of authority or power, to hide your potential weaknesses behind status or title. Or he may be terrified of any situation in which it appears that others might control you. He may fear authority and the law and other people’s power.

As a person with Saturn in Scorpio, you may love his emphasis on power and control, but it’s a bit more likely that you’ll not be that fond of it. Saturn can be quite the frustrating planet. He can make you feel that no matter how hard you try (and you may try very very hard) that you can’t quite achieve enough or get enough of what he wants for you. You may be consciously or unconsciously driven by his fears of being manipulated or his fear that you will not be able to manipulate others enough to keep yourself safe.

As you go through the second Saturn return, and as Saturn updates his worry list, you may experience some nice effects. Saturn may realize that he was perhaps a bit, a teensy-weensy bit, over-paranoid about some of the dangers he identified earlier. He may realize that things get screwed up, that you screw things up and other people screw things up and the world doesn’t end. You can handle the occasional error and if other people (other people terrify Saturn in Scorpio) make mistakes, it won’t kill you. That’s a good thing.

But it would be misleading to say that the second Saturn return is a 2 ½ year period of happy rosy realizations that you have outgrown certain fears and that certain risks and dangers no longer apply to you. Because when Saturn updates his worry list, he confronts new realities. And one of the realities he most often confronts is that people do die. That loss does occur. Careers do go down the tubes or end. Success doesn’t necessarily last forever. That you can outstay your welcome in a certain role. That it is necessary to move on sometimes.

Saturn is a paradoxical planet. Once he realizes that you are, in fact, going to die one day, he starts having you put a lot less effort into not dying. He starts caring less about survival and more about living. He shifts from fearing death to appreciating life. He starts caring more about how you live through things than about how you avoid them.

That sounds great and in fact it really is. The second Saturn return brings really great gifts. The catch is that you actually have to practice confronting death, understanding mortality, shedding outgrown fears, and living through loss or failure or setbacks or reversals in a more conscious, thoughtful, even grateful way. That’s not as easy as rolling off a log. It takes awhile to get the hang of it and almost no one signs up for that kind of practice willingly. Life just confronts you with the necessity of doing so.

Next: How Saturn in Scorpio deals with the second Saturn return.

You can find Part I here. You can find Part II here.

As a person with Saturn in Scorpio, the ways in which you will confront Saturn’s fears about control will vary. It’d be reasonable to be prepared, to the extent that it is possible to be prepared, to confront fears about managing your money or your business and career affairs. Your sense of your proper role may change. Practical concerns, especially financial ones, will most likely be important. Illness or danger to loved ones are real possibilities. Your ability to manage things or your ability to direct and regulate your own life and the lives of others may be upended.

You’ll learn to deal with all the potential ramifications because you’ll have to. Saturn won’t let you fail. He’ll let you worry and fret and stew, but he won’t let you fail.

There’s one more element to the story. And that’s your contribution to society. Every Saturn generation has a contribution. Yours is kind of important right now.

It has to do with politics and government and the economic realities of the times. The interests of Saturn in Scorpio coincide with the issues on the world’s agenda these days. Things like the role of government in the economy, debt, taxes, reform of government, the power of political parties. These are exactly the kinds of things Saturn in Scorpio in your chart has been thinking about for a long time, even if you aren’t aware of it.

Saturn in Scorpio is a natural politician. He understands the realities of how power is actually used, overtly and covertly, and he understands how people and politicians and societies are driven by self-interest. He understands the paranoia about the economy, because he’s always been paranoid about your own personal economy. He understands the relationship between money and freedom, about the desire of people to control their own destinies. He knows all about the dangers of debt and taxation both. He realizes that if people don’t control themselves; other people will control them.

You may hate politics. You may be bored with politics. You may know nothing about politics. Or you may be an avid follower of national and international affairs, with a subscription to 6 newspapers and 23 opinion blogs. Saturn in Scorpio won’t care either way.

He just knows you have a responsibility these days to put your experience to good use. You need to care enough about government to vote, express your opinion, speak up, ponder the needs of your country, hold politicians to account and let other people know what and how you think. You’ve reached the age where you’re old enough and responsible enough and wise enough (how did that happen?) that you need to let the fools trying to run the country know what you know—which is how things really work and what’s important. Right now, you are part of an important constituency.

This public participation as a valuable member of a self-governing society may be your favorite part of Saturn’s to-do list or your least favorite. But it is part of the to-do list for you Saturn in Scorpio folks. Let the people with Saturn in other signs be clueless. We need you to let us know what the score really is.

I said in this week’s podcast that the post-Christmas week would be pretty crazy and boy is it, at least for anyone traveling in the Northeast US. In fact, people all over the world have been stuck, stranded, inconvenienced and trapped by weather lately. Floods in Australia, chaos at Russian airports. Not to mention many parts of the US blizzardized and the western US soaked and mudslided. An amazing number of people have been affected.

I’m blaming Jupiter conjunct Uranus, not to mention eclipses and Mercury Rx adding to the general confusion. You may know that Jupiter is a patron planet of travel, but did you know that he is also associated with the weather?

