A cycle is not a closed loop, but rather a chronological sequence of vital developmental phases. At the end of their cycles, the planets seem to come back to their exact original position, but in reality they do more than that : they go beyond and give rise to development, at least in the case of an ideal spiral progression.
If this is not the case, the cycle is instead more repetitive, at least as long as the lesson that the cycle has to teach has not yet been learned.
It is really the entirety of a cycle that has meaning, not just a single point on the cycle indicating a fixed position of a particular planet at a particular moment in time, forming a particular isolated aspect with another fixed planet, and so on.
The true relevance of studying astrology comes from understanding the cyclic, temporal nature of planetary configurations.
Every cycle has an aspect of time that needs to be fulfilled and understood, and we cannot escape this fact…
Personal cycles and generic cycles
The first important distinction to understand in terms of cycles is the difference between the personal aspect of a cycle and the generic aspect; in other words the shared, collective aspect that is relevant for everyone.
- The personal cycles can be analyzed in a specific way that depends on the distinctive features of each individual person’s birth chart.
For example, a Square of Mars in Aries in the 1st House and the Moon in Cancer in the 4th House would be analyzed in this way (by putting it into the larger context of the chart), and we would then monitor any “updates” as they occur (the Aspects moon/mars, aries/cancer, and 1st/4th houses during a solar Return, Transits on Birth Chart, etc).
The personal cycles are the ones that we think of instinctively. - The generic cycles are shared by everyone and represent generic positions that are directly related to a person’s age and the rotational period of each planet. They describe the structure of life, which is shared by all human beings, and we can connect them to Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious. They represent the universal, archetypal development of the human soul.
For example, we might talk about an increasing square, an Opposition, or a planetary return, always in relation to a planet’s position in a birth chart. These aspects give clues as to how certain events in our lives may be important in the context of the overall development of our lives and for our destiny.
Personal and generic analyses should be used together.
- Logically, generic analysis should come before personal analysis because obviously the same aspect will not have the same meaning for a 15-year-old and a 75-year-old person. It would be ridiculous to treat a particular aspect in the same way in the birth charts of an adolescent or a senior, as the two would not refer to the same developmental process.
- Generic analysis draws from the important stages of an individual’s development that we would expect depending on the person’s age. Alexander Ruperti, in his book “Cycles of Becoming” talks about the “age factor”.
By combining the study of individual cycles revealed through Progressions, Returns, and Transits with the study of generic cycles, it’s possible to refine our deeper understanding of the soul and deepen our analyses.
There are a huge number of generic cycles and ways of classifying them, but we should remember the most important ones :
- The personal generic cycles are the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars
See the Moon’s transits, the Sun’s transits, Mercury’s transits, Venus’ transits, and Mars’ transits.
See also How to interpret the transits of the fast-moving planets. - The social generic cycles are the cycles of Jupiter and Saturn
See Jupiter’s transits and Saturn’s transits. - The transpersonal, generic cycles, which are more collective, are the cycles of Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto
See the Uranus’ transits, Neptune’s transits, and Pluto’s transits.
See also How to interpret the transits of the slow-moving planets and How to interpret difficult planetary transits.
These cycles are obviously dynamically interconnected, not statically, and thus, for example :
- Mars’ character may be social, and it may represent a catalytic force
- the Sun, Jupiter, and Saturn may have a transpersonal character
- Uranus and Neptune may have a social character
- the cycles of the Black Moon and the Lunar nodes may have a personal, social, and transpersonal character, etc.
Here I list some of the major generic astrological stages as they relate to the age factor. The given ages are approximate because, due to the fact that some planets may have been Retrograde when a person was born, it can sometimes vary. For the sake of clarity, I will not explain the entirety of each of these cycles in detail.
