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The Meaning of Uranus in the Birth Chart

In astrology, the planets describe basic impulses. The slower planets, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, which roam 30 degrees of each zodiac sign for years, point to individual characteristics we share with people of our own generation. Despite this, the expression of this energy remains personal.

We are all ingenious in some area. We all have the spark of genius within us. Wherever Uranus is in our birth chart, we identify with the counterculture, our inner punk, our rock’n roll… funky side.

Uranus awakens our ability to break social norms. Its energy can help us free ourselves from old restrictive structures and patterns, fostering personal growth and the search for our authenticity.

That part of us that demands the honest expression of our being can feel like a disruptive agent with whom we can get along more or less well. Can we all truly bring our genius out? Or do we have to overcome conscious and unconscious fears?

The issue is that we all have that avant-garde inside, who seeks to break with the pre-established molds. If we look at those individuals who call our attention because they do not ask for permission to express their personal freedom, we are actually looking at that part of ourselves that we don’t dare to embody, express, show…

And of course… everyone has their own version of what it means to be “unique”. But being it, it is still a challenge. Getting out of the status quo can be really scary! Uranus can feel like a destabilizing energy in our lives. Still, its presence is real. It is a part of us that seeks to remove the limitations that do not allow us to express our individuality.

Being unique doesn’t necessarily mean dyeing your hair blue. In reality, the Uranian energy in our lives is in harmony with the personal reality in which we find ourselves. If dyeing our hair blue is commonplace in our environment, then Uranian energy can symbolize the expression of a more traditional character…as it breaks the mold! That’s what Uranus is all about: the courage of being different!

The capacity for progress that Uranus represents has more to do with what one does with that energy rather than Uranus itself. Uranus is the portal that connects us with our maverick part. We all feel it!

How many times have you read in one of those fashion magazines about the steps you must follow to make someone fall in love with you? «You have to wait three days before calling him or her» – suggests the love formula. But something inside you tells you that you want it now! So… who do you follow? To your heart or to Cosmopolitan? «Yes, but if I call before… they won’t want me! They will believe that I am desperate! ». That’s what we believe, and then, we do things that are not representative of our authenticity and often don’t generate the results we’re looking for.

This example seems too banal… but in reality, it represents the force that the status quo has on us. People with more fluid Uranian energy just need to know that the “3-day rule of love” exists… to break it! Many will suffer in silence without understanding why they should wait, and yet they wait. And this is how one enters into a reality of social conventions that we do not feel as our own. And so, the tension begins…

Is it easy to be ourselves?

What is that about breaking the rules? Is it being rebellious just because? Some may see it as making little sense. But on an energetic level, Uranus simply does not accept homogeneity because being uniform is unnatural and contravenes the creativity of the “Gaian” nature.

For those of you who haven’t subscribed to my extended astrology on Substack, I mention here again that I like to call ourselves Gaians because Gaia is the personification of Earth and astrology is in itself a study of the influence of different cosmic events in our terrestrial experience. In us there is that need to feel happy, to feel that we belong to a place, and many times we look for other worlds… the Pleiades, Sirius, star seeds… and actually, we should be very proud to be from Earth.

Why?

“Astrologically, if we had been born on Mars, we would see Earth as an extremely dynamic, diverse, creative, expressive planet… and the astrological house in which Earth is located would speak to us of an area of life where infinite potentialities are born. Of course… that perspective is still imagined by a native of Earth (me).

We are from Earth. That is our characteristic. Here at Substack, I will generally talk about humans because humans are the ones who read me (hehe) but in reality, all terrestrial beings have that Gaian energy.” – excerpt from Astrology as the Language of Gaia (on my Substack page).

We are from Earth, and this is how, through creativity, we invent and re-invent ourselves… each time, each cycle, each turn we make through the zodiacal spiral. That is why talking about Uranus at this time, where we have to prepare for these 20 years that are coming with Pluto in Aquarius, is something that can help us all, to better understand what Uranian energy is all about.

Not everything we have created as a civilization is negative and needs to be changed. In fact, what we live today has been possible in large part thanks to the past, and especially, to Uranian energy. Each preceding generation has fought its own maverick battles and it is precisely the new possibilities that have been created in the past that allow us to be freer every day!

Today men are not taken to jail for having long hair… but in the 60s they were! Is it that men wanted to have long hair? Or actually, what they were looking for was to break free! Of course, there are much clearer examples of Uranian energy that we could analyze, but I want to focus on simple things because the energy of Uranus, beyond the fact that we live it collectively, we also live it individually. And if we pay attention, if we tune in to what is happening to us, we will find it. Especially, after reaching the age of 21.

The first square that natal Uranus forms with transiting Uranus occurs around this age. This first square is called “the weaning square of Uranus.” This is a very strong moment in our lives, in which we begin our personal individuation. We separate from the “world” created by our parents, our childhood friends, the neighborhood, the school… and we begin to build our own.

As I said at the beginning, the energies of the planets manifest as basic impulses in each one of us. A Uranian activation feels like “awakenings of consciousness” that show our individuation in relation to the environment, in some way or another. When the transit of Uranus makes contact with one of our personal planets, the time has come to free ourselves from rules that are unnatural to our essential being.

But… what happens if we don’t honor that moment? Uranian energy can’t get out! And it’s not like there are many opportunities for it. Uranus tells us… now or never! When Uranus activates our birth chart, it announces the end of one stage and the beginning of another. And we can feel it within. Or at least, we can intuit it.

Many times, when we cannot “act” from our will to allow the Uranian energy to express itself freely, synchronicities appear in our lives. The electrical nature of Uranus arises in the sense that it brings rapid and unexpected changes, sudden revelations, and an awakening of consciousness. We could see Uranus as an external agent that surprises us. However, we could say that it is the magic of the invisible that helps us to flourish, almost as if an angel dressed in chaos is there to help us redirect our lives toward a direction where our individual expression can manifest more fully.

For example, you are suddenly fired from work and despite the disruption of your daily life, you know that something inside you told you long ago that you could not continue in that place. Or due to circumstances that you do not understand, your social life changes overnight and you are left alone. Although it may be a moment of crisis, Uranus invites you to rebuild our environmental reality according to our true interests. Or at least, to our current interests.

The thing is, you’ve been feeling the internal pressure for change for a while! But… there are so many buts that keep you within the “status quo”. But Uranus is still there, telling you it’s time to release the past! Yes… Uranus can be disruptive in our lives… but it’s good that it made us change direction! – although at the moment it happens it seems that everything collapses…

The position of Uranus in an individual birth chart indicates the areas of life in which we seek freedom, originality, and the expression of our unique selves. And from what I just explained, it can also indicate the areas where we are prone to unexpected and revolutionary changes.

Perhaps what I want to capture most in this podcast is that the wonderful energy of Uranus is clear and has only one intention: the renewal of individual expression. Personally, I think that the energy of Uranus makes us an “upgrade”.

Although it is destabilizing to leave the routine, Uranus heralds a disruption that creates new possibilities.