Now that he’s hugging Uranus in a tight embrace into January 2010, he’s expressing himself in a number of weather related ways. Pisces is a water sign so he’s enlarging the general disruption (Uranus) that precipitation can bring. In Pisces, Jupiter also loves chaos, and I suppose travel chaos would be a specialty for him. Uranus is the crazy planet, and with Jupiter at his side, it’s just really crazy. True to Jupiter form, the wackiness hasn’t really been lethal, but it sure has been forcing people to slow down when they weren’t expecting to.

Knowing that this would be a week when we’d be forced to slow down, like it or not, this week’s podcast is all about The Art of Slowing Down. My guest, Edward Yu, wrote a book on that very topic and he describes a phenomenon wherein learning can be instantaneous when we slow down enough. Pretty darn intriguing. And very Jupiter/Uranus–because they’re all about insight and instantaneous learning–even if they have to disrupt our patterns to make it possible.

I wrote recently about the upcoming move of Neptune in Pisces, which is like a double dose of Neptune. The other day someone sent me this description of feeling lost. It’s one of the best descriptions I’ve ever read of what a Neptune transit. The sensations this person describes often occur during a midlife transit of Neptune square Neptune, although not for everyone of course. Here it is:

“To tell the truth, I am lost right now. It’s like I don’t know who I am or what I want or where I’ll be in the future. I kinda know what I’d like, but I doubt that I can get it or how I will get it. I’m in a free fall, letting myself get deluded and anesthesized by fantasy by escaping into music and T.V.: “Crossfire”, “Dog Days are Over”, Deadwood & everything with dreamy Timothy Olyphant.

I am sucked into the words and stories and don’t really want to pull away because if I pull away, there is nothing really here for me to do or to look at. I’ve surrendered to the fog and it has swept me up and thrown me off a cliff. When I hit bottom I could land safely and get up and walk away as if nothing happened or I could shatter into dozens of pieces. I kinda want to shatter….so that I can pick up each piece and really look at it, throw away some, pocket some, try to salvage the remaining.

I can’t say that I like it but I can’t say that I don’t. I’m curious and confused and at times content with the utter unknown of it. But it does try my patience. I feel isolated, albeit self inflicted. If there are answers it seems they are here somewhere inside me so if I stay put long enough they’ll come, rather than getting out and about and among others.

But is inactivity counterintuitive? Isn’t taking action the way out? Not if the inner me keeps cajoling me to  ‘stay put’. So I stay and listen to “Dog Days are Over” and Brandon Flowers’ “Crossfire” a zillion times, hanging on the words as if an answer is in the refrain, the songs a sort of anthem for my search.

I watch Deadwood over and over, vaguely thinking I’ll learn something but really just caressing my mind by being in this faraway place with Black Hills Shakespearan characters and their schemes. They may be somewhat conflicted, but their wants and actions are so clear, so doggedly executed and I am fascinated by that and how this wild town creates itself, disposing of those who aren’t of use and how it’s figuring out how to form and become civilized, how to get along with the various personages who are making their place, their way, their fortunes amidst good and evil.”

Such a profusion of Neptune feelings in the description above: lost, unknown, undecided, free fall, deluded, anesthetized, fantasy, escape, dreamy, sucked in, surrendered, fog, swept away, curious, confused, searching for answers, inactive, caressing, figuring out how to form. It’s pretty amazing how dead on this description is.

Why you ask, would the planets throw us into such a state? Well, the answer is that often such a state is the precursor to inspiration, to a new level of clarity, to opening up to possibilities romantic and artistic and spiritual. It’s a form of divine discontent and enthrallment that leads us to somewhere we never knew existed. The Neptune sea sweeps us up to exotic new destinations, new frontiers, new homes. The attachment to a celebrity or celebrities, to a story, a movie, a type of music, etc. is very common during this kind of transit. It allows for a safe exploration of feelings that real life often has little use for. And the attachment in its own way heals and allows for the processing of emotions and experiences that the daily crush of demands don’t honor. Neptune allows the imagination to become a vehicle for redemption.

If you surrender to a Neptune transit, it can be almost ecstatic. It re-sets your priorities and pulls you out of mundane worries into a land of exalted emotion. Although strange and confusing, it’s a good thing. And worth enjoying–for it won’t last forever.

P.S. Thanks to our anonymous contributor!

It’s not too early to start thinking about Neptune moving into Pisces, the sign if rules,  for the first time in any of our lives. Neptune will move first into Pisces in April 2011 and will stay there until early August before retreating into Aquarius again. Neptune will move into Pisces for an extended stay (Neptune transits a sign for about 14 years) in February 2012. The last time Neptune was in Pisces was during the 1849-1862 period–the Gold Rush period, the pre-Civil War period and the Civil War itself. A pretty chaotic time in American history.

Interestingly, Pisces is the sign of slavery itself and, during the last time Neptune was in Pisces, the big issue was the expansion (Neptune) of slavery in the US. Ultimately, however, Neptune performed its undermining function and slavery was permanently legally abolished in the US.

