The Uranus Cycle
Uranus
Uranus represents the urge in us to individuate. We are all a part of a community, a society that has established traditions and rules about the right way to live, think, the right order in which to have major events occur in our life, an agreement on 'common sense', etc. This isn't all bad, truly, but Uranus represents the part of us that can and needs to keep us in check when all that societal indoctrination isn't working for us. Uranus is the urge in to break the rules when necessary. Where Uranus is in your natal chart can tell you where you need to be careful about listening to the advice and counsel of others to "be sensible" (which usually means do what everyone's always done and proved to work). That advice will just not work for you and will more than likely stifle what does and will work for you -- but it's up to you to figure out what works. Uranus is about freedom too -- and you are free to determine for yourself what works, and what doesn't.
Uranus in Transit
When we are in a Uranian time, meaning transiting Uranus is hitting a hot point in our chart, we tend to be filled with urgency and electricity. It's time to re-authenticate. Wherever Uranus is touching in your chart, it's a place in your life that you need to re-awaken. Uranus is saying, how have you fallen asleep in this place of your life, and just allowed the status quo to define you and your behavior? Uranus is not quiet about it, either. It wants change and generally demands action, usually resulting in fireworks of some sort. If you respond gracefully to this energy, you're likely to make some necessary changes, to re-align your behavior more toward your authentic self, to re-adjust your path and your outlook of how you are approaching this area of your life. If you respond less than gracefully to this energy . Either way, it's not uncommon to experience the reaction of other people to your changes with a shake of the head and a surety of your craziness, and this is as it should be. As my mentor Steven Forrest would say, there is no greater sound to Uranus than the sound of a rule breaking?
The Uranian CycleAny transiting planet will not only bring to light the issues of any natal planet it touches as it makes its way around the zodiac and your chart, but one of those natal planets will be Uranus itself, of course. What happens when your Uranus is electrified by itself? There are several aspects that transiting Uranus will make to your natal Uranus over the course of your life. I've chosen two specific ones to talk about here that are the most recognizable.
Uranus square Uranus
The Uranus square happens for everyone at about 21, but can vary from person to person a couple of years on each side. So sometime in your early 20s or very, very late teens you experience this transit and a surge of rebellious and feisty energy charges you. We have a desire to assert our new status as an 'adult' and recognize that we are tired of people telling us what to do, being under the thumb of our parents or our teachers. We have more freedom once we reach this age than we ever have and we are bursting to exercise it. The point of this time period is to make a great leap toward the transition from child/teenager to adult. The square piece brings the friction. Usually this is not a gentle process. When you're filled with rebellious energy, you are generally a pain in the butt to those around you! Hopefully those around you can support you and give you the freedom to make your choices, even if they look like mistakes, because the point of this time is not whether or not you make the right choices, but about asserting the fact that now they are all yours to make.
Uranus opposite Uranus
The Uranus opposition happens for everyone at about 42, but can vary from person to person a couple of years on each side. So sometime in your very late 30s or early 40s, you experience another surge of feisty and rebellious energy. The theme is the same: re-authenticate. Check in with yourself, wake up, remember who you are and take stock of your life to see if you've gone to sleep at the wheel. Your Self calls out to you again and demands to be heard. This time, though, the stakes can seem higher. The Uranus opposition often corresponds with the well-known term "mid-life crisis." We tend to look at that as a joke -- the guy who buys a hot rod car, gets a toupee or a tattoo, dates a 20-something year old (not to pick on the guys alone!). Those are cartoons of some of the responses to the Uranus opposition time -- we appear to be rebelling against aging itself and we look like we're trying to regress. But the point of this time is not about reclaiming youth. You have come to roughly the middle of your life. In the cells of your body, you recognize this fact and are filled with a sense of urgency. The stakes may be even higher because now you've got a little of life as an adult behind you, and we have established our routines, our career paths, our families, our real estate -- one or all of these. So sometimes this awakening is even more drastic, because we sense that we don't have any more time to waste going in the wrong direction.
This is not to assume that we are going in the wrong direction, but all of us can usually benefit from a sense of re-prioritizing our lives to make sure that our Selves are a part of the life we are leading, that our Selves are the ones behind the wheel, that we are not on auto pilot. An appropriate response, again to Uranus, will probably leave others thinking we're crazy, but it's easy to take this energy and just zap all the things in our lives that we perceive as holding us in place, keeping us stuck. We have a great potential to destroy parts of our lives and burn bridges here. Perhaps that's necessary, but more often than not, we can make changes within the context of our lives. This isn't to say they should be small or insignificant changes, only to realize what the real enemy is. It may not be our job or our spouse. It's our sleepiness-our sleepy participation in lives that have stopped belonging to us.