When astrologers want to understand the archetype that underlies a zodiac sign, they look to the mythological stories that center around the deity that rules the sign.  To understand Gemini, we look to Mercury, ruler of thought and ideas, wearer of the winged cap.  To understand Libra, we look to Venus, goddess of love and beauty.  Her nature as siren, tempestuous lover and self-indulgent hedonist helps us understand both Libra and Taurus, the two signs Venus rules.  Clearly Venus and Mercury were well-identified by the ancients and interpretations of their movements that worked thousands of years ago still work today.  All the other bodies visible with the naked eye (the Sun and Moon, Mars, Jupiter Saturn) were also clearly identified and associated with the right archetypal principles and so their zodiac signs are well-understood.  But astrologers have had a challenge when it comes to Aquarius.  This sign’s ruling planet, Uranus, may have been misnamed.

The deity Uranus is not one that has much mythological tradition surrounding him. There are not many stories to look to in discovering the meaning of this sky god.  We know he was father to Saturn and that Saturn overthrew him, we know he was a primordial sky god.  And that’s about it.  No long tales to tell, no intricate personality quirks.  And the things we do know about Uranus only fit Aquarius marginally.  It’s occurred to one astrological thinker that there is a different deity whose stories and personality do fit the qualities of Aquarius, and that would be Prometheus.  The astrologer is Richard Tarnas, whose discovery and line of thinking are detailed in his book, Prometheus the Awakener.

All of this gets me to my point, which is:  Aquarians, the myths of Uranus do not have a lot to tell you about your own nature.  But the myths of Prometheus do.  Here is his story . . .

Our tale begins in a time before human beings existed, when the world was fresh and new, and populated by gigantic gods called Titans.

Prometheus was one of the Titans.  Animals had already been created and they were wonderful, but Prometheus wanted to make something better, so he created Man out of clay.  He made Man in the shape of a god, which was rather arrogant of him and resulted in Man thinking a bit much of himself as well.  By the time Man was made, all the gifts of life (wings, feathers, speed, strength, fins, etc.) had already been disbursed among the animals, so that there was no special gift for Man.  Prometheus had an idea what to do about this, so he took himself to Mt. Olympus, the dwelling-place of the gods, and got some fire and gave that to Man.  This was an incredible advantage over the other creatures, because Man could keep himself warm, cook his food, and make tools using fire, and the other creatures couldn’t do that.  Fire gave Man enough safety and leisure to cultivate arts and commerce.

(Here I could tell the story of Pandora, the first Woman, but I’ve told it elsewhere, so I’ll skip over it for now.)

According to Bullfinch’s Mythology, Prometheus is represented by the Greek & Roman poets as “a friend to mankind.”  But Prometheus’ gift was gained at a price:  Jupiter (Jove to the Greeks) was angered at the theft of fire and he, as king of the gods, punished Prometheus.  Prometheus was chained to a huge rock where every day a giant eagle came and ate his liver from his still-living body.  Every night the liver grew back—so this was an unending torment, because Prometheus was a god and could not die.  Prometheus was in possession of a secret about which of Jupiter’s offspring would eventually overthrow him.  Jupiter swore that Prometheus might be released if he would reveal the future usurper’s name.  Prometheus refused and stubbornly endured his punishment.

Prometheus’ release eventually came, through the actions of Hercules and Chiron—but that is a different story.

The tale of Prometheus contains a number of themes that connect with the Aquarian temperament and mark him as the originator (planetary ruler) of that temperament.

1.    Prometheus loves humanity.  The sign of Aquarius is well-known for producing individuals who are “people persons.”  Some Aquarians love humanity more as a concept and less in terms of one-on-one relating, but Aquarians are famous for standing up for human rights.
2.    Prometheus demonstrated a refusal to support monarchy, holding out instead for decentralizing power.  This strongly parallels the Aquarian tendency toward political activism and democracy.  Aquarius comes down solidly on the side of the people as opposed to Leo, its opposite sign in the zodiac, which represents monarchy and centralized power.  The best illustration of this is that around the time of the discovery of the planet we call Uranus (which, I’m arguing, should be called Prometheus), revolutions began happening as a phenomenon.  I’m speaking of the French and American revolutions.  The people joined together and rose up as one against an oppressive monarch, on two continents at the same time.  These revolutions were soon followed by more revolutions, in Russia, China and elsewhere.  Since the middle 1700s, revolution exists as a thing in itself, as it never before used to.  When Uranus was discovered, the Revolutionary that lay hidden in humanity’s collective unconscious reared up and was activated.
3.    The theft of fire from the gods and the giving of fire, with all its power, to humanity, was an act of rebellion on the part of Prometheus.  He was a rebellious god, stuck in his own ideas and doing his own thing.  He was a trickster.  In a similar vein, the planet Uranus brings out a quality of rebellion in people when it’s strong in their charts.  Uranian types tend to be rebellious, reactive and strong-minded.  They sometimes enjoy rule-breaking for its own sake.
4.    Fire itself represents insight, inspiration and one central symbol for Aquarius is lightening.  We speak of thoughts having the speed of lightening and ideas striking us like lightening.  Thought itself is the passing of electrical impulses in our brains—and it does happen at a lightning-pace.  Sudden insight and the overthrow of old thought-structures is at the very heart of the archetype of Aquarius—and it’s the source of the famous Aquarian inventiveness.

