There was a lot of interest stirred up by my articles on the Progressed Lunar Return: both the one on the 27 Club and the one on the Progressed Moon/Saturn cycle. When people first hear about the progressed lunar return, they often get a very wise ‘a ha’ look in their eyes, as if they knew that something was going on at the time but couldn’t quite put a finger on it, and now, finally, it makes sense. When it comes down to it, most of us remember that year between 27 and 28 quite well.
But the lunar cycle being what it is, most of us, if we’re lucky enough, will experience a second return, and some of us a third. A lot of Inner Wheel readers had questions: what happens next time around? How do I prepare?
The second lunar return is often (but not always) less dramatic, though no less profound. Where the first lunar return is about growing into individual maturity and spiritual responsibility in the world, the second return is about the transition between our material selves and our eternal ones. We are challenged to see how much of the bigger picture we can grasp.
Like the first progressed lunar return, the second return is part of a larger cycle with Saturn. By this time, Saturn should no longer be seen as an enemy. We should have experienced the building side of Saturn, and the Saturn who brings us rewards for good labour. We should understand, at this time, that we are co-creators and cooperators with the material world, and that the exchange of energy between the material world and individual creativity and inspiration is what keeps the world going round. We may not know this literally, but we will sense it–in fact, we need to sense it if we are to have any peace in the more mature part of our lives. At some point in this progressed lunar crossroads, we learn that we have a choice–we can cooperate with life as we know it, or we can rail and react against it. Retreating will cause a spiral backwards into old patterns of knowing, and this is the point where people begin to retreat, rather than progress. It can be the beginning of a long, silent, death.
The second progressed lunar return hits us around age 53-54. It is part of a cycle I call the Great Prime Years, when we are often faced with our greatest challenges and choices. Again, this cycle is rarely talked about, even in astrological circles. (Ever notice how all astrological discussion seems to stop at the Chiron return, as if there is nothing left after 50 but a great black void?) Well, you’d better hold on to your seats, because the Chiron return is only the beginning. It’s followed by the progressed lunar return, which heralds a spiritual clean-out and a new beginning, quickly followed by the third nodal return and the second Saturn return. Anyone who thinks that the second time around for any of these is going to be easier because we’ve ‘been there, done that’ is very much mistaken. When we’re 60, the progressed Sun sextiles natal Sun and can offer us wonderful opportunities–whether we can take advantage of them or not depends very much on what has occurred during these important cycles.
In other days, recently passed, perhaps in your grandparents generation, or the one before that, life may have been more settled and stable during these years, and the challenges may have been primarily internal. However, our lives are in a constant state of flux these days, with no more stability or security than a small country in a medieval war zone. We lose jobs, spouses, the market destroys our savings, families are uprooted and separated, and anything we can cling to is, at best, a tentative comfort. The year of the progressed lunar return needs to be spent assessing our relationship to the material world. Is it accepting and flexible, or is it hostile and combative? We need to begin to think about what we have, both materially and spiritually, and how we are going to share that with the world. We start to think about what our legacy will be. How we will spend the time allotted to us?
Health crises and challenges are common around this time. The Moon is our physical vehicle in this world, and she may need a tune-up. Old habits may have to be ditched and new, more appropriate ones found. We need to start respecting the body as a vehicle for our spiritual energies now, because we can sense the bits and pieces beginning to wear out, and feel time taking its toll. We need to be kinder to ourselves, physically. Fifty three is the average age women begin to experience menopause–no coincidences there–and many of the physical difficulties we face at this time may be related to the questions we must ask ourselves now. Our motivations for having good health change–we are no longer primarily focused on finding partners and creating families, but more appropriately want to live a pain-free and drug-free existence so that we may continue exploring the new goals and avenues that are presenting themselves to us. We also need to come to terms with the limits of our physical existence–whether we triumph over our inherited weaknesses or are forced to negotiate with them, we must first acknowledge them.
We may, at this point, mourn the material lives we will never have and the physical lives we will never have again. Men are often aware of gradually losing their strength and stamina; women know that heads no longer turn when they walk into a room. We know that we will never own that Ferrari or that villa in the South of France we fantasized about in our youth. This is the trickiest phase of the threshold, because this is when the ‘bad’ Saturn rears his head and we tell ourselves its impossible to do or have anything new or enriching anymore, either spiritually or materially. We begin to feel stuck, and in a rut, and blind ourselves to the opportunities that present themselves. There is no reason that we can’t revisit our old talents and creative pursuits, or find new avenues of expression for ourselves. The progressed lunar return encourages us to find new vehicles for our self expression, because it knows that we have been through the proverbial mill and we now have a great deal to say.
