There’s not a lot out there about the long term effects of outer planet transits. I got into astrology when I was a child. I’m getting old now. This puts me in a position where I can see how these things play.
I have my personal experience to draw from. For example, I have had Pluto transit conjunct my sun. I’ve also had Pluto transit square my sun. But I’ve also witnessed what’s happened in the lives of my clients; many of whom I’ve know for twenty years or more.
There is such a thing as losing a ten year chunk of your of life. This is more common than people realize. It can manifest in a number of ways…
You may marry poorly or take the wrong job. You can get drunk for ten years, suffer a devastating loss or just go through a time that is so out of character for you it can be seen as something akin to temporary insanity.
The current stress in life from the pandemic, which followed the Saturn Pluto conjunction, and various other sundries had traumatized many and taken them off track. The stress makes people ill, mentally, physically an spiritually. When people are ill, they shut down in various ways. Blink and see the years go by as there is a transformation underway.
The person going through something like this is not going backwards, ever. You go through something and then come out the other side. Your name is the same but you’re not.
People with stelliums or a good number of their planets in aspect are more likely to have a period like this in their life. Basically an outer planet transit comes along and whoops! It’s like the person joins a cult or something else radical. They’re cast into some drama or maybe they wade into. Maybe they’re influenced or seduced. However it happens, it happens.
The majority of people I know have had a period like this (myself included). For the people who would say no time is ever wasted, I can see that perspective but it’s not helpful in the near term for those who wake up one day with awareness they’re on top the wrong mountain or have driven themselves right into a wall.
I wrote this fourteen years ago. Look at all the comments and the variety of the stories. You’ve really got to be patient with people sometimes. They can utterly transform themselves and their lives… but have a crazy period in this process.
Have you ever lost 10 years of your life? Tell us!
Check out your Personal Transit Report
I sobered up in 93 too 🙂 I also feel as if it has been decades not only 10 years of being ‘under’. Struggling to reach up out of it. It is difficult as so many poor habits formed, constantly cringing about my seeming ‘stupidity’ and yes! hard to face the consequences at times. These are tough times and I am sometimes doubtful I can be as strong as they seem to require one to be. The people I encounter who are in their 20s and 30s seem very tough; intimidating to me now at 48 with all my baggage. I am hopeful I can build my confidence gently – Ascendant 28 degrees Cancer – very Moony.
Lol @ Myrna. Not to long after I got married in my 20s my mom admitted (in a matter of fact way) “He’s not what I expected for your first husband.” O_o Sigh…Aries.
A lot of my family members come from the “life is short, have fun now” camp. So I haven’t lost too many years (although it did feel that way). But I’ve been doin some serious catching up since the divorce. (learning what i had been missing/not getting!). I’m embracing my entry into the 30s. Minimal regrets tho. I try (and hope) to make choices that I won’t regret.
Great thread, ((Elsa))!
yes, I lost more than 10 years of my life due to outer planet transits. But I recovered and I’m better than I was before. it took many many years to recover…but I did. It is possible with perseverance.
What a great blog E!
Eight years before I realized I had climbed the wrong mountain, and I’ve spent the last two climbing back down…divorce will be final Wednesday. I look back and wonder who on earth I was and what did I think I was doing? It was like living in a fog. That was one hard lesson to learn and I am really glad it is over. On to the next lesson!
Thanks for posting this and helping me realize I’m not the only one doing crazy things!
Any time an outer planet is in early degrees of a sign, it’s aspecting all three of my natal OPs. I’ll have to look back and see how this has affected me.
I am looking at the last 10 years of my life. Saturn in Libra through the 11th has made me aware of my lack of a support system. The past 10 years, I didn’t take my relationships (love, friendship, family) very seriously. I felt I was stronger to ‘go it alone.’
Now that I am bereft, and wistful for the times I was truly supported, I wonder where I went wrong. I still don’t know if I am on the wrong mountain or what. But I’m hoping if I ask the right questions I will get this fixed before it gets worse.
In the early 80’s my world turned upside down when my ex started drinking again. If any of you have been in relationship with an alcoholic, you know what happened. I became obsessed with his drinking; with finding the bottles – not dumping them out, but knowing they were there. His drinking ruled my life until I found Alanon. I didn’t like the meeting, but the material, along with Melody Beatty’s books, helped me realize this was not my fault – I didn’t cause it and I couldn’t cure it – and recover my self-respect. It was a long process.
