Chart Synthesis ✦ Dawn Bodrogi ✦ The Inner Wheel
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. It’s as if they knew something was going on but couldn’t put a finger on it. Most of us remember that year between 27 and 28 quite well.
But the lunar cycle being what it is, most of us will experience a second return, and some a third. A lot of Inner Wheel readers had questions: what happens next time around? How do I prepare?
A Shift from Material to Eternal
The second lunar return is often less dramatic, though no less profound. The first return is about growing into individual maturity and spiritual responsibility. 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, the second return is part of a larger cycle with Saturn. By this time, we should no longer see Saturn as an enemy. We should have experienced his building side and the rewards he brings for good labour. We should understand that we are co-creators with the material world.
At this progressed lunar crossroads, we learn we have a choice. We can cooperate with life, or we can rail against it. Retreating will cause a spiral backwards into old patterns. This is the point where people begin to retreat, rather than progress. It can be the beginning of a long, silent death.
— Dawn Bodrogi
The Great Prime Years: Age 53 and Beyond
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 often face our greatest challenges. This cycle is rarely talked about, even in astrological circles. (Ever notice how discussion seems to stop at the Chiron return, as if there is nothing left after 50?)
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. Then comes the third nodal return and the second Saturn return. Anyone who thinks the second time around will be easier is very much mistaken. At 60, the progressed Sun sextiles natal Sun and can offer wonderful opportunities. Whether we can take them depends on what occurred during these important cycles.
Assessing Our Relationship with the World
We lose jobs and spouses. The market destroys our savings. Families are uprooted. Anything we cling to is a tentative comfort. We need to spend the year of the progressed lunar return assessing our relationship to the material world. Is it accepting and flexible, or hostile and combative? We must think about what we have, both materially and spiritually — and consider how we will share that with the world.
Health, Habits, and the Physical Vehicle
Health crises are common around this time. The Moon is our physical vehicle, and she may need a tune-up. We may have to ditch old habits and find new, more appropriate ones. We can sense the bits and pieces beginning to wear out. We must be kinder to ourselves, physically.
Fifty-three is the average age women begin menopause — no coincidences there. Our motivations for health change. We are no longer focused on finding partners and creating families. We want a pain-free existence to explore the new goals presenting themselves to us. We must acknowledge our inherited weaknesses before we can triumph over or negotiate with them.
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At this point, we may mourn the material lives we will never have. Men often become aware of gradually losing their strength. Women know that heads no longer turn when they walk into a room. We know we will never own that Ferrari we fantasised about.
This is the trickiest phase of the threshold. This is when the bad Saturn rears his head. We tell ourselves it’s impossible to do or have anything new. There is no reason we can’t revisit old talents or find new avenues of expression. The progressed lunar return encourages us to find new vehicles for our self-expression. It knows we have been through the proverbial mill and now have a great deal to say.
A Time of Reckoning
Mostly, the progressed lunar return is a time of reckoning. How have I lived my life, and do I want to continue this way? Crises often come up that force our hand, leading us to make the right decision in spite of ourselves. There is often a lot of cutting off at the progressed lunar return — particularly of ties that no longer serve a purpose.
Often, we lose parents at this crossroads. A parent’s death is often symbolic of the death of an old way of life. We may be able to step away from familial patterns and imprinted constraints — and find we can break the heavy chain of generations.
Confronting Our Natal Moon
The progressed lunar return confronts us once again with the issues of our natal lunar aspects. If we still haven’t come to terms with that Moon/Uranus conjunction or Moon/Pluto square, now is the time. Circumstances will arise that cause us to re-live them. Some will have conquered the issues. Others will need work. Some will have to accept what they cannot change. There is great wisdom in knowing what can and cannot be altered.
The Path Forward
One of the worst things that can happen is turning away from the new and retreating into a fantasy of the past. The past can take on a romance that new life challenges can never match. Have I met my goals, or should I shed them? Are my relationships vital, or dead weight? On what must I now focus?
The ultimate goal of this cycle is to make us recognise our deep connection to the world. We must see that we still have critical work to do. Our contribution is needed in the great pool of collective wisdom. The more we share, the more we own. The great reward of these years is the gift of being comfortable in one’s own skin. There is a power and a beauty in that beyond compare.
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The great reward of these years is the gift of being comfortable in one’s own skin. There is a power and a beauty in that beyond compare.
Inspiring, as always. Thank you.
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.
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.