- One month old : the first month is essentially lunar. The baby lives according to the rhythm of the first waxing square (at about one week), the opposition of the full moon (the second week), the waning square (the third week), and finally the lunar return (the first full month of life)
- Six months-1 year old : in the first months of our life we undergo the full expression of the personal planets, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, as they form a Semi-sextile, Semi-square, Sextile, Square, etc. Mars is slower but its influence is still relevant for the first months and years of one’s life
- One year old : the first solar return, with Jupiter approaching the semi-sextile
- One and a half years old : the lunar nodes approach the semi-sextile
- About two years old : Mars’ return, Jupiter’s sextile
- About two years and three months old : first square of the black moon
- Three years old : sextile of the lunar nodes
- Three and a half years old : first increasing square of Jupiter
- About four years old : Mars’ second return
- Four and a half years old : first opposition of the black moon
- About six years old : Mars’ third return, opposition of Jupiter, and the Progressed Moon at a waxing square with its position at birth
- Seven years old : increasing square of Saturn, semi-sextile of Uranus
- Nine years old : black moon’s return
- Nine and a half years old opposition of the lunar nodes, decreasing square of Jupiter
- 12 years old : first return of Jupiter, opposition of the Progressed Moon with its position at birth
- 14 years old : opposition of Saturn
- 15 years old : second increasing square of Jupiter, sextile of Uranus
- 18 years old : opposition of Jupiter
- 19 years old : return of lunar nodes, the Progressed Moon approaches its waning square with its position at birth
- 21 years old : Saturn’s decreasing square, Jupiter’s decreasing square
- 22 years old : square of Uranus
- 24 years old : Jupiter’s second return to its position at birth
- 27 years old: return of the Progressed Moon to it position at birth, rising square of Jupiter
- 28 years old : trine of Uranus, inversion of the lunar nodes
- 29 and a half years old : Saturn’s first return
- 30 years old : recurrence of the sun/moon aspect in progression, opposition of Jupiter, and trine of Uranus
- 33 years old : decreasing square of Jupiter, waxing square of the Progressed Moon
- 36 years old : second increasing square of Saturn, third return of Jupiter
- 38 years old : second full cycle of the lunar nodes
- 39 years old : increasing square of Jupiter, the Progressed Moon reaches opposition with its position at birth
- 42 years old : opposition of Uranus, increasing square of Neptune, and opposition of Jupiter
- 44 years old : second opposition of Saturn
- 45 years old : decreasing square of Jupiter
- 47 years old : inverted position of the lunar nodes, waning square of the Progressed Moon with its position at birth
- 48 years old : fourth return of Jupiter
- 51 years old : second decreasing square of Saturn
- 55 years old : second return of the Progressed Moon to its position at birth
- 56 years old : decreasing trine of Uranus, start of the fourth cycle of the lunar nodes
- 59–60 years old : Saturn’s second return, Jupiter’s fifth return, increasing square of Pluto, second recurrence of the sun/moon aspect at birth in progression, and the Progressed Sun forms a sextile with its natal position
- 63 years old : decreasing square of Uranus
- 65 years old : inverted position of the lunar nodes
- 66 years old : Saturn’s third increasing square, the Progressed Moon is opposite its natal position
- 72 years old : Jupiter’s sixth return to its position at birth
- 75 years old : fifth cycle of the lunar nodes, Saturn’s third opposition, waning square of the Progressed Moon with its position at birth
- 80 years old : Saturn’s third decreasing square
- 82–83 years old : third return of the Progressed Moon
- 84 years old : return of Uranus to its position at birth, seventh return of Jupiter, and inversion of the lunar nodes
The three births of man
In his book, “Astrology of Personality” Dane Rudhyar astutely analyzed and described three essential phases of the generic cycles, correlated with the social cycle of Saturn, which he called the three spiritual births of man :
- the physical birth, one’s first breath, from 0 to 29 years of age, up until Saturn’s first return to its position at birth : individuals are subjected to their environment and their legacy.
They are conditioned by society, their race, their culture, their religion, their family, and even the entire collective unconscious, without any real possibility of doing anything other than first understanding these traditions and expressing them. It’s their inherited karma, which they need to learn about if they hope to one day be free from it.
This is a structuring and analysis phase, which we call a “thesis” : people need to “learn,” as these are the very roots on which they will build their individuality and, eventually, their questioning and contestation of the world. - the psychological and cerebral birth, from 29 to 60 years of age, up until Saturn’s second return to its position at birth : the past has been assimilated, and it’s time to move on to the present.
These individuals need to use all of their knowledge, all that they have understood and integrated, in order to affirm their own personality and become true individuals. This affirmation may take the form of a “rebellion” against traditional, conservative inherited values which may or may not have been well-respected up until this point.
These people may want to create reform and change. But this affirmation can also come as a desire for perpetuation; a person may not only accept their past, but also want to ensure that it continues to exist.
This veritable “birth of the personality” cannot occur so long as one has not sufficiently matured and opened their eyes to their true identity. As long as we do not initiate a phase of positive affirmation of our individuality, any repression or negation of who we are fundamentally, of our past, or of our inheritance will delay the arrival of this birth.
This is the meaning of the inversion of the lunar nodes and of the beginning of a new progressed lunation cycle (28 years old).
The age of 42–44 years old is a critical watershed in this cycle because of the Opposition of Uranus with one’s Uranus at birth and the second opposition of Saturn : this period inevitably marks some sort of crisis.
This is a transformative phase full of generic cycles, questioning, creation, and affirmation, the “antithesis” of the first phase, in which people need to “put what they have learned into practice”. This phase is building upon a pattern of opposition that compliments what was learned previously. - the spiritual birth, strictly speaking, starting at the age of 60 years old, with Saturn’s second return : this should be a time of wisdom, maturity, integration, and transmission.
At this point, people have asserted themselves in the midst of society and their family. They have defended their values and transcended their past.
They now need to understand their overall place in the universe and the deeper meaning of their life, of what they have accomplished, and of their successes and failures.
They need to raise themselves up and try to pass their values on to society; they need to “sow” the seeds that they judge to be good and profitable for future generations. In essence, society then needs to try to encourage and support this contribution by adding to its value.
At the age of 84, with the first return of Uranus to its position at birth, a cycle of transcendence has been completed.
This is a phase of reflection, taking stock, and sharing. It’s the culmination of the Quest for meaning, the “synthesis” of the two previous steps, where we need to “unlearn” what we think we know and stop getting in our heads too much so that we can concentrate on what is most important : our spiritual development.
These three phases can of course be broken down into sub-phases to match the generic cycles described above.
The various generic and personal cycles “awaken” different types of experiences, which come to the forefront in due time. If we pay attention to them, they allow us to have a better understanding of the meaning of those moments that are connected to the fundamental purpose of our life…
The study of cycles is the true foundation of astrology.