Uranus in Taurus: At the Halfway Mark

Uranus: our individual / collective Queering / Questioning Weirdo, chaotically creating scenarios where our individualism must be fully embraced so we can all be our truest selves, together. The only planet that rotates on its side. Symbol of equal liberation for all, but not identically. Our collective mind, our shared nervous system - which also leads us to the traumatic, dissociative agony of rejection we experience for the simple, but incredibly hard, desire to be ourselves, or when we’ve been inside of an experience too horrific to believe.

Uranus takes approximately 8 years to transit through a sign, taking 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun and hence move through the entire Zodiac. Uranus entered Taurus on May 15, 2018,, retrograded back to Aries on November 6, 2018, returned to Taurus March 6, 2019 where it will remain through July 7 2025. It will briefly enter Gemini, retrograding early on and returning to Taurus from November 8 2025 until it leaves the sign for the next 84 years on April 26, 2026. On January 8, 2023, the day of our dance, it will be at 15° Taurus 2’ in retrograde motion. It will go direct on January 22 at 5:58 PM EST at 14° Taurus 57’.

Remember this as you read the next several paragraphs: Uranus is ultimately about waking us up. And in the end, if we work with this energy well, we will be more deeply in touch with updated visions the ways our values play out here on Earth.

As I sit here writing about Uranus in Taurus I am seeing many difficult images: electrified cattle prods shocking traumatic feed-lot abused cows to their slaughter. The vacant look in the eyes of Ukrainian refugees in total shock: their homes, their loved ones, their culture being taken from them as invading, imperialist, ultra-authoritarian Russia attempts to obliterate everything that they are to prove dominance and take what they see as rightfully theirs (there are many parallels between this era’s Russia and the rise of the Third Reich, which happened the last time Taurus was in Uranus in 1934-1941). I see billions of humans sitting in their homes, dissociated, looking at screens almost non-stop for years at a time, in shock and disbelief, all light years away. I see groups of marginalized, displaced peoples across the globe, throughout history, at the hands of every form of domination - and from the ongoing increase in natural disasters due to climate change (very Uranus in Taurus). In light of The Hierophant image I see places in time and space where Papal abusive powers inflicted these kinds of wounds on peoples across the globe.

This week, we saw the funeral of a very conservative pope who was the first to retire 600 years, presided over by the very detached current pope who has shown (some) more connectivity to the actual reality of his faithful, himself likely looking to do the same and retire. A gentle queering / questioning of the papal aspects of The Hierophant energy (and in this moment I can’t help but think of how many popes have likely been closeted throughout history).

If we would like to look other expressions of a Hierophant / Taurean spiritual it is said that Siddhartha Gautama, The Buddha, was born under the sign of Taurus. When I think about it of course enlightenment would come from sitting in nature, in this case under the Bodhi Tree.

Moving farther back in time to the religions of the Ancient Greeks, one of the most ancient of their gods Ουρανός (Uranus, the word for heaven in modern Greek) was the son and later husband of Γάια (Gaia, word for Earth in modern Greek). Together they had many children, including Κρόνος (Cronus, or Saturn, the word for time in modern Greek). In one version of a myth, out of jealousy towards their own children, Uranus hid their progeny inside the Earth. Gaia conscripted Saturn to cut off Uranus’ genitals to avenge her. Saturn threw the castrated member into the sea, and there it mixed with the sea form to birth Aφροδίτη (Aphrodite, Venus, which in modern Greek is actually used as a first name).

Consider for a moment how an instrument (Uranus’ genitals) that may have been an expression of love, and force and will and likely darker energies, were transfigured into Venus. Think for a moment of what can happen as we heal through our individual/collective wounds. Asheville-based astrologer Liz Gunn says is Uranus, at the end of the day, teaches and holds this almost neutral, universal love - like the sky looking down over each and every one of us here on Earth from far above. See - after being held accountable, the patriarch looks down upon all of creation, covering us all in his love equally. Key 17 in the Major Arcana, The Star, holds the archetype of Aquarius with its Tarot overlay. we will explore more of the beautiful expressions of these far off visions: visions from far beyond that nourish both ourselves and others.

So what are our visions (Uranus) for the Earth (Taurus)? How do we embody what we wish to pass on after we take a really distanced look, questioning them and seeing what really has the depth to be passed on - and how to create an artful heritage for the new ones?

How do we move our bodies in the most authentic way possible, no matter what consequence of rejection that might hold for us from the judgments of societies (I use the plural form intentionally, for every type of society holds its own norms and hence judgments of those outside of those norms). Ultimately, Uranus in Taurus can prove to be a very inventive and fruitful pairing if we live into this question - and we are presently at the halfway point (by degree) through Uranus transit of the sign my hope is that we can live into these questions whole-heartedly over these next 3 years.