Uranus

God of the Starry Sky or Rebel?

In astrology, the action of Uranus is often compared to a flow of electricity. The feeling of Uranus can leave us feeling charged or wired or jolted like an unexpected lightning bolt of energy. It tends toward extremes and sudden unexpected shifts which can spark creativity and help pull us out of habits or walking in a stupor. Uranus can urge us to leap forward in consciousness and move forward in our human adventures.

In 1781, astronomer and musician, William Herschel shook up astrological tradition by sharing he found something beyond an ordinary star. There was a lot of discussion around naming the new planet. Finally, the German astronomer Johann Evert Bode suggested the name Uranus and it eventually gained international acceptance. The logic behind the name was that Ouronos who was the father of Saturn-Kronos was located behind the planet Saturn. This was similar to the line up of Saturn being behind Jupiter AND Saturn is Jupiter’s father, making Ouronos the grandfather. This was a story of mythical lineage.

However…

Contemporary archetypal astrologers have consensus that Uranus is associated with: “change, rebellion, freedom, liberation, reform, revolution, and the unexpected break up of structures; with excitement, sudden surprises, lightening-like flashes of insight, revelation, and awakenings; and with intellectual brilliance, invention, creativity, originality, and individualism”, writes Richard Tarnas. Furthermore he continues, “Uranus transits are linked with unpredictable and disruptive changes and thus the planet is often referred to as the ‘cosmic trickster’. Uranus energy is regarded as symbol of the rebel, the genius, and the individualist.

These qualities have very little to do with the Greek mythic figure of Ouranos. In the mythological tales Ouranos was said to resist change. Tarnas writes: “None of the various qualities observed in connection with the planet Uranus – brilliance, freedom, unpredictability, invention, individualism, and so forth – has any plausible counterpart in the myth of Ouranos. Unlike the seven planets known to the ancients, the name of Uranus do not correspond with its astrological meaning. The name appears to have arisen from conventional eighteenth-century logic, not from archetypal insight”.

Name Change?

In his essay, “Prometheus The Awakener”, Richard Tarnas makes the argument that the Greek mythological Titan who rebelled against the gods, and helped overthrow the tyrant Kronos, tricked Zeus, and then stole fire from Mount Olympus to liberate humanity fits better. Prometheus was considered wise and taught humankind the arts and sciences. It is Prometheus who initiates radical change, has a passion for freedom, defies authority and frees humanity from bondage. He outwits the gods. He is the ‘cosmic trickster’.

As a reminder, recent archetypal astrological sources (such as Hilman and Le Grice) suggest that the historical time period of the planet’s discovery is more relevant to its archetypal meaning. In 1781, the British and French revolutions over threw monarchies and it was the rise of the Industrial revolution and the age of Romanticism. If this sounds familiar, this is the same time period that Pluto sat in the house of Aquarius.

“Prometheus Giving Fire to Humans” by Matias del Carmine

In his book: The Way of the Archetypes: Volume I: Universal Principles and Individuation (2024), Keiron Le Grice dedicates Chapter 9 to “Uranus and the Trickster”. He notes that the function of the trickster is to disrupt, awaken, and liberate. The trickster symbolizes life’s refusal to bend to our will and conform to our plans in orderly structures. In this way, “the trickster serves to save us from ourselves” (p126). This is different than the Hermes/Mercury energy that is more the practical jokester. This trickster archetype can put us into relationship with our original wholeness of the psyche which is natural and instinctive but we don’t have self-conscious awareness. This archetype provides trickster-like blunders and upsets to “reawaken us and to reintegrate consciousness with the completion of the rebirth experience”. Uranus breaks things open.

The Uranus principle manifests as the urge to go your own way in life, to go off the well-trodden path and seek out authentic individual experience. It gives as special attunement to the irreducible uniqueness of the individual life, as a never-to-be repeated phenomenon.
Keiron Le Grice