What Cycle are you in?

Despite living in a world that expects 24 hour productivity, humans are deeply governed by natural cycles and can never escape them. We learn about cycles with the seasons, with school, with parenting. Women get it every month. As kids, we learn to equate the crisp autumn air with "school" and that slight melancholy that summer is over.

The most valuable teaching astrology offers is its ability to make us aware of cycles. The impactful cycles come to the angles of our chart, the Ascendant, Nadir, 7th house cusp, and Midheaven. The Ascendant (1st house) signifies our life path, the Nadir (4th house) is our private home life, and ancestral roots. The 7th is relationships, and the Midheaven (10th house) is our prominence and visibility in the world.

One of the hardest cycles we go through are transits to the 12th house, which is the house of ENDINGS. The 12 house is not a conscious house. It steers our unconscious motivations. This can be unpleasant. Here is where we experience unwelcome "debts" come due in our lives. The 12th house is the energetic banana peel we keep slipping on and don't know why. We come to terms with these sabotaging energies during transits to our 12th house. L-O-N-G transits like Saturn's, take almost 3 years (with retrogrades) to finish. We experience this about every 30 years. This is why we can clock this transit and it feels so permanent! Think back (if we are old enough) to that last time things felt like this. As the planet of karma, Saturn feels heavy, so so heavy. Like a bowling ball around our ankle it forces that part of us to gain strength, and become wiser. Wisdom can feel both light and heavy. It is heavy when we feel the burden of its responsibility, but it becomes light when we have a realization of what the wisdom gives and let go of the judgement we had about the burden.

The moon has a cycle of about 2 and 1/2 days through a house. This is a mini cycle that also applies, especially to what we are motivated by emotionally. When the moon transits through the 12th house it is not a signal of beginnings but a coming to terms with that subversive or underground content in our psyches. We won't feel like starting anything or connecting with the world in outgoing ways.

One of the most favorable and enjoyable cycles comes with our birthdays. This is a solar reset that gives us a sense of purpose and confidence. But when we don't know this we might miss this opportunity! Sometimes I will notice that people choose to create important starting events during an ending cycle. That tells me something about what they've set into motion and will ultimately experience.

Success requires an understanding of cycles and going with their flow. Most of us were trained to do things against our cycles, possibly due to a shortage of time or energy our parents had. Stress also comes into play. Maybe you learned to be awake at night with insomnia and sleepy during the day due to stress at home. But, you can always retrain and return to notice the wisdom in cycles. Sleep when tired. Eat when hungry, (not when full.) Begin a new chapter after you have completed the previous o. It takes some learning and skill to apply this, and it's well worth your time.