Author's Note: Recent incidents of political violence in America are illustrative of the social breakdowns that occur during the Uranus alignments explored in the article below. These are volatile times as America deals with the karmic consequences of the past 84 years and redefines its political and cultural identity over the years to come.
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In part 1, I referred to the troubles of the late 1850s, including the violence of Bleeding Kansas and the economic panic of 1857. These events were part of the social, political, and economic crises that were fueling the movement towards Southern secession and civil war. At that time, Uranus was transiting the last degrees of Taurus, from about 25º-29º. These degrees are significant because they are at a conflictual square alignment (90º) to the Moon in the U.S. natal chart at 27º Aquarius.
Uranus takes about 84 years to transit the zodiac. Step back 84 years from 1857, to 1773, when Uranus was at 25º Taurus and the Boston Tea Party gave a bold middle finger to the British Empire as American rebels deigned to show the King of England that they would not submit to taxation without representation. Although America had not yet declared independence, this "pre-natal square" to the eventual Moon of the eventual United States expresses the same kind of social agitation and breakdown that would, like the late 1850s, lead the nascent country into a major war.
Now jump 84 years after 1857, to 1941, when Japan attacked the naval base at Pearl Harbor and declared war on the United States. America was thrust into another major war, World War II, just as Uranus reached 27º Taurus, again squaring the Moon in the U.S. horoscope.
Nearly 84 years later, in November 2024, we had the second presidential election of Donald Trump, as Uranus again reached 25º Taurus. You see the pattern here. Uranus will retrograde back to 27º Taurus in January of 2026, leaving Taurus for good in April (until it returns in 2102).
Much is made these days about Uranus entering Gemini as a herald of war. But really, it's the transit through late Taurus that stirs up the events that culminate in war by the time Uranus enters Gemini, or soon after. The United States has its natal Uranus at 8º Gemini, with each of the wars mentioned above occurring during America's Uranus Return.
But why would Uranus be linked with American wars? In my view, Uranus represents something existential about America. It is half-rulerUranus's Rulership (or not) of Aquarius of the Moon of America's horoscope, and its nature as emancipation through rebellion aptly describes the karmic impetus for the country's founding. It is not that Uranus inherently wants to make war, rather it shapes and defines the values of the American people, and when those values inevitably come under a significant new threat they must be renewed and reasserted.
Ancient astrologers assigned Saturn as the ruler of Aquarius, long before Uranus was a known planet. After Uranus's discovery, astrologers realized that its placement in a horoscope conferred qualities similar to the sign of Aquarius. Since Saturn already rules Capricorn, it was thought that Uranus could take over as the ruler Aquarius. While many modern astrologers consider Uranus the sole ruler of Aquarius, some consider both Saturn and Uranus as co-rulers. Personally, I find the link of Saturn to Aquarius too important to dismiss, and find it is a more apt ruler than Uranus. Still, the affinity between Uranus and Aquarius is undeniable, and I accept there can be dual rulership, or at least, dual influence.
It's as if every return of Uranus reawakens the freedom-fighting spirit at the heart of the national consciousness. By the time Uranus first enters Taurus (1850, 1934, 2018) that spirit seems to have been lulled to sleep, but by the time Uranus reaches those sensitive final degrees (1857, 1941, 2025), it is raging from slumber, bursting from the Taurean ground and, like a reverse lightning strike, takes sudden, vengeful flight into the airy sky of cunning Geminian ingenuity. The classically American motto of New Hampshire, "Live free or die", is that burst of Uranian spirit in perfect directness.
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