Mostly, the progressed lunar return is about a time of reckoning: how have I lived my life up until now, and do I want to continue this way? Often, crises come up during this time that force our hand, often leading us to make the right decision in spite of ourselves. We’re meant to clear away the old habits and patterns so that we can spend more time connecting with the people and things that give our lives meaning. There is often a lot of cutting off at the progressed lunar return, particularly of ties that no longer serve their purpose. If we’re doing our lunar returns correctly, we should be spending more and more of our time and energy on what matters.
Often, we lose parents at this crossroads. The death of a parent is often symbolic of the death of an old way of life, and at this time we may be able to step away from familial patterns and imprinted psychological constraints. We may discover how these patterns prevented us from acting as our genuine selves, and may feel a new sense of liberation. We may find that we can break the heavy chain of generations.
At the progressed lunar return, we will be confronted once again with the issues surrounding our natal lunar aspects. If we still haven’t come to terms with that Moon/Uranus conjunction or that Moon/Pluto square, now is the time, and circumstances will arise that will cause us to re-live them. This is a test of a kind, asking what you’ve learned over the years about these aspects, and how you deal with them. Some will have conquered the issues, others will need work, others will have to accept what they cannot change, and learn that there is a great deal of wisdom in knowing what can and what cannot be altered.
One of the worst things that can happen under this progression is the turning away from the new, and newly possible, and retreating into a fantasy of the past. We associate this mostly with older people, but it actually begins here, where the past can take on a romance of perfection that the ‘new’ life challenges can never match. This prevents us from actually taking stock of our lives the way we should. Have I met my material and spiritual goals, or should I shed them? Are my relationships vital, or dead weight? On what, now, must I focus? What am I responsible for, and have I been living up to my responsibilities? The question of focus will come into light intensely with the next nodal return (hot on the heels of the lunar return), and responsibility will be the issue of the coming Saturn return. We will ask ourselves not only ‘have I behaved responsibly,’ but also, ‘what have I left to do?’
The ultimate goal of the second progressed lunar return, and the important cycles that follow is to make us recognize that we are deeply connected to the world around us and that we still have critical work to do. Our contribution is needed in the great pool of collective wisdom, and the more we share, the more we own. The great reward of these years, after the shedding and the honing and the confrontation with the past, is the gift of being comfortable in one’s own skin; there is a power and a beauty in that that is beyond compare.
Some of this piece is excerpted from the upcoming book, The Inner Wheel: A New Look at Secondary Progressions.
Inspiring, as always. Thank you.
I seem to be dealing with much of this, particularly health and physical challenges, already – and my progressed Lunar Return is almost 2 years away, just before I turn 55. Maybe it’s because my natal Moon is conjunct my Ascendant and so my progressed Moon is moving through my 12th all this time? Lots of work to do, before the progressed Lunar Return even hits.
The year or so before the return is, as in all cyclical returns, a ‘twelfth house’ type of time. A summing up and a cleaning up, before the actual return. Since your Progressed Moon is literally in your twelfth, this factor will be exaggerated.
Ah, that explains it. So I guess I’m getting a head start. 😉
the progressed Lunar cycle and the Saturn cycle seem to combine and reinforce each other and move us towards a Solar/ Lunar fusion. that fusion ends our sense of being male and female and bridges us to an edenic state of connection with universal and spiritual influences. Saturn and Earthly experience are actually like a womb within which – and out of which – we are reborn.
Yes, and the more we stop ‘splitting out’ the Moon and Saturn, and the more we move towards that fusion, the more successful these returns in our fifties will be. Unfortunately, with the Moon and Saturn both being seekers of the familiar, the urge to break out of old patterning is fraught with challenges. We are very dependent on sensing the new start that this return heralds for us.
Many thanks for this Dawn – means a lot personally
I’m interested in the larger process of the ‘great prime years’, so, a question about the chiron return and 2nd progressed lunar return – how much does chiron return prime the issues brought up by this transition – if chiron return leaves unresolved issues, are these more likely to encourage the downward spiral, exacerbate the potential personal loss of vitality and purpose and make the connection with the ‘universal’ more difficult?
Hi, Rob. The two aren’t directly related unless you have Moon/Chiron connections in the natal chart. The Chiron return, at 50, is the beginning of the process because Chiron has to do with our link between our physical lives (Saturn) and the soul-changes required of us by our outer planets. It’s interesting that, by secondary progression, the outer planets don’t move much, and provide a spiritual framework for the movement of the inner planets. It’s almost as if we need to measure up to the agenda that they’ve set out for us. What happens at the Chiron return is that this notion of legacy, and what we will leave behind us, is first triggered. (Well, some of us with heavy Chiron feel this earlier, but for most it comes up around age 50.) We start thinking about the contributions we have made, and stop obsessing so much on our personal sense of lack. If the Chiron return is ‘done right,’ we turn Chiron on its head and begin to put energy into ways we can be of use. (The great trap here, of course, is what Buddhism calls ‘spiritual materialism’–and we start patting ourselves on the head for how advanced we are spiritually. Otherwise known as the great Republican delusion.) We start allowing ourselves to become a vehicle for our higher impulses.