Slavery is not the issue of the day today, of course. Neptune & Pisces are also associated with such things as medicine, including holistic medicine and drugs, diseases, the poor, alcohol, shipping and the seas, charity, religion and spirituality, films, fashion, movies, glamor, illusion, deception, fantasy, oil, art, shoes, compassion, water, psychic phenomena, the subconscious mind, institutions, prisons, chemicals, escape, withdrawal, meditation, and sleep.

Coincidentally or not, one of the most common predictions about the effects of global warming is a rise in sea levels. If there’s any placement that would encourage a rise in sea levels, it would be Neptune in Pisces. Neptune, the planet that melts, would be more than happy to melt glaciers and increase its dominion over the oceans by making them bigger. Indeed, Neptune with its gigantic holistic approach will be likely to increase global concern with the environment and the entangled effects we all have on it. This is good news for people who care about the environment; it may be bad news for those who fear a ‘one world’ approach to anything.

Compassion may become an explicit value, idealized and promoted in unlikely places. Again, good news for people who value compassion. It may be a bit more difficult for those who are not naturally compassionate and who distrust it as a weakening influence. Neither Neptune nor Pisces is the least bit afraid of weakness and vulnerability; in them they see spiritual strength and the power of surrender to prevail. That may be a bit hard to swallow for those who have built a life on appearing strong.

But what about Neptune in Pisces’s effects on the individual zodiac signs? Neptune in Pisces will theoretically be excruciatingly delicious at times for those born in water signs or who have planets or angles in water signs (although Neptune conjunct a planet in Pisces may be a bit more ambiguous in its effects). Earth signs and planets will also benefit from the Neptunian magic of exquisite sensation. Nothing feels better than a good Neptune transit. Other transits may be more practical, but for sheer transporting emotion, nothing beats Neptune.

Those in mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) or with planets therein may not find Neptune transits quite as thrilling, at least at first. Or it may be exponentially more thrilling, with a Neptune hangover and disillusionment to follow. Neptune’s like a drug, and under the influence of it, we sometimes fall in love with things that are not quite as wonderful as they seem at first. We fall in love with people, ideas, churches, gurus, quests, must-haves, dreams, fantasies, the unrealistic and the unobtainable.

Neptune’s purpose, at least one of them, is to lure us cleverly out of our comfort zones with the promise of easy, ideal riches–emotional, spiritual, or material. Once out of our comfort zones, Neptune abandons us and we are lost, forced to create a new path through uncharted territory.

That sounds pretty alarming and sometimes it is, but if Neptune didn’t lure us, we’d stay in metaphorical Kansas and never venture into the land of Oz. We learn a lot in Oz, even if it’s not what we expected, even if it’s only that reality is a lot better than we used to give it credit for. Neptune encourages gratitude, devotion, colorful adventures, hopeful dreams, fresh starts, and vivid memories. It allows us to do things we would never do in our right minds and opens up new worlds to us.

Neptune also encourages stuckness. Neptune is nature’s pause button, and it slows things down far more than Saturn. Neptune processes the whole, not the pieces, and the whole takes a long time to digest. During a difficult Neptune transit, you may feel like you are going nowhere at zero miles per hour, stuck in the same old fog and uncertainty for an anxiety-provoking stretch of seeming endlessness. Because Neptune’s not one to discriminate or distinguish but accepts all things, it’s hard to make out landmarks, so that one may feel overwhelmed by the inter-relatedness of issues in your life. On the good side, when Neptune solves a problem–it can solve a whole bunch of them at once, due to its holistic approach. Out of the fog, you arrive magically at a destination you only vaguely knew you were aiming for.

If you fight Neptune with enough skepticism, you may not fall victim to its wiles and deceptions. You won’t be tricked out of your money, your heart, your ideals, or your property. And you’ll miss the hallucinogenic trip through Oz. Is it better to lose a little and gain a whole new perspective or to keep yourself safe and avoid the quest? It’s up to you to decide.

Neptune will never be in a bad mood with you. It may affect you strongly and at some point it probably will, but it itself remains unaffected by human vagaries. It glides along, sprinkling its fairy dust and intoxicating anyone intrigued by its sparkling visions. But it will never chide you, nor blame you, nor yell at you. It simply is. Your reaction to it is your own choice.

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Uranus is just finishing up whacking people with planets in late degrees of mutable signs and is looking forward to resuming the ability to pounce on people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs next March. Since I happen to be one of those people with planets in early degrees of cardinal signs, I thought I’d respond to a reader query and venture a few unconventional thoughts on dealing with the most unconventional planet in the astrological system. Without further ado, a few strange ways for getting the upper hand on a contrary planet.

#1: Panic early. Uranus can be a rather hysterical planet and he loves speed. Get the jump on him by panicking as soon as you realize you have a Uranus square, opposition or conjunction coming up. There’s a bit of reverse psychology to this so bear with me.

