The Unfamiliar Good: Sun-Uranus in Aries

By Len Wallick

Evil… has every advantage but one — it is inferior in imagination. Good can imagine the possibility of becoming evil… but Evil, defiantly chosen, can no longer imagine anything but itself.”
-W.H. Auden

Today the Sun is on the Aries Point, conjoined with Uranus. That’s one luminary, one planet and one very special place. These particular three coming together is rare and exceptional. It happens no more than twice in a century. In order to make the most of being alive today, it would be of benefit to examine one element at a time.

Daily Astrology & Adventure by Eric Francis

The place is the first degree of Aries, otherwise known as the Aries Point. This is where the tropical zodiac begins. Twice a year, the Sun is directly over the equator. It happens when the axis of Earth’s rotation is not tilted either away from nor towards the center of the solar system. When that happens, it is an equinox. The Vernal Equinox was exact yesterday when Sol moved into Aries. A corresponding event will happen in six months when the Sun is directly over the equator again, moving south instead of north as it is now.

If there is anything to astrology and synchronicity, something is stirring inside of us at this very hour, beyond the restlessness brought on by a new season and besides the anxiety over a nuclear disaster in progress. This something else is a matter of imagination.

For many it will be an unfamiliar and uncomfortable sensation. It may be mistaken for taking ill. Perhaps there will be a reflex to fight it with sedatives or distraction. It is in fact well and good to note any distress, but if you are reading these words, please take a moment to hold back on the medication. What you are feeling may ultimately make you feel better about yourself than you have in a long time. Fortunately, we have astrology to help us step back into the symbolic and sort it out.

Aries represents the vital living sense of self with a vessel to call its own. The first degree extends that to include every living thing on Earth. It is not unusual for human beings to have key experiences in common. We all come into the world very much the same way, for example. It is seldom, however, that all living things have a common experience at the same time.

When it comes to the fundamentals of night and day, an equinox is one of those times. Whether we realize it or not, this moment every human being on the planet is having an experience of light and dark very much like our own, even as each one of us goes through it subjectively. A common experience of sunlight, darkness and time — that’s the power of the Aries point. All of us together, all at once.

If the Aries Point corresponds to corporeal self-awareness on a collective level, then the Sun is its willful, active, conscious expression. It’s the ‘self-seen self’ being seen. Subjective reality is willfully, physically and consciously put out there to be the objective experience of others — our best foot forward, our higher self. It is no coincidence that the term ‘Sunday best’ as it refers to personal behavior, purpose and presentation is the protocol associated with the day named after the Sun.

So it is every year about this time, human culture the world over provides an outlet for the Sun on the Aries point. This is an opportunity for all of us to gather at an appointed time to show ourselves at our best. It is a bridging of life subjectively experienced in our own body and in the body politic. Call it a refreshment or re-birth.

What does not happen every year, or even every generation, is for Uranus to be there waiting for the Sun in the first degree of Aries. The first planet discovered by science has not been of human consciousness for very long; just over two centuries. In that time astrology has related it to matters of surprise and awakening. Richard Tarnas, for example, cogently compares Uranus to the legendary Prometheus who surprised the gods of the ancient pantheon by awakening human beings to the double edged tool of fire.

More to the point for most of us is that Uranus is the first planet that humanity could be aware of but not see directly without come sort of device to enhance our vision. We come to know it indirectly. It exists primarily in our imagination.

This introduces a substantial dynamic to the quality of this time. By and large, it is a much different thing to be human since the last time Uranus was on the Aries Point, some 84 years ago. In many ways we are closer, in others much farther apart. It would also seem that we are presently having an Aries Point experience of all of us simultaneously being together on the edge of not existing at all.

At this time in our history, so much of our experience is synthesized and explicit. It is fed to us with an agenda of conditioning us to an array of attachments. These attachments bring us to self-regulate our behavior to the satisfaction and enrichment of someone else. So many of us have become superbly conditioned to accept even the most absurd assertions of authority and media as fact, without question. Witness how many of us not only give away our power and our precious time but are grateful to do so. Those who dare to imagine anything different are reflexively viewed with suspicion.

Now we all have the opportunity to be suspicious, subjectively and objectively. Uranus with the Sun on the Aries Point is an opening, a glimpse of what we may have denied ourselves and denied to others: that we can be something else. We can be something worse, to be sure, but also something better.

Of course, we could encounter some resistance. There will be those in the pantheon of power who are alarmed by those of us who take up the fire of imagination. Take today to imagine yourself asking “Is that so?” Then go on to imagine the infinite universe of possibility beyond yourself. Know and be the good. Let evil squirm.