During this time, Pluto was opposite my sun. It was a very difficult time for me because I was forced to reevaluate much of my life. Though the transit was in my sixth house, my fourth house is my Leo house (Sun rules Leo) containing my natal Pluto so this affected my family immensely. By the time it was over, my marriage was as well. I started back to college in my 40’s and basically rebuilt my life.
I don’t know if these years were “lost”, but I was definitely flattened and it took the better part of ten years to pull my life back together. But with the help of Pluto, I did find my power. In retrospect, it was a good lesson. At the time, it was pure hell.
I’m still waiting for Neptune to get off my Moon.
I was pretty miserable between 2000 and 2010, I wonder if that has anything to do with Neptune transiting my 12th house (or Pluto in Sagittarius hitting many of my planets). Thankfully Uranus is in Aries instead of Pisces (much less self-pity!), but I wonder how things will be different once Neptune crosses over my Ascendant (9 degrees Pisces). I’m making sure my years are useful…
Pluto transit, first it opposed my venus, then squared itself, next it hit my moon, followed by my sun (also to jupiter). I’m really greatful you’ve put this up here today, as I was thinking of this (loss of 10yrs, or waking up on the wrong mountain) a lot lately. It makes my cappy placements nervous about wasting the time (not that I’d have a choice being it was a pluto transit). Still, it’s good to know there’s a shift coming and just as I’m pulling out of this pluto transit. That’s good news by me 🙂
Angie
man! this post hits home. I’ve lost 12 years. Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus ROCKED my world during this time period. The time period started with a horrible marriage and ended with me literally being blown away like Dorothy and Toto to some magical land. I probably joined some cults along the way if I’m honest..lol. Then one day, I clicked my heels and ,poof, now I’m home. I’m still like “WTF was that!!!!!????”
It was just outrageous. But on my deathbed I will have no doubt that I have TRULY LIVED.
Yes, I have PTSD now…lol…..and I’m traumatized. But that’s okay. I’m healing everyday. I just have to slow down my internal world back to pre-lost years settings so that I can get back to the business of my real life in the real world. Time to roll up my sleeves and get to work. No more lost years for me if I can help it.
I don’t know how to answer. I had a 9 year Neptune transit with Uranus to my sun and moon in my teens but I still felt I was ‘me’ despite all the drugs and chaos. I still basically liked myself.
But then there was a chunk of time when Pluto crossed my descendant in late 07 and 08 when all hell broke loose (and I was sober already) – and the recovery from that resultant horror took 3 years to get over, be rid of the ptsd and back to my normal ‘self’; It’s difficult for a sun/jupiter to actually feel nihilistic but that is how I felt during that time. I lost myself there for a while. Physically I am still recovering, but am almost fully healed now.
I feel very comforted reading other people’s experience of this. I definitely lost ten years and feel both defeated by and resigned to the fact. There was nothing I could’ve done differently to effect the outcome. It is what it is, i guess.
@milano….omg…it was the pluto crossing over the descendent in 2007-2008 that ABSOLUTELY undid me as well. You must be 28 degrees Gemini Rising like me. I knew nothing of astrology back then. I looked back on that time period and saw that Pluto and Jupiter were exact my DSC when things just got otherworldy. I’m still physically recovering as well.
(((((milano))))) Hang in there.
Ditto to Tatiana’s reply. I feel like when Pluto went into Sag, I died. I completely lost all of my luck and I had been very lucky up until that point. I have made terrible decisions since then and all with the best possible intentions. Mostly to heal others. Since Pluto went into Capricorn, I have been being pushed to live my truth, which is something I don’t want to do because my truth is very 8th house. (Uncomfortable in the light of day). My real life seems to be about the dark corners of the 8th house and transformation. I have lost nearly 20 years transforming in secret while not wanting to be known by the world. I will either die like this or I will become known and live with it. Either answer is painful and not one I would choose.
Just wanted to add that when Pluto was in Scorpio, I got to live five lifetimes in those years. That was the best time, when I had the most luck, felt the most alive, had so many different experiences and was the happiest. So, it was quite a juxtaposition when it moved to Sag.
@BurnedBridge,
Yes, I am 28 Gemini rising!!! Luckily things are better now, but for a while, yeah, unreal! That’s what lead me to put credence in astrology, because the timing of that crap was so exact. (((((BB))))) Hugs back to you! I think Pluto over the descendant is supposed to be one of the most difficult transits ever, but we survived :D.
Maybe I’ve said this ad nauseum, but I label my first 2 decades as crazy. I have no idea what I was thinking, and it was like I was drunk the whole time.
wowwwwwwwww….if I had a hint of doubt about astrology before, I don’t anymore. Uncanny. Thanks for sharing your story like you did Milano. This has definitely been an ‘aha’ moment for me.
