Sun square Uranus: 6^th – 16^th August 2021: Sun at 16° Cancer with Uranus at 16° Aries

• Please note all sign placements use astronomical/sidereal placements and not the tropical zodiac that characterizes Astrology in the West. It may look unfamiliar to you as a result.

Greetings Sentionauts!

2021 is turning out to be a wild ride! Good thing we are more than half way through it. Chaotic astrological weather, it seems is not over yet with the upcoming ten-day transit where the Sun will square Uranus!

First, a shout out to Elizabeth Creely of San Francisco for inspiring this post after posting her take on Facebook on the upcoming Sun Uranus square. Her words inspired many angles of perspective looking at this short transit, ten -day transit.

The square aspect is considered to have a 10° orb of influence. The Sun moves roughly a degree per day through any given astrological sign, as it does so it moves into relationship with Uranus. Covering the basic numbers game, the Sun and Uranus will fall into exact square configuration on August 6^th at 5:49 PST (12:49am UTC) with the Sun at 16º Cancer and Uranus at 16º Aries. Thereafter the influence will wane in strength for each day following, before it passes out of the square orb of influence on August 17^th. The Sun will pass through the later sectors of Cancer before entering into Leo on August 11^th.

The configuration is joined by a Sun-Moon conjunction on August 8th at 6:50am PST (1:50pm UTC), at 18º Cancer, the astrological marker of Lammas/Lughnasadh. The moment also marks the beginning of a lunation as the moon will be in its Dark/New Moon phase. This will bring increased emphasis to the lunar themes of this transit and add an emotional edginess to the subjective experience of this transit. Amplifying the lunar themes often means these things may be felt in the body and can relate to experiences that affect a body politic or essentially the public.

Understanding the nature of this transit involves first examining some of the symbols involved in the planetary energies at play:  

The Sun

The Sun in the ultimate sense is symbolic of our core identity, the integral aspects of ourselves that create the coherent experience of sovereignty. It can represent the “ego” as well albeit this is a western construct and a limited expression of this energy. The Sun brings illumination to whatever it contacts and allows these factors to shine.

Uranus

Uranus is devoted to pattern disruption, interrupting machines, redirecting systems, and upsetting the status quo business as usual narrative. Uranus energy is Jesus flipping over the tables of the temple moneychangers, and then whipping the bankers, while delivering a sermon about how the wealthy will never get into the kingdom of Heaven. Uranus energy is Claudette Colvin & Rosa Parks refusing to take a backseat on the bus sparking a series of actions known as the Montgomery Bus Boycotts and would advance the Civil Rights movement. Uranus is a pattern disrupter that welcomes radical departures and course corrections into surprising new avenues of exploration and experience. Another aspect of Uranic energy is reversals of every kind.

Moon

The Moon has many ancient associations as it is likely the first body next to the Sun that Humans looked up to for guidance and worshipped. The Moon specifically deals with all aspects of motherhood and nurturance. Physically on Earth it’s distance from Earth determines how its gravity effects tidal motion in large bodies of water. The Moon and its gravity well may have even played a role in the early evolution of life on Earth as lunar tidal functions created small edge ecologies along shorelines that were favourable for life. Other lunar domains include, culture (as in the vehicle responsible for the transmission of culture), land, people, the body, and the public and that which affects the public.

Cancer

Cancer is a Moon ruled water sign and specifically addresses the capacity for nurturance, nourishment and care taking. Having significant lunar association, Cancer can refer to literal mothers or symbolic ones (all people can be mothers, regardless of physical or other characteristics). Cancer takes on other lunar attributes including being symbolic of land, people and the voice of culture. We are all enculturated into a social system, a way of perceiving the world collectively shared, this is culture, and it plays a significant role in constructing our sense of ourselves. With the Sun transiting through Cancer, these lunar qualities are highlighted and asks us to consider our relationship to people, land and culture.

Leo

Leo is a sun ruled fire sign, and refers specifically to self-expression, identity, recreation, games, pleasure and children of all kinds. The Su moving into the early sectors of this asterism at the tail end of the Uranus-Sun square transit brings to the fore question regarding our identity and life path and whether or not there is a need to change trajectory.