To live fully into one’s sun sign it is sometimes necessary to invite a god into one’s life.  Aquarians, your god is above all things a rebel, a revolutionary, a paradigm-shifter and rule-breaker.  Your god loves humanity, even when that’s not the popular thing to do.  Your god is willing to take the hit for humanity and endure great suffering and pain in order to take a stand for humanity’s right to be just a little bit godlike.  Your god gave us the gift of startling ideas and brilliance.  He deserves the biggest temple you can build him.

If what follows looks familiar to you, it’s because this is my post from last year when Uranus went direct.  Uranus goes direct every year, so the post continues to be useful, but the dates will be slightly different every year.

Uranus has spent the last few months (since July 6) traveling backwards.  Today he turns his face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should it matter to you?  If he’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, he’s bringing you shocking new ideas that can turn your head around.  And it’s still in progress.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Uranus transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around July 6, you came to realize that some area of your life was in a chaotic uproar.  This was the chaos or breakdown that leads to breakthrough, although it probably didn’t look like that at the time.  Since then, you’ve been re-evaluating that area.  It might feel like a puzzle, the pieces of which have been thrown up into the air, forcing you to reassemble it entirely from the beginning.  And when you’re done, chances are it will not look like it did before.  Not in the least.

The puzzle is still in progress and now you’re waiting for the right moment to act.  That moment is not today, but today (Dec 5, 2010) is when the seed may be planted that will lead to the right moment happening in the next few months.  This day is pivotal in the process of you arriving at a whole new perspective in which so much more is possible than ever before.

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve heard the message the universe is sending to you and you’re almost ready to act on what you’ve learned.  You can now gather yourself to take that action sometime in the next few months (between now and March of 2011).

“What is a Uranus transit like . . .”
Uranus is archetype of the Revolutionary and he brings a shift in paradigm.  A paradigm shift is a state-based shift, where enough momentum has been built up to cause a cascade into a new state, fundamentally different from the old one.  Uranus’ purpose is to present a new way of thinking about something, so new and so radical that everything that previously existed inside that way of thinking is now reframed and thus altered by its new context.  So the ways in which you were like a fish in water, taking the water for granted, will change because the very water you live in has changed.  Uranus’s paradigm shift is intellectual in nature—a shift to a new perspective where the old way of thinking is rendered irrelevant in the new context.  My favorite example is the way people used to think the world was flat and they shifted to thinking the world is round.  You and I may never travel all the way around the globe we live on, yet every aspect of our lives is different because we know the world is round, not flat.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
First of all, you know by feel.  If what I’ve described resonates for you, it’s likely you’re having a Uranus transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Uranus.)  A Uranus transit has a particular sensation of agitation and unrest associated with it.  There’s disruption and disarray in some area of your life.  You feel that something has to change and you feel unsettled while you’re figuring it out.  Maybe a new, startling idea has struck you like lightening and your point of view has already begun to shift and you are coping with all the fallout from that.

You can find out whether you’re having a Uranus transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Uranus is covering the space from 26 degrees of Pisces to 0 degrees of Aries.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 26 to 29 degrees of any of the four Mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius) OR in 0 degrees of any of the four Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn).

If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details into English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see if you have anything at all in 26, 27, 28, or 29 degrees of Pisces Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius OR in 0 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn.  If you do, you are definitely having a Uranus transit this year.  And knowing that gives you a chance to understand the major shift that you’re involved in and to see the usefulness of the chaos, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Uranus transit will typically last for 9 months to 1-1½ years.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  The timing of your transit will be personal to you.  It takes an astrologer to look it up—it’s not something I can just tell you in a blogpost.  In an astrology reading you can find out the timing of it and how to move through it consciously, instead of spending this valuable time agitated and disturbed.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is being affected by this paradigm shift.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
Take a close look at the area of your life that’s changing.  Why do you feel so agitated there?  Is there some aspect of your life that doesn’t fit the way it used to?  You may have to let go of some old ways of thinking before all this is done.

