URANUS STATIONS RETROGRADE ON 15 AUGUST 2020

…… can we cope with surprises?

Uranus starts his yearly, five-month retrograde period at 10°41’ Taurus on the 15^th August (antiscion 19°19’ Leo). The planet will end this period at 6°43’ Taurus on the 14^th of January 2021.

When planets station, they usually manifest all their power.

Some info…(this is more or less a repeat of last year’s Uranus retrograde fact sheet)

Uranus has an 84-year orbit and spends roughly 7 years in each sign. After his discovery in 1781 by an amateur astronomer named William Herschel he was given joint ruler-ship of the sign of Aquarius together with its traditional zodiacal ruler Saturn.

In the myth Ouranus was the married to Gaia (the Earth), he fathered many children with her but found all of them so ugly, horrific even, that he banished them to an underground and faraway place called Tartarus. Of course Gaia wasn’t happy about this and she coveted anger and planned revenge. Some of her children did manage to return and Saturn, her favourite son, was one of these. Gaia gathered flint and made a sickle and convinced Saturn to help her kill her husband (his father). Saturn slayed Ouranus by using the sickle to castrate him. He threw the severed genitals into the sea and from the blood that dripped onto the Earth the Goddesses of Revenge were born (the Erinyes) whilst from the foaming sea and Ouranus’s discarded testicles the Goddess Aphrodite was born.

Uranus represents revolution and change as well as the need to be free and independent, above all from responsibility. The planet governs science and technology as well as astrology it also lends an “aloof” feeling or impression to planets it aspects.

Some keywords that might be associated with Taurus are: stubborn, practical, enduring, patient, placid and steadfast. Taurus is associated with the 2^nd house in traditional astrology and so closely connected with our assets, values and self-esteem. Taurus also regards tactile sensations, bodily needs, food and farming among other things.

Uranus on the other hand can be described as inventive, innovative, eccentric, unpredictable, reactive, mental and restless. It rules inventors, technicians, research, rebellion, freedom and democracy (for some it also rules astrologers having overridden its younger brother Mercury in this).

Now I imagine you can see why Uranus may not be at all comfy in Taurus.

So, what might we expect/have already experienced with Uranus in Taurus?

On a mundane level, the already experienced disruption and innovation of monetary values as we now know them due to the pandemic in large part – Bitcoin or virtual money with less cash around and thus less freedom to spend our money without being controlled electronically. Many countries are offering tax bonuses to those companies who insist on electronic payments from clients. A completely new way of managing farming and food production may come to be – using technology to improve our nutrition, finding new ways to feed ourselves and abandoning intensive and expensive farming practices that provide meat and fish and that have proved and are proving to be sources of infection. Perhaps we will turn to new sources of protein that cost less to rear – insects for example. Volcanic and seismic activity has been intensified as the earth shakes and makes us more aware of our precarious state of being after a seemingly quieter period during the almost worldwide lockdown that allowed nature some respite from man-caused pollution. Our physical body is also our most precious possession so here too we may find new ways to dress, adorn and generally take care of ourselves that free us of the stereotypes we now follow. Who knows…what is important I believe is that we open up to the new.

On a personal level we must look to the house where Uranus is currently transiting and to the house it resides in our natal chart…this is where the collective changes will filter down into the personal.

When planets go retrograde they interiorize their characteristics. So, what might we expect from this retrograde period? It will most affect those with planets in the first 11° of the Fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius).

Firstly, it will impact the house it is travelling through (and the house where it is to be found in your natal chart plus the house/s ruled by Uranus). Uranus in transit direct might be experienced as a disruption in the natural affairs of the house, a sort of “going against the flow” due to un-thought of or unforeseen conditions or circumstances that suddenly arise.

The retrograde period could give some kind of respite and put you more in contact with your soul purpose and your needs for personal freedom and expression…a time of processing that allows you to regroup and assimilate changes that have appeared suddenly and that are sometimes unwanted or seemingly unnecessary and often painful. There may be a gleaning of new insights that might help you reform certain attitudes and patterns of which you were previously unaware so that you can transition them without too much upset or confusion.

The important point is not be too fixed or stagnant in the areas of the house where the planet is transiting, avoiding, where possible, to resist change since Uranus retrograde is really asking us to look below the surface of matters and to see them with true objectivity as soon as they are brought to our attention by outer events.

The Sabian symbol for 11° Taurus: “A woman watering flowers in her garden.” Indicating the development of the powers of the mind on which ego-consciousness is based.

For the antiscion point at 20° Leo: “Zuni Indians perform a ritual to the Sun.” Indicating a return to the glorification of natural energies.

“You never really know what’s coming. A small wave, or maybe a big one. All you can really do is hope that when it comes, you can surf over it, instead of drown in its monstrosity.” A. Speer

Bibliography

Rudhyar D. (1974) “An Astrological Mandala: the cycles of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases”. p 77, 143, Vintage Books Edition, Random House Inc., New York, USA

Tierney B. (1983) “Dynamics of Aspect Analysis”, Chapter 10, Retrograde Planets, pp 230-237, CRCA Publications, Sebastopol, CA, USA

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