The phrase “I feel a change coming on” usually signals transformation in one’s life. After all, change is really the only constant in life. No matter how small, circumstances are constantly evolving. The key to a successful life is to be in touch with the changes so that you are not caught off guard and are better prepared.
Gail Sheehy made popular the idea of defined life changes in her book Passages. She theorized certain passages of life that people go through in general. Not unlike the ritual passage of puberty that native tribesmen go through in adolescence, for example, she gives credence to the idea of life being different after thirty. Somehow when we become thirty, we are expected to be adults and to settle down in terms of home, relationship, and career. The twenties were the years for leaving home and exploring options. The forties suggest the mid-life crisis when people reassess their ideals. The fifties show cause for renewal of purpose in life.
Astrology lends some foundation to the idea of defined life cycles. Planetary positions at any two moments are never the same because the planets are continuously in motion. Together, the ten planets create an on-going cosmic timetable that is never duplicated. A cycle of Saturn where Saturn circles the complete zodiac from where it was at your birth to that same point again is called a Saturn return. This Saturn cycle occurs about every 28-32 years and corresponds easily with the Age 30 Passage that Sheehy suggests.
The Hindus views life in 25 year stages. The first is the phase of the apprentice when you learn a trade or profession. Again this is a rough approximation to the familiar 30 year mark. The second phase is that of the householder; here you start a family and begin working at your occupation. Then comes the phase of the forest-dweller when you begin to retreat from the world. Perhaps here is where your children have all grown up and left the home and your sights are turning to other interests in life. During the final phase, you become a Hindu renunciate and totally shut yourself from the world. A Western equivalent is to retire and live the life of the senior citizen.
Equipped with some ideas about what lies ahead for us, we can look at where we are now and have a sense of what may lie in store for the future. Couples that are on the verge of having a child are at a critical stage when they could certainly get prepared for a blessing, the child, that will change their life completely.
Why are we not taught about the stages we go through in life so that we would be prepared early in life to face the stresses that are inevitable to us? If we are lucky to have had successful parents to model after, then perhaps we have the training to move through our transitions.
Knowing the stages of life that we can encounter is an important part of knowing who we are in life and embodies the Natural Success principle of “I Am”. Taken together, all the stages of life embody the principle of the “Whole”.