Sometimes a Uranian paradigm shift is launched by the arrival of a new, startling idea.  It’s startling because it doesn’t fit into your old ways of thinking and therefore it makes you see ways you’d gotten stuck in thought-patterns.  It shows up the flaws in those thought-patterns as if to say, “You weren’t prepared for me, were you?  I’m a truly new idea and you’ll have to make room for me now.”  Everything has to change to accommodate the new idea but because the system itself has to change, this results in a cascade of changes that will not only make room for the new idea but also make possible a whole host of new, exciting ideas, thoughts, perspectives and approaches that you couldn’t ever have seen from the old point of view.  Holy ripple effect, Batman!  This can be a shocking experience.  And it massively widens your vistas.

Sometime Uranus transits are experienced by Uranian (i.e. Aquarius) types in different ways than other types experience them.  For most people, a Uranus transit is a time of breaking out, rebelling and going in a new radical direction.  But a Uranian may already be living that radical way, so for them sometimes the most radical thing they can do is to go conservative.  Sometimes that’s the only new territory left.  So if you’re already a rebel in the area where Uranus is influencing you, this transit may (paradoxically) stabilize you.  It’s like of like how ADD people need to take a stimulant (Ritalin, etc.) to calm down their already hyperactive brain.  (ADD is a Uranian condition, linked to the short attention span that seems necessary and appropriate for coping with the Aquarian Age of Technology.)

Uranus’ Gift
Uranus’ gift is that you come out the other side of this change with a whole new way of thinking about something.  That new way of thinking yields ideas and approaches that were not possible before, that didn’t exist in the old paradigm.  Your world is about to expand into new dimensions that were not foreseeable before.  You are facing a singularity.  After this, everything changes.  Are you ready?

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your period of paradigm shift will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another transit like this in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  If this period is frustrating to you, be at ease, because it will end, and soon (between now and March).  But also, and more importantly, take advantage.  Use this shift while it’s happening.  It doesn’t happen every day.

Jupiter and Uranus have returned to Pisces briefly, on their way to moving into Aries for real.  Once in Aries, Uranus will spend 7 years there, while Jupiter will whip through in just 1 year.

Uranus:  Hey, this is a little annoying, to have to return to Pisces when we’d tried Aries out and it was so much fun.
Jupiter:  Yeah, but once you leave Pisces, it will be a long time before you cycle around to it again.  Remember, I’ll be back to visit Pisces in 12 years, but it will be almost 80 years before you come back to this sign.
Uranus:  That’s true.  And we’ll be off into Aries before you know it.
Jupiter:  Besides, aren’t there things you wanted to finish in Pisces before moving on?
Uranus:  Like what?
Jupiter:  Perhaps there are a few spiritual communities you’d like to ignite.
Uranus:  You mean the few that I missed before?
Jupiter:  Yeah.  And there might be some artists out there who need one last little lightning bolt of inspiration from you.
Uranus:  I could get excited about that.
Jupiter:  There are a lot of imaginative types that could really use some startling new ideas.  How about raining some lightning bolts down on Disney, Pixar and the whole film industry?
Uranus:  Ok, now I AM excited.  There’s still time for me to spark a groundbreaking movie that could be released later.  Maybe I’ll download some insights into the brains of independent filmmakers and spark an appearance at Cannes or Sundance next year.
Jupiter:  The gift that keeps on giving.
Uranus:  Would you please tell the studio audience why you made these particular suggestions?
Jupiter:  It’s because Pisces is the sign that rules the imagination.  Pisces represents artists, dreams, imagination and especially film.  When a person goes to the movies, he is diving into the collective ocean of all-experiences-that-can-ever-be-had.
Uranus:  I’ve noticed that human beings really like imagining the ways their life could be, sometimes to escape how it is.
Jupiter:  That’s because they’re not gods, like us.
Uranus:  Who’s calling himself a god?  (smacks Jupiter’s head playfully)
Jupiter (smacking back):  I’m bigger than you are.  I’m king of the gods!
Uranus:  But I was a god before you were born!
Jupiter:  You were a flash of primordial lightning before I was born!
Uranus:  And you were a dream human beings hadn’t even invented yet!
Jupiter:  Dork!  Geek!  Nerd!
Uranus:  Fattie!  Egotist!  Jerk!
As we leave the scene, they are wrestling and attempting to duck each other, quite obviously having a great time.

Will this transit affect you personally?
If you’re a Pisces, born in the last week of Pisces, which is March 16-19, it probably will.  It also might affect you if you are a Gemini born between June 17 and 20 or a Sagittarius born between December 17 and 20 or a Virgo born between September 18 and 21.

If you are feeling unusually restless and you’ve got the desire to bust out and make really big changes, you might want to have a reading to understand what it all means for you and how long it will last.

Contact Jamie to schedule a reading

This month, Saturn and Uranus finish their epic battle, which has been going on since November of 2008.  They have spent most of this time with Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces but now Uranus has moved into Aries while Saturn has moved into Libra.  Their tussle reaches a fever pitch in these more volatile signs.

