Intro to Uranus

Uranus is the planet of breaking free, awakening, and life’s shocking plot twists. Just when we’ve got life all figured out and all is in order, Uranus rattles the cage to keep us from getting too set in our ways. It’s the trigger for personal and evolutionary change on the bigger, societal level.

The illuminator Uranus is the first of the slow-moving generational planets past Saturn. This is key to understanding the role it plays, since it’s known to shatter forms and disrupt the status quo that Saturn represents. It’s generational because like Neptune and Pluto, Uranus is in one sign for many years, influencing the times, and all those born in that era.

Uranus is often mythically linked to Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods in order to cast ahead beyond known limits of knowledge. Uranus is the flash of lightning that gives us momentary higher sight.

It’s considered the higher octave of Mercury and like the flash of lightning, we see everything in a new, sometimes strange light. Uranus represents the mysterious link we have to the universal mind, and those electric moments when we’re in synch with that higher plane. Uranus hints at a higher order,

In the birth chart, Uranus’ house position shows the life area where a breakthrough happens. It’s possible we are shaken awake by a violent event, a sudden loss or an abrupt ending. But awakening to a new way of seeing can be just as life-changing.

By its nature, the awakener Uranus seeks to startle us out of the familiar groove, and re-animate the life force. It interrupts the stagnated program to bring an important message to change. If you’re clinging to what’s dead in your life, Uranus’ bolts will seem cruel and shocking at first. Often it’s only later that the true relief sinks in, and the realization that we’ve been liberated from a self-created prison.

The house position of your Uranus is where you’ll experience personal revolutions. The disruptions that occur here are challenges to your Saturn, and may seem devastating if you’re too wed to the familiar. There are times of building up and times for busting out.

Uranus in the birth chart shows you where to expect the unexpected, and keep your mind open to change.

• True to its wild card nature, an independent astronomer first discovered Uranus in 1781; this is why it’s referred to as a “modern planet.”
• Uranus co-rules Aquarius with the order-bringer Saturn; the radical change it ushers in tends to become fixed in place.
• Uranus is the instigator of entirely new matrices of thought, and out of that comes the changes to society.
• Some Uranus themes are freedom, rebellion, technology, metaphysics, futuristic thinking and consciousness.

• Uranus’ aspects and house position are keys to your personal genius, how you’re unconventional and experimental.
• Uranus tends to take us by surprise with sudden events that change everything; transits will give clues to the life area it involves.
• Look to Uranus in the birth chart for the area of abrupt endings and beginnings.
• Uranus shows the field of experience where great awakenings can happen, often brought on by external forces beyond your control.

• Important turning points of life involve Uranus, whose shockwaves are a reminder to get out and seize the day.
• Uranus shows our capacity to break from the status quo, even if that means being labeled weird, fringy or eccentric.
• When Uranus turns on a light, we suddenly see how we’ve been restricted by the life structures of Saturn.
• Uranus’ force is electric and urgent, known as the planet of crisis and the unexpected opportunities it brings.

• Aspects to personal planets show how we’re jostled or shaped by the powerful currents of our times.
• Those born between 1963 and 1969 embody the intensity of the sixties, when Pluto was conjunct Uranus in earth sign Virgo (holistic systems, service, grassroots).
• Uranus shapes a generation through technology, since it determines how we link up and share ideas across the globe.
• Uranus colors a generation’s era with both shocks, like assassinations and tragedies, as well as its mind-blowing moments.