If the Chiron return hasn’t pointed us in the right direction (and the Chiron return really is just about direction, not a problem to be solved), the lunar return is more like a second chance to adjust ourselves to a less materialistic and less ego-centric direction. With the Chiron return, we deal more specifically with blows to the ego (i.e. “How come I never get what I want?). The lunar return is about our relationship with our material lives in general. If our ego is all about ‘having,’ then the lunar return becomes a problem. We start shedding our skins at the lunar return, and the wiser of us know that this particular shedding is necessary to a fulfilling and effective life.
the gender based default identity provided by culture and taken up by many males is feeling, body, and soul castrated. at any age – many of us have something like Chiron Moon , IC type, or Black Moon issues into which we must descend. males basically have to spiral down into feeling ,body, and soul as part of the ascent back to the Sun.
Dawn, apologies for being slow in getting back to your response – just got back online after a typically merc retro time of things with tech and comms….
many thanks for your helpful clarification – no chiron moon aspects here but it all rings very true – natal cancer moon is 8th ho, and aquarian chiron in 3rd, but, my chiron return was marked by two things which reflect the 4th (cancer) and 8th house issues (as well as chiron’s natal position) – after a close friend was murdered at the onset of chiron return (she was aquarian incidentally!) I found it necessary to go within and re-evaluate the fundamental truths upon which I had based my dreams and aspirations ( perhaps her and death’s gift was the clarity gained), as well as who I was going to associate with and on what terms – sounds harsh, but, I see it as a part of this larger process – I disconnected with the larger part of ‘my’ outer community, it was necessary, at least for a while – to cut a long story short, the second thing, which might never have happened without this inner work, was that I started out (perhaps very late some would say) on the parental path and became a father…….wow! If ever material reality and all its deeper and outward extending layers (beyond the material) came home….
the grounding of inner and outer in the present is a precarious business when the outer planets are vieing for our attention – raising the energies of the inner planets to a level where they can be receptive to and form true relationships with the larger, less personal creative energies of Life is real work with tangible manifestations and consequences, and this aspect of astrology is invaluable – especially as it may go some way to filling a percieved gap
with this in mind, I do wonder how much more difficult this is for us in a western context, when the outer does not readily reflect back a reciprocity that supports the process – as Michael Meade once said, for many of us here it becomes a question of becoming ‘older or elder’ – and, in more indigenous or traditional settings for example, where the bonds of community may themselves be fed by the connection to the larger picture, in the shape of the elders and the wisdoms they hold, the living reality of the traditions they uphold, based upon experience, well, this may be easier – but, it doesn’t preclude the ego work; that remains an ongoing process that is tempered by age and experience
your articles are so fascinating – thankyou
btw, love the illustration at the head of this article (you really are mining a seam of diamonds!) – reminds me that we sometimes have to spiral down before we can spiral up, so to speak, getting a grasp of the fractal, scaling nature of reality……
Thanks, Rob. And thanks for giving us your personal experience of this time.
It’s true that for the past 50 years or so, the notion of having a ‘Prime’ has dwindled, and eternal youth has become the thing. But I feel that our generation, and the folks born ten years or so before us, are going to turn that all around. Most of us are doing our best work now, and the thought of dwindling into greater and greater ineffectiveness is absurd. It’s up to us to step up to the plate and let our actions speak for themselves.
n’er a truer word….
I am an Aries and have Moon, Chiron, Mars & Pholus conjunct in the 4th house and a Libra Ascendant so these past 4 or 5 years have been interesting. My progressed lunar return happens in Nov. 2012, at the same time my progressed Mars moves to 0 Aries and Neptune/Chiron aspect my natal Venus. Big times! It certainly has been a while ride.I appreciate your description of the 2nd lunr return, it is indeed time to ‘put up or shut up’ as I see it, step into the power you have created for yourself or retreat into obscurity.
Hi Dawn,
I wanted to ask you what can be expected when a significant natal t-square becomes a grand cross via progression, the progressed planet being the moon in the 12th house. The other houses being the 4th (natal mars), 6th (natal sun) and 10th (natal moon and transiting neptune conjuncting that moon). If that is too much info, could you just generally explain if there is a significance to that arrangement? Thanks.
The progressed Moon will activate the tensions in the natal T-square for roughly a three month period. In order to see what is really going on you would have to look at what those initial planets are doing in the progressed chart.