Uranus Station-Direct: Enlightening in a Bottle

 Original (1902) image: Lightning striking the Eiffel Tower

(photo courtesy of NOAA/re-colored for post)

During the week prior to any Uranus station there’s a tendency for life to feel unsettled. Or for us to feel unsettled about something in our life. This planet – where it appears in our chart natally and the house it’s transiting at any given time – represents areas of our life where we need to make breakthroughs.

That’s why Uranus is there. As humans (being only human and all that) we like to think of Uranus as freedom. And it can be that – or more precisely, the energy and energetics which ‘create’ a greater liberty to operate in or a freedom to operate. Where and when Uranus energies challenge us, we feel the urge to break out of some sort of restraint – and that’s sometimes a good thing and sometimes not so good. Where and when Uranus energies scare us, we want to run, retreat or hide. We’ll react irrationally – as far as others can see – and we often will not understand our Self (or why we’re reacting as we’re reacting) because that would require us to face something about ourselves or our life/life history we would find ‘shocking’ and perhaps disruptive in and on its own.

With this in mind we go to the calendar…and the calendar says that Uranus is going direct at 8 Aries on December 17th at 5:40 p.m. in the afternoon (UT/+0 time). That means that every since shortly after Mars entered Libra back on the 7th – or maybe even before that – we’ve been thinking about our approach to people, the ‘who’ of who we’re interacting with and on a more general level, whether or not we’re getting where we want to go and the results that we want.

As the days have moved forward, leading us towards Uranus’ station, we have realized that something needs to change. Maybe what needs changing too. With Uranus in retrograde and about to turn to direct motion, the shimmy of ‘I need to do something about this’ (or they’re going to do something about me) energy like as not is a response or reaction to something rather than life jabbing us with Uranian incidents, so whether we react well or badly to things during this period is really more about our ability to handle Uranian energies than anything else.

And no, we’re not likely to like that, either. The positive and negative here runs from excitement to terror, from fascination to alienation or rejection, from isolation, anarchy and elitism to universality and mass movements (or motion).

It’s all about insight. Some we like, some we don’t like and with Uranus, we’re talking about life forcing us to own all the perspectives – not just the ones that we like. This is a planet which doesn’t ‘spin’ on its axis going around the Sun, it rolls.

(Talk about your unusual influences, right?)

Literally. Seen against the rest of the planets in our solar system, Uranus rolls along its axis. And in doing so, it’s movements subtly evoke those things which are not so subtle in real life. Uranus operates on a wavelength of concept and perspective where preference has nothing to do with anything – and since we humans are all ABOUT our preferences, thus comes the strain, the stress, the breakage, the shattering of status quos we associate with such a moment.

We’re talking about a planet beyond Saturn – beyond our solid ‘grasp’ and ‘range of sight’ even on a good day. All we can do with Uranian issues is understand them. Hopefully we understand the whole of the parameter or situation. Where we do, Uranus represents the insight of ‘discovering’ what is up with us. Where we don’t, Uranus delivers the ‘shattering blow’ which whether large or small in reality, shakes us…BECAUSE we thought we understood.

And no, we didn’t.

And then there’s the fact that 8 Aries is one of those degrees which fosters the desire not to wait. Or not to have to wait. Uranus ‘turning’ on this degree is going to be hard on those who hesitate. Or those always hell bent on hanging on to the status quo. There’s a balance we want to strike…but can we strike it? Can we get things rebalanced? Or should we even try? Should we just cut our loses – and can we?

The influence here is ‘executive’ – which in your case may mean a “superior” idea or some sort of mentor, even a higher up at work. Or maybe you’re in charge of something and this period challenges your confidence. Or your control. Even your sense of being in control of your own life. Uranus stations have a thoroughly bizarre reputation for causing our perspective on things to fluctuate. Often we’ll flex back and forth between the ‘our part’ of it and how the whole of the process functions – the ‘all’ level of things.

What we ‘see’ now can grant us vision. Or it can manifest as indecisiveness, a ‘case of nerves,’ unpredictable anxieties or fears. We may need to be flexible. We may need to be adaptable - or to adapt ourselves to changing circumstances so that we have an opportunity to achieve something greater (or what we truly want).

Conversely, where things are wrong about 'Things Uranus,' though we want to think it’s about ‘them’ or life or that 'they're to blame, that’s truly not the case. Whatever is inciting us and whatever is being incited is the area of our life where WE don’t have perspective… where we aren’t seeing our Self as others see us.

Uranian energies do seek to free us – generally of our own shortsightedness, outmoded ways, inhibitions or fears. But how these energies manifest…? That’s not always so gentle – particularly when Uranus is passing through Aries (as it is now) as Aries energetics are always about our Self.