Think of your worst nightmare under the upcoming transit. Let’s say Uranus will be conjunct your Descendant and opposing your Ascendant. Your worst nightmare is that Uranus will try to break up your marriage because you’ve seen that happen with Uranus in the 7th house and you’re a Libra, so you hate that idea. Panic productively by figuring out what you can pull out of your hat to prevent that. Does your spouse need more freedom? Has tension been building? Do you need to talk some things through? Could you separate briefly if things are really rough these days? Could you be more assertive now so that you’re not overwhelmed with anger later? Brainstorm; worry if necessary. Uranus loves brainstorming.

But here’s the magic of this trick. Uranus wants to surprise you. If you’ve already prepared and anticipated, there’ll be no surprise if the transit brings stress to your marriage. Uranus hates that; he hates to be predicted. So he will leave your marriage alone. Now admittedly, he will do something else, such as shake up your Ascendant by having you dye your hair shocking pink (Uranus loves shocking anything). But you can live with that. Better your hair than your marriage.

The same sort of reverse psychology is necessary if you’re actually looking forward to the Uranus transit (some people do). Let’s say you are thinking to yourself that Uranus squaring your Capricorn Ascendant is going to loosen up your Capricorn serious way of presenting yourself and you think that’s going to be great because you’re tired of being perceived as a Capricorn instead of the wacky Aquarian sun that you feel inside. Don’t count on it if you’re counting on it. Instead, announce loudly to anyone that will listen “I’ll bet you Uranus will attack my sensitive Cancer Descendant instead of my Capricorn Ascendant; I just know it. I can feel it. I’m sure of it. I’m intuitive that way. It will be awful.” Uranus will overhear you and say “Aha! Guess who’s going to get a big surprise when I go after the Capricorn Ascendant!” Mission accomplished.

Now this may seem crazy, and it kind of is. But I have experience with Uranus and in my experience Uranus really does hate being predicted. I have seen this technique work on more than one occasion. What you worry about doesn’t happen. If you don’t worry at all, you get whacked upside the head. Either way, Uranus achieves his goal of keeping you on your toes and engaged with your life, thinking about the possibilities instead of relying on the same old routine. By the time you’ve finished worrying about your marriage or whatever, you’ll have already achieved what needed to be achieved, the greater independence, the not taking it for granted, the willingness to take a look at it. Without the drama of being blindsided.

#2: If it’s too late to panic in advance, take a look at what kind of Uranus transit you are going through. There are at least 2 major kinds. One is internal and the other is situational. The internal ones make you feel like you are going crazy, partly because nothing’s happening and you want something to happen. You feel restless. You want to quit your job, flee to Europe or Tahiti. You want to dump your girlfriend, dump your friends, move across country, start a new life. You want to get married, force an issue, make a bold move, have a breakthrough or do anything rather than endure the same old situation that you’ve been putting up with forever. With Uranus in Aries, you will frequently want to scream at someone, because that’s what this placement encourages.

There are 2 ways you can handle this situation. One is to make whatever radical change crosses your mind. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it’s rough. If you’ve been thinking of ending your marriage or quitting your job for 4 years now and you haven’t been able to get your butt in gear, it’s probably time to take the plunge. Some people find it very hard to do what they’re planning unless forced by major stress. Uranus is helpful to these folks. Do try to prepare as much as possible for the major move you’re going to make because Uranus rarely sticks around to help you pick up the pieces. You’ll need to be responsible for yourself once the change is made. But if you understand that, you can use Uranus productively, even though you will be beside yourself until you make your move.

The other way is to get at the underlying boredom and need for excitement and re-engagement with your life that underlies the desire for radical change. Find a place and a way to scream on purpose, instead of by accident. Try not to entertain the idea that you will be able to get away without any metaphorical screaming or yelling at all. You will need to pitch some sort of a fit, even if you do it privately, because Uranus will not let up until you do.

Scream in your car to loud music, as long as you aren’t transporting the kids and you’ve got the windows rolled up. Find a therapist or even an astrologer and vent like crazy. Find some new friends and take up new activities with them that blow off steam. Take a karate class and make a lot of ‘hai-yah!’ noises. Get a punching bag. Learn self-defense techniques. Write an angry letter to your congressperson. Take a strong position on something and argue it with someone who is tolerant of debate. Watch a lot of action movies and vicariously thrill at blowing up the buildings and blowing away the bad guys. Become a sports fan and yell for the home team. Join a bowling league and jump up and down when you roll a strike. Attend a demonstration and chant slogans at passing cars. Take up a righteous cause and work for it. Start fist-pumping when you overcome a challenge. Act on a impulse. Stay up all night making a ridiculously long bucket list. Tell off a bully. Use a swear word that shocks you. Do something! Let Uranus know that you got the message that you need to be more alive, even aggressively so.

Some or all of these things will be counter to your nature, or you aren’t really going through a difficult Uranus transit. The point is to realize that Uranus is just activating the natural vitality that comes with experiencing your own Aries energy. Consciously choose what you’d like to do with it. If you keep at this, you will eventually realize (with a sudden flash of insight if Uranus has his way) what it is you are really discontented with and why. Often what you’re upset about is all the time you’ve wasted putting off taking control over your own life. That’s a pretty big, if jarring, insight, and once you gain it, you can decide how to get back that control.