The inconjunct feels harder than the actual opposition because it seems all about the awareness. The opposition feels like the collision and the inconjunct is the whiplash.
I’ve seen this happening to my mother, and I have been through this (somehow) myself.
The ten degrees of Pluto on my IC to when really cleared my nodal axis/angles of my chart (0 mutable). From about 1990-97. I missed being a teenager entirely and have no clue what that must be like.
Hibernation has been my god sent since 2004! The older i get..the more i like my solitude. Though some say i am just ”MIA” all the time.
Saturn in Scorpio
Pluto in Scorpio(in 1st house)!
Venus in Taurus
Moon in Virgo (in 12th house)!
Mars in Cancer
Sun in Cancer …etc
I love to procrastinate! People are always asking me where the hell i have been over the past 10 years since school! (i have no face book..)
I simply just say..
”Dancing With The Wolves”
🙂
I had pluto transiting my 4th house stellium while in sagittarius and I basically became agoraphobic/severe social anxiety, left school at 13 (2001) as a result, and have been trying to claw my way back to some kind of normality ever since! In 2009 I managed to get myself to university and things really began to transform then.
Thought it was interesting as Toni said she’s a Sag and mentioned the exact same dates as me!
Yes, I have. I have a stellium and Pluto has also hit most of my planets.
My lost decade involved a relationship. Saturn in Libra helped with that
Thank you so so much (Elsa, and everyone) for reminding us we are not alone. I have Neptune and Saturn square my sun, so most of my life has felt like trudging up a mountain with a wet blanket over my head. I can completely relate to losing chunks of time: to addiction, to bad relationships, to just being in an emotional fog. Wish I’d known about transits then… it helps to have some way to make sense of it all.
Oh yes! Another one here – it comes as a shock – the realisation that a decade just evaporated – then comes the Wake-Up-Call.
Great Post Elsa thanks, your reading prepared me for the next “big thing” to prepare and edit for in my chart. Here we go then. . . .
Just looked at the Ephemeris and then at some chart transits…
In 1990 Pluto started a conjunction to my BML in Scorp, in opposition to my Moon. Saturn, then Neptune, then Uranus were all transiting my Cap stellium in turn.
So all this trugged on for years, with Pluto then crossing over my IC and angle in Sag, where my SN is. Now HE’s reached my Cap stellium… and I’ll have the Saturn opp to my Moon along with the Pluto conjunction to my Venus then Sun, in a dew years.
Rock on… I’ve a few years respite right now from the worst of it
hmm, from 45 to the present, 52…not dating much at all, or socializing. Just holed up at home out here in the boonies with my pets.
My nephew died very young and his death rocked the whole family. When my live in boyfriend of three years didn’t show up for the funeral I stuck a fork in it.
And ever since then I haven’t dated much. Two months with one guy and realized I was never going to desire him, just wasn’t happening. And that was the longest try.
Considering how I dated through my teenage years ’till my early forties, it would seem weird, indeed.
Thanks for posting on this subject. It all makes sense to me now. Astrological detriments chunks of lost time through outer planets. Wow. My mind is racing figuring this out.
I lost years with Pluto conj Saturn and opposing my Moon. And, Saturn transiting 6th, conj Pluto. Like you’re alive, but you’re really not. You can’t “make up for it,” but you can try to let the past be the past and not harass yourself about all of the losses.
I wouldn’t say lost–just piddled and wasted.
Try not to look at it as years lost, but an experience.
Yes, I’m living through it now. It’s called Grad School
This is me, making up for my 20s in my 30s. Or trying to at least. Staying hopeful, but at the same time wondering, if my time went with my 20s. Sheesh
I spent about 8 years in a pointless, mentally abusive relationship thinking that somehow it was all my fault. Finally I awoke and it was like being let out of jail. The saddest part is that I was stupid enough to take so long in realizing that being dominated isn’t the same as being loved. Well, duh. Wish I hadn’t been such a slow learner! I came away with one golden nugget though: Life is too short to put up with other people’s crap. : )
Sadly, I feel like I lost my 20s to working in dead end jobs, taking care of a sick parent, and never being able to meet the right partner and settle down. My 30s have been very different. I got married, traveled all over the world, and am starting a family. Eventually I got everything I wanted but I wanted it all at 21, not at 36.
