Uranus in Aries AstroTrends: Three Reflections
Photo by Sebastian Kanczok via Unsplash
Astrologically, the planet Uranus reflects the ideas and ideals of change, rebellion, disruption, innovation, and chaos as a creative principle. Uranus is said to be the Great Awakener, shifting us out of confined patterns and inspiring illumination, reflective of Prometheus the mythic god with whom many astrologers associate with this planet.
Uranus takes about 84 years to go around the Sun, spending about seven years in each of the twelve zodiac signs. Just recently, Uranus has been blazing through the sign of Aries since 2011 (and also did a short stint before that in the spring and summer of 2010).
And while Uranus will be back in Aries for its swan song from November 6 (2018) to March 6 (2019), it's currently being at the end of this sign before it shifts into Taurus feels really important; it feels like a time when we’ve been able to see some of the hallmarks of the trends that have arisen in the last seven years.
Why may these have been trends? As I shared in my AstroTrends intro piece, we can look to planetary placements to read the kairos, the qualitative state that different moments have. And with Uranus being a disruptor and innovator, when in Aries, it did some of its disruption/innovation in the realms that Aries governs.
Some of the realms that Aries is associated with include:
Being first
Children and youth
The head and the face
A sense of “I”: identity and individuality
The military and weapons
Fire
Reflecting this, here are three recent trends and themes that I feel reflect Uranus in Aries.
The Rise and Role of Facebook
With Aries associated with faces and identities and Uranus related to disruptive technology, in the past years we’ve seen the pervasiveness of Facebook in the collective culture. And while it was launched in 2004, it went public in 2012, the same year that it declared it had surpassed monthly active usership of one billion people. Over the years, a huge portion of the population have relied so heavily upon Facebook in numerous realms of life: it’s where we know to connect with others, read the news, learn about products, market our businesses, et al. Yet, just recently, with the Cambridge Analytica scandal, there’s been a backlash as people realize how much data the company collects and sells about each of us, all the while not shepherding our data privacy (which I think will lead to a new trend opportunity when Uranus goes into Taurus, which I'll sharing in the coming weeks); with Uranus at the end of Aries, we have just seen the burgeoning of the #DeleteFacebook movement, the talk of whether governments want to begin regulating it, and other factors that reflect a possible shift in how it operates and the role that it plays in society.
Gun Culture
While the Columbine High School shooting seemed to spark the beginning of a new chapter when it came to gun violence, the tides of awareness seemed to elevate to another level in 2012, when 20 children and 6 adults were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. The number of shootings—in schools, nightclubs, office buildings, and other public and private places—has rapidly escalated and we are all too aware of how commonplace guns are in the U.S. and the ease of being able to purchase military-grade weapons. At the same time, repeated attempts to pass gun control legislation have failed. In the past months, the February shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas (MSD) High School in Florida has escalated the conversation regarding gun control, the power of the NRA, the political influence the gun lobby has, and how divisive this issue has become. The #NeverAgain movement, spearheaded by MSD students, seems to have raised a whole new sea of voices and awareness in this arena; it’s interesting to me how Aries is associated with beginnings and emboldened courage, and that it’s this new generation, filled with an outspoken bravery and social media savvy (technology being co-ruled by Uranus) that has disrupted an assumption that nothing can be done and has led to a new vitality in this movement.
Head Injuries + Sports
I remember in 2010 I gave a lecture to a local astrology association about AstroTrends. When I discussed Uranus in Aries, my main focus was on how with Aries ruling the head as well as related to the martial quality of athletics, that there may be a growing focus on head injuries in sports. While chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) was first studied in boxers in the 1920s and first studied in football players in 2002, it seems to have sprung to another level of our attention in 2012 when numerous football players who committed suicide were diagnosed with CTE postmortem. The 2015 movie Will Smith movie Concussion also brought attention to this subject and it seems that every week we read more about how head injuries, experienced in a variety of sports, cause brain damage as well as how athletes across the spectrum—whether professional or youngsters—are becoming more aware of the risks. Hopefully, this shift in awareness will bring along changes that prevent this devastating injury and its grave impacts.
Onward into Taurus
Before I look at upcoming Uranus in Taurus AstroTrends, I wanted to look at the past years and give you a sense of how we can see astrology come alive in the collective, by sharing those three examples.
Please check back for future posts in which I will explore possible trends with Uranus in Taurus.