Saturn:  Hey Uranus, since you moved into Aries you’ve become a lot more pushy.  Why can’t you be reasonable?
Uranus:  Because you ask too much.  You want life to always be fair and it just isn’t.  Sometimes it makes me so mad!
Saturn:  You’ve got to control that anger—it could destroy everything.
Uranus:  I wasn’t made to be reasonable.  Not in Aries.  I’d like to blow it all to smithereens!
Saturn:  If you’re willing to negotiate calmly, we could accomplish something here.
Uranus:  Who needs negotiation?  I’ll just push till I get what I want.
Saturn:  Then I’ll have to continue fighting you because I’m not going to allow myself to get run over.
Uranus:  Why do you bother with me?
Saturn:  Because I earnestly believe that we can both have what we want if we live into our best qualities.  Let’s get some outside help.
Levelheaded Saturn-in-Libra scans the Earth and points out a Human Being.
Saturn:  Look, there’s someone who may be able to integrate us.
Uranus:  Huh.  Ok.
Uranus waves his hand and the Human Being is magically transported to Mount Olympus and into the presence of the gods.
Human Being:  Woah.  Are you . . . actual deities?
Saturn:  Yep.  And we need your help.
Human Being (kowtowing):  I’m not worthy!
Uranus:  Then you’d better get worthy because we need you.
Human Being:  Yikes!  Ok.  Sitting up straight now.  Paying attention.  What can I do for you?
They quickly download into his brain their whole mighty struggle of the last year and a half.  He sits down while absorbing it.
Human Being:  Hmm, pretty touchy struggle.  Saturn, I think you’re going to have to make room for Uranus to be more fiery.  Your insistence on niceness is like a wet blanket for him.  Do you think you can do that?
Saturn:  I’m not excited about it, but since I’m in Libra I value appropriate compromise.
Human Being:  Well you’re not the only one who’s going to have to change.  Uranus?
Uranus:  Hmpph?
Human Being:  You can’t blow everything to smithereens.
Uranus looks downcast.
Human Being:  I know you want a fresh start and you want progress and it looks like a massive flattening of the way things used to be done is what’s necessary.  But it’s not.  You two are going to have to work together.  The world needs you both.  The world needs Uranian progress and Saturnine consistency.  We need the old guard and the new ways.  We need tradition and progress.  Quite frankly, we can’t live without both of you.  Find ways to create change that don’t destroy the old ways.  Find ways to honor and hold tradition without stifling youthful enthusiasm.  This is your job.  It is a sacred duty.
Saturn and Uranus are looking serious.  Human Being puts their hands together and they shake on it.
Saturn:  I’m rather impressed with you Human Beings.  You have a way of taking the principle behind what we offer and putting it to good use.
Uranus:  Yeah, I have to agree.  Human Beings are a really great vehicle for the sort of inspired ideas I like to download.
Human Being:  Have fun, you guys.  And try not to kill each other.
Human Being fades away, feeling pretty pleased with self.

See my previous posts on Saturn’s opposition to Uranus:
Saturn vs. Uranus—Match of the Decade
Should I Build or Break? Answer: Both!
Saturn and Uranus: Self-Governance vs. Progressive Change
Governmental Reform

“Wake up!” says Uranus.  “Are you facing chaos? Lately I’ve turned your life upside down.  This year I’m making you an amazing offer:  to not only restore the order you used to experience, but to shift your life in a global way so that the problems you used to experience—the ones that led to this chaos—are not even relevant anymore.”

Today Is A Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.  Today, that planet is Uranus.  It’s as if Uranus is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding this change forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Uranus is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is in a massive uproar.  It’s time for a shift to a whole new level.  Today is the peak of Uranus’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading To An Inner Journey
Sometime between March and now, Uranus showed us an area of life in which we are due for a change.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about paradigm shift to come.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown an area of life in which something new and startling is possible.

The clue was delivered, but did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial.  As spring proceeded, we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Uranus turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That big change you’re due for?” he says, “It’s crucial.  And I’m putting it right in your face until you do something about it.”  Today, Uranus’ retrograde journey begins and with it begins a period of soul-searching during which we must reflect upon and seek to understand the massive shift we feel coming.  Uranus will continue moving retrograde (i.e. backwards) until the day it turns direct, which is December 5, 2010.

Every Breakthrough Begins With A Breakdown
Uranus teaches us a fundamental truth:  a fresh, more inclusive order only comes after a chaotic mess.  A transit of Uranus is accompanied by a restlessness that causes you to want to dash it all to pieces.  You don’t actually have to destroy everything you’ve built in order to shift to the next level, but you may have to tolerate some uncomfortable mess as you search for the new frame to put it all into.

Uranus brings the “Eureka!” or the “Aha.”  From Uranus comes that moment of insight, that lightning-bolt-from-the-blue that disrupts your normal everyday assumptions and introduces an idea so new, so crazy, so startling that it just might work.  The best response to a Uranian insight is to open your mind up and engage in a search for a new frame, a new context, a new order in which all the old pieces make sense, and the new ones also fit.  Uranus turns your head around—that’s what he’s for.