Metaphysically, that Self is either your consciousness or your physicality… and Aries is a fire sign, a vibration adeptly processed by us as the ‘idea’ of the thing – the vision, the motivation, the goal, aim or that thing we just want, want, want, want, want. Sometimes we want the glory. Or the simple knowing that we’ve done what WE wanted to do. Those are Aries’ “martian” (Mars-like) qualities. Aries can be all about our ego drives.

Then again, our Self can manifest as that thing we were born to be and do and bear witness to by being in this world.

Uranus’ eight year transit of Aries is meant to shake all of that up. During this time our view of the world will change and our view of our Self will change through what the world (and life) throws at us.

How we react…that’s our relationship to life not being what we thought it was going to be. And sometimes that process of reacting, responding, voicing, dealing with…it’s not subtle. Or genteel. Associated with the kind of energy which busts out and break through armored resistance be it physical, mental, irrational or emotional, Uranus is associated with undifferentiated, ‘explosive’ power.

That differs it from Mars – the planet which is about directed action. Mars represents the construct of the bomb and the decision to construct it and to set a bomb off. Against that, Uranus is the unfettered energy OF the bomb. It’s not ‘the thing’…it’s the energy of the thing as it does its thing.

Seeing that both planets are involved in this station we can assume matters of the moment are going to seem unpredictable and not always to our liking. We’re in a definite (Libra) I-them, my goal-their aim sort of dynamic. Libra-Aries indicates an Aries/personal-Libra/external component to the situation and the t-square indicates conflict.

But this isn’t conflict necessarily with others, though it might manifest that way. The root of our conflicts now are about who we want to be in this world, most of all in our own regard – the Capricorn ‘goal’ we have for our Self in this life as a person. Our Plutonic factors are our ‘hidden’ issues with that…with who we are in our own minds even when we think it’s about others. Or ‘the system.’ Or ‘life.’ Or ‘society.’

It’s never ‘them.’ Metaphysically it’s always about what we are supposed to be learning because they are there. Or because something has challenged or hurt us. Why we needed to learn anything – that’s the metaphysical perspective on life…and at least part of the Plutonic ‘transformation’ we would seem to need.

The curious thing here is the “goal” of the t-square as expressed by planetary positions. According to this conflux of energetics, we’re at a moment in time when what we need is to break (Uranus) free of – in our (Aries) Self – anything which we are (Medusa) afraid of knowing about.

With Medusa at 7 Aries, the myriad of meanings behind the word ‘love’ are part of the issue.

And yet, this is Aries. So this Medusa fear we are each facing has to do with love as we experience it in our Self or through our Self, replete with all the pluses and minuses there. Given the Sabian Symbol for 7 Aries (A LARGE WOMAN’S HAT WITH STREAMERS BLOWN BY AN EAST WIND), an emotional, perhaps spiritual ‘east’ energy is playing with us THROUGH whatever we leave/have left ‘free to be blown about’ in our life or out there in the world.

In his writings on this degree, astrologer Dane Rudhyar refers to the hat as a ‘defense from the elements’ which, if you think about the story of Medusa and who Medusa was in life before she got the snaky gorgon curse for her lack of attentiveness to the facts of what her commitment(s) meant… AND the Medusa ‘curse’ (isolation, retreat from the fullness of reality)… AND the how her curse was turned to good the moment the ‘snake head’ was cut off from her body – meaning the difference was at some level her (our) ability to act willfully or be unwilling to act which makes the vital Medusa difference.

(Sounds a little like a Madison Avenue ad that…’new, improved - that vital Medusa difference!’)

Sometimes, our (Medusa) fears are of the very power our essential being has. In ‘other hands’ - those of Perseus, in the case of Medusa – our ‘curse’ becomes a tool for helping others in the same way that Perseus saved Andromeda from an ‘oceanic monster’ (something horribly emotional or horrible and emotional). Or maybe they will witness or learn from our fears and ‘cut’ from that something which will help them take the ‘knowledge’ of something awful and turn it to good.

You know…the old ‘making lemons into lemonade’ thing.

Medusa-Uranus (in Aries) as the goal of a t-square is on a macro-and-micro level all about wanting to be free of fear. We think its from (Capricorn) life or life circumstances.

Is it?

Uranus in the ‘goal’ position here says whatever our status quo is, that gets blown apart. We may be startled, maybe even disturbed about something...in life, in our Self, in what we are working – consciously or unconsciously – towards making our (Capricorn) life SO terrible that we have the excuse to simply say ‘I’m done.’ in some very personal and individual regard.

If this station aspects your chart with any acuity (which – to make this easy – we’ll say concerns ANY planet, dwarf planet, Plutino, node or chart wheel horizontal or vertical axis point) between the degrees of 5 and 11 of any sign.

Put simply, the closer your chart position is to 8 degrees of any sign, the more pronounced Uranus effects are going to be in your life during the time of this station…which metaphysically is greatly the Uranus Effect, but also a bit about our relationship to Eris, Jupiter and Haumea.

