The 2001 opposition clash between outer planets Pluto and Saturn offered a synchronistic celestial reflection of the energies of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York City. According to German astrologer Reinhold Ebertin, some of the more negative keywords associated with this Pluto Saturn combination are: “cruelty; violent tendencies; fanatical adherence to one’s principles; martyrdom; self destruction; reactionaries and violent people”.
Nine years later these same planets are clashing again, but this time joined by a new player, the mighty sky god Uranus. Keywords for Uranus combined with Pluto and Saturn are as follows.
Positive Manifestation Perseverance, determination and endurance. The ability to overcome difficult situations through extraordinary effort. Revolution and rebirth. Refusal to be exploited. Rebellion against oppression.
Negative Manifestation Natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods or volcanic eruption. Acts of violence or cruelty. Limitations on freedom. Make or break situations. Brutal destruction of the past.
Between 2008 and 2012, all the slower moving planets (Saturn, Chiron, Uranus, Neptune & Pluto) will change zodiac sign making the present time and near future one of the most rapidly transformative periods in recent history. These slow moving planets offer an overall picture of the collective energy during any given time period.
Pluto’s move into practical, no-nonsense Capricorn has already brought the global financial crisis and this month Uranus enters the entrepreneurial and warlike sign of Aries for a nine year stint. Uranus takes an average of seven years to transit any one zodiac sign, returning to the same position every 84 years, and as Aries is the first sign of the zodiac ring, 2010 marks the birth of a new Uranian cycle. What effect will Uranus in Aries have on the generation of people born between now and 2019?
The last Uranus in Aries cycle began in 1927 and ended in 1935 meaning that children from this era grew up against the backdrop of the Wall Street Crash, the Great Depression and the Second World War. They had to summon the courage and resources to survive in a world that crumbled around them. Changes included the breakdown of the class system; the development of atomic technology and nuclear weapons; the demise of empires and rise of new country boundaries, economic and political instability, new roles for both men and women, mass unemployment, corporate restructuring and revised social ground rules.
This 1920-30s generation challenged the status quo with many of them personifying the rebelliousness of Uranus boldly expressed through the pioneering spirit of Aries. Roger Bannister, the first man to run a four minute mile. Stanley Kubrick, acclaimed director of the controversial film ‘Clockwork Orange’, Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian leader whose glasnost policies led to the end of the Cold War, Che Guevara, the Cuban revolutionary hero, Andy Warhol, the pop art guru, Martin Luther King, the black civil rights leader, Noam Chomsky, father of modern linguistics, Rupert Murdoch, media mogul and Elvis Presley, the charismatic superstar, to name but a few.
Uranus by transit always accelerates the pace of social change, boosting the collective urge to rebel against the status quo and create new forms. The planet of rebellion in the sign of fiery impulsiveness (Aries) suggests the drive for renewal and change over the next decade will be intense, abrupt and even violent. Some will find this liberating – usually those who have most to gain from a new order - but many will find the upheaval both challenging and upsetting.
On a more positive note, Uranus’s long journey through Aries is softened by the parallel ingress of Chiron into Pisces. Chiron normally spends four years in any one zodiac sign, but because of its erratic orbit, will be in Pisces for nine years – the same length of time that Uranus will spend in Aries.
Pisces embodies the energy of the entire zodiac cycle and also contains the seeds of the next cycle. Chiron, the wounded healer centaur of ancient mythology, with his wisdom and knowledge of natural remedies can teach us how to work with nature and the environment and how to empathise emotionally, rather than intellectually with those less fortunate.
On the negative side, Chiron in Pisces could increase the risk of serious epidemics, as with her openness, fluidity and lack of boundaries, Pisces provides the ideal medium for the spread of infections and the lowering of collective immunity. Our Earth may become more susceptible to damage from pollution, acid rain, water shortages or rising sea levels. But the unifying element of water should make us realise that we cannot harm or exploit others without suffering ourselves.
Thus we have Uranus in Aries, the harbinger of a new 84 year cycle of revolution, coupled with Chiron in Pisces, completing the final stage of a 50 year cycle of healing that began in 1969. The birth of the new combined with the wisdom of the old. How can we best express and combine the energies of these two very different planets over the next decade? We could hope that the compassionate Piscean energy will temper the impatient Arian force preventing a re-run of the tumultuous events of the 1930s. We can also hope that the breakthroughs in information technology will help dispel ignorance and get people working together. And if we are to choose the path of ‘overcoming difficult or seemingly impossible situations through extraordinary effort’ rather than the path of violence and brutality, here are a few challenges I believe we should prepare to face based on events from the past Uranus in Aries cycle. United we stand…divided we fall.
Predictions for Uranus in Aries
1) Protests from those who are exploited economically demanding fair wages and proper treatment. Just as wealthy people lost their servants and cheap labour in times past, Western countries will be forced to pay higher prices for goods manufactured in Third World countries. We will have to learn to make do with less.
2) Protests against sexual slavery and exploitation of women from women themselves, hopefully leading to legislation to protect and empower women.
3) Protests from people with disabilities refusing to accept the way they are treated by society and governments, hopefully leading to improved legislation, better funding and increased public awareness of the challenges these people face.
4) As world population grows and resources and living space become more costly and scarce, an increase in religious fundamentalism, racism and violence is likely as collective rage starts to explode under the fiery Arian energy. In the 1930s, these same conditions led to the growth of nationalism, anti-semitism and fascism and the rise of leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
5) As housing becomes more unaffordable, employment less predictable and people become more debt ridden and dependent on credit, it is entirely possible that we could experience further recession and an increasing divide between rich and poor. The sense of anger and powerlessness that this would create could lead to public demonstrations and increasing acts of violence and protest. Also a backlash against immigration based on a sense of scarcity and competition for resources and space.
6) As information technology becomes commonplace, we need to ensure it is used to benefit humanity rather than control or destroy humanity. Identity theft, computer viruses, exploitative pornography and cyber-stalking are realities of the modern world.
7) Given the unpredictability of Uranus and the fiery nature of Aries, we should prepare for an increase in heat waves, droughts, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones and other ‘Acts of God’.