The Ultimatum and an Astrological Explanation of the Quarter-Life Crisis

I can’t decide if The Ultimatum is the best or the worst tv ever made, but this is not a think-piece on whether the “Marry or Move On” show is our modern-day emotional Colloseum, Nick and Vanessa Lachey our spray-tanned Caesars. 

I’m a few weeks late to the game but I had barely recovered from our February binge of Love is Blind season 2. No spoilers in this blog post (until the very end, and I’ll warn you) so keep reading even if you’ve yet to tune in to either show. 

As an astrologer, I’m always looking for celestial nuance in media, especially reality tv. Reality tv can make for great case studies in sun signs (and even moon and rising signs, if we are lucky enough to sleuth out accurate birth information for the cast). 

But as the show began, cast members’ ages flashing on the screen, I became much less interested in their Big Three placements, and more acutely aware of a glaring pattern: 24. 25. 24. 26. 23. 24. 25. 26. (There are four older cast members– and I’ll get to them later.)

Pop psychology refers to this age as “quarter life.” Us older pups might remember John Mayer’s 1999 song “Quarter-Life Crisis” that he released at age 22, in which he asks himself, “Am I living it right?” and also warns, “Don’t believe me when I say I’ve got it down.”

When people in their mid-twenties come to me for consultations and astrological care I’ve learned that there is one thing they all have in common: Transiting Pluto Conjunct Natal Neptune. 

Ok, what does that even mean? In astro jargon, this phrase means that Pluto is currently in the sky at the same point where Neptune was when someone was born. Since the 1970s, at any given moment Pluto is lurking through the same tract of territory Neptune was claiming about 24-25 years ago. So, the particular iteration of the quarter-life crisis so broadly understood is actually specific to the last 50 years. And this pattern is on its way out. Starting with people born after 2010, Transiting Pluto Conjunct Natal Neptune will happen later and later in people’s lives. I’m curious if this might predict the ways in which young adults will come of age in the future. Now, the quarter-life crisis happens after the typical college age, when many young twenty-somethings are “on their own” for the first time without the structures of home or college supporting them. (These are broad terms, of course, and many people have extremely different touchstones in their early 20s.)

Both Pluto and Neptune move at a snail’s pace, and so this transit lasts for a couple of years. It comes now for people after their opening Uranus square (Transiting Uranus Square Natal Uranus), when 21-year-olds face the challenges and excitement of a new and ultimate sense of freedom in their lives. (Uranus square Uranus always and forever happens around 21.) We can see why the early twenties can be so rocky for people, at least through an astrological lens. 

Pluto signifies transformation, a pulling-back-of-the-veil that takes no prisoners and gives zero shits about your feelings. It is one of the worst greatest planetary teachers in non-attachment and Pluto transits mark times where people tend to lose, change, and encounter shadows the most. Neptune in the chart represents our visions, dreams (realistic or not) and can also clue us into habits of dissociation– like drug use or psychic splitting. Around age 24-25, people go through a two year period of getting these planetary energies tossed into an agitation chamber. The results are sometimes catastrophic. Think of the 27 Club; its members include Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix. These are the most extreme examples– people who lost their lives to suicide or addiction or mysterious matters– all cocktails made from Plutonian and Neptunian mixers. 

For most of us, Pluto on Neptune marks a time of deep inner transformation, a confrontation with what we (think we) need or want, a struggle with power or an abuse of power, a shattering or revisioning of dreams, a harrowing mental health experience, a spiritual awakening or another wake up call. (In my case… all of the above.) The Ultimatum is, among other things, an palpable case study of this phenomenon. 

(SPOILER ALERT NOW)

Funnily enough, the older cast members who were past this Pluto-Neptune transit are the ones who got engaged early on in the show and did not make it past Episode 3. All four of them are in their first Saturn Return (Alexis is in that transitional state from Pluto-Neptune to Saturn Return), a time when we (with hope) get clarity on the structures and realities of our lifestyles and personal boundaries that can become so confused in the mid-twenties. It will be interesting to see how those relationships play out as the cast members complete their Saturn Returns. 

If you’re at these ages and want to do an astrological consultation with me, I’d love to work with you. You may schedule with me here.