Having spent at least 64 ounces of brain fuel over the past few months on Eris, I can give you a few new theorems on the subject. (Who knows…maybe this contributes to your Uranus docket?) Known as Eris Discord by some and as Discordia to the ancient Romans, Eris seems to have a very special sort of symbolism in our life in that for many of us, discord seem to arise not in but around the house that Eris is positioned in natally – and that often (not always, but often) these matters are linked.

For instance, Eris in the 10th might mean you have a sincerely hard time not just finding the ‘right’ career but that because you have that hard time you end up cutting corners in some way which ends up causing some very real, real world (10th house) consequences…problems with the law, for instance. Or maybe a loss of (10th house) public standing. Eris in the 5th might mean you have ‘discord’ around having children – and then end up feeling ‘out in the cold’ because all the people who do have children are sort of treating you as “a different form of life.”

Anyway, this t-square doesn’t involve Uranus. But being that it happens at the same time as the Uranus station, it would be sensible to think of this ‘other matter’ as something which is either going on at the moment, or something which has some influence or bearing on your issues of the moment.

The ‘baseline’ here is a great (Pelion) amount of personal (Aries) something. Pelion generally refers to a large amount of effort which is required, but whether that’s effort already committed to something or effort you’re boggled at needing to put out is individual. Coupled to Eris, this would be a quintessential ‘big deal’ (of real type OR tempest-in-teacup type) which in some way asks that you (Jupiter/Castor) grow in ability or (Jupiter-Hel-Child) grow up some or deal with the ugly things you really don’t want to deal with but NEED to deal with (Jupiter-Hel-Child-Castor) and deal with firmly, squarely and in a straight-forward manner…with all of this being liberally tied in a knot by a true and sincere wish that a.) either you didn’t have to deal with this/could just ignore this…or….b.) that society and/or social forces (including business standards) would get real about the tendency to marginalize, bypass or ignore the fact that real human beings are affected on an everyday basis by things which don’t take realistic things into account.

The ‘goal’ presented here is a curious one: Haumea, Ceres and TNO Typhon in Libra, a combination which would appear to be more about the wish value of our planning and what we learn when ideals go awry than anything else.

And yet…there is that Haumea quality of ‘shape-shifting’ which, by being included in this figure simply adds to and reiterates the entire aura of change or ‘willing evolution to evolve’ which seems to go with this Uranus station. Looked at in terms of Uranus’ stationing in a degree known for lack of patience at a moment when Mercury is in Sagittarius indicating rapid pace or overloads with Uranus own configuration including its opposition to Mars (which, by the by, one could see very literally as an ‘opposition to Mars/doing or having to do’).

And that would seem to mean we have a Uranus station recipe for a lot of ‘this shouldn’t be my problem, it should be your problem (and I really wish you’d stop trying to foist it on me)’ sort of stuff. Or maybe you’re on the ‘I know I should, but I don’t WANT to…and I especially don’t want to have to change anything or learn better about anything - even if it’s the best thing for me - if someone else is pressuring me about it.’

Ah yes…and it’s the holidays. AND Venus is about to go retrograde.

To address this Uranus-Venus thing: if you do move forward now, you will spend the time between your ‘move’ and Venus’ end-of-January turn to direct working things out and solidifying your gains. (Or yes, your losses.) If you blow off something you KNOW you need to change, break out of or some other tra-la like that…or if you avoid something you know you need to deal with, Venus in retrograde will provide you with all sorts of reasons to keep wanting to hide from the truth.

And let’s remember…Uranus energetics are and do have a very distinct relationship to the truth. The Uranus question vis-à-vis the truth (and facts) is only ever whether we are willing to join with that truth, or whether we are determined to part from the truth by substituting some preferred mantra which sounds good…but which isn’t really real.

Of course, we may have done just that at some time in the past, too. If so, Uranus’ station becomes a time when such forces ‘explode’ in our (Aries) face (i.e., consciousness).

Here’s a diagram for these next few days of the month…

As you can see, December 19th is where the Uranus and Venus stations overlap, indicating a day of turmoil or shift/shifting where outward or outbound (Uranian) motion is expended, reacted to or reflected on in a Venusian (‘how does this affect me…?’) manner.

Are we being hasty? Are we merely being practical? Are we escaping or abdicating - enhancing or detracting from our innate wholeness or effectiveness? Going into this station things would seem to be focused on ‘the idea of the thing’ with theories are abounding in the moment.

And yet, where we come out of this station we are under Sun and Venus in earth – specifically in Capricorn.That says realism. That says reality and a need for determinations which, whether pragmatic or not really have to fit who you are and be capable of generating personal growth to have any lasting effectiveness. 

All of which generates this question: if we go into this station in theory and come out of it in a pragmatic or realism mode, what's happened?

What changes?

That would seem to be our question.
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