Aries

Aries is a Mars ruled fire sign and deals particularly with personal liberty, a warrior ethic, and the initiation of novel paths and actions. Aries can be an initiator and a shit-disturber where needed. Given that we are in a world where ‘everything must change’ to avoid ecocide, this energy of breaking into new pathways is medicine for a chaotic era.

The Pattern that Connects

Uranus in relationship with the Sun encourages a revitalization and revolutionary change to the core practice of one’s life pattern. Uranus rejects complacency and along with the Sun encourages actions aligned with our core integrity and self-actualization beyond a purely individualistic narrative is favored. Disruption to the life path can result from this transit as we come into integrity with a new sense of ourselves. Rebellion may interrupt our current ambitions and set us a new on a different set of ambitions.

Earth-Commons: Part of a larger pattern

A primary angle for the Sun-Uranus square and related question is when do we finally let the freak flag fly? This tense aspect is all about embracing the weirdo (Uranus) in all of us and not being afraid to let that part shine (Sun). It is allowing the unconventional within us all find a balance with our core identity, that ever elusive, constantly mutating creature called the “Self”.

The idea of respectability takes a backseat. In the times we are in, we can no longer remain conventional or socially acceptable. We are being asked to be bold, to break with tradition, almost every system we have created is materially destroying the world, and so we are asked now to pursue a radical departure. Everything must change! We can begin with our self-concept, and personal life trajectory.

One thing to keep in mind is that the freak flag can fly both ways and so this turbulent period does have a significant downside. Not all freaks are beneficial, there are creepy and scary freaks out there too; the kind prone to licking the back of your neck in dimly lit rooms. Uranus like any archetype can express in polyvalent ways and no part of the political spectrum owns Uranus energy (something a good friend reminded me of recently).

In the disturbingly post-truth era we are in, this transit can easily go sideways and we can see any number of disruptive advocate come out of the woodwork advancing dubious at best ideology, divorced from reality and with no intent at honesty or integrity. The Sun piece of the equation hopefully provides a motive for truth-telling but it could just as well illuminate some dark conspiracy that on the surface appears plausible but any look beyond appearances and we have fallen down a rabbit hole of half baked “truths” and comfortable illusions; Q-Anon for example. This transit can lend itself to legitimizing anti-vaxxer sentiment in a time of pandemic, economics trumping good science and all other manner of foolywang masquerading as ideological integrity.

A Freak for our Time

“The Witch has been created by the land to act for it.” –Peter Grey, Rewilding Witchcraft

The lunar ideas of care taking land and people encompass Cancerian traits. Currently there are many iconoclastic and pattern disrupting movements that reflect this return to considerations of Earth, Sea and Sky in contradiction of a hyper-Capitalist logic that externalises threats to these critical life-support systems. Everything from Extinction Rebellion which attempts to sound the alarm on the Climate Emergency we are in; to Landback which seeks to renew Indigenous land and cultural sovereignty against systems of neo-colonialism and the threat of climate change. The hope is that under this transit these movements will experience renewed vigour and a heightened public profile.

These movements are expressions of the archetypal pattern of the witch as personified in Peter Grey’s quote in that the people are created by the land to act on its behalf which is an expression of a more ancient logic of being stewards of the land, and a cultural orientation in dire need of reclamation, to disrupt a machine that is destroying the integrity of the land.

The unabashed expression of a liberated self that has extricated itself from the alienation of the systems of ruin that currently are hurtling the human race towards its own extinction (systems that convince us we are atomised individuals instead of co-creators with the land), encompasses the Aries quality of a self-liberated eco-warrior. The solar qualities of both the Sun and Leo which bring light to the need for pattern disruption and allowing an unconventional and more ancient archetype of self to shine, which completes the puzzle of Uranic energy.

While a short transit, radical changes (radical as in radix; getting to the root- the Latin origin of the word and its meaning), are possible within a short period. If this has been something you have been mulling over for some time, this would be a good time to initiate and put bold ideas into action, or at least muster the courage to stand out.

Until the next wave, love and blisses to all of the Sentionauts out there!