Is This Story Your Story?
If this feels true for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Uranus may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Uranus is covering the space between 26 degrees of Pisces and 0 degrees of Aries.  If there is anything in your chart in 26, 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius, or additionally in 0 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, you will feel this.  And knowing it can help a lot if you’ve been feeling surrounded by chaos and you don’t know why.  If Uranus has touched you this year, this could be the year when you finally liberate yourself from old, self-entrapping ways and instead bust out into a whole new way of being.

What Area Of Your Life Is Being Affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Uranus.  If Uranus is affecting your Venus, you may find yourself feeling restless and wanting more in your relationships.  You don’t have to destroy all your relationships to satisfy that restlessness, but you do need to shift them to a whole new level now.   If Uranus is affecting your Mercury, you’re getting more crazy, paradigm-shifting new ideas these days than you usually do—use this time of genius for your long-term benefit.  And if you are between 39 and 42 right now, this could be a year that calls forth your genius and the tremendous restlessness that goes with that, demanding that you live into your potential once and for all.

Uranus’ Gift
The promise of Uranian chaos is that it leads to a new order.  Uranus doesn’t really want to leave you in a chaotic mess for the rest of your life—and if he ever has, you’ve not responded to the situation with your true power.  The mess Uranus causes is only a temporary state—although a necessary one—on the way to something much bigger and better.  Sure the ride is messy, but what does that matter?  Isn’t being the most amazing you possible worth a little chaos?

Want to know more about how this Uranus transit affects you?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

Jupiter and Uranus are up to something really different this month—the two of them are not only coming into conjunction, but they’re also both moving into Aries.  Here’s what it might be like.

Uranus and Jupiter are in a tidepool at the edge of the ocean, sloshing around.  Uranus is wearing a hat with lightning bolts coming off it.  Jupiter is a big guy with a large trailing cloak.

Jupiter:  This has been fun, being in Pisces, sign of the ocean and dreams.  I like Pisces—spiritual expansion is natural to me and I’ve been having fun with the dreamlife of humanity since January this year.
Uranus:  Speak for yourself.  It’s been a little confusing for me, being in Pisces—and I’ve been here for six years, so you bet I’m almost done with it.  It’s not exactly my natural territory.  I think I’ve been too gentle on humanity.
Jupiter:  Sometimes gentle is good.
Uranus:  Yeah, but I really like being a force for change.  I really like turning people’s heads around.  I really like shocking and startling people with paradigm-shifting, new ideas.  It’s hard to do that when I have to be gentle and subtle, because I’m in Pisces.
The lightning bolts on his hat keep being attracted to the water’s surface and fizzling.  He looks annoyed at this.
Jupiter:  You’re going to like Aries a lot.
Uranus:  I expect to foment some real action while I’m there.
Jupiter:  It will be a relief to be in a fire sign again.  Fire signs are my favorite.  Let’s get loud.  He punches Uranus’ shoulder playfully.
Uranus:  Absolutely—let’s really knock them on their ear!
Jupiter:  That would be easier if stupid Saturn wasn’t opposing us.
Uranus:  Don’t worry about Saturn—I carry more weight than he does.  He can’t stop me for long.  I’ll be questioning his authority and de-structuring his structures in no time.
Jupiter:  Hey, look!  He points.
Near to them, beyond the pool they are in, the landscape catches fire.
Uranus:  It’s about time!
Together they sweep out of the water and into the flames.
Jupiter:  Now this is more like it!  He waves his arms and the flames flare up, hotter and higher.
Uranus:  Oh this will definitely be fun!  The lightning bolts on his hat begin to crackle.  Soon his head is a mass of sparks and he’s grinning from ear to ear.
Jupiter:  Watch out, humanity!  Change is on the way!

And indeed we’d better watch out.  These two are a powerful combination and they’ll be together in the sky until January of 2011.  Calling all superheroes:  be sure to use your powers for good!

Saturn and Uranus are still slugging it out in the skies, as they have been since November of 2008.  Today, April 26, 2010, is peak 4 of 5 in their ongoing struggle for control.  They won’t be done until July this year.  Here are some snippets from their argument:

Uranus:  You’re in favor of centralized power.
Saturn:  Absolutely.  The people don’t know what they want.  Someone has to be in charge.  Someone has to set the rules.
Uranus:  But what about when the people rebel?  What about the times when I create revolutions?  There’s no flexibility here for progress and change.
Saturn:  People should know that their government is trying its best to manage things so the people don’t have to.
Uranus:  When allowed its own way, government quickly becomes a tottering edifice of bureaucratic tangles.  Haven’t you ever seen the movie “Brazil?”
Saturn:  A ridiculous, trumped-up set of cinematically persuasive lies.  I don’t like science fiction.
Uranus:  I love science fiction.
Saturn:  Only one of the many areas where we part ways.  Please stay on the point.
Uranus:  Which is?
Saturn:  What government can’t take care of, privatization can.
Uranus:  Now you’ve really lost me.
Saturn:  Big business has the tools to handle problems government can’t.
Uranus:  And who pays in the end?

