URANUS STATIONS RETROGRADE ON THE 29TH JULY 2016

…… how do I live with instability in this area of my life?

Uranus starts his yearly, five-month retrograde period at 24°30’ Aries on the 29^th of July. He will end this period at 20°33’ Aries on the 28^th of December this year.

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. He governs science and technology as well as astrology. The planet also lends an “aloof” feeling or impression to planets it aspects.

The late astrologer Ivy Goldstein-Jacobsen says of Uranus:

“its house position shows

an unstable foundation

that disrupts the matters of that house.”

Sue Thompson adds:

“it forges an independent path in such a way

that it always prompts contrary action.”

And Liz Greene suggests:

“Uranus says ‘it doesn’t have to be like this’.

Uranus does not relate through compassion.

It relates through vision, foresight and revelation, not from the heart.

This planet does not have the kind of morality that we adopt as individuals

that is why the term “individual” is so inappropriate for Uranus.”

Since year 2010 Uranus has been travelling through the sign of Aries (it will leave in 2019) here it invites fast-moving radical change in the search for new excitement.

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 Cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra, Capricorn) between 29-15° degrees approximately (I prefer to give outer transiting planets large leeway as far as orbs are concerned).

Well, first of all 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.

As with all Uranus transits we might want to ask ourselves one of the following questions:

How can I prepare for unexpected and sudden events related to this house (and planet if Uranus is in aspect to any personal planet or angle)?

How do I cope with the unexpected?

How do I live with instability in this area of my life?

And

How may I use the energy of Uranus to my best advantage whilst functioning and living according to my deepest values, aims and ideals?

The Sabian symbol for 25° Aries: “The possibility for man to gain experience at two levels of being.” Indicating the revelation of new potentialities.

Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality. Nikos Kazantzakis

Bibliography

Goldstein-Jacobson I, (1961) “Here and There in Astrology”, My notes on Uranus, pp, 47-48, Literary Licensing, USA

Greene L. (2004), “The Art of Stealing Fire, Uranus in the Horoscope”, Part One, Uranus in the Natal Chart, pp. 18-19, Centre for Psychological Astrology Press, London, UK

Marks T. (2008), “The Astrology of Self Discovery”, Chapter 5, The Next Step in our Beginning, Transits, pp.151, IBIS PRESS, Lake Worth FL, USA

Rudhyar D. (1974) “An Astrological Mandala: the cycles of transformations and its 360 symbolic phases”. p 67, 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

Tompkins S. (2006), The Contemporary Astrologer’s Handbook”, Chapter 4, The Planets and Other Essential Bodies, Uranus pp 180-184, Flare Pubblications, London UK

Image: The Mutilation of Uranus by Saturn, Giorgio Vasari and Gherardi Christofano 16th century Palazzo Vecchio, Florence…