I was asked by a colleague who runs a club for people making major life changes:-

“I am mystified why so many new clients are aged 38/39, and am sure there's an Astrology Book to be done on what happens at certain ages. 28/9, 42, 51/2, 56/7 are pretty obvious, but what is it about 33, 38/9, 43?” Andrew Ferguson founder of The Breakthrough Networking Club

What is it about certain ages? How come that nowadays we have a midlife crisis? Is it a new phenomenon?

Astrology can answer the question. Astrology works with cycles and knows that the outer planets’ orbits correspond to turning points and evolution in people’s lives. Understanding where you and others are in your personal growth cycle is extremely useful information. It's vital if you are involved with coaching or leadership.

The stages we go through are physical, mental, emotional/soul and spiritual.
They are represented by the outer planets plus Saturn - the most distant planet to be seen with the naked eye.

Age 28-30 Saturn return
Saturn’s cycle of just over 28 years is concerned with the physical. It rules the bones of the body and structures. A lot of people have now heard of ‘Saturn return’.

“Give me a boy until he’s seven and he’s mine for life” is a well known expression that comes from Jesuit doctrine. Seven is known as a spiritual number and it’s the number of years that equals a quarter of Saturn’s orbit (28 and a half years) to travel through all the signs of the zodiac. So ages 7, 14, 21 and 28 are turning points in the first Saturn cycle. (Age 56/7 is the second Saturn return)

Saturn is the physical realm, so during these formative years we learn about the laws of manifesting. What we put our energy and effort into produces results. We learn that if we work hard, study for exams and build slowly but surely we will succeed.

Unfortunately we are also told we must do certain things because our parents and teachers are conditioning us to fit in with society. That’s fine if that’s what you want, but the ‘outsiders’ or rebels which means those of us who want to be the master of our destiny i.e.. self employed, will resent the rules of society.

So 28-29 years old becomes the Saturn return when (hopefully) we’ll have become mature. Most people have either married, had kids, have a good career or bought property by this age. A crisis at this time in life will focus on any one of those areas if there hasn’t been success. Practical solutions are called for. Resistance to conform will be an issue.

Age 38-42 Midlife Crisis
Midlife crisis is created because since 3 of the outer planets are making challenging aspects to the birth chart in our late 30ties and early 40ties.

That’s a lot of energy and they are all concerned with crisis or transformation, thus creating a huge pressure to change the life. This is the time when it’s so easy to throw the baby out with the bath water. The world ‘out there’ can be seen to be the problem. Instead it’s time to start to do the psychological inner work.

Pluto connects to deep unconscious stuff that is an emotional/soul crisis and starts its slow process age 38 -45 approx.

At the same age Neptune (the spiritual) forms a square to itself, which sets in motion a realisation that something’s missing in life.

Uranus brings the mental crisis that signifies a desire for freedom and change and kicks in age 40-42. This is the ‘Shirley Valentine’ factor often seen in a person acting totally out of character and leaving suddenly.

Also at age 38 is the return of the nodes of the moon to the position at birth. This is a karmic cycle of 19 years, and is strongly related to our destiny.

Age 50 Chiron return
Finally if you managed to make it past midlife without major life change then Chiron (the wounded healer) triggers yet another physical/mental crisis age 50. Its’ orbit is between Saturn and Uranus so it wants to bridge the old with the new. It can act in much the same way as Uranus and brings the urge to break free of past conditioning.

Pluto was not activated at midlife for our parents
It’s so important to realise that the midlife crisis didn’t affect our parents and grandparents generation so strongly because they didn’t have Pluto involved in the mid life pattern.

Pluto’s orbit is very erratic. It was in the sign of Cancer for approx 25 years between 1914-1939. Those generations spanned the two world wars and the soul trauma was the huge loss of families and children. Which is why Margaret Thatcher struck such a deep chord when she spoke of ‘family values’.

After 1939 it moved through Leo in 18 years (1939-57) then Virgo in 15 years (1957-72) Libra in 12 years (1972-84) Scorpio in 11 years (1984-95) and Sagittarius in 13 years (1995-2008).

What this means is that the midlife crisis for parents born before 1939 was approx age 60!

So what has been going on for the 33 year olds in 2005-6?
The oddball age planetary wise is 33. This doesn’t relate to any planetary cycle. So what’s going on for this age group?

In 1972 Pluto was in the sign of Libra. Uranus was also in Libra from 1969-74. Together these two are explosive. From Dec 2004-June 2006 the eclipses were in the signs of Aries/Libra creating turmoil.

Eclipses are created by the alignment of the Sun, Moon and the earth. Eclipses are times of crisis and inner churning. The north node in Aries and represents being a pioneer. The south node is in Libra and represents past lives being in relationship.

So, as a broad statement, past life issues of power and freedom around relationships were being churned up for the 33 year olds.

If you are going through any of these important times in your life an astrology consultation would be hugely beneficial. >

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