#3: If you’re having a situational Uranus transit, you’re not the one feeling restless. Instead, you’re feeling shocked and disoriented because Uranus suddenly ended something you weren’t planning to end voluntarily. Instead of quitting your job, you’re fired. Instead of dumping the boyfriend, he dumped you. And so on. This is the sort of thing that gives Uranus a bad reputation. He does disrupt people’s lives. It can be very rough when this happens. In between being upset and disoriented, there are a few things you can do.

For example, you can revel in your new freedom. Yes, it’s terrifying not having a job. But…for the first time in 15 years you can sleep in, visit the beach on a Monday, grow a beard, not have to pick up the hubby’s dirty socks, go on a date with someone new, wear what you like, and escape the daily grind that used to be your life. This won’t last forever, so take at least a few moments, every day, to savor it.

You can also take advantage of the opportunity to be objective and detach. When your world’s turned upside down, it’s too painful to be subjective. So don’t be. Instead, step back, way back, and look at the situation as objectively as possible. At least for a few minutes every day, put your feelings aside and evaluate the situation as if you were an outside observer. From an outside observer’s perspective, it was a lousy job and a terrible boyfriend in the first place. Uranus did you a favor. He just did it more quickly and abruptly than you were anticipating.

You can also let go of outcomes and expectations.  I got this tip recently from a client. She was thrilled with her disruptive and upsetting and infuriating Uranus transit, once she bounced back from the initial shock. She was thrilled because she realized she had been building her life around expectations and desires to control the outcome of her life that just were not working out. She wasn’t living any more, wasn’t able to see what could happen, experiment, learn, open up, etc. because she’d been too busy predicting things. Trying different things with the attitude of ‘let’s just see what happens’ is a perfectly valid way to handle a Uranus disruption.

Finally, you can go in a different direction and build on a new foundation. If it’s hard putting up with the disruption of a situational Uranus transit, it’s even harder to try to recapture what just went away. Something is going to have to be different. Decide what you’re never going to do again and what you’d like to do differently this next time around. In a way, Uranus doesn’t care what changes you make, as long as you go forward and not backward. As long as you are clear that Uranus will not actually help you become the master chef of your lifelong fantasy, that he will just give you the chance to act on your desires, you can decide not to re-board the train you were riding and get on one to a whole different destination.

P.S. Just because you fail the first time you audition for “Master Chef” does not mean you made the wrong decision. Uranus believes in experimenting until you get it right. He was the one who told Thomas Edison that he didn’t fail to make a lightbulb a thousand times, he just discovered a bunch of ways that didn’t work.

Good luck with your transits!

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Aries and Aries rising: At some point, Uranus in Aries will try to imbue you with more physical energy in a literal sense. It may not last forever, but it will probably be fun while it lasts. Your personality may also get stronger or more vibrant for awhile, and Uranus may push you toward being more effective in your actions, to see the end game and not just the beginning game. Uranus will want you to do new stuff and set new personal goals. Uranus in your own sign is more a ‘free choice’ placement than it is anywhere else. You have greater latitude to choose your own path.

Taurus and Taurus rising: Uranus in Aries will be in the part of your chart that is normally devoted to subconscious influences. When your subconscious mind is very active, stuff can break through to consciousness. On the good side, stuff can break through that can help you put old demons to rest permanently. Therapy and self-exploration can be very effective. On the not-so-good side, stuff that doesn’t break all the way through can turn into insomnia and anxiety or even chronic discomforts. Uranus in Aries will want you to deal with your discomforts, physical or psychological, forthrightly and do something about them. Set goals and try stuff until you have solved the problem. Stuff that was okay to put with before, Uranus in Aries will not be okay with putting up with anymore. He’ll want results.

Gemini and Gemini rising: Uranus in Aries will be in your natal or solar 11th house here, and he’ll have lots of different things he could get interested in while traversing this section of your chart. He may stir up all kinds of activity, but I’ll focus on one area that will probably get attention before his stay is through. Uranus will almost certainly look at your friends because friends are a specialty of his. If he’s in a good mood with them, he’ll pump tons of energy into your friendships and group endeavors and he may have you getting involved in some very physical activities with them. If he’s in a bad mood with them and doesn’t think they’re worthy of you, he’ll pick fights with them, attempt to throw them out of your life, overhaul your social circle, start with a clean slate, have you form your own groups, and generally rebel against what he thinks are substandard networks and support systems. If you’re not a joiner, he may suddenly decide that you ought to be one. If you are a joiner, he may suddenly decide that whatever you’ve joined ought to be a lot more effective at whatever it is it is supposed to be doing. And because Uranus loves this sector of the chart, he may just get a kick out of doing things like setting a goal for you to have 2,442 Facebook friends by the end of the summer.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Cancer and Cancer rising: Uranus is now in the part of your chart where it gets ambitious. Previously, it was in the part of your chart where it hankered after higher education, and it may still have some work to finish up in that department. But now it sets its sights upon getting you attention, moving you up, convincing you to be an entrepreneur, changing your career, or otherwise eventually making a fairly radical change. At some point, it will probably get its way. Somehow or another, it wants to throw its energy into getting you into a higher position (in its opinion) than the one you are in now, although that need not be in a strictly career sense. If you can gain prestige for climbing Mt. Everest or something, it will take that too. But it will want you to do something public, set some goals that it thinks are worthy of you. If it thinks you are in the wrong field–it will try to push you out. You would probably be wise to figure out now what you really want, since Uranus is going to try to drag you in that direction anyway.

