In the course of helping a friend, Irma Vocht, today, I found myself thinking of all of the other friends I know who are currently experiencing the Peeling of Life’s Onion transit (transiting Saturn in hard aspect to natal or transiting Neptune, transiting Neptune in hard aspect to natal Saturn or this combination with other planetary bodies in the mix or even in hard aspect to the angles as well), and I’m dedicating this article to you.

You won’t find much in the way of astrology in this article this time–not in the usual way I write it, that is. But the advice is definitely astrological as it relates to this aspect.

I’ve said it time and again through the last 15 years or so: The Peeling of Life’s Onion is excruciating. You may want to cry, you may feel as if a piece of your life has been wrenched from you for the first time–or once more. You may feel as if the world will never have its soft edges again, that it will be all about the cold light of day.

Will the Moon ever shine brilliantly overhead and lend romance to the air as it used to, or will it always seem as if there’s darkness closing in? If your Sun or Moon is involved, you may find–as I did several years ago–that this series of patterns can take as long as five or even ten years before you’re fully through the transit. I won’t be surprised to learn you have actually broken down and cried if the Peeling of Life’s Onion Saturn to Neptune transit has involved your natal Mercury.
A mutable T-square, you say? Ohhh I do feel for you, truly! It is more painful, more gut-wrenching than you ever imagined, but you’ll get through it. I promise you will get to the other side!

Many of us who have had fairly dramatic lives, myself included, have experienced others’ jealousies and accusations that we were bragging because we didn’t tell them the converse sides of our own life experiences. I believe we live life proportionately with the balance of yin and yang, good and bad. As I frequently do, again I’ll quote Kahlil Gibran who writes, “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” So I suspect if you’ve really had nothing major hit your life, you may have no ability to grasp joy. It’s proportionate.

For those of us who are astrologers, we who have lived through these significantly eventful lives have learned the dynamics of how good or bad it can get. Perhaps these kinds of experiences give us compassion and understanding–and the ability to bestow love on those who need it.

John Davenport notes “the jealousy and attacks are curious, for light and dark are a polarity. When people work for the greater good, evil will always try to attack. I’ve seen this so many times, it’s unreal.”

With these things in mind, I’d like to share the following reminder for you to breathe. Breathe. Your life depends on it. Breathe! Your family and friends beg you to do so. Breathe! Somewhere inside you, you wouldn’t be hurting if you remember that for every painful second, there will be joyful ones. For every tear, there will be a smile. It’s inherent to all of us. We all go through it. That, thankfully, makes all of us human.

So breathe, and be patient because you will start to smile with assurance that the storm is finally over, and the Sun will start shining again in you too.

Most of us in our lifetimes will experience Saturn’s passage over the four angles of the chart. Most of those transits will slip by with some demands of ourselves; but not all of those transits to the angles will bring about deep, deep change associated with demands for our taking totally new life directions. Those kinds of changes correlate to transits of the extraterrestrial planets–Uranus, Neptune and Pluto–and the slower the transit, the greater the change.

No matter how self-assured and confident you were before a hard aspect like the Peeling of Life’s Onion transit to your Midheaven began, you may no longer know exactly what you want to do–or the direction in which you want to go with your life. Take a break from demanding that you should already know.

Worry about living life. Worry about taking life too seriously at times. And start to remember what’s it’s like to be a child. Remember to laugh at life, to laugh at the funny antics of a dog chasing its tail or at a kitten playing lion. Remember to laugh at getting wet in the rain, to laugh with others and to laugh at your own mistakes.

If you become too big on the inside–a self-aggrandizing egomaniacal person–laugh at your audacity for doing so. If you shrink away on the inside because of the hidden fears that lurk in the recesses of your mind, remember to nurture that small child inside you, and teach that child to laugh with you.

Above all, remember to do more of what Erma Bombeck’s 1979 essay offered as good advice to all of us, and start to feel your gut, your heart and your mind without stressing about the decisions.

Here’s what Bombeck said:

“Someone asked me the other day if I had my life to live over would I change anything.

“My answer was no, but then I thought about it and changed my mind.

“If I had my life to live over again I would have waxed less and listened more.

“Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy and complaining about the shadow over my feet, I’d have cherished every minute of it and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was to be my only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

“I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

“I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.

“I would have eaten popcorn in the “good” living room and worried less about the dirt when you lit the fireplace.

“I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

“I would have burnt the pink candle that was sculptured like a rose before it melted while being stored.

“I would have sat cross-legged on the lawn with my children and never worried about grass stains.

“I would have cried and laughed less while watching television … and more while watching real life.

“I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband which I took for granted.

“I would have eaten less cottage cheese and more ice cream.

“I would have gone to bed when I was sick, instead of pretending the Earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for a day.

“I would never have bought ANYTHING just because it was practical/wouldn’t show soil/ guaranteed to last a lifetime.

“When my child kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now, go get washed up for dinner.”

“There would have been more I love yous … more I’m sorrys … more I’m listenings … but mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute of it … look at it and really see it … try it on … live it … exhaust it … and never give that minute back until there was nothing left of it.” 

So how do you get past these long-reaching deep impacts of the dramatic life changes associated with these transits? You live, you breathe, and you remember that you will be a deeper, more sensitive, more compassionate person who will have become “life wiser” than where you were before you began this transit. You will be more understanding of others and their foibles and hopefully more forgiving.

And on that subject of forgiveness, you will at some point realize that you also have the right to forgive yourself for being that imperfect perfect individual you are.

Until next time…

Namaste, I love you,

Michelle

©2016 Michelle Young