In some cultures, such as that of Hindu India, midlife is a time associated with the serious pursuit of the spiritual dimensions of life. I see something comparable occurring in this country, where the vast majority of attendees at conferences on the connection between the body and soul are midlife women. With our child-rearing years behind us, our creative energies are freed. Our search for life's meaning begins to take on new urgency, and we begin to experience ourselves as potential vessels for Spirit. I've long believed that each of our lives is directed by a force that I think of as God. This force is much bigger than our own intellects, and it always moves us toward our highest possible purpose, working directly through the unique expression that each of us represents. My lifelong interest in metaphysics and astrology has provided me with very clear evidence for this truth.

Barbara Hand Clow, an author who specializes in using astrology to give us more access to our power, explains that all of us must go through several key life passages in order to reach our full wisdom. Each passage is associated with very specific and predictable shifts that, if negotiated consciously, open us to our full potential. In her 1996 book The Liquid Light of Sex: Kundalini Rising at Mid-Life Crisis, Clow writes, "We form at age 30, we transform at age 40, and we transmute at age 50."¹⁶

Around age forty, the universal energy known as kundalini (which is depicted as a snake in many ancient healing traditions) begins to rise naturally and gradually from the base of our spines, activating each energy center (or chakra) of our bodies as it does so. Sometimes the resulting sexual energy that is released at this time can be quite intense, driving some women to have affairs or to channel this energy into painting, building a new home, or some other creative pursuit.

This energy activation may also manifest in bodily symptoms. The degree of unfinished business we have in each of these energy centers will determine the type and severity of symptoms we will experience in that area. For example, I personally experienced several bouts of rather severe chest pain in the year when I started to skip periods and have hot flashes, an indication of grief and despair, emotions of which I hadn't been fully conscious. Many other women find themselves feeling heart palpitations, anxiety, pelvic pain, or indigestion at midlife.

When we reframe our symptoms and see them as our inner guidance knocking on the door of each emotional center, asking us to allow more light and wisdom into that particular area, then we don't feel victimized by our bodies and we have the opportunity to feel empowered by the life energy that is coursing through us at midlife.

For example, my divorce culminated during what is astrologically known as my Chiron return, the peak time for me to transmute and connect more powerfully than ever with my spirit and my life purpose. Simultaneously I've been under the influence of an astrological configuration known as a yod, which means "the finger of God." The purpose of this has been to move me out of my old life so that I have the time and motivation to form new, healthier relationships. Though this knowledge has not entirely freed me from the suffering I went through, I take great comfort in knowing that there was a larger purpose and meaning in the events of the last few years---that my experience amounts to something more than a painful divorce and the onset of hot flashes.

For information about the relationship between various body organs and spiritual conditions, click here.