By Len Wallick
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Uranus stations retrograde today on the Aries Point: in the first degree of the first cardinal sign Aries, at about 16:49 UTC (12:49 pm on the East Coast of the United States). All planets are subject to retrograde motion, which is when they appear to move backwards for a few weeks or months. In the case of Uranus, a fairly distant planet, this is an illusion caused by the Earth’s movement: the Earth is getting between Uranus and the Sun, and as a result, Uranus appears to be moving against the usual direction of the planets.
There are many interpretations for retrogrades. It usually depends on the planet, the circumstance and the astrologer. We’re the most familiar with Mercury retrograde, which has some qualities we all agree exist. With outer planets the effect is subtler, and today we get to experience such an event (which will last about five months, as it does every year). Uranus stations retrograde this year in the midst of two eclipses: a partial lunar eclipse on June 26 and the total solar eclipse on July 11. It is also a milestone event in the continuous but evolving cardinal point T-square, a long continuum spanning through 2017.
Our objectives today are two. First, to place this retrograde station in the context of the big picture. Second to begin an interpretation of its synchronicity using both long term and immediate aspects. It may do well to begin with where we left off last week since the co-incidence of two continuous phenomena is still taking place.
The axis of the recent lunar eclipse was along the early degrees of the cardinal signs, Cancer and Capricorn. The eclipse therefore made aspects to Mercury (conjunct the Sun) and Pluto (conjunct the Moon) and was perpendicular (or square) to the conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter in Aries opposing Saturn in the late degrees of Virgo. The net result was that the long-term cardinal T-square was transformed short-term into a grand cardinal cross involving both luminaries, five major planets and the lunar nodes.
It is as if the superimposition of the eclipse axis represented a climax concluding one movement of a symphony. If that analogy can be accepted, then today’s retrograde station may well be a candidate for the beginning of the next movement, starting a theme to be further developed as time goes on.