Leo and Leo rising: Uranus here will be in your solar or natal 9th house and that covers a lot of ground. I’ll focus simply on the knowledge and information aspect of it, since Uranus does love knowledge and information. Uranus in Aries in the 9th tends to love knowledge and information it can get by going places, doing things, and experiencing stuff first-hand. Goodness knows where it will try to take you, but it tends to be hot for adventure. It also likes news, journalism, stuff that is up to the minute, and info that it can use immediately to make snap decisions. It will frequently try to persuade you to take up an intellectual project that will ultimately prove to be of great benefit to you, even if at first it seems unlikely. For example, it may encourage you to finally figure out how to do math, even though you used to think you were stupid at it. Don’t worry; it won’t take you too deep into a subject; it will just set a goal that you’ll finally figure out how to balance your checkbook or pass statistics class or whatever it is that you need.

Virgo and Virgo rising: Aries represents your solar or natal 8th house, a house that represents way too many things to go into in a single post. So I’ll pick an area that is often overlooked in discussing the 8th house–sex! More physical energy for sex. That can be one benefit of Uranus in Aries. Another benefit can simply be more of it and more interest in it. A stronger sex drive, a more assertive sex drive, a more experimental and open-minded approach to sex, more willingness to initiate sex, fewer inhibitions, more exploration, more willingness to learn and grow in this area of life. Not a bad thing for most of us.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Libra and Libra rising: The conventional wisdom is that Uranus in the sign opposite one’s own is unsettling. That is what it is supposed to do sooner or later, unsettle you. It is supposed to change things up. You’ve picked someone to be in some sort of relationship to you (doesn’t have to be a mate or spouse, could be any sort of relationship) and then the person develops a new energy they didn’t have before. You respond. In the process of responding, you change. You gain the opportunity to learn how to take more effective actions than you knew how to take before, because you are facing new situations. The part people don’t like is the instability. They fight to get it back. That’s perfectly fine. It’s the process of fighting to get it back that forces you to learn more about yourself and become more of yourself. It all works out. It’s a kind of resistance training. Speaking of which, getting plenty of exercise during this transit will probably help.

Scorpio and Scorpio rising: Aries represents your job and health sector, but I’ll concentrate on the jobs aspect of it. Uranus in one’s job sector often correlates with a lot more job movement in all kinds of ways. Sometimes your own job will remain stable, but your co-workers will come and go, or there’ll be a lot of turnover at your workplace. Often you’ll switch jobs, or the workplace will become a lot more busy, or your work will involve a lot more running around. Uranus in Aries will generally set a goal of improving your work and work environment but will often engage in a lot of experimentation before settling on the right situation, and he may get all entrepreneurial, part-timey, or free-lance happy in the process. You may also have to learn a lot of new techniques to keep up with Uranus’s upgrade plans. In general, it is wise to figure out what you really want from a job and set out to get it, because Uranus is going to try to go after it anyway. You might as well be a willing and conscious participant in the process.

Sagittarius and Sagittarius rising: Uranus in Aries in the Sagittarius chart just wants to have fun. What fun means depends on you; it could mean playing soccer, playing poker, creating effective ads for upscale magazines, splashing in the pool with your kids, or partying in the Hamptons with an eligible bachelor. Its purpose is to try to make you feel free and special and happy. It won’t succeed all the time; that’s a pretty tall order. But when it does succeed, it will be a wonderful thing.

Uranus in Aries is a very dynamic energy; quite different in character from Uranus in Pisces, which wobbled along uncertainly causing various upsets. Uranus in Aries will charge ahead very certainly, causing various upsets, but bringing with it plenty of spunk and the potential for some quite effective action in your life. Uranus in Aries has so much energy and so much action potential that various other planets will get alarmed at various points during its transit of the sign and attempt to stop it. Pluto in Capricorn will throw up some mighty resistance; Saturn in Libra will beg it to stop and consider the consequences of its actions, and every other planet that enters a cardinal sign will whine and complain or shudder in horror. On the other hand, Jupiter in Aries will make its effects even bigger.

Some of this interplanetary conflict and expansion will affect you at various points; some of it will pass without a blip on your screen. But the interplanetary vibes are not our subject today. Our subject today is what Uranus in Aries can do for you when he’s in a good mood and unleashed. On his first go-round, Uranus will only rush into Aries and back out again over the course of about 11 weeks. He’ll really only settle in for an extended stay in Aries  (about 7 years is Uranus’s normal tour in a sign) as of March 2011. But the times they are already changing, so let’s take a look at what’s on tap for each of the signs as the new Uranian era begins.

