Saturn marks the boundary of our visible solar system. Its symbolic rings speak to us of how Saturn encircles our manifest reality, how it defines it, holds it together in a structure of belief. Saturn is lord of the manifest world. Its nearest neighbor planet is Uranus. I am told that, every once in a great while, Uranus is visible to the naked eye, but I have never seen it. Uranus is the beginning of the unseen realms.
While Saturn is the limit of our physical senses, Uranus calls to us from another dimension. It invites us into a higher state of consciousness. It shocks us and wakes us up by disrupting our lives. It screams, “Wake up!” and slam dunks our reality. Its action is swift, sudden, unexpected and rarely welcome, at least until you start paying attention. Then it will enliven your path to freedom, dropping insights and glimpses of a possible future like breadcrumbs to lead you home.
Uranus is electric in nature, like one of those spectacular lightening displays. It was discovered in 1781 by German-born, British astronomer, William Herschel. The planet is a maverick in that it lies on its side and rotates around a horizontal axis instead of a polar axis. It was a bit of a shock to our solar system, but gradually astrologers, historians and philosophers recognized the synchronicity of its discovery with the awakening of Democracy in the western world, only five years after the American Revolution, eight years before the French. Uranus carries the banner of freedom and independence.
With the birth of psychology and psychoanalysis a century later, Uranus became the symbol of individuation, a process of psychological integration in which a person reclaims the lost and denied parts of self and becomes more whole. It’s a process of growth through expanded awareness and the result is a unique individual. Liberated from the need to succumb to conditioned thinking and social norms, an individual discovers and begins to express its true identity.
The process of individuation necessarily involves remembering, experiencing and healing the damaging or even traumatic events in one’s early life. This is where Chiron comes in.
Chiron, the centaur from the Kuiper Belt, intersects the orbits of both Saturn and Uranus and has therefore been called the Rainbow Bridge by author Barbara Hand Clow. Through his healing and mentoring he helps us make the leap from our conditioned, painful existence into alive, awake, aware and unique Selfhood. This is the journey we will explore in “Practicing the Future.”
So let’s take a look at the three-way dynamic between Saturn, Uranus and their go-between, Chiron, in the USA chart. We have talked about Saturn in Libra in the 10th house. I mentioned that the true Selfhood of our nation is world leadership in the areas of peace, justice and unconditional love. Saturn, however, lies in an uneasy square to the USA Sun in Cancer. It is also trine the USA Uranus. We want to feel freedom and independence, but we don’t want to take responsibility for it. We don’t like rules, we rebel against regulations, and while we agree in theory to what is laid out in the Constitution, we have become a lawless land.
I’ve mentioned the adolescent nature of our collective society before. Disregard of the law is a blatant example. Kids don’t want a curfew. CEO’s don’t want restrictions on their “rights” to pollute. Most drivers resent and ignore speed limits. Can you see the adolescent attitude here? Everyone out for themselves? A spiritual adult thinks not just of himself, but of the impact he has on others. A spiritual adult realizes that the health of the whole is dependent upon the responsibility of its parts, and she takes responsibility for her part.
America has yet to learn this lesson and Uranus is here to teach us. What a whirlwind of chaos we have now, right? Every day some new outrageous bit of news assaults our sense of justice, or shocks our sense of decency. It’s almost impossible to maintain our equilibrium. As the Saturn-inspired Rule of Law crumbles, the center of our society collapses in on itself. We can no longer look to “authorities” to take care of our reality. Uranus dishes out disruption to shake us loose from our moorings. Uranus is screaming “Wake up! Take responsibility for your part of the Whole.”
Uranus is trine Saturn, making them allies through this harmonious aspect. We don’t leave maturity and responsibility behind in our in individuation. We build upon those valuable prerequisites. Uranus is in our nation’s 6th house, the home of service, work, health, daily life – our ordinary daily life. This is where transformation needs to happen, in the way we live our daily lives, in the attitudes we carry, in the quality of the energy we broadcast, in the way we encounter one another. We could begin with simple respect; allow it to bloom into brotherly love.
It’s time to redefine what it means to be a leader. A leader doesn’t control his followers, tell them what to do, enforce his will. A leader holds up a light and embodies a vision. A leader inspires! And we don’t need just one leader. We need a nation of leaders who are living their authenticity and taking responsibility for the evolution of the Whole. We need to find the courage to grow up and step into the roles we came here to fill.
We only have two more planets to encounter – Mars and Neptune – and then we’ll begin to assemble the pieces of the astrological map of the American psyche. We’ll tackle Mars next. Perfect timing – NFL football season begins next week.
In the meantime, look for my New Moon forecast. The first couple of weeks in September offer powerful opportunities for growth and transformation. New Moon in Virgo is on Friday. I’ll post again tomorrow so you can be prepared to take advantage of September’s harmonious energies.
By the way, people in South America have organized a world-wide meditation/prayer event for today, Thursday August 29, at 2 pm PDT. Adjust for your time zone, set a reminder and take a few minutes to stop what you’re doing and tune in to the collective desire to save the Amazon rainforest – the very lungs of Mother Earth. The form doesn’t matter. Do what comes naturally to you – pray, meditate, program, create a ritual, call in your spiritual guides, the elements, the fairy kingdom – open your heart and let your love pour into the Amazon. Let’s create a miracle!
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