by Marilyn J. Muir, LPMAFA
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Our Founding Fathers formed the United States of America in an atmosphere of progress, revolution and evolution. Uranus had been sighted previously but had not been recognized for what it was…an addition to our solar family of planets. With its recognition, the door opened to a new era of discovery. That which had been not visible and was therefore unconscious for mankind became both visible and conscious as planets and asteroids revealed themselves. Uranus was the first of many celestial discoveries of our planet’s cosmic identity as we expanded beyond the boundary imposed by Saturn, the Ring Pass Not of antiquity. With the introduction of Uranus on March 13, 1783 at 24 Gem 27, mankind transitioned into the future, whether or not it was ready, whether or not mankind agreed, because the future had arrived and introduced itself!
To me, life is like an amazing set of stair steps of experience if I happen to be paying attention. We encounter a riser of experience, provoking us, testing us, leading us to accomplishment and to a level place, a platform of assimilation where true progress can occur. We cannot always be tested by life and the celestial energies because we could not survive. We need breaks in our lessons so we can evoke meaning out of experience. Mankind struggles to succeed in the ascent, and at the summit mankind achieves a milestone. Only with contemplation and internalizing can the full lesson be understood… then another riser appears in front of us and the new lesson commences.
At times the achievement is fleeting and a new series begins even before we feel we are ready. At other times there appears to be a long wait until the next riser tempts us to experience. Some participants are hasty, some drag their heels, some avoid, some provoke, according to our individual natures. Sometimes the universe takes charge and experience lands on us whether or not we are ready, willing and able. I have experienced (and I’m reasonably sure you have experienced) multiple lessons, which can be daunting and overwhelming. Life happens to us and we happen to life.
In 1776, a concept of representative government was launched in the middle of an existing war, the revolution of a citizenry against the greatest military power of that era. Against all imaginable odds, that quest culminated in victory on September 3, 1783. The United States of America was conceived, produced, tried and tested, and formed as a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Our forefathers and countless generations fought for their individual liberty, our individual liberty and liberty for many generations to come.
The conclusion of our experiential stair step in history was an unusual double moment, which is also very Uranian, a duality of sort (think of the duality implied in the two upright bars of the Uranus glyphs). Members of Congress assumed their positions at noon LMT on March 4, 1789 in New York City and our constitutional government began. Our first president was supposed to be inaugurated at that same time; however, George Washington was not in the area and transportation was difficult at best. The actual swearing-in ceremony for President Washington was April 30, 1789 at 1: 48:30 PM LMT. What was meant to be a single event on March 4th became a double event. That opens the door for astrological ponderings, perhaps even providing an explanation for the multiplicity of our government: the legislative, the executive and the judicial tri-partite form. Perhaps the enmity and division that has occurred between the legislative and the judicial branch of our government is represented through that double-bar symbolism.
During that same period, what would become the French Revolution had been fomenting for several years reaching a peak of activity on May 5, 1789 with the convocation of the Estates-General. This was a period of very radical (Uranus) social and political upheaval (Uranus) not only in France and the United States, but it infected much of Europe. The feudal society of France was challenged by revolution and by radical movements (Uranus) involving masses of citizens. Tradition and the hierarchy represented by the aristocracy and monarchy as well as religious authority gave way to the drive for the evolutionary causes of enlightenment, personal rights, and political equality (very Uranian). And they say this stuff doesn’t work!
Uranus does stir things up, has some pretty bizarre turns, does not announce itself before it sets off the fireworks, definitely does not follow anyone’s game plan, and starts and stops when it chooses. At times Uranus fakes you out and makes you think it has finished but it was only having fun with you as the next bomb explodes in life.
What began in world history at the discovery of Uranus did not stop with the late 1700’s; change has become a way of life. Look at all the wars and the upheaval of government throughout our own and Europe’s history and even around the world. The French Revolution of 1848 has been celebrating its 164th birthday, as it endures its Neptune Return (164.7 years). Do you think France is undergoing unrest, disappointment, learning the difference between the dream and reality as it struggles through an economic meltdown? The European Union is a hotbed of economic and cultural woes. With our personal and national struggles, we seem to forget we are not alone in those struggles.
Now that I have brought up the Neptune return, and this article is mostly about Uranus and the lessons it has come to teach us, what about the Uranus returns which occur more often than Neptune in a cycle of 84 years. If you look at the Uranus positions in the U.S. chart, you will see the beginning of the cycle in the 1776 natal, our Declaration of Independence, 84 years later Uranus returned to 8 Gemini 54 circa 1860 and the start of our nation’s civil war. Another cycle of 84 years and the U.S. was involved in World War II, and I shudder to think of those experiences and lessons.
Another Uranus return is moving into place as we approach 2028. The years I have mentioned are not isolated as tiny moments of time. They are the headliner moments of a process, one that ferments for a long period and then breaks out in glorious, living color. We go through a process of fomentation, escalating conditions, and then the Uranian moment, all this the riser of experience, followed by the necessity to make sense out of those experiences, the platform of all that has occurred where we assimilate and grow from our experiences.
The old adage that we are doomed to repeat our lessons looks very true from this standpoint. But is repetition necessary or is it possible that we learn from our lessons and not be doomed to repeat them? Uranus is the breakthrough energy that must cut through the stagnation of conformity, tradition, and potential devolution. It is painful, messy, unexpected, uncertain, uncomfortable, confrontive and a host of similar keywords but it is necessary for evolution to move beyond each point in its development. Mankind is a collective creature of habit and does not like uncertainty, walking the edge of the cliff of experience and change, alteration of its constants, and its creature comforts. As the representative of an evolving universe, Uranus is just not going to leave us alone to wallow in our stuck-ness. Saturn’s form must allow for change, but it is not a willing partner of change.
Kahlil Gibran in The Prophet states “For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.” Destiny is in front of us not behind us. Regression and staying stuck in our knowns and our past are not a solution. Evolution is progress, implying forward motion towards the future, newness. Devolution is the word for living in the past, clinging to what must eventually give way to unfolding life, if not today, then soon. Saturn makes sense and then form out of our experience, but establishes the necessity for Uranus to shake up and shake out that form so life and experience and we as individuals can continuously move forward in our becoming. What has been gives way to what must be. Uranus clears the decks so that new form and new tradition can take place…and mankind progresses.
Published in AFA Today’s Astrologer Aug 2013 vol 75#8, republished with slight editing.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.