I’ll start with the premise that although Uranus is often thought of as a mentally oriented planet, it often has an effect (in my experience) on a person’s literal physical energy. With Uranus in Aries, your little legs may actually want to walk faster, as Aries energy urges them to hurry up, time’s a-wasting. Aries values speed and so does Uranus, so the very pace of your life may speed up. Not everyone is going to notice this immediately, and some people may not want their lives to move any faster than they already do, but it can feel good to have more physical energy at your disposal. Uranus in Pisces wants to absorb stuff (including, unfortunately, toxins) but Uranus in Aries wants to do stuff. Pisces is a mutable sign, so Uranus in Pisces keeps changing its mind. Aries is a cardinal sign, so Uranus in Aries sets goals and marches off with a sense of purpose. It’s like a dog that’s just barely restrained by the leash. Where this dog will try to take you depends partly on your sun sign or your rising sign. (If you know your own chart, you can get a more precise understanding of where Uranus will be in your chart. Astro.com offers free charts.)

Capricorn and Capricorn rising: Uranus in Aries takes aim at your home. Sometimes Uranus in the home sector means literally moving a lot during the years that it is there, moving stuff within the home, doing renovations, improvements, re-wiring, structural work, energy efficiency work and so on. The thing about Uranus is that it wants to find the right place for you, or the right situation for you and it can be maddeningly picky and discontent, easily dissatisfied, and willing to try all kinds of things that seem promising but ultimately prove not to work. Sometimes you need to convince it that you do not need a television the size of an exterior wall in order to make your home life complete. On the other hand, if you put effort into deciding what would be the perfect home for you personally (not for everyone else, for you personally, because that’s what Uranus is interested in) and set yourself a goal of getting it, Uranus will help you eventually achieve it. And that’s pretty cool.

Aquarius and Aquarius rising: Uranus in Aries is in the sector of your chart where he wants to put a lot of energy into communicating. He could potentially try to persuade you to hop all around town giving talks or performing other activities that will have you sharing your Aquarian knowledge with people in your area. Uranus is your ruling planet and he is convinced you have all kinds of Uranian information to share these days that will just set the world on fire. His goal is both to have you do more communicating and to make you a more effective communicator. Your purpose during this transit is to share your thoughts and information and to get into discussions and engage in interchange with others.

Pisces and Pisces rising: Uranus in Aries will be in the part of your solar or natal chart that deals with money and money-making activities. Hence, you can expect a lot of energy to go toward money and/or the attempt to make it. For some the attempts will center around physical or sports-related activities. For others, the efforts will center around enterprises that require a lot of initiative. The idea is to focus on whether the initiatives will be effective and whether they will offer a good return. You can also expect Uranus in Aries to prod you to set financial goals and to keep setting them until you get the money thing right.

Here is a link to an article I  wrote almost 4 years ago on the 8th house and credit card debt: http://www.thirdage.com/today/horoscopes/astrology-credit-card-debt.

This article is featured in Pluto Problems Got You Perplexed? Here’s What Helps! published by Skywriter as Part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The Cardinal T-Square of 2010: Saturn, Uranus, Pluto.

The article is part of the ThirdAge.com website that I used to write for. Now you can read my articles on various astrological matters here at Midlife Transits.  You can also contact me for a personal consultation or find me in Culver City, California (Los Angeles area) at the Raksa Wellness Center.

Here are some links to other articles that deal with issues relating to Pluto, the cardinal T-square, or other relevant matters:

Inside the Mind of the Cardinal T-Square

Got Natal Saturn  in Libra?

Dealing with Difficult Pluto Transits

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for the signs, Aries through Virgo & Libra through Pisces

Saturn

Note: This article will form part of the International Astrology Day Blog-a-thon, March 19-21. There will be links to an entire collection of articles on Saturn on March 20 at the following URL: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html. Check it out!

If you were born between late November 1950 and late October 1953 and your natal Saturn is in Libra, you are either experiencing your second Saturn return or will experience it soon. The second Saturn return is a predictable astrological phenomenon that occurs for everyone between the ages of approximately 58 to 60. It marks the time when Saturn returns to the sign it was when you were born.

One of the issues that almost inevitably comes up during the second Saturn return is aging. Saturn rules the aging process, and it is obviously pretty normal for a person approaching their 60s to think about getting older. For the generation experiencing the second Saturn return in Libra during the next couple of years (Saturn will be in Libra, with the exception of a short break in spring and summer 2010, into October 2012), the second Saturn return will be impacted by the presence of Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. Both of these other energies clash with Saturn in Libra and therefore throw issues into sharper relief.

Let’s look briefly at how Pluto and Uranus can affect, although not fundamentally change, the dynamics of the second Saturn return.

Potential dynamic #1: Uranus in Aries represents, among other things, a rush of youthful impulsive energy, the desire for heedless, even reckless change. You may feel that events in society are making you all the more aware that things are changing faster than you’d like. You may feel like, or even be accused of being, a fuddy-duddy who wants to stand in the way of change. On a more personal level, the opposition between Uranus and Saturn could make you even more aware that your body isn’t what it used to be, and maybe your outlook isn’t either.