Offered In Service

20 thoughts on “The Unfamiliar Good: Sun-Uranus in Aries”

  1. Jere, dude, it’s only taken me 39 years and 10 months to come to fully appreciate my new-found fucked-upness. And in fairness, it wasn’t really till 2009 when I wrote down on a piece of paper exactly what I have gone through in my life that I freaked out and realised that there is no way that I could have gone through those things without being seriously damaged. Being of the aristocratic “stiff-upper lipped” upbringing, I realised that the damage must be lurking somewhere and surely enough, going back over my life, I realised I was the containment chamber, living essentially a life without intimacy. So what I’m in now is best described as ‘meltdown’ (funny how these things happen with such synchronicity, isn’t it?). It was only when a recent relationship broke down that I decided to be a bit kinder to both myself and the guy in question (I fell in love for the first time, and I really did not want to let the feeling go – I don’t know where the relationship’s going, but I didn’t want to let go of the feeling), so I started to think – what’s just happened here? How is it different? What part did I have a part to play in the decline, or was I going to be the martyred woman (again) (my mother!!)?

    And, in reality, the embracing all the fucked-up etc stuff is an act of supreme laziness because I can’t be fucked wasting my energy on trying to achieve the impossible – I will never be “perfect” (whatever the fuck that is!), and that whole “perfection” shit is like a prison! I’m human, I’m flesh and blood, and I have feelings. I don’t have all the answers, and I’ve never pretended to – I just muddle my way along as best I can (and put the work in the rest of the time). I’m sick and fuckin’ tired of being responsible for everybody else’s life, and in doing so, not being responsible for mine (who has the time or energy?? I’m not limitless!), and in doing so, doing that thing Thoreau described as living a life of “quiet (or in my case, not-so-quiet) desperation.”

    So there you have it Jere, that’s the process dude – all our weaknesses are also our strengths, and vice-versa (see Madeleine L’Engle’s brilliant ‘kid’s’ book A Wrinkle in Time – the whole weakness/strength concept is beautifully illustrated there). I’m glad I made you smile – it was actually enormous fun coming to that conclusion – I posted it on my fb wall and then was so tickled at this “new me” that I celebrated by also posting AC/DC’s ‘Highway to Hell’. Life is short – gotta have a bit of fun with it! And what’s a bit of fun without a good, solid pisstake? I feel incredibly good – it’ll take a few days to sink in and learn to use my new “superpowers”, but it feels so fuckin’ LIBERATING!

    So, bowing back atcha Jere, bowing back atcha…

    Thanks again, and keep writing because you added more good feeling to my own good feeling, especially here on this auspicious day, and there’s no such thing as feeling “too good”, so keep those vibes coming!

    Catch ya soon!

    Indrani xx 🙂

  2. Indrani, you made me smile. (It’s the ones who claim to be sane and well adjusted that freak me out).

    You’re freakin’ beautiful and you kick ass.

    Hands clasped and bowing,

    Jere

  3. Hey Len, in answer to your question:

    “It’s the ‘self-seen self’ being seen. Subjective reality is willfully, physically and consciously put out there to be the objective experience of others… It’s a good time for re-invention… Who/what did you always see yourself as being?”

    Me? Well, I’m not to everyone’s taste (and everyone is not MY taste either), but I am what I am – a fucked up, damaged, egotistical, insecure, self-obsessed loser who’s happy and grateful to have won the odd battle. Sure, I’m a little more articulate, and perhaps better educated than most, but that’s about sum of it.

    What did I always see myself as being? Happy with my lot.

    Good, now that’s all dealt with, I can finally relax and move on… (and the crowd roars…)

  4. I even posted your article on my facebook page, mate – it was that good! Onwards and upwards Lenster!

    :o)

  5. Thank you Be and luminali, I shall spend some time checking out astrolabe.

    and Len, meant to thank you for the wonderful WH quote today; the icing on your cake.

  6. just checked out astrolabe.com and laughed when i saw the fist half of the weather report:

    “Applying Sun Square Pluto
    This transit brings strategy sessions, power-brokering, quarrels, and other turbulent conditions. Change may be demanded now and leaders may be forced to share power. It’s a time for secrecy, purification, healing, and rehabilitation.

    Applying Moon Sextile Pluto
    Be open to changes and rearrangements. It’s a time to let go of inhibitions and move with the energy of the moment.

    Applying Mercury Sextile Neptune
    Imaginative and inspired conversations, discussions that lead to closure, future planning, are appropriate now.

    Applying Venus Conjunct Neptune
    This transit stimulates romance, imagination, artistic creativity and appreciation, spiritual inclinations, and the inner life in general. Rules and restrictions are relaxed and there is compassion for the less fortunate. Feelings and emotions rule.”

    could have used that heads-up earlier, for sure! but i think the conversations and rearrangements are moving ahead ok.

