Barbie: Pluto in Libra's Midlife Crisis

Tickets now on sale for my own upcoming midlife crisis!

The exhausting culture wars rage unabated, and the movie Barbie is their latest pawn. Watching commentators on the left and the right claim that Barbie is all about whatever tiresome talking points were already in their own heads has been truly groan-worthy.

I then had to laugh when The Astrology Podcast’s last two episodes made the case that no, actually, Barbie is all about astrology!

Well, we astrologers are certainly no less qualified to comment on cultural matters than anyone else. Demetra George’s analysis connecting Barbie to the story of Inanna and the Venus Retrograde cycle is compelling, although I am not knowledgeable enough about the Venus cycle myself to address that further at this point.

What jumped out to me astrologically when I finally saw the movie Barbie was the Pluto in Libra generation’s midlife crisis.

The Midlife Crisis Transits

A midlife crisis isn’t just a cultural stereotype — it’s a real thing with astrological backing. There are three major transits that each person predictably experiences in their early forties, no matter when they were born:

Transiting Saturn opposite natal Saturn (1.5 Saturn cycles of 29.4 years = approximate age 44.1)

Transiting Uranus opposite natal Uranus (0.5 Uranus cycles of 84 years = approximate age 42)

Transiting Neptune square natal Neptune (0.25 Neptune cycles of 165 years = approximate age 41.25)

Saturn focuses on testing one’s life structures, Uranus focuses on asserting one’s individuality, and Neptune focuses on questioning one’s ideals. There’s a lot going on all at once!

Pluto has an irregular orbit, so people do not always experience Pluto squares and oppositions at the same age. For example, the slower part of Pluto’s cycle happens while Pluto moves through the sign of Taurus; people born while Pluto was last in Taurus from 1851 to 1883 would not have experienced transiting Pluto square natal Pluto until very late in life, when Pluto was in Leo from 1937 to 1958.

However, recent generations born durn the Pluto cycle’s faster part have experienced transiting Pluto square natal Pluto around the same time as their midlife crisis transits.

The Pluto in Libra Generation

Pluto was in Libra from 1971 to 1984 (though not consistently during 1971-1972 and 1983-1984). Libra is the sign associated with relationships and partnerships. With disruptive Pluto there, the divorce rate in the United States reached an all-time high during the 1970s.

The cohort born during this time therefore does not take stability in relationships for granted. They passionately value negotiating fair arrangements, although sometimes they’d rather settle for the appearance of fairness than get in a messy fight.

Greta Gerwig, director and co-writer of Barbie, is one of the younger members of the Pluto in Libra generation. According to Astro-Databank, she was born on August 4, 1983, so she just turned 40. As shown below, she has Saturn conjunct Pluto at the very end of Libra, Uranus at 5° Sagittarius, and Neptune at 26° Sagittarius. Astro-Databank did not provide a birth time, so this chart does not have houses.

Gerwig’s Saturn opposition is still some distance away — transiting Saturn, currently early in Pisces, will have to make it all the way to the end of Aries. She will not have her Uranus opposition until transiting Uranus, now late in the sign of Taurus, crosses into Gemini.

However, Gerwig’s Neptune square and Pluto square are definitely underway now. Gerwig’s natal Neptune in Sagittarius might tend to idealize endless freedom to reinvent oneself and pursue new experiences, but transiting Neptune in Pisces could be questioning whether those ideals are leading to anything meaningful.

Pluto speaks to mortality, a major theme of the movie. Although transiting Pluto square natal Pluto is not a feature of everyone’s midlife crisis, many midlife crises involve an awareness of time left. The more universal Saturn opposition reinforces that theme.

Another Plutonic theme in the movie is that suppressing inconvenient things like death or masculinity doesn’t get rid of them. That’s what makes this movie Pluto in Libra and not Pluto in some other sign. Libra wants beauty — and Pluto asks, “At what cost?”

To move forward, Barbie must confront her fear of ugliness and embrace the guidance of Weird Barbie. Oddly, even the supposedly perfect setting of the beginning of the movie permits Weird Barbie to exist glowering in the distance. Pluto in Libra has an instinctive awareness of the importance of opposites. Beauty cannot exist without ugliness, and life cannot exist without death.

Whose midlife crisis is next?

I am three years younger than Gerwig, and Pluto changed sign from Libra to Scorpio between us. My eventual midlife crisis may therefore have a different flavor than Gerwig’s.

I have been joking for a while about selling tickets to my midlife crisis. Like anyone else, I will have transiting Saturn opposite natal Saturn, transiting Uranus opposite natal Uranus, and transiting Neptune square natal Neptune. Like others born during the faster part of the Pluto cycle, I will also have transiting Pluto square natal Pluto.

However, I am in for more than just the basics. As shown in the graphic below depicting my transits and progressions on my 42nd birthday, my progressed Sun will change sign in the middle of all that. Transiting Neptune in Aries, squaring my natal Neptune in Capricorn, will also be moving over my Descendant, opposing my natal Venus, and squaring my natal Mars.

I’m definitely going to have a crazier midlife crisis than anyone else! There will be a Total Solar Eclipse on my 40th birthday on August 12, 2026, so the excitement could begin that early.

Now that I’m on Substack, I have a means for selling tickets to my midlife crisis. I finally made the ticket in Canva today, so anyone who becomes a paid subscriber to my Substack will receive a ticket by email to download and print at home.

Where is the paperback version of Impossible Dreams?

Like I said in a previous post, I filled out the question form on the Library of Congress website to ask whether a paperback version of Impossible Dreams would be eligible for a Preassigned Control Number (PCN) given that I had already published the e-book version. I didn’t request a PCN when I published the e-book because I was only publishing an e-book at that time, and the PCN request form won’t let you move further if you say you’re only publishing an e-book. I figured I’d come back to it when I was ready to publish the paperback.

However, when I came back to request a PCN for the paperback, the form asked whether the book had already been published. Well, yes, it was published as an e-book. The form then wouldn’t let me move forward because I checked yes.

I never heard back from my original query to the Library of Congress about this in July, so I asked again earlier this month and still haven’t heard back. Please let me know if you know something about this process that I don’t know. This process is apparently necessary to get the book shelved in libraries. If the issue can’t be resolved, or if I choose to move forward without it being resolved, the book can still be sold — it just won’t be available in libraries.