Ah yes thats me, actually my life feels broken into seperate chunks of time, with a different and unrecognisable person in each section. Each expanse of years feels like a dream. My late degree virgo Pluto crossed my early degree libra stellenium (pluto, sun, uranus, Merc, Jupiter) in childhood, and on departure caused life events from which I was never the same. It squared my Capricorn mars at this time too (venus and Staurn in angle too). Saturn kicked my butt as it crossed/ aspected my stellenium each time. Then pluto crossed my Sag ascendent, and moved on to conjunct my badly aspected Mars. I have learnt so much, i life burnt to the ground each time, and morphed into something unrecoginsable even to myself. Yes i have woken up many times to find i lost years of time down some path. I am not sure they were wring paths, possibly i am meant to have these bizzare and exteme life experiences. They have completely altered my life thoughts. Once I was conservative and judgemental, i would say I am the direct opposite of that nowdays. My eyes keep being opened. Every time I hear myself say “I would never do/ say/ feel x, y z, the universe feels it needs to change my mind. What better way to do that than through personal experience.
Hi Windsaloft, yes looking at it as experience is definely best. It is too empty to look at it as wasted time. I am sure these things happen to show us something, to make us rest or contemplate. Possibly just to energize us, or to make us appreciate something more right for us when it happens. It is always a strange moment when realization hits though, and it is frustrating sometimes. I often wonder if the realisation of time wasted, and emptiness at feeling like time is wasted comes as you get older, and realize as humans we are not immortal – That time is getting away, becoming more scarce. For me I feel frustration that there may not be enough time to experience all that I want to, and still end up getting it right.
2003…lost 3 houses & all income to a divorce….stellium in Scorpio…many HARD lessons. Consoled to know that there was some higher spiritual purpose to this 11 year crazy quest and that I am not alone.
I KNOW the end is near. I just completed a Biz plan to help women secure their finances for THEMSELVES with or without a seemingly financial secure marriage.
To all who suffered, hang in there, make lemonade if you get lemons!!
(((everyone)))
What a great post, Elsa! Lights on at last. I look back at a series of lost decades with occasional “found weekends” — hope this is one. With Pluto banging my ASC and Neptune in my 2nd opposing my Moon right now, I needed this eye-opener, and to know I’m not alone in this chaos. Pluto and Neptune get the hell out of my way! Time to claw out of the mud, get my Emma Peel on, and get back in the driver’s seat. Now if I only had a map…
Need to re-read this article and so many helpful comments here again and again! Six months later and I’m still stuck in the mud, amazed at how energized I sounded in April. But it fizzled, still searching for the map…
I like surfing old posts, and I find gems. This morning I read a one where Elsa (Hi, Elsa! Been awhile.) noted that her son’s Libra moon = haed time making decisions. That helped.
Here, outer planet transits and loss of life/time. My chart has packed eastern hemisphere, and stellium in Sag in 2nd, and sun/Saturn in Cap. Pluto is up near the top of th e chart, and I am aware of how Plutonian my life has been. Pluto has conjuncted each planet but Uranus, (made the square, though), in my lifetime already. Yes, it is as if I lost big chunks of my life, over and over. Looking at it this way helps. I think many people quit trying to understand me, but who understands something like this? At 56, I feel like I am ready to rock, though it’s an outdoor show and it just rained again. Sloppy, but I am here, and game.
I know Pluto is still a major, direct force. I also know that I lived through all of the conjunctions in this single lifetime, and that’s both a relief, and worth noting.
Thanks for this thread Elsa, what a relief to know it’s not just me. My life has been chaotic for several years now since Pluto in final degrees of Sag opposed my Mars/Uranus conjunction in Gemini/Cancer, moved over my Descendant in Capricorn, squared my Ascendent, opposed my Mercury in Cancer, squared my Neptune in Libra and for the past fifteen months has been squaring my Moon in Aries concomitant with Uranus conjunct my Moon. Uranus is about to square my Sun and and Pluto will oppose Sun before the end of the decade.
During those years I married someone with a Personality Disorder, my emotions were all over the place, depression, outward display of extraordinary anger. Gradual realisation of a dysfunctional childhood led me to break contact with my family (not regretted), realisation that I had married into an unhealthy family where extreme dysfunctions were hidden from public view, divorce, house move, a heart breaking further relationship with a PD, and partial estrangement from my son. Oh, and trouble with the drains in my new house.
Pluto in Capricorn is trudging through my fourth house, Uranus in my seventh. I only saw the greater astrological picture when the Pluto/Moon and Uranus/Moon combination was at its height. This coincided exactly with a year of hell with a BPD man.