  7. Be, I use Astrolabe daily; I check the current astro “weather” first thing when I get on the computer. I have the weather page bookmarked, checking the chart is something I do when I “feel” a change in the heavens. I felt the Moon pass into Scorpio earlier today, checked Astrolabe, yep, had it down to within a few minutes.

    It’s nice to get visual confirmation of the shift I felt take place in my consciousness. It has been a invaluable tool for learning more astrology since I discovered it several years ago. I use Astrodienst(astro.com), Astrolabe, and Serennu as compliments to each other. The chart at Astrolabe is like a clock to me now, I know pretty much what sign is rising throughout my days and nights. 🙂

  8. Has anyone ever used Astrolabe to create free charts? I’m pleased with the layout although when there are a lot of planets (like now) in a sign and/or house, it can be misleading as to where in the house the planet really is. It may look to be near the cusp of the next house, but in reality it is more in the middle. But it can’t be done otherwise, except by hand I guess. The drawback is that only the major planets are included, not Chiron or any of the centaurs or asteroids. That you will have to add yourself via Serennu.

    The homepage gives you in chart form the current astro “weather”, which will be for Brewster, MA. You can change it to your hometown or wherever a little further down the page. http://alabe.com
    be

  10. As One who has experienced “that uncomfortable feeling” pretty much constantly, inconsistently-consistently and life-long, I am comfortably uncomfortable to say that in fact, my current “uncomfortable feelings” feel something like feeling comfortable with that.

    And so it goes ’round, but I now have learned – with your kind help – to grasp This Moment and find stability in my instability so that I may go with the flow, roll with the punch, defy gravity and accept constant need to shift for equilibrum while the ride continues to move round and round….

    Thank you Len. Exquisite. You give us nothing but the best. Many Aries Point Hugs.

  11. susyc –

    I second your idea of “too much world not enough spirit care.”

    It’s strange but when I heard about the death of Knut, the ultra adorable polar bear cub residing in the Berlin Zoo, I thought of his life and death as a metaphor for many of the things happening around us right now. That we try so hard to fight for what is good and true and worth preserving. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.

    The point being to at least try when possible.

  12. So my uncomfortable feeling has been occurring since Saturday, just way too much world and not enough spirit /self care. I mean the world may be ending but I still plan to stay sober in recovery, in the present moment, loving creation and enjoying, taking pleasure in what there is available to me.

  14. hmm…. i haven’t quite figured out if it’s the fact that the sun-uranus conjunction is square my asc & saturn and opposite my pluto & vesta on one end and venus on the other that has had me feeling a bit dark the last couple days (and today). or maybe it’s some other shift?

    as much as i’ve often felt stressed covering chelsea’s job the last few weeks, i realize today i feel a bit adrift & structureless without immediately pressing, clear deadlines. so maybe that has just as much to do with these thought loops that have been encroaching as any astrology… or more so.

  15. Thank you, Len.

    The neighbor is raking.
    Just next door, the black cat, “Jewel”, stalks a blowing leaf near the upcropping of emerald shoots. Young red cardinals flit in and out of the boxwood hedge on the other side of the glass. I open the door and smell the cool, damp earth. Time to get serious about seed selection. With or without us, spring is coming in.

  17. Dear Len,

    How delightful your piece was today! Who else could make me smile at reading “simultaneously being together on the edge of not existing at all” without even an exclamation point. You always see things that nobody else catches in an event or aspect or moment that gives us pause. I believe that you too are rare and exceptional, so if today is a refreshing time your offering is a big part of the reason.
    be

  18. Oh boy, I am feeling that “Unfamiliar good” I have to say and it feels amazing. The Sun-Uranus conjunction is opposite my Vesta-Hebe conjunction for starters, at 0 Libra 35″ and 47″, so talk about feeling the Aries point energy, along with the S-U set up squaring my Saturn at 0 Capricorn 29″….*and* my natal Uranus in Leo is trined by transiting Mercury which is perhaps why I’m thinking sunny thoughts about feeling alive.

    So, that said……. I just had to find this song to sing and dance to;-) I do hope that those who are not quite feeling this “new year” vibe manage to let Ella do her thing and spread some of her infectious effervesce…!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBqjFbp0UI&feature=related

    Wonderful article Len, you really capture the specialness of the occasion, and I also love the quote. It’s perfect.

  19. Fantastic Len. Have been feeling decidedly off today – but knew it wasn’t just physical, that something was going on at an energetic level. And thanks to you I can address this sensation in the right way. xxx

Leave a Comment