Potential dynamic #2: Saturn is a pretty lonely planet by nature, and in Libra, the fear of aloneness can be quite acute. You might think about being lonely if you retire, about not having a spouse or companion, about losing friends to death or illness. You’re ‘supposed’ to think about these things during the second Saturn return, because Saturn, a realistic and self-reliant planet, wants you to understand your own resources and to plan for a deeper confrontation with yourself, now that typical life tasks such as raising children or building a career are essentially complete. With challenges coming at you from two important outer planets, you may even feel a bit isolated in your point of view on things, as though you have accidentally stepped out of the mainstream.

Potential dynamic #3: Confronting mortality. At the second Saturn return, you realize your actions have consequences because you will not be living forever. You need, in essence, to make the most of the time you’ve got. With Pluto in Capricorn closely squaring Saturn in Libra off and on during this cycle, you may feel that death and mortality are getting all up in your face these days.

So…how to confront these things? I have a few suggestions that should apply regardless of when your second Saturn return is. I’m not saying they will make the current times wildly fun or that they substitute for the hard work of being yourself. But at least they can give you something to think about as you face this important transition in your life.

Suggestion #1: Face the fact that you’re not going to be who you used to be and that’s a good thing. Do the Saturnian thing and prepare for your future. If fear of loneliness and isolation are creeping around the edges of your thoughts, run a movie of your future in your mind. Make it come out with a happy ending.

How wonderful could it be to be able to do what you want, instead of what everyone else wants? How wonderful could it be to be a mentor instead of an employee, part of a girls’ trip to Las Vegas instead of a doting wife, and so on. Play around with the pictures in your head. I can almost guarantee you that there are parts of your subconscious mind that are just itching to shed some elements of the identities you’ve built up. Remember, if society’s values seem to be morphing away from what’s familiar to you, that your values count too. It’s okay to speak up for your own Saturn perspective. Goodness knows, we’ll likely need it.

Suggestion #2: Learn something. Not something easy. Something hard. Something that could be of benefit in your community. Like how to be a volunteer mediator or arbitrator (great for Libra energy). How to speak Spanish if there are many in your town who do so. How to program a website. Okay, I know these kinds of things could be daunting, but there’s a big payoff. You will grow new connections between your neurons. Literally. New connections will help keep your brain healthy and your mood stable.

The key to Saturn’s heart is contributing your fair share to society (it rules the community-minded 10th house). It wants so much for you to leave some kind of a tangible contribution or legacy. Make it happy. Step up to the plate and make a contribution of a type you’ve never been able to make before. Not only will you make Saturn feel useful, you’ll soak up some of that restless Uranus in Aries energy, energy that also cares about society, learning new things, and making changes. It won’t exactly make you feel young again, but it will alter your understanding of what aging really is. Furthermore, since the clash between outer planets indicates that society is going through some fundamental shifts, any contribution you can make to the larger community helps us all by easing the transition a bit.

Suggestion #3: Confront mortality as directly as you can. Okay, this is hard for a lot of us, including me. But Saturn has every right to be curious about it, and so do you. It is only natural to want to prepare for something none of us are going to be able to escape. I’ll give an example of a woman I met who made exquisite use of the second Saturn return. She went to school to take classes in biomedical ethics. She learned how to give counseling to families who have to make end-of-life decisions for their family members. Talk about confronting an issue in a useful way. Talk about making a contribution to society. She got to satisfy the Saturnian (and Plutonian) urge to find out what death is all about and to prepare, but she also got to help other people in a very important way. And…she kept her brain, heart, and soul sharp by challenging them with a new activity. She participated in the changes in society rather than hiding from them.

You can do these things, too. Maybe in a slightly different way than I’ve suggested, but you can do them too. You just might find, as many of my clients do, that when the second Saturn return is over, you actually feel like you have a whole new lease on life.

Blogger Victoria Bazeley specializes in the astrology of midlife, the key time periods between age 38 to age 60. She has written for ThirdAge.com, started the website Practical Astrology and now blogs here at Midlife Transits. Become a Facebook fan!

Other Articles on Saturn and Saturn in Libra:

Got Natal Saturn in Libra?

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Aries through Virgo

Saturn in Libra Horoscopes for Libra through Pisces

What Changes Will Saturn in Libra Bring?

This article is featured in Look After Saturn and Saturn Will Look After You as part of the 2010 International Astrology Day Blogathon. The purpose of this web-based event is to create a permanent library of articles about how to deal with the stresses of the Cardinal T-Square of Pluto, Saturn and Uranus. The main page for the Blogathon collections is at The 2010 International Astrology Day Blog-A-Thon.

The URL for the Saturn collection is: http://mandilockley.blogspot.com/2010/03/look-after-saturn-saturn-will-look.html
The URL for the main blogathon collection is: http://2010astrologycarnival.wordpress.com/