Today’s stand-off between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus is the first of three exact squares that will define the major themes of 2021 at both a personal and historical scale. The dynamic set in motion by this transit, which will last all year and into 2022, brings into focus the most important work that each of us will be compelled to accomplish this year. Over the course of 2021 we’ll be challenged to overcome our fears and change calcified patterns of behaviour that prevent us from experiencing liberation in specific areas of our lives.
The intensity of this transit, and the areas of life affected will depend on each individual’s natal chart but the possibilities for profound change are high. These two outer, slow-moving planets are also the ancient (Saturn) and modern (Uranus) rulers of Aquarius, however they couldn’t be more different. Saturn represents the need for personal and collective responsibility and creates opportunity through painful limitations that trigger our fears and require hard work, leading us eventually to mastery and maturity. Uranus is the planet of radical, shocking, instantaneous change and disruption that awakens and liberates by ripping away the things we’ve clinging to that have been weighing us down and preventing us from moving forward.
In Taurus, Uranus brings such change in the realm of resources and the things we value. At a global scale, we’re likely to see innovative technological advances (Uranus) over the next two years that allow us to take better care and make more efficient use of the Earth’s resources (Taurus). With Saturn in Aquarius - the sign of social equality, decentralised networks of power, and the self-actualised individual who serves society through the expression of their unique gifts - the focus is on restructuring society and greater individual freedoms. But with Uranus, planet of chaos and rebellion, and Saturn, planet of control and domination as the main players, this process of liberation through structural change will involve periods of both turbulence and restriction.
Saturn has the upper hand in this dynamic all year, which means that progress will be slow and possibly hard to see but although he is conservative, parental and controlling, Saturn in Aquarius is still forward looking, and intent on securing a better deal for the greatest number of people. It’s also worth remembering that the last time Uranus was in Taurus, Franklin D Roosevelt introduced the most comprehensive social protections for ordinary Americans in the history of the US. With Saturn in Aquarius rewarding sober, mature hard work that benefits the greater good, Bernie Sanders’ suggestion that Biden could become the most progressive US President since FDR, an idea widely mocked by political commentators, may even turn out to be true. I won’t be surprised to see progressive representatives like Sanders and a growing number of others who embody the sober maturity of Saturn and Uranian radicalism with a focus on Aquarian justice continue to gain power and influence during this period.
The Saturn-Uranus dynamic operates within a 45 year synodic cycle and each time the two planets come into powerful aspect with one another, they continue to unfold a process of change and reconstruction that has its roots in previous chapters of the story. This particular cycle began in 1988 with the conjunction of Saturn and Uranus in Sagittarius, a couple of degrees from the galactic centre. The catchphrase ‘structural upheaval’ describes the seeding of this cycle, which was followed by major processes of restructuring within the USSR; the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the reunification of Germany and the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1989; and the active dismantling of apartheid, the fall of the Soviet Union and the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1991. These events brought radical liberation (Uranus), often through the dismantling of oppressive structures (Saturn) which changed the world and brought liberation to millions.
Saturn and Uranus met again in 1999 and 2000 in an opening square when they were in the opposite signs (Saturn in Taurus and Uranus in Aquarius) to the ones they’re currently occupying. The Y2K panic, the bursting of the dot.com bubble, the collapse of Enron and the merging of AOL and Time Warner, which laid the foundations for the tech industry as we know it today, all accompanied that transit. Most recently the two planets met in an opposition in 2008. Barack Obama was elected on the first day of the opposition and soon after we experienced a global financial collapse as well as the emergence of digital platforms like Uber, Instagram and Netflix that have become ubiquitous tools in everyday life.
In 2021 Saturn and Uranus are coming together in a closing square, an aspect that astrologer Dane Rudhyar described as a ‘crisis in consciousness’. The issues that are surfacing now in our lives may feel shocking, confronting, frightening and overwhelming, but they’re the very experiences that will allow us to find liberation and the expansion in consciousness necessary to level up in our lives and in society at large. The first of these squares today sets the stage for the work needing to be done. But if the obstacles are feeling insurmountable right now, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. What starts out looking dire is likely to end up working out much better than expected. And we have three more passes to understand, overcome and build something radically liberating and new from the challenges we’re being presented with in this dynamic between the old way and the new. Saturn will square Uranus again on June 17 and on Christmas Day, and then finally again on October 12 2022.
Uranus is pushing us out of our comfort zones but Saturn has control of the brakes. With Saturn all powerful in the skies for now, pushing forward against the restrictions we’re experiencing will only cause more frustration and potentially even accidents. We’ve got some more work to do before Saturn gives us the green light to move forward but the scenarios that continue to unfold for each of us in 2021 are like tailor-made training programs designed to increase our mental, emotional, material & spiritual fitness for the big adventures to come.
For more on the personal implications of this transit & other aspects playing out this week, feel free to check out this week’s video overview below.
Earth changes, 2021
Gouache & iridescent watercolour on paper
111 x 75cm
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