I finally realised that I am being taught karmic lessons that I must learn. Pluto in fourth bringing up so much stuff from the past that is influencing my present. At times I have been in despair, feeling unable to cope with the emotions, isolation and practical difficulties. But I must; I find the classic interpretation of Pluto square Moon so accurate, excavation of my emotional and family foundations, hopefully leading to transformation. It’s hell, truly the underworld and I now view the earlier transits as preparation for the Pluto/Moon transit which thankfully ends later this year.
Despite the difficulties, like Mena, I’m relieved that I’m going through them in a single lifetime and and given the opportunity to grow via chaos and turmoil. Although I’d rather be sitting in the sun surrounded by loving family, calm and content. 😉 But my life, my lessons, my journey; so be it.
Oops, my error. Pluto didn’t move over my Descendent, it was my IC.
Came across this and thought, what am I talking about??
Different kumquat, lol. 🙂
10 years is a terrifyingly long amount of time 🙁 I have a stellium. I don’t want that.
Neptune conjunct my natal Mars was like that. It was about a year and a half long, my last year in college. So it wasn’t a waste, I graduated, but I pretty much just coasted to the end. I slept for most of it. I was sick. I had no energy. I would sleep for 15hrs a day.
Then there was the time I went to college in CT and flunked every class because I didn’t care, and then I got the lamest job ever. It ended when I moved to Vegas 🙂 Uranus went back and forth over my Jupiter those two and a half years. Who would have thought Uranus conjunct Jupiter would manifest in me NOT moving or exploring anything at all? It was also squaring my stellium at the time.
I’ve met a lot of unhappy people who don’t move or change. I wonder if they’re stuck in one of these periods? They’ve been like that for years and years.
I feel like I’ve won a trophy for this.
Yeah, I lost about a dozen years of decent income when I got laid off from my job and decided to live on freelancing. My live-in bf also broke up with me so I was on my own. Pluto moved through my 4th house first opposing my Mars in Taurus then squaring my Mercury/Venus/Pluto stellium in Virgo and eventually hitting my Virgo Sun square Sag Saturn. It took awhile to recover from all that – finally got a full time job, moved, and met my partner. I did gain some useful freelance experience during that time, fortunately, which helped me get into a new, better-paying career.
Yes !!! Ive lost 10 years in a horrible marriage ???!!! I’ve been so angry about it too ! Thank you for this post it really helps to know I had to experience the trauma for my souls growth!
Indeed. So sad.
Oh my God, I did! I spend almost 11 years married, raising a child and trying to be a good wife, in my 19 to 30, and one day realized that that life wasn’t for me. The period started with Pluto transiting my Sun and Saturn in opposition to my natal Saturn in Libra where I’ve got an stellium. Do you think this has something to do with it?
Stellium in Scorpio in 4th house… In 2003 I lost 2 houses to legal theft by my Ex. Always lived off my housing investment income….struggling still but forever optimistic. Lost so many “friends”plus extreme mental house cleaning but I feel empowered and wise…
I would not say “lost” but “F$#@ing EYE-opening”
Lived to see the said Ex lose EVERYTHING he stole and realized that he was a TOTAL NARCISSIST.
See Secret Language of Narcissists by Shahida Arabi…it will save many a human from “losing” years to bad partners. I am also writing a movie script to document my experiences and how I survived….Prayer Astrology Hope….
There are a LOT of comments here over the years, haven’t read them all, but I’m seeing several mention Pluto in Sag. When I look at the dates for that, yes, that was a chunk of lost time for me in a way. In Nov. of 95 I was still in college, graduated a year early by Aug of 96, so that wasn’t all bad, but I should never have gone back home after that. From Sept 1996-July 2008 I worked a low-paying, dead-end retail job I hated. Lived in back in my mother’s hometown where I was not happy.
In Nov. of 2007, a friend laid the groundwork for my pondering going back to grad school at age 33. By April-May of 2008 the wheels were in motion. In August of 08 I moved to the city where I live now, did my year of grad school and now work in my chosen field making more money per job than I made in a month at the retail job. I’m proud of what I do, I love the city where I live. While some good things did happen in that dark time, I met some new friends, I did some volunteer work that also helped lay the foundation for my life now, but living in that city, with that crappy job, ugh. It was 12 lost years, to me. Pluto Capricorn ushered in a huge change. But it sucked to lose from age 21-33, those young years. But now I’m like “better late than never”. I nearly talked myself out of going back to school, my age, the expense……THANK GOD I persevered, and my friend pushed me…and that I was sick and tired of the life I had and was desperate for a change.
Life is pretty good now, although I still struggle to find a happy romantic relationship. I’m hoping that part changes soon, too!