A planetary battle like this has a scale that is both grand and small.  You’ll see these Saturn-Uranus dilemmas playing out in news headlines that shout about public life and you may well see the same dilemmas playing out in your own personal life on a very immediate level as you struggle for self-discipline but wonder whether you are sacrificing your own genius.

“Does This Affect Me?”
If you have anything in your chart in 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Mutable signs (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces) or in 0 degrees of Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn), yes—this affects you.  If you want to find out if this affects you, send me your birth data and I’ll tell you at no cost.  Just email me at Pandora at pandoraastrology dot com and include your name, your date of birth (including the year), your birth time as accurate as you can find (the birth certificate is usually the best source) and the city you were born in.  Be sure to add the question:  “am I being affected by this year’s Saturn-Uranus opposition?”

To read more about this:
Saturn vs. Uranus—Match of the Decade
Should I Build or Break? Answer: Both!
Saturn and Uranus: Self-Governance vs. Progressive Change

Uranus has spent the last few months (since July 1) traveling backwards.  Today he turns his face forward and re-covers the same ground.  Why should it matter to you?  If he’s passing through a zone where you have a planet in your natal chart, he’s bringing you shocking new ideas that can turn your head around.  And it’s still in progress.

This Is A Pivotal Day
If you are one of the millions of people having a Uranus transit this year, today may be pivotal for you.  Around July 1, you came to realize that some area of your life was in a chaotic uproar.  This was the chaos or breakdown that leads to breakthrough, although it probably didn’t look like that at the time.  Since then, you’ve been re-evaluating that area.  It might feel like a puzzle, the pieces of which have been thrown up into the air, forcing you to reassemble it entirely from the beginning.  And when you’re done, chances are it will not look like it did before.  Not in the least.

The puzzle is still in progress and now you’re waiting for the right moment to act.  That moment is not today, but today (Dec 1, 2009) is when the seed may be planted that will lead to the right moment happening in the next few months.  This day is pivotal in the process of you arriving at a whole new perspective in which so much more is possible than ever before.

Today (and I mean this loosely—it may happen as soon as 2 days before or as late as 2 days after today) is pivotal.  Today may be the day you realize your internal quest for understanding is over.  You’ve heard the message the universe is sending to you and you’re almost ready to act on what you’ve learned.  You can now gather yourself to take that action sometime in the next few months (between now and March of 2010).

“What is a Uranus transit like . . .”
Uranus is archetype of the Revolutionary and he brings a shift in paradigm.  A paradigm shift is a state-based shift, where enough momentum has been built up to cause a cascade into a new state, fundamentally different from the old one.  Uranus’ purpose is to present a new way of thinking about something, so new and so radical that everything that previously existed inside that way of thinking is now reframed and thus altered by its new context.  So the ways in which you were like a fish in water, taking the water for granted, will change because the very water you live in has changed.  Uranus’s paradigm shift is intellectual in nature—a shift to a new perspective where the old way of thinking is rendered irrelevant in the new context.  My favorite example is the way people used to think the world was flat and they shifted to thinking the world is round.  You and I may never travel all the way around the globe we live on, yet every aspect of our lives is different because we know the world is round, not flat.

“. . . and how do I know when I’m having one?”
First of all, you know by feel.  If what I’ve described resonates for you, it’s likely you’re having a Uranus transit.  (If it resonates, but only a little, you may be having a transit, but by a planet other than Uranus.)  A Uranus transit has a particular sensation of agitation and unrest associated with it.  There’s disruption and disarray in some area of your life.  You feel that something has to change and you feel unsettled while you’re figuring it out.  Maybe a new, startling idea has struck you like lightening and your point of view has already begun to shift and you are coping with all the fallout from that.

You can find out whether you’re having a Uranus transit by peeking at your chart.  This year Uranus is covering the space from 22 to 26 degrees of Pisces.  This will affect you if you have any planet in the space from 22 to 26 degrees of any of the four Mutable signs (Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius).

If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details into English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see if you have anything at all in 22, 23, 24, 25 or 26 degrees of Pisces Gemini, Virgo or Sagittarius.  If you do, you are definitely having a Uranus transit this year.  And knowing that gives you a chance to understand the major shift that you’re involved in and to see the usefulness of the chaos, instead of feeling overwhelmed by it.

“How long does it last?”
A Uranus transit will typically last for 9 months to 1-1½ years.  Today is just one part of it, a pivotal day in its flow.  The timing of your transit will be personal to you.  It takes an astrologer to look it up—it’s not something I can just tell you in a blogpost.  In an astrology reading you can find out the timing of it and how to move through it consciously, instead of spending this valuable time agitated and disturbed.  You can also find out which part of you (i.e. planet in your chart) is being affected by this paradigm shift.  Is it Relationships (Venus)?  Career (Saturn)?  Home (Moon)?  Or it could be something more subtle.

“What do I do now?”
Take a close look at the area of your life that’s changing.  Why do you feel so agitated there?  Is there some aspect of your life that doesn’t fit the way it used to?  You may have to let go of some old ways of thinking before all this is done.

Sometimes a Uranian paradigm shift is launched by the arrival of a new, startling idea.  It’s startling because it doesn’t fit into your old ways of thinking and therefore it makes you see ways you’d gotten stuck in thought-patterns.  It shows up the flaws in those thought-patterns as if to say, “You weren’t prepared for me, were you?  I’m a truly new idea and you’ll have to make room for me now.”  Everything has to change to accommodate the new idea but because the system itself has to change, this results in a cascade of changes that will not only make room for the new idea but also make possible a whole host of new, exciting ideas, thoughts, perspectives and approaches that you couldn’t ever have seen from the old point of view.  Holy ripple effect, Batman!  This can be a shocking experience.  And it massively widens your vistas.

Sometime Uranus transits are experienced by Uranian (i.e. Aquarius) types in different ways than other types experience them.  For most people, a Uranus transit is a time of breaking out, rebelling and going in a new radical direction.  But a Uranian may already be living that radical way, so for them sometimes the most radical thing they can do is to go conservative.  Sometimes that’s the only new territory left.  So if you’re already a rebel in the area where Uranus is influencing you, this transit may (paradoxically) stabilize you.  It’s like of like how ADD people need to take a stimulant (Ritalin, etc.) to calm down their already hyperactive brain.  (ADD is a Uranian condition, linked to the short attention span that seems necessary and appropriate to coping with the Aquarian Age of Technology.)

Uranus’ Gift
Uranus’ gift is that you come out the other side of this change with a whole new way of thinking about something.  That new way of thinking yields ideas and approaches that were not possible before, that didn’t exist in the old paradigm.  Your world is about to expand into new dimensions that were not foreseeable before.  You are facing a singularity.  After this, everything changes.  Are you ready?

When it’s over, it’s over
After this transit ends, your period of paradigm shift will be over.  It’s quite possible you’ll have another transit like this in a different area of your life in the next few years (it’s likely in fact), but this one will have passed.  If this period is frustrating to you, be at ease, because it will end, and soon (between now and March).  But also, and more importantly, take advantage.  Use this shift while it’s happening.  It doesn’t happen every day.

Art by Betelgeux

A time of change and upheaval is upon us.  Saturn and Uranus have been pulling in opposite directions since November of 2008 and they won’t be done until the end of July in 2010.  In previous posts about this theme, I’ve described Saturn as the conservative side of human nature while Uranus represents the tendency to create chaos on the way to a new level of order.  This month (Sept of 2009) there is a peak in this transit’s themes as Saturn and Uranus come into exact opposition.  Here are some more ideas on how it could go:

Saturn and Uranus are having an argument.
Saturn:  I’m in favor of self-governance.
Uranus:  And I’m in favor of innovation.  That may look like chaos at times, because innovation requires breaking down the old ways.
Saturn:  It looks like brattiness sometimes too!
Uranus:  Yeah well, what you’re doing looks an awful lot like doing things the old way just because it’s the old way.
Saturn:  You not only don’t want to do things in the old, established ways, you can’t.  You’re not even capable.
Uranus:  I count that as a benefit.  It’s true that I can’t stand rules-for-the-sake-of-rules, but rules like that are oppressive.  I prefer progress to entropy.
Saturn:  You mean you prefer disruption to consistency.  You couldn’t use an established procedure if you tried.  Stupid Pisces-dwelling planet.
Uranus:  Yeah, I’m in Pisces—what of it?  Are you calling me lazy?  Are you saying I’m not willing to do the work?
Saturn:  Yeah, you’re lazy.  You don’t want to work right here, right now.   You want to escape to the next level where the work in front of you is no longer pertinent.
Uranus:  Working smarter instead of harder just makes good sense.  But you are like a crazy person who works when you don’t have to.
Saturn:  What—do you think I’m not lazy?  Why do you think I like automating things so much?  I’m in Virgo, for god’s sake—I’m focused on all the ways I can put habits into place so that things automatically become easier over time and I don’t have to think about them as much.  I’ve been in Virgo for 2 years now, and I really know what I’m talking about.
Uranus:  Yeah, that’s Virgo, always tweaking and perfecting, can’t ever leave things alone.
Saturn:  Now who’s talking in favor of entropy?  Hm?
Uranus:  Hey look—there’s a little human down there on Earth.  He’s being transited by us.
Saturn:  What, you mean he’s paying attention to our conversation?
Uranus:  Not necessarily, but he’s feeling it, whether he knows it or not.
Saturn:  Let’s whisper our messages in his ear.  Maybe he’ll hear them.
Uranus:  Yeah, maybe he can figure out how to help us stop fighting and get into agreement.
Saturn and Uranus turn themselves into a fine mist, which shoots down to Earth and burrows into the ears of the little human that’s there.  Saturn goes for the right ear while Uranus goes for the left.  Each whispers their message before dissolving into nothing.
Saturn:  Self-governance is the high road to success and leadership.  He who governs himself will be asked to govern others.
Uranus:  The change you seek for the world starts within you.  Follow your conscience and progress will be inspired by your dream.
Human Being:  Whoooah.

“Is This Affecting Me?”
If you have any planet at all in 24 degrees of Virgo, Pisces, Gemini or Sagittarius, you will be feeling this.  If your birthday is Sept 15-16, March 13-14, June 13-14 or December 14-15, this definitely means you.

A Brief Historical Note
The last time Saturn and Uranus battled it out in the sky like this, the tension of their opposition led to impeachment of USA president Bill Clinton.  Uranus was in Aquarius and Saturn was in Taurus.  And while Uranus may have won that tug-of-war (Clinton was impeached by the House), Saturn had the last laugh (the Senate did not agree and so Clinton was not removed from office).  Uranus, when reached for comment, said:  “When your president isn’t making progressive change, perhaps you need to change your president.”

For more about Saturn vs. Uranus see these:
Match of the Decade
Should I Build or Break?

Saturn and Uranus are still in opposition in the sky, engaged in one of the pieces of dialogue in the “stage play of 2009” that I’ve talked about.  This week there’s a peak in the intensity of that dialogue, which will be felt strongly by people who have any planet at or near 20 degrees of a mutable sign in their chart.*  What does it feel like?  It’s rather like being in a vise.  If it’s affecting you, you’ll feel a tremendous sense of warring pressures:  Saturn’s conservatism vs. Uranus’ progressiveness.

Saturn is in Virgo, where it has been demanding that we reorganize ourselves, develop our business practices and create structures to better handle the everyday details of our business.  Saturn builds traditions and rules laid down by those that came before.  It is the part of our human nature that looks to the elders for guidance and stands by old established ways.  “The rules we’ve built for generations work,” says Saturn, “we must build on their foundation, refine and perfect them.  After all, we have integrity and a reputation to protect.”

Meanwhile, Uranus is in Pisces, where it is demanding change according to a higher sensibility.  Uranus is the Rebel or Revolutionary, the part of human nature that pushes for a paradigm shift to the next level.  It does that by breaking down the old and redesigning it to be greater and more all-inclusive.  Uranus tunes into the fresh ideas and new approaches of the young.  In the sign of Pisces it will do that by eroding lines and distinctions between things, creating messy, boundariless situations that demand a shift to a new level.  “Your rules do not apply here,” says Uranus to Saturn, “here, in the place where lines are fuzzy and things get lost in the cracks between.  Life is full of unexplainable mysteries which have a way of generating chaos when they are ignored.”

But how do you cope with a situation where you are supposed to build something strong and enduring, really build it to last, while at the same time you are also supposed to question old structures and test them for weak places, so that you can shift them to an entirely new level?  Obviously, only the strongest and most resilient parts of any preexisting structure will last through this ordeal.

This is a time of reform.  Look for it inside and out because you may see it around you in the world in general or you may see it in your own life, or both.  Where in your life are you simultaneously being pressured to display old-fashioned integrity and consistency and also to break out of old patterns and embrace change?  You will need to carefully assess which of the old structures is toppling and ready to die and which is foundational and must be kept and adjusted to.  You’ll also need to assess which new changes are really going to create progress and which are merely opportunities to use the chaos of the moment to escape responsibility.  (“It doesn’t matter if I pay the last month’s rent on time—I’m about to move anyway.”)

Saturn in Virgo would like life to always make sense, but Uranus in Pisces knows that there are huge swathes of life that no amount of accounting or logic can explain.  But ignoring or discounting that which cannot be explained logically is no solution.  It’s time to shift to a new perspective, one that includes both common sense and an appropriate awe for life’s inevitable mysteries.

Saturn opposite Uranus is now in full effect.  It started in November of 2008 and lasts until July of 2010.  Where in your life are you feeling the pressure?  Where do you need to make reforms?
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* To know if you have a planet at or near 20 degrees of mutable signs, you have to have your chart calculated.  But I can tell you that if your birthday is March 9-11, June 10-12, September 12-14 or December 11-13, you are probably feeling this strongly.

Also on this topic:  Saturn vs. Uranus–Match of the Decade
And:  Saturn and Uranus–Self Governance vs. Progressive Change