Uranus is the modern ruler of Aquarius and he’s all about identifying the unique gift you have to offer and celebrating that difference with the world. Those with a prominent Uranus in their charts (in conjunction with a personal planet or on an angle) will embody the Uranian archetype and may have been told “you’re weird” more than once in their life. It’s likely you don’t fit into the cookie-cutter mold but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate your unique weirdness which makes you who you are! More to the point, some of the most amazing and groundbreaking moments in history were ushered in by those with a prominent Uranus placement in their natal charts.
The History of Uranus
Uranus was discovered in Bath by William Herschel on 31st March 1781 when it was at 24° Gemini, though it had been observed in the skies as far back as the 1600’s. Uranus takes 84 years to orbit the sun, spending 7 years in each sign of the zodiac.
Around the time Uranus was discovered, America gained independence from Great Britain and the tension that preceded the French Revolution was already being felt. Britain was in the early years of the industrial revolution which commenced in 1760; A divide was felt between the rich and poor and crime escalated as a result of the situation. Not long after crime statistics increased, many criminals were deported to Australia.
When Uranus was discovered, societies were rejecting antiquated systems and the ground-breaking advancements of technologies were surfacing, completely revolutionizing the future for generations to come. Uranus tears down systems of order, tradition and hirearchy to usher in new perspectives, revolutionary ideas and the advancement of mankind.
Uranus Mythology
The myth of Uranus is as shocking and unexpected as the planet’s energy: The heavens and Gaia (Earth) had many children and when they were born, great noise and rumbling could be heard all over the world. The first children they had were called Hecatoncheires – monsters with 100 hands and 50 heads each – with the next batch being as strange and freakish as the first: three Cyclopes (one eyed giants) called Brontes (thunder), Steropes (lightning) and Arges (thunderbolts). The first few children they created were monsters and Uranus was so repulsed by his creations that he put them back into Gaia’s womb. They also gave birth to the Titans, the youngest of which was Saturn. Gaia asked Saturn to castrate Uranus as she was angry that he had rejected their first children, which Saturn duly did. He threw his father’s testicles in to the sea where they washed up with the sea-foam and created the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite (Venus).
A similar story can be seen in the book of Enoch, which (in Uranian fashion) has been removed from the Christian Bible since from the 4th Century onward. God’s fallen angels came to Earth and lusted after the daughters of men whom they impregnated. During pregnancy, many of the babies burst out of the wombs through the belly and many women died giving birth. The children they produced were monstrous and repulsive and the fallen angels were banished from the heavens.
Natal Uranus
Where Uranus sits in an individual natal chart indicates the potential for a progressive outlook, lightening-insight and cutting edge ideas. It also indicates where in life one might struggle with the mundane and a regular injection of spontaneity may be required. Like Uranus himself, we may find ourselves repulsed by certain behaviour, people or events.
Themes of rejection will be described and depending on any planetary contacts, the story will be told of that which you reject in addition to what you fear will reject you.
Mythology describes the sky being far from the earth and in the same way Uranus describes a feeling of distance. If there is a strong Uranus placement in the birth chart, there may be a sense of removal from given circumstances and a sudden departure from daily life to work out any feelings of stagnation or claustrophobia. Where one finds freedom and an escape from the feeling of control and enslavement, another will find rejection, being pushed out of their comfort zone and thrust into the realms of unfamiliarity.
Terrible Teenagers
In true Uranus style, even his own son Kronos (Saturn) rebelled against him, applying distance and ultimately superseding him and by castrating his father. Uranian figures in our lives can leave individuals feeling castrated from situations where this archetype plays out. If making a contact to the moon, Uranus can facilitate unpredictable knee-jerk reactions, emotional detachment, or a feeling of being cut-off from maternity. Moon–Uranus natives certainly aren’t boring and they make for quirky and interesting individuals.
The antithesis of Saturn, Uranus breaks the rules, destroys tradition and tears-down the boundaries which Saturn lays. We can feel like an outsider and rejected by society. Those with a strong Uranian signature natally, or those undergoing a transit to their natal chart from Uranus may find that they are so passionate about change, they end up leading a movement! So Uranus can also be associated with ‘outside the box’ thinking, sharing a common purpose and celebrating differences within a social group. Hence, the association with revolution, rebellion and revolt.
Speaking of revolting, Astronomers have recently announced their discovery that the planet Uranus smells like farts – another interesting parallel to the Uranian implementation of distance!
Uranus in Society
Uranus is also associated with advancements in technology, thinking and discovery. It’s involvement in the Capricorn stellium of 1988 accompanied the ‘Information age’ which reached critical mass during the 1990’s. Initially conceived at CERN in order to link academic and scientific research, the internet was released worldwide and went ‘viral’ quickly becoming a household essential. People are now able to socialise from the comfort of their own homes, and long-distance friendships and relationships are easily maintainable in this modern-day of dispersed families and friendship groups. However, those outside the technological bubble can feel isolated and left out, which is another expression of the distance which Uranus implies.
Uranus marks periods of fast-moving radical change and since its entry into Aries in May 2010, Uranus instigated a series of revolutions and riots, including the Egyptian revolution to overthrow their president, Hosni Mubarak and the England Riots in 2011. The ‘Occupy’ movement with the slogan “We are the 99%” served to highlight corruption in the monetary system by separating the layman from the bankers and Scotland held an election for the chance to gain independence from the rest of the UK.
Like a Neurotransmitter in the brain making way for the new pathways to form new habits, Uranus creates connections in the most unpredictable way. But in order to make new connections, he has to break up existing ones which may feel familiar and comfortable. One thing’s for sure, Uranus is not a boring planet, and wherever it is in the birth chart, you will find excitement, change and challenging behaviour.
Image Credit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranus#/media/File:Uranus2.jpg
– https://web.archive.org/web/20090119235457/http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/milestones_show/slide1.